Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Thompson shares another slice of his guide to understanding the baffling mini-mysteries of the English language, this time diving into how the phrase “bring home the bacon” came to be. His book, Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions and Fun Phrases, is a must-read. Be sure to check it out!

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Paul decided it was time to get serious about weight loss, he went all in on the kind of fitness plan that looks sensible on paper and slightly unhinged in practice. He wrestled with machines that never moved, counted laps he could never quite remember, and kept trying to turn discipline into something he enjoyed. His journey through healthy eating habits and gym-floor humility becomes ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, John Ford was already shaping the Golden Age of film, the force behind classics like Stagecoach and The Informer, when World War II pulled him toward a different kind of frontier. At forty-seven, with Hollywood at his feet and a reputation as one of America’s greatest directors, Ford walked away from the studio lot and into the U.S. Navy. Historian and Wild-West expert R...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the Oklahoma City bombing shattered the Murrah Building, people were left searching for something that made sense. The investigation into Timothy McVeigh was only just beginning, and the shock of the tragedy had not yet lifted. Billy Graham arrived in a city that felt suspended between grief and disbelief. His sermon offered language for a moment no one knew how to describe, and many re...

On this episode of Our American Stories, every country has moments it would rather not rewatch, and the Palmer Raids sit high on America’s list. What began as scattered bomb scares and loud political rhetoric slowly slid into mass arrests, borderless investigations, and a government convinced that civil liberties were optional when the stakes felt high enough. Larry Reed unpacks how fear, politics, and a restless Justice Depa...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Enrique had lived a long, dignified life at the St. Louis Zoo when age finally caught up to his feet. Arthritis doesn’t care whether you’re human or penguin, and soon every step told his keepers something needed to change. What followed wasn’t a grand breakthrough so much as a series of small experiments that eventually pointed toward an idea no one expected — shoes. ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Christmas settled into the shape we know, the holiday moved through centuries of reinvention. Early Europeans marked the dark stretch of winter with fire and evergreens, while later religious debates pushed the season in new and sometimes unexpected directions. By the time America embraced Christmas as a public holiday, it had gathered customs from many cultures and carried stori...

On this episode of Our American Stories, every December, families chase the idea of a perfect Christmas tree. Sometimes you find it standing in a snowy field. Sometimes you find it in a grocery-store parking lot when the sun’s already down, and the good ones are gone. Jim Johnson knows that chase better than most. His search took him through freezing Minnesota afternoons, crowded tree farms, and a few humbling lessons about r...

On this episode of Our American Stories, the most famous reindeer in the world was voiced by someone most people have never heard of. Billie Mae Richards, a Canadian actress and mother of five, gave Rudolph his voice in the 1964 holiday special that became a staple of American television. She recorded the part in just a few hours, never expecting the character to last. What followed were decades of reruns, toy lines, and a place in...

On this episode of Our American Stories, every winter, the same question makes its rounds: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? It premiered in the heat of July, packed with explosions instead of sleigh bells, but something strange happened once audiences got hold of it. The film began drifting toward December as if it had been invited all along. Stephen Follows walks us through that slow migration, pulling together the data, the pa...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Harvard is often defined by its oldest traditions and its most privileged stories, but some of its lasting influence came from students who began far from that world. James Bradley Thayer and Chauncey Wright grew up in the rural corners of Massachusetts at a time when Harvard seemed reserved only for Boston’s elite. Their path into the university reshaped their lives in uneven ways, re...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Elvis Presley’s Christmas album has become a holiday staple, but the story behind it is more surprising than you might think. Greg McDonald was there in the early days, when Colonel Tom Parker was just beginning to shape the Elvis brand. Here’s Greg sharing the story of how the King of Rock and Roll was convinced to lend his voice to Christmas music, changing the season forever.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Zolli Candy grew from an idea Alina Morse tested at her kitchen counter. She wanted a sweet that could support healthy teeth, and the search for that solution pulled her into the early steps of entrepreneurship. Those small steps opened up a world of opportunities, leading to Alina being the youngest person ever to appear on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine! Alina joins us to tel...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before jazz became a subject for textbooks and framed posters, it lived in families like the Gozzards. Harry Gozzard never worked the factory lines that defined Detroit. His world unfolded late at night, horn in hand, moving from club to club as the big band era held on. His son, Georges, traces those memories across cities and seasons and remembers what it felt like to watch a parent step i...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in December 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was in mourning. His wife had died in a fire two years earlier. His son had been wounded in the Civil War. And the country itself felt beyond repair. That Christmas, he sat down and wrote a poem about the sound of church bells, one that began in sorrow and ended with a quiet return to hope. The words were later set to music and became “I Hea...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early nineteenth century, Philadelphia lived with a contradiction. It called itself a free city, yet kidnapping rings operated within it and pulled Black residents back toward the world of slavery. Thomas Shipley was one of the few abolitionists who cared about each person who went missing. He infiltrated murderous mobs, warned would-be victims, and testified against ringleaders throu...

On this episode of Our American Stories, the history of classic Christmas songs is a story shaped by accidents, migrations, and reinventions. A poem written for one parish grew into a carol that crossed borders. A melody carried across continents found new life in American churches. Other pieces resurfaced during political upheaval and eventually settled into the traditions we now recognize. Together, they formed the foundation of ...