The American Story podcast

The American Story

Every generation of Americans has been faced with the same question: how should we live? Our endlessly interesting answers have created The American Story. The weekly episodes published here stretch from battlefields and patriot graves to back roads, school yards, bar stools, city halls, blues joints, summer afternoons, old neighborhoods, ball parks, and deserted beaches—everywhere you find Americans being and becoming American. They are true stories about what it is that makes America beautiful, what it is that makes America good and therefore worthy of love. Each episode aims in some small way to awaken the better angels of our nature, to welcome us into and encourage us to enrich the great American story.

Every generation of Americans has been faced with the same question: how should we live? Our endlessly interesting answers have created The American Story. The weekly episodes published here stretch from battlefields and patriot graves to back roads, school yards, bar stools, city halls, blues joints, summer afternoons, old neighborhoods, ball parks, and deserted beaches—everywhere you find Americans being and becoming American. They are true stories about what it is that makes America beautiful, what it is that makes America good and therefore worthy of love. Each episode aims in some small way to awaken the better angels of our nature, to welcome us into and encourage us to enrich the great American story.

 

#181

Resolution

Often our New Year’s resolutions are lighthearted, and usually, the flesh being weak, they... more

27 Dec 2022

08 MINS

08:04

27 Dec 2022


#180

Tidings of Great Joy

At the time of the American founding, celebrations of Christmas in America varied widely, ... more

20 Dec 2022

07 MINS

07:52

20 Dec 2022


#179

All of You on the Good Earth

President Kennedy told a special joint session of Congress that it was “time for a great n... more

13 Dec 2022

08 MINS

08:30

13 Dec 2022


#178

Pearl Harbor and the Art of Politics

December 7, 2021 is the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that broug... more

06 Dec 2022

07 MINS

07:28

06 Dec 2022


#177

Andy Ngo

After the American defeat in Vietnam in 1975, the communists confiscated the homes, busine... more

29 Nov 2022

07 MINS

07:34

29 Nov 2022


#176

Sarah Josepha Hale

Sarah Josepha Hale was born in New Hampshire in 1788. In an era when the average American ... more

22 Nov 2022

07 MINS

07:11

22 Nov 2022


#175

Gettysburg

What makes Gettysburg America’s most hallowed ground? A delegation of Russian historians a... more

15 Nov 2022

06 MINS

06:22

15 Nov 2022


#174

One More for Chesty

“Chesty” Puller was a Marine’s Marine. To this day, in Marine Corps boot camp, recruits ar... more

08 Nov 2022

07 MINS

07:13

08 Nov 2022


#173

Bullets for Ballots: 1860 (3 of 3)

Until the election of 1860, the truths proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence had b... more

01 Nov 2022

07 MINS

07:15

01 Nov 2022


#172

Ballots for Bullets: 1800 (2 of 3)

The election of 1800 in America came after a decade of bitter and extreme party strife. Ea... more

25 Oct 2022

07 MINS

07:23

25 Oct 2022


#171

Bullets and Ballots: 1776

Americans are being reminded how fragile and precious an achievement it is to establish th... more

18 Oct 2022

06 MINS

06:05

18 Oct 2022


#170

Thank God for being an American

P.G. Wodehouse was one of the best writers in the English language in the 20th century and... more

11 Oct 2022

06 MINS

06:48

11 Oct 2022


#169

Charlie Brown

There is more of Charlie Brown in most of us than there is Abraham Lincoln or Michael Jord... more

04 Oct 2022

08 MINS

08:09

04 Oct 2022


#168

“Make Cakes!”

During peak hours, in the 300 block of Brand Boulevard in the city of Glendale, in what is... more

27 Sep 2022

07 MINS

07:49

27 Sep 2022


#167

Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver

The Declaration’s great American proclamation that “all men are created equal” and the fir... more

20 Sep 2022

06 MINS

06:42

20 Sep 2022


#166

We the People

September 17 is Constitution Day in America because on that day in 1787, after 4 months of... more

13 Sep 2022

06 MINS

06:40

13 Sep 2022


#165

9/11

Twenty-one years have come and gone since September 11, 2001 became “9/11.” It is a day no... more

06 Sep 2022

06 MINS

06:33

06 Sep 2022


#164

This Was a Man

Frederick Bailey was born into slavery in 1818. With determination, courage, some help fro... more

30 Aug 2022

06 MINS

06:33

30 Aug 2022


#163

Our Finest Hour

America’s greatest enemy is not the Chinese or the Russians, or some other foreign tyranny... more

23 Aug 2022

06 MINS

06:37

23 Aug 2022


#162

Soul of Freedom

Every year in August, the oldest synagogue in America—Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Is... more

16 Aug 2022

07 MINS

07:05

16 Aug 2022


#161

Hank’s Roadside Bar & Grill

The American story isn’t just history. We write the American story ourselves every day wit... more

09 Aug 2022

06 MINS

06:52

09 Aug 2022