Terkel donated a total of 5,600 tapes to the Chicago History Museum, which contracted the WFMT Radio network (formerly part of WFMT-FM), to publish the recordings online.

The Chicago History Museum is also working with the Library of Congress to make the tapes available to visitors to their buildings in Washington, DC.

Interviewees included Muhammad Ali, Saul Alinsky, Woody Allen, James Baldwin, Ronald Blythe, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carol Channing, Cesar Chavez, Jacques Cousteau, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Mahalia Jackson, James Earl Jones, Janis Joplin, Buster Keaton, the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley MacLaine, David Mamet, Ethel Merman, Bertrand Russell, Mort Sahl, Pete Seeger, Maurice Sendak,[4] and Hunter S.

[7][8] In December 2016 the National Endowment for the Humanities gave a $400,000 grant to WFMT to digitize the tapes, post them online, and to develop related educational programs.