At First Glance | What Matters

Max Starkloff was a giant of a man, especially in the eyes of his family. When he was in his early 20s, a near-fatal car accident left him quadriplegic and living in a nursing home. It was there that he met his future wife, Colleen Kelly Starkloff.
Over the years, Max became an activist, a loving husband, and a wonderful father to three children. After his passing, Colleen came to StoryCorps with their daughter, Meaghan Starkloff Breitenstein. The two discuss how Colleen and Max first met, and the warmth and love he brought into their lives.
Directed by
Richard O’Connor
Executive Producers
Dave Isay
Rachel Hartman
Producer
Savannah Winchester
Senior Audio Producer
Jasmyn Morris
Audio Produced by
Liyna Anwar
Supervising Sound Recordist
Vanessa González-Block
Audio Mixed By
Jarrett Floyd
Animation by
Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC
Character Design
Taisiya Zaretskaya
Background Design
Laura Yee
Animators
Natalie Greene
Taisiya Zaretskaya
Laura Yee
Original Music
Joshua Abrams
Music Performed by
Joshua Abrams
Hamid Drake
Marquis Hill
Emmett Kelly
Adam Thornburg
Music Mixed by
Joshua Abrams
Neil Strauch
Outro Music by
“Filing Away” by Blue Dot Sessions
From the Album Crab Shack
Published by Blue Dot Sessions
Special Thanks
Meaghan Starkloff Breitenstein
Colleen Kelly Starkloff
In Partnership with
American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
NPR
POV
Funding Provided by
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
A private corporation funded by the American people.
Copyright © StoryCorps 2021. All Rights Reserved.

[@tashibalampkin8555]

"Sweetie, get her coat. She's leaving." 🤣 That man is funny.

[@uvas5854]

Greatest way to end a conversation

[@mr.shepherd_1776]

That was pretty boss

[@levizzivel217]

i’m max starkof and this is my daughter megan

[@petestrong7434]

A giant isn't in the body but in mind, a strong body can be powerful even sitting you got me good😭 this man was tall even when not standing 😭

[@m3rrys0ngstr3ss]

"A man among men" - what a great way to say it! Some people are just real paragons, ya know?

[@kos2919]

I feel sad that not many people watch storycorps anymore. I felt that youtube unfairly punished this channel for being neutral and treat everyone equally. Meanwhile fake story channels getting million views telling horrible fake stories with horrible animation

[@PixityPixel]

Main reason is clickbait and they’re easy to produce if you look at them. I do wish that there were more animation channels that are true, heartfelt stories like these, but sometimes it’s good to find a lesser known channel to recommend to people. ❤️

[@kos2919]

@@PixityPixel yep, and the worst part youtube shadowbanned this channel as well. Notice that the bell icon next to subscribed button always set to not notifying at all. When I change it so it will notify me all their uploads a message pop up and told me it's a wrong action. I was flabbergasted, KZbin is an awful website but doing this is even worse. They willingly killing a channel slowly just because it make a video that's not following their political ideology? Disgusting.

[@chunkystains8950]

Ugh, THOSE stories. ತ_ʖತ

[@andrewl9191]

@@kos2919 I just don't believe that's a thing that happens or would happen. There's no reason to it. I've never had a channel, once I've subscribed, do anything other than only notify me of certain things; "personalized." That's basically nothing. You click all or none. If something else happened, or you got this "wrong action," that's likely just a problem or bug that's happening at the time. There's no reason that Story Corps would have any problem. All of this being said, I don't know who comes to KZbin to look for this. I hear Story Corps on NPR and see these short animations on PBS or on Facebook. Heck, this video has over 22,000 views as of mid September 2021. That seems respectable.

[@lucaswilson8524]

That's exactly what I was thinking. These guys have real people with very real emotional stories that hit some very important and powerful messages home and I for one have been taught a lot buy this channel.

[@stuartherrera]

Why does someone always have to die in these stories? It's like you're trying to make us cry

[@lisahinton9682]

@Stuart Herrera Everyone dies. These stories are often in commemoration of someone who has passed.

[@andrewl9191]

I work at a public library and one of the things I want to work on is oral history interviews. Record people talking about the past. Often times, the biggest point of memories is around a person. In fact, I was just at a funeral for a family member last week. There were so many things that were said about the deceased that I just didn't know about. That can definitely prompt the want to share things that happened. I can only imagine there was at least an hour of talking distilled down into 2 minutes of animation.

[@emmacat3202]

That part where he rode past the social worker. That was so awesome! What an absolute Chad!

