Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1960, McDonald's franchise owner Lou Groen had a problem. His Cincinnati, Ohio, restaurant sat in a neighborhood that was 87 percent Catholic, and on Fridays, when many Catholics abstained from eating meat, his hamburger sales collapsed. With his struggling restaurant and his family's livelihood on the line, Groen came up with an idea: sell fish.

Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out and the Brain Food Show shares how Groen's creation helped turn a struggling Ohio franchisee into the owner of 43 McDonald's restaurants.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, from the American Revolution to the Civil War, the biblical prophet Elijah has played an important role in the American story, inspiring generations in their fights for liberty and justice.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, co-author of The Jewish Roots of American Liberty, shares how Elijah’s rebuke of the tyrannical King Ahab inspired Americans during the Revolution. His “still small voice” would later echo in the words of Frederick Douglass, while the story of his ascent to heaven found new life in the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1975, advertising copywriter Gary Dahl was sitting in a California bar listening to friends complain about the hassle of caring for their pets when he joked that a rock would make the perfect companion. It would never need to be fed, walked, groomed, or taken to the vet.

Our frequent contributor Jesse Edwards shares the tale of the Pet Rock and how clever packaging and a 32-page instruction manual turned an ordinary stone into a cultural phenomenon in 1970s America.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, before "Smokin' Ed" Currie created the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X, two of the hottest peppers the world has ever known, his life was being consumed by drugs and alcohol. After hitting rock bottom, an experience during a Michigan blizzard led him to a rehabilitation hospital and began a journey through recovery, faith, family, and an obsession with peppers that stretched back to his childhood.

Ed Currie, founder of South Carolina's PuckerButt Pepper Company, shares the remarkable story of how a recovering addict turned his fascination with capsaicin into a business that continues to spice up our lives today.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when President Donald Trump floated the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, many Americans thought the proposal came out of nowhere. In reality, the United States had been eyeing the Arctic island for more than 150 years. We especially wanted it after Denmark fell into Nazi hands.

Mark Kawar, author of America, but Bigger: Near-Annexations from Greenland to the Galápagos, shares the remarkable history of America's long fascination with Greenland and why its location, resources, and strategic importance have repeatedly drawn the attention of American leaders...and changed world history.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Erica Brewer of Eagle, Wisconsin, spoke out in defense of a neighbor she believed was being treated unfairly by local officials, she never expected the town's attention to turn toward her own family. Soon, inspectors were showing up at their property, citing everything from tall grass and flower boxes to their small roadside farm stand, while fines and fees threatened to climb beyond $20,000.

For our Rule of Law series, Erica and Institute for Justice attorney Kirby West share the story of her fight against the Town of Eagle, and the First Amendment battle over whether local government can punish a citizen for speaking out.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, have you ever imagined a buffalo running on a racetrack against thoroughbred horses? In the 1960s, Harvey Wallbanger did exactly that. This larger-than-life buffalo stunned crowds as he thundered past racehorses, turning a novelty act into an unforgettable chapter of racing history.

Francie M. Berg of Buffalo Grande shares the unlikely but true story of how one buffalo captured America's attention and proved just how wild the frontier spirit could still be.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Ash Patel opened his eyebrow threading business in Texas, he followed the law as it existed. Then state regulators decided eyebrow threading counted as cosmetology and demanded that his experienced employees spend up to 750 hours in beauty school learning techniques they would never use, at a cost of thousands of dollars, before they could return to the jobs they had already mastered.

For our Rule of Law series, Institute for Justice attorney Wesley Hottot tells the remarkable story behind Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the six-year legal battle that reached the Texas Supreme Court and became a landmark victory for economic liberty and the constitutional right to earn a living.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, ten days after Caleb Bailey was born, his father, Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Joseph Dupee, was killed in the line of duty while trying to rescue one of his own firefighters during a warehouse fire in California. His death left behind a young widow and two small sons, and seemed to mark the beginning of a lifetime of heartbreak.

Instead, it became the beginning of an extraordinary story of redemption. Caleb shares how his father's sacrifice transformed his uncle's life, how another firefighter stepped in to become the father he never had, and why, more than two decades later, his family remembers that tragedy not for what was lost, but for everything God built from it

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On this episode of Our American Stories, born on the Fourth of July in the tiny village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Calvin Coolidge grew up surrounded by hardworking neighbors who prized honesty, humility, thrift, and service above wealth or status. Those lessons stayed with him from the family store to the governor's office, and ultimately to the White House.

Matthew Denhart of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, along with acclaimed Coolidge interpreter Tracy Messer, reading from Coolidge's autobiography, share the remarkable story of America's 30th president, from his rural upbringing and dramatic midnight swearing-in by his father to the principles that shaped one of the most distinctive presidencies in American history.

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