This panel traces how First Ladies have influenced public life, advocacy, and presidential legacy.

The First Lady’s job description is famously… nonexistent. No handbook, no contract, no paycheck — just a front-row seat to power, a hugely public stage, and the constant pressure of getting it “right,” even when nobody can agree on what “right” looks like.

North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong leads this panel discussion, bringing together Betsy Fischer Martin, Anita McBride, and Michelle Orton. Together they dig into how the role actually works: not through formal authority, but through presence, relationships, timing, and a lot of judgment calls.

They begin, fittingly, with Edith Roosevelt, who helped formalize the role through White House restoration, social leadership, diplomatic hosting, and her role as advisor and anchor to President Theodore Roosevelt. Her partnership with TR helped shape a more modern presidency in ways we still feel today. The discussion then turns to how First Ladies have influenced public life and advocacy, while, of course, not leaving out the realities of being watched and judged at every turn.

These panelists bring White House experience, presidential history expertise, and leadership research to a question that isn’t only about the role but about agency and power: what does it take to lead when your influence is complicated, your visibility is relentless, and what you contribute is often both essential and forgotten?

About the Panelists:

• Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and the Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.
• Anita McBride is director of the First Ladies Initiative at American University, and the former Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush.
• Michelle Orton is the Director and Johnson Endowed Chair of the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program (TRHLP) at Dickinson State University in North Dakota.

This episode is part of a special 6-part series, recorded live from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during its Founding Benefactors Days, July 2-3, 2026, just ahead of the grand opening. Interviews, talks, and panel discussions explored the topics of leadership, conservation, civic life, and Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy today.

Find more media from the TRPL’s Grand Opening at TRLibrary.com/video.

For more from the podcast, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at trlibrary.com/newsletter to stay up-to-date on the TRPL!

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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 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 Regina D'Alesio, Stephanie Condello, Meg Freshwater, Zineb Benchekchou, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

How did a man who fled New York City find himself in the Badlands? And what does it actually take to do it yourself? Happiness scientist and bestselling author Dr. Arthur C. Brooks walks us through 3 important lessons in finding happiness, each drawn from Theodore Roosevelt’s life. He makes the case that TR had the science of a good life figured out a century before Harvard researchers did. And he brings the same wit and energy to this stage that’s made him one of the most sought-after speakers on happiness in the country.

Robbie Lauf, executive director of the TRPL, also joins him, and the conversation opens up into faith, genetics, ambition, and what it means not just to be happy but to be fully alive.

Arthur Brooks is one of the world’s leading experts on the science of human happiness, appearing in the media and traveling the world to teach people in private companies, universities, public agencies, and faith communities how they can live happier lives and bring greater well-being to others. Brooks is a professor at Vanderbilt University and a senior fellow at the Harvard Business School. He is a CBS News contributor, columnist with The Free Press, and host of the weekly podcast “Office Hours with Arthur Brooks.”

This episode is part of a special 6-part series, recorded live from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during its Founding Benefactors Days, July 2-3, 2026, just ahead of the grand opening. Interviews, talks, and panel discussions explored the topics of leadership, conservation, civic life, and Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy today.

Find more media from the TRPL’s Grand Opening at TRLibrary.com/video.

For more from the podcast, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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 Regina D'Alesio, Stephanie Condello, Meg Freshwater, Zineb Benchekchou, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.

This conversation explores the American outdoor tradition, conservation, and the role of hunters, anglers, and private leadership in protecting land, water, wildlife, and access for future generations. Featuring Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris speaking to North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong, it’s a lively discussion that also touches on children and technology, patriotism, and the experiences that shaped Morris’ life.

This episode is part of a special 6-part series, recorded live from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during its Founding Benefactors Days, July 2-3, 2026, just ahead of the grand opening. Interviews, talks, and panel discussions explored the topics of leadership, conservation, civic life, and Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy today.

Find more media from the TRPL’s Grand Opening at TRLibrary.com/video.

For more from the podcast, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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.

One of the nation’s leading presidential historians reflects on Theodore Roosevelt’s life and legacy, and on what history can teach in moments of uncertainty and change. Doris Kearns Goodwin draws on American history to illuminate enduring lessons of leadership, character, resilience, and citizenship.

This episode is part of a special 6-part series, recorded live during the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library’s Founding Benefactors Days, held on July 2-3, 2026, just ahead of its grand opening. Interviews, talks, and panel discussions explored the topics of leadership, conservation, civic life, and Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy today.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a historian and author, and a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation Board of Trustees.

Find more media from the TRPL’s Grand Opening at TRLibrary.com/video.

For more from the podcast, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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.

Why do so few Americans remember John Quincy Adams? Bob Crawford, bassist for The Avett Brothers and author of America's Founding Son, argues Adams may not have been America's best president, but he just might have been the greatest ex-president. He describes the election of 1824, with its accusations of corruption bringing rise to a populist leader. And he lays out how Adams' real story began after the White House, when the former president did the unthinkable: he ran for Congress. It was there that this relentless public servant truly shone, fighting for free speech and striking the first major blow against slavery.

Find him at: bobcrawford.komi.io

For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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 Katrina Tiktinsky, Sam Mitchell, Edward F. O’Keefe, Robbie Lauf, Courtland Miller, and Matt Briney.
Bob Crawford photo credit: Crackerfarm

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 and futureofstorytelling.org

For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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 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

For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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 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

For more, visit goodcitizenpodcast.com.

Follow us on Facebook @TRPresidentialLibrary

Instagram @trlibrary

X @TRPresLibrary.

And sign up for our newsletter at 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 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.