Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, as a kid wandering the hallways of Miami’s fight scene, Patti Kingsbaker thought she had seen everything. Then she spotted Frank Sinatra walking in as her father prepared to referee a heavyweight title match. Patti’s chance at an autograph disappeared behind a wall of security, and the disappointment stayed with her until she finally wrote Sinat...

On this episode of Our American Stories, from its roots in African musical craftsmanship to its home in the American South, the kazoo instrument has traveled farther than most people realize. It even shapes the familiar kazoo sound behind every animal in Minecraft. Sarah Barnwell of the Kazoobie Kazoo Factory shares how this small, uniquely American-made instrument became a piece of musical histor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in this continuation of Ambrose’s work on June 6, 1944, the battle comes into view through the voices of the men who survived it. He follows their push off the beaches, their losses, and their small gains, and how those efforts turned the invasion into a foothold that could not be pushed back. Ambrose also highlights the Army’s “soldier su...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Indiana did not choose its nickname so much as grow into it. The term Hoosier appeared in jokes, travel accounts, and frontier banter, yet no one ever agreed on where it started. Despite the uncertainty, the name kept rising to the surface until it became part of the state’s character. What survives is a word tied closely to the people who shaped Indi...

On this episode of Our American Stories, behind every bottle of Coors Light and every iconic pour of Coors Banquet is a family whose identity shaped the company more than any product ever could. Long before Coors became a national name, the family built the brewery on principles they considered nonnegotiable: faith, education, and a quiet sense of service. These tenets guided the decisions that tu...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the Statue of Liberty became a beacon for newcomers, it was simply a gift from France that struggled to find a purpose. To raise money for the statue's pedestal, Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet about the sculpture, never expecting it to be more than a throwaway donation. Years later, as anti-immigrant fervor spread through the c...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1896, the United States Supreme Court delivered one of the most damaging rulings in its history when it upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision cemented the idea of separate but equal and gave legal cover to the rise of Jim Crow laws across the country. More than a century later, Homer Plessy’s descendant, Keith Plessy, reflects on w...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he became one of the most respected rodeo bullfighters in America, Leon Coffey was a father searching for a way to pay for a simple gift. Rodeos were familiar territory, but stepping into the arena as a rodeo clown was something else entirely. He found himself staring down bulls that outweighed him by a thousand pounds, learning to move with a kind o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Bob McLalan let his recently divorced father crash on his couch, he expected a few days of awkward conversation. Instead, his dad arrived with an empty key ring, a suitcase, and the stubborn confidence of a man who still saw himself in command. What followed was eighteen months of two Marines trying to share a small apartment and figure out what respec...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in May 1861, three enslaved men slipped across the James River to Fort Monroe, seeking protection from Union troops. Their arrival forced General Benjamin Butler to make a choice that would change the course of the war. Instead of returning them to bondage, he declared them “contraband of war,” setting off a chain reaction that pushed Abrah...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Alexander Hamilton helped shape the Constitution or design America’s financial system, he was a child on the island of Nevis, raised among the merchants and schools of a thriving Jewish community. For generations, historians assumed Hamilton’s faith was Christian, but recent research from historian Andrew Porwancher tells a different...

On this episode of Our American Stories, most people know the Civil War began at Fort Sumter in 1861. Few remember how close it came to starting a decade earlier in New Mexico. In 1850, America stood at a breaking point. The war with Mexico had added vast new lands to the United States, and every mile of that territory brought the same question: would slavery spread west? As tensions rose, Texas l...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Shiloh Carozza’s father was diagnosed with brain cancer, her family’s days began to split in two: the life they had before, and the one that followed. He had been a teacher, a storyteller, the kind of father who could turn a drive into a lesson. As the disease took more from him, he still tried to give what he could. One night, he gathered...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in June of 1984, President Ronald Reagan visited the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to mark the 40th anniversary of D-Day. Before him stood the surviving Army Rangers who had scaled those cliffs under constant fire to help turn the tide of World War II. Often called the Great Communicator, he delivered one of his most powerful speeches, linking the courage of the...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Gina Ramsey moved her father into a memory care home, she thought she was watching him lose everything that made him who he was. Then he met May, a woman who had just turned one hundred and still laughed like a girl. Their friendship grew into a kind of love that gave both of them something to hold on to inside the fog of dementia. Gina Ramsey joins us...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on the morning of October 27, 2018, a quiet neighborhood in Pittsburgh turned into the scene of one of the deadliest attacks on a Jewish congregation in American history. Paul Kengor was driving with his wife when a text from their daughter appeared on his phone. She was hiding in a van just across the street from the Tree of Life Synagogue, where gunfire h...

On this episode of Our American Stories, after years of arguing cases before the Supreme Court, Barry Levinson took a sharp turn. He left the law behind to open the world’s largest mustard museum, a place that celebrates more than 6,000 varieties of the condiment that changed his life. What started as a joke became one of America’s most unique tourist attractions, and a reminder that p...

On this episode of Our American Stories, at the dawn of the twentieth century, radium was hailed as a miracle of modern science. Factories across the country began hiring young women to paint watch dials and instrument panels that lit up in the dark. It was considered a respectable, even glamorous job. No one warned them that the glow they wore on their skin and teeth came with a deadly cost. Kate...

On this episode of Our American Stories, everyone has a funny Thanksgiving story, but this one still makes Stephen Rusiniak cringe. He promised his mom he’d be on time for Thanksgiving dinner. He wasn’t. What followed was a mix of family drama, cold turkey, and a lesson in what it means to keep your word. Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) Support the show: h...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before chewing gum became part of American life, William Wrigley Jr. was selling soap door to door. He gave away gum as a bonus and discovered people wanted that more than anything else. From that moment, he built one of the oldest gum brands in history and a life that revolved as much around his wife as his business. Support the show ( https://www.ourameri...

On this episode of Our American Stories, William C. Rhodes started as a kid tagging along with his dad on Saturdays in Memphis. Years later, he was guiding AutoZone across the Americas as Chairman, President, and CEO. Along the way, he learned what leadership looks like on the floor, in the field, and in the boardroom, and how corporate governance turns good instincts into durable results. Here's...

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. In this fourth installment, Mitch reflects on what love has meant to him after decades beh...

On this episode of Our American Stories, a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty “Hi-Yo Silver!” — it's the story of the Lone Ranger. Stephen Eoannou, author of Yesteryear,  tells the story of how a tenacious scriptwriter out of Buffalo and a shrewd businessman out of Detroit managed to create one of America's most enduring cultural figures Suppo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before he helped fill stadiums, George Herman Ruth was a restless boy growing up near the Baltimore waterfront. His father ran a saloon, his mother rarely had time to spare, and discipline came from the brothers at St. Mary's Industrial School. There, he met Brother Matthias, who taught him baseball and provided the structure he needed to find his purp...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in Carlisle, Iowa, Chef Steve Reed had one job: bring home the Thanksgiving turkey. After years in the kitchen and decades of perfect holiday meals, this one seemed easy. He found the bird, hauled it through a packed grocery store, and tossed it into the back of his truck for the short drive home. There was just one problem...his truck didn’t hav...