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Submit your "I Believe" essay
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Air your beliefs
A classic Edward R. Murrow radio series returns -- and you're invited to speak out.
Remakes are hot in the movie industry, on Broadway and on TV. Now, "This I Believe," the radio essay series hosted in the 1950s by legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, is getting new life on National Public Radio.
Chat Transcript
Chat transcript with Jay Allison about "This I Believe," the NPR (National Public Radio) weekly
series of personal essays from famous and everyday Americans about core
values and beliefs.
Allison is co-producer and host of "This I Believe," which airs every Monday, alternating between NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," and has featured essays from Colin Powell, John Updike, among listeners from across the country.
USA WEEKEND is the exclusive national print partner and invites readers to submit their own essays. To read or listen to past essays as well as submit your own essay, please visit www.npr.org/thisibelieve.
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USA WEEKEND Magazine readers are invited to write and submit brief essays on a spiritual, political, philosophical or civic belief. At least one reader of the magazine will be selected to read his or her essay on the air.
You can listen to a new essay each Monday, alternating between NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered." Bill Clinton, Muhammad Ali and Drew Barrymore are among the series' high-profile contributors.
Contributors to the original series included Harry Truman, baseball's Jackie Robinson, blind and deaf social activist Helen Keller, and a 16-year-old essay contest winner from Cleveland, Elizabeth Deutsch Earle. The teen's essay was about doing the right thing, looking at morality beyond religion.
More than 50 years later, Earle, 67, of Ithaca, N.Y., has written a new essay that reflects a lifetime of experience. "I still believe it's important to be a good person, and not specifically for religious reasons," she says, adding: "Life is more complex than I thought. It's harder to know what is the right thing to do, and even harder to actually do it. I have a more measured view of what's possible." Earle did meet one of her first essay's goals -- to become a scientist. She now teaches plant breeding at Cornell University.
The producers of "This I Believe" have an ambitious goal: to encourage people of different beliefs to listen to one another.
To submit an essay toNPR's "This I Believe," follow these tips
Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether -- ground it in the events of your life. Your story need not be heartwarming or gut-wrenching -- it can even be funny -- but it should be real. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family -- things you know.
Write 350 to 500 words. This is about three minutes when read aloud at a natural pace.
If you can't name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Rather than write a list of beliefs, focus on a core belief -- because three minutes go by quickly!
This is for radio. Write in a way that's comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times and keep editing and simplifying until you find the words, tone and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.
Please don't preach or editorialize. Refrain from saying what you do not believe. Make your essay about you; speak in the first person ("I").
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For more information: Read "This I Believe" essays from the 1950s and today, find out where to hear the series locally on NPR, or submit your own essay at npr.org/thisibelieve.
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