From the time of the first radio broadcast on Christmas Eve of 1906 through the “fireside chats” of former-president Franklin Roosevelt, radio has been a well-liked method of communicating information and sharing culture. Today the traffic updates, religious programming, all of the news fit not to print, and Classical, Hip-hop, Rock, Rap, Country, Rhythm and Blues, and Oldies stations (to name a few) have their fingers on America’s cultural pulse.
No person knows that better than David Isay, one of the authors of Holding On: Dreamers, Visionaries, Eccentrics and Other American Heroes. From humble, hand-held recordings to his regularity on National Public Radio, Isay’s talent has been wondering. “I try to be the vehicle through which people's stories can be heard. What I'm looking for is poetry on the margins” (Isay).
His father had spontaneously admitted to a young David that he was homosexual, and it inspired David to watch for the “courage of people who are out of the mainstream” (Freedman 3; Isay).He did studies of castle builders, Navajo activists, marriage brokers, dinosaur garden employees, and those who were present for the Stonewall riots which involved police harassment of and brutality toward a gay bar in late-1960’s New York. In a hush-hush time, Isay embraced America and its people for what they really were: eclectic and strong in their differences (Isay). Isay’s own past continued to be a force of motivation, but he looked constantly to the heroes of yesterday, today, and tomorrow as well.
In a radio interview he admitted to going to the Library of Congress and listening to hours of tape from the 30’s and 40’s (Conan 7). In his documentary “Ghetto Life 101”, two young children recorded audio snippets of their lives, including the episodic challenges of constant death and addicted parents (Freedman 2). It became a ground-breaking venture and would not be the last on the subject of death and addiction. In 1988 he called around to recruit support for a Museum of Addiction that was in the works.It was brought to his attention by two men who were former drug addicts that were now in the final stages of AIDS. They had largely been ignored before Isay took an interest in their struggles.
He often told the story, and it was a major turning point in his life and in the way he viewed people and their interviews (Isay). "There seemed to be eternal qualities shared by all of these subjects, but we couldn't pin them down. Was it the sense of loneliness? The bravery? Individuality? Resilience?Was it that oddly wistful feeling we were left with each time we visited one of these people? " There is an apparent fascination for the variety of people in Holding On. One of the most well-known examples of Isay’s attraction to oddity is that of retired minister Robert Shields, who wrote a diary of over 34 million words on anything and everything and was described as “short and round with an impish grin” (Isay). His goal, according to a telephone interview, was to record 250,000 life stories by 2013 (Conan 7).
He often said that listening is an act of love and that voices and stories have soul. This was- to him- the romance in filtering the endless hours of taped session into one cohesive representation of a person as a whole. Some observations are more subtle, and David Isay does appreciate the little things, too, like seeing the reflection of the Capitol on a drink cup. He stressed the fact that every person has a story, especially the people who claim not to, who will close the door and “start crying immediately” because no one ever really talked and listened to them before (Isay).
When he showed Holding On to one impoverished man, often referred to as the hobo, who had been featured in the interviews, the man took the book and ran down the hall screaming, “I exist! I exist,” and it left Mr. Isay with a sense of responsibility to acknowledge these heroes (Isay). As part of this realization he developed a program to submit stories and have them written for posterity… at a whopping cost of two hundred dollars- at StoryCorps’ expense- per recorded interview (Conan 11). However, the privacy affords more authenticity- a trait that Isay is inexorably drawn to.His life’s mission became "making sure those stories aren't forgotten, letting people know that they do exist and celebrating the beauty and poetry we find all around us" (Voices of America). He compared his work to trying to artistically summarize a person’s soul.
He also liked to bet on the underdog. The small qualities that differentiate people- whether in the public or private sphere- intrigue him. He always wondered about the private turmoil his father must have dealt with on a daily basis as a homosexual, married father.People who have been shunned or have distanced themselves from society deserved to be engaged by a listener who really wants to be there. “Listening is an act of love ,” Isay reiterates time and time again.
He shares the stories and the love of over 7,000 people so far, dozens in Holding On alone (Isay). In what started out as his own bit of eccentricity following a life crisis, David Isay began to watch and learn. This quirk became a career and eventually became an all-consuming passion and life’s mission. His examinations of the state of being human and being unique have given a place to the out-of-place and misunderstood.Where other men have shirked away from controversial issues, Isay addressed them with a respectful spirit of inquiry and honesty, just as he did the everyday heroes he gave to America.
When he submitted a script about an AIDS-afflicted woman’s struggles, National Public Radio suggested editing of the rougher points. Years later the original script did run and won an award from the American Psychological Association (Freedman 3). His zeal for controversial non-fiction characters brought a nation closer together; his empathy made him unforgettable; his honest books make him immortal.
