Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, every December, families chase the idea of a perfect Christmas tree. Sometimes you find it standing in a snowy field. Sometimes you find it in a grocery-store parking lot when the sun’s already down, and the good ones are gone. Jim Johnson knows that chase better than most. His search took him through freezing Minnesota afternoons, crowded tree farms,...

On this episode of Our American Stories, the most famous reindeer in the world was voiced by someone most people have never heard of. Billie Mae Richards, a Canadian actress and mother of five, gave Rudolph his voice in the 1964 holiday special that became a staple of American television. She recorded the part in just a few hours, never expecting the character to last. What followed were decades o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, every winter, the same question makes its rounds: Is Die Hard  a Christmas movie? It premiered in the heat of July, packed with explosions instead of sleigh bells, but something strange happened once audiences got hold of it. The film began drifting toward December as if it had been invited all along. Stephen Follows walks us through that slow migratio...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Harvard is often defined by its oldest traditions and its most privileged stories, but some of its lasting influence came from students who began far from that world. James Bradley Thayer and Chauncey Wright grew up in the rural corners of Massachusetts at a time when Harvard seemed reserved only for Boston’s elite. Their path into the university resh...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Elvis Presley’s Christmas album has become a holiday staple, but the story behind it is more surprising than you might think. Greg McDonald was there in the early days, when Colonel Tom Parker was just beginning to shape the Elvis brand. Here’s Greg sharing the story of how the King of Rock and Roll was convinced to lend his voice to Christmas m...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Zolli Candy grew from an idea Alina Morse tested at her kitchen counter. She wanted a sweet that could support healthy teeth, and the search for that solution pulled her into the early steps of entrepreneurship. Those small steps opened up a world of opportunities, leading to Alina being the youngest person ever to appear on the cover of  Entrepreneur...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before jazz became a subject for textbooks and framed posters, it lived in families like the Gozzards. Harry Gozzard never worked the factory lines that defined Detroit. His world unfolded late at night, horn in hand, moving from club to club as the big band era held on. His son, Georges, traces those memories across cities and seasons and remembers what it...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in December 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was in mourning. His wife had died in a fire two years earlier. His son had been wounded in the Civil War. And the country itself felt beyond repair. That Christmas, he sat down and wrote a poem about the sound of church bells, one that began in sorrow and ended with a quiet return to hope. The words were later s...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early nineteenth century, Philadelphia lived with a contradiction. It called itself a free city, yet kidnapping rings operated within it and pulled Black residents back toward the world of slavery. Thomas Shipley was one of the few abolitionists who cared about each person who went missing. He infiltrated murderous mobs, warned would-be victims, and...

On this episode of Our American Stories, the history of classic Christmas songs is a story shaped by accidents, migrations, and reinventions. A poem written for one parish grew into a carol that crossed borders. A melody carried across continents found new life in American churches. Other pieces resurfaced during political upheaval and eventually settled into the traditions we now recognize. Toget...

On this episode of Our American Stories, for decades, Saturday morning cartoons defined how studios reached their youngest audiences. The block emerged during a period when television was limited, expectations were consistent, and advertisers knew how to hold attention. Over time, new regulations, new technologies, and new viewing habits loosened its grip. Mark McCray, author of The Best Saturday...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before anyone understood the reach of Star Wars , a small toy company stepped in with an idea that would alter the future of licensing. The first run of 1977  Star Wars  figures was modest, yet the response from children and collectors revealed something larger. These toys made the galaxy feel close enough to hold, and that closeness turned the fr...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Ruth Handler created Barbie, she was a girl standing behind the counter of her family’s Denver deli, learning how people reveal themselves in the smallest choices. She carried that intuition with her as she and her husband began building Mattel from almost nothing. Years later, it was her daughter who brought that old instinct into focus....

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Kent was just nine years old, he had a very special experience that, many years later, he still can’t seem to shake. Here’s Kent with his story entitled “To Hear the Angels Sing.” Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate See omnystudio.com/listener...

On this episode of Our American Stories, a short-term mission trip can feel predictable—until the moment it is not. Stephen Rusiniak shares a story written by his daughter, who traveled to West Virginia expecting hard work and good memories, nothing more. What she found instead was a barefoot child standing in a doorway and a reminder of how acts of kindness can reshape our sense of what mat...

On this episode of Our American Stories, every Sunday, Our American Stories  host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel "Big Mitch" Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment. Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) Support the show: https://ww...

On this episode of Our American Stories, at Fort Irwin, where military training exercises push soldiers to the edge of real combat, the line between routine drills and genuine danger can blur without warning. Our American Stories  regular contributor Richard Muniz remembers a night when that line vanished. A single misjudged moment during a live-fire military exercise sent a round into the wr...

On this episode of Our American Stories, by the start of 1864, the Civil War had dragged the country into exhaustion. Union armies faced setback after setback, and Lincoln watched public confidence slip as the Confederacy pressed its advantage. The outcome of the presidential election during wartime hung on the direction of the fighting, which turned the battlefield into a measure of Lincoln&rsquo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Blair and Cat Cornell learned their son would be born with special needs, they braced themselves for a future they could not quite picture. The early years brought long appointments and days that seemed to rise and fall on small breakthroughs. One evening, after a day that had worn their son down, Blair took him for a quiet drive. The shift was immedia...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before travelers lined up for brisket sandwiches or bags of Beaver Nuggets, Buc-ee’s began as Arch “Beaver” Aplin’s attempt to rethink what a roadside stop could feel like. He believed that even a quick break on a long drive deserved care, and the first Texas store reflected that instinct. Over the years, the idea grew until peo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the spring of 1961, McDonald County opened its highway map and discovered that it had simply vanished. The resort towns that depended on summer travelers were nowhere to be found, and what looked like a clerical mistake carried real consequences for the people who lived there. County leaders announced that McDonald County would symbolically secede from M...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Glory  brought the 54th Massachusetts to modern audiences, Robert Gould Shaw felt the pull of a story that had already begun to shape him. A quiet moment with  Uncle Tom’s Cabin  set him on a path that would place him at the head of one of the first Black Civil War regiments to see combat. The challenges he faced, the men wh...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Dr. David Berry lost his newborn daughter, the world around him narrowed until grief became the only thing he could feel. What began as an attempt to quiet that pain led him first to alcohol, then to cough syrup, and eventually to the stolen prescriptions that pushed him out of his home, his marriage, and the profession he loved. Dr. Berry shares how h...

On this episode of Our American Stories, as part of his ongoing series on the origins of everyday expressions, Andrew Thompson—author of  Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red —shares the fascinating backstory behind the phrase “apple of your eye” and several others we still use without thinking. These familiar sayings carry histories shaped by religion, literature, an...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Ralphie’s fantasy villain in  A Christmas Story  came from a dime novel that turned a real outlaw into a cartoon desperado. The actual Black Bart was nothing like the character on screen. In the 1870s, he robbed stagecoaches with a courtesy that puzzled sheriffs and captivated the public, leaving polite poems instead of violence. Roger McGra...