Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, at the center of JT Olson's Both Hands ministry is a straightforward mission: service and charity. Provide a widow with the repairs she needs and use that same project to help a family offset the cost of adoption. Volunteers spend a day painting, cleaning, repairing, and restoring, and donors support the effort, knowing every dollar moves a child closer to a permanent home. 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, long before the Beatles caused a stir, another British act crossed the Atlantic and changed American culture in its own quiet way. In 1868, a troupe of burlesque performers arrived onstage with a style that felt modern to a growing middle class and unsettling to the critics who expected theater to stay in its place. Our regular contributor, Ashley Hlebinsky, traces how this unlikely import managed to spark a small cultural shift. 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, as a kid wandering the hallways of Miami’s fight scene, Patti Kingsbaker thought she had seen everything. Then she spotted Frank Sinatra walking in as her father prepared to referee a heavyweight title match. Patti’s chance at an autograph disappeared behind a wall of security, and the disappointment stayed with her until she finally wrote Sinatra a letter. What happened next blew her mind. Patti joins us to share this "knockout" Frank Sinatra 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, from its roots in African musical craftsmanship to its home in the American South, the kazoo instrument has traveled farther than most people realize. It even shapes the familiar kazoo sound behind every animal in Minecraft. Sarah Barnwell of the Kazoobie Kazoo Factory shares how this small, uniquely American-made instrument became a piece of musical history and why it still matters today. 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 this continuation of Ambrose’s work on June 6, 1944, the battle comes into view through the voices of the men who survived it. He follows their push off the beaches, their losses, and their small gains, and how those efforts turned the invasion into a foothold that could not be pushed back. Ambrose also highlights the Army’s “soldier suggestion box,” an unusual program that invited frontline troops to offer ideas for improving equipment and tactics, and how those insights shaped the fight for Normandy. 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, Indiana did not choose its nickname so much as grow into it. The term Hoosier appeared in jokes, travel accounts, and frontier banter, yet no one ever agreed on where it started. Despite the uncertainty, the name kept rising to the surface until it became part of the state’s character. What survives is a word tied closely to the people who shaped Indiana in its earliest years. Dr. Stephen Flick explains how a bit of regional language became a lasting identity. 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, behind every bottle of Coors Light and every iconic pour of Coors Banquet is a family whose identity shaped the company more than any product ever could. Long before Coors became a national name, the family built the brewery on principles they considered nonnegotiable: faith, education, and a quiet sense of service. These tenets guided the decisions that turned a small Colorado operation into Coors Brewing Co., a brand that would help define what American beer could be. Here’s their 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, long before the Statue of Liberty became a beacon for newcomers, it was simply a gift from France that struggled to find a purpose. To raise money for the statue's pedestal, Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet about the sculpture, never expecting it to be more than a throwaway donation. Years later, as anti-immigrant fervor spread through the country, her friend Georgina Schuyler returned to the poem and recognized the power in its plain plea for mercy. Professor Elizabeth Stone shares the story of how Schuyler quietly worked to place The New Colossus inside the statue's pedestal and, in doing so, changed the meaning of the monument itself. 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 1896, the United States Supreme Court delivered one of the most damaging rulings in its history when it upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision cemented the idea of separate but equal and gave legal cover to the rise of Jim Crow laws across the country. More than a century later, Homer Plessy’s descendant, Keith Plessy, reflects on what that ruling cost generations of Americans. He also shares how the descendants of Plessy and Judge Ferguson have come together to confront the legacy of a landmark Supreme Court case that shaped civil rights for decades. 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, before he became one of the most respected rodeo bullfighters in America, Leon Coffey was a father searching for a way to pay for a simple gift. Rodeos were familiar territory, but stepping into the arena as a rodeo clown was something else entirely. He found himself staring down bulls that outweighed him by a thousand pounds, learning to move with a kind of instinct that kept riders alive. His path carried him all the way to the Cowboy and Western Hall of Fame, and along the way, he helped shape the modern understanding of the rodeo clown, a protector as much as a performer. We'd like to thank the Oklahoma Cowboy and Western Hall of Fame for allowing us access to this audio. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.