Irene Montoya and Gianni Booth in her truck in Cheyenne, WY in 2021. Courtesy of Irene Montoya.

After getting clean during her pregnancy, Irene relapsed while Gianni was still a toddler. As a single parent, she struggled to make enough money for a decent place to live. At one point, Irene and Gianni found themselves sleeping in their car. 

After a decade clean and sober, their lives look very different. Irene started her own company, Sunflower Trucking, and Gianni is attending a private high school. They came to StoryCorps in Cheyenne, Wyoming to talk about their family’s hard times and the turning point in their lives. 

Irene Montoya with her custom-built dump truck in Cheyenne, WY on June 16, 2024. By Zanna McKay for StoryCorps.

Top Photo: Gianni Booth and Irene Montoya at their StoryCorps interview in Cheyenne, WY on June 16, 2024. By Zanna McKay for StoryCorps.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired August 2, 2024 on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post To Build the Life She Wanted for Her Son, She Left Behind an Addiction appeared first on StoryCorps.

If you want to leave the StoryCorps Podcast a voicemail, call us at 702-706-TALK. Or email us at podcast@storycorps.org. 

Released July 30, 2024.

The post Game Changers appeared first on StoryCorps.

Freedom School class at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, students on the church steps with their teacher. 

More than 2,500 children attended 41 schools. Classes ranged from literature and math to theater and crafts. But the central focus was government and civic engagement.  

Ethel Murrell (L) Stokes and Theresia Clark (C) at Priest Creek Missionary Baptist Church Freedom School in Palmers Crossing with their teacher volunteer Sandra Adickes (R).

Many of the teachers were white college students who had traveled from across the country to participate.

Folksinger Julius Lester singing for Freedom School students on the steps of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Hattiesburg. Glenda Funchess standing (second from left). 

Hattiesburg, Mississippi had six schools – more than any other town. 

The Clark sisters at a church during Freedom Summer in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1964.

This was one piece of a larger program called “Freedom Summer.”  More than 700 volunteers, from across the country came to Mississippi to register Black voters en masse and fight discrimination at the polls. 

Donald Denard (Center) with two other students outside Morning Star Baptist Church.

Sixty years later, Freedom School students Deborah Carr, Stephanie Hoze, Theresia Clark-Banks, Julia Clark-Ward, Glenda Funchess, and Donald Denard came to StoryCorps to reflect on their memories of that summer.

Top Photo: Clockwise Left to right: Stephanie Hoze, Donald Denard, Glenda Funchess, Julia Clark-Ward, Theresia Clark-Banks, and Deborah Carr at their StoryCorps interview in Hattiesburg, MS on March 10th and 11th, 2024. By Tamekia Jackson for StoryCorps.

Archival photos courtesy of Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, Special Collections in McCain Library and Archives, The University Southern Mississippi. Copyright Herbert Randall.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired July, 26, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post Sixty Years Later: The Children Of Freedom Summer Look Back appeared first on StoryCorps.

Women’s judo wasn’t allowed into the Olympics until 1988, after martial arts champion Rusty Kanokogi threatened to sue the International Olympic Committee for discrimination. This helped earn her the nickname, “the mother of women’s judo.”

Her daughter, Jean Kanokogi, remembers a physically powerful figure with a presence so imposing “You didn’t even have to turn around, because you felt that she was in that room.”

Eve Aronoff Trivella was coached by Rusty on the first U.S. women’s judo team at the 1988 games. At StoryCorps, she and Jean remembered what that competition meant to Rusty… and a pivotal moment from her early life that brought her there.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired July 19, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post “She’s probably the strongest woman you’ll ever meet.” Remembering the Mother of Women’s Judo appeared first on StoryCorps.

Michael Rogers and a friend at the Bastrop Federal Penitentiary in Bastrop, Texas in the late 80s. Courtesy of Michael Rogers.

This work also made Michael reflect on his own life and choices. As Michael told his stepson at StoryCorps, some of those choices landed him in prison where he realized he wanted to live a meaningful life.

Michael Rogers and his brother’s at Michael’s wedding in the Lower East Side, New York, in 2004. Courtesy of Michael Rogers.

