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 Richest Woman of the Klondike Gold Rush
Caring for My Dying Husband Made Life Worth Living
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Tracy Grant’s husband became terminally ill, their lives shifted from planning for the future to paying close attention to the present. Over the next seven months, Tracy became her husband’s caregiver in every sense of the word. She managed medications and appointments, but she also found herself rediscovering the core of their marriage.
Tracy joins us to reflect on those final months and why the season that looked like a loss from the outside became, for her, a profound and life-altering gift.
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Letting Your Daughter Grow Up
On this episode of Our American Stories, there is a moment when you realize the toys are still in the room, but they are no longer being played with. Our regular contributor, Stephen Rusiniak, remembers the years when his daughter’s world revolved around stuffed animals, bedtime stories, and the small rituals of early childhood. He also remembers the first time he saw her step away from all of it, when she got rid of her Easy-Bake Oven.
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The Story of America: The Constitution Was Built for Disagreement [Ep. 10]
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the summer of 1787, delegates gathered in Philadelphia to draft what would become the Constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation had proven too weak, and the young nation faced a basic question: How should power be divided in a republic made up of very different states?
The answer became known as the Great Compromise: a House based on population and a Senate with equal votes for every state. In our 10th episode of our ongoing Story of Us—The Story of America series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of how the Constitution was designed with our most partisan attributes in mind.
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The Dentist in the Wheelchair, and the Road That Led There
On this episode of Our American Stories, on November 9, 1991, fifteen-year-old Hayden Perkins was driving home through the Mississippi Delta when a strong gust of wind pushed his SUV off the highway. The vehicle rolled, and he was thrown through the windshield, eventually leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
He returned to school in a wheelchair and, in time, returned to the question every teenager faces: what comes next? Prior to his accident, dentistry was never on his mind. But, years later, it became his main profession. Hayden joins us to share that harrowing story of that afternoon and how that path led him to his practice in Oxford, Mississippi, today.
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The Missionary Who Carries a Gun in War-Torn Burma
On this episode of Our American Stories, in parts of Burma, civilians live between armed groups with little protection. The Free Burma Rangers move into those areas to treat the wounded and help families escape.
Founded by former Green Beret Dave Eubank, the group blends military training with humanitarian work. Their missions include medical rescue, documentation of human rights violations, and direct support for displaced communities. Dave joins us to tell his story.
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Phillis Wheatley: From Africa to America’s First Published Black Poet
On this episode of Our American Stories, Phillis Wheatley was brought from Africa to Boston as a child and enslaved. Within a few years, she was reading classical literature and writing poetry that would be published in 1773 in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.
Leslie Johnson of The American Village revisits Phillis Wheatley’s life, her poetry on slavery and faith, and the uneasy place she held in a nation demanding liberty while denying hers.
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From a Displaced Persons Camp to Funding Brain Research
On this episode of Our American Stories, when the Soviets took control of Lithuania at the end of World War II, Audrey Gruss’s parents fled. After time in a displaced persons camp in Germany, they came to the United States, sponsored by relatives in Newark, New Jersey.
Her mother, Hope, later developed severe depression at a time when mental illness was rarely discussed and poorly treated. Following her mother's death, she decided to establish a depression research foundation to help those like her mother receive the kind of care she never received. Audrey joins us to discuss her parents' courageous escape and how she honors her mother through her work every day.
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Eli Whitney and the Origins of American Mass Production
On this episode of Our American Stories, before interchangeable parts became standard in factories, they were an idea in need of proof. And Eli Whitney saw opportunity in that idea.
Seeking federal backing, he promoted the concept that muskets could be assembled from uniform, standardized pieces. That claim pointed toward the future of American manufacturing. Here to tell the story is Ashley Hlebinsky. Ashley is the former co-host of Discovery Channel’s Master of Arms, the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and president of The Gun Code, LLC.
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The Couple the Catholic Church Wouldn’t Marry
On this episode of Our American Stories, despite the church's refusal to annul a previous marriage, this couple spent days together for decades, all the while upholding their traditional values. And despite never exchanging vows, even death couldn't part them. Tom Ryan, an Our American Stories listener, shares the story.
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