washington journalnnouncer: continues. host: a discussion on this thanksgiving morning about political divisions and how to bridge them. our guest is dave isay, founder and president of storycorps which started "one small step." what is storycorps and what is "one small step? " guest: it is great to be here. storycorps has been around a little more than 17 years. i was a radio documentary producer for a couple of decades before starting storycorps. always interested in public service. how to use audio to make people's lives better. you bring anyone you want to honor listen to their story, parent, or grandparent, you come to this booth and you are met by a facilitator who works for storycorps who brings you inside.

you sit across from your grandmother, you are in complete silence, it is a sacred space. listen andtes you ask questions. it is just two microphones and you look each other in the eyes. as you know i microphone gives you the license to ask questions you do not normally get to ask. from the beginning of storycorps people thought if i had 40 bits left to live, what i say to this person? at the end of the 40 minutes you get a copy and another stays with us and goes to the american folklife center in the library of congress. your great, great, great grandkids can know your grandmother through her voice and story. because of the nature of what happens in these booths, it started in grand central then expanded across the country, we are collecting the wisdom of humanity. we have about 650,000 participate so far. it is the largest

collection of human voices so far. we are a public service and nonprofit. we are here to serve people. one of the things we are encouraging a thanksgiving, and if you go to the google homepage there is a link to this. we are encouraging people for interviewing a loved one. this is the year we need to stay socially distant from elders, loved ones, people with pre-existing conditions that make them vulnerable to covid-19. ifare encouraging people, you cannot be face-to-face with a loved one, to record an interview. we have a special platform. up until covid hit all of those 650,000 people who participated did so face-to-face. today, tomorrow, saturday, sunday if you cannot be with a loved one, we are suggesting you record an interview over our

special platform and preserve it at the library of congress. tell that loved one they matter to you. they will not be forgotten by listening to them and asking import questions. these are big like questions like how do you want to be remembered, who should you kindness in your life, what was the happiest moment in your life, hardest time of your life? the hardest questions. at thego to google, bottom under the search bar, you can record an interview. meaningful -- they take 40 minutes. have a meaningful 40 minutes with some who matters to you. that is a history of storycorps. "one small step" is very different. we have been thinking about this for years. since before -- maybe about five years.

how do we deal with the crisis of contempt across the globe? is there a way to throw the storycorps methodology, which is about connecting people, at this problem and try to make a little bit of a difference? came up with something called "one small step." our oath is that we do no harm. we have been testing this intensely for years. we have worked in about 40 cities and again, i know i am giving viewers who do not know about storycorps a lot of information, but before "one small step" it had always been between loved ones. you and your grandmother, you and your kid, you and a friend. this puts strangers across the political divide. people who have never met before for a session not about politics, but to get to know each other. in the intro you talked about healing the country and i think that is an overstep.

it is really about building a little bit of social capital. taking one small step away from the of this we are facing because democracy cannot survive. you and your viewers do not need to be told what's happened the last few years. we used to disagree with the people across the divide. there are studies that show we hate and fear our neighbors more than our traditional international adversaries. things have gone a little bit bonkers in the country and this is just one small solution to try and help us see each other as human beings again. groun not about finding common ground. we know the harm dehumanizing others can do to society.

we are in four cities now, but anybody across the country can do it. you can also go to our website to find out how to sign up. our dream is to convince the country it is our patriotic duty to see the humanity and people. the hardest thing we have ever tried to do, but given the state of the country, we are going to take a swing at it. a very long answer to your quick question. host: finding common ground and the one small step model conversation we are going to have for the next 35 or 40 minutes. let me give the numbers for viewers to call. ,emocrats (202)-748-8000 republicans (202)-748-8001, independents (202)-748-8002. dave isay, you gave the explanation and let me give viewers an example of one of these conversations you created in one small step. this is a conversation between two participants who

participated in birmingham, alabama. [video clip] >> an example of how i think my personal belief structure differs from the perception of my belief structure, right? my wife and i for years led youth group in our church. would participate in the march for life and somehow, because i would be outward with this idea that i would like to see a world where abortion is no longer an nowon, that one stance i am somehow this radical evangelical trump supporter. >> i see. >> something that drives my belief is the same thing that drives my belief that we should take care of abandoned refugees at the border, the poor and sick in our own neighborhoods, but that is not the public persona of what somebody who goes to d.c. to march for that is. >> that is exactly why i wanted to do this. i will fully admit to having had

that bias before. it is also worth mentioning -- please do not run out of the room -- i worked for planned parenthood. >> i cannot talk to you anymore. [laughter] deck is my blood going. none of us are simple enough to be throwing the bucket. we are just too darn complicated for that. i think we could do a better job of realizing the nuance. >> nuance i want on a bumper sticker. [laughter] i think the end result of having these conversations and storytelling needs to be that. people are so many things. being disabled as part of my identity, but just a part. going to the march for life is part of your identity, but not the whole thing. >> right. >> you are a father, husband, and i think if we can remember that we have is conversations, we will get somewhere. host: that was from "one small step" from participants in birmingham, alabama. dave isay, how do you find these

