In 1997, Darius Clark Monroe (L) was a high school honor student who had never been in serious trouble.

But soon after his 16th birthday, he robbed a bank in Stafford, Texas at gunpoint with two of his friends.

Seventeen years later, he sat down at StoryCorps with David Ned, a customer who was in the bank during the robbery.

David and Darius became acquainted while Darius was a film student making a documentary about the robbery called Evolution of a Criminal.

Chris López always knew there was something different about her youngest child Gabe. Assigned female at birth, Gabe always felt like he was a boy.

Gabe was always more comfortable in clothes traditionally worn by little boys (cargo pants and superhero shirts), but often switched back and forth between those and outfits often worn by little girls. Just after his seventh birthday, he convinced his parents to let him cut off his long hair and get a Mohawk—a haircut he had been wanting for years. This is also about the time that Gabe started dressing only as a boy and answering exclusively to “he” and not “she.”

At first, Chris was concerned that Gabe, being so young, might change his mind. She was scared of how people would treat him as he transitioned. But after seeing how Gabe responded to the changes in his hair and clothing, she felt confident that he had made the right decision.

Last summer, their family attended a camp for transgender, gender creative, and gender non-conforming youth in Tucson, Arizona. There, Gabe met similar kids and made three new best friends—Luke, Cooper, and Brock (who among other things taught Gabe how to pee standing up).

Gabe, who will soon be nine years old, has been attending the same school since kindergarten, and this past August when he started third grade, for the first time, he began having others refer to him by his preferred gender pronouns—”he” and “him.”

Gabe and his mother (pictured in the player above) recently came to the StoryCorps MobileBooth to talk about what it’s been like for him to be transgender, and his fears about the future.

Patrick Haggerty grew up the son of a dairy farmer in rural Washington during the 1950s.

As a teenager, Patrick began to understand he was gay–something he thought he was hiding well.

But as he told his daughter Robin, one day, when he went to perform at a school assembly, his father Charles Edward Haggerty, decided to have a serious talk with him.

Retired firefighter John Vigiano, Sr. remembers both sons lost in the World Trade Center on 9/11 – John Vigiano, Jr,. also a firefighter, and Joe Vigiano, a police detective. Then, his grandson, Joseph Vigiano, reflects on his family legacy.h

Ms. Betty Thompson talks about her work at the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, and what led her there.

Nearly two decades after Mike Wolmetz proposed to Debora Brakarz at the StoryCorps booth in Grand Central, they returned to share an update about their relationship and parenthood for StoryCorps’ 20th Anniversary.

Many veterans seek out the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Hospital in hopes of feeling better. Thanks to Anthony Bravo Esparza — known to his friends as “Dreamer” — those veterans often end up looking better, too.

Since the 1970s, Dreamer, a veteran himself, has been giving free haircuts to vets.

He can be found in a red, white, and blue painted trailer parked at the VA, where he averages about 200 haircuts a month.

Last year, Paul Crowley showed up looking for a trim. Today, he’s Dreamer’s assistant.

At StoryCorps, the pair sat down to speak about their friendship.

Eight years after their original StoryCorps interview, Burnell Cotlon reflects with his mother, Lillie Cotlon, about opening up a store in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina.