NOAA's Oral History Archive with Molly Graham

November 22, 2020

NOAA collects the voices of this coast.

On this episode, Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham take a tour of NOAA's Voices Oral History Archives (VOHA) with program manager Molly Graham. VOHA seeks to document the human experience as it relates to the changing environment, climate, oceans and coasts through firsthand oral history accounts.  Oral histories contribute to NOAA’s Mission of “Science, Service, and Stewardship” by creating, compiling, archiving and sharing the experiences of stakeholders, scientists and others.  Any individual or organization can participate in the VOHA program by contributing oral history interview projects and interviews that are related to the project scope and mission, or by using the interviews archived here in their research, scholarship, exhibits, or general use. Cool show.



Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.