Emily Reddy / WPSU Producer

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Jon Yon talks with his mother, Naomi Yon about her childhood and her career as a nurse.

To celebrate Father’s Day, we talk with two poets whose writing is strongly influenced by their relationships with their fathers. First we have Marjorie Maddox, whose book of poems Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation focuses on her father’s unsuccessful heart transplant. Todd Davis’s newest book of poetry, just out this month from Michigan State University Press, is In the Kingdom of the…

“You got time to lean, you got time to clean.” That was my boss’s favorite motivational quote. I started working at Leo’s Steak Shop when I was 14. The small kitchen was unbearably hot at times, and the walk to the freezer 40 feet out back was unbearably cold at times. But just as fast as the workdays began, they…

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Paula Pimentel interviews her father, Benjamin Root. He talks about his childhood and his community involvement.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Robert S. Donaldson interviews his parents, Connie and Robert I. Donaldson. They talk their family bakery and growing up in Altoona during WWII.

Becky Aikman’s memoir, Saturday Night Widows, is about how she pursued healing after her husband’s death. Aikman, originally from Brookville, PA, is a featured author at this year’s BookFest. Reviewer MIschelle Marie (also known as KC O’Day) is a morning radio host at WALY 103.9.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Cathy Griffith talks with her friend Kaitlin Farnan. They were brought together by cancer.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Annie Clay interviews her husband (and WTAJ news anchor) John Clay about being a father and about what’s important to him in their relationship.

With all due respect to the more serious nature of most “This I Believe” essays… I believe I’ll have a beer! If you enjoy sharing a crisp, hoppy pils with your friends and neighbors, then I raise a glass to you!