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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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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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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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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On this episode of Our American Stories, at 19 years old, Donna Martin had a plan. She was going to leave Forest, Mississippi, spend the summer working as a lifeguard in Yosemite, and use her days off to drive over to Hollywood and become a movie star. It sounded simple enough. Then she got to California and discovered that Yosemite wasn't exactly next door to Hollywood, her summer job involved more than sitting beside a swimming pool, and life away from home wasn't quite what she had imagined.

Donna shares the funny and deeply personal story of the summer that sent her searching for something bigger and the long road that eventually brought her right back home to Mississippi.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, on the night of March 21, 1984, the USS Kitty Hawk was cutting through the Sea of Japan when a Soviet submarine suddenly surfaced directly in its path. For days, the nuclear-powered K-314 had been stalking the American carrier group. Then, somehow, they lost track of the Kitty Hawk. By the time she surfaced and spotted the 80,000-ton aircraft carrier bearing down on it, there was no time to get out of the way. With American and Soviet forces suddenly facing each other across a damaged submarine, both sides now had another challenge: making sure an accident at sea didn't become something far more dangerous.

The History Guy shares the remarkable story of the Cold War collision between two warships carrying nuclear weapons.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when Mike and Deborah Bailey lost their daughter Ashlynn to a fentanyl overdose, their world stopped. For months, they wrestled with heartbreak and rage, knowing the man who sold her the drugs was still alive. Then their son came to them with a quiet conviction: he wanted to forgive the dealer. What began as an act of faith became a family’s path to healing.

The Baileys wrote a letter offering forgiveness—not to excuse the pain, but to release its hold on their hearts. They believed that letting go was the only way to honor their daughter’s spirit. Their story is a powerful testament to grace in the face of loss and to the strength it takes to choose love when everything else falls apart.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in the mid-20th century, families desperate for answers turned to a radical procedure known as the lobotomy. It was sold as a cure for everything from depression to schizophrenia, but its brutal methods left thousands of patients permanently damaged. At the center was Dr. Walter Freeman, a man whose name became synonymous with transorbital lobotomy and the dark side of psychosurgery. Yet from these failures came progress. The shortcomings of lobotomy forced doctors and scientists to pursue safer, more effective ways to treat mental illness, ultimately laying the groundwork for modern brain surgery.

Dr. Theodore Schwartz, neurosurgeon, professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, and author of Grey Matters, shares the story of how a medical misstep opened the door to innovation and helped transform the future of neurosurgery.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, growing up across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Richard Herzog found refuge from a troubled home on the playing field. Sports gave him confidence and a place to belong. Then a trusted teacher abused that trust, leaving Herzog with wounds he would spend decades trying to understand.

Herzog, author of Paydirt, shares how football eventually brought him to Ole Miss and later to a championship-winning career as a coach. But no victory could erase his past. Through therapy, recovery, faith, and forgiveness, Herzog finally confronted what had happened to him and found a new purpose: helping other male survivors of sexual abuse understand that what happened to them does not have to define the rest of their lives.

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