StoryCorps is an oral history project: collecting interviews from people of all backgrounds since 2003. Topics range from love stories to a mother's relationship with her son with Aspberger's. Anyone can record a story, and each one is preserved at the Library of Congress; only a handful of these have been turned into animated shorts.
I'm fascinated by the art of story-telling. It's surprisingly hard to turn part of your life, especially if it's not funny, into an engaging story with a satisfying ending. A funny tale usually has a natural punch line, but in normal conversation, stories just drop off/lead to tangents. Most of us aren't regularly called upon to tell stories to an audience (unless you're always coming up with kick-ass bedtime stories), let alone an audience of strangers, so I think it's a skill that has to be developed. I guess you could argue that presenting research, pitches, etc. for work counts as story-telling, but it's unlikely that someone coming in without any background knowledge would understand/give a shit. If they would, than kudos on either a sexy field of work or superb charisma. Ultimately, that's what's amazing: that we care about complete strangers, and stories that are often neither fantastic nor immediately relevant to us.
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