Contact & Support

About KBIA

Since 1972, KBIA’s NPR-affiliate newsroom and operations have been actively involved in the life, arts and humanities of the mid-Missouri area. What our newsroom likes to call “conversations journalism,” pioneered by Rebecca Smith’s “Missouri Health Talks” and StoryCorps-style production methods, is key to what we do, from rural storytelling projects and oral histories to health.

The Team

The truly amazing thing to see unfold with this project was the aspect of community involvement that began by saying “Yes” to community ideas. Missouri on Mic ultimately involved about a dozen community organizations, from funding supporters like the State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Humanities, and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, to the True False Film Fest, Tiny Attic Productions, and Ragtag Cinema, local farmer’s markets in Columbia and Kirksville, the state capitol, Paquin Towers, the Central Missouri Renaissance Festival, MU’s Diwali festival of lights, libraries in Columbia and Poplar Bluff, and many more celebrations, places and events where people gathered over the past two years.

Our multidisciplinary team has involved nine professional journalists and producers, one oral historian, one graphic designer, several professors, and about two dozen student producers. Most importantly, the project has involved 248 people from across the state who encountered our Missouri on Mic booth at various locations and accepted the invitation to tell their stories.

Thanks to our partner organizations

If you want to go deep on the experience of the Missouri on Mic project, our team did a series of blogs for our partners at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. You can read them here.