Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, on a bombing mission over Austria during World War II, George McGovern faced a moment that would haunt him for the next 40 years. His battered B-24 was struggling home when his crew was forced to release a bomb stuck in the bomb bay. McGovern watched helplessly as it fell onto a farmhouse below, never knowing what became of the people inside. It was one of 35 combat missions he flew as a young pilot, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross. That same day, thousands of miles away, his first daughter was born.

Historian Stephen Ambrose, author of The Wild Blue, shares the remarkable story of McGovern's wartime service and the astonishing discovery he made four decades later.

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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 that many feared the republic might split apart. When Thomas Jefferson ultimately emerged as the winner of the election of 1800, the nation witnessed something rare in history: a peaceful transfer of power.

As part of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of Americahttps://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fouramericanstories.com%2Fcategory%2Fpodcast%2Fstory-of-america-series%2F&data=05%7C02%7CUraelBlackshear%40iheartmedia.com%7C7ed8c2fa9a184835f92308df35bceac7%7C122a527e5b714eba878d9810b495b9e3%7C0%7C0%7C639288757655845242%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Do3HBgE2LXDr%2F9MlXsKURowWAifD5YjHfvtQ6%2FwHDdY%3D&reserved=0series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of this defining election.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1965, California Senator George Murphy started a sweet tradition, literally. He began stocking his desk on the Senate floor with candy to share with his colleagues. That desk, now known as the “Senate Candy Desk,” remains a Capitol Hill tradition to this day.

Jesse Edwards shares the history, mystery, and origins behind one of the Senate’s most interesting traditions.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, most Americans grew up thinking Thanksgiving had always fallen on the same Thursday in November. In Lincoln’s time, it was set on the last Thursday of November, and that practice settled in for generations. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted the holiday earlier, hoping a longer shopping season would lift a struggling Depression-era economy. The change split the country, with some governors following FDR and others keeping the old date. For a few years, families marked Thanksgiving on different Thursdays depending on where they lived.

Melanie Kirkpatrick walks us through why FDR and Thanksgiving became linked in a calendar fight and how Congress finally fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Tony Maglica was born in New York but spent much of his childhood in Croatia, where World War II brought foreign occupation, hunger, and the constant threat of violence. When he returned to the United States in 1950, he arrived with little money, a limited command of English, and no clear path forward. He took whatever work he could find, eventually discovering a gift for machining that carried him from New York to Colorado and finally California. There, with just $125 in savings and a determination to work for himself, he opened a small machine shop that would grow into Mag Instrument, the company behind the world-famous Maglite flashlight.

Tony Maglica shares his extraordinary journey from war-torn Europe to the heights of American manufacturing, explaining how he built one of America's most recognizable brands and why he has remained so determined to keep his flashlights made in the USA.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, the Booth name became synonymous with betrayal. But his older brother Edwin Booth was already one of America’s most celebrated actors, with deep roots in Boston and a reputation as a loyal supporter of the Union.

Historian and Our American Stories regular contributor Christopher Klein shares the story of how prominent Bostonians rallied around Edwin even as other members of the Booth family faced threats, arrest, and suspicion. Within a year, Edwin returned to the Boston stage to a thunderous welcome, even as the shadow of the Lincoln assassination threatened to erase his family’s legacy.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, few filmmakers embody the American Dream as vividly as Frank Capra. Born in Sicily in 1897, he carried the memory of arriving at New York Harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty through World War I and into Hollywood's golden age. In films like It's a Wonderful Life, Capra celebrated resilience, community, and the strength of ordinary people.

Our own Lee Habeeb, along with recordings of Capra himself, shares the story of the immigrant boy who rose to direct some of Hollywood's greatest films.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, David George was enslaved, captured, and chased across colonies before he found anything close to freedom. But something else held through the chaos: his faith. After escaping bondage, George helped plant the roots of what would become the Black Baptist Church in North America.

Historian Woody Holton, author of Black Americans in the Revolution and a professor of history at the University of South Carolina, shares how David George’s story shaped the foundations of Black religious life in North America and explains why his legacy continues to matter today.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, every October, porches glow with carved pumpkins and streets fill with costumed children, but the roots of Halloween reach much deeper than candy and costumes. The holiday began as All Hallows’ Eve, a night of remembrance that blended Christian and Celtic traditions. When Irish and Scottish immigrants arrived in the United States, they carried those customs with them, reshaping the celebration into something distinctly American.

Historians Lesley Bannatyne and Lisa Morton explain how an ancient ritual became a modern holiday; and why Halloween in America continues to reflect both superstition and joy. Lesley Bannatyne is the author of Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, and Lisa Morton is the author of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, for more than a century, horror movies have found new and terrifying ways to keep us on the edge of our seats. It began with the eerie shadows of German Expressionism and the unforgettable monsters of Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein. Then came Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the supernatural terror of The Exorcist, the slasher craze of the 1970s and 1980s, and eventually the low-budget phenomenon of The Blair Witch Project.

