Scottsdale couple launches community storytelling app

MICHELLE TALSMA EVERSON| CONTRIBUTING WRITER

According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, more than 40 million people visited Arizona in 2021 — a number that is sure to rise higher as we host the Super Bowl and other major events in 2023. While they’re here, visitors will be able to learn about our local tourist gems and hear stories about the area in a new way — through a community storytelling app called ListenUp, created by Scottsdale couple and Jewish refugees Irina and Igor Ilyinsky.

ListenUp is a tech start-up and community storytelling app that combines crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence to create hyperlocal community stories and deliver them to users via audio in up to 22 languages.

Described as an app that tells you about “where you are, wherever you are,” the product was conceived from the couple’s own frustrations while traveling in Europe with their teenage daughters. After downloading and sampling dozens of apps promising immersive tourism experiences that fell flat on that promise, they identified the need for an open platform that would intelligently offer local information in a safe, screenless and customizable way.

“It’s very easy to use,” Irina said. “Just put on air pods or headphones, tap play in the app, put the phone away in your purse or pocket and roam freely. The app will do the rest, telling you interesting, relevant stories about where you are.”

“The app was born out of a Jewish story — we were in Venice clamoring for information from several useless apps when the idea for ListenUp was conceived — and then rigorously tested in Israel where several Israeli tour guides are contributors and testers,” Igor said. “But as a community app, we encourage each community to tell their own stories.”

Igor said that since they both grew up in immigrant households struggling to assimilate, they know what it means to lack the resources to advance in society.

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 including this one based on Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel set towards the end of World War II. It shows the conflict between different sects of Judaism by focusing on the friendship of two Jewish teenagers — Reuven Malter (Barry Miller), who is Modern Orthodox, and Danny Saunders (Robby Benson), who is Hasidic.

Despite having similar backgrounds — Irina was born in Minsk, Belarus and raised in Chicago and he was born in Odesa, Ukraine and raised in New York City — it gave them different perspectives on the same challenges.

“Thankfully, we had separate but equally welcoming Jewish communities to help us adapt,” he said. “We were fortunate again to have the Jewish community in Arizona welcome us when we decided to move here on a whim after a five-day trip.”

Their daughters were welcomed at Pardes Jewish Day School in Scottsdale and have made lifelong friends, Igor said, and now they want to help today’s travelers appreciate new places and help relocators, immigrants and refugees learn about their new homes so they can quickly establish roots.

When it comes to building content for ListenUp, the app uses blockchain technology to reward contributors with tokens. According to the co-founders, these tokens will eventually be exchangeable for various other cryptocurrencies as well as experiences and benefits available only to the ListenUp community.

“Blockchain is a system of transferring value internationally without an intermediary,” Irina said. “We have contributors all over the world that are currently earning cryptocurrency for creating and improving stories. As some contributors are in countries with corrupt governments, they prefer this to their fiat currency.”

Cryptocurrency allows the contributors to buy necessities like bread and milk to feed their families more easily. As stories evolve and improve over time, the contributors get more engagement from ListenUp users and stand to benefit from even more earnings.

Igor added that the audio storytelling focus makes the app and community it hopes to build particularly unique. “We are the first and only social platform focused

“PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT”

(1972), JAN. 27 AT 12 A.M.

Richard Benjamin stars in this movie based on Philip Roth’s book, adapted and directed by Ernest Lehman. Though the novel — which is written as a monologue from Alexander Portnoy to his psychoanalyst — turned Roth into a celebrity author, the film adaptation was not critically or commercially successful, especially when compared to another Roth adaptation starring Benjamin: “Goodbye Columbus.” solely on audio, which makes it safe to use when driving, biking or walking, especially when using a screen is otherwise unsafe,” he explained. “Removing the visual element allows listeners to use their imagination, stimulate brain function and learn with entertainment. In a sea of anti-social media apps that drive our society into polarized civil disobedience, we believe we are making the world a better place.”

Eventually, the Ilyinskys said they hope ListenUp can establish a global broadcasting ecosystem that is not beholden to special interests. “We’ve learned many lessons from the past century of broadcasting and hope to facilitate a much more user-centric, democratized and digitally-aware future while avoiding the centralized missteps,” Igor said.

To accomplish their goal, they note that they need community support. “We need help in achieving our mission,” Irina said. “We need funding, stories, connections, volunteers and we need people to tell their friends and family about what we are doing.”

The Ilyinskys hope the app inspires all generations of Jewish people to tell their stories and capture their memories before it’s too late.

“THE LAST METRO” (1980), JAN. 27 AT 2 A.M.

The other Holocaust movie in the series is also from France, and is one of director French New Wave pioneer François Truffaut’s most commercially successful films. The manager of a small theater company in Paris (Catherine Deneuve) hides her Jewish husband (Gérard Depardieu) during the Nazi occupation.

“We often don’t appreciate stories until we reach a certain age or a certain event occurs, like the loss of a loved one, so we fail to ask. But if shared, stories allow one person to live through the perspective of another and develop an understanding,” said Irina. “Much of the conflict of our day is rooted in misunderstandings and fueled by industries that benefit from them. We hope the alternate perspectives provided curb antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism.” JN

For more information, visit joinlistenup.com.

Michelle Talsma Everson is a freelance writer and editor based out of Phoenix.

“TEVYA” (1939), JAN. 27 AT 4:15 A.M.

The series closes with another take on Sholem Aleichem’s stories that makes a nice bookend with “Fiddler on the Roof.” Adapted and directed by Maurice Schwartz, who also stars in the titular role, the Yiddish film was thought to be lost until a print was found in 1978. In 1991, it became the first non-English film to be selected for preservation in the library of Congress National Film Registry for its cultural significance. JN

Chanukah party at the White House

Democratic of America,

Baby & all of us

Young Gavin Brown, Grandma Helene Finke, Amy Brown and Grandpa David Finke, representing three generations, take a group photo at the annual Chanukah party for the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix’s Baby & Me Shabbat.

A group from Manor Village Desert Ridge enjoying the Smile On Seniors Grand Chanukah Party on Dec. 21, 2022.

Celebrating at The Palazzo

More than 20 residents of The Palazzo, including Elaine and Steve Shapiro who are pictured here, were serenaded with live guitar music by Erez Kessler while enjoying latkes and sufganiyot prepared by Scott’s Generations during the Chanukah party thrown by Jewish Family & Children’s Service on Dec. 30.