Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, for years, Lowell Lytle put on a captain's uniform and portrayed Edward J. Smith at Titanic exhibits around the country. The ship became an obsession, but Lytle never imagined it would take him to the place where its story ended. Then, at 68 years old, he climbed inside a Russian submersible and descended two and a half miles into the Atlantic. Waiting for him in the darkness was the wreck o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, David Klein loved candy so much that he studied candy bars as a kid, sold popcorn out of the back of his car, and eventually walked away from a career in law to make sweets his life. Then, in 1976, with just $800 to his name, Klein had an idea: reinvent the ordinary jelly bean. He dreamed up unusual flavors, found a manufacturer willing to make them, and gave his creation a name that would s...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Edie Hand grew up on 40 acres of rolling hills in Burnout, Alabama, where some of her happiest memories were made inside an old family barn. There were horses to ride, mud pies to make, sweet potatoes waiting after school, and brothers to run around with. Her beloved grandmother Alice was never far away. To Edie, the barn was more than a building. It was the place where she felt safe, free, ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Lori Coan was on her second date with a boy she wasn’t sure about when something happened that would change her mind and her life. A group of troublemakers tripped a girl with polio, sending her sprawling in front of everyone. Most of the students laughed or looked away. Lori’s date didn’t. He jumped up, helped the girl to her feet, and gave her dignity back in a moment whe...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Abraham Lincoln entered the Civil War with no military experience and no blueprint for putting down a rebellion of eleven states. The Union had more men, more factories, more railroads, and a powerful navy. But none of those advantages guaranteed victory. After the disaster at Bull Run, Lincoln had to build an army almost from scratch, find generals willing to use it, and convince a divided ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when George Washington took the oath of office in 1789, his hand rested on a Bible that would become one of America’s most treasured artifacts. That same Bible was on loan to Fraunces Tavern, a Revolutionary War landmark near the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001. After the towers fell, the search for survivors gave way to the search for the dead and eventually to a search for ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, William M. "Bill" Feehan spent his life fighting fires in New York City. He rose through every uniformed rank in the FDNY, survived the department's brutal "War Years" of the 1970s, and became one of its most respected leaders. Firefighting was also a family tradition. For four generations, the Feehans had answered the same call, building a legacy of service that stretched back to the sons o...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of people reached the southern tip of Manhattan and found themselves trapped between a city under attack and New York Harbor. Then a call went out over the radio: "All available boats." Ferries, tugboats, fireboats, and private vessels converged on the waterfront and began taking people aboard. By day's end, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald was left devastated. The investment firm’s offices spanned the upper floors of the North Tower, leaving no chance of escape. In less than an hour, 658 employees were gone—more lives than any other company lost that day. Among them was the brother of CEO Howard Lutnick. For Lutnick, the grief wa...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tony Dolan was inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck on September 11, 2001. In the years that followed, he met young servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without arms or legs, some of them determined to recover so they could rejoin their units. He watched generals address wounded enlisted men as "sir" and met families carrying losses so profound that even a Pu...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jocelyn Green didn’t lose anyone on September 11, but she still felt the weight of that day in ways she couldn’t have predicted. Living just a few miles from the Pentagon, she saw how quickly fear moved through a neighborhood. What surprised her was what came next: people showing up for each other in quiet, steady ways.

Over time, she found herself thinking more about how ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Noah Webster believed winning the Revolution was only the beginning. If Americans were going to become a truly independent people, he thought they needed to stop speaking, spelling, and learning like the British. So the stubborn and obsessive Connecticut writer set out to give the new nation a language of its own. His schoolbooks taught generations of American children, his spelling reforms ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the height of the Cold War, the United States worked tirelessly to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in the global arms race. Safeguards were put in place to prevent the accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons, including special systems known as Permissive Action Links, or PAL codes.

But for almost two decades, the launch code for America’s nuclear arsenal was just...

On this episode of Our American Stories, John Humphrey had been told his heart could stop without warning. Doctors had discovered a dangerous arrhythmia, and surgery was coming. But before the procedure, John wanted one more chance to take the mound with his teammates. His parents watched from the bleachers. An AED sat nearby in case his heart failed. Then John went out and pitched the game of his life, striking out 14 batters and ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Ed Sullivan couldn't sing, dance, act, or tell a joke. He wasn't even particularly comfortable in front of a camera. Yet for more than two decades, millions of Americans tuned in every Sunday night to watch him introduce the biggest names in entertainment. It was an unlikely destination for a poor kid from Harlem who spent years chasing success as a sportswriter, gossip columnist, and radio ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, by 1864, the Confederacy was losing the Civil War on the battlefield. But hundreds of miles behind Union lines, Confederate agents were fighting a very different kind of war. Working out of secret bases in places like Montreal, they gathered intelligence, plotted acts of sabotage, worked with Northern antiwar activists, and searched for ways to disrupt the presidential election and ignite an...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1942, Elizabeth and Robert Dexter took charge of the Unitarian Service Committee's relief office in Lisbon, Portugal, as Jews and other desperate refugees fled Nazi-occupied Europe. Many arrived without valid papers, having crossed borders illegally and hidden in freight trains, vegetable carts, and anywhere else they could find safety. With Portuguese authorities watching their operation...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1847, Samuel Colt's firearms business was all but dead. Then Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker came to him with an idea for a massive new revolver built for mounted combat. Walker had carried Colt's earlier guns in battle and knew exactly what he wanted improved. Together, the two developed a six-shot revolver unlike anything American soldiers had carried before. The Colt Walker...

On this episode of Our American Stories, from the American Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement, the biblical prophet Daniel has served as an enduring American symbol of courage in the face of unjust authority. His refusal to abandon his faith, even when threatened with the lions' den, offered Americans a powerful example of standing firm when human laws conflicted with a higher moral law.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, co-aut...