participants in are these people, if they're willing to do this program, are they willing on and that common ground start to what you're trying to do? guest: people find us. att happens is you sign up storycorps. you can also go to onesmallstep.org. you fill out a questionnaire and talk about your politics, yourself, and we use this to match you with another participant. you also write a little paragraph about who you are. that is what is sent to your partner. justet your partner's bio, their first names you cannot look them up, and then you read hemr partner's bio to t and they read it to you. a study for more

and common, which is an organization that studies polarization, that says there is an exhaustive majority of 89% in the country who are tired of the divisions under looking for a way out. i would say they are within that 89%. that is most of us. on probablys built the most studied theory and history of psychology called contact theory. the 1950'sloped in and says under specific conditions if you bring two people who are enemies together face-to-face for a meaningful conversation, that feeling of hate can melt away and something can change. if you do it wrong, you can make things worse. but if you do it right, something extraordinary can happen. i think that as what we have. there is also the recalled brightness theory that says there are two conditions for

tractable conflict which is what we are moving toward. two conditions for it to melt away. one is that people are completely exhausted. i think we are getting there in this country. the second is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, i way to get through it. just in a small way we hope one small step is a way that people can take a step, a courageous step, toward each other. people have said it is hard to hate up close. i think what we have seen over and over is the truth of that. we want as many people in the country to sign up. yes, the people who do this are primed to want to listen to the other side, but i think that is the vast majority of the country. it is just the people on the hard edges. interesthere are some who haveo

interest in listening to others. host: plenty of callers. we start in missio michigan with tonya. caller: good morning. i wish i would have the book available now. someone that was a professor in some california college or university and his theory for talking to people is to talk to them about something they like. when you open a conversation you find some sort of mutuality and then you can develop your discussion further. but if you go after a person with hard i like this or you are wrong, you are never going to succeed. i've been trying to follow that.

it is very difficult in this time because i am absolutely amazed at how one person can alienate half of the country practically. it is a terrible thing that families cannot meet and enjoy one another's company. through the years we've talked about politics and religion in such, but i have never seen anything that has engendered such hate and animosity as i see now. it is a shame. i wonder if you might have some thoughts on how to correct that. thank you. i enjoyed this topic very much. c-span, we love you. host: thank you, natasha. love to you as well in michigan. guest: that advice is absolutely right. that is how one small step works. i want to say if you want to onen up, go to take

smallstep.org. the goal is not to argue about politics. we ask them not to talk about politics. it is just to get to know each other. that is why we call it one small step. topics into the harder of politics is difficult. if you do talk about politics, we suggest you come at it in a slant way. questions would be what is it you think the other side does not understand about your side? what do you respect about people and the others? those sorts of questions. what you read was completely right. nobody has ever screamed, yelled, called somebody a nazi or snowflake or whatever name and changed their mind, ever in the history of humankind. the only way we can begin to see

and hear each other is by listening. that is the core of what storycorps is about. it is in the initiative about listening to each other. show dave, we are going to on the screen some of the primary questions that one small step participants are given in these interviews. we will put those up as we hear from jb in arkansas, a democrat. caller: good morning. i imagine half the people listening to the show today probably believe that this country was involved in some kind of international conspiracy to fix our elections. judging by the callers that we had the first hour i just want to make one simple point. i will get off the phone after that. if that was actually true, you would see the justice department, the fbi, the cia, the top level of this american

government involved in trying to find out if that was real or not. you do not see that. you see five private lawyers led by a man who has not been in a courtroom in decades backed by a president that -- i think it is paranoia. he believed he could not lose unless he was cheated. go ahead? host: let me ask you -- will go ahead. you said your point is what? caller: you see all the top levels of the u.s. government looking into this. questions thate participants in the one small step program, one of the primer questions is, do you feel misunderstood by people who have different beliefs than you? have so? caller: i feel misunderstood,

yes. i think they are misunderstood. it does not make sense. the claim about this national conspiracy -- nobody is checking into it. have you seen bill barr lately? host: that was jb in arkansas. dave isay, what you take from that? it is a little bit off topic for one small step. aughs] people are angry and i think we do not understand each other. the question is can we sit together and start getting know to know each other like human beings? i am sure the person we just heard has an interesting life story. if he could sit with someone who has different political views and maybe thinks the election hisstolen or whatever

concerns are about how people see things on the outside, if they could talk a little bit about their lives and who they care about and their kids and grandkids, maybe they could have a conversation about the election that was a little bit different than just shouting at each other. out, as weuld turn heard in that clip, a little bit of nuance to everybody's beliefs. who knows? the way it is going in the country right now is not working and this is another way of going at it. it is about having the courage to listen, having the courage to listen to people who are different. host: barbara in north carolina, you are next. caller: good morning. mi there? host: yes, ma'am. caller: thank you, c-span. loved natasha. is that her name? she had everything involved in communicating.

