This I Believe began in the 1950s as a radio broadcast program hosting by the famous Edward R. Murrow. Listen to Murrow talk about the show: https://thisibelieve.org/essay/16844/.
This I Believe was also a reboot on National Public Radio that lasted for four years. It “engaged listeners in a discussion of the core beliefs that guide their daily lives. We heard from people of all walks of life — the very young and the very old, the famous and the previously unknown, Nobel laureates, teachers, prison inmates, students, politicians, farmers, poets, entrepreneurs, activists and executives” (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103427272).
The executive producer has this to say: “I want to stress that while the NPR series has concluded, our international essay project, and This I Believe Inc., the organization that produces it, live on. You can visit our Web site, www.thisibelieve.org, to read the tens of thousands of essays that have been submitted by the public, write one of your own, download our educational curricula, and sign up for our weekly podcast and newsletter, which will continue indefinitely” (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103565190).
Sadly, they are no longer accepting essays. But we can still make our own contributions to this tradition and speak our values to others. Values. Hopes. Thoughts. Core beliefs. This is what Aristotle called ethos—the word from which we get our English words, ethics and ethical. With these essays and readings, we continue the tradition.
