When NPR introduces Friday conversations produced by StoryCorps, we expect to hear family members or old friends share meaningful moments.
But in an effort to build connections as part of our nation's 250th anniversary, the nonprofit is trying something new.
They’re setting up virtual forty-minute chats among strangers, to be stored in a time capsule by the Library of Congress. The virtual chats will start on July 7.
"It's a little bit like a dating app," explains StoryCorps founder Dave Isay. "If you've listened over the years, people come in a little bit nervous, and come out feeling very close to the person they've talked to," he said. "It's almost like speed dating without any romance involved."
Those that sign up will see different bios and first names of people they might want to chat with. After an appointment is made, those forty minute virtual or phone chats will be recorded through a secure portal, and put into a time capsule for the next one-hundred years.
Isay said he understands why some may intimated by Connect 250, but the nonprofit has been producing conversations for over twenty years.
"One thing people often say to me is that if aliens came to earth, that the one thing they would hope aliens would hear is StoryCorps interviews, because it really shows us at our best," he explained.
"Your great-great-great grandkids are going to get to listen to you at this moment, on the 350th anniversary of our country. I do think that this effort is going to give the most accurate possible representation of who we are as Americans at this moment in our history."
