Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jeremy Lott never got the chance to hear his daughter cry, watch her crawl, or hold her for the life he and his wife had imagined. Diagnosed in the womb with a rare fatal condition, their daughter, Cecelia, was stillborn in July 2017. Yet during her short life before birth, she danced to Irish music, responded to familiar voices, and left an unforgettable mark on the people who loved her.

For our Final Thoughts series, Lott shares the moving eulogy he delivered for his daughter, Cecelia Little Lott, and shares what it means to say goodbye to a child whose life, though brief, profoundly mattered. Originally adapted from an essay published in The Federalist.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Vince Lombardi transformed the Green Bay Packers into a dynasty and helped turn football into a symbol of discipline, leadership, and the American experience. But behind the championships, the famous speeches, and the legendary Green Bay sweep was a far more complicated man shaped by faith, family, ambition, and struggle.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss discusses his landmark biography, When Pride Still Mattered, and explores the full life of Vince Lombardi: his Brooklyn upbringing, Catholic faith, coaching philosophy, devotion to excellence, complicated family life, and the leadership style that changed the NFL forever.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, after leaving Lonestar, John Rich found himself back in Nashville trying to rebuild his country music career from scratch. The future Big & Rich star kept writing songs, navigating the highs and lows of the Nashville music scene, and slowly discovered the sound that would help make him one of country music’s most recognizable voices.

Rich shares how the lessons his father taught him as a boy carried him through those uncertain years of songwriting, struggle, and reinvention in Nashville.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, what role did the Bible play in shaping America? According to Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, it was central, especially for early leaders like Pastor John Robinson, who used scripture to guide the Pilgrims toward their historic journey. Here's Morgan with the story.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Danny Elfman first became famous as the lead singer of Oingo Boingo before building a career as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable film composers. His work on Batman, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and The Simpsons helped shape the sound of movies and television for an entire generation. But music was not always his passion. From a punk-ska band to an unexpected partnership with Tim Burton, Elfman shares the story of how an unlikely path through music led him into film scoring.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Joy Neal Kidney shares the story of a handmade quilt that linked her to her great-grandmother, Laura Goff, a country schoolteacher born shortly after the American Civil War who raised 11 children while moving across the Midwest in search of opportunity and education for her family.

Years after Laura’s death, Joy inherited her unfinished “Periwinkle” quilt — a beautiful but stubborn patchwork that would not lie flat. Taking it apart thread by thread and sewing it back together by hand, Joy found herself stitching through fabrics her great-grandmother had chosen decades earlier. It became more than a quilt. It became a story about family, women’s work, memory, sacrifice, and the quiet ways history survives across generations.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, finding meaningful work is easier said than done. For our Opportunity America series, Kelly Robinson shares how the culture at Koch Industries helped her discover new strengths, grow professionally, and ultimately find her calling. It’s a story about career growth, workplace culture, leadership, and what can happen when employees are encouraged to pursue purpose alongside performance.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in January 1961, a B-52 Stratofortress crash near Goldsboro sent two massive hydrogen bombs falling to the ground just days after John F. Kennedy took office. But much of what happened that day remained hidden from the public for decades.

Earl Smith, the young Air Force bomb disposal technician sent to the scene, shares what he saw on the night of the Goldsboro nuclear bomb accident.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, The Boston Marathon had never officially allowed a woman to compete when Kathrine Switzer pinned on her bib number in 1967 and stepped to the starting line. Just minutes into the race, an angry official stormed toward her and tried to rip her out of the pack in front of reporters and spectators. Switzer herself joins us to share how she kept running through the chaos and how that moment helped change the future of women’s sports.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, William Faulkner spent most of his life in Oxford, where he wrote novels focused on the people, conflicts, and tensions of the modern South. The town around him became the basis for Yoknapatawpha County, the fictional setting that would define much of his work and help establish his place in American literature. Some locals did not always appreciate it, after all, their stories sometimes found their way into Faulkner’s fiction, for better or worse.

Rachel Hudson of Rowan Oak shares how Faulkner wrote about Mississippi in a way that unsettled local readers and helped change the direction of Southern literature.

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