This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And up next,

a story about one of our founding fathers, a star of all stars, and that is John Adams. To tell the story

is David McCullough, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, which turned into an HBO series.

The John Adams story you're about to hear was given by McCullough at the John Adams Institute

in the Netherlands. We'd like to give a heartfelt thank you to the John Adams Institute

and their podcast, Bright Minds, for allowing us to share this story with

our listeners. Here's David McCullough with the story of John Adams.

I've often stopped in recent years to try to figure out what it is I've been writing

about in my writing life. For a long time, I thought maybe I must have a water obsession.

The first book was about the Johnstown flood.

The second was about a bridge over the East River.

The third was about the Panama Canal.

But I think at root,

everything that I have been trying to do in my work is about courage.

And principally, chiefly, the courage of one's convictions.

And the story of John Adams again and again and again is a story of courage.

I thought I would begin my remarks with a painting that hangs in our national capital.

It's the most famous painting ever done by an American.

It is seen by more people than any other painting ever painted by an American

as it hangs there where millions go through as visitors every year.

It's John Trumbull's signing of the Declaration of Independence.

...