Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, before television and smartphones, there were front porches, and there were storytellers. For Dennis Peterson, the greatest storyteller he ever knew was his grandfather, Frederick Newman “Paw” Summers, an East Tennessee jack-of-all-trades whose tales could keep neighbors, friends, and family listening for hours.

Dennis, a regular contributor to Our American Stories, s...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before air conditioning, summer shaped how people worked, where they lived, and which cities could survive in the heat. That all began to change in 1902, when Willis Carrier designed a machine to solve humidity problems in a printing plant. His invention transformed the air around us and reshaped modern life forever.

Jesse Edwards, a frequent Our American Stories contributor...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Sally Grove was growing up, she thought she knew her father. He was a soft-spoken Maryland family man who loved fishing, hunting, and spending time with his children. But after he died unexpectedly when Sally was just twenty years old, she discovered a small notebook hidden among his belongings that revealed an entirely different side of him.

It was his World War II diary, and it...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1859, a pig wandered onto the wrong farm and sparked an international standoff. The United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over a single hog on San Juan Island, in what is now Washington State. History teacher and Our American Stories regular contributor Anne Clare shares the story of the strange chain of events that followed, when pride, politics, and a dead pig led...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Jeanne Bishop's pregnant sister, Nancy, and her brother-in-law, Richard, were murdered in their own home, her world shattered. The killer, a sixteen-year-old neighbor, was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison, but no sentence could undo the loss or answer the deeper question of how to move forward after such a tragedy.

For years, Jeanne worked to honor her sister's m...

On this episode of Our American Stories, born into wealth, privilege, and chronic illness, Theodore Roosevelt seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of America's most energetic and transformative presidents. Yet through sheer determination, he reinvented himself as a rancher, war hero, reformer, and political force whose larger-than-life personality captivated the nation.

When an assassin's bullet thrust Roosevelt into t...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Maurice Sendak had a rare ability to look at childhood without sentimentality. He understood its private fears and its unruly joys, and he tried to give those feelings a place to live on the page. That effort shaped the work that made him, for many, the defining children’s book artist of the twentieth century.

Our own Greg Hengler traces how Sendak’s early life and restles...

On this episode of Our American Stories, most children eventually outgrow paper airplanes. John Collins never did. What began as a childhood fascination with folding paper and experimenting with flight grew into a lifelong passion that led him to become the Guinness World Record holder for the farthest paper aircraft flight at 226 feet, 10 inches.

John shares the story of decades spent designing, testing, and refining paper ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when World War II called, the Wilson family of Iowa answered. One by one, five brothers left home to serve their country, while their parents and siblings waited anxiously for news from across the globe.

Our regular contributor Joy Neal Kidney shares the story of her uncles, the five Wilson brothers, and the sacrifices their family made during the war years. It is a deeply personal st...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Michael Jackson’s career made him one of the most recognizable and most scrutinized people on the planet. As his fame grew, so did the attention on his appearance, especially his skin color. What the public saw was a dramatic lightening over time. What they didn’t know was that Jackson was living with vitiligo, a medical condition that strips the skin of its pigment. Simon Whistl...

On this episode of Our American Stories, no horse had claimed the Triple Crown in 25 years until Secretariat lined up at the Belmont. What happened next stunned the world. With the crowd on its feet, Secretariat sprinted into history, delivering a performance so dominant it's still studied today. This is the story of the race that made him a legend and left the sport forever changed.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the late 1950s, a shy teenager from Southern California seemed destined for stardom. As Ritchie Valens rocketed from local dances to national fame, hits like “La Bamba” and “Donna” helped make him one of the brightest young stars in rock and roll.

Discovered and mentored by producer Bob Keane, Valens's rise was as rapid as it was remarkable. Keane shares the...

On this episode of Our American Stories, few writers have ever changed the course of history the way Thomas Paine did. His pamphlet Common Sense electrified the American colonies, helped turn public opinion toward independence, and inspired ordinary Americans to support the Revolution. Later, his American Crisis essays rallied George Washington's troops during some of the darkest days of the war.

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