 So, I'm kind of happy she's here. That's not fair that I have to follow that, right? Good morning. I'm Karen Strauss. I'm the chief of the main library. It is truly my pleasure to welcome everyone to the new home of story cores, San Francisco Recording Booth. Perhaps you've noticed it. We're predicting a beautiful partnership that will give even more San Franciscans the opportunity to tell and preserve their conversations with loved ones. Our own conversation with StoryCorps began mere months ago when the mayor's office approached us with this opportunity. And after meeting with StoryCorps staff, we had the same reaction that everyone I've spoken to about this new partnership has had. What a perfect fit. The library is the place to learn about others' stories and where people create their own. What better place then to offer a way for people to realize those stories. In a happy bit of coincidence, San Francisco Public Library has been participating in the American Library Association's StoryCorps at Your Library Project where nearly 100 San Franciscans have come to our libraries and bookmobiles to record their stories with our mobile recording kit. We'll be making those recordings available in our collection. And like all conversations recorded through StoryCorps, those stories are being archived at the Library of Congress. These recordings are facilitated by our own Corps of Staff and volunteers and they'll continue throughout the year as we develop exciting programming with the StoryCorps staff to dovetail with the recording booth and our collections, our community outreach, and our exhibitions. I want to acknowledge some of the many people whose time, talents, and energy have made this new relationship possible. I could say far more about what I know is coming, but I know that there's more to hear about today so I don't want to take your time and I'll just wet your appetite by saying stay tuned. But first, our City Librarian, Luis Herrera, who senses regrets from a prior commitment out of town, Luis understood immediately the benefits of bringing StoryCorps recording booth opportunities to the library. And then leading the charge to make this effort a success is Michelle Jeffers, our Chief of Communications Programs and Partnerships, notably Fran Matthew on Michelle's staff, our Chief Building Engineer Lou Volerga, Kayi Wilson and the volunteers she coordinates, Martha Arroyo-Nevis and Laura Lent from our Support Services Center that is now home to the StoryCorps staff and volunteers. Before I introduce Dave, I say I considered playing for you a bit of my own conversation I recorded with my father in this very booth a couple of years ago. I think it's a terrific conversation, but I'm pretty sure you'd prefer hearing from Dave, so I'll spare you that. But what I will say on a personal note is that this morning, like every Friday morning in my house, when KQED plays the StoryCorps segment, everything stopped so that we could listen to it. And today's story, like many stories that are aired on Friday morning, got my partner very teary-eyed and that is completely the norm. I look into the tale of three blind brothers taken under the wing of an older blind man. And although not every story is a tear-jerker, they are all very important. And we look forward to many more of them being recorded and created by our own library patrons in the coming year. And with that, it is my great pleasure to introduce Dave. I say about whom I will say really not much because you all know him. He is the visionary, he is the founder of StoryCorps and we're so delighted, Dave, that you knew how important it was that the StoryCorps booth stay in San Francisco, keep its run going strong here. So many stories that have to be told by San Franciscans that were just thrilled to have this relationship with you. So please welcome Dave. Thank you, Karen. And I apologize for wrecking your morning this morning. And I do I want to say how happy we are to be launching StoryCorps 2.0 here at the San Francisco Public Library. I have, my staff has been whispering in my ear everywhere we go what a perfect partnership this is. We are, we at StoryCorps are huge fans of libraries than librarians. Librarians are warriors in this country, warriors for good, and we share the same values serving people, public service 24 hours a day. And we are honored and privileged to be in this sacred space. So thank you so much for having us here. And yes, we so StoryCorps launched 10 years ago in Grand Central Terminal, 10 years and a couple of months ago. I think most people here know how it works. Two people come into this booth and have a conversation with the help of a trained facilitator for 40 minutes. It's a way to kind of distill your life in 40 minutes as best as possible. What the story you heard of Cheng and Chen interviewing their mother and grandmother really says it all. StoryCorps is about recognizing the dignity and grace and poetry and the stories we find all around us. We had a wonderful run at the contemporary Jewish Museum. I see Dan Schifrin there who was such an important part of having us at CJM. Over that time we recorded about 4,000 interviews with 8,000 people across San Francisco. About 200 community partnerships. I think it was 100 countries, 50 states who came into the booth to record. The story you saw was one of those. And it's been really miraculous for us. And we are so excited to launch StoryCorps 2.0 and continue. Oh, Connie Wolfe also from the contemporary Jewish Museum who made it all possible. We're thrilled to launch StoryCorps 2.0. We as I was saying to