Fresh Loaf

StoryCorps — the independent nonprofit that’s recorded the stories of more than 40,000 people — is celebrating the first annual “National Day of Listening” today.

This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

It’s warm and fuzzy and will get you into heaven. But it’s also a great idea. I talked to my grandmother last night on the phone and she told me about the prejudice she faced as a young German immigrant in New York City. That and that “everything’s going to get worse, Thomas.” Love ya, nanny!

For more info about “National Day of Listening,” visit the site. They’ve got a do-it-yourself kit posted as well as a guideline.

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Bestselling author and National Public Radio commentator Bailey White speaks in a throaty but quavering drawl that’s so distinctive, you can imagine her spinning leisurely yarns for hours on a front porch in her hometown of Thomasville, Ga. Her voice can be a little misleading, however. White sounds so grandmotherly that a listener may underestimate her as merely quaint, when her writing can reveal unexpected precision and perceptiveness. (more…)

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NPR’s interview on the significance of Obama’s victory with Atlanta’s own U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

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As we mentioned in our “5 things to do today” round-up this morning, author Stephen L. Carter will be appearing tonight at 7 p.m. at the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum to discuss his political thriller Palace Council.

Nice timing; on my way home from work Friday I heard an interview of Carter by “All Things Considered” co-host Michelle Norris, which I’ve linked here. The Yale law professor and bestselling author (New England White) in his new novel threads a mystery through several decades and through some potent historical figures:

Carter’s plot wraps in real historical personages, including Langston Hughes, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Those figures play important roles as the plot unfolds — especially Nixon, whom Carter describes as “one of the most fascinating and enigmatic — and in many ways, scary — figures in American political history.”
“He embodied something about America, but something that’s scary about America — and that is that we love winners,” Carter says. “We don’t ask how they won unless somebody — usually a journalist — rubs our nose in it. And then we say, ‘We had no idea he was taking steroids’ or whatever it may have been. And then we turn in a fury on this person, but we don’t ask, we don’t inquire how people win. We love that they win.”

Here’s an excerpt from the novel, also courtesy NPR.

(Photo by Elena Seibert)

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