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.
Annie Oakley: Sharpshooter, Showwoman, American Legend
When One Man’s Faith Helped Free 33 Trapped Chilean Miners
On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg Hall wasn’t looking for fame when Chile’s government asked for help rescuing 33 trapped miners. A businessman and Catholic deacon from Texas, he simply believed he could make a difference. Over 69 tense days, Hall and his team drilled through solid rock to reach the men the world feared were lost. He later said it was God who guided every turn of the drill.
While the film The 33 told the story, Hall’s name was left out, which suited him just fine. For him, the miracle wasn’t the credit. It was that all 33 men saw daylight again.
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Weapons of WWII With Stephen Ambrose: Jeeps, Trucks, Horses, and Poison Gas
On this episode of Our American Stories, World War II is remembered for its tanks, bombers, and revolutionary weapons, but much of the fighting still depended on railroads, trucks, and even horses. Historian Stephen Ambrose explains how America's remarkable ability to move men and supplies helped give the Allies a decisive advantage. From the rugged Jeep and the workhorse “deuce and a half” truck to the amphibious DUKW, American vehicles transformed the way armies fought and moved. Meanwhile, despite the fearsome reputation of Germany's mechanized forces, German and Soviet armies still relied heavily on horses to carry the burdens of war.
Ambrose also explores one weapon that cast a terrifying shadow over World War II but was largely absent from Europe's battlefields: poison gas. The horrors of chemical warfare in World War I were still fresh in the minds of soldiers and commanders. Although the major powers stockpiled enormous quantities of chemical weapons, the fear of retaliation helped keep them from being unleashed.
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Lava Girl Returns: Why Taylor Dooley Left Hollywood and Came Back 15 Years Later
On this episode of Our American Stories, at just 13 years old, Taylor Dooley became a familiar face to millions of children when she starred as Lava Girl in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. But behind the excitement of Hollywood came an endless cycle of auditions, rejection, and the mounting pressures of growing up in the movie business. Watching their daughter struggle, Taylor's parents made a decision she couldn't understand at the time. They pulled her out of acting and sent her back to an ordinary high school, bringing her Hollywood career to an abrupt halt.
Fifteen years later, Taylor Dooley shares why she now considers that decision one of the greatest blessings of her life. Away from the cameras, she found her faith, went to college, got married, became a mother, and discovered a life far richer than the one she had imagined for herself as a child star. And just when she thought Hollywood was behind her, director Robert Rodriguez came calling with an unexpected invitation: reprise her childhood role as Lava Girl in Netflix's We Can Be Heroes.
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Before He Became an Antiwar Candidate, George McGovern Flew 35 Combat Missions
On this episode of Our American Stories, on a bombing mission over Austria during World War II, George McGovern faced a moment that would haunt him for the next 40 years. His battered B-24 was struggling home when his crew was forced to release a bomb stuck in the bomb bay. McGovern watched helplessly as it fell onto a farmhouse below, never knowing what became of the people inside. It was one of 35 combat missions he flew as a young pilot, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross. That same day, thousands of miles away, his first daughter was born.
Historian Stephen Ambrose, author of The Wild Blue, shares the remarkable story of McGovern's wartime service and the astonishing discovery he made four decades later.
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The Story of America: The Most Divided Election in American History [Ep. 16]
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1800, the United States faced one of the most uncertain moments in its early history. Tensions that had been building since the 1796 presidential race came to a head as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson battled for the future of the country. There’s a reason it is considered one of the most divisive elections in American history. Tensions ran so high that many feared the republic might split apart. When Thomas Jefferson ultimately emerged as the winner of the election of 1800, the nation witnessed something rare in history: a peaceful transfer of power.
As part of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of Americaseries, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of this defining election.
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How the Senate Candy Desk Became a Capitol Hill Tradition
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1965, California Senator George Murphy started a sweet tradition, literally. He began stocking his desk on the Senate floor with candy to share with his colleagues. That desk, now known as the “Senate Candy Desk,” remains a Capitol Hill tradition to this day.
Jesse Edwards shares the history, mystery, and origins behind one of the Senate’s most interesting traditions.
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The Time FDR Tried to Change the Date of Thanksgiving
On this episode of Our American Stories, most Americans grew up thinking Thanksgiving had always fallen on the same Thursday in November. In Lincoln’s time, it was set on the last Thursday of November, and that practice settled in for generations. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted the holiday earlier, hoping a longer shopping season would lift a struggling Depression-era economy. The change split the country, with some governors following FDR and others keeping the old date. For a few years, families marked Thanksgiving on different Thursdays depending on where they lived.
Melanie Kirkpatrick walks us through why FDR and Thanksgiving became linked in a calendar fight and how Congress finally fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.
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From 55 Cents an Hour to Maglite: The Immigrant Behind the “Cadillac of Flashlights”
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tony Maglica was born in New York but spent much of his childhood in Croatia, where World War II brought foreign occupation, hunger, and the constant threat of violence. When he returned to the United States in 1950, he arrived with little money, a limited command of English, and no clear path forward. He took whatever work he could find, eventually discovering a gift for machining that carried him from New York to Colorado and finally California. There, with just $125 in savings and a determination to work for himself, he opened a small machine shop that would grow into Mag Instrument, the company behind the world-famous Maglite flashlight.
Tony Maglica shares his extraordinary journey from war-torn Europe to the heights of American manufacturing, explaining how he built one of America's most recognizable brands and why he has remained so determined to keep his flashlights made in the USA.
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Why Boston Stood by Edwin Booth After His Brother Assassinated Lincoln
On this episode of Our American Stories, after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, the Booth name became synonymous with betrayal. But his older brother Edwin Booth was already one of America’s most celebrated actors, with deep roots in Boston and a reputation as a loyal supporter of the Union.
Historian and Our American Stories regular contributor Christopher Klein shares the story of how prominent Bostonians rallied around Edwin even as other members of the Booth family faced threats, arrest, and suspicion. Within a year, Edwin returned to the Boston stage to a thunderous welcome, even as the shadow of the Lincoln assassination threatened to erase his family’s legacy.
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