Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, for a brief moment, Iowa found itself on the map of professional basketball. The Waterloo Hawks arrived with modest expectations and ended up claiming a win that still startles anyone who follows the early years of the league. They beat the Boston Celtics, then faded from view as quickly as they appeared. Tim Harwood, author of Ball Hawks: The Arrival and Departure of the NBA in Iowa, tells the story of how a small Midwestern town became the home of an NBA franchise and how that unlikely chapter continues to echo through local sports history. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Tom Zoellner found himself holding a diamond engagement ring with no wedding ahead of it, he began to wonder how a single piece of jewelry had come to carry so much weight. That question sent him far from the jewelry counters where most people shop for engagement rings and deep into the long history behind them. His search led to Victorian engagement traditions, the rise of diamond marketing, and the complicated story of how a proposal ring became a cultural expectation. Tom shares how his journey reshaped the way he understood love, loss, and the meaning we assign to the things we wear. Check out his book The Heartless Stone for more of the story! Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Kent Nerburn became known for his reflections on manhood and love, he was a young man circling the edges of his own life. That changed during a quiet afternoon in graduate school, when his friend Craig offered a gentle observation that revealed more about human nature than any book ever could. Craig understood what many struggle to see: people respond to interest, not perfection. Kent shares how a single gesture helped him move past the anxious self-image that once held him still and taught him what true social skill looks like from the inside out. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the turbulent years after the Revolution, settlers west of the mountains felt the weight of distance from the governments that claimed them. Their answer was to imagine a new state named Franklin, a place shaped not by polished politics but by the realities of frontier life. The Appalachian Storyteller traces how this fragile experiment rose and unraveled, revealing a moment when the boundaries of early America were still unsettled and ordinary people tried to shape a future that never quite arrived. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 restless imagination shaped the world that would become Where the Wild Things Are—a story that opened the door to a new kind of children’s literature and revealed just how powerful a picture book could be. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Indian Wars did not begin with a single event or a single clash. They formed slowly along the edges of a growing nation, where unfamiliar customs and competing claims to land created a series of misunderstandings that deepened over time. But why did Native Americans and settlers enter into a conflict that lasted for centuries? Here to tell the story is Ken LaCorte, host of the popular YouTube channel Elephants in Rooms. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, candy corn, black licorice, and circus peanuts have been on American shelves for generations, and whether you love them or hate them, they're here to stay. But their longevity is more curious than their questionable (or delicious!) taste. Each came from a different corner of early candy history, shaped by manufacturing experiments and changing ideas about what exactly a treat should be. The History Guy traces the origins of these three polarizing confections and explains how they've managed to continue to divide opinions for years. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, the Allied invasion of Normandy depended on more than military force. It required convincing Germany that the real attack would land somewhere else, and that task fell to one man working deep inside a world of fragile alliances and invented identities. Juan Pujol García, known to British intelligence as Agent Garbo, built an entire network of fictitious sources and delivered reports so convincing that German command relied on them without question. His work became one of the most striking examples of double-agent strategy in modern espionage, shaping the deception that shielded D-Day from German defenses. The late, great Stephen Ambrose tells Agent Garbo’s story. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when crowds wandered through Coney Island in the early twentieth century, they expected oddities, tricks, and performers who lived on the edge of spectacle. What they did not expect were rows of premature infants resting inside newly designed infant incubators. The exhibit belonged to Dr. Martin Couney, a man who operated far from traditional medical circles yet devoted his life to caring for babies who had almost no chance of survival anywhere else. His work unfolded in a setting that looked more like entertainment than medicine, but it forced the public to confront ideas that the established medical community had been slow to accept. Author Dawn Raffel traces how Couney’s unusual path ended up shaping medical innovations that would define modern neonatal care. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jim Johnson has a habit of meeting people who stay with him long after the moment has passed. Everett Motl was one of those people—the kind you remember because something about their presence settles in and refuses to fade. What began as a small acquaintance turned into a story Johnson now carries into the holiday season, a reminder that the most meaningful Christmas stories often start in ordinary places. