Good Citizen

A Call to Adventure: Charlie Melcher, Ed O’Keefe and the Brand New Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

Ted comes to this conversation not just as a host, but as a Roosevelt. And he’s sitting down with two people he’s worked alongside for years: Edward O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and Charlie Melcher, CEO of the Future of Storytelling, as they reflect on what they’ve built together.  The Library opens its doors on July 4th, 2026,  the nation’s 250th birthday, and these two men are most responsible for bringing it to life. Together they trace the arc from vision to reality, including the moment on a snowy Badlands butte when everything clicked. This conversation includes a candid look at how far they’ve come and a preview of what awaits visitors. At the heart of it all is a radical proposition: that TR’s story exists not to glorify one man, but to ignite something in the rest of us.   Learn more at TRLibrary.com [http://trlibrary.com] and futureofstorytelling.org [https://futureofstorytelling.org/] For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com [http://www.goodcitizenpodcast.com]. Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary [https://www.facebook.com/TRPresidentialLibrary] Instagram @trlibrary [https://www.instagram.com/trlibrary/] X @TRPresLibrary [https://twitter.com/TRPresLibrary]. And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter [https://www.trlibrary.com/newsletter/] to stay up-to-date on the TRPL! -- Good Citizen is hosted by Ted Roosevelt V and produced by The Future of StoryTelling in collaboration with Charts & Leisure, on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Learn more about T.R.’s presidential library at http://www.trlibrary.com/www.trlibrary.com [http://www.trlibrary.com].  Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation 350 Third Avenue Medora, North Dakota 58645   Future of StoryTelling Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher Director, Carolyn Merriman Producer, Alison Byrne  Assistant Producer, Madison Brown Production Assistant, Tsuki Carlson   Charts & Leisure Executive Producer, Jason Oberholtzer Producer, Meghal Janardan Editor, Garrett Crowe Mix, Andrew Atkin Music and Final Assembly, Michael Simonelli With special thanks to Lor Simpson, Nicole Turchin, WTF Media Studios, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

Lucas St. Clair: Honey, Humility, and the Making of a National Monument

Lucas St. Clair grew up off the grid in the woods of northern Maine, with a front-row seat to one of the great entrepreneurial origin stories of our time: his mother’s chance encounter with the beekeeper Burt Shavitz, which grew into Burt’s Bees. With his good friend Ted, Lucas traces that story of selling honey out of pickle jars to building a multi-million dollar company, and his mom’s vision to donate tens of thousands of acres of Maine timberland to create a national park. What followed for Lucas was years of backlash, door-to-door discussions, and a humbling reckoning with the Wabanaki Nations, whose history had long been left out of the story of this land. Learn more about the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument at www.nps.gov/kaww [https://www.nps.gov/kaww/index.htm] For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com [http://www.goodcitizenpodcast.com]. Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary [https://www.facebook.com/TRPresidentialLibrary] Instagram @trlibrary [https://www.instagram.com/trlibrary/] X @TRPresLibrary [https://twitter.com/TRPresLibrary]. And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter [https://www.trlibrary.com/newsletter/] to stay up-to-date on the TRPL! -- Good Citizen is hosted by Ted Roosevelt V and produced by The Future of StoryTelling in collaboration with Charts & Leisure, on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Learn more about T.R.’s upcoming presidential library at http://www.trlibrary.com/www.trlibrary.com [http://www.trlibrary.com].  Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation 350 Third Avenue Medora, North Dakota 58645   Future of StoryTelling Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher Director, Carolyn Merriman Producer, Alison Byrne  Assistant Producer, Madison Brown Production Assistant, Tsuki Carlson   Charts & Leisure Executive Producer, Jason Oberholtzer Producer, Meghal Janardan Editor, Garrett Crowe Mix, Andrew Atkin Music and Final Assembly, Michael Simonelli With special thanks to Miriam Deauseault, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

