BROOKVILLE – Regional author John Pozza has just published his second book—Conversations on The Neighborhood—on the lasting legacy of the late Fred Rogers.
Rogers (1928-2003) became a pioneer in children’s educational television with his weekday, nationally broadcast Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood that aired for over 50 years on the Public Broadcasting Service.
Using The Neighborhood television program and other outlets, Rogers was able to bring awareness to the importance of early childhood learning to a mass audience.
Through his Ask the Expert Quality Early Learning radio show and podcast, Pozza draws on his interviews with five of Fred Rogers’ closest associates to make you feel as if you’re actually listening to an interview with Fred Rogers himself.
The podcasts can be heard on the Sound Cloud, YouTube and Connect Radio apps.
Partnering with radio co-host Joe Taylor, the two invite you to eavesdrop into their open and frank discussions with: William Isler, former president and chief executive officer of Fred Rogers Productions in Pittsburgh; Maxwell King, author of The Good Neighbor, the definitive and only biography on the life and work of Fred Rogers; Karen Struble Myers, former director of development and communications at the former Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media in Latrobe; Margy Whitmer, the original producer of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood at WQED in Pittsburgh; and Dr. Dana Winters, executive director of the center’s now renamed Fred Rogers Institute.
Through probing questions, the interviews help us learn more deeply how Rogers, working collaboratively with experts in child development, not only gave us the building blocks of self-esteem, but taught us all about tolerance and acceptance, before we could even say the words.
The book, published through Watershed Books and Literary Arts Center in Brookville, is available on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble Web sites.
Now retired after a career in journalism, organizational communications, human services and education, Pozza’s first book was his memoir, Was Anybody Really Listening?…Trials and Tribulations of a Sports Broadcaster, published in 2021, also on Amazon.
A long-time reporter, broadcaster and quality early learning advocate, Pozza has a regular column, Down Life’s Crazy Road, that appears in the monthly print and online Brookville, Brockway and Clarion, Pennsylvania Mirror (http://themirrors.biz) and the PA Wilds Web site blog (www.pawilds.com).
He has also been published in the Watershed Journal and Jeffersonian Journal magazines in Brookville, and numerous newspapers, including the Clarion News; the Courier-Express in DuBois; The Derrick & News Herald in Oil City and Franklin; the Leader-Vindicator in New Bethlehem; and Tri-County Weekend in DuBois.
Pozza is also on the advisory board at WPSU Radio, TV & Digital Services at Penn State University, the NPR and PBS public media outlet in State College. He resides in Brookville with his wife Lisa, and their cat, Rusty.