On this episode of Our American Stories, we use them without thinking. Someone gets “sold down the river.” A project has to “start from scratch.” An idea “steals our thunder.” But behind these familiar expressions are stories involving ancient athletes, biblical passages, British sailors, American slavery, theater rivalries, and baseball.

Andrew Thompson, author of Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases, shares another surprising history hiding inside the words and phrases we use every day.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Leven was studying law at the University of Chicago when a bad grade sent him to his professor's office looking for help. Instead, the professor gave him a verdict: “You don't understand contracts, and I don't think you ever will.” Mike walked out, sold his law books, and went home. His legal career was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Leven would go on to become one of America's most successful hoteliers, but he never forgot how it felt to have someone in authority dismiss him so completely. Mike shares how that painful encounter shaped the way he approached leadership, parenting, and some of the hardest conversations of his career, especially when he was the person with the power to change someone else's life.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1918, influenza swept across the world with terrifying speed, killing millions. Doctors were desperate to stop it, but there was a fundamental problem: they didn't even know what caused the flu. Patients were subjected to bloodletting and enemas, prescribed whiskey, and even exposed to toxic factory gases, while scientists pursued theories involving bacteria, the weather, and tainted Russian oats. Somewhere among the confusion was a disease medicine could not yet see.

Dr. Jeremy Brown, author of Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History, shares how scientists finally uncovered the true cause of influenza and began learning how to fight it. This 2019 lecture comes courtesy of the U.S. National Archives.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, when the HMS Birkenhead struck rocks off the coast of South Africa in 1852, chaos should have followed. Instead, what happened that night became one of history’s clearest displays of courage and order in the face of disaster. With lifeboats too few for the hundreds aboard, British soldiers stood their ground so that women and children could be saved. Their calm obedience became known as the Birkenhead Drill: a model of discipline that would inspire generations and set the standard for what it means to put others first.

The History Guy shares the story.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, before “Smokin’” Ed Currie became famous for breeding the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X, he nearly destroyed his life with addiction. Recovery gave Ed a second chance, but it didn't erase the guilt he carried over the person he had once been. Years later, after he and his wife, Linda, endured miscarriage after miscarriage, they finally accepted that they might never have children of their own. Then, in the middle of the night, the phone rang.

Ed shares the deeply personal story of the unexpected events that followed.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Ted Godlove was only months out of high school in Milo, Iowa, when he volunteered for the United States Marine Corps. Before long, he was serving with a reconnaissance unit deep in the jungles of Vietnam, where small teams of Marines operated dangerously close to much larger enemy forces. Godlove survived firefights, desperate escapes, and one helicopter extraction that ended with him and his fellow Marines being dragged through a river. Then, during a deadly mission in 1969, Ted believed his life had come to an end.

Michael Williams, author of The Boys of Milo, shares the story of what happened next. As Ted lay wounded, he experienced what he believed was an encounter with Jesus and heard five words: “You have to go back.” Ted survived.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1966, Twister looked like a flop. Retailers thought Milton Bradley's new game was too risqué, Sears refused to put it in its Christmas catalog, and the company was preparing to pull it from stores. Then Johnny Carson spread the colorful mat across the stage of The Tonight Show and invited actress Eva Gabor to play.

Our Ameican Stories regular contributor Christopher Klein shares what happened next. As Carson and Gabor tangled themselves across the mat, the studio audience erupted in laughter and millions watched at home. The next morning, shoppers went looking for Twister. Soon, factories were struggling to keep up with demand.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, Benjamin Franklin rarely attended church and questioned some of Christianity's central doctrines. Yet he never abandoned belief in God. He believed in Providence, immortality, moral accountability, and the importance of religion to a healthy society. Franklin's faith never fit neatly into a single category, and he spent much of his long life thinking, questioning, and occasionally changing his mind about what he believed.

Dr. D. G. Hart, author of Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant, and historian Dr. Thomas Kidd share the complicated story of Franklin's religious life.

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On this episode of Our American Stories, for nearly a decade, the Secret Service couldn't catch one of America's most persistent counterfeiters. The strange thing was that he wasn't very good at counterfeiting. Mister 880 produced only one-dollar bills, printed them on the wrong paper, drew a lousy George Washington, and occasionally even misspelled Washington's name. Still, the phony dollars kept appearing across New York City, one or two at a time, and their mysterious maker kept slipping away.

Our American Stories regular contributor Bill Bryk shares the hilarious and true story of Mister 880, otherwise known as Emerich Juettner, an elderly widower.

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