Our American Stories

Kemmons Wilson Jr., son of Holiday Inn founder and leader of a Memphis family investment firm, shares lively family tales. Hear about his father’s bold publicity stunts with Muhammad Ali and a trampoline, his Tabasco obsession, lunches with Sam Walton, and advice to Sam Phillips about Elvis. Personal anecdotes illuminate the rise of a hospitality icon.

Camilo Venegas, a Vietnam War-era U.S. Army veteran who served a tour in Vietnam, shares vivid first-person recollections. He talks about being drafted at 19 and early jungle patrols. He recalls leading a weapons squad, witnessing comrades’ final moments, and the fraught journey home. He also describes the shock of returning to civilian life and the struggles veterans faced seeking help.

Lauren Manning, pastor's wife who leads outreach and community-building in rural Missouri, and Josh Manning, former retail manager turned pastor who revitalized a struggling church. They discuss a small-town church serving immigrant and refugee families, why local industry drew diverse populations, and how services now run in five languages to meet cultural and language needs.

On this episode of Our American Stories, it is hard to imagine now, but there was a time when writing meant sitting in front of a typewriter. Just a keyboard, a ribbon, and a blank sheet of paper. The QWERTY layout, first designed in the nineteenth century, shaped how we still type today.Our American Stories listener Bert Rosica explains why that old typing machine still holds a certain power and why, in his view, there are 99 reasons a typewriter is better than a computer. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Butch Hartman shares the story of how one of the most influential animation careers of the 2000s came to be. While millions recognize the shows he created; The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and more, far fewer know the path that led him there. Hartman tells how his journey took him from the snowy shores of Michigan to the studios of Southern California, and how persistence, faith, and craft shaped a career that defined a generation of television animation. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, during World War I, carrier pigeons were woven into the U.S. Army’s communication system. When phone lines were cut and runners could not cross open ground, messenger pigeons carried handwritten notes over smoke and shellfire. At one point in the war, an American unit was pinned down by its own artillery. Cut off and taking heavy losses, the men turned to a wounded homing pigeon that had been trained to fly back to its loft. That small bird became their final line of communication.Frank Blazich of the National Museum of American History tells the tale of how pigeons entered modern military service and how one battered carrier pigeon altered the course of a battlefield in World War I. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, it’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the automobile was hailed as an environmental savior. Cities at the turn of the century were suffocating under the burden of their own success. The horse had built them, but it was also destroying them. Streets were thick with waste, and the air carried the scent of disease. Into that chaos rolled the automobile, a machine that seemed to offer a vision of progress that was clean, modern, and under control. Miles C. Collier, founder of the Revs Institute, shares the story. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Seaside, Oregon, was a small Pacific Northwest town built on logging and salmon fishing. Karl Marlantes’ grandfather had already survived a logging accident that crushed both his legs before turning fully to commercial salmon fishing. As a gillnetter, he worked the tides with precision, and when Karl was thirteen, he brought him into the family business. Karl, the author of What It Is Like to Go to War and Matterhorn, shares the story of how those summer days changed his life. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, in NASCAR, some names fade. But Dale Earnhardt does not. Dale Earnhardt Sr. built his reputation one race at a time, driving the black No. 3 and collecting championships like stamps. More than two decades later, Dale Earnhardt remains central to NASCAR’s story. Jay Busbee, author of Earnhardt Nation, shares the tale of how a poor boy from Kannapolis, North Carolina, became “The Intimidator”—auto racing’s greatest legend and an American icon. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Alcatraz: the inescapable prison. Inmates called it “the Rock,” and the distance from Alcatraz to the mainland was enough to make even the most hardened criminals shiver in fear. But in 1946, a group of prisoners attempted the impossible. They overpowered guards inside Alcatraz and tried to break out. The attempt spiraled into what became known as the Battle of Alcatraz, or the Alcatraz Prison Riot of 1946. U.S. Marines were called in to restore order, turning the most notorious prison in the United States into a battlefield. The History Guy shares the story. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.