Voices That Endure
A Living Archive of Primary-Source Stories
What’s Coming to SPI: Stories That Meet the Moment
We’re launching a major new collaboration with a National Geographic Explorer, working hand-in-hand to build a network of young ocean-learners turned advocates—students who understand the ocean’s vital role in sustaining life and feel empowered to protect it.
Complementing this, our new Climate Solutions series will span science, engineering, the environment, and the skilled trades—highlighting individuals who are helping shape a more sustainable future through innovation, commitment to long-term solutions, and hands-on problem solving.
These stories represent just a sampling of what’s ahead—bold, timely, and rich with ideas that stay with listeners long after they’re heard.
Why Stories Matter
At Story Preservation Initiative, we’ve always believed that first-person stories—told from lived experience—have a lasting impact that textbooks and third-person accounts simply can’t match. These are stories that teach. That invite reflection. That stay with listeners long after the last word.
Visit the site and you’ll hear a Nobel Prize–winning scientist reflecting on discovery and perseverance, and a master woodworker passing on the value of craft across generations. For students, these stories can open the door to new ideas—not just about how the world works, but about where they might one day find their place in it.
From a celebrated animator to a National Book Award–winning author, our collection highlights stories that challenge, inform, inspire, and expand how we see the world. And for younger listeners, folktales and fables are brought to life by world-class storytellers from a wide range of backgrounds and traditions. These timeless stories offer more than entertainment—they carry lessons in empathy, values, and life learning that resonate across generations.
Our archive isn’t fixed—it’s alive. Voices are added. Stories are revisited. Themes are interwoven across time and disciplines. The result is a resource rooted in educational storytelling—dynamic, relevant, timeless in subject, and rich in perspective.
Shown below (L–R): image from Mary Evelyn Tucker’s SPI talk “Religion and Ecology” (Yale University); astronaut, neurosurgeon, writer, and poet Story Musgrave; author, illustrator, poet, and anthologist Ashley Bryan; wildlife preservationist and writer George Schaller.
About Story Preservation
Our Mission: Story Preservation Initiative believes in the transformative power of story to connect people around our common humanity and create a better future.
Our Work: We are a leading producer and online distributor of original, content-rich audio-based narratives for K-12 students. SPI stories are the raw materials of history, roadmaps to scientific discovery, and windows to the minds of artists and skilled tradesmen and women.
What We Achieve: SPI brings listeners into personal contact with extraordinary people whose stories engage their hearts and minds, imparting content knowledge and fostering curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking as they open doors to possible career paths in professions associated with the arts, sciences, humanities, and skilled trades. We are fully open-source.
When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.
Please consider making a tax-free donation to SPI. We are an open-source educational nonprofit dependent upon the generosity of contributors. Every bit helps us keep the stories and projects coming.
And a quick heads-up — SPI’s current Over the Moon Pop-up Student Art Gallery exhibit will be coming down in early June. Be sure to take a look before it closes! We’ll be putting out a Call For Artists this summer for our Fall 2025 show.
Visit us here www.storypreservation.org