Just in time for Halloween, YouTube creator Matt Castro takes us through the history of horror movies.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Louis Prima never seemed to play a song so much as throw a party. It was a style he came by naturally, growing up among the Sicilian families, brass bands, and jazz funerals of New Orleans, with the sound of Louis Armstrong’s trumpet ringing in his ears. By the 1930s, Prima had taken that New Orleans spirit to the nightclubs of New York’s 52nd Street. He blew his horn, cracked jokes, worked the crowd, and wrote a song called “Sing, Sing, Sing” that would become one of the defining hits of the swing era.

But Prima had plenty more music in him. He proudly celebrated his Italian-American roots during World War II, found a whole new audience in Las Vegas alongside Keely Smith and Sam Butera, and eventually became the unforgettable voice of King Louie in The Jungle Book. Our own Greg Hengler shares the life story of a man who spent five decades making America laugh, sing, and dance.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, most of us know the name Jacuzzi. We’ve seen it on hot tubs, bathtubs, and maybe even enjoyed a soak in one ourselves. But behind that familiar name is the remarkable story of an Italian immigrant family, two brothers who came to America in 1907, and a long history of inventions that had nothing to do with hot tubs. The Jacuzzis built airplanes, developed pumps for farmers, and weathered personal tragedies before arriving at the invention that would make their family name famous.

Our own Montie Montgomery tells the story of Candido Jacuzzi and his young son Kenneth, who suffered from severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. When doctors recommended hydrotherapy to ease the boy’s pain, Candido turned to what he knew best: pumps.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, James Smithson was born into wealth but denied a name. As the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, he spent his life pursuing science instead of status, studying minerals and publishing quietly across Europe. In his will, Smithson made a choice no one expected: he left his fortune to the United States, a nation he had never visited, with the condition that it be used “to increase and diffuse knowledge.” That gift created the Smithsonian Institution, a collection that would grow into the world’s largest museum complex.

Wyatt Hensley, a history education major at the University of Pittsburgh and a two-time winner of Constituting America’s We the Future contest, shares the story.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, as a teenager on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, Valerie Habeeb endured years of sexual abuse by an older man who exploited the absence of her father and the vulnerability she carried with her. She kept what happened secret for years, carrying shame, anger, and pain into adulthood even as the people around her believed she had everything together.

Lee Habeeb shares his wife’s journey of faith and forgiveness, from reconciling with her mother and the father who had abandoned her to eventually forgiving the man who abused her. Through her Christian faith, Valerie came to believe that forgiveness did not erase the past, but freed her from being ruled by it.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, at 16, Russ Jones planned to spend his summer sleeping in. His mother had other ideas. One morning in 1976, she pulled off the covers and told him she did not want to see him again until he had found a job.

After spending the day applying all over Kansas City, Russ finally walked into the Carriage Club and landed a job as a busboy. Russ reflects on the first job that helped shape the way he has approached work ever since.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Olympian, World War II airman, Pacific castaway, and prisoner of war, Louis Zamperini lived one of the most extraordinary lives in American history. In this rare recording, he tells his own remarkable story—from his troubled childhood and the 1936 Berlin Olympics to surviving 47 days adrift at sea, enduring brutal captivity in Japan, and ultimately finding peace through forgiveness and faith.

While Unbroken introduced millions to Zamperini's story, some of its most powerful chapters were left out of the film. You'll hear them here—from Louis himself.

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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 change. What followed was a transformation that gave him a new purpose in life, one rooted in faith and service to others.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia often approached the Constitution from very different directions, but Kagan admired his intellect, his writing, and the enormous influence he had on American law.

Speaking at the dedication of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, Kagan reflects on Scalia’s role in advancing textualism and originalism, his gift for challenging students, and the wit and confidence that made his opinions impossible to ignore.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Darryl Strawberry reached the heights of Major League Baseball, but success could not heal the wounds he carried from childhood. Raised with an abusive, alcoholic father, Strawberry says rejection and anger helped drive him toward greatness on the field while leaving him vulnerable to addiction, broken relationships, and a life that eventually spiraled far beyond his control.

Strawberry shares the story of how faith changed the course of his life, how his wife Tracy challenged him to stop defining himself by the uniform he once wore, and how forgiveness finally brought him face-to-face with the father who had hurt him most. Darryl's book is Turn Your Season Around: How God Transforms Your Life, be sure to check it out!

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Doc Holliday is one of the most famous figures of the American Old West, known for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Movies and television have turned him into a legend, but the real Doc Holliday was far more complicated than the popular portrayals suggest.

Historian Roger McGrath joins us to tell the true story of John Henry “Doc” Holliday—the Southern dentist who became a gambler, gunslinger, and enduring figure of frontier history.

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