Daniel Schorr: Lessons Learned And Shared

As part of StoryCorps' National Day of Listening project, longtime journalist Daniel Schorr talked with his son Jonathan about how living through the Great Depression helped shape his life.

For one, Schorr says, he can't walk past an unoccupied room that has a light on without going in to turn it off.

"I practically follow your mother around sometimes in the course of the evening as she goes from place to place turning on lights, and I go from place to place turning off lights," he says.

Those fears of waste and of not having enough did not deter Schorr, who turned 93 this year, from standing his ground with employers, but he says there was some worrying.

"It really is true that I sometimes will stand up for principle at the risk of my job," he says. "It is also true that when I lose my job, I get terribly nervous."

Often, after he pushed back, he would say to himself, "Oh my God, what have I done now?" says Schorr, who contributes regularly to All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday, Weekend Edition Sunday and NPR live coverage of breaking news.

The National Day of Listening project encourages people to sit down with a loved one the day after Thanksgiving and record a meaningful conversation.

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