Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, John Adams carried the weight of a nation that was still fragile and untested. He was the second president of the United States, a man caught between loyalty to his principles and the demands of politics. The late historian David McCullough shares Adams’ story not as a list of accomplishments—but as the life of a husband, father, and revolutiona...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Bible is the best-selling book in history, but it did not arrive fully formed. It was written over centuries, first passed along in fragments, then gathered into the texts we know today. Each step left its mark, from the languages in which it was first recorded to the choices that shaped its canon. The History Guy shares the story of how those writings...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tim Holt built a career as one of Hollywood’s most familiar Western actors, appearing in 149 films over four decades. Audiences saw him ride through classics like  Stagecoach  and  My Darling Clementine , where he played cowboys marked by grit and quiet resolve. But just as his career reached its peak, Holt left the cameras behind,...

On this episode of Our American Stories, did you know “radar” is actually an acronym? It stands for Radio Detection and Ranging — a term coined in 1940 by the U.S. Navy. Tim Harford, author of the bestselling book 50 Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy , shares the stories of three inventions that changed the way we live today. Support the show ( https://www.ouramericanstor...

On this episode of Our American Stories Jay Sebring was Hollywood’s most sought-after men’s hairstylist. At his Fairfax Avenue salon, Frank Sinatra came for a trim, Jim Morrison’s iconic look was shaped, and Bruce Lee trusted his image to the man behind the chair. Sebring turned men’s hair into fashion, helping launch a global industry. He was on the brink of an even b...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Laura Treppendahl was only beginning her adult life when it ended in a drunk driving crash. Her family’s grief was immediate and overwhelming, but so was their conviction about how to respond. When the young man responsible for the accident faced sentencing, the Treppendahls stood before the judge and said something that left the courtroom stunned: th...

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, when Lt. Howard Snyder’s B-17 Susan Ruth  was shot down over Belgium in February 1944, he could have ended up a prisoner or worse. Instead, he vanished into the resistance. Hidden by members of the Belgian Underground, he spent four months evading capture and another three fighting alongside Maquis guerrillas in France. He rejoined Allied forces...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Esther de Berdt Reed wasn’t content to sit on the sidelines during the Revolutionary War. While the fighting dragged on and morale among Patriot soldiers dropped, Reed launched an ambitious campaign with other women to raise funds and provide relief for the troops. When she presented her plan to George Washington, he had his own ideas for how their ef...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 2013, Tyson Timbs had his $42,000 Land Rover seized by the state of Indiana after a low-level drug offense. That seizure set off a seven-year legal fight that reached the United States Supreme Court. The question was simple but historic: Could a state impose a punishment so extreme that it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines? The...

On this episode of Our American Stories, John and Ashley Marsh once stood on the edge of collapse. Addiction, infidelity, and financial ruin had left their marriage shattered and their lives without direction. John was preparing to end it all when an unexpected moment of faith interrupted his plans. That turning point marked the beginning of a long journey of recovery and forgiveness. Together, th...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before mass production and freeways, the automobile was an invention still finding its way. The Duryea brothers were among its pioneers, and in 1901, they built something unique: a car made to glorify God. More than a century later, that car still exists. Barry Meguiar shares the story of how he came to own it. Support the show ( https://www.ouramerica...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when a young Iowa farmer named Cecil Wax was drafted into World War II, he never imagined his survival would hinge on a frozen mountain road in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge. Driving a supply truck loaded with gasoline and ammunition, Cecil fought ice, darkness, and the fear of ambush at every turn. What happened next left him convinced for the rest...

On this episode of Our American Stories, she was called the most beautiful woman in the world, yet Hedy Lamarr’s greatest gift had little to do with her looks. During World War II, she and George Antheil sketched out a way to keep military communications secure by sending signals across multiple frequencies. Their work was shelved and forgotten at the time, but the principles behind it power...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Aron Marquez’s American Dream began with dirt under his fingernails and sweat in the fields. The work was grueling, but it taught him lessons he never forgot: discipline, endurance, and responsibility. Those same lessons paved the way for him to enter the oil industry, where he founded a company (Wildcat Oil Tools) that today generates over $100 milli...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Cuba’s 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power and forced countless families to make an impossible choice: stay under a communist regime or flee their homeland. Mike Gonzalez’s father once called Castro a friend, but soon discovered the price of living under his rule. With freedoms stripped away and fear taking hold, escape became the...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1890, Nellie Bly set out to do what seemed impossible: circle the globe in less than eighty days. Known to her readers as a bold reporter who once went undercover in a mental asylum, Bly was already a household name. But this journey, inspired by Jules Verne’s  Around the World in Eighty Days , would make her a legend. Traveling by ship, train...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Hollywood became the world’s movie capital, one man was already imagining films on a scale no one had ever seen. Cecil B. DeMille brought spectacle to the screen with epics like The Ten Commandments and The King of Kings, setting the standard for what cinema could be. Known as a master showman and a visionary director, DeMille helped transform...

On this episode of Our American Stories, for Lawson Bader, one teacher changed everything. Erika, his German instructor, wasn’t content to simply drill vocabulary. She wanted her students to see history with their own eyes. That meant taking Lawson to Berlin when the Wall still loomed large, dividing families and a nation. Standing at the Cold War’s most visible fault line, he learned...

On this episode of Our American Stories, James King was just a 21-year-old college student walking to work in Grand Rapids when two men suddenly threw him to the ground. Thinking he was being mugged, he fought back until he realized his attackers were undercover law enforcement officers who had mistaken him for someone else. What followed were years of court battles, with King refusing to let the...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Alonzo Cushing was just 22 years old when he fell at Gettysburg, standing firm as Confederate troops charged across the field. His courage earned him the respect of his men, but not the honor he deserved. More than 150 years later, advocates carried his name all the way to the White House to secure the Medal of Honor. Support the show ( https://www.ourameri...

On this episode of Our American Stories, for Karen Olson, the ache of missing her father began at a school dance where other girls stood beside their dads while she stood alone. Her mother had told her he was dead, and Karen believed it for decades. But the truth was far more complicated. A long-lost family connection surfaced years later and changed everything she thought she knew about her child...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Robert Redford took on the role of Jeremiah Johnson in 1972, audiences fell in love with the image of a rugged mountain man who carved out a life in the wilderness. But the real Johnson lived a life far stranger and harsher than Hollywood ever showed. Historian Ashley Hlebinsky joins us to pull apart fact from folklore and reveal what Hollywood got rig...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Edie Hand remembers an Alabama childhood filled with mud pies, Shetland ponies, and afternoons in the barn where she could dream freely. Her mother kept a perfect home and often reminded her that she was strong, like her grandmother Alice. But while her brothers drew their mother’s attention, Edie was left to prove that strength on her own. Now in her...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on November 10, 1975, the freighter  Edmund Fitzgerald  vanished beneath the stormy waters of Lake Superior, taking all 29 crew members with her. The tragedy became one of the most famous Great Lakes shipwrecks, inspiring Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting ballad The Wreck of the  Edmund Fitzgerald . Historian Ric Mixter — a shipwreck di...