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.
How Grief Pulled a Physician Into Addiction and Out Again
“Apple of Your Eye” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions
On this episode of Our American Stories, as part of his ongoing series on the origins of everyday expressions, Andrew Thompson—author of Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red—shares the fascinating backstory behind the phrase “apple of your eye” and several others we still use without thinking. These familiar sayings carry histories shaped by religion, literature, and everyday life in earlier centuries. Thompson traces how these expressions traveled through time, how their meanings shifted, and why they continue to resonate in modern speech.
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Black Bart Uncovered: The True Story of the Old West’s Most Unlikely Outlaw
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ralphie’s fantasy villain in A Christmas Story came from a dime novel that turned a real outlaw into a cartoon desperado. The actual Black Bart was nothing like the character on screen. In the 1870s, he robbed stagecoaches with a courtesy that puzzled sheriffs and captivated the public, leaving polite poems instead of violence. Roger McGrath looks back at the life of Charles Boles, a man whose quiet manners and curious habits made him one of the most successful and most unexpected bandits in Old West history.
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The Note a Dad Wrote for His Daughter Who Sees the World Her Own Way
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Jeff Katz wrote a birthday note to his daughter Julia, he was marking a moment she would not recognize. Julia lives with global developmental delays, and her days move with a rhythm that has stayed the same for years. Still, the note gave Jeff a place to set down what life with her has looked like, from the small routines she loves to the concerns he quietly carries. As he reads it aloud, he reflects on how raising Julia has shaped him in ways he never expected.
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How Lorne Michaels and a Band of Unknowns Built Saturday Night Live
On this episode of Our American Stories, Scot Bertram and Christian Schneider have spent years tracing the unlikely beginnings of Saturday Night Live, and they return to share how the show first took shape. They follow its earliest days, when a quiet Canadian named Lorne Michaels gathered a scattered group of young performers and tried to build something that didn’t exist yet. What emerged was a late-night experiment that caught the country’s attention and set the rhythm for modern sketch comedy.
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The Friendship That Changed What No Treatment Could
On this episode of Our American Stories, back when Lorna Jean was struggling through the darkest stretch of her life, she didn’t expect anyone to come close. Then Allison, the wife of her doctor, paused on her rounds one afternoon and stepped into Lorna’s room. What started as a hesitant conversation slowly turned into a place Lorna could trust. Over the years, that friendship helped her weather crises, make sense of her own mind, and feel less alone in a world that often overwhelmed her. Lorna shares how that connection formed and why it has stayed with her for decades.
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From Fired High School Dropout to Owning D.C.’s Best Taco Chain!
On this episode of Our American Stories, when immigrant Osiris Hoil lost his construction job during the economic downturn of 2008, it felt like the kind of setback that ends a dream. He had left Mexico with hope for something better, only to find himself caught in the same financial crisis that pushed so many families to the brink. What he still had was his cooking, his mother’s standards, and a neighbor who believed he could turn those gifts into something real.
With that encouragement, Hoil began what would become District Taco, a business that grew through persistence rather than luck. Osiris shares how that unlikely beginning took shape during one of the hardest moments in recent economic history.
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The Young Commander Who Refused to Give Up the Ship
On this episode of Our American Stories, in September 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry sailed into the Battle of Lake Erie carrying a flag stitched with a promise not to give up the ship. He was young, outmatched on paper, and facing a British fleet that had dominated the early naval battles of the War of 1812. What followed was a decisive victory that reshaped the conflict and secured Perry’s place as one of its defining figures.
Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project returns to this moment to explain how Perry’s resolve, his crew, and a shifting wind altered the course of the war.
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The Night an Iowa Underdog Beat the Boston Celtics
On this episode of Our American Stories, for a brief moment, Iowa found itself on the map of professional basketball. The Waterloo Hawks arrived with modest expectations and ended up claiming a win that still startles anyone who follows the early years of the league. They beat the Boston Celtics, then faded from view as quickly as they appeared. Tim Harwood, author of Ball Hawks: The Arrival and Departure of the NBA in Iowa, tells the story of how a small Midwestern town became the home of an NBA franchise and how that unlikely chapter continues to echo through local sports history.
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The Shocking Story Behind the Diamond Engagement Ring
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Tom Zoellner found himself holding a diamond engagement ring with no wedding ahead of it, he began to wonder how a single piece of jewelry had come to carry so much weight. That question sent him far from the jewelry counters where most people shop for engagement rings and deep into the long history behind them. His search led to Victorian engagement traditions, the rise of diamond marketing, and the complicated story of how a proposal ring became a cultural expectation. Tom shares how his journey reshaped the way he understood love, loss, and the meaning we assign to the things we wear. Check out his book The Heartless Stone for more of the story!
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