When people enter the mobile recording studio of the StoryCorps trailer, an hour-long session seems to move much quicker than 60 minutes.  

Ian Murakami, site manager for StoryCorps’ Mobile Tour, which is making a stop in Kalispell this month, says time flies when someone is enraptured in a good conversation.  

“We hope the conversations that you start in the booth move out into the larger community. One of the most common things I hear in the booth is that there wasn't enough time and. I tell everyone that you have so much time when you leave, you get to keep talking to each other, so we hope you keep doing that,” Murakami said. 

StoryCorps, an organization dedicated to recording Americans’ stories for more than 20 years, has helped nearly 700,000 people across the U.S. record meaningful conversations since the organization’s founding in 2003. Those recordings are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and their own online archive, some of which air on NPR’s Morning Edition weekly. 

A collaboration between Montana Public Radio and the Flathead Valley Community College brought the mobile recording booth to Kalispell. The airstream-like trailer sitting in the front parking lot of FVCC will be there through June 26.  

The StoryCorps staff encourages anyone to come to the mobile booth to tell a story that is important to them or to have a discussion with someone they care about. These recordings can be keepsakes for the participants, who will be emailed a digital file of the recording. Participants can choose how they want to share their conversation, if at all, by which release they sign with StoryCorps.  

The sessions include 40 minutes of recording time.  

Staff have been recording the first slate of appointments since May 30. Associate Director for the Mobile Tour Latojia Dawkins said so far, they’re “hilarious and very touching.” 

“The youth here coming into record — we don't typically get a lot of youth to come out and record and to see their excitement and willingness to even spread the word that we're here to do recordings,” Dawkins said. “We don't always get such a warm welcome ... because sometimes people can even be skeptical to share their stories. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.”  

Montana Public Radio Program Director Michael Marsolek said he remembers when StoryCorps started two decades ago. Even then, he knew it was a special project.  

During a trip to New York City, he signed up, along with his mother, for a recording session in Grand Central Station. It came as a surprise to her, but the two had a conversation he’ll keep close for the rest of his life.  

“She passed away a little over a decade ago and that recording is such just a treasure for my family. We play it almost every year for kids and grandkids, pieces of it around the holidays, around her birthday and everybody in the family has a copy,” Marsolek said. “I encourage folks to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity while it’s here." 

Montana Public Radio has collaborated with StoryCorps several times over the years, bringing the mobile recording booth to Butte in 2005 and to Missoula in 2022, in addition to a virtual tour held in 2020.  

StoryCorps' arrival coincides with Montana Public Radio’s 60th anniversary. Anne Hosler, director of Montana Public Radio, said the organization’s mission to preserve human voices and provide deeper connections continues to fall in line with what the public radio station is about.  

“I think in this moment especially, we really need to increase the communication between folks in our in our neighborhoods, in our communities and in our world, so that we have a better understanding of how we got to where we are in this moment and how we can better ourselves,” Hosler said. “I think initiatives like StoryCorps, where folks are sitting down and sharing their stories, where we all can learn from one another and from another's experience — I think that’s really important.” 

The final round of timeslots to record in the StoryCorps mobile recording booth opened on June 3. To sign up, visit mtpr.org, call StoryCorps’ 24-hour toll-free reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or visit storycorps.org. 

To conclude the visit, StoryCorps will host a public listening event on June 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Wachholz College Center to showcase selected stories recorded during the Flathead Valley sessions. Admission is free and open to the public.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or by emailing [email protected].