i think the end of the conversation is really education. i think c-span and the storycorps needs to go to the mountains of north carolina and talk to these people. i know you mentioned you do go around in buses, but i think it is the core of everything to communicate. peoplenot hear from you and a lot of people in this area do not get internet. how can they even get tv? line isthe bottom really education. we need to focus on that. thank you. host: that was barbara in north carolina. banner elk north carolina in the western part of the state. i will pull up the map so viewers can see where it is as we hear from dave isay. guest: i think barbara is right.

because of the virus there is no getting into the mountains for face-to-face conversation, but we hope we will be able to reach people all across the country. i think part of the problem in the country's people feel like they are not being listened to. likeuntry is people feel they're not being listened to. listening is one of the best ways to show respect. , our goal isains to get as deep as we can into the country. education, ims of think this is more social and emotional learning education. helping us build those muscles of compassion and empathy for one another and we live in a world where there is a multibillion-dollar paid industrial complex. it is incredibly profitable to

hate.ows and sow there has to be a counterbalance where we can find the humanity in each other. host: do you think we would be better off without twitter or facebook? guest: i am not on those platforms. [laughs] i do not know facebook that well. seems to be a really dangerous tool and obviously it just has huge effects on our brain chemistry. every time you write something nasty about someone the more likes you will get. you get dopamine hits from that and it is a little bit of a casino in our brain. it seems like twitter is probably pretty harmful. host: back to michigan this is

margaret, a democrat from detroit. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i really appreciate you guys because you keep it real. my thing is this. we can learn from kids. along, theyo get love each other, there is no animosity and anger, ok? but adults, there is the anger coming from, love? understand because somebody does not agree with you -- you have siblings, cousins, uncles and so forth, right? they do not always agree. kids do not always agree, but

know do n but they do no their part of the human race -- know they are part of the human race. that is all i have to say and thank you for having me on the phone. host: dave isay. very: that is the storycorps call. elders andning to collecting the wisdom of humanity and i think that is an example of listening to wisdom. she is right. we have a lot to learn from kids. we have a lot to learn from each other. thingsthink one of the one of the things we want to do with one small step is remember that none of us is the worst thing you have ever done. try to see the best in others and that is something that kids have the ability to do up until a certain age.

.e should be reminded of one of the lessons of storycorps -- the traveling around the country recording stories of regular people everywhere -- is that when we are recording these interviews between grandparents and grandkids, kids and their parents, we have facilitators who work for storycorps who are in the booth. they call a bearing witness. we have had hundreds and hundreds of them as we worked with hundreds of thousands of people across the country. when they come back to for aorps after serving year or two years if you ask them what they learned, everyone gives some version of the anne frank quote that people are basically good. there is truth to that. that is a piece that we need to remember and again, seeing the good in others and remembering

that there is a light in all of us and trying to help that flame burn is bright as possible. one way to do that is by treating one another with dignity always in respect always. host: back to the mountain state, this is carl in west virginia. caller: good morning. democrats havet, got to be vicious when it comes to politics. if you do not agree with my philosophy, you are a racist. they are throwing that around so much it does not mean anything anymore to me. for a lot ofedia this going on because the majority of the mainstream media is one way. our kids in school are being taught the socialist philosophy.

difficulting pretty to even have a conversation with a democrat. the first words out of their mouth if you do not agree, you are a racist. it is getting to be a bad situation. i am 82 years old. i was a democrat when i was a young person. there philosophy was pretty good back in those days. now it is if you do not agree with me, i will hurt you. i will go to your house, i will demonstrate in front of your house. i will create a commotion your neighbors will want you out of the neighborhood. to. is what it has come it is crazy and i just hope,

well, i agree with president trump because he did a lot for the blacks in this country. it because thew mainstream media do not tell us. host: dave isay. guest: again, i hope you will go to one small step.org to sign up to participate so you can test your theory. i hear a lot from the media about what one side is like and what the other side is like. we do not spend enough time actually having face-to-face conversations. go to take one small step.org to sign up and have a conversation with some of the across the political divide. maybe we'll be what you think, maybe it will not. one of the reasons we are alive is to be surprised. areously both sides convinced of certain things about the other side. the caller just articulated it beautifully.

