Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, before the United States had a flag or a White House, it had George Washington. He led a band of farmers and tradesmen against the most powerful empire on earth and earned their loyalty by sharing in their struggle and fighting by their sides. When the war was won, the world waited for him to take the throne they assumed was his. Instead, he laid down his sword and went home, setting a precedent for term limits that lasted until FDR took office almost 150 years later.

Vince Benedetto, the CEO of Bold Gold Media Group, tells the story of a man who shaped a nation by choosing humility over glory.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, a constitution can promise its people all kinds of rights. But what happens when the government becomes powerful enough to ignore them? For Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Constitution protected liberty not simply by guaranteeing rights, but by dividing power so that no person or institution could easily control the government.

In a 2011 appearance before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Scalia explained why an independent judiciary, a separately elected president, and two houses of Congress were designed to restrain one another. What Americans sometimes call "gridlock," he argued, was not necessarily a flaw. It was part of the system protecting their liberty. Here's the late Justice Scalia himself to explain.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when America's Founders set out to build a republic, they looked backward for guidance. Ancient Greece and Rome offered lessons in democracy, republican government, citizenship, and the dangers that had caused free governments to collapse. The Founders studied those successes and failures carefully as they wrestled with how political power could be divided, restrained, and ultimately placed in the hands of the people.

Dr. Kenneth Calvert of Hillsdale College shares how the political ideas of the ancient world helped shape the Constitution and the American experiment in self-government.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution can both be read in just a few minutes, but together they transformed the course of history. Dr. Larry P. Arnn explains why America's founding documents were unlike anything the world had ever seen and why they still matter today.

Dr. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College and author of The Founders' Key, explores the timeless principles of limited government, representative democracy, and natural rights that continue to define the American experiment.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, a century ago, professional football was a gamble few people believed would pay off. Players worked factory jobs during the week and battered one another on dirt fields on the weekend. Teams appeared and disappeared, crowds were small, and owners sometimes risked everything they had just to make it to the next game. Somehow, out of that chaos, the National Football League survived.

John Eisenberg, author of The League, shares how a handful of determined owners kept professional football alive long enough to transform a struggling sport into an American institution.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippines during World War II, a group of American nurses found themselves caught in the fighting on Bataan. Evacuation was still possible, but they chose to stay. In makeshift hospitals carved out of the jungle, they cared for wounded soldiers through heat, bombardment, and disease. Supplies disappeared. Food ran out. Still, they worked—often through the night—using what little they had to keep their patients alive.

Our regular contributor Anne Clare tells the story through one of those nurses, whose strength carried her through surrender and years of captivity. Together, they became known as the Angels of Bataan.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, John Adams carried the weight of a nation that was still fragile and untested. He was the second president of the United States, a man caught between loyalty to his principles and the demands of politics. The late historian David McCullough shares Adams’ story not as a list of accomplishments—but as the life of a husband, father, and revolutionary who believed deeply in the republic he helped create.

We’d like to thank the John Adams Institute for allowing us to share this story with our listeners.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, at 19 years old, Donna Martin had a plan. She was going to leave Forest, Mississippi, spend the summer working as a lifeguard in Yosemite, and use her days off to drive over to Hollywood and become a movie star. It sounded simple enough. Then she got to California and discovered that Yosemite wasn't exactly next door to Hollywood, her summer job involved more than sitting beside a swimming pool, and life away from home wasn't quite what she had imagined.

Donna shares the funny and deeply personal story of the summer that sent her searching for something bigger and the long road that eventually brought her right back home to Mississippi.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, on the night of March 21, 1984, the USS Kitty Hawk was cutting through the Sea of Japan when a Soviet submarine suddenly surfaced directly in its path. For days, the nuclear-powered K-314 had been stalking the American carrier group. Then, somehow, they lost track of the Kitty Hawk. By the time she surfaced and spotted the 80,000-ton aircraft carrier bearing down on it, there was no time to get out of the way. With American and Soviet forces suddenly facing each other across a damaged submarine, both sides now had another challenge: making sure an accident at sea didn't become something far more dangerous.

The History Guy shares the remarkable story of the Cold War collision between two warships carrying nuclear weapons.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Mike and Deborah Bailey lost their daughter Ashlynn to a fentanyl overdose, their world stopped. For months, they wrestled with heartbreak and rage, knowing the man who sold her the drugs was still alive. Then their son came to them with a quiet conviction: he wanted to forgive the dealer. What began as an act of faith became a family’s path to healing.

The Baileys wrote a letter offering forgiveness—not to excuse the pain, but to release its hold on their hearts. They believed that letting go was the only way to honor their daughter’s spirit. Their story is a powerful testament to grace in the face of loss and to the strength it takes to choose love when everything else falls apart.

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