Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the annexation of Texas and long before it entered the Union, Texas stood as its own country. The road to that break began under Mexican rule, as growing numbers of settlers pushed for greater local control.What followed became ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the annexation of Texas and long before it entered the Union, Texas stood as its own country. The road to that break began under Mexican rule, as growing numbers of settlers pushed for greater local control.What followed became ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Samson appears in the Book of Judges as a man set apart from birth and given extraordinary strength. Known for the story of Samson and Delilah, he became one of the most recognizable figures in the Bible, though his life was marked by far ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Hiram Stevens Maxim is best known as the inventor of the Maxim machine gun, one of the first fully automatic weapons. But later in life, he made a surprising and controversial claim: that he, not Thomas Edison, had invented the light bulb. ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, when 10cc set out to record “I’m Not in Love,” they were working from an idea that ran against the kind of love songs filling the radio at the time. By the time it was finished, the song no longer resembled the version they had started wit ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Burt Young grew up in Queens, the son of a working-class family, and spent his early years far from the world of film. He boxed professionally, served in the Marine Corps, and worked a series of jobs before ever thinking about acting.That ...  Show more