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, every Sunday, Our American Stories host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel “Big Mitch” Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment. Today’s conversation starts with a different kind of introduction. Lee brings his friend Bo onto the line, hoping Mitch can help him think through a difficult decision. Mitch listens and responds with a patience he’s earned over decades of hard-learned experience. Speaking with Bo brings him back to the person who first taught him to talk to others with that kind of steadiness. He remembers Sister Lillian, the woman who encouraged him to take responsibility for his actions and to pay close attention to how his choices affected those around him. Her death from breast cancer in 2015 left a quiet ache, and Mitch talks about how her influence continues to shape him even now. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jimmy Hawkins began acting when television was still defining itself, moving from show to show with the ease of a child who learned the business early. Viewers eventually recognized him from programs that shaped mid-century entertainment, but one of his first roles connected him to a film that would outgrow its modest beginnings. In 1946, Hawkins played Tommy Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, joining a production that made little noise on release and gained its reputation only after years of quiet rediscovery. Jimmy Hawkins looks back on that experience and the work that surrounded it, offering a grounded view of how the film came together and how the film found its place in American culture. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, pinball’s story winds back to a quiet corner of European parlor culture, where small tabletop games offered a brief challenge to anyone willing to try their luck. Those early ideas eventually migrated to America, where the game weathered citywide crackdowns and the tests of time. As the tables grew more complex, the machines slipped into public rooms that gave them steady use and helped shape the early world of classic arcade games. Jeremy Saucier of The Strong Museum of Play lays out how that path unfolded and how pinball machines became the fixtures they are today. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early 1920s, WSM filled its schedule with whatever talent it could gather, and one night a fiddler stepped into the studio with a tune that settled easily across the airwaves. The reaction from listeners changed the station’s direction. The music felt local in the best sense of the word, and the signal carried it into homes that had never heard anything like it. Those moments revealed how quickly a simple performance could influence the American music history taking shape around the radio. The Grand Ole Opry emerged within that momentum, and Nashville followed along with the shift. The influence created a bridge between regional tradition and the broader landscape of country-western music, giving the early threads of country-music origins a steady place to land. Craig Havighurst, author of Musicality for Modern Humans, joins us with a look into how WSM and the Opry reshaped Nashville’s music history and left a mark that continues to guide the way the city sounds today. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, what does it mean when a highway that no longer exists still carries more recognition than the roads that replaced it? Route 66 was born out of a practical need to move people across long distances, yet it quickly grew into something else entirely. Its motels, garages, and storefronts formed a line of small anchors through the heart of the country, each one shaping the rhythm of life along the pavement. Parts of old Route 66 have disappeared, but the imprint remains. Historian Jim Hinckley traces the winding tale of Route 66’s history, from its early promise to its quiet revival. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 phrases "in a nutshell" and "in the doghouse" 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! Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before travelers drove the Pike’s Peak Highway or stood at the summit that rises more than fourteen thousand feet above Colorado, a determined young officer named Zebulon Pike set out to understand the far edge of a country still finding its shape. Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project traces how Pike’s early failures, his encounters with Spanish authorities, and his later military service shaped the story behind the peak that still carries his name. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Stephen Ambrose spent his life showing readers that the heart of history lives in the people who shape it. His gift for storytelling made complex events feel personal, and that gift continues to resonate long after his passing in 2002. Thanks to the stewardship of his estate, his work can now be heard here at Our American Stories. In this installment of his D-Day series, Ambrose explores the decisive role General George Patton played in the push across Europe and explains how Patton’s leadership helped turn momentum into victory. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Hollywood gave the Lone Ranger his mask and his horse, the Old West was full of riders and lawmen whose real stories were far more compelling. The History Guy shares the life of Bass Reeves, an African American Deputy U.S. Marshal who kept order across a violent and rapidly changing frontier. His work as a tracker and lawman became part of the folklore that later reached radio, comics, and television. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the war in Afghanistan was still unfolding, many Americans only saw brief clips on the news. Peter Braxton lived it at twenty-two years old. His first combat mission came with no slow introduction. He lifted off, crossed into Afghan airspace, and heard the words that still stay with him: “You are getting shot at.” His story offers a grounded look at the human side of the Afghanistan war, the stress of long missions, and the weight carried by the United States military members who served there. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.