This I Believe

Atlantic Public Media created the initial pilots for the NPR series, This I Believe, and served as the production team and review board. APM’s Jay Allison was Curator/Producer for the series, and Viki Merrick performed as Senior Editor.

This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived online in perpetuity. Selected essays aired on National Public Radio from 2005 to 2009, and were collected in a New York Times bestselling book; a second collection of NPR-aired essays was also published.

Edward R. Murrow

In 2005 and 2006, USA Weekend invited its readers to participate in the project and published selected essays from their readers. Numerous local public radio stations, newspapers, and magazines have featured essays from citizens in their communities. In 2008 Atlantic Public Media helped Madhu Acharya create a Nepali version of This I Believe.

The series spawned an outreach structure to bring this program to the attention of schools and other community groups, and the books have become popular with “one book, one community” projects. The project was based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.