Inspired by NPR’s StoryCorps and to capture the spirit of Thanksgiving, the North Star News staff created several audio stories framed around this question: “What was a moment or event in your life that at the time seemed small, but ended up having a large impact or effect on you later in your life?” The staff sought people of different generations and crafted these pieces.

Peter Levavi went behind the Iron Curtain in 1982 to see what communism was like first hand. What he witnessed changed his worldview, and made him thankful for freedoms he has.