Our American Stories

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The Gettysburg Hero Who Waited 151 Years for the Medal of Honor Aug 27, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Alonzo Cushing was just 22 years old when he fell at Gettysburg, standing firm as Confederate troops charged across the field. His courage earned him the respect of his men, but not the honor he deserved. More than 150 years later, advocates carried his name all the way to the White House to secure the Medal of Honor.

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The Father She Thought Was Dead Lived Just Down the Street Aug 27, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, for Karen Olson, the ache of missing her father began at a school dance where other girls stood beside their dads while she stood alone. Her mother had told her he was dead, and Karen believed it for decades. But the truth was far more complicated. A long-lost family connection surfaced years later and changed everything she thought she knew about her childhood.

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The Mountain Man Who Inspired Robert Redford’s Jeremiah Johnson Aug 27, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Robert Redford took on the role of Jeremiah Johnson in 1972, audiences fell in love with the image of a rugged mountain man who carved out a life in the wilderness. But the real Johnson lived a life far stranger and harsher than Hollywood ever showed. Historian Ashley Hlebinsky joins us to pull apart fact from folklore and reveal what Hollywood got right—or wrong.

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Her Mother Always Told Her She Was Strong... But Strength Isn't Always Enough Aug 27, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Edie Hand remembers an Alabama childhood filled with mud pies, Shetland ponies, and afternoons in the barn where she could dream freely. Her mother kept a perfect home and often reminded her that she was strong, like her grandmother Alice. But while her brothers drew their mother’s attention, Edie was left to prove that strength on her own. Now in her seventies, she looks back on a girlhood shaped by joy, silence, and a search for connection that still lingers.

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We're Holding Our Own: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Aug 26, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, on November 10, 1975, the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald vanished beneath the stormy waters of Lake Superior, taking all 29 crew members with her. The tragedy became one of the most famous Great Lakes shipwrecks, inspiring Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Historian Ric Mixter — a shipwreck diver and documentarian who has actually seen the wreck on the lake bottom — shares the story of the freighter’s final hours and why the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most legendary shipwreck in American maritime history.

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George Washington’s Letter That Defined Religious Freedom in America Aug 26, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1790, George Washington answered a letter from the Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. His reply carried words that still echo today: America would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” It was a radical promise for its time, a vision of a nation where faith and government would remain separate and all people would be free to worship as they chose. Vince Benedetto of Bold Gold Media Group shares the story of how one letter helped define what freedom of religion would mean in the United States.

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How Panama’s Dictator Manuel Noriega Found God in the Unlikeliest Place Aug 26, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in the late 1980s, Panama was at the center of global attention as strongman Manuel Noriega tightened his grip on power. Known for his brutality and ties to the drug trade, he seemed untouchable. But when a hairdresser unknowingly welcomed Noriega’s daughter into her chair, an unlikely chain of events began. That meeting opened the door to the dictator himself, leading to a story of faith that unfolded against the history of Operation Just Cause and the U.S. invasion of Panama. The late Joe Garman, founder of ARM Prison Ministries, tells the unforgettable story of how a dictator met God in the unlikeliest of places.

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From Sandlots to Super Bowls: The Birth of the NFL Aug 26, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, long before billion-dollar stadiums and television contracts, professional football was played on dirt lots by men who worked factory shifts by day and risked their bodies by night. Owners mortgaged their futures to keep teams alive, and few believed the sport would last more than a season or two. John Eisenberg, author of The League, traces how those uncertain beginnings gave birth to the NFL we know today.

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How a Gravedigger Became a Hero: King Solomon and the 1833 Cholera Epidemic Aug 26, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in the summer of 1833, Lexington, Kentucky, was brought to its knees by a cholera outbreak. Entire families were lost in a matter of days, and fear spread faster than the disease itself. When the dead outnumbered the living willing to bury them, one man stepped forward. His name was Solomon. Most people in town dismissed him as a drunk gravedigger. But in the middle of the crisis, he dug without stopping, gave the dead their dignity, and kept the city from collapsing under the weight of its own fear. Kentucky journalist Sam Terry tells the story of King Solomon, the unlikely hero whose redemption came in the middle of one of the deadliest epidemics in American history.

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Mary Surratt: The Woman at the Center of the Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Aug 25, 2025

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in the weeks after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, authorities hunted not only John Wilkes Booth but also anyone suspected of aiding him. Among the accused was Mary Surratt, a widowed boardinghouse owner in Washington. Investigators claimed her home was the meeting place where the plan to kill the president took shape. The evidence was thin, the public mood was unforgiving, and her trial became a national spectacle. By July 1865, Mary Surratt stood on the gallows, becoming the first woman the U.S. government ever executed. Kate Clifford Larson, author of The Assassin’s Accomplice, shares the story. We'd like to thank the U.S. National Archives for allowing us access to this audio.

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