a lot of this is fueled by the media. the question is, is it really true? what we want to do is find that bypassing they messages we are getting from the media about who the other side is in finding out whether it is true and having face-to-face conversations. what you think. people are complicated and that is the beauty of life, getting a chance to engage in those complications and be surprised. i didn't interview a couple of weeks ago and it was my first 1 -- i did an interview a couple of weeks ago and it was my first one. sitting across the political divide so i would not normally get to talk to, and being thoughtful and listening is just a thrilling experience. it is exhausting. but most of these interviews and

the same way. we have done a lot of testing and now we have launched. it ends with the two people almost always saying, can i have your phone number, whenever going to have dinner, we need to do this again, we need to keep talking. i think storycorps and one small step are projects of hope. do not give up hope. host: was surprised about that person you set across from? well, i did it through videoconference because all of these are video calls now up until the pandemic is over. ease of the the conversation and how much i liked her and how much she liked me. she sent me an email afterward. i gave her my email and she said, for that one hour i felt respected. i felt recognize and i felt hurt and it felt good. rd and it felt good.

feels -- itgood it is not every conversation, but it is a lot of them. life in a bit of a new way is thrilling. how draining it is, it takes courage to listen. boy, it is worth it. host: we listen to gary and fletcher, north carolina, independent. caller: good morning. famous prejudice caller, gary, i was listening to his program and one of the things i was trying to do when i spoke to heather mcgee was doing something like this. host: for folks who do not remember, remind folks about that call and why you called in

that day. and heathergary and iwas on television wanted to express my views and i had prejudiced feelings about people. because of what i had seen and what i had learned, i am afraid that what i experienced people are experiencing now. the gentleman who called and said people are yelling at me in doing this and acting that way. he is developing prejudices against these people right now. guest -- youre a guest on television is really doing something to try and bring up a remedy instead of fortifying these feelings. he is trying to break down some walls. this.needs to be more of i think this could really work. thathing i worry about is

-- people call into c-span. i love listening to black colors, different points of ands -- black callers listening to different points of views, but i think we should get into the nixon crannies of the areas that could use it. oks and crannies of the areas that could use it. host: how would you suggest they do that? where should one small step go? guest: they should get people who dress and look like some of the people that we do not agree with or are afraid of and have them sit across tables and talk to people instead of beating on cars are yelling in people's ears with bullhorns.

that really is not working. group -- ia diverse am intrigued with the demeanor of your guest and there are some people who would blow it off. he's just not their cup of tea. diversify have to within his own program. i would be a helper if you wanted it. i would like to get in touch with him sometime and offer what i have learned. i'm still friends with heather mcgee and i'm fixing to call her and wish her a happy thanksgiving now. anybody can look up that interview on the internet. i am very familiar with it. it may be one of the most famous moments in c-span history.

know if you can talk to jen, the producer, but if you could leave her your email address, i would love to be in touch with you and figure out something to do with you and heather. i agree. we work everywhere with people trying to get the message out. we are a public service. we want to reach everybody across the country. ,e are doing everything we can liberal radio, conservative radio, tv, we have an ad council campaign. that is the group that did smoking sensation. you are going to see those all over the place encouraging people to listen. it is not a perfect analogy, but there are analogies with smoking. at one point it was cool and sexy in that it was not. right now treating each other with disrespect, being cruel to each other, not listening to

each other, putting each other down is cool and sexy. at some point treating each other with dehumanizing each other was cool and sexy. point hopefully it will not be. that interview with heather something we paid close attention to four years ago and we appreciate your courage and i think that is fantastic that your calling her on thanksgiving. essence of one small step. host: it was august 18 that gary called in. if viewers want to check that out, gary, are you come to both if i put you on hold? you can give your email address. caller: absolutely. you have made my thanksgiving. host: thank you, gary. stand aligned. guest: i was thinking about that interview before he came on the ar because it was such dramatic and important moment.

to havelly honored talked to you. happy. host: stephen is next out of maryland. wondering if you voted for donald trump because i think that is really where the healing of the political divide is going to have to come. like in the conversation there may be placing a burden on people who happen to listen -- who have to listen to racists all the time empathize with racism. people are tired of listening to racists and being led by them and having them be their president. negotiating between who is more racist and less racist. i think that is where this done amongst to be

white people. they need to educate themselves. it has been 400 years. you can read a book and learn about the university of north carolina leasing slaves to students. you can learn about how instead of fighting the takedown of confederate statues -- how the confederacy lost and stop waving the confederate flag. this provocations what causes undivided. now it is a situation where you want the people who, for the last four years, have to educate or listen to people who lost the popular vote but took the electoral college.

divide isructural imposing a racist system on a population of people that you are saying needs to heal from a political divide. host: that is stephen this morning. dave isay. guest: i appreciate that call. first of all, we have all kinds of guardrails up. this is not about any kind of -- i do not want to even say the word healing. it is just about having a conversation. nobody is forced to do this. if there are people who want to do this, who are interested in getting to know people across the divide -- some people are not interested. there is no pressure on anybody having to do this. your point is well taken. one small step is not about racial reconciliation or not. we are not equipped to do that. the issues you bring up are deep and complicated and it is not a one small step. it is not a piece of one small step.

