Life Story Links: June 17, 2025

“People who make an effort to listen—and respond in ways that support rather than shift the conversation—end up collecting stories the way other people might collect stamps, shells, or coins.”
—Kate Murphy, You’re Not Listening

vintage postcard of new york world's fair of 1939 as seen from empire state building manhattan nyc — Vintage postcard depicting the New York World’s Fair of 1939 as seen from the Empire State Building in New York City, from the personal ephemera collection of Dawn Roode.

Memories made tangible

TO KEEP OR NOT TO KEEP?
“Both of our parents had died earlier that year, within weeks of each other.... It felt that every object we picked up was imbued with a memory of them, and we struggled to sort them into our neatly labeled boxes.”

FAMILY HEIRLOOMS, DOCUMENTED
Whether you have centuries’ worth of expensive heirlooms handed down through generations or a few sentimental objects from a single ancestor, you should consider photographing your heirlooms to preserve their stories and provenance.

EARLY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY
“The collection is just filled with the everyday stories of people,” Rosenheim tells the Guardian. “I don’t think painting can touch that.” The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910 is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through July 20, 2025.

HERITAGE, HISTORY, AND MILESTONES
A “culture and heritage venue” called The Story in Durham, a county in North East England, celebrates one year of being “the gateway to County Durham’s past” as well as “its important role in our present and future too.”

Reading—and writing—our life stories

MAGIC OF MEMOIR
“Memoir invites us into that subtle listening to what our soul wants to explore.” Linda Joy Myers on the transformative power of writing to “the end.”

OH NO!
An egregious typo on the spine of Jeff Hiller’s new memoir, Actress of a Certain Age, inspired this piece with tips from a book editor on ensuring the same thing never happens to you.

AGAINST ERASURE
“I’ve been making room for all the stories that were thrown to the bottom of the ocean, made to drown. Bit by bit I’ve been bringing them to the shore, drying them off, and sharing with those around me the great tale of my great-great-grandfather, Jefferson Lewis Edmonds.”

A MEMOIR BY GEOFF DYER
“Homework records the kinds of memories we all have—first sip of beer, first fight, first sexual encounter—but also the vividly remembered oddities, like the summer afternoon when the children in Dyer’s neighborhood played on the street with a beach ball until it popped. The important fades so quickly and the trivial turns out to be unforgettable” …maybe with too much detail?

SHAPING HIS VOICE
In a recent conversation, Jonathan Capehart spoke candidly about the emotional labor of telling his own story and what it means to show up, unapologetically, in a world that hasn’t always made space for him.

HARD-TO-TALK-ABOUT SUBJECTS
What kinds of questions should you not ask in an interview? What are the reasons to set a timer mid-interview? When should you leave a sensitive topic alone, and when should you press for more? Utah–based personal historian Rhonda Lauritzen shares tips in this recent podcast episode:

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM MEMOIRS
“Memoirs are a good reminder that people have countless interesting stories to tell about their lives," Bill Gates wrote as he introduced his summer reading list for 2025, which is all about memoirs.