When she was young, Lauren LeBlanc had grand dreams of living in New York and singing on Broadway. Instead, she became a mom and schoolteacher in suburbia. While it’s not the life she once imagined, LeBlanc now knows she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nurse Cortney Davis frequently encounters grief. For years, she sought to counter it with cheer and consolation, but now believes grief is to be embraced as a way of honoring of the fragility of life.

Growing up in Kenya, Pius Kamau was inspired by the equality preached by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now a surgeon in Denver, Kamau believes in caring for his patients, whatever their racial views.

Restaurant critic Jason Sheehan has a passion for barbecue with all the homemade fixings on the side. He believes barbecue unites us, comforts us and is the only thing he can’t get enough of.

For Women's History Month, we hear from two women who each made history in their own way. Margaret Chase Smith by being the only woman to serve in both the US House and Senate; Gloria Steinem through her ground-breaking journalism and tireless activism on behalf of women and the poor.

This week we will feature two essays from past presidential candidates, one a Republican, one a Democrat. From our 1950s archive we hear from two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II; from our contemporary series, we'll listen to an essay from the 2008 Republican nominee John McCain.

At 16, Elizabeth Deutsch Earle's essay on her search for religion became part of Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe series. Half a century later, she wrote a second essay for the contemporary This I Believe series. This week, we'll hear both, plus an interview with Dr. Earle.

Kenneth Gamble and Billy Eckstine have at least two things in common: both have won Grammy Awards, and both have written This I Believe essays.

Two essays this week that touch on the lessons we learn from welcoming strangers into our lives--one from Philadelphian Helen Cunningham, the other a 1950s essay from University of Louisville sociology professor Charles Parrish.

When Joseph Laycock works out at his martial arts gym, he’s the only teacher in the room. He believes his training in jujitsu and kickboxing prepares him for his work in the classroom where, Laycock says, students need a teacher who will fight for them.