Emily Reddy / WPSU Producer

I just made it over the last hill. The hardest part is over and it’s exhilarating. My cheeks are red, but my breathing is leveling off. I can feel my bangs flying out of my headband. I try to focus on my feet hitting the ground at a consistent “step step, step step” pace.

Pamela Synder-Etters talks with long-time Altoona Symphony Orchestra member Shirley Pechter. Pechter is 92 and has been with the symphony since it was founded in 1928.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Brenda Jennings talks with her friend and neighbor Jan Housman about growing up Jewish in the 1950s.

Former Penn State professor Josip Novakovich is a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, which is awarded every two years to a writer for his or her body of work. Jessica Matzko reviews Navokovich’s book, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Hiro McNulty talks with his grandmother Bridget McNulty about growing up in Pittsburgh.

WPSU is traveling to towns across central and northern Pennsylvania to collect oral history recordings. In March, we stopped in Altoona. Robert Donaldson talks with his wife Carolyn about how they met thirty years ago when Robert’s friend Mickey introduced them.

When I was a couple of months old, I had pneumonia and I stopped breathing. My mom called for an ambulance and immediately began to pray. The ambulance arrived minutes later, and the EMT performed CPR on me. That day, I was the first baby the EMT had ever “brought back to life.”

The University Park Airport has a brand new installation. It’s not a new escalator or body-scanner. It’s a living plant wall. WPSU intern Orent Paddy went to the airport to find out more.

Jennier Haigh’s latest book, News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories, is about the residents of a fictional coal mining town in Pennsylvania. Reviewer Kirk Weixel has long been an admirer of Haigh’s work. He’s known the author since she attended high school with his children.