E 150: Neighborhood Blueprints for Kindness: Rebroadcast

Pittsburgh most loved neighbor, Mr. Rogers, just posthumously celebrated what would have been his 96th birthday this past week.  As a tribute, we wanted to re-share this beautiful conversation with two of our favorite neighbors, Ryan & Gregg.

Two of Pittsburgh's kindest men, Ryan Rydzewski and Gregg Behr, join us to talk about what we love most: learning how to be better humans.  Their book, When You Wonder You're Learning, centers itself around America's favorite neighbor, Fred Rogers.  As Gregg's role model, Mister Rogers holds that title for so many others as well as holding a special place in countless people's hearts, including ours.  Fred's philosophies, use of science, and genuine kindness made him a safe and magical being.  So magical in fact, that everything he taught us, the blueprints he left for us, are more relevant now than ever before proving time holds no bounds on love.  So grab a cardigan (and possibly some tissues), cozy up, and listen in as we slow down long enough to embrace the lessons that have been laid in front of us for over 50 years.

Our Guests:

Gregg Behr is a father, children’s advocate, and director for the Grable Foundation whose work is inspired by his hero, Fred Rogers. For more than a decade, he has helped lead Remake Learning—a network of educators, scientists, artists, and makers he founded in 2007—to international renown. Formed in Rogers’ real-life neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Remake Learning has turned heads everywhere from Forbes to the World Economic Forum for its efforts to ignite children’s curiosity, encourage creativity, and foster justice and belonging in schools, libraries, museums, and more. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and also Duke University, Gregg holds honorary degrees from Carlow University and Saint Vincent College. He’s an advisor to the Brookings Institution and the Fred Rogers Center, and has been cited by Barack Obama, Richard Branson, and the Disruptor Foundation as an innovator and thought leader.

Website: GreggBehr.com

Twitter: @greggbehr

Ryan Rydzewski is a writer whose science and education reporting has garnered several awards and fellowships. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, he taught elementary school in south Louisiana before earning an MFA in nonfiction writing from Chatham University. As a freelancer, his magazine stories focus on everything from schools to space travel to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and his poems and other pieces appear in several journals. A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Ryan lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Jacqueline.

Website: RyanRydzewski.com

Twitter: @RyanRydzewski