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.
David Klein: The Man Who Invented Jelly Belly (and Lost It All)
Edie Hand: When Being the Strong One Gets Lonely
On this episode of Our American Stories, Edie Hand grew up on 40 acres of rolling hills in Burnout, Alabama, where some of her happiest memories were made inside an old family barn. There were horses to ride, mud pies to make, sweet potatoes waiting after school, and brothers to run around with. Her beloved grandmother Alice was never far away. To Edie, the barn was more than a building. It was the place where she felt safe, free, and certain that a little girl could grow up to become anything she wanted.
Years later, Edie found herself longing for that place and for something she had wanted since childhood: a closer relationship with her mother. Everyone thought of Edie as "the strong one," but being strong could be a lonely thing. With the old barn gone and many of the people who filled it now gone too, Edie shares a deeply personal story about mothers and daughters, the burden of always being strong, and what it means to spend a lifetime searching for home.
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The Small Act of Courage That Led to 54 Years of Marriage
On this episode of Our American Stories, Lori Coan was on her second date with a boy she wasn’t sure about when something happened that would change her mind and her life. A group of troublemakers tripped a girl with polio, sending her sprawling in front of everyone. Most of the students laughed or looked away. Lori’s date didn’t. He jumped up, helped the girl to her feet, and gave her dignity back in a moment when she had been robbed of it.
To Lori, that simple act of courage said more than words ever could. That boy would later become her husband, and together they would build a marriage lasting over fifty years. What began as a small act of kindness in a high school cafeteria became a lifelong partnership built on respect, compassion, and strength. We'd like to thank our regular contributor, Leslie Leyland Fields, for giving us the lead on this story.
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The Story of America: The Civil War Begins [Ep. 29]
On this episode of Our American Stories, Abraham Lincoln entered the Civil War with no military experience and no blueprint for putting down a rebellion of eleven states. The Union had more men, more factories, more railroads, and a powerful navy. But none of those advantages guaranteed victory. After the disaster at Bull Run, Lincoln had to build an army almost from scratch, find generals willing to use it, and convince a divided Northern public to endure a war that was already proving longer and bloodier than almost anyone had imagined.
In Episode 29 of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of America series, Hillsdale College professor Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of how the most dire struggle America had yet faced unfolded during the first two years of the Civil War.
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How George Washington's Bible Survived 9/11
On this episode of Our American Stories, when George Washington took the oath of office in 1789, his hand rested on a Bible that would become one of America’s most treasured artifacts. That same Bible was on loan to Fraunces Tavern, a Revolutionary War landmark near the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001. After the towers fell, the search for survivors gave way to the search for the dead and eventually to a search for the missing Bible.
Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the remarkable story of how Washington’s inaugural Bible was recovered after 9/11.
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Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of Four Generations in the FDNY
On this episode of Our American Stories, William M. "Bill" Feehan spent his life fighting fires in New York City. He rose through every uniformed rank in the FDNY, survived the department's brutal "War Years" of the 1970s, and became one of its most respected leaders. Firefighting was also a family tradition. For four generations, the Feehans had answered the same call, building a legacy of service that stretched back to the sons of Irish immigrants.
Brian McDonald, author of Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of Four Generations in the FDNY, shares the story of the Feehans and nearly a century of firefighting in New York. That history reached its most tragic chapter on September 11, 2001, when 71-year-old Bill Feehan responded to the World Trade Center. He was still there, serving alongside another generation of New York firefighters, when the North Tower came down.
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FDNY Fireboats and the Largest Water Evacuation in History
On this episode of Our American Stories, on September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of people reached the southern tip of Manhattan and found themselves trapped between a city under attack and New York Harbor. Then a call went out over the radio: "All available boats." Ferries, tugboats, fireboats, and private vessels converged on the waterfront and began taking people aboard. By day's end, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people had escaped Manhattan by water in the largest waterborne evacuation in American history.
Dr. Mike McGee, author of All Available Boats, shares the story of the fireboats that answered the call, including the John D. McKean and the retired John J. Harvey.
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Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO Remembers 9/11 and the Brother He Lost
On this episode of Our American Stories, when the planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald was left devastated. The investment firm’s offices spanned the upper floors of the North Tower, leaving no chance of escape. In less than an hour, 658 employees were gone—more lives than any other company lost that day. Among them was the brother of CEO Howard Lutnick. For Lutnick, the grief was immediate and deeply personal, but so was the responsibility. He had to lead a company hollowed out by tragedy while caring for the families who had lost everything. What followed was a story not only of survival, but of loyalty, rebuilding, and the weight of memory.
Howard Lutnick reflects on Cantor Fitzgerald’s darkest day and the colleagues and friends who never came home.
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They Will Be Remembered: Tony Dolan's Tribute to America's Fallen
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tony Dolan was inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck on September 11, 2001. In the years that followed, he met young servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without arms or legs, some of them determined to recover so they could rejoin their units. He watched generals address wounded enlisted men as "sir" and met families carrying losses so profound that even a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer struggled to find the right words.
The late Dolan reflects on the wounded warriors, fallen servicemen, and military families he encountered after 9/11. Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, his tribute honors those who sacrificed years, limbs, and sometimes their lives so that millions of Americans could receive what Dolan called "the gift of the future, the gift of tomorrow."
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Faith and Friendship After the 9/11 Pentagon Attack
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jocelyn Green didn’t lose anyone on September 11, but she still felt the weight of that day in ways she couldn’t have predicted. Living just a few miles from the Pentagon, she saw how quickly fear moved through a neighborhood. What surprised her was what came next: people showing up for each other in quiet, steady ways.
Over time, she found herself thinking more about how faith fits into grief and how friendships sometimes grow strongest in the shadow of crisis.
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