Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, City Grazing started with a simple idea: goats are natural landscapers. Today, the San Francisco non-profit provides goat grazing services across the Bay Area, using herds to reduce fire risk, cut down invasive weeds, and clear land in ways machines can’t. Executive director Genevieve Church, sometimes called the third “Goat Lady of San Francisco,” shares the story of how the project began and what it takes to run a goat-powered lawn and brush-clearing service. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, on August 24, 1919, Cleveland Indians pitcher Ray Caldwell made his debut at League Park before a crowd of 20,000. In the ninth inning, with victory in sight, lightning suddenly struck the field—and Caldwell himself. Fans thought he had been killed. Instead, moments later, he stood up, shook it off, and finished the game. It remains one of the most astonishing moments in Major League Baseball history. Nick Ragone, host of This Date in History, shares the story of how Ray Caldwell survived a lightning strike and kept pitching. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, it was never supposed to be their mission. But in March 1944, through a twist of circumstance, Lt. Bill Owen’s crew became the first to fly a B-17 Flying Fortress into Berlin during World War II. Against heavy defenses from the German Luftwaffe, they dropped bombs in the heart of the Third Reich and returned to tell the story. John O’Neil, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, shares the account as his father—the tail and waist gunner on that historic plane—first told it. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the Bill of Rights was drafted, a group of ordinary citizens in Queens, New York, made a bold stand for freedom. In 1657, they issued the Flushing Remonstrance, a petition demanding the right to worship without interference from government. Their words, written in a small colonial town, would echo more than a century later in the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty. Larry Reed, President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, tells the story of how this little-known document challenged persecution and laid the groundwork for the separation of church and state in America. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Leven spent decades at the top of the hotel world, rising to President and COO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and earning a reputation as one of the sharpest business leaders of his generation. Looking back on a lifetime in service and management, Leven offers a piece of wisdom he believes every company should take seriously: the bigger the bureaucracy, the smaller the customer. In this reflection, he explains how organizations lose their edge when they bury people in layers of management—and how real leadership keeps its focus on the customer above all else. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, it was scratched, heavy, and imperfect, but to Joy Neal Kidney, the old upright piano her mother left behind was priceless. She remembered the sound of hymns and simple songs filling the house, her mother’s hands steady on the keys. Years later, when the piano became hers, every touch of the keys carried those moments back. Joy shares the story of her mother's lasting memory through one prized possession. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, few figures embody the rise of America’s economy in the nineteenth century more than Cornelius Vanderbilt. He began with nothing, working the waters of New York Harbor, and built a fortune that placed him among the wealthiest people in history. Known to some as a railroad baron and to others as the very model of a captain of industry, Vanderbilt created vast networks of steamships and railroads that fueled the Gold Rush, connected a growing nation, and forever changed the shape of New York City. Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer T.J. Stiles, author of The First Tycoon, shares how one man’s relentless drive to win laid the foundations for the modern corporation and the American economy itself. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Bill Bryk has spent years in the saddle, but in this story, he takes us to a place most riders overlook: the quiet, deliberate work of caring for a horse. Before a hoof hits the trail or a rider lifts the reins, there are coats to brush, manes to comb, and hooves to clean. Even teeth require attention—a reminder that a horse’s strength begins with small acts of care. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Clarence Smoyer, a gunner in the U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Division—“Spearhead”—became one of World War II’s most unlikely heroes. In Cologne, his Pershing tank faced Gustav Schaefer’s Panzer in a duel captured on film, now one of history’s most famous armored battles. Best-selling author Adam Makos shares Smoyer’s story of courage, loss, and reconciliation, showing why remembering WWII tank heroes remains vital. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Skip Reeves grew up in a military family, traveling the world, making music, and building a life surrounded by love and stability. He never questioned the bond he had with his father, a man who taught him strength, respect, and decency. But decades later, as an adult with children of his own, Skip learned a secret that had been hidden since he was five years old: he was adopted. Skip reflects on what it means to learn such a truth as an adult and why, for him, adoption was not about loss but about a bond that had already been proven strong. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.