Covering every hamlet and precinct in America, big and small, the stories span arts and sports, business and history, innovation and adventure, generosity and courage, resilience and redemption, faith and love, past and present. In short, Our American Stories tells the story of America to Americans.
About Lee Habeeb
Lee Habeeb co-founded Laura Ingraham’s national radio show in 2001, moved to Salem Media Group in 2008 as Vice President of Content overseeing their nationally syndicated lineup, and launched Our American Stories in 2016. He is a University of Virginia School of Law graduate, and writes a weekly column for Newsweek.
For more information, please visit ouramericanstories.com.
The Small Act of Courage That Led to 54 Years of Marriage
The Story of America: The Civil War Begins [Ep. 29]
On this episode of Our American Stories, Abraham Lincoln entered the Civil War with no military experience and no blueprint for putting down a rebellion of eleven states. The Union had more men, more factories, more railroads, and a powerful navy. But none of those advantages guaranteed victory. After the disaster at Bull Run, Lincoln had to build an army almost from scratch, find generals willing to use it, and convince a divided Northern public to endure a war that was already proving longer and bloodier than almost anyone had imagined.
In Episode 29 of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of America series, Hillsdale College professor Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, shares the story of how the most dire struggle America had yet faced unfolded during the first two years of the Civil War.
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How George Washington's Bible Survived 9/11
On this episode of Our American Stories, when George Washington took the oath of office in 1789, his hand rested on a Bible that would become one of America’s most treasured artifacts. That same Bible was on loan to Fraunces Tavern, a Revolutionary War landmark near the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001. After the towers fell, the search for survivors gave way to the search for the dead and eventually to a search for the missing Bible.
Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the remarkable story of how Washington’s inaugural Bible was recovered after 9/11.
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Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of Four Generations in the FDNY
On this episode of Our American Stories, William M. "Bill" Feehan spent his life fighting fires in New York City. He rose through every uniformed rank in the FDNY, survived the department's brutal "War Years" of the 1970s, and became one of its most respected leaders. Firefighting was also a family tradition. For four generations, the Feehans had answered the same call, building a legacy of service that stretched back to the sons of Irish immigrants.
Brian McDonald, author of Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of Four Generations in the FDNY, shares the story of the Feehans and nearly a century of firefighting in New York. That history reached its most tragic chapter on September 11, 2001, when 71-year-old Bill Feehan responded to the World Trade Center. He was still there, serving alongside another generation of New York firefighters, when the North Tower came down.
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FDNY Fireboats and the Largest Water Evacuation in History
On this episode of Our American Stories, on September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of people reached the southern tip of Manhattan and found themselves trapped between a city under attack and New York Harbor. Then a call went out over the radio: "All available boats." Ferries, tugboats, fireboats, and private vessels converged on the waterfront and began taking people aboard. By day's end, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people had escaped Manhattan by water in the largest waterborne evacuation in American history.
Dr. Mike McGee, author of All Available Boats, shares the story of the fireboats that answered the call, including the John D. McKean and the retired John J. Harvey.
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Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO Remembers 9/11 and the Brother He Lost
On this episode of Our American Stories, when the planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald was left devastated. The investment firm’s offices spanned the upper floors of the North Tower, leaving no chance of escape. In less than an hour, 658 employees were gone—more lives than any other company lost that day. Among them was the brother of CEO Howard Lutnick. For Lutnick, the grief was immediate and deeply personal, but so was the responsibility. He had to lead a company hollowed out by tragedy while caring for the families who had lost everything. What followed was a story not only of survival, but of loyalty, rebuilding, and the weight of memory.
Howard Lutnick reflects on Cantor Fitzgerald’s darkest day and the colleagues and friends who never came home.
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They Will Be Remembered: Tony Dolan's Tribute to America's Fallen
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tony Dolan was inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck on September 11, 2001. In the years that followed, he met young servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without arms or legs, some of them determined to recover so they could rejoin their units. He watched generals address wounded enlisted men as "sir" and met families carrying losses so profound that even a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer struggled to find the right words.
The late Dolan reflects on the wounded warriors, fallen servicemen, and military families he encountered after 9/11. Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, his tribute honors those who sacrificed years, limbs, and sometimes their lives so that millions of Americans could receive what Dolan called "the gift of the future, the gift of tomorrow."
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Faith and Friendship After the 9/11 Pentagon Attack
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jocelyn Green didn’t lose anyone on September 11, but she still felt the weight of that day in ways she couldn’t have predicted. Living just a few miles from the Pentagon, she saw how quickly fear moved through a neighborhood. What surprised her was what came next: people showing up for each other in quiet, steady ways.
Over time, she found herself thinking more about how faith fits into grief and how friendships sometimes grow strongest in the shadow of crisis.
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Noah Webster: The Man Who Gave America Its Voice
On this episode of Our American Stories, Noah Webster believed winning the Revolution was only the beginning. If Americans were going to become a truly independent people, he thought they needed to stop speaking, spelling, and learning like the British. So the stubborn and obsessive Connecticut writer set out to give the new nation a language of its own. His schoolbooks taught generations of American children, his spelling reforms changed the words they wrote, and his dictionary consumed decades of his life.
Joshua Kendall, author of The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, shares the story of the man whose name became synonymous with the dictionary. Webster also fought for copyright protections, carried an early plan for a stronger federal government to George Washington, and spent much of his long life trying to shape the country the Revolution had created. Audio courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress
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For Nearly 20 Years, the U.S. Nuclear Launch Code Was 00000000
On this episode of Our American Stories, during the height of the Cold War, the United States worked tirelessly to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in the global arms race. Safeguards were put in place to prevent the accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons, including special systems known as Permissive Action Links, or PAL codes.
But for almost two decades, the launch code for America’s nuclear arsenal was just eight zeroes: 00000000. Simon Whistler, host of Today I Found Out and The Brain Food Show, explains why the most important code of the Cold War was so simple to crack.
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