[@stolasish1184]

That moment with the social worker was just so funny & cathartic & full of good emotions! I’m so glad that family could happen

[@halleyangel1706]

My husband has Cerebral Palsy and I hate that people especially today judge us and my decision to love the man I love. I hope to have as good and kind a life as this couple did.

[@wolfbones666]

The comedian, Josh Blue has cerebral palsy and he's a great dad.

[@halleyangel1706]

@@wolfbones666 Hm. My husband has a very good sense of humor. Any links to this Comedian?

[@wolfbones666]

@@halleyangel1706 oh boy. This is gonna be fun.

[@wolfbones666]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXXPh2uVitFkpqc

[@AlphaWolf789]

yea not much has changed unfortunately

[@TiberiusEmpire]

"She see me rollin', she hatin'" - Max

[@arthas640]

Its depressing how hard they make it for families to adopt, you'd think there was a huge shortage of children needing homes or something

[@yesunlee3141]

I've been waiting for this kind of genuine, heart-warming stories. Glad to see you guys again!

[@samtheanthro]

Always happy to see a new story corps animation! This is such an amazing project

[@thylaggyone4513]

What a great story

[@basilnottheherb]

I miss stories like these

[@larctinmartsoyad3167]

It's about time this channel animate again.

[@krzlcve]

i love love love this story, its more romantic than most books :)

[@sallem5844]

People say that these stories are just small nothings in the wind, or they are not getting as many views as other channels, that is not the point, we are here to listen to hear the tales of voices we would never have heard, to share in their victory and grief, to love the human heart as so many who lost their stories on that fateful day they wont be lost or forgotten and no matter who you are you can find the humanity and reasoning for others in their stories. I try to get people to write in a diary just so their families can have something to read later on. I hope you can keep this up, it brings light to my day as its another story that wont just disappear.

[@SailorV1234]

My adoption was approved when I was a fetus. The adoption process today sickens me. I have health issues that it will make it nearly impossible to adopt. My goal is to change that. My health issues are very heavily genetic. I would be devastated if one got passed on. I don't want a test tube baby when there are so many kids that deserve a forever home.

[@poisonousbadge126]

storycorps deserves millions of subs

[@ethanstapley7018]

I'm very pleased you are creating more videos with animation. Though I should be less spoilt, because these stories don't need animation.

[@fifteenseptember]

omg you’re back!

[@kbarts316]

That man is a savage. One of a kind. 😂❤️

[@joanncchen]

What a sweet story!

[@headlessego]

1:37 THIS MAN IS A STRAIGHT SAVAGE XD

[@gege7419]

What a beautiful story 😭

[@marylevin9262]

luv these ty 💕

[@PogieJoe]

This channel always packs a punch.

[@uncleloof]

i love these stories. just make me feel good about life.

[@bobbysanders8715]

Beautiful

[@flipflopmcgurt3403]

I’m not crying. You are

[@q4241]

I liked this one a lot

[@jameswells9485]

What's the song name? Also who disliked this. Heartless, absolutely heartless smh

[@newsupermariobrosely7940]

Hi

[@moonbook12]

Hello

[@keyofallworlds7549]

This gives me hope that maybe someday I can adopt as well

[@ScribblePleb]

the one person who disliked is the social worker

[@jacyyang04]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@nopestopnow3596]

What a g

[@SadieAtCollege]

I hope I can find love one day.

[@Cool_Jack]

If I may ask what do she mean was

[@rickygutierrez5559]

what a chad

[@frogglen6350]

That sucks. Social Worjers are supposed to help and be emotionally supportive. But then you occasionally get that one crappy Social Worker who will let a child get taken by some crack family that wants GOV Money.

[@emmacat3202]

Or, they'll neglect to take a child out of an abusive home, and the kid gets murdered and put into a shallow grave.

[@lisahinton9682]

Okay, I'm lost. Is Meaghan adopted? Where'd she come from? The way the story is told, it sounds like she may not have arrived via adoption. I'm so glad he got to tell that nasty bitty off and in a very classy way at that.

[@tegoblue]

So I guess the dad passed away. Sad.

[@TheFlamerWolf]

If yall dont know what Quadriplegic means it meaning he is paralyzed

[@TheExperienceYT]

the death of modern rock

[@AudraBurgess]

Rock has nothing to do with this

[@TheExperienceYT]

@@AudraBurgess I apologize heavily

[@AudraBurgess]

@@TheExperienceYT it's okay. Everyone makes mistakes

[@blackgod854]

this is what killed it

[@michellerondinone9398]

who the hell disliked this

[@mrcracker1858]

I miss the old animation