Our American Stories

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 habit settled in for generations. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted the holiday earlier, hoping that 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, and 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 to a calendar fight and how Congress finally fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Donna’s daughter Cassie was diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, everyday life became harder to manage. Donna realized their family needed a different way to live, something that gave Cassie steady structure and gave others with special needs a place to belong. So they opened a resale shop and built it around employment opportunities for special needs adults. What began as a way to help Cassie soon became a workplace where people who often struggle to find special needs employment could feel supported, capable, and needed. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Eisenhower’s name sits on the interstate signs, but Charles Zug wanted to understand whether he truly deserved that place in history. His work traces the creation of the Federal Highway Act and shows how the idea of national road building developed long before Eisenhower reached the White House. Zug explains the moment when the plan finally gained momentum and why the change reshaped daily life across the country. Zug is an Assistant Professor of Constitutional Democracy and Political Science at the University of Missouri, a Jack Miller Center fellow, and the author of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act. 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 years of the war, the United States was preparing its soldiers and building an army that was not yet ready for a direct fight in Europe. Britain, still recovering from being pushed off the continent, knew it could not return to France without risking another disaster. Both nations wanted to stop Germany, yet neither could strike at its center. The opening they needed appeared in North Africa, a place that allowed them to enter the conflict on land while learning how to operate as partners. Years later, the late historian Stephen Ambrose would trace how this moment taught both nations what cooperation in wartime actually looked like. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Tom Waits has a voice and style that feel carved out of another world, yet many people first meet his work through other artists. One of his earliest songs, “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You,” is a perfect example. It drifted from Waits’ small club beginnings to the radio through bands like 10,000 Maniacs, much like “Downtown Train,” “Ol’ 55,” and other Waits originals that became hits in someone else’s hands. In this Story of a Song, we explore how a simple tune about a missed chance at love became one of Waits’ most quietly enduring pieces. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Chuck Colson once operated at the center of Washington power as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon. Watergate brought that world crashing down, sending him into a federal prison and into a reckoning he never expected. In this final interview before his passing, Colson looks back on the scandal, the time behind bars, and the shift in faith that shaped the rest of his life. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Joy Neal Kidney has always loved Thanksgiving, and it makes perfect sense why. Her family was there at the first one. One branch survived a fall from the Mayflower in the middle of the ocean, and another began with a child who lost both parents before being taken in by a family whose story led straight to that early gathering. Joy shares why the holiday has always felt personal to her. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, for years, Heather McPherson knew only fragments about her great-uncle, a young officer who served with the 29th Division during World War II. His name was Ralph Ferguson, and he was among the Allied troops who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He died soon after during the push inland, one soldier among many lost during the invasion of Europe. When Heather set out to learn more about him, the search grew into something larger. It took her through records of World War II losses, personal accounts from the Normandy landings, and finally to the riverbank where he fell. That personal journey shaped her calling. Today, she works as a curator who protects the stories of the men and women who served, including the one that set her own path in motion. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Abigail Adams was raising her children near Boston when the first major clash of the American Revolution exploded across the harbor. She brought seven-year-old John Quincy to the top of Penn Hill, and they watched the Battle of Bunker Hill in real time. They saw Charlestown burn, heard the cannon fire roll across the water, and felt the fear that swept through families as British soldiers clashed with the colonial army. Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, explains how this moment fit into the growing American Revolution timeline and why the Bible became the source Abigail leaned on as the war for independence closed in on her home. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but he did something far more lasting. He took a rough idea and turned it into a tool that ordinary families could afford and understand. Historian Richard Snow tells the story from its beginning in a small woodshed, where Ford worked through long nights trying to build a machine that could move under its own power. What followed reshaped American travel, industry, and daily life for years to come. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, before audiences knew him from Green Acres, Roman Holiday, or The Heartbreak Kid, Eddie Albert had already survived one of the most brutal battles of World War Two. Historian and Our American Stories regular contributor, Roger McGrath, shares the story of the young actor who paused his rising Hollywood career, joined the Navy, and found himself piloting a landing craft at Tarawa, where thousands of Marines were killed or wounded in only a few days. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, by the final year of World War Two, American forces were closing in on Nazi Germany, and General George Patton stood at the center of that push. Historian Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Soul of Battle, discusses why Patton’s approach to leadership was shaped by his belief that the slow use of power in a conflict of that scale cost more lives than it saved. Hanson walks through Patton’s record in Europe, the end of the war, and the moral reasoning behind the choices he made when entire nations were at stake. We'd like to thank our generous sponsors, Hillsdale College, for this audio. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Jackie Robinson changed Major League Baseball, a group of long-haired ballplayers from a religious commune in Michigan stepped onto fields where others weren’t welcome. Formed at the House of David in Benton Harbor, the team barnstormed the country and played with anyone who loved the game, including talented Black players shut out of the majors. Their mix of skill, humor, and conviction made them one of the most recognizable teams of their era, and their willingness to stand beside excluded athletes helped shift attitudes long before the MLB integrated. Chris Siriano shares how this unlikely team left its mark on the history of baseball and on the early fight for equality. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, before most American women could vote, Belva Lockwood stepped into a legal world that never intended to make room for her. Born on a small farm in 1830, she pushed her way into the courtroom and became the first woman in the United States permitted to argue before the Supreme Court. Her work reshaped American law and challenged long-standing assumptions about who could stand before the bench. Along the way, she pressed for equal pay, fought for access to education, and even mounted two presidential campaigns—all while raising her daughter alone after tragedy struck her family. Janine Turner, creator of the musical Just Call Me Belva! and founder of Constituting America, shares the story of a woman who refused to accept the limits her country placed on her. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when the First Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia, the delegates arrived anxious about what Britain might do next and unsure of what they themselves should do. Before they argued or planned, they asked for prayer. The passage read that morning landed with surprising force and settled the room in a way no debate could have. Here to tell the story is Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America: Defining Moments That Shaped Our Enduring Foundation of Faith. 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. In our fifth installment, Mitch reflects on the faith that steadied him through decades behind bars. He's watched men lose themselves to anger, but he learned to hold fast to something larger. What kept him steady was the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the Book of Daniel, a reminder that faith holds even when freedom does not. The Bible became a map for endurance, guiding him toward forgiveness and the strength to keep teaching others to hope. Before ending the call, he turns to a favorite topic—football—and shares his prediction for the next Super Bowl. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, R.A. Dickey’s rise to a Cy Young Award made him the face of the modern knuckleball, but the story that shaped him started long before baseball noticed his talent. As a kid, he carried trauma he didn’t have words for and a silence that followed him well into adulthood. That silence eventually caught up to him, nearly costing him everything he had worked for. Dickey talks about the turning points that mattered most and how honesty, more than any pitch, gave him a way forward. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Jay Moore was known for his local history work, he was a grandson trying to finish something his grandmother could not. Her story of an infant buried long ago sent him looking for a cemetery she feared she would never see again. When he finally uncovered the grave, he helped give her the closure she had been missing for decades. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, at the center of JT Olson's Both Hands ministry is a straightforward mission: service and charity. Provide a widow with the repairs she needs and use that same project to help a family offset the cost of adoption. Volunteers spend a day painting, cleaning, repairing, and restoring, and donors support the effort, knowing every dollar moves a child closer to a permanent home. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the Beatles caused a stir, another British act crossed the Atlantic and changed American culture in its own quiet way. In 1868, a troupe of burlesque performers arrived onstage with a style that felt modern to a growing middle class and unsettling to the critics who expected theater to stay in its place. Our regular contributor, Ashley Hlebinsky, traces how this unlikely import managed to spark a small cultural shift. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.