StoryCorps North Dakota: Recent Episodes
Prairie Public
StoryCorps recorded interviews in Bismarck from June 28-July 27, 2018, as part of its cross-country MobileBooth tour. Having collected more than 65,000 interviews from Americans in all 50 states, StoryCorps has gathered one of the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded.
In the StoryCorps MobileBooth, two people are able to record a meaningful conversation with one another about who they are, what they’ve learned in life, and how they want to be remembered. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides them through the interview process. With participant permission, a copy is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for future generations to hear.
Thank you to our local StoryCorps sponsors: Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck State College, and AARP of North Dakota.
Bill and Dina Butcher gave much to their adopted state of North Dakota. Dina served under governors John Hoeven and Ed Schafer, and headed up the North Dakotans for Public Integrity. Bill was a Navy man who rose through the ranks of the FBI. They’re longtime friends and supporters of Prairie Public. Bill passed away April 5 at age 79. In an excerpt from a visit to the StoryCorps MobileBooth in July 2018, Bill talks with his daughter Marnie Piehl about his love of sailing and what it was like working as an FBI agent in Minot in the 1960s, a notorious chapter in magic city history.
Dr. Wayne Sanstead served as North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1985-2013. In this segment from his visit to the StoryCorps MobileBooth in Bismarck, he speaks with his son, Jon, about his career, military service, meeting President Truman, and how he'd like to be remembered.
Herbert Wilson is 97 years young. After spending a childhood up and down the eastern seaboard, Wilson joined the air corps during World War II. His wife of 73 years served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. They survived many missions, but that all takes a backseat to his family.
Your childhood shapes you, for better or for worse. Tina Dietz visited the StoryCorps MobileBooth with her partner, Patrick Conteh. In this excerpt, we learn about the lives that shaped hers – most significantly, her great aunt Shirley.
In the north, we have a short growing season. Cousins Michael and Jason Tomanek make the most of it. In this excerpt from Michael and Jason's visit to the StoryCorps MobileBooth, they talk about growing up in the gardens of their grandparents, and how they carry on their family food traditions.
On the political maps of today that show the nation’s urban/rural divide, North Dakota shows up solidly red. And after the drubbing Democrats took here in November, Republicans now hold all major offices in the state, and now exclusively make up North Dakota’s congressional delegation in D.C. But it wasn’t always that way.
Families come in all shapes and forms, whether it’s through blood or circumstance. For two free-spirited North Dakota women, a pairing, a breakup, and a Queen song cemented their ageless friendship, cut through strong political convictions and made them, in essence, family.
Callings work in mysterious ways. Karen Van Fossan is a minister at the Unitarian Universalist church in Bismarck. She visited the StoryCorps mobile recording booth this past summer with her best friend, Peter Huff. In this excerpt, we learn about how the protests to the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens the water supply of the Standing Rock Reservation and beyond, shaped her ministry.
Parents have many hopes and fears for their children. Health and happiness are near the top of many lists. For Loah Clement, that health and happiness is not tied to things. She visited the visited the StoryCorps MobileBooth in Bismarck this past July with her son Jason where they shared their fears about the current political climate and the future of the environment.
You don’t have to listen to Prairie Public for very long before you hear News Director Dave Thompson. He’s known as the dean of the North Dakota press pool and he’s infamous for his puns.
They say a rising tide lifts all boats. For Barnie Botone, the great-grandson of a famous Kiowa chief, the Civil Rights Movement and an unlikely change agent helped pave the way for a fulfilling and pioneering career. But why were the tears flowing from his grandmother’s eyes not happy ones?
Those who work to revitalize Native American languages often find it challenging to reach the hearts of young people. But for one Lakota father and daughter, language has always been at the center of their lives, their bond and their purpose.
Kurdish-American couple Berivan and Abdullah Ali describe their harrowing trip from Iran to Germany, a stepping stone in immigrating to the United States. While they chose to settle in Bismarck, North Dakota, for geographically incorrect reasons, they soon discovered the welcoming nature of its people. After many decades of happy living, Berivan and Abdullah are ready to start a new chapter in their lives, and that means leaving their beloved home, once again.
A father raising a daughter on his own might not raise any eyebrows today, but forty-some years ago, it was a bit of a novelty. For Tasha Carvell, she’s glad her single dad Kevin inspired her wanderlust and an affinity for the underdog.
In a war torn country, life is fraught with hardship. Paul and Lydia Zondo grew up in Liberia during the First Liberian Civil War, a conflict that killed a quarter of a million people from 1989 to 1997.
Deep in the heart of the sauerkraut triangle, you know your bratwurst from your bockwurst, and strudel from your streusel. And you know your polka from your two-step.
Kevin Locke tells StoryCorps Facilitator, Madison Mullen, about a promise and gift made by his friend and benefactor, Arlo Good Bear, shortly before his death. He describes Good Bear's lessons and gift of the hoop dance, which Locke has since shared with people all over the world.
Dina Butcher talks with her daughter, Marnie Piehl, and grandson, Owen Piehl, about her political leanings, involvement, and concerns, and how they are directly influenced by her family history as Jewish refugees in United States who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. Dina reflects on her parents' history, both in the US and in Germany, and no matter the climate, the importance of speaking up.