TRA Children's Book Prize Committee Chair, Duane Jundt, joins hosts Kurt Skinner & Larry Marple to discuss some favorite children's literature related to Theodore Roosevelt.

Hosts Larry Marple & Kurt Skinner are joined by historian Michael Cullinane to discuss his highly anticipated new book "Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet."

In his final days in office in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt invited dozens of friends to the White House for lunch. They had never met as a group, but they had one thing in common: Each played tennis with the president and advised on policy matters. Roosevelt half-joked that the public would never know how much these tennis partners did to make his administration a success. Journalists dismissively called them the “Tennis Cabinet,” making light of their contribution, but Roosevelt knew otherwise.

This inner circle led the administration’s campaigns against corporate greed, investigated public health violations, and formulated consumer protections. They founded environmental conservation policies, prosecuted civil rights violations, and implemented bureaucratic efficiencies that saved the government billions. Roosevelt’s tennis mates shaped the nation’s diplomacy, ending wars and promoting American interests abroad. (notes from the publisher University of Nebraska Press)

Hosts Kurt Skinner and Larry Marple are joined by National Park Service veteran, Valerie Naylor, to discuss parks and monuments established by Theodore Roosevelt, focusing on four "repurposed" sites no longer within the National Park System. Parks included in this episode are Lewis and Clark Caverns National Monument (proclaimed 1908) which became a Montana state park; Wheeler National Monument (proclaimed 1908) which is now a protected geologic area in wilderness; Platt National Park (established 1906) which evolved into Chickasaw National Recreation Area; and Sullys Hill National Park (established 1905) which became a national game preserve.