Michael Rogers at the House of Refuge Church of God and Christ in Los Angeles, California. Courtesy of Michael Rogers.

Top Photo: Michael Rogers at his StoryCorps interview in Manhattan, New York on March 19, 2006. By Laura Spero for StoryCorps.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired July 12th, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post How One Man Found Purpose in Being a Death Doula appeared first on StoryCorps.

Windy Barton also followed her grandfather’s path into the Navy, and spent 4 years on ships—fighting engine fires and making major repairs while out to sea.

Both Windy and Michael struggled to feel fulfilled after leaving the military, until they discovered Team Rubicon: a special team of veterans who go into the fray when natural disasters strike.

They came to StoryCorps to reflect on what inspired their sense of duty, and the new calling they’ve found in helping others when they are most in need.

Top Photo: Windy Barton and Michael Davidson at their StoryCorps interview in Arlington, Texas on November 14, 2023. 

This interview was recorded in collaboration with Team Rubicon.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired July 6, 2024, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.

The post From War Zones To Flood Zones: Two Veterans Find A New Calling appeared first on StoryCorps.

The post One Small Step Montage appeared first on StoryCorps.

Wane Hailes and Alton Russell

For the past 20 years, StoryCorps has been traveling the country gathering the stories and wisdom of ordinary Americans and archiving them at the Library of Congress. Those stories are usually between two people who know and love each other. 

This is not one of those stories. 

Alton Russell was the long-time Chair of the Republican party in Columbus, Georgia. Wane Hailes was the head of the local NAACP. Although they knew of each other, they had never actually spoken — until they sat down for a One Small Step conversation.  

One Small Step pairs strangers with opposing political beliefs to have one-on-one conversations, not to debate politics, but to find out who each other are as people. The goal is to help reduce toxic polarization in the US — one conversation at a time. StoryCorps began piloting One Small Step in 2017 and since then, more than 5,400 people in over 40 states have participated.

One Small Step conversation partners, Wane and Alton, in Columbus, GA.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired July 5th, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post A Republican “Kingmaker” And a Civil Rights Leader Take One Small Step to Heal Toxic Polarization In Columbus, GA appeared first on StoryCorps.

Having lived in St.Louis for 15 years, Ann Taylor was looking to meet new people.  She received an email about a queer ballroom dancing class and decided to go.

Ann Taylor and Sonja Furiya at the World Out Games in Copenhagen in 2009. Courtesy of Sonja Furiya.

This led Ann to become something she never imagined, a dancer.

Ann came to StoryCorps with her wife Sonja Furiya to reflect on the day they met in that dance class in 2005.

Ann Taylor and Sonja Furiya at the World Out Games in Copenhagen in 2009. By Eve Gilstrap.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired June 28, 2023, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The post How A Woman Found Herself – and Love – on the Dance Floor. appeared first on StoryCorps.

Originally from Laos, the Lo family fled persecution after the country fell to communist forces in the mid 1970s. The new regime declared the Hmong people enemies of the state, as they’d fought alongside the U.S. against the communist government.

The Lo family in the Ban Vinai Holding Center, Thailand, in 1980. Photo courtesy of Mai Lo Lee.

The Lo family crossed the Mekong River, which borders Laos and Thailand, and spent years in the Ban Vinai Holding Center—a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1980, six months after Mai was born, they immigrated to the U.S. and resettled in Wisconsin, where the parents found work as ginseng farmers.

Beth and Mai Lo with their father, Sai Vue Lo, in Wausau, WI, circa 2018. Photo courtesy of Mai Lo Lee.

At StoryCorps, the sisters reflected on their family’s struggles and survival, their Hmong heritage, and how a rice steamer became a family legend.

Top Photo: Beth Lo and Mai Lo Lee at their StoryCorps interview in Appleton, WI on August 20, 2023. By Delilah Righter for StoryCorps.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired June 21, 2024, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

The post “I Was Born In A Refugee Camp.” Two Sisters Reflect On Struggle And Survival appeared first on StoryCorps.