Campus Stories - Stanford Storytelling Project
Stanford students take listeners on a voyage of discovery
While studying “sky burials” in Mongolia, Reade Levinson amassed 20 hours of recordings, including interviews with Tibetan Buddhist lamas, conservation biologists and vulture experts, and the sound of dogs barking, monks praying and cars honking. Levinson, a senior majoring in Earth systems, spent last summer researching the funeral practice, in which monks place corpses –…
Anna Deavere Smith talks about the healing power of stories
On Oct. 28, hundreds gathered at Memorial Auditorium for a night of storytelling and conversation with former Stanford faculty member Anna Deavere Smith, an award-winning pioneer in the field of documentary theater. Smith is best known for her one-woman, multi-character performances, which depict people reflecting on moments of intense catastrophe. Her plays range in dramatic…
‘This American Life’s’ Ira Glass shares storytelling insights
Most college-age students were just wee toddlers when This American Life was born on the radio in 1995. Thus, many grew up listening as their parents listened to host Ira Glass and his quirky contributors – David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and David Rakoff, to name a few – delight in the ordinary and find poignancy in the everyday. For many, Glass is an…
