What are the things you’d like to say to an important person in your life before they, or you, die? Thank you? I love you? Forgive me? I forgive you?

Every year the $1 million TED Prize is awarded to a leader with a bold vision for sparking global change. This year’s winner was Dave Isay, a radio producer with a vision of capturing the world’s stories which was prompted by an experience he had after his father came out to him as gay, and told him the story of the Stonewall Riots.

This experience sparked an idea: StoryCorps. Isay opened a booth in New York’s Grand Central Station in which people could listen to each other’s stories, and record them for posterity. The idea became a mobile booth which traveled the country and helped StoryCorps grow into the largest collection of human voices ever recorded.

Says Isay in this incredibly moving TED Talk: “It takes some courage to have these conversations. StoryCorps speaks to our mortality. Participants know this recording will be heard long after they are gone.”

Also in the talk, Isay reveals the stories (and plays some of them) that have touched him over the past few years and the vision he has going forward. That vision includes an app which was launched at the TED conference which people can use to easily record interviews and submit them to StoryCorps.

Watch the TED talk, AFTER THE JUMP…