Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, before modern sanitation, cities were filthy, drinking water was often contaminated, and diseases like cholera and typhoid killed hundreds of thousands of people. Life in even the world's greatest cities could be dangerous, all because of a problem most people would rather not talk about.

Our own Greg Hengler explores the surprising history of the toilet, sewer systems, and sanitation, tracing their evolution from ancient Rome to modern America. Along the way, he tells the story of the inventors, engineers, and public health pioneers whose overlooked innovations helped add decades to human life and made modern civilization possible.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, before television and smartphones, there were front porches, and there were storytellers. For Dennis Peterson, the greatest storyteller he ever knew was his grandfather, Frederick Newman “Paw” Summers, an East Tennessee jack-of-all-trades whose tales could keep neighbors, friends, and family listening for hours.

Dennis, a regular contributor to Our American Stories, shares a warm tribute to the grandfather who embodied the rich storytelling tradition of Southern Appalachia and helped preserve a way of life now fading into memory.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, before air conditioning, summer shaped how people worked, where they lived, and which cities could survive in the heat. That all began to change in 1902, when Willis Carrier designed a machine to solve humidity problems in a printing plant. His invention transformed the air around us and reshaped modern life forever.

Jesse Edwards, a frequent Our American Stories contributor, shares the story of how this once-overlooked breakthrough became one of the most important inventions in American history.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Sally Grove was growing up, she thought she knew her father. He was a soft-spoken Maryland family man who loved fishing, hunting, and spending time with his children. But after he died unexpectedly when Sally was just twenty years old, she discovered a small notebook hidden among his belongings that revealed an entirely different side of him.

It was his World War II diary, and its pages told the story of a young soldier who crossed the Rhine under enemy fire, was wounded in combat, and survived capture by German forces. Sally shares the remarkable story of how an old notebook helped her see her father not just as Dad, but as a young man whose courage, faith, and perseverance carried him through the war and shaped the life he built afterward.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1859, a pig wandered onto the wrong farm and sparked an international standoff. The United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over a single hog on San Juan Island, in what is now Washington State. History teacher and Our American Stories regular contributor Anne Clare shares the story of the strange chain of events that followed, when pride, politics, and a dead pig led to armed troops, tense negotiations, and the possibility of war.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Jeanne Bishop's pregnant sister, Nancy, and her brother-in-law, Richard, were murdered in their own home, her world shattered. The killer, a sixteen-year-old neighbor, was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison, but no sentence could undo the loss or answer the deeper question of how to move forward after such a tragedy.

For years, Jeanne worked to honor her sister's memory while refusing to let hatred consume her. Then, more than two decades after the murders, she took an extraordinary step: she wrote a letter to the man who had killed her family. Jeanne shares the remarkable story of grief, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the lesson she learned from her sister's final act of love. Be sure to check out her book, Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister's Killer.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, born into wealth, privilege, and chronic illness, Theodore Roosevelt seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of America's most energetic and transformative presidents. Yet through sheer determination, he reinvented himself as a rancher, war hero, reformer, and political force whose larger-than-life personality captivated the nation.

When an assassin's bullet thrust Roosevelt into the White House in 1901, he became the first Progressive president and dramatically expanded the power and influence of the office. As part of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of America series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of Roosevelt's rise and explores how his vision of leadership reshaped the presidency and altered the course of American history.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Maurice Sendak had a rare ability to look at childhood without sentimentality. He understood its private fears and its unruly joys, and he tried to give those feelings a place to live on the page. That effort shaped the work that made him, for many, the defining children’s book artist of the twentieth century.

Our own Greg Hengler traces how Sendak’s early life and restless imagination shaped the world that would become Where the Wild Things Are—a story that opened the door to a new kind of children’s literature and revealed just how powerful a picture book could be.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, most children eventually outgrow paper airplanes. John Collins never did. What began as a childhood fascination with folding paper and experimenting with flight grew into a lifelong passion that led him to become the Guinness World Record holder for the farthest paper aircraft flight at 226 feet, 10 inches.

John shares the story of decades spent designing, testing, and refining paper airplanes, the unlikely partnership that helped him break a long-standing world record, and how a simple hobby ultimately became his full-time career. Along the way, he learned a lesson he now shares with others: don't be afraid to go big.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when World War II called, the Wilson family of Iowa answered. One by one, five brothers left home to serve their country, while their parents and siblings waited anxiously for news from across the globe.

Our regular contributor Joy Neal Kidney shares the story of her uncles, the five Wilson brothers, and the sacrifices their family made during the war years. It is a deeply personal story of duty, separation, and the quiet courage required not only of those who fought, but also of the loved ones who waited for them to come home.

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