Gudrun Bellerjeau values cultures from around the world and has collected “quality-made” goods from far-flung places to sell in a 200-year-old barn she and her husband own in Knox — the Pleasant Valley Exquisitum. “You don’t have to buy junk stuff,” she says, adding, “The shop is really a psychology center … a place to get away from the hassles, from the phony stuff. You’re stepping into a different world.” Bellerjeau was born, raised, and educated in Germany in a “very poor family,” she says in this week’s podcast. Her father was killed in Russia at the age of 27, leaving his 23-year-old wife, pregnant with Gudrun’s brother, to raise two children. Bellerjeau recalls riding a train to the city with her grandmother and staring, transfixed, at the beautiful things in shop windows. <br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>

Carol Maslowsky  —  Belle View Farm in Westerlo

Often, truth isn’t handed down from public officials but comes from listening to other voices. Once a week, you can hear a wide variety of views from people who shape our corner of the world in New York’s Capital Region. The Altamont Enterprise is the weekly newspaper of record for Albany County, New York.We’ve talked with a Buddhist who provided therapy for Gilda Radner and then helped set up Gilda’s Club after she died; with a Muslim woman who is trying to educate people about her religion as she feels increased hatred; with an African-American man who, as a teenager, helped ferry people north from a town in Mississippi haunted by lynchings. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.