again, i think what one small step is looking at -- i do not want to overstate the problem -- but just listening to these calls we are getting there. dehumanization and the dangers of a society dividing into us and them. we know the results of that. in germany, the nazis used to lessjews and other people than human. slavery is an example of when a group of people is dehumanized. what happened in rwanda and we are not there in the country yet, but it is a very dangerous road to go down. this is about people. it is not about healing, not about coming to common ground, it is just to human beings who have the courage to want to see the humanity and one another and find out who this person is. taken and one small

step might not be for you, but if it is, i hope you will sign up and participate. i know weme ask you, originally had you booked until 9:30 eastern. there are a lot of calls and callers want to chat with you. can you stick around? guest: happy to. the gary call made my day. [laughter] virginia,antown, west and independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. what youto ask you envision in terms of this approach of dialogue, moving into other spaces of society. whether it be in the workplace, whether it be at the shopping center, and even online. met advice would you give to

and others who are interested in this approach of dialogue? not necessarily in the storycorps space. guest: i am not a psychologist. i am not an expert on resolving conflict, but i appreciate your question in common. i think my advice as a civilian to your question -- my life, to some extent, i know it very well but i think the lessons from storycorps can be applied everywhere. key -- ine of the think about what the founding principles of storycorps were. toe of those are just things hold onto if you can. that includes assume the best in others. you look at the ground rules of what has to

happen, and this goes back to the previous caller, one small step interviews have ground rules. you do not shout, you do not yell, you do not curse, you do not talk over other people. are being treated the way you would want to be treated is a way to do this. i have to say, i keep coming back to the word courage. it is really not courage in your workplace and other places. take a deep breath. know what your intention is in a conversation and dive in. i do believe -- and this is the lesson of storycorps. you could say, john, you are asking early on if there is a selection bias, you could say the same thing with storycorps full-time at the beginning that there was some kind of a selection bias when we were in the hundred thousands. this idea of the basic goodness of people, there has got to be a

truth to it. i know it's not what we see when we look at most channels, and i know we are not talking about c-span. most of the messages we get are not about the basic goodness that is inherent in all people, but the lesson that we have learned in our corner of storycorps is that it is true. i think we are just kind of telling truths that are true here. we will keep telling them until there is no breath left in our bodies. we cannot give up hope. we cannot give up hope in other people. we have to move forward and look toward each other and take one small step toward each other, or else this country -- there was an article last week saying -- i talked about this as a moonshot full-time how can we as a country ever accomplish anything that is big in any way if we are at each other's throats? it is not going to work. we've got to find a way to find the humanity in each other, find the best in each other to move forward.

i hope that is ok. host: earlier you talked about the dangers you see in social media. do you watch much cable news come and do you think there are some of the danger there? the one person on the face of the earth since the pandemic has not turned on the tv. i don't watch tv. the work is pretty intense with storycorps. whove two little kids, one had covid for a long time. so i have not watched tv. i don't tend to watch tv news at all. so -- but from what i understand, you know, people are know, incentivized, you the more that you make your side theylike everything that say is correct and that the other side is evil, the higher your ratings are going to be. so every incentive is toward

this kind of depolarization in the country and dividing us. i have no doubt that that's what happens all the time on cable tv, and we are human beings and it is understandable. but it is not necessarily that it is not healthy, it's not ok. in some ways there is a public health campaign because this kind of conflict and hate -- it is extremely stressful. you can hear it in the voices of your callers. distress, andreal we get paranoid and it is just -- it is not good, it is not good for us, it is not good for the country, and we have to figure out something to turn the tide. host: let's try to get some of those voices in. frank, pennsylvania, a democrat. thanks for waiting. caller: ok. hi, dave. you know, i think at the bottom of this, the big problem we have

the very unhealthy divide between the haves and the have-nots in our economy. that's what's making people angry, and they don't even realize it. you know, we need some real economic reform in the way of and, you know, we need to stop shooting at one another here. and bring to people's attention the simple fact that the economy is way out of whack with the haves having too much and the have-nots don't have enough. and the have-nots don't know what hit them. this needs to be corrected. host: dave eisai. -- dave isay.