Joe from Airbnb and we're thrilled that Airbnb is our partner here. It's kind of kismet that this all came together so quickly. Airbnb also launched in 2008. Not at about the same time as StoryCorps. We cracked up some, the numbers are right, 9 million guests and half a million listings and 500 countries. I don't know, it's total insanity. But such a great kind of marriage made in heaven because Airbnb and StoryCorps are about connecting people and recognizing that if you take the time to talk to people, maybe we're not so different as you might think from watching television news and reading the tabloids. So StoryCorps has now recorded 50,000 interviews with 100,000 people. It's the largest collection of human voices ever gathered but we're just getting started. And our dream as we were talking about a little earlier is to make StoryCorps part of the fabric of this country and to create a more compassionate, thoughtful nation where we recognize the value of listening and recognize what is really the core of StoryCorps that every life matters and every life matters equally. So we're thrilled to be here and I am thrilled to introduce Judy Avery here also. She didn't come. Okay. I want to thank Judy Avery also who made our booth in the contemporary Jewish Museum possible and continues to make StoryCorps possible. So I'm going to introduce Matt Martin now from KLW. You're going to hear from KQED a little bit later. KLW has been our loyal partner as one of the great public radio stations in the country like Public Libraries is completely committed to people, to people's voices, to celebrating thoughtful communication and really getting into the grassroots of communities and raising those voices and shining a light on those voices. So the genius behind that station is Matt Martin and here he is. Thanks Dave. Public media. When I think about most of what gets our attention in media at large and I include myself. Trivia, ridicule and shock. And I'm one of those people who I click on as many stupid links as anyone in this room does so I take responsibility. And part of the reason that is because we respond. Each of us does in some way to that and part of it is because that kind of media tends to create a certain kind of return short term and financial. Story core. Opening your doors to people. Not beautiful people, not powerful people, people and creating a safe space where they share their stories. And if you're one of those people who's just been connected with by one of those stories you know the return to the fund of humanity, right? That's what we're lacking. Just that that's something we have to take care of together. And that's why when not long after I became manager at KALW I got a call from I believe it was Jennifer Garner at Story Core who said hey we're going to be bringing the Grio Story booth to Oakland. Would you be our broadcast partner? I deliberated for about 30 seconds and I said yeah, what can we do? How can we get those stories that are going to be collected at Franco Gala Plaza and other places around Oakland onto our air? And a little bit later when we got news that the story booth was going to be coming to the contemporary Jewish Museum, of course we said how can we put the word out and how can we make sure that those stories are broadcast around the Bay Area? And you asked me how many stories we broadcast? I don't know but I know I hear a lot of stories on our local news magazine Cross Currants definitely in dozens of stories in the five years of the booth at the contemporary Jewish Museum. And those stories have been inspiring to us and it really feels like this is what we want to bring forward in public media. And so I'm so happy and proud to know that Story Core is going to continue to have a really active presence here in San Francisco thanks to Airbnb for making that happen. Thank you for the folks, people like Natalia who have been great partners during the work so far here and we are really looking forward to the future and man I cannot think of a more perfect place in the public library it's about this idea of the potential of human beings who will open their hearts and minds and that's what we're all keeping together and alive so thank you very much. And unfortunately I have an old run of show so I'm not sure who I'm supposed to introduce so come on up and I'll let you. Good morning my name is Michael Lissop I'm vice president of television for KQD formerly known as the person Matt did not know he was going to introduce. Let me start by the same way that Matt started and start with public media. And storytelling is at the core of public media's mission. Storytelling is how we inform, educate, enlighten and entertain our viewers, listeners and our users. In KQD we showcase stories and community voices in many different ways on radio through forum our daily public affairs program through our radio commentaries called perspectives and believe it or not we also have a little fun at KQD sharing voices through our food properties check please Bay Area which features restaurant reviews from people like you and Bay Area Bites online. But here's the thing KQD and any other organization would be really very hard pressed to match the commitment and the body of work that Dave and StoryCorps has done over the years. As Dave said it's the largest collection of oral histories of stories of its kind and on NPR and KQD and KALW these stories have become the what are called quintessential driveway moments. I don't know if you've ever heard that phrase but a driveway moment is when you pull in and you can't turn off your radio and you have to keep the car running just to hear the end of the story. And probably I should pass on some appreciation from my wife Dave who would say that you are teaching me how to, slowly teaching me how to listen. You know StoryCorps features are some of the most popular on KQD and we've been alongside StoryCorps over the years with their important milestones. 