Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, during World War I, one unlikely hero stood out among the soldiers, and he walked on four legs! Sergeant Stubby started as a stray dog before becoming a beloved mascot and eventually one of the most decorated war dogs in American history. Jeremy Swick of the College Football Hall of Fame shares the remarkable true story of how Stubby became a national symbo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Reignite Hope began with a simple question about how to help people move forward when life has fallen apart. Steve Bunyard turned to welding as a way to create opportunity, building a program that trains people, certifies them, and connects them to meaningful work. Today, the program reaches far beyond Skid Row, helping people struggling with homelessness,...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Iin September 1965, a quiet stretch of road in New Hampshire became the setting for what many still consider one of the most compelling UFO sightings in the United States. The Incident at Exeter began when a teenager reported a large object with red flashing lights hovering in the distance, an account that quickly drew the attention of local police and, eve...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 and quickly became one of the most remarkable engineering achievements in the world. Spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, it created a lasting connection between two rapidly growing communities. But the bridge’s story is also the story of a family. After its designer, John Roebling, died during con...

On this episode of Our American Stories, after watching Saving Private Ryan , Jay Moore walked into a bookstore in Texas and struck up a conversation with an older man browsing a World War II book. That man was Joe Brown, a Marine veteran whose service took him through Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian, some of the hardest fighting in the Pacific. What began as a brief exchange turned into a...

On this episode of Our American Stories, from 1945 to 1992, the United States conducted more than a thousand nuclear weapons tests. Many took place in Nevada, where young Marines were ordered into trenches to observe what would happen when the bomb went off. Among them was Toby Madrid. For decades, he stayed silent, sharing his memories only once with his son and a trusted co-worker, Richard Muniz...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the 1970s, a UCLA student named Steve Stoliar set out to track down a missing piece of Hollywood history. The film was  Animal Crackers  (1930), one of the early Marx Brothers movies starring Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx. But because of a copyright issue, the film had disappeared from circulation and was nearly impossible to see. Hi...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the winter of 1838, a political argument in Congress crossed a line few thought possible. Maine Representative Jonathan Cilley and Kentucky’s William Graves met on a field just outside Washington, rifles in hand. The nation watched in disbelief as two elected officials prepared to settle a dispute the old-fashioned way. When the smoke cleared, one...

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the American Revolution, few family divisions ran deeper than the one between Benjamin Franklin and his son, William Franklin. While Benjamin Franklin became a leading voice for independence, William Franklin remained loyal to Britain, serving as a royal governor and standing firmly on the Loyalist side. Our own Lee Habeeb shares the astonishing stor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Billy Graham became one of the most influential Christian evangelists in American history, preaching to millions through large-scale crusades, radio, and television. What began with small gatherings grew into a global ministry that reached audiences across continents and generations. Over the course of his life, Graham met with and offered counsel to every...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Chloe Howard was born with a congenital clubfoot, a condition known medically as talipes equinovarus that affects how the foot develops before birth. From infancy through her teenage years, she underwent repeated treatments and surgeries to correct it, spending much of her childhood in casts, on crutches, and in recovery. Chloe shares what it was like to gr...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the U.S. Constitution was drafted, it created a new national government but left many Americans uneasy. There was no clear statement of individual rights, and critics feared that without one, the federal government could overstep its authority. These debates shaped what are now our first ten amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights. As part of our...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, Allied forces fought through one of the most dangerous stretches of World War II in Europe. Cecil Wax, a young American soldier, was ordered to drive a supply truck loaded with fuel and ammunition down a frozen mountain road in the dark. But when the truck began to slide toward disaster, Cecil turned to pray...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when a major deal with Mercedes-Benz went wrong, Roger Penske didn’t send an email or a team of lawyers. He took the seats out of his own private jet to fit a race car inside, then flew across the world to deliver both the car and a personal apology. Here’s Penske with his incredible story. Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstories.com/d...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Walter Isaacson began working on his biography of Steve Jobs, he quickly saw that Jobs approached Apple with a different kind of discipline. He believed a product should be built with care from start to finish, even if the customer would never see it. Walter Isaacson shares how that mindset shaped Apple’s growth, from its early days with Steve Wo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tyler Hamilton spent years competing at the highest level of professional cycling, including riding alongside Lance Armstrong at the peak of his Tour de France career. As one of Armstrong’s teammates on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, he saw firsthand how widespread doping in cycling had become. Eventually, he chose to speak publicly about what...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when John O’Leary was nine years old, a house fire left him with burns over 100 percent of his body. Doctors said he wouldn’t survive. He did. They said he’d never walk again. He did. When he returned home, his mother insisted he do one more thing no one thought possible: learn to play the piano. John had no fingers, but she believed he ha...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Charles Urschel had money, influence, and a target on his back. When Machine Gun Kelly broke into his home and took him hostage, it seemed like just another high-profile crime in a lawless era. But Urschel didn’t panic. Instead, he took mental notes, tracking every moment, every voice, every clue. His memory became the FBI’s secret weapon and he...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jesse Owens arrived in Berlin for the 1936 Olympics as one of the fastest men in the world. The long jump competition placed him beside Luz Long, a German athlete competing under the watchful eyes of the Nazi regime and in a stadium built to showcase its ideals. During the event, Long noticed Owens struggling with his approach and quietly offered advice tha...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Thompson shares another slice of his guide to understanding the baffling mini-mysteries of the English language, this time diving into how the phrases “high and dry” and “let the cat out of the bag” came to be. His book,  Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions and Fun Phrases...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Robert Borelli once believed the Mafia offered the clearest path to power. As a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, he set out to become a gangster, drawn to the respect, money, and status he saw around him. Instead, that path led him in and out of prison, and eventually to rock bottom. But inside a jail cell, at his lowest point, Borelli cried out to God for...

On this episode of Our American Stories, have you ever heard of a Puritan pastor who learned a new language so he could preach the Bible to Native Americans in their own words? In the 1600s, John Eliot did exactly that. He became known as the “Apostle to the Indians” for translating Scripture into Algonquian and sharing it across New England, leaving behind the first Bible printed in N...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the nineteenth century, a woman’s future could collapse overnight. If a husband died, disappeared, or fell into debt, she often had no legal claim to the house she lived in. The homestead law changed that. As Professor Jean Stuntz explains, the law created a small but powerful shield that prevented families from losing the one thing they could not...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Diablo’s Southwest Grill in Georgia was broken into, owner Carl Wallace could have responded the way most business owners would. Instead, he posted a public message offering the burglar something unexpected, a job. Here’s Carl sharing his story. Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) Support the show: https://www.oura...

On this episode of Our American Stories, by the summer of 1864, Union prisoners at Andersonville were dying by the thousands. The Confederate prison camp in southwest Georgia had become one of the most infamous places in the Civil War, marked by starvation, disease, and a desperate lack of clean water. Then came an event many survivors would never forget. After a violent storm and a prayer meeting...