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.
How a Sick Child Inspired the Jacuzzi
The British Outcast Who Founded the Smithsonian
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 increase and diffuse knowledge.” That gift created the Smithsonian Institution, a collection that would grow into the world’s largest museum complex.
Wyatt Hensley, a history education major at the University of Pittsburgh and a two-time winner of Constituting America’s We the Future contest, shares the story.
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Faith, Forgiveness, and Healing After Years of Abuse
On this episode of Our American Stories, as a teenager on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, Valerie Habeeb endured years of sexual abuse by an older man who exploited the absence of her father and the vulnerability she carried with her. She kept what happened secret for years, carrying shame, anger, and pain into adulthood even as the people around her believed she had everything together.
Lee Habeeb shares his wife’s journey of faith and forgiveness, from reconciling with her mother and the father who had abandoned her to eventually forgiving the man who abused her. Through her Christian faith, Valerie came to believe that forgiveness did not erase the past, but freed her from being ruled by it.
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My Mom Told Me Not to Come Home Until I Had a Job
On this episode of Our American Stories, at 16, Russ Jones planned to spend his summer sleeping in. His mother had other ideas. One morning in 1976, she pulled off the covers and told him she did not want to see him again until he had found a job.
After spending the day applying all over Kansas City, Russ finally walked into the Carriage Club and landed a job as a busboy. Russ reflects on the first job that helped shape the way he has approached work ever since.
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Louis Zamperini's Story—in His Own Words
On this episode of Our American Stories, Olympian, World War II airman, Pacific castaway, and prisoner of war, Louis Zamperini lived one of the most extraordinary lives in American history. In this rare recording, he tells his own remarkable story—from his troubled childhood and the 1936 Berlin Olympics to surviving 47 days adrift at sea, enduring brutal captivity in Japan, and ultimately finding peace through forgiveness and faith.
While Unbroken introduced millions to Zamperini's story, some of its most powerful chapters were left out of the film. You'll hear them here—from Louis himself.
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From Mafia to Ministry: Robert Borelli’s Story
On this episode of Our American Stories, Robert Borelli once believed the Mafia offered the clearest path to power. As a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, he set out to become a gangster, drawn to the respect, money, and status he saw around him. Instead, that path led him in and out of prison, and eventually to rock bottom.
But inside a jail cell, at his lowest point, Borelli cried out to God for change. What followed was a transformation that gave him a new purpose in life, one rooted in faith and service to others.
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Elena Kagan Remembers Antonin Scalia: The Justice Who Changed Legal Thinking
On this episode of Our American Stories, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia often approached the Constitution from very different directions, but Kagan admired his intellect, his writing, and the enormous influence he had on American law.
Speaking at the dedication of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, Kagan reflects on Scalia’s role in advancing textualism and originalism, his gift for challenging students, and the wit and confidence that made his opinions impossible to ignore.
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Darryl Strawberry: From Baseball Stardom to a Life Redeemed
On this episode of Our American Stories, Darryl Strawberry reached the heights of Major League Baseball, but success could not heal the wounds he carried from childhood. Raised with an abusive, alcoholic father, Strawberry says rejection and anger helped drive him toward greatness on the field while leaving him vulnerable to addiction, broken relationships, and a life that eventually spiraled far beyond his control.
Strawberry shares the story of how faith changed the course of his life, how his wife Tracy challenged him to stop defining himself by the uniform he once wore, and how forgiveness finally brought him face-to-face with the father who had hurt him most. Darryl's book is Turn Your Season Around: How God Transforms Your Life, be sure to check it out!
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The Real Doc Holliday Behind the Tombstone Legend
On this episode of Our American Stories, Doc Holliday is one of the most famous figures of the American Old West, known for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Movies and television have turned him into a legend, but the real Doc Holliday was far more complicated than the popular portrayals suggest.
Historian Roger McGrath joins us to tell the true story of John Henry “Doc” Holliday—the Southern dentist who became a gambler, gunslinger, and enduring figure of frontier history.
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John Cazale: The Greatest Actor You Don't Know
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Cazale never became a movie star. He never received an Academy Award nomination, and his film career lasted only six years. Yet Al Pacino considered him an acting idol, Meryl Streep fell in love with him, and every one of the five films he appeared in was nominated for Best Picture.
Jonjo Powers, author of A Small Perfection: John Cazale and the Art of Acting, shares the remarkable story of the man who brought Fredo Corleone to life, made some of Hollywood's greatest actors better, and died at just 42 years old with a nearly perfect body of work behind him.
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