The National Day of Listening is an unofficial day of observance where Americans are encouraged to set aside time to record the stories of their families, friends, and local communities. It was first launched by the national oral history project

StoryCorps StoryCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. StoryCorps grew out of Sound Portraits Productions as a project founded in 2003 by radio ...

in 2008 and now recurs on the Friday after

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

, when families are more likely to spend time together. It was proposed as an alternative to " Black Friday", a day many businesses see as a high volume pre-Christmas sale day. Tens of thousands of Americans interviewed one another as part of the National Day of Listening in 200

including President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and his wife Laura, who were interviewed by President Bush's sister

Dorothy Bush Koch Dorothy Walker Bush Koch (born August 18, 1959) is an American author and philanthropist. She is the sixth and youngest child of the late 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. Early life Do ...

br>
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/11/20081128.html] National Public Radio personalities including

Scott Simon Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' on NPR. Early life Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons. ...

Liane Hansen Liane Hansen (; born September 29, 1951,) is an American journalist and radio personality. She was the host of the National Public Radio (NPR) newsmagazine ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' from 1989 until her retirement in May 2011. Her experience in ...

Steve Inskeep Steven Alan Inskeep (; born June 16, 1968) is an American journalist who is currently a host of ''Morning Edition'' and ''Up First'' on National Public Radio. Prior to being host of ''Morning Edition'', Inskeep covered the Pentagon, the 2000 pres ...

Renée Montagne Renée Montagne (pronounced Mon-TAIN) is an American radio journalist and was the co-host (with Steve Inskeep and David Greene) of National Public Radio's weekday morning news program, ''Morning Edition'', from May 2004 to November 11, 2016. Mo ...

Frank Deford Benjamin Franklin Deford III (December 16, 1938 – May 28, 2017) was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until his death in 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR's ''Morning Edition'' radio program. Deford wrote fo ...

Susan Stamberg Susan Stamberg (born September 7, 1938) is an American radio journalist. Stamberg was co-host of NPR's flagship program ''All Things Considered.'' In that role Stamberg was the first female host of a national news broadcast. She's considered one ...

, and

Noah Adams Noah Adams is an American broadcast journalist and author, known primarily since 1987 from National Public Radio. Career A former co-host of the daily ''All Things Considered'' program, Adams is currently the contributing correspondent at ...

also conducted National Day of Listening interviews and broadcast them on the air

http://www.radioworld.com/article/7059

There are no restrictions on who may conduct an interview as part of the National Day of Listening or what type of interview format may be used.

provide
Do-It-Yourself Resources
an
equipment recommendations
to guide people through the interview process. guides are available to help teachers and librarians to incorporate The National Day of Listening into the classroom and library.

is a national nonprofit organization modeled after the

Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...

of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

of the 1930

In addition to collecting and archiving interviews at the

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repos ...

at the Library of Congress, StoryCorps helps Americans engage with

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

at the grassroots level

' first book, ''Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project'', was released in 2007.

External links

Do-It-Yourself Resources

Boston Globe article about the National Day of Listening
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Day Of Listening Oral history

Listening Listening is giving attention to a sound or action. When listening, a person hears what others are saying and tries to understand what it means. The act of listening involves complex affective, cognitive and behavioral processes. Affective proce ...

Observances based on the date of Thanksgiving (United States)