STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In an overnight vote, Senate Republicans followed President Trump's direction to cut previously approved funding. Most of this money is for foreign aid. We've been reporting on what those cuts could mean, although it's hard to know at this moment. Some Republicans voted for the measure, even as they said that the way it was written was too vague for them to know what they were voting for or for what the president will cut.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We do know that some of that was for two years of advanced funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The main people affected are local public radio stations, like the one you're hearing now, with rural stations most affected. Other people who've received CPB grants over the years include Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, which you hear on this program on Fridays. So Dave is with us now to tell us more about what the CPB has meant to him. Good morning, Dave.
DAVE ISAY: Hey, Michel.
MARTIN: So this funding was so pivotal to starting your program. For people who don't understand how this works, how so? What did it mean?
ISAY: Well, I mean, it was pivotal to everything that's happened to me in my work life. It was 36 years ago that I was a kid and I made a radio documentary, and someone from CPB heard it and said, you know, apply for funding, and it made it possible for me to devote my life to public service media. And then, 20 years ago, had this crazy idea that was StoryCorps, and CPB came in and gave it life and has continued to fund it for the last 22 years. Every broadcast you hear on NPR, funded by CPB.
MARTIN: So the question I think some people might have is, well, couldn't, you know, people get that funding from somewhere else these days? I mean, people have heard about some of these really high-profile celebrity podcasts, for example, and people hear stories about, like, people pouring, you know, tens of millions of dollars into them. Needless to say, we don't have one, but what about that? I mean, if you were starting this today, could that funding come from someplace else?
ISAY: Well, I - you know, look, we're very lucky because we've had a 20-year head start with CPB's funding. It started - when we started, we were 100% funded by CPB. Now we're 10% funded by CPB. We've grown a lot. Look, this is public service media. You know, with StoryCorps, this is not a super commercial entity. It's, you know, finding the poetry and the beauty and the grace in the stories all around us if we take the time to listen. So there are no huge podcast companies, funders who are going to come in and fund some crazy idea like this. It's, you know, it is - it's kind of nuts, traveling the country, you know, honoring the stories of everyday people. It's - this is a - very much a nonprofit, noncommercial enterprise.
INSKEEP: Dave, you've had all sorts of people on the air telling their stories. Listeners will know this. People tear up hearing these very moving stories. There are all sorts of identities, from Christian conservatives to people in prison to gay and trans people, people struggling with crises, health problems, all kinds of things. But in criticizing NPR, Republicans made it clear that they consider it bias to hear from some people. They consider it promoting someone's viewpoint if it's an identity that they disapprove of. How did you think about - how have you been thinking about the mix of people that you put on?
ISAY: Well, StoryCorps has always been just about everybody. It's every kind of - you know, we've had 800,000 people participate in StoryCorps in the last 20 years, collecting the wisdom of humanity. We've been to every part of the country, every kind of person you can possibly imagine, every political bent. So, you know, look, public broadcasting is about a service to the American people. It's about - it's a gift to the American people. And our job was to celebrate every kind of American that there is, and we've worked very hard to do that. So, you know, that's the job. That's the duty of public broadcasting.
INSKEEP: In the more than 20 years that you've done this, have you run out of stories?
ISAY: No. I mean, one of the - you know, StoryCorps has taught me an unbelievable amount, and I should say, you know, it's made me incredibly hopeful and incredibly optimistic. You know, the facilitators who - we've had, you know, thousands of them who travel the country bearing witness to these interviews. And all of them, when they finish their service to StoryCorps, if you ask them what they've learned, they say that people are basically good. Some version of the Anne Frank quote. And the stories just keep getting better. It's like an onion. You know, someone said to me, you're playing in the sandbox of humanity. You know, it's just never - it never gets boring. It's a beautiful, hopeful, incredible gift that's been given to us. And, you know, today, I'm feeling just incredible gratitude to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
INSKEEP: Dave Isay of StoryCorps, thanks so much for your work over time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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