Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, you’ve probably heard that during his famous midnight ride through the Massachusetts countryside to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the impending British occupation of Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere shouted, “The British are coming!” But that’s not quite true.

Sabrina Bhattacharjya, a 14-year-old history enthusiast and founder of Lex250, shares the real story—and brings to life the first day of the American Revolution. We'd like to thank Constituting America for turning us on to this story.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, by the late 1950s, something was happening at Malibu. Surfboards were getting lighter and faster, the waves were crowded with a new generation of riders, and a loose fraternity of beach bums, craftsmen, competitors, and characters was beginning to create a culture that would soon spread far beyond the California coast.

Our regular contributor Roger McGrath returns with the story of surfing’s golden age. He remembers characters like Terry “Tube Steak” Tracy, the Malibu surfer who helped inspire Gidget, along with Phil Edwards, Mickey Dora, Marge Calhoun, and others who gave the sport its style and personality. Before long, movies, magazines, contests, and a growing surf industry carried their world into the American mainstream. That changed surf culture, for better or worse, depending on who you ask.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, for veterans struggling with PTSD, stress, or simply the difficulty of quieting the mind, sometimes a guitar can provide a few hours of peace. GuitarsforVets.org pairs veterans with free guitar lessons, patient instructors, and, eventually, an instrument of their own.

Veterans and volunteers share how learning to play can build confidence, create community, and offer a welcome escape from the pressures of everyday life. Along the way, the program has provided thousands of lessons and guitars to veterans across the country. Our regular contributor, Jesse Edwards, shares the story.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent Robert Livingston and James Monroe to France hoping to secure New Orleans. Instead, Napoleon offered them something far bigger: the entire Louisiana Territory. For $15 million, the United States acquired roughly 800,000 square miles in one of the largest land deals in history.

Hillsdale College’s Brad and Dedra Birzer explain how the Haitian Revolution, Napoleon’s ambitions, constitutional doubts, and America’s hunger for the West all came together in the Louisiana Purchase, and why Jefferson believed the nation’s future depended on securing the land beyond the Mississippi.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Millions of Americans first learned about the tragic fate of the USS Indianapolis from Quint's famous monologue in Spielberg's 1975 classic, Jaws. While the film certainly took some liberties with her story, one part remained sadly true. After the war, Captain Charles B. McVay III, a decorated and experienced combat veteran, was court-martialed for failing to zigzag and spent the rest of his life carrying the blame for one of the worst naval disasters in American history. He eventually took his own life in 1968 at the age of 70, his legacy nearly forgotten.

Decades later, Navy officer Bill Toti found himself inheriting a rather interesting legacy of his own, also becoming the final captain of the USS Indianapolis. That is to say, the submarine bearing the same name as the infamous WWII cruiser. When survivors of the World War II cruiser asked him to help clear Captain McVay’s name, Toti used modern torpedo modeling to test the Navy’s case against him. What he found helped fuel the long fight that finally led Congress to exonerate McVay. Captain Toti's book is From CO to CEO, be sure to check it out.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Thompson, our regular contributor, returns with another installment of our ongoing series exploring the curious origins of everyday expressions.

Drawing from his book Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases, Andrew explains where familiar sayings such as “white elephant,” “wear your heart on your sleeve,” “up the ante,” “the upper hand,” and “wait for the other shoe to drop” came from.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Milton Hershey failed again and again before he ever became America's chocolate king. After a struggling candy shop in Philadelphia, bankruptcy, and years spent learning from confectioners around the country, Hershey finally found success with caramels. Then, at the height of that success, he took another enormous gamble: chocolate.

Don Papson of the M.S. Hershey Foundation and Amy Zeigler of The Hershey Story Museum share the story of how Hershey learned to mass-produce affordable milk chocolate, built a factory and community around it in Pennsylvania, and ultimately gave much of his fortune away to ensure that the school he founded for children would endure long after he was gone.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, the director was a renegade filmmaker who'd never made a profitable picture. The producer was hired because he could stay below budget. The star had a reputation for being difficult. A formula for disaster? No, the makings of one of the greatest films of all time.

Here to tell the story is Harlan Lebo, author of The Godfather Legacy.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, growing up in Bloomington, Minnesota, Paul Bauer idolized his oldest brother, Tom, a 6-foot-2 three-sport athlete everyone called “Moose.” When 10-year-old Paul watched his brother bang his head on the basement ductwork, he began ending every bedtime prayer with the same request: “Please, Lord, help me to grow to be as big as Moose.”

Paul eventually grew to 6-foot-6. Looking back, he shares how that childhood prayer shaped his understanding of faith, how his own father taught him that prayer is “talking to God with love,” and how becoming a father himself helped him understand why the conversation matters as much as the answer.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, but his public life was far from over. During the final five years of his life, Lee faced a treason indictment, applied for a presidential pardon, took an oath of allegiance to the United States, and became president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.

Gettysburg National Military Park Ranger Matt Atkinson shares the riviting story of Lee’s largely overlooked postwar years and explains how the former Confederate general understood the power of his example in a country still deeply divided by war and Reconstruction. We'd like to thank the Gettysburg National Park Service for allowing us access to this audio.

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