Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, on May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and becoming the deadliest and costliest tornado in modern American history. As the storm approached, local meteorologist Jerimiah Cook realized the tornado was heading directly toward his hometown, his friends, and even his own pregnant wife.

Jerimiah Cook and reporter Gretchen Bolander share the story...

On this episode of Our American Stories, as a military police officer in Germany, Richard Muniez expected another quiet night on patrol. Instead, he responded to a call involving a distraught soldier armed with a knife who was destroying a truck and begging officers to shoot him.

After a tense standoff, Richard tackled the soldier moments before he attempted to take his own life. The immediate danger ended that night, but th...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he won five national championships and became one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history, Mike Krzyzewski was on the brink of being fired. In his first three seasons at Duke, Coach K struggled to win games, angered boosters, and faced mounting criticism from fans and alumni. After a humiliating loss in the 1983 ACC Tournament, many believed his tenure was over.

B...

On this episode of Our American Stories, prohibition is often remembered through the lens of gangsters, speakeasies, and organized crime. But long before bootleggers captured the public imagination, millions of Americans believed alcohol was destroying families, fueling violence, and corrupting politics.

Carrie Nation has largely been remembered as a hatchet-wielding fanatic who smashed saloons across the Midwest. Yet to man...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when David LaBelle was a teenager, his mother was the one person who believed in him. She helped him stay in school, encouraged his interest in photography, and stood by him through difficult years. Then, during a devastating flood in Southern California, she was swept away while David and his family struggled to survive atop their collapsing home.

For decades, David carried the memor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Civil War, falling asleep on guard duty was a crime punishable by death. That was the fate awaiting William Scott, a young Union soldier who drifted off at his post one night. His case captured the attention of President Abraham Lincoln, who, astonishingly, chose mercy over execution.

What followed became one of the most remarkable Civil War stories, in which compassion and...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before the corporate sponsors, television deals, and packed speedways, NASCAR began on the dirt roads of the American South. During Prohibition and the decades that followed, moonshine runners modified ordinary cars to outrun federal agents, creating faster engines, better suspensions, and a culture built on speed.

Neal Thompson, author of Driving with the Devil,...

On this episode of Our American Stories, at the height of the Korean War, Fox Company was cut off in the mountains and outnumbered almost fifty to one. Their orders were simple and brutal: hold a critical mountain pass or see thousands of fellow Marines trapped. For nearly a week, Captain William Barber’s men fought through cold, hunger, and relentless attacks, turning what could have been a massacre into one of the most hero...

On this episode of Our American Stories, growing up in Kansas, Bob Hamner never imagined he would become a sailor. But during a vacation in the Bahamas in the 1970s, he climbed into a small sailboat with no instruction, no experience, and little idea what he was doing. By the end of the day, he was hooked.

One boat led to another. The sports car gave way to a van, the van to a bigger boat, and eventually even a bigger house ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when college student Steve Stoliar's father insisted he find a summer job, Steve had little interest in working at a restaurant or fast-food counter. Instead, the lifelong Marx Brothers fan made an unlikely phone call to Groucho Marx's manager, asking if there might be any way he could help. To his astonishment, he was hired.

Thus began three unforgettable years working inside Groucho...

On this episode of Our American Stories, born into slavery in Mississippi during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells became one of the most fearless journalists and civil rights advocates in American history. She exposed the horrors of lynching, challenged segregation, fought for women's suffrage, and helped lay the groundwork for the NAACP. But another important part of her story has largely been forgotten.

After the lynching of cl...

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Bible is the bestselling book of all time, with billions of copies distributed around the world. But its influence extends far beyond religion. Its stories, language, and ideas have shaped art, literature, law, politics, and culture for nearly two thousand years.

How did a collection of ancient texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek become one of the most widely read books in...

On this episode of Our American Stories, he was buried as the Vietnam Unknown beneath the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, representing every American service member whose fate remained unanswered. For years, visitors paid their respects without knowing his name. But advances in DNA testing would eventually reveal the truth: the unknown soldier was Air Force pilot Michael Joseph Blassie, shot down over Vietnam in 1972 at just 24 years ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on a March day in 1876, residents of Bath County, Kentucky, looked up to find chunks of raw meat falling from the sky. Some said it was mutton. Others claimed beef or venison. A few even tasted it. Known now as the Kentucky Meat Shower, the event remains one of the strangest and least explained weather phenomena in American history. Was it vultures? A freak storm? Something else entirely?

On this episode of Our American Stories, before the war, Oskar Schindler was a businessman chasing opportunity, even if it meant joining the Nazi Party. But when he witnessed the brutality unfolding around him in occupied Poland, he made a choice that would define his life. Through cunning, bribery, and sheer nerve, Schindler used his factory to protect over 1,200 Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps.

Our own Greg Hengl...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the decades after the American Revolution, the United States had won its political independence, but many wondered whether it would ever develop a culture of its own. Most Americans still looked to Europe for great literature, art, and ideas. Critics openly questioned whether America could produce writers to rival the great minds of the Old World.

Then came a remarkable generation ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, at 17 years old, Pino Lella was helping Jewish families escape Nazi-occupied Italy by guiding them across the Alps into Switzerland. A year later, after being drafted into the German military, he found himself assigned as the personal driver to one of the most powerful Nazi commanders in Italy.

Secretly working for the Italian resistance and the Allies, Pino used his position to gathe...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Dolly Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1973, she wasn't writing about a romantic breakup. She was saying goodbye to her longtime friend, mentor, and business partner, Porter Wagoner. The song became a country hit, but its journey was only beginning.

Along the way, the song caught the attention of Elvis Presley, whose manager demanded half of the publishing rights before h...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the United States withdrew from Vietnam, many of its allies in Southeast Asia were left behind to face Communist reprisals, imprisonment, and even death. Desperate families fled Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia in search of safety, but few knew where they would go.

Then an extraordinary letter arrived in Iowa. What followed was one of the most successful refugee resettlement efforts i...