Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, centuries before it was called “The Big Apple,” New York was a patch of wilderness at the edge of the Atlantic. Dutch settlers built their homes along the Hudson, the British renamed it New York, and over time, it grew into the beating heart of modern America. From the brownstones of Brooklyn to the lights of Times Square, every corner tells a story of growth and grit. Our Americ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, two men, born generations apart, helped shape the course of American history. Booker T. Washington emerged from the aftermath of slavery, founding the Tuskegee Institute and preaching the power of education and self-determination. Decades later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. carried that torch into the modern civil rights movement, leading through nonviolent protest and faith in the promise of ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Brad Server grew up like millions of kids, glued to reruns of The Three Stooges and laughing at the slapstick chaos of Curly Howard, Larry Fine, and Moe Howard. What he didn’t know was that one of the most famous comedians in the world wasn’t just his hero but his grandfather. For years, his family had kept the truth hidden. Curly’s fame was complicated, shadowed ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, after the last of his children packed their bags and left, Paul found himself with too much time and an overwhelmingly quiet home. Rather than give in to empty-nest syndrome, he chose to spend his days doing something that mattered. When he first walked into the nursing home where he planned to volunteer, he didn’t expect to find friendship in its grumpiest resident. Wilbur wasn’...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his dark tales and haunting poems, yet his imagination stretched far beyond the macabre. Behind the tragedies that shaped his life was a writer who helped define Gothic literature, pioneered detective fiction, and even ventured into the earliest forms of science fiction. Chris Semtner, curator at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, reveals the wit, creativ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before air travel became routine, flight was a dangerous experiment. In 1908, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge climbed into a fragile biplane beside Orville Wright, ready to test the limits of a new invention that had barely left the ground. When a propeller snapped midair, the airplane crashed near Fort Myer, Virginia. Wright survived with severe injuries; Selfridge did not, becoming the first ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, James Smithson was born into wealth but denied a name. As the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, he spent his life pursuing science instead of status, studying minerals and publishing quietly across Europe. In his will, Smithson made a choice no one expected: he left his fortune to the United States, a nation he had never visited, with the condition that it be used “to inc...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the hills of Vermont, a boy named Wilson Bentley fell in love with snow. Each flake, he noticed, was fleeting and perfect, gone before he could study it. Determined to keep their beauty from melting away, he began experimenting with photography in his family’s farmhouse. On January 15, 1885, at twenty years old, Bentley succeeded in taking the first photograph of a snowflake. Using ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the New York Public Library opened its doors in 1911, one family already called it home. John Fiedler, the building’s first superintendent, moved in with his wife, Cornelia, and their two sons while the library was still under construction. Their apartment sat on the mezzanine level overlooking Bryant Park, and it was there that their daughter, Viviani, was born in 1917. The Fiedl...

On this episode of Our American Stories, it started as a snowed-in night behind a funeral parlor and ended with a mystery worthy of a campfire story. Our American Stories listener Tom Ryan shares the tale of his grandmother, a quick-witted mortician who faced down an escaped convict, a closed casket, and a secret that stayed buried for years.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 2017, Rhode Island grower Joe Jutras set a world record with a green squash weighing 2,118 pounds, earning a place among the largest fruits and vegetables ever grown. Reaching that milestone took years of experimenting with soil science and meticulous care from planting to harvest. Joe explains how patience, timing, and an understanding of growth cycles can turn an ordinary garden into a ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1892, the quiet town of Fall River, Massachusetts, became the scene of one of America’s most famous unsolved murder mysteries. Andrew and Abby Borden were found brutally killed with an axe, and suspicion quickly turned to Andrew’s daughter, Lizzie. What followed was a trial that transfixed the nation, blending questions of class, gender, and justice into a public spectacle tha...

On this episode of Our American Stories, no one prepares for the silence that follows birth. For Samantha Durante Banerjee, that silence carried both devastation and grace. Her daughter, Alana, was stillborn, and in the hours that followed, Samantha experienced the depth of grief that comes after stillbirth — but also the rare beauty of finally holding her baby. Through grief and healing, she learned that sorrow can live alon...

On this episode of Our American Stories, it started in a bathroom, where a man trapped in addiction waited to make another bad decision. Pastor Greg Laurie didn’t know what he was walking into—only that something told him to go. Inside, he found a man on the edge: tired, angry, and ready to give up. Instead of turning away, Greg spoke about grace, and in that small, stained room, something began to shift.

The encounter ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the summer of 1942, the war in the Pacific was slipping away. Japan’s navy dominated the ocean, and the United States was still reeling from Pearl Harbor. Then came Midway. What began as a desperate gamble became one of the most astonishing turnarounds in World War II. American intelligence cracked Japan’s code, and the battle was on. America's victory at Midway Atoll shifted ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Disneyland opened in 1955, the world had never seen anything like it. Walt Disney had spent years dreaming of a place where stories could be touched—where families could explore imagination as if it were real. But opening day was far from Walt's dream come true. Rides broke down, fake tickets slipped through the gates, and the California heat softened the pavement underfoot. Still...