2008 the first day of national listening, the first national day of listening conceived by StoryCorps. One hour asking loved ones to spend one hour to share their stories. We had a forum special about that day we also celebrated on forum the 10 year anniversary, 10 year anniversary of StoryCorps on forum. Now at this point you're probably wondering why is the TV guy here? Well the reason the TV guy here is here is because StoryCorps has extended to television on KQD and this Sunday I'm so excited to say that we will be premiering the first ever animated special by StoryCorps called Listening is an Act of Love. And you got to watch it because it's in that creative way and it features Dave in animated form talking to his 9 year old nephew named Benji framing these stories and lessons of life. And looking ahead we're very excited to partner with StoryCorps around our LGBT celebrations and focusing on their out loud initiative which will feature stories of LGBT individuals in the Bay Area so we're terrifically excited about that. And so let me end in a similar way that Matt ended and that's speaking about partners and being grateful. In addition to recognizing Dave in StoryCorps I want to say thank you to our partners. Thank you to Airbnb for becoming a sponsor. Thank you to KALW another great local public media institution committed to local programming and community voices and especially thank you to the San Francisco Public Library for hosting this event and for hosting this space and let me just emphasize that there is no better place to have a booth like this than a place that brings together people from all walks of life. So thank you all very much and please spread the word about this booth. Good morning. I'm Robin Sparkman and I'm the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of StoryCorps so I'm so new that I actually haven't even done my own story yet believe it or not. It's 10 days away in New York City in the booth in Manhattan. So on behalf of Dave and everyone else here from StoryCorps we are just so thrilled to have this beautiful sacred space here in the library and I also just I want to thank everyone it's so nice to be among all the believers here KALW, KQED, NPR and PBS for all of your support. StoryCorps would not be here. We would not be in our next decade if we didn't have all of you not only here and working to help us grow StoryCorps but also out in your communities spreading the word. And we also have our sort of newest champion which is Airbnb and I want to just thank Joe, Gebia for all that you have done for StoryCorps. We really appreciate it and thank you for bringing you up now. Thank you. Thank you so much Robin. This is a dream come true I think. Maybe personally for me I remember when StoryCorps launched in 2003 or 2004 in Manhattan and Grand Central I was in college at the time studying design and learning how to tell a story through design. And when I saw the booth it was like the physical manifestation of what we were learning in the design studios. I just remember being incredibly inspired by it so like to come full circle like this is personally a dream come true for me and certainly on behalf of Airbnb. The thing I learned as talking to Dave and Robin earlier is we're actually in the same business believe it or not. Airbnb is about bringing people together. Tonight alone there's going to be a few hundred thousand people sharing their homes with each other in over 125 countries around the world. We're in the business of connection and as Dave spoke before, so is StoryCorps. This part should make so much sense to us it's not even funny. So let's see the other things here I'm thrilled because I've heard all the stories from New York and it's just so exciting it's finally coming to our hometown here in San Francisco. Airbnb is a homegrown company we started an apartment just a few blocks from here where we actually still live our office is just a few blocks beyond that. So having StoryCorps permanent home here in the library means so much to us as San Franciscans and we just want to thank you for making the move out here and finally getting a booth so that we can hear San Franciscan stories. One other thing that kind of came up just as listening to the speakers talk is that I think we also have another commonality is that we're also in the business of empathy and at Airbnb you know it's like we're connecting people in homes and crossing cultures people sharing ideas with each other culture their language their food their neighborhoods their local restaurants and through those interactions of one-to-one connection with each other you build empathy and I think that's just another realization that I've had today of another commonality that we have with each other so couldn't be more excited on behalf of Airbnb to partner with and celebrate this new booth at StoryCorps in San Francisco. Thank you so much for your time. Can you guys see the rain? Look at me everybody hold up. Although let me check again can you all squeeze together and I think we're almost ready. I've got a little reflection. It's a very shiny booth. Alright everybody look at me and then whenever you're ready let me get my countdown. Jeremy? Okay three, two, look at me. One.