The Common Reading Program at Appalachian State University is delighted to offer Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, from legendary American radio producer and documentarian Dave Isay, as the university's common reading book for the 2025-2026 academic year. In 1994 Isay founded Sound Portraits Productions, from which in 2003 he launched StoryCorps, an oral history project aimed at recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. StoryCorps, whose mission is to "help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all—one story at a time," is committed to the idea that everyone has an important story to tell, and everyone's story matters. In Isay's own words, StoryCorps is "a project about permanence in an ever more disposable society. It reminds us of what's really important in the midst of all of life's distractions. It encourages us to connect despite endless temptations to detach and disengage."
Callings is Isay's eighth book, and his fifth for StoryCorps, for whom his contributions include beloved bestsellers Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project, and All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps. In Callings, an inspiring tribute to rewarding work and the American pursuit of happiness, Isay presents unforgettable stories from people doing what they love, demonstrating how work can be about much more than just making a living, and that chasing dreams and finding inspiration in unexpected places can transform a vocation into a calling.