Admiral Stavridis on NATO and the World of 2084: The Future is a Warning

Admiral James Stavridis is a retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral and prolific nonfiction author, but it's his newest work of fiction that cuts the deepest. 2084, co-written with former Marine Elliot Ackerman, imagines a world ravaged by climate change and torn apart by a global war orchestrated by A.I. Yet beneath the chaos are difficult human choices and the kinds of love and loss that remind us what's ultimately at stake. It serves as a warning designed to spur action. But Ted can't stay in the future for too long, not with the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO sitting across from him. Their conversation moves between reality and story, from NATO’s global composition and the international order today to that world of 2084. Without giving too much away, the Admiral describes a future that feels distant enough to be fiction but close enough to be uncomfortable. Find him at admiralstav.com [https://admiralstav.com/] For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com [http://www.goodcitizenpodcast.com]. Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary [https://www.facebook.com/TRPresidentialLibrary] Instagram @trlibrary [https://www.instagram.com/trlibrary/] X @TRPresLibrary [https://twitter.com/TRPresLibrary]. And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter [https://www.trlibrary.com/newsletter/] to stay up-to-date on the TRPL! -- Good Citizen is hosted by Ted Roosevelt V and produced by The Future of StoryTelling in collaboration with Charts & Leisure, on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Learn more about T.R.’s upcoming presidential library at http://www.trlibrary.com/www.trlibrary.com [http://www.trlibrary.com].  Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation 350 Third Avenue Medora, North Dakota 58645   Future of StoryTelling Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher Director, Carolyn Merriman Producer, Alison Byrne  Assistant Producer, Madison Brown Production Assistant, Tsuki Carlson   Charts & Leisure Executive Producer, Jason Oberholtzer Producer, Meghal Janardan Editor, Garrett Crowe Mix, Andrew Atkin Music and Final Assembly, Michael Simonelli With special thanks to Paulette Folkins, Julia Stavridis, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

Dana Milbank: Retreat, Restore, Rehumanize

Dana Milbank traded the outrage cycle of politics for 60 acres of overgrown Virginia farmland. And as he changed the land, the land changed him. Dana is a political columnist for NOTUS (soon to be “The Star”). He spent 26 years as an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, where he also wrote about our attempts to "rehumanize" during a time of anxiety and isolation.  He describes to Ted his unlikely journey from suburban kid and political columnist to hunter and land steward, and how even brief moments outdoors can give back what screens have stripped away. Dana makes the case that spending time in nature and with our neighbors, like restoring degraded land, is sometimes unglamorous, Sisyphean work that just so happens to be essential. Find him at notus.org/dana-milbank [https://www.notus.org/dana-milbank] For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com [http://www.goodcitizenpodcast.com]. Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary [https://www.facebook.com/TRPresidentialLibrary] Instagram @trlibrary [https://www.instagram.com/trlibrary/] X @TRPresLibrary [https://twitter.com/TRPresLibrary]. And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter [https://www.trlibrary.com/newsletter/] to stay up-to-date on the TRPL! -- Good Citizen is hosted by Ted Roosevelt V and produced by The Future of StoryTelling in collaboration with Charts & Leisure, on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Learn more about T.R.’s upcoming presidential library at http://www.trlibrary.com/www.trlibrary.com [http://www.trlibrary.com].  Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation 350 Third Avenue Medora, North Dakota 58645   Future of StoryTelling Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher Director, Carolyn Merriman Producer, Alison Byrne  Assistant Producer, Madison Brown Production Assistant, Tsuki Carlson   Charts & Leisure Executive Producer, Jason Oberholtzer Producer, Meghal Janardan Editor, Garrett Crowe Mix, Andrew Atkin Music and Final Assembly, Michael Simonelli With special thanks to Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

Senator Mitt Romney on Formative Moments, Presidential Leadership, and the Question of Legacy

What allows a politician to hold to his principles when almost every incentive pulls the other way? In this memorable conversation with Ted, Senator Mitt Romney traces the formative moments with his father that shaped his moral compass, and the specific ways he guards against self-rationalization. Senator Romney also speaks to the outsized power of presidential leadership, and why his legacy won’t rest on any single vote he cast. Plus, he offers a surprisingly simple framework for rediscovering the values most Americans already share. For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com [http://www.goodcitizenpodcast.com]. Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary [https://www.facebook.com/TRPresidentialLibrary] Instagram @trlibrary [https://www.instagram.com/trlibrary/] X @TRPresLibrary [https://twitter.com/TRPresLibrary]. And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter [https://www.trlibrary.com/newsletter/] to stay up-to-date on the TRPL! -- Good Citizen is hosted by Ted Roosevelt V and produced by The Future of StoryTelling in collaboration with Charts & Leisure, on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Learn more about T.R.’s upcoming presidential library at http://www.trlibrary.com/www.trlibrary.com [http://www.trlibrary.com].  Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation 350 Third Avenue Medora, North Dakota 58645   Future of StoryTelling Founder and CEO, Charles Melcher Director, Carolyn Merriman Producer, Alison Byrne  Assistant Producer, Madison Brown Production Assistant, Tsuki Carlson   Charts & Leisure Executive Producer, Jason Oberholtzer Producer, Meghal Janardan Editor, Garrett Crowe Mix, Andrew Atkin Music and Final Assembly, Michael Simonelli With special thanks to Leah von Schaumburg, Liz Johnson, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.