StoryCorps’ message is “Don’t wait.” The national oral-history project urges people to record true stories – memories, actually – of their favorite relatives, mentors, neighbors and friends, keeping history alive for future generations. It is all too common for those who remain behind to wonder after someone dies what life held for them, only to realize there’s no longer a way of knowing. Their curiosity will never be satisfied, because the only one who can answer is gone. Without written genealogies or written memoirs the stories vanish.