Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the mid-20th century, families desperate for answers turned to a radical procedure known as the lobotomy. It was sold as a cure for everything from depression to schizophrenia, but its brutal methods left thousands of patients permanently damaged. At the center was Dr. Walter Freeman, a man whose name became synonymous with transorbital lobotomy and the dark side of psychosurgery. Yet from these failures came progress. The shortcomings of lobotomy forced doctors and scientists to pursue safer, more effective ways to treat mental illness, ultimately laying the groundwork for modern brain surgery.

Dr. Theodore Schwartz, neurosurgeon, professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, and author of Grey Matters, shares the story of how a medical misstep opened the door to innovation and helped transform the future of neurosurgery.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, growing up across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Richard Herzog found refuge from a troubled home on the playing field. Sports gave him confidence and a place to belong. Then a trusted teacher abused that trust, leaving Herzog with wounds he would spend decades trying to understand.

Herzog, author of Paydirt, shares how football eventually brought him to Ole Miss and later to a championship-winning career as a coach. But no victory could erase his past. Through therapy, recovery, faith, and forgiveness, Herzog finally confronted what had happened to him and found a new purpose: helping other male survivors of sexual abuse understand that what happened to them does not have to define the rest of their lives.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492, convinced he could reach Asia across the Atlantic. He was wrong about where he was going, wrong about the size of the world, and yet skilled and determined enough to complete a voyage that would change it forever. Over four expeditions, Columbus explored the Caribbean, encountered peoples unknown to Europeans, pursued gold and converts, and struggled disastrously to govern the colonies he helped establish.

Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The Four Voyages, shares the complicated story of the ambitious mariner behind the legend.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, for years, Lowell Lytle put on a captain's uniform and portrayed Edward J. Smith at Titanic exhibits around the country. The ship became an obsession, but Lytle never imagined it would take him to the place where its story ended. Then, at 68 years old, he climbed inside a Russian submersible and descended two and a half miles into the Atlantic. Waiting for him in the darkness was the wreck of the Titanic.

Lytle shares what it was like to come face-to-face with the ship he had spent years studying and the realization about life and death that struck him on the ocean floor. He also tells the story of Reverend John Harper, a Baptist minister who survived the sinking only to spend his final moments in the freezing Atlantic trying to save the souls of those around him.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, David Klein loved candy so much that he studied candy bars as a kid, sold popcorn out of the back of his car, and eventually walked away from a career in law to make sweets his life. Then, in 1976, with just $800 to his name, Klein had an idea: reinvent the ordinary jelly bean. He dreamed up unusual flavors, found a manufacturer willing to make them, and gave his creation a name that would soon be known around the world: Jelly Belly.

David Klein himself shares how he turned a crazy idea into a national sensation, only to lose control of the candy he created.

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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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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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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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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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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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