right now it is a zero sum game. it is more important for people important whats your party does than defeating the other party. it has become a shootout, and again, that is not healthy and that is not going to move the country forward. i am not a political scientist. i'm not an expert on politics. i am an expert on my small corner of the world on storycorps, which is about humans connecting. i think that what you are saying is, you know, that these are just kind of evident truths. at eachn, if we are other's throats, there is not much that we can do as a country to move forward and create this more perfect union that we all must happen.that

we have to figure this out. vickie, wendell, north carolina. thanks for waiting. caller: thanks for taking my call. i'm curious -- i love the idea of what you're doing, and i think at least somebody is doing something. i have been completely devastated since the election. i'm glad that biden won, but i feel now prejudiced against people who voted for trump, and my problem isn't really political divide, it is i feel like that the people who voted for him do not care about the truth, don't have morality, believe -- they don't live in reality, having believed all the things that he said, and i'm trying to reconcile my feelings about all this because i'm finding myself very upset, feeling like i don't know my country anymore. guest: that is a good reason to

be upset. thank you for the kind words. i'm sorry that you are in distress. i don't know the answer except that we have to do something, as you said, and i hope that you takeonesmallstep.org. i hope you will talk to someone. i don't know if it will be satisfying. i hear that you're in a lot of pain. it cannot be any worse than what you are feeling inside right now. we have to figure out a way to reach out to each other and find out -- remember, we listened to that clip earlier and there are so many clips like that where you have a pro-life person, someone who worked at planned parenthood talking to each other who became friends afterwards. i'm sure that both of them would have had that kind of distress that you are expressing before they had that conversation. it is not the answer to everything, but i hope you will and and be a part of this

that it gives you some peace, and maybe things that people who the person that you meet -- if you do multiple conversations are not exactly what you think, and maybe you would learn something new, and maybe it will bring a glimmer of hope back. cannotocracy also survive without hope. don't give up hope. you go, for folks who want to participate in storycorps, explain how they can do it via google. getting reallys complicated. we have two things to talk about. one is storycorps, the broad effort that i founded many years ago, and if you go to google today, underneath the search bar , it will say on your desktop recorded loved one with storycorps. just hit it, and it will tell you how to record an interview with your grandparents.

that uploads to the library of congress, so your great great great great grandchildren can get to know your grandmother through her voice and story. all of this is about listening, respect, dignity, recognizing the poetry, the grace and the beauty that is hiding in plain sight all around us if we take the time to listen. that's if you want to interview a loved one. if you want to be part of a political piece of this, one small step, changes across the divide getting to know each other. that is not on the home page of google. you have to go to takeonesmallstep.org, and we will match you with someone across the political divide. everything is done ritually to be safe because of covid. once week -- done virtually to be safe because of covid. once we have the vaccine, we will go back to doing it live. interviewing a loved one, whoever you are going to call in, so many people feel lonely and isolated today, a very weird

and difficult thanksgiving for so many. by interviewing them and asking them about their life, it mind -- it reminds them that they matter and they will be forgotten. i promise two things. you will learn things about a hell we -- no matter how well you know them. you will find out something that you never knew, no matter how well you know them. the second thing i promise is you will not regret it. i have people coming up to me before the pandemic, living in a different type of world. every day people come up to me and say i wish i interviewed my grandmother or my grandfather, but i waited too long. i wish i interviewed my brother, but i waited too long. i hope is that storycorps will -- long enough that no one has that regret. the last caller was crying about how painful it is for her in this country right now, and we have heard a lot of pain in these phone calls. this is not ok, and we have got

to figure out some way to see each other again. i hope that this methodology that we have developed helps us take one small step again in -- awayh other from this hopelessness and despair that this country has fallen into. isay,thank you, dave storycorps founder and president. let's have another conversation down the road. guest: i would love that. happy thanksgiving to you and your viewers as well. about 20 minutes left in our program today, and we will return to the topic that we began our program with. simply asking you, in mid the spiking coronavirus pandemic, we want to hear about how you are celebrating the holiday, what it means to you this year. what you might be think for four. phone lines, the numbers are on

your screen. we will be right back. announcer: book tv on c-span2 has talked nonfiction books and authors every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday, at 9:00 p.m. eastern, former president barack obama reflect on his life and political career in his newly released memoir "a promised land." sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, -- on of --words, "the author "monopolies suck." she is interviewed by david mcloughlin. at 10:00, former appellate judge douglas ginsberg and his book "voices of our republic" examines the constitution through the eyes of legal scholars. watch book tv on c-span2 this

weekend, and watch in-depth life sunday, december 6 at noon eastern with our guest, african-american chair -- chair of african-american studies at dash university, eddie claude jr.. announcer: tuesday, steve mnuchin and jerome powell testify before the senate banking committee fulton we will provide an update on emergency measures to provide relief on the economic downturn about the coronavirus pandemic. tuesday on c-span3 come on demand at c-span.org, or listen live on the c-span radio app. washington journal continues. host: about 15 or 20 minutes left in "the washington journal," asking you for your thoughts on this thanksgiving morning, in this strangest of years. we want to hear from you. regionally, eastern,

