What We’re Doing

Front Porch Stories is hosted by Marcas O’Dea and Walt Lofstrom, two listeners committed to preserving voices before they’re lost.

Front Porch Stories sits down with people whose lives intersected with moments of change:

• Workers who watched industries rise and fall
• Elders who remember neighborhoods before they were transformed
• Immigrants who rebuilt their lives in unfamiliar places
• Activists, artists, caregivers, and community builders whose contributions never made headlines

We listen. We record. We preserve.

Like the factory worker who watched automation transform his town. The grandmother who remembers when her neighborhood spoke three languages. The nurse who cared for AIDS patients when no one else would.

Each episode becomes part of a growing archive—one rooted in memory, humanity, and respect.

Thank you so much for visiting us here on the Front Porch.

Why We’re Doing It

When voices disappear, context disappears with them.

We live in a time that prizes speed, novelty, and the present moment. But the world we inhabit was shaped by people who endured hardship, built communities, resisted injustice, and adapted to change long before us.

The labor struggles of the 1930s.
The migrations of the mid-20th century.
The cultural shifts of the 1970s.
The technological disruptions of the 1990s.

These aren’t abstractions. They are lived experiences—still held in memory, still waiting to be shared.

Front Porch Stories exists to capture those stories before they’re gone, and to remind future generations that resilience, change, and survival are not new phenomena.

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Our Vision

We envision Front Porch Stories as a living archive against forgetting.

A place where:

• Ordinary lives are recognized as historical record
• Memory is valued over perfection
• Listening is treated as a radical act
• Stories are preserved with care, dignity, and honesty

Our goal is not nostalgia. It is continuity—connecting past to present so the future has context.

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Guest Applications Now Open

We are currently accepting Guest Applications through our Guest Form page.

If you have a story to share—or know someone whose experiences deserve to be preserved—we invite you to apply.

All applications are reviewed with care by hosts Marcas O’Dea and Walt Lofstrom. If your story is a good fit for the program, we will reach out to continue the conversation.

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Looking Ahead

Front Porch Stories will launch in early 2026.

Host bios are coming soon.

For now, we invite you to pull up a chair, listen closely, and help us build an archive rooted in memory, humanity, and care.

Because stories don’t disappear when people do—unless we fail to listen.