Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the Moon. For decades, NASA never revealed their brand, and Shepard never publicly told the story.

Then an estate sale in Rogers, Arkansas, uncovered a signed photograph that led Joe Murfin to an extraordinary discovery involving Daisy Outdoor Products, a longtime public relations executive, and what may be one o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, picture a crowded parlor in the 1800s. The air is heavy, the fire is roaring, and the women are laced into corsets that leave little room to breathe. In moments like these, fainting became common, so common that homes often had special couches set aside for recovery. What we now think of as a Victorian cliché was, for many women, an ordinary interruption to daily life.

Simon Whistler,...

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Great Depression, Joy Neal Kidney's family didn't eat strange food for fun. They ate what they could find. Sometimes that meant possum. Other times, it meant even less. But in the middle of the hardship, they found ways to stay connected, to laugh when they could, and to keep going.

Joy reflects on the meals that got them through and what they taught her. Joy is a regular c...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Abraham Lincoln's presidency began long before he took the oath of office. During a 13-day journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., he faced secession, death threats, and a nation already coming apart.

Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington, shares the gripping story of the journey that tested America's president-elect before he ev...

On this episode of Our American Stories, most Americans know the story of Irish immigrants arriving during the Great Famine. Far fewer know about an earlier chapter, when thousands of Irish men, women, and children were forcibly removed from their homeland and sent across the Atlantic under English rule. Their story stretches from Viking raids to Cromwell's conquest and the earliest English colonies in the New World.

Colin D...

On this episode of Our American Stories, why did America's founders and most important men keep turning to King David? From the Revolution to Abraham Lincoln's efforts to reunite the nation after the Civil War, the biblical king and his family helped generations of Americans understand courage, rebellion, leadership, and reconciliation.

For our ongoing series, Rabbi Stuart Halpern, co-author of The Jewish Roots of Ameri...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the summer of 1833, Lexington, Kentucky, was brought to its knees by a cholera outbreak. Entire families were lost in a matter of days, and fear spread faster than the disease itself. When the dead outnumbered the living willing to bury them, one man stepped forward.

His name was Solomon. Most people in town dismissed him as a drunk gravedigger. But in the middle of the crisis, he ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, George Valdes fled Cuba with his family in 1966 believing the American Dream would give his life meaning. By age 21, he was helping run one of the largest cocaine operations in North America, earning millions of dollars each month, yet he had never felt more empty.

George Valdes, author of Coming Clean: The True Story of a Cocaine Drug Lord and His Unexpected Encounter with God, ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, addiction kept Ryan Stewart at a distance from nearly everyone around him. For years, he tried to manage it alone, convinced that asking for help meant losing control. But when things began to fall apart, the people around him stayed. Friends, counselors, and even strangers showed up in ways he never expected. Recovery came slowly, marked by setbacks and quiet progress, but each step forward...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in February 1861, Assistant Surgeon Bernard John Dowling Irwin volunteered to lead just 11 soldiers on a dangerous mission to rescue troops surrounded by Apache warriors in what became known as the Bascom Affair.

The History Guy shares how Irwin earned the first Medal of Honor by date of action and how one misunderstood confrontation helped spark the Apache Wars, a conflict that would...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 2009, Scott Stewart found himself spiritually, emotionally, and financially broken. Sixteen years later, a 2.4-mile open-water swim off Cape May, New Jersey, became the moment everything came into focus.

Scott shares how one extraordinary day in the ocean transformed years of quiet spiritual growth into a life-changing awakening. We'd like to thank our regular contributor, Leslie L...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Barry Meguiar, CEO of Meguiar's, set out to buy a 1901 automobile simply because it matched the founding year of his family's company. What he discovered after the auction surprised even one of the world's foremost car collectors.

Barry shares the remarkable story of the rare Duryea brother's automobile he believes is the only car ever made to honor God, and how its history has given ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Billy the Kid lived just 21 years, but he became one of the most enduring figures of the American West. Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier, separates fact from fiction, tracing Henry McCarty's journey from orphan to outlaw, the Lincoln County War that made him famous, and the legend that outlived him.

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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 more than any textbook could teach:...

On this episode of Our American Stories, our regular contributor from South Carolina, Dennis Peterson, shares the story of Dicey Langston, an American Revolutionary War heroine who, at the age of 15, saved her family and fellow patriots from one of the most notorious gangs of Loyalist outlaws of the time: the so-called "Bloody Scouts."

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On this episode of Our American Stories, from bifocals and the cotton gin to the automobile and the iPhone, America has a long history of inventions that changed the world. But not every invention was born from necessity—some were created simply for fun. In this episode, author Natascha Biebow joins us to share the colorful true story of Edwin Binney, the inventor of Crayola crayons, as told in her children's book The Crayon ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, born in San Salvador, El Salvador, Carlos Aguilar arrived in Chicago, Illinois, as a refugee after his family fled the country's civil war. By his teenage years, he was caught in gang life and headed down a dangerous path.

Then a Marine recruiter unexpectedly pulled into his driveway. Carlos shares how that chance encounter, his grandmother's unwavering faith, and one heartbreaking pr...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Vincent "Rocco" Vargas never expected his family's immigration story to shape his own life so profoundly. After serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, he became a U.S. Border Patrol agent, where he often saw reflections of his own grandmother in the people he encountered along the Rio Grande.

Vargas, author of Borderline: Defending the Home Front, shares a dee...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1975, Bill Daniels watched his Utah Stars basketball team collapse into bankruptcy, leaving creditors and season ticket holders unpaid. The law said he owed them nothing, but he never stopped thinking about the promises he had made.

Bill Daniels, the pioneer of cable television whose values inspired the Daniels Fund, and others share the astonishing story of why he spent years...