202-748-8000. mountain or central time zones, 202-748-8001. molly roberts has the column in the washington post, "we can't save this thanksgiving." she talked about the traditions this year. she says we have been asked so many times to scale down all aspects of our lives for eight months that you would think scaling down thanksgiving doesn't come that would come naturally. many of us have been missing seeing family for months now and we have been missing seeing friends, too. obviously we don't like change when changing is in our choice, but yet we have changed already. that is why it hurts so much. these changes were daily adjustments. we noticed them but as a steady accumulation of evenings spent in indoor silence come up solitary strolls through the neighborhood, on the edges of a

sidewalk. thanksgiving is the day. we only get it once every year, and we are not getting it this time. suddenly the sum total materializes for us as empty seats and a long table. that from molly roberts in onay's "washington post." the gatherings at tables today. only about 27% of americans plan to have the traditional thanksgiving meal with people outside their own homes. that from "the new york times" and their survey of 150 thousand americans, conducted within the past two weeks. turning the phones over to you to end our program today, mary in south dakota. you are up first. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, mary. caller: i am actually spending the day alone. i am 66 and i have family in the

my daughter went to a wedding last saturday, so i will not spend any time with her because she has been exposed. i am going to make some food and share it with my ex-husband and his wife. i will probably go for a walk with my dog at some point, with my husband and their two dogs. ratein a place where the is sky high and and just keeping very say. i am just grateful for my health and i really want to be careful about not being exposed, not spreading this to anyone else. there are only a few more months to go, so i can hang in there. host: mary, things for the call. n from santa fen en new mexico. caller: happy thanksgiving to all. this morning i woke up at 5:00,

and at 6:00 after going around, getting coffee, i attended mass on television, on ew gn. read the proclamation that george washington wrote in, i believe, 1869. i believe that is the year. people should look that up. it is incredible. it is beautiful, inspirational. host: is it the 1789 one? guest -- caller: it is the 1780 91. he said our unity is in god, and fort washington hit the nail on the head. if i might paraphrase. that idiom. but anyway, it is just so

beautiful, and i think if we would look that up and reread it and come together and find , inngth and hope in that that proclamation. mountvernon.org is a good resource for anything george washington related. this is the thanksgiving proclamation of 1789. i want -- i won't read the whole thing for our viewers and probably won't do it justice, here is a bit of what that proclamation said in 17 89. from george washington. "now therefore i recommend and assign thursday, the 26th of november next to be devoted by the peoples of these states to the service of that rate angler is being who is the -- that great and glorious being who is the significant author of all that was, is, and will be, that we may all unite in rendering unto him sincere thanks for his

kind care and protection of the people of this country, previous to their becoming a nation. for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interposition's of his providence, which we experience in the course and conclusion, with a great degree of tranquilly, union, and plenty, which we have enjoyed in the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled, established constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty which we are blessed, and the means we have for acquiring and diffusing useful -- useful knowledge and a general fall the great and various favors which he has been pleased to confer upon us. ." philadelphia, good morning. you are next. good morning.

just want to say thank you for c-span. it is a beautiful day. people thatup, some corona close to me recently, and it is just -- on this thanksgiving day, you just pray that things get better. this morning i got multiple calls from people that didn't have employment and didn't really have any way to get anything on this thanksgiving, so just being thankful for what you have. work to youind of do that you interact with folks as much as you have today? caller: i am a community activist, and a lot of people have reached out just because they don't have, and so many have lost their jobs or their know,ave folded, and, you

they are really worried because they don't have virtually no income. thanks for sharing your story this morning. inhleen, across the state pittsburgh, pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning, happy thanksgiving. i am thankful for the fact that i live in this beautiful country , but i wish we could be united like we were after 9/11. i may not agree with your opinion, but i will fight to the death for your right to have it. freedom of speech is important. another thing, hatred breeds lack of compromise. let's stop the hatred. it is breaking my heart. the country is being torn apart, and i love this country. thank you. host: kathleen in pittsburgh. this is lisa in texas.

you are next. good morning -- caller: good morning, happy thanksgiving. i am thankful that i get to spend thanksgiving with my two granddaughters that i am raising, and i am thankful we will have food. i will not do the traditional thanksgiving because i am not with my entire family. gentleman that was on previously, if we would go by 2 -- "if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, i will hear from heaven and forgive them and heal their land." i pray next year -- i am thankful for what i have, but i pray next year that this country

comes back together and heals from the division that we have lived through. not just the covid-19 and the family members we have lost, but also just the division. we are all one people. host: that is lisa in texas. this is shelley in eden, utah. good morning. are you with us? i am.: yes, thank you. i want to just tell everybody how thankful i am that we have the vaccine coming. we will get through this. we are strong, and please, everybody, just be thankful for what we have. i know there are a lot of people who have lost a lot of loved ones, and i am so sorry for that. please, everybody, just be thankful for what we have. thank you. in utah.t is shelley

