Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, The War of 1812 nearly broke the young United States apart. Washington and the White House burned, New England leaders talked openly of secession, and the future of the country looked uncertain at best. In the 19th episode of our ongoing  Story of Us, Story of America  series, historian and  Land of Hope  author Bill McClay shares how a...

On this episode of Our American Stories, most people do not set out to make history, or even to live through it. More often, history simply happens to them. Gulf War veteran and  Our American Stories  regular contributor Richard Muniz, from Colorado, shares two stories about living through historic moments without realizing it at the time, and reflects on what he learned from those exper...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he became president of the United States, Ronald Reagan was a young radio announcer in Des Moines, Iowa, calling sports for WHO Radio during the golden age of broadcasting. Armed with little more than a microphone and his imagination, Reagan recreated baseball games from telegraph reports, covered football and track events, and learned how to captiva...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the brand-new  Saturday Night Live  first took the airwaves by storm, it was Chevy Chase’s clumsy impression of Gerald Ford, an All-American athlete turned commander in chief, that changed the way Americans saw their president. The sketch also helped shape the future of political satire, presidential impersonations, and even the 1976 el...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Harry S. Truman was never expected to become president of the United States. He grew up as a farm boy in rural Missouri, and though he later served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president, he was not Roosevelt’s first choice for the role, nor did Truman initially seek it. But his presidency would shape the course of history. Truman oversaw the...

On this episode of Our American Stories, people often talk about the past as something to be missed, but history tells a much harder story. Johan Norberg argues that many of the most interesting periods in history were also the hardest to survive, and that modern innovations have made everyday life more secure than at any other point in human history. Johan Norberg, author of  Progress: Ten R...

On this episode of Our American Stories, during World War II, women entered the military and workforce in record numbers, taking on roles once occupied by men. The Women’s Army Corps became a path for thousands who wanted to support the war effort. But for Ilene Hall, the decision was personal. After marrying in March 1943, and with her husband completing his training and preparing to ship o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, learning how to ride a horse is hard enough, but getting in the saddle at 60 years old can seem impossible. Not so for  Our American Stories  regular contributor Bill Bryk. Bill tells the story of the exciting and sometimes frightening experience of learning the basics of horseback riding after six decades. Support the show ( https://www.ourameric...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before the United States expanded westward, the young nation ended at the banks of the Mississippi River. France controlled the vast territory beyond these borders until Thomas Jefferson brokered a deal that doubled the size of the country. Despite his own reservations and personal view of the Constitution, Jefferson moved forward, expanding the nation and...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on August 26, 2021, a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate in Kabul killed 13 American service members. Among them was Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. His father, Mark Schmitz, became part of what is known as a Gold Star family, a term used for the parents and loved ones of those killed in military service. In the months that followed, he chose to carry forwa...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1856, the steamboat Steamboat Arabia struck a snag and slipped beneath the Missouri River, taking with it cargo bound for stores and towns across the frontier. The Arabia did not stay buried forever. As the river changed course over time, the wreck was left behind beneath layers of earth. More than a century later, a group of Kansas City men set out to u...

On this episode of Our American Stories, volunteering seemed simple enough. Then the plan fell apart. What started as a group effort quickly turned into a one-man road trip across state lines. Robert Frohlich, an  Our American Stories  listener from Wisconsin, shares the story of a road trip gone wrong while volunteering to deliver trucks to impoverished communities in Appalachia. Suppor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1938, radio was the voice Americans trusted. News from Europe was growing more serious, and listeners relied on those broadcasts to understand what was happening in the world. When regular programming was interrupted, people paid attention and assumed what they were hearing was real. So when urgent bulletins broke in with reports of an alien attack on Am...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the canon of personal songs, “Leader of the Band” is one of the most treasured. The song is Dan Fogelberg’s heartfelt tribute to his father, Lawrence, a high school band director who shaped both his life and his music. As part of our  Story of a Song  series, Dan Fogelberg himself, along with our own Greg Hengler, share the st...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tyrone Power was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the late 1930s and early 1940s, known for films like  The Mark of Zorro  and  Blood and Sand . But at the height of his career, he stepped away from the screen and joined the Marines. Power trained as a pilot and served in the Pacific during World War II, flying transport missions int...

On this episode of Our American Stories, a Marine sits beside his dying father, a tough, no-nonsense veteran who refuses treatment and faces death on his own terms. Wanting one last moment of connection, the son asks for something simple: to hear the words “I love you.” What followed was not what he expected. Our regular contributor, Bob McClellan, shares the story of his father’...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early 1900s, Charles Ponzi arrived in the United States chasing opportunity but struggling to find steady work. After years of false starts, he began promoting an investment idea that promised unusually high returns in a short amount of time. But the model depended on a steady stream of new money, and once that slowed, the foundation began to crack....

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Julius Caesar Newman came to America, he was a teenager trying to make a living by learning a trade that allowed him to work with his hands and support his family. When the chance came to go out on his own, he took it and built a business that would grow into a lasting enterprise. Today, the J.C. Newman Cigar Company is still run by his family. As part...

On this episode of Our American Stories, as the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln spent much of his life in the shadow of one of the most revered figures in American history. By the end of the Civil War, he had joined the Union Army despite his father’s reservations and was present near the front during its final days, including the period surrounding General Lee’s sur...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1784, a young Irishman named Matthew Carey stepped off a ship in Philadelphia with twelve guineas in his pocket and a past that had already forced him out of his home country. Having written against British rule and the treatment of Irish Catholics, he arrived in the United States convinced the new republic offered something different. Carey rose to beco...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1970, a 45-foot sperm whale washed up on the Oregon coast near Florence, leaving officials with a problem they did not know how to solve. The carcass was too large to move and too dangerous to leave as it began to decompose along the shoreline. The state decided to use dynamite to remove it, but nothing went as planned. The blast sent whale blubber high...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early 1970s, science fiction films were a tough sell in Hollywood. George Lucas set out to make  Star Wars  anyway, drawing on old adventure serials to shape a story many studios struggled to imagine on screen. After its release in 1977, the film found its audience through word of mouth and steady growth at the box office. Before long, thea...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he became Zoro the Drummer, he was a kid named Daniel Donnelly trying to find his place in the world. Music gave him the direction he needed. A chance encounter at school opened a door, and one connection led to another as he worked his way into the music industry. Over time, he built a remarkable career, performing with artists such as Lenny Kravitz...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Broughton Coburn, author of  The Vast Unknown , shares the story of the first American expedition to Mount Everest in 1963, when a team of climbers set out to reach the world’s highest peak during the height of the Cold War. Facing deadly icefalls, extreme altitude, and brutal conditions, the team accomplished something remarkable, reaching the s...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Madonna Coffman had already experienced hair loss once as a young woman. Years later, when her four-year-old daughter began losing her hair, she didn’t need a diagnosis to know what was coming or how difficult it would be. What she couldn’t find was something designed for a child trying to live a normal life, so she set out to create it herself....