Covering every hamlet and precinct in America, big and small, the stories span arts and sports, business and history, innovation and adventure, generosity and courage, resilience and redemption, faith and love, past and present. In short, Our American Stories tells the story of America to Americans.
About Lee Habeeb
Lee Habeeb co-founded Laura Ingraham’s national radio show in 2001, moved to Salem Media Group in 2008 as Vice President of Content overseeing their nationally syndicated lineup, and launched Our American Stories in 2016. He is a University of Virginia School of Law graduate, and writes a weekly column for Newsweek.
For more information, please visit ouramericanstories.com.
The Only Photographer Inside the Manhattan Project
The Estate Sale That Solved the Mystery of Alan Shepard's Moon Golf Balls
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the Moon. For decades, NASA never revealed their brand, and Shepard never publicly told the story.
Then an estate sale in Rogers, Arkansas, uncovered a signed photograph that led Joe Murfin to an extraordinary discovery involving Daisy Outdoor Products, a longtime public relations executive, and what may be one of the greatest untold stories of the Apollo program. Joe himself tells the tale.
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Why Victorian Women Fainted So Often: What Science Says Now
On this episode of Our American Stories, picture a crowded parlor in the 1800s. The air is heavy, the fire is roaring, and the women are laced into corsets that leave little room to breathe. In moments like these, fainting became common, so common that homes often had special couches set aside for recovery. What we now think of as a Victorian cliché was, for many women, an ordinary interruption to daily life.
Simon Whistler, host of Today I Found Out, explains how fainting reflected the health, fashion, and culture of the nineteenth century.
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Possum for Supper and Other Memories from the Great Depression
On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Great Depression, Joy Neal Kidney's family didn't eat strange food for fun. They ate what they could find. Sometimes that meant possum. Other times, it meant even less. But in the middle of the hardship, they found ways to stay connected, to laugh when they could, and to keep going.
Joy reflects on the meals that got them through and what they taught her. Joy is a regular contributor to Our American Stories and the author of Leora's Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.
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Abraham Lincoln's Most Dangerous Journey
On this episode of Our American Stories, Abraham Lincoln's presidency began long before he took the oath of office. During a 13-day journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., he faced secession, death threats, and a nation already coming apart.
Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington, shares the gripping story of the journey that tested America's president-elect before he ever entered the White House.
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The Irish Forced Across the Atlantic
On this episode of Our American Stories, most Americans know the story of Irish immigrants arriving during the Great Famine. Far fewer know about an earlier chapter, when thousands of Irish men, women, and children were forcibly removed from their homeland and sent across the Atlantic under English rule. Their story stretches from Viking raids to Cromwell's conquest and the earliest English colonies in the New World.
Colin D. Heaton, military veteran and co-host of the Forgotten History YouTube channel, shares this often-overlooked chapter of Irish history and explains why it remains one of the most misunderstood stories of the colonial era.
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King David and the Jewish Roots of America's Founding
On this episode of Our American Stories, why did America's founders and most important men keep turning to King David? From the Revolution to Abraham Lincoln's efforts to reunite the nation after the Civil War, the biblical king and his family helped generations of Americans understand courage, rebellion, leadership, and reconciliation.
For our ongoing series, Rabbi Stuart Halpern, co-author of The Jewish Roots of American Liberty, shares the story of the surprising influence of King David on the American experiment.
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How a Gravedigger Became a Hero: King Solomon and the 1833 Cholera Epidemic
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the summer of 1833, Lexington, Kentucky, was brought to its knees by a cholera outbreak. Entire families were lost in a matter of days, and fear spread faster than the disease itself. When the dead outnumbered the living willing to bury them, one man stepped forward.
His name was Solomon. Most people in town dismissed him as a drunk gravedigger. But in the middle of the crisis, he dug without stopping, gave the dead their dignity, and kept the city from collapsing under the weight of its own fear. Kentucky journalist Sam Terry tells the story of King Solomon, the unlikely hero whose redemption came in the middle of one of the deadliest epidemics in American history.
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The Redemptive True Story of a Cocaine Drug Lord
On this episode of Our American Stories, George Valdes fled Cuba with his family in 1966 believing the American Dream would give his life meaning. By age 21, he was helping run one of the largest cocaine operations in North America, earning millions of dollars each month, yet he had never felt more empty.
George Valdes, author of Coming Clean: The True Story of a Cocaine Drug Lord and His Unexpected Encounter with God, shares the remarkable story of how prison, his family, and an unexpected search for truth transformed his life.
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Recovery Began When I Stopped Doing It Alone
On this episode of Our American Stories, addiction kept Ryan Stewart at a distance from nearly everyone around him. For years, he tried to manage it alone, convinced that asking for help meant losing control. But when things began to fall apart, the people around him stayed. Friends, counselors, and even strangers showed up in ways he never expected. Recovery came slowly, marked by setbacks and quiet progress, but each step forward was built on trust and a willingness to let others walk with him.
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