01/29/2006       [ Listen to the whole show]

StoryCorps in Santa Monica
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Everyday, ordinary people have been asking each other the tough questions of everyday, ordinary life under the auspices of Storycorps - one of the most ambitious documentary projects ever conceived. Storycorps has a mobile recording studio set up on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade until February 5, 2006. Queena Kim drove out to see what people are talking about.

Map

Find out how you can participate in StoryCorps while it's in Santa Monica.

StoryCorps creator Dave Isay
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Dave Isay is the creator of StoryCorps and some of public radio's most memorable documentaries. He talks with Ben Adair about where the idea for StoryCorps came from, why it's important and how the project gives him hope that America isn't as bad as everyone says it is.

Dave Isay also runs the public radio production house SoundPortraits.

In the Booth
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Got a question you want to ask somebody? Invite them down to the StoryCorps mobile studio. You get 40 minutes to talk, and at the end, there are two CDs of the conversation. One goes home with you, another goes to StoryCorps and eventually lands in at the Library of Congress.

Queena Kim goes out to Santa Monica to speak with StoryCorps Mobile Booth West facilitators Piya Kochhar and Jackie Goodrich about what sets Southern California stories apart.

Southern California stories
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A typical StoryCorps story involves family members interviewing each other. Here, Adrian Beard and his mother, Judy Hudson, pay tribute to her father; Kathleen Zundell recalls her mother's lessons in creativity; and blues singer Bea Wain tells her grandson Brandon how she fell in love.

Very Be Careful
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Queena Kim goes backstage at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A. with Very Be Careful, one of a new generation of Los Angeles bands that forsakes guitar solos for accordions and is finding an audience far, far from the Sunset Strip.

Very Be Careful is playing Safari Sam's in Hollywood on Feb. 18.

The Ministry of Unknown Science
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A comedy troupe called The Ministry of Unknown Science has been conducting a series of experiments to end all our silly religious bickering. Through scientific methods they have found the one, true God. You can see it for yourself at Theorylabs in downtown L.A. every Saturday through February 25. Meanwhile, here's a sketch for everyone who dreads public radio pledge drives.