Early in his teaching career, John Byrne was very strict, because he feared his students would find out he was gay.

Here, Byrne tells one of his former students, Samantha Liebman, how he eventually came out to his 10th-grade class.

Sarah Littman interviews her son, Joshua, who has Asperger's syndrome, about his first semester at college.

As a toddler, Grant Coursey was diagnosed with neuroblastoma — a cancer often found in young children.

A tumor was wrapped around his spinal cord and pushing against his lungs.

It took three surgeries — including one that lasted 10 hours — but in March of 2002 doctors declared Grant cancer-free.

At StoryCorps, Grant interviewed his mother, Jennifer, about that time.

Winslow Jackson met his wife, Dorothy, in 2006.

He was divorced. She was widowed. And they both had Multiple Sclerosis.

While receiving rehabilitative care at an Atlanta hospital, they connected.

And at StoryCorps, the couple remembered what drew them to each other.

Dennis McLaughlin was born in 1948 with spina bifida, a birth defect that left him unable to use his legs.

But his mother, Theresa McLaughlin — a single mom who worked at a local paper mill– knew that “from the neck up, he’s just fine.” So she treated Dennis just like any other kid.

At a StoryCorps mobile booth, Dennis payed tribute to the way Theresa raised him.

Cheri Lindsay and her father, Phillip, both have vitiligo, a rare skin condition that runs in their family.

People with vitiligo gradually lose pigment in their skin, often in patches that appear randomly and can grow over time.

Cheri’s condition has spread so dramatically over the past four years that most of her face and body now appear white.

At StoryCorps, Cheri remembered when her vitiligo first started to spread.

Dekalb Walcott Jr. spent more than 30 years as a firefighter for the Chicago Fire Department.

He’s now retired--but his son, Dekalb Walcott III, is following in his dad’s line of work.

They recently sat down for a conversation at StoryCorps.

Barbara Moore spent more than 40 years working as a bricklayer in Baltimore.

She helped lay the foundation for some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles play.

When she started, she was only 21 years old and was the first woman to join her local bricklayers union.

Barbara (R) retired last year and at StoryCorps, she told her daughter, Olivia Fite (L) how she first got into the trade.

When Darnell Moore (R) was a teenager in Camden, New Jersey, he didn’t know he was gay, but he did know he was an outcast.

It was the late 1980s and Darnell was a mild-mannered A-student in a city where kids were expected to be tough.

He told his longtime friend Brian Epps (L) about growing up in his neighborhood–and about an incident that shaped his youth.

In 1991, Monica Harwell became the first woman to climb electric utility poles for ConEdison in New York.

As a line constructor, her job was to install power lines dozens of feet in the air.

She worked alongside men whose families had been working on the lines for generations.

At StoryCorps, she tells her daughter, Andrea Cleveland -- who now also works for ConEdison -- that many of them never thought she’d make it.

In September 1975, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Leonard Matlovich was featured on the cover of Time magazine under the headline, “I Am a Homosexual.” It was the first time an openly gay man appeared on the cover of a national news magazine.

In March of that year, Matlovich—who served three tours in Vietnam and received both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart—delivered a letter to his commanding officer stating that he was gay and that he intended to continue his military career (click here to view a copy of the letter).

Leonard Matlovitch was challenging the military ban on gay service members.

Soon after the issue of Time hit newsstands, Matlovich was discharged from the Air Force for his admission. For the next five years, the decorated veteran fought his dismissal in Federal court and was eventually reinstated. While he never returned to active duty, he did receive a monetary settlement from the military that included back pay.

Tech. Sgt. Leonard Matlovich died on June 22, 1988.

Jeff Dupre knew Leonard Matlovich in the 1970s. He came to StoryCorps with his husband, David Phillips, to record Jeff’s memories of the man who started the legal battle for military acceptance of LGBTQ people.

Hoping to meet someone special, in 2010 Seth Smiley decided to give online dating a try. Soon after posting his profile, Octavius Humphries reached out to him and they began an email correspondence.

Despite their age difference—Seth is 19 years older than Octavius—they immediately hit it off, bonding over their shared search for “commitment, consistency, and (a) connection.”

Eventually they met in person, going on their first date on Christmas Eve. Unsure of Octavius’ plans for the holiday, Seth invited him to dinner the next night at his family’s Atlanta home. Octavius, who was still grieving the deaths of his parents, had, unbeknownst to Seth, planned on spending the holiday alone. Instead, he reluctantly accepted Seth’s invitation.

At StoryCorps, Octavius (above left) and Seth (above right), along with Seth’s mother, Carole Smiley, sat down to remember their first Christmas together, as well as a more recent memorable holiday event.

Chris López always knew there was something different about her youngest child Gabe. Assigned female at birth, Gabe always felt like he was a boy.

Gabe was always more comfortable in clothes traditionally worn by little boys (cargo pants and superhero shirts), but often switched back and forth between those and outfits often worn by little girls. Just after his seventh birthday, he convinced his parents to let him cut off his long hair and get a Mohawk—a haircut he had been wanting for years. This is also about the time that Gabe started dressing only as a boy and answering exclusively to “he” and not “she.”

