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 Pretty Big Deal in West Mineral, Kansas
The Battle of Monocacy, The Union Loss That Saved Washington, D.C.
On this episode of Our American Stories, on July 9, 1864, the Union army suffered a loss... that just so happened to save the United States and help solidify Lincoln's re-election.
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Liquor and The Law: Taking a Bottle of Wine to the Supreme Court
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Tennessee officials told Doug and Mary Ketchum they couldn't run their liquor store in Memphis, they took it to the Supreme Court... and won.
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My Coming of Agency Moment: Staying in My School
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ian Rowe took full responsibility for what he believed was right. He sized up the assumption that his public school becoming all black in one year would make it worse - and committed 100% to staying there to make it the very best.
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The Vincent van Gogh of Acting? HINT: He Played "Fredo"
On this episode of Our American Stories, it’s a well-known bit of movie trivia that all 5 films in which actor John Cazale appeared were nominated for Best Picture, and three of them received the Oscar. John Cazale played one of the most iconic characters in film history: Fredo Corleone from The Godfather. Yet today, most people don’t know his name. Here to tell this story is Jonjo Powers, author of A Small Perfection: John Cazale and the Art of Acting.
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50 Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy—The Plow, Barbed Wire, and Google Search
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tim Harford, author of the bestselling book 50 Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy, shares the stories of three inventions that changed the way we live today.
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Zuzu’s “Wonderful Life”: The Story of Karolyn Grimes
On this episode of Our American Stories, our next storyteller has the privilege of being in one of the most beloved movies of all time (It's a Wonderful Life)—while, at the same time, and from the same movie—also has one of the most famous lines in movie history. Her story is as wonderful as both of these accomplishments.
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The Woman Who Wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb" Is the Godmother of Thanksgiving?
On this episode of Our American Stories, Thanksgiving used to be one of many days—"If you planned your itinerary carefully, you could have a good Thanksgiving dinner every day between Election Day and Christmas Day." That all changed when a songwriter worked long and hard to crystallize American culture as distinct from that of Britain - including by a new official holiday in the midst of the Civil War.
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The Great Thanksgiving Cranberry Scare of 1959
On this episode of Our American Stories, 400 million pounds of cranberries are consumed by Americans each year. Twenty percent of that is during the week of Thanksgiving. That's 80 million pounds! And 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce are consumed by Americans every holiday season. Here’s the History Guy to share the story of the Great Cranberry Scare of 1959.
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The Real Story of the First Thanksgiving
On this episode of Our American Stories, Thanksgiving is the only American holiday that has actually remained relatively innocent—it’s not something that we have been able to commercialize. But there’s something going on here more than feasting, family, and football. Robert Tracy McKenzie is a professor of history at Wheaton College and is the author of The First Thanksgiving. He’s here to tell us the story of this quintessentially American holiday.
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