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 Story of America: The Framers and the Summer of 1787 [Ep. 9]
Why the Founding Fathers Believed Faith and Freedom Were Inseparable
On this episode of Our American Stories, when the Founding Fathers set out to shape a new nation, they looked to Scripture for wisdom. Many were not traditional churchgoers, but nearly all believed that moral order came from faith.
Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the story of how biblical teaching influenced America’s earliest leaders and how those ideas became part of the nation’s identity.
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How America's First Constitution Failed
On this episode of Our American Stories, The American Revolution had created an independent country. It had not yet created a government capable of holding that country together. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress struggled to raise money, regulate commerce, enforce its decisions, or settle disputes among the states. By the 1780s, George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and others feared the young republic might not survive unless something changed.
Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College and author of The Founders' Key, shares the story of how that crisis led delegates to Philadelphia in 1787, intending to repair the Articles and ultimately convinced them to replace them. At the heart of their work was a difficult question: How do you create a government strong enough to govern without making it powerful enough to threaten the liberty it exists to protect?
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America’s First Hero: The Story of George Washington
On this episode of Our American Stories, before the United States had a flag or a White House, it had George Washington. He led a band of farmers and tradesmen against the most powerful empire on earth and earned their loyalty by sharing in their struggle and fighting by their sides. When the war was won, the world waited for him to take the throne they assumed was his. Instead, he laid down his sword and went home, setting a precedent for term limits that lasted until FDR took office almost 150 years later.
Vince Benedetto, the CEO of Bold Gold Media Group, tells the story of a man who shaped a nation by choosing humility over glory.
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Justice Scalia on What Makes the Constitution Unique
On this episode of Our American Stories, a constitution can promise its people all kinds of rights. But what happens when the government becomes powerful enough to ignore them? For Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Constitution protected liberty not simply by guaranteeing rights, but by dividing power so that no person or institution could easily control the government.
In a 2011 appearance before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Scalia explained why an independent judiciary, a separately elected president, and two houses of Congress were designed to restrain one another. What Americans sometimes call "gridlock," he argued, was not necessarily a flaw. It was part of the system protecting their liberty. Here's the late Justice Scalia himself to explain.
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How Ancient Roman and Greek Politics Shaped the Birth of the United States
On this episode of Our American Stories, when America's Founders set out to build a republic, they looked backward for guidance. Ancient Greece and Rome offered lessons in democracy, republican government, citizenship, and the dangers that had caused free governments to collapse. The Founders studied those successes and failures carefully as they wrestled with how political power could be divided, restrained, and ultimately placed in the hands of the people.
Dr. Kenneth Calvert of Hillsdale College shares how the political ideas of the ancient world helped shape the Constitution and the American experiment in self-government.
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The Revolutionary Idea Behind America's Independence
On this episode of Our American Stories, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution can both be read in just a few minutes, but together they transformed the course of history. Dr. Larry P. Arnn explains why America's founding documents were unlike anything the world had ever seen and why they still matter today.
Dr. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College and author of The Founders' Key, explores the timeless principles of limited government, representative democracy, and natural rights that continue to define the American experiment.
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From Sandlots to Super Bowls: The Birth of the NFL
On this episode of Our American Stories, a century ago, professional football was a gamble few people believed would pay off. Players worked factory jobs during the week and battered one another on dirt fields on the weekend. Teams appeared and disappeared, crowds were small, and owners sometimes risked everything they had just to make it to the next game. Somehow, out of that chaos, the National Football League survived.
John Eisenberg, author of The League, shares how a handful of determined owners kept professional football alive long enough to transform a struggling sport into an American institution.
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In the Shadows of Bataan: The Untold Story of the Military Nurses Who Stayed
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippines during World War II, a group of American nurses found themselves caught in the fighting on Bataan. Evacuation was still possible, but they chose to stay. In makeshift hospitals carved out of the jungle, they cared for wounded soldiers through heat, bombardment, and disease. Supplies disappeared. Food ran out. Still, they worked—often through the night—using what little they had to keep their patients alive.
Our regular contributor Anne Clare tells the story through one of those nurses, whose strength carried her through surrender and years of captivity. Together, they became known as the Angels of Bataan.
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David McCullough on the Life and Legacy of John Adams
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Adams carried the weight of a nation that was still fragile and untested. He was the second president of the United States, a man caught between loyalty to his principles and the demands of politics. The late historian David McCullough shares Adams’ story not as a list of accomplishments—but as the life of a husband, father, and revolutionary who believed deeply in the republic he helped create.
We’d like to thank the John Adams Institute for allowing us to share this story with our listeners.
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