At first, Chris was concerned that Gabe, being so young, might change his mind. She was scared of how people would treat him as he transitioned. But after seeing how Gabe responded to the changes in his hair and clothing, she felt confident that he had made the right decision.

Last summer, their family attended a camp for transgender, gender creative, and gender non-conforming youth in Tucson, Arizona. There, Gabe met similar kids and made three new best friends—Luke, Cooper, and Brock (who among other things taught Gabe how to pee standing up).

Gabe, who will soon be nine years old, has been attending the same school since kindergarten, and this past August when he started third grade, for the first time, he began having others refer to him by his preferred gender pronouns—”he” and “him.”

Gabe and his mother (pictured in the player above) recently came to the StoryCorps MobileBooth to talk about what it’s been like for him to be transgender, and his fears about the future.

In 1989, Tabinda was working in a Manhattan hotel as a housekeeper. She had just immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic and one day at work, she caught the eye of a fellow employee who was working behind the hotel’s front desk--Tariq Sheikh.

Tariq was also a recent immigrant, but from Pakistan, and he remembers that the first time he saw her, Tabinda was hard at work. She was still in her yellow gloves and neither spoke English too well, but after a few clumsy love notes, a relationship was born.

Tariq and Tabinda have now been married for 25 years and have a 20-year-old son, Madani Sheikh. They live in Jersey City, New Jersey, not far from the park bench they were sharing the first time Tariq realized he had fallen in love with Tabinda.

They came to StoryCorps to share the story of how they met.

Originally aired October 21, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Vincent Chin was a 27-year-old draftsman living near Detroit. On a June night in 1982, he and a group of friends went out to celebrate his wedding, which was just few days away. At a bar he crossed paths with Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, two auto workers angry about recent layoffs which were widely blamed on Japanese imports. That encounter lead to Vincent’s death. Gary Koivu was with Vincent that night, and he recently came to StoryCorps with his wife, Kim, to remember his childhood friend. The federal case against Vincent Chin’s killers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, marked the first time the Civil Rights Act was used to prosecute a crime against an Asian American person. It sparked a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation.

When Wally Funk was 8 years old, she jumped off the roof of her barn while wearing a Superman cape, hoping to fly. That desire never left her, and as an adult she became a pilot and flight instructor. But for Wally, the ultimate destination was always outer space. She almost got the chance to go in 1961. That year, she was part of a group of female pilots who took part in tests to determine if women were fit for space travel. The project was run by the same doctor who developed tests for NASA astronauts. The women, who became known as the Mercury 13, passed many of the same tests as the men, but never got to go to space. More than half a century later, Wally Funk hasn’t given up. She was interviewed in Dallas by one of her flight students, Mary Holsenbeck. Wally bought a ticket for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and hopes to be onboard its maiden voyage into space.

During the 1940s, custodians who worked for the New York Public Library often lived inside the buildings they tended. In exchange for cleaning and keeping the building secure at night, the library provided an apartment for the custodian and their families. Ronald Clark’s father, Raymond, was one of those custodians. For three decades he lived with his family on the top floor of the Washington Heights branch on St. Nicholas Avenue in upper Manhattan. Three generations of the Clark family resided in that library until Ronald’s father retired in the late 1970s. After college, Ronald got a position as a professor teaching history at Cape Cod Community College. At StoryCorps, Ronald told his daughter, Jamilah Clark, how living inside the library shaped the man he would become.

On the morning of August 10, 1999, a white supremacist opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon at a Jewish day camp in Los Angeles. Five were wounded, including six-year-old Josh Stepakoff, who was shot in his leg and hip, and one person was killed. Now an adult, Josh sat down with his father, Alan, to remember that day. The shooter is serving two consecutive life sentences plus 110 years for multiple convictions. His actions were ruled a federal hate crime.

Dion Diamond talks about the risks he took as a young civil rights activist in the 1950s and 60s.

Dr. Jenna Lester talks to her mother, Dr. Sharon Brangman, about growing up in a family of black women who have dedicated their lives to medicine.

Joanna Wright and her friend Tara Cummings talk about surviving years of abuse at a religious reform school in Louisiana.

Kay Johnston Massar tells her husband, Cy Massar, about being the first girl to play Little League baseball.

The longest-running ice cream man, Allan Ganz, has been selling sweet treats since he was 10 years old. He shares with his wife, Rosalyn Ganz, how he got his start in the business and how he’s kept going for 71 years.

Monique and Cody Walker remember what it was like to lose their home in a California wildfire.

Duane Topping served three tours in Iraq. Coming home, he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but found comfort from an unexpected place.

Irakere Picon is an immigration lawyer who often defends undocumented immigrants. He happens to be an undocumented immigrant himself. He came to StoryCorps with his wife Arianna Hermosillo to discuss how that impacts their relationship.

Josh Stepakoff talks to his father, Alan, about surviving a shooting at a Jewish day camp when he was six years old.

