Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Constitution created a Supreme Court, but it did not spell out how powerful that Court would be. In the early 1800s, a political standoff involving William Marbury, outgoing President John Adams, and newly elected President Thomas Jefferson over an undelivered job offer forced the issue. The decision by Chief Justice John Marshall would change America f...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Breman Museum was created to preserve Jewish heritage in the American South, with a focus on Jewish communities in Georgia, Alabama, and beyond. What began as a small archive grew into a museum dedicated to telling the story of Jews in the Southern United States. Through the work of Sandy Berman and Jane Levy, the museum highlights the role of Jewish Am...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before J.J. Jones became known in Oxford for building custom furniture, he was a father trying to survive without a home. He spent months living in a vehicle with his young daughter, taking whatever work he could find and doing his best to shield her from the reality of homelessness. With the help of mentors who saw something in him and a faith that steadie...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Thomas Jefferson stood at the center of the American founding, writing the Declaration of Independence and later serving as the third president of the United States. He believed deeply in liberty and in the promise of the country, but his life was marked by contradictions that continue to shape how he is remembered, including the fact that he never freed hi...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Auntie Anne’s became one of the most popular fast-casual restaurant chains, Anne Beiler was a woman trying to rebuild her life following the loss of her daughter. But out of her hardship came something unexpected. Starting with a small pretzel shop, she built what would become the world’s largest pretzel franchise. Today, Auntie Anne&rsqu...

On this episode of Our American Stories,  in pool halls across St. Louis, there was a player people spoke about in hushed tones. They called him St. Louie Louie, a natural talent with a cue stick who could run a table clean and leave even seasoned players high and dry. But his reign didn’t last forever. Mark O’Brien, a listener of Our American Stories and the author of  Have...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was a man who seemed to be going nowhere. He graduated near the bottom of his class at West Point, struggled on remote frontier posts, and left the Army under a cloud of rumors about drinking. Back home, he failed in business and worked in his father’s leather goods store, with...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Carlos Colon spent his early years searching for a father figure and found it in the streets of Chicago. Gang life gave him identity and purpose, but it also drew him into violence that followed him into prison after he took another man’s life. Inside those prison walls, something began to change. He committed himself to a different path and walked ou...

On this episode of Our American Stories, known to history as Big Nose Kate, Mary Katherine Horony was more than a footnote in Doc Holliday’s life. She was a trained nurse, a sharp-tongued survivor, and a force in her own right, and her story offers a window into the grit and resilience of women in the American West. The History Guy shares the true story of this often-misunderstood icon of th...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before the Burger King most people know became a nationwide fast food chain with thousands of locations, a man in Mattoon, Illinois, built his own Burger King from the ground up. When the national brand moved into nearby markets, it sparked a legal fight that would become one of the most unusual fast food lawsuits in American history. Chris Suerdieck, a cur...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Curious George became one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, his creators were fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe with little more than a few belongings and their book manuscripts. Among them was the story that would become the first  Curious George  book. Louise Borden, author of  The Journey That Saved Curious G...

On this episode of Our American Stories, J.D. Wininger, owner of the Cross-Dubya Ranch in Northeast Texas and a listener of  Our American Stories , shares the story of a quiet man named John who mostly kept to himself. Sitting alone in the back of church and speaking only when spoken to, he wasn’t someone who drew attention. But when J.D. reached out, a friendship began to grow. That co...

On this episode of Our American Stories, for nearly fifty years, Ches McCartney, known as the Goat Man, traveled across America with a team of goats and a wagon carrying everything he owned. Moving from town to town, he became one of the most unusual figures many people would ever encounter. But his mission was serious. McCartney believed he was called to share his faith, using his travels to reac...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on a city street in California, a man who had nothing discovered something unimaginable: a briefcase filled with $100,000 in cash. His name was Ted Rodrigue, and it was all part of a Showtime documentary experiment designed to answer a simple question: what would happen if a homeless man were suddenly given a second chance? At first, it looked like the begi...

On this episode of Our American Stories, as the son of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. had large shoes to fill, and he did. Despite a privileged upbringing, he built a reputation of his own through a life of service and leadership. In World War II, the brigadier general landed at Utah Beach during the opening hours of D-Day at an age when most men are thinking about retirement. He was 5...

On this episode of Our American Stories, you may see them everywhere today, but the UPC barcode didn’t become commonplace until well into the 1970s. What had started as a simple idea to speed up checkout lines took decades to develop, requiring advances in computing, scanning tech, and cooperation across different industries. When the first barcode was scanned in 1974, it marked the beginnin...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1800, the United States faced one of the most uncertain moments in its early history. Tensions that had been building since the 1796 presidential race came to a head as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson battled for the future of the country. There’s a reason it is considered one of the most divisive elections in American history. Tensions ran so high...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Academy Award-winning film  Chariots of Fire  introduced many people to Eric Liddell, the Scottish runner whose stand at the 1924 Olympics made him known far beyond the track. When his best race was scheduled for a Sunday, Liddell chose to step away, a decision that would ultimately define both his performance and his reputation. Simon Whistle...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met in a series of public exchanges that later became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. What began as a Senate race in Illinois quickly drew national attention as the two men argued over slavery and the direction of the country. Soon, from New Orleans to New York, the previously unknown Lincoln’s nam...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Paychex, small businesses had limited options for handling payroll. Many owners managed it themselves, while others paid for services designed for much larger companies. Tom Golisano saw the gap and set out to offer a simpler way to manage employee payroll and meet tax obligations without unnecessary cost. He began with a small group of clients and a...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Dana Mitch grew up knowing pieces of her family’s Holocaust story, but they never quite felt like her own. That changed when she visited Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps on German soil. Walking through its grounds brought the past into sharper focus and helped her connect with a history she had long known only from a distance. Suppor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, for decades, Hyman G. Rickover helped build the U.S. nuclear fleet and earned a reputation as the father of the nuclear Navy, known as much for his results as for the way he tested those who wanted to serve under him. As a young midshipman, Bill Toti, the former captain of the nuclear submarine  USS Indianapolis  (SSN-697), sat down with Admiral R...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Traveling Wilburys formed almost by accident. When George Harrison needed a B-side, he called Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, and together they recorded “Handle With Care.” The chemistry was instant, and within months, they became a band the world couldn’t ignore. Their blend of humor, heart, and melody carried throu...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the late Middle Ages, English began to change in a way people could hear as much as read. Speakers across England gradually started pronouncing vowels differently, setting the language on a path from Middle English toward what we now recognize as modern English. That long transition, known as the Great Vowel Shift, helps explain why English spelling and...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the annexation of Texas and long before it entered the Union, Texas stood as its own country. The road to that break began under Mexican rule, as growing numbers of settlers pushed for greater local control. What followed became the Texas Revolution. The Battle of the Alamo gave the conflict its most famous rallying cry, and “Remember the...