Although Theodore Roosevelt’s energetic personality is remembered today by most Americans as almost larger than life, who really was Roosevelt the person, not the legend? In our last episode of Season 5, Mary and Kirk are joined by Tony Williams, BRI Senior Teaching Fellow, to explore Roosevelt’s personal and professional life and what it is about him that continues to fascinate us today. How did Roosevelt overcome the death of both his wife and daughter by traveling west? What is his legacy of American imperialism that still exists today?

 As Emma Watson says in the HBO special “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” “there’s something about Harry Potter that makes life richer.” In this episode of Fabric of History, Mary, Kirk, and Haley explore the meaning of this phrase and why Harry Potter has had such a lasting impact on so many people’s lives. What is it about the human themes set in a magical world that makes the series and the way we engage with it so unique? 

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https://billofrightsinstitute.org/podcasts/the-spell-of-a-good-story-harry-potters-magical-universe

What happens when a pop culture depiction of history is better known than the history itself? The well-known Oregon Trail computer game created in the 1970s brings players on a tumultuous journey from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon in the mid-1800s, but how accurate to history is it? In this special episode of Fabric of History, Mary is joined by Dr. Andrew Fisher, author and Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, to shed light on how accurate the game's challenges were. Why did so many Americans choose to go West in the mid-1800s?  What were the impacts of pioneers interacting with Native Americans and their territory as they moved West?

View our episode page for additional resources!
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/podcasts/the-oregon-trail-the-game-vs-reality