2015 TED Prize Awarded to StoryCorps Founder Dave Isay

On 10th Anniversary of the Prize, TED Celebrates the Power of Storytelling

with its Annual $1 Million Award

November 17, 2014 (New York, NY) – TEDtoday announced the recipient of the 2015TED Prize: Dave Isay, founder of the groundbreaking oral history project StoryCorps.

Each year TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, awards the TED Prizeto one exceptional individualand gives them the chance to conceive and launch a high-impact project—“a wish” offered to them without restriction.StoryCorps will be receiving $1 million from TED to launch Isay’s wish.Beyond the monetary value of the prize, TED invitesits global community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and TEDx organizers to participate in and help fulfill the wish.

Between now and the 2015 TED Conference (March 16-20 in Vancouver, BC), Isayand StoryCorps will work with TED to conceive of an audacious wish that builds on his decade of success with the organization – and share his vision live from the TED stage on March 17. The talk will be broadcast for free via

StoryCorps celebrates the dignity, power, and grace that can be heard in the stories wefind all around us. Since Dave Isay launched StoryCorps in 2003, 100,000 Americans have participated, making it the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded.

At the heart of StoryCorps is a simple, timeless idea: provide two friends or loved ones with a quiet space and 40 minutesof uninterrupted time for a meaningful face-to-face conversation; record that conversation; give the participants a copy; and archive another copy at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps seeks out the stories of people most often excluded from the historical record and preserves them so that the experience and wisdom contained within them may be passed from one generation to the next. StoryCorps shares edited excerpts of some of these recordings in its popular weekly broadcasts on NPR, animated shorts, and bestselling books.

“On the tenth anniversary of the TED Prize, it seems fitting that TED – an organization whose central mission is to spread ideas and empower storytellers – is honoring a storytelling pioneer,” said TED curator Chris Anderson. “Under Dave Isay’s leadership,

StoryCorps has given nearly 100,000 Americans the chance to record interviews about their lives and leave a legacy for the future. I am thrilled about this winner, excited to see how TED and StoryCorps will collaborate, and eager to see how we can pair an incredible idea with a global community.”

Dave Isay said, “We are thrilled and honored—and, frankly, floored—to receive this prize. We look forward to working with TED in the years to come to bring StoryCorps to more people, and to remind everyone of the power of listening and the simple truth that every life and every story matters.”

About the TED Prize

The first TED Prize was awarded in 2005, born out of the TED Conference and a vision by the world's leading entrepreneurs, innovators, and entertainers to launch a global project that marries the recipient’s “wish” with TED’s global community.

The original prize:$100,000and the TED community's range of talent and expertise. What began as an unparalleled experiment to leverage the resources of the TED community has evolved into a $1 million award and an ambitious effort to spur global-scale change.

From Bono's the ONE Campaign ('05 recipient) to Jamie Oliver 's Food Revolution ('10 recipient) to JR's Inside Out Project ('11 recipient), SugataMitra’s School in a Cloud (’13 recipient) and Charmian Gooch’s call to eliminate anonymous corporations (’14 recipient), the TED Prize has helped to combat poverty, take on religious intolerance, improve global health, tackle child obesity, advance education, and inspire art around the world.

About StoryCorps

Founded in 2003 by MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, the nonprofit organization StoryCorps hasgiven nearly 100,000 Americans the chance to record interviews about their lives, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future.

Participating in StoryCorps couldn’t beeasier: You invite a loved one, or anyone else you chose, to one of the StoryCorps recording sites. There a trained facilitator greets you and explains the interviewprocess. You’re then brought intoa quietrecording room and seated across from your interview partner, each ofyou in front of a microphone. Thefacilitator hits “record,” and you share a forty-minuteconversation. At the end of the session, you walk away with a CD, and a digital file goes to the Library ofCongress, where it will be preserved for generations to come. Someday your great-great-great-grandchildren will be able to meet your grandfather, your mother, your bestfriend, or whomever it is you chose to honor witha StoryCorps interview.

StoryCorps shares edited excerpts of these stories with the worldthrough popular weekly NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. These powerful stories illustrate our sharedhumanity and show how much more we share in common thandivides us.

Over the past eleven years, StoryCorps has also launched aseries of successful national initiatives including:

  • TheSeptember 11thInitiative,helping families memorialize the stories of lives lost on September 11, 2001,in partnership with the NationalSeptember 11Memorial & Museum at theWorld Trade Center;
  • The GriotInitiative, now the largest collection of African American voices evergathered, in collaboration with the future Smithsonian National Museum ofAfrican-American History and Culture;
  • The Historias Initiative, thelargest collection of Latino stories ever gathered; and
  • The Military Voices Initiative, honoring the stories of post-9/11 service members, veterans and their families.

Additionally, the organization recently launchedStoryCorpsU(SCU), an interactive, standards-based college-readiness curriculum for high-needs schools that uses StoryCorps content and interviewing techniques to engage the hearts and minds of young people and promote positive student outcomes.

StoryCorps is working to grow into an enduring national institution that touches thelives of every American family.

Press contacts

TED Prize: Erin Allweiss, 202.446.8265 or .

StoryCorps: Blake Zidell,718.643.9052 or .