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 Story of America: The Frenchman Who Wrote About America Better Than Any American [Ep. 23]
How Two Civil Rights Lawyers Ended Red-Light Camera Tickets
On this episode of Our American Stories, when red-light cameras began appearing across Missouri, many drivers saw them as little more than an annoyance. Civil rights attorneys Hugh Eastwood and Bevis Schock saw something else: a system that issued tickets to vehicle owners regardless of who was driving, generated millions in revenue for local governments, and raised serious questions about due process and fairness.
Hugh and Bevis share the story of how they challenged the red-light camera industry, took on cities and private contractors, and helped bring an end to one of Missouri's most controversial traffic enforcement programs.
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How the Wright Brothers Beat the World to the Sky
On this episode of Our American Stories, before they made history, the Wright brothers were just two mechanics with a theory. Their shop in Dayton kept the lights on, but it was their time on the beaches of North Carolina that changed the world. While others with greater resources failed to get off the ground, Wilbur and Orville studied what moved through the air and why. In 1903, after years of testing and quiet experimentation, they lifted off the sand and became the first men to achieve powered flight, with a journey that lasted just 12 seconds.
Our own Lee Habeeb shares the story.
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How My Dad's Cancer Saved Our Relationship
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Willy Lensch's father was diagnosed with cancer, the news brought fear, uncertainty, and the prospect of loss. It also opened a door that had been closed for decades.
As father and son spent more time together, old grievances began to fade, difficult truths were finally spoken, and a relationship that once seemed beyond repair slowly transformed. For our Final Thoughts series, Willy reflects on the unexpected blessing hidden inside a family tragedy and the final chapter that changed both their lives. This story originally appeared in The Boston Globe.
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How One Gross Invention Added Decades to Human Life
On this episode of Our American Stories, before modern sanitation, cities were filthy, drinking water was often contaminated, and diseases like cholera and typhoid killed hundreds of thousands of people. Life in even the world's greatest cities could be dangerous, all because of a problem most people would rather not talk about.
Our own Greg Hengler explores the surprising history of the toilet, sewer systems, and sanitation, tracing their evolution from ancient Rome to modern America. Along the way, he tells the story of the inventors, engineers, and public health pioneers whose overlooked innovations helped add decades to human life and made modern civilization possible.
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My Grandfather Was the Best Storyteller I Ever Knew
On this episode of Our American Stories, before television and smartphones, there were front porches, and there were storytellers. For Dennis Peterson, the greatest storyteller he ever knew was his grandfather, Frederick Newman “Paw” Summers, an East Tennessee jack-of-all-trades whose tales could keep neighbors, friends, and family listening for hours.
Dennis, a regular contributor to Our American Stories, shares a warm tribute to the grandfather who embodied the rich storytelling tradition of Southern Appalachia and helped preserve a way of life now fading into memory.
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The Surprising History of Air Conditioning and the Man Behind It
On this episode of Our American Stories, before air conditioning, summer shaped how people worked, where they lived, and which cities could survive in the heat. That all began to change in 1902, when Willis Carrier designed a machine to solve humidity problems in a printing plant. His invention transformed the air around us and reshaped modern life forever.
Jesse Edwards, a frequent Our American Stories contributor, shares the story of how this once-overlooked breakthrough became one of the most important inventions in American history.
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I Thought I Knew My Father Until I Read His World War II Diary
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Sally Grove was growing up, she thought she knew her father. He was a soft-spoken Maryland family man who loved fishing, hunting, and spending time with his children. But after he died unexpectedly when Sally was just twenty years old, she discovered a small notebook hidden among his belongings that revealed an entirely different side of him.
It was his World War II diary, and its pages told the story of a young soldier who crossed the Rhine under enemy fire, was wounded in combat, and survived capture by German forces. Sally shares the remarkable story of how an old notebook helped her see her father not just as Dad, but as a young man whose courage, faith, and perseverance carried him through the war and shaped the life he built afterward.
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Why the U.S. and Britain Nearly Went to War Over a Pig
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1859, a pig wandered onto the wrong farm and sparked an international standoff. The United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over a single hog on San Juan Island, in what is now Washington State. History teacher and Our American Stories regular contributor Anne Clare shares the story of the strange chain of events that followed, when pride, politics, and a dead pig led to armed troops, tense negotiations, and the possibility of war.
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Twenty Years After My Sister's Murder, I Wrote to Her Killer
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Jeanne Bishop's pregnant sister, Nancy, and her brother-in-law, Richard, were murdered in their own home, her world shattered. The killer, a sixteen-year-old neighbor, was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison, but no sentence could undo the loss or answer the deeper question of how to move forward after such a tragedy.
For years, Jeanne worked to honor her sister's memory while refusing to let hatred consume her. Then, more than two decades after the murders, she took an extraordinary step: she wrote a letter to the man who had killed her family. Jeanne shares the remarkable story of grief, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the lesson she learned from her sister's final act of love. Be sure to check out her book, Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister's Killer.
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