On this episode of Our American Stories, candy corn, black licorice, and circus peanuts have been on American shelves for generations, and whether you love them or hate them, they're here to stay. But their longevity is more curious than their questionable (or delicious!) taste.

Each came from a different corner of early candy history, shaped by manufacturing experiments and changing ideas about what exactly a treat should be. The History Guy traces the origins of these three polarizing confections and explains how they've managed to continue to divide opinions for years.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, the Allied invasion of Normandy depended on more than military force. It required convincing Germany that the real attack would land somewhere else, and that task fell to one man working deep inside a world of fragile alliances and invented identities.

Juan Pujol García, known to British intelligence as Agent Garbo, built an entire network of fictitious sources and delivered reports so convincing that German command relied on them without question. His work became one of the most striking examples of double-agent strategy in modern espionage, shaping the deception that shielded D-Day from German defenses. The late, great Stephen Ambrose tells Agent Garbo’s story.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, when crowds wandered through Coney Island in the early twentieth century, they expected oddities, tricks, and performers who lived on the edge of spectacle. What they did not expect were rows of premature infants resting inside newly designed infant incubators. The exhibit belonged to Dr. Martin Couney, a man who operated far from traditional medical circles yet devoted his life to caring for babies who had almost no chance of survival anywhere else.

His work unfolded in a setting that looked more like entertainment than medicine, but it forced the public to confront ideas that the established medical community had been slow to accept. Author Dawn Raffel traces how Couney’s unusual path ended up shaping medical innovations that would define modern neonatal care.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jim Johnson has a habit of meeting people who stay with him long after the moment has passed. Everett Motl was one of those people—the kind you remember because something about their presence settles in and refuses to fade. What began as a small acquaintance turned into a story Johnson now carries into the holiday season, a reminder that the most meaningful Christmas stories often start in ordinary places.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, every Sunday, Our American Stories host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel “Big Mitch” Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment.

Today’s conversation starts with a different kind of introduction. Lee brings his friend Bo onto the line, hoping Mitch can help him think through a difficult decision. Mitch listens and responds with a patience he’s earned over decades of hard-learned experience.

Speaking with Bo brings him back to the person who first taught him to talk to others with that kind of steadiness. He remembers Sister Lillian, the woman who encouraged him to take responsibility for his actions and to pay close attention to how his choices affected those around him. Her death from breast cancer in 2015 left a quiet ache, and Mitch talks about how her influence continues to shape him even now.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jimmy Hawkins began acting when television was still defining itself, moving from show to show with the ease of a child who learned the business early. Viewers eventually recognized him from programs that shaped mid-century entertainment, but one of his first roles connected him to a film that would outgrow its modest beginnings. In 1946, Hawkins played Tommy Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, joining a production that made little noise on release and gained its reputation only after years of quiet rediscovery.

Jimmy Hawkins looks back on that experience and the work that surrounded it, offering a grounded view of how the film came together and how the film found its place in American culture.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, pinball’s story winds back to a quiet corner of European parlor culture, where small tabletop games offered a brief challenge to anyone willing to try their luck. Those early ideas eventually migrated to America, where the game weathered citywide crackdowns and the tests of time.

As the tables grew more complex, the machines slipped into public rooms that gave them steady use and helped shape the early world of classic arcade games. Jeremy Saucier of The Strong Museum of Play lays out how that path unfolded and how pinball machines became the fixtures they are today.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early 1920s, WSM filled its schedule with whatever talent it could gather, and one night a fiddler stepped into the studio with a tune that settled easily across the airwaves. The reaction from listeners changed the station’s direction. The music felt local in the best sense of the word, and the signal carried it into homes that had never heard anything like it. Those moments revealed how quickly a simple performance could influence the American music history taking shape around the radio.

The Grand Ole Opry emerged within that momentum, and Nashville followed along with the shift. The influence created a bridge between regional tradition and the broader landscape of country-western music, giving the early threads of country-music origins a steady place to land. Craig Havighurst, author of Musicality for Modern Humans, joins us with a look into how WSM and the Opry reshaped Nashville’s music history and left a mark that continues to guide the way the city sounds today.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Our American Stories, what does it mean when a highway that no longer exists still carries more recognition than the roads that replaced it? Route 66 was born out of a practical need to move people across long distances, yet it quickly grew into something else entirely. Its motels, garages, and storefronts formed a line of small anchors through the heart of the country, each one shaping the rhythm of life along the pavement. Parts of old Route 66 have disappeared, but the imprint remains. Historian Jim Hinckley traces the winding tale of Route 66’s history, from its early promise to its quiet revival.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.