about 10 minutes left this morning. we read the presidential proclamation from 1789. there is plenty out there throughout history. here is another one, from 165 years later, president dwight d eisenhower's 1954 thanksgiving proclamation. it is printed in today's "washington times." here is part of that proclamation, saying, "we are grateful that our beloved country, settled by those forebears in our quest for religious freedom remains free, strong, and each of us can worship god in his own way according to the dictates of his conscience. numeralrateful for the -- the innumerable daily manifestations of his greatness. for the opportunities to labor and to serve and for the continuance for the satisfactions which enrich our lives. with gratitude in our hearts for all our blessings, may be -- may

we be ever mindful that the obligations inherent in our strengths, and may we rededicate ourselves to the unselfish striving for the common betterment of mankind. that from 1954. from richmond, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling to say that i am so grateful not only for the fact that we will be getting a new evendent in biden, but though i cannot spend my time with my daughter and my granddaughter that are two years that --m still grateful my cousin passed in august. i just hope that everybody enjoys themselves as much as they can. you have a good thanksgiving as well. host: thank you. you do the same. choi, wilmington, delaware. you are next. caller: good morning. i just want to say what i am

thankful for this thanksgiving. i lost my mother and my grandmother within seven weeks of each other from the pandemic. host: i'm sorry about that, troy. dark andt has been a hard year for me and for a lot of people. -- i have faith, and it got me through it. i feel blessed. i just want to remind everyone to just take safety precautions and just know that you never know, you know, if you are going to get it. and if you will make it through it. it is a tough thing. host: what were their names? namer: my grandmother's was mary, and my mother's name was debbie. host: thank you for the call. rose in illinois, good morning, you are next.

i am rose, and i am very thankful for my president, donald j. trump. he is the very best president that has ever in this country. the people need him, and i am very, very grateful for what he has done for this country. trump, my nament is rose. god bless you. never concede. you are the best. we have everident had in this country. thank you. host: that is rose in illinois. this is francis in selma, alabama. good morning. caller: yes, good morning to all. i am so thankful to this particular experience we have gone through for the last four years. it does give us a chance to see where we really are. a civilt that we get us

about office in just every state so we can teach the people how to be considerate of all mankind. i lost a sister this summer, too. comeidn't go out before and her son wanted to carry her, take her to a restaurant that was in one of the adjacent cities because selma is so small. he did, and it was on july 9. july 19. burnster, who has a 90% over her body in the 1970's, so she knew how to take care of herself. she died very quickly without anyone knowing. so it is just so sad what goes on, because we don't pay attention and we don't love people. having hadlieve that

donald trump as an experience will help our nation become the nation that it should be. thank you so much. host: francis, sorry for your loss. our last call in today's washington journal. one last next message this morning for our viewers, from peter in provincetown, massachusetts. peter wrightson, "hi, i'm going to take a walk in provincetown, knowing where my path will take me to the same path where the weary passengers on the mayflower visited 400 years ago. then i with you --is q&a carol holzer. he establishes the relationship between u.s. presidents and the media. watch today at 7:00 p.m. eastern

on c-span. your mobile devices and ando c-span.org for live on-demand video. just follow the transmission of power. president trump, president biden, news conferences. that is at c-span.org. on "washington journal" friday business reporter lauren thomas discusses how the ongoing pandemic is affecting the retail industry as the holiday shopping season kicks off. the foundation for the defense of democracy's representative talks are escalating tensions between the u.s. and iran who. watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text, and tweets. american history tv on c-span

three, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. weekend, this saturday, at 7:00 p.m. eastern, an interview on leadership with james baker, who served as secretary of state under george h w bush. and treasury secretary. p.m., eastern connecticut state university close andon the rumored relationship between two prominent mid 19 century politicians. thes buchanan, elected president in 1850 six, and william king, who served briefly as vice president under buchanan's predecessor, franklin pierce. sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifact we explore jfk assassination records from the national archives including

iconic artifacts such as lee harvey oswald rifle, the so-called magic bullet, and the original eight millimeter film of the assassination. presidency, on the a virtual tour of the ronald reagan presidential library. located in seamy, valley california -- seamy valley, california. -- it happened in the year we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote. sunday night on cue and day, book, thess on her women's hour on a rabbit on -- on the ratification of the 19th amendment. house and itthe has to be a two thirds majority. it passes the house by a margin very small.

on onlys the senate eight to vote margin. senators who are sitting on it, it takes them until june of 1919 before it passes both houses. the senate knew they were sending it out for ratification in the states. not state legislatures were going to be in session. that made it more difficult. they had to convince 30 governors to call their legislators back into special session. elaine weiss, sunday on mcewan day -- q and a. remarks from former president clinton on affordable housing and the racial wealth gap. hosted