Larry Dearmon and Stephen Mills met during the height of the AIDS epidemic in Little Rock, Arkansas. They remember the loss that eventually brought them together.

Barnie Botone tells his friend, Gordon Williams, about his 34 year career working on the railroad.

Liz Barnez and Lori Daigle felt an immediate spark when they met as teenagers. At StoryCorps, they sat down to remember how they reconnected decades later.

Elizabeth Coffey-Williams tells her niece, Jennifer Coffey, about what it was like to come out as transgender to her family in the early 1970s.

Tom Gasko has been a vacuum repairman for some 35 years, but his passion for vacuums extends far beyond that and into a collection of hundreds and hundreds. At StoryCorps, he sat down with his other love, his husband, Donnie Pedrola.

Willie Ito tells his son, Vince Ito, about his dreams of becoming an animator.

Dena Kohleriter had always seen herself becoming a mother one day. So when she was 36 years old, she decided to have a child on her own.

Albert Sykes speaks with his nine-year-old son, Aidan, about black fatherhood, and his hopes for the future.

Former Marines Mike Rudulph and Neil Rafferty, who are now married, remember how their relationship began during the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Two sisters, Corina Ulloa and Brenda Ulloa Martinez, came to StoryCorps with Brenda’s daughters, Camila and Isabela Martinez, to talk about growing up in Los Angeles and having to look out for each other as young girls.

Najat Hamza reflects on her experience resettling in the US and her longing for the home she left behind.

For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Former Marine Sergeant Jason Thomas opens up to his youngest son, Jason Christian Thomas, about the search and rescue efforts he did at Ground Zero.

Grete Bergman came to StoryCorps with her friend, Sarah Whalen, to talk about their experiences giving and receiving traditional Native markings.

On Black Friday 1991, AIDS activists protested the department store's refusal to rehire a Santa who had HIV. The man who inspired the protest reconnects with an activist who helped organize it.

U.S. Army veteran Richard Hoy tells his daughter, Angel, about serving as a medic during the Vietnam War.

Sisters Suzi and Donna Wong remember growing up in the back of their parents’ laundry business in Hollywood, CA.

Lana Cooper-Jones and Marla Cooper sit down at StoryCorps to remember their dad and his commitment to celebrating Juneteenth.

Jami Miyamoto and her daughter, Daily, sat down at StoryCorps to talk about her adoption during the era of China’s “One Child" Policy.

Patrick Haggerty and his friend, Ronni Gilboa, remember their friend, Faygele ben Miriam, a gay rights trailblazer who fought against workplace discrimination.

Host: In 2005 David Hedison came to a StoryCorps booth with his youngest daughter, Serena, to share something they’d never discussed.

David Hedison (DH): I wanted to be an actor but I realized it was going to be a battle because I had a very Armenian nose, and in those days to get a job you had to have the boy-next-door face.

Host: He revealed to his daughter that he’d had a nose job. David Hedison went on to have a prolific career as a television, film, and stage actor. He died in 2019, at the age of 92. In 2023 his daughters, Serena and Alex, came back to StoryCorps to reflect on the secret he shared. 

Serena Hedison (SH) and Alex Hedison (AH)

SH: I was really surprised because we never talked about it as a family. My recollection of realizing that something was different was seeing older photos of him at Grandma’s house, and thinking like, ‘Wait a second.’ 

AH: [Laughs] 

SH: ‘That’s dad? And even then I thought, ‘Well, maybe he grew out of his nose, too, like he said that I’m gonna do.’

Years prior, I was 12. And I guess I had spent a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror. And all I could see was my nose.

And I remember asking dad, like, ‘Dad, can I have a nose job?’ He never in that moment said, ‘I didn’t like the way I looked once, too.’ He just laughed and said, ‘Oh, honey, you got a terrific nose.’

SH: There was something about how he said, ‘You’re going to be okay.’ And I never thought about getting a nose job after that moment. 

AH: I actually have more of dad’s nose than you do.

SH: His new nose?

AH: No, his, his, his old nose.

AH: I see dad in my face.

He’s in my gesture, like the way I move my hand and the way I’ll make a dumb joke or try to make someone laugh because I want them to feel seen. 

SH: Yeah. 

AH: What for me still is painful is that he walked away from the parts of himself that he felt didn’t belong.

AH: But I see Armenian in my face, and I like it. I like the things that make me feel I have a unique sense of belonging in the world.

AH: I carry him with me. 

SH: Yeah. That’s his legacy. 

In 1959, as a senior in college, Albert Jose Jones founded the first Black Scuba Diving Club in the U.S. Since then Albert and his fellow divers have traveled across the world diving and discovering history. Now 93, Albert looks back on a lifetime underwater with his colleague Jay Haigler.

Karen Oliveto and Robin Ridenour came to StoryCorps to reflect on Karen’s career as the first openly gay Bishop of the United Methodist Church.

Jody Ferrari and her husband, John, remember her father—Red Klotz, the founder of the Washington Generals basketball team—and his lifelong dedication to the sport.