Matt Briney, Chief Communications Officer at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, joins host Adam Camac to discuss the life and legacy of President Theodore Roosevelt. The show notes page for this episode can be found at placesandprofiles.com/27.

1:28 - The guest's interest in Theodore Roosevelt and why Theodore Roosevelt is one of the guest's favorite presidents

2:27 - Theodore Roosevelt's early life, family background, and early political career

4:23 - How Theodore Roosevelt was different from most of the other people in New York politics and how having a different outlook and persona helped him rise up the ranks of New York politics

6:42 - Class expectations and distinctions of the era, how Theodore Roosevelt bucked the trend and behaved in unexpected ways for someone of his background and class

8:54 - How Theodore Roosevelt ends up becoming Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley and how the short time during which he held that role was significant in his ultimate rise to becoming president

11:02 - Leading the Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War

15:49 - How leading the Rough Riders helped Theodore Roosevelt continue to rise up the political ranks and helped him become Governor of New York pretty quickly afterwards

17:43 - Theodore Roosevelt's brief tenure as Governor of New York, how he ended up being William McKinley's vice presidential running mate during McKinley's successful reelection campaign for president in 1900

20:59 - Theodore Roosevelt's six months as vice president until he became president following William McKinley being assassinated in September of 1901

22:45 - How the country reacted to the assassination of William McKinley

25:02 - An overview of Theodore Roosevelt's time as president, key policies, how he was the first modern president in a lot of ways

30:13 - Theodore Roosevelt as a trust buster, how his policies differed from his predecessors in this area

32:54 - The regulation of railroads and the Pure Food and Drug Act and the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during Roosevelt's time as president

35:27 - The construction of the Panama Canal, winning a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Great White Fleet, and other key events and aspects of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy

39:10 - The Roosevelt Corollary

40:47 - Theodore Roosevelt's involvement with rule changes and safety concerns in college football

43:20 - Theodore Roosevelt's relationship with his successor as president and former protege, William Howard Taft

45:58 - The assassination attempt against Theodore Roosevelt during his 1912 campaign for president as the Bull Moose (Progressive) Party candidate, how the assassination attempt affected him

47:58 - Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech

51:30 - Theodore Roosevelt's spouses and children, his time living in North Dakota and how that shaped who he became

54:57 - The seven years of Theodore Roosevelt's life between his unsuccessful run for president in 1912 and his untimely passing in 1919

57:09 - Important things to understand about Theodore Roosevelt's legacy

59:33 - Other notable Theodore Roosevelt stories

1:01:04 - Resources for learning about Theodore Roosevelt and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

Wess Harris, a sociologist, miner, union organizer, author, and editor, joins host Adam Camac to discuss key figures, issues, and events from the West Virginia Mine Wars and the history of coal mining in West Virginia. The show notes page for this episode can be found at placesandprofiles.com/26.

1:25 - The guest's background and interest in the West Virginia Mine Wars, the guest's experiences and background as a miner, union organizer, labor historian, and sociologist

7:26 - Background of West Virginia and Appalachia and their connection to coal mines and unions, why this is so interesting and important to West Virginia and the entire United States

10:41 - Working conditions in coal mines, the sorts of people who worked in coal mines in the early 1900s, how the backgrounds of the coal miners and the conditions in the coal mines led to unions and union organizers playing such a significant role, the scrip economy

14:52 - What the scrip system was and how it worked, some of the particularly nefarious ramifications of the scrip system and some of the problems the scrip system presented, Esau scrip

21:03 - Whether there are any statistics of how many women were affected by the Esau scrip system

22:48 - What the West Virginia Mine Wars were, key figures, battles, and events, how extraction played a role in the West Virginia Mine Wars

28:11 - Abuses and draconian aspects of coal company policies against the mine workers

32:24 - Bill Blizzard, the Battle of Blair Mountain, and the "Red Neck Army"

46:22 - Farmington Mine disaster of 1968, Buffalo Creek flooding disaster of 1972, Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010, black lung disease

56:32 - More about the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010, US Senator Joe Manchin, Massey Energy CEO and future US Senate candidate Don Blankenship

1:00:29 - Why so much of this history is censored and is thus unknown to the general public

1:03:55 - What the Our Story Traveling Museum is, the guest's books ("When Miners March" and "Written in Blood")

1:07:16 - Anything we missed, where to follow the guest's work, related resources

Christopher Goscha, professor in the Department of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) and author of "Vietnam: A New History" and "The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam," joins host Adam Camac to discuss key events, figures, and influences from the history of Vietnam. The show notes page for this episode can be found at placesandprofiles.com/25.

1:18 - The guest's interest in Vietnam, why he has been so interested in Vietnam and its history, how he initially became interested in Vietnam

3:18 - Origins of the term Vietnam, when we start to see the concept of Vietnam develop, where the notion of a place called Vietnam traces its roots back to

5:20 - Key physical features and places to know that have been significant as the modern country of Vietnam has come into being

8:22 - Religion in Vietnam and how religion has taken form there over the centuries, Confucianism in Vietnam

11:06 - Chinese influence in Vietnam over the centuries, imperial domination of Vietnam

by the Chinese, how that influenced the eventual country of Vietnam

13:48 - Japanese influence in Vietnam

15:25 - The Nguyen dynasty, who they were, how they influenced what was to come, why they were so significant

18:07 - What brought about French colonization of Vietnam, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina as the northern, central, and southern parts of Vietnam, how the notion of having three separate regions of Vietnam influenced how the French colonized Vietnam, the French conquering all of Vietnam and later forming the Indochinese Union with Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos

21:29 - How World War II influenced Vietnam, Japanese rule and occupation of Vietnam during World War II, how World War II helped lead to the establishment of the modern country of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam declaring its independence coming out of World War II, the creation of the Viet Minh by Ho Chi Minh and the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1941

28:14 - First Indochina War of 1946-1954, what brought about the war, how the French reentered the picture, the significance of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the end of the First Indochina War

35:13 - The Geneva Conference of 1954, Vietnam being divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, how the First Indochina War led to the Vietnam War, American intervention in Vietnam beginning in 1950, the importance of Vietnam to American decisionmakers

41:00 - Overview of the Vietnam War, key figures, groups, sides, and events of the Vietnam War, the essential things to know about the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh, Ngo Dinh Diem, the assassinations of Ngo Dinh Diem and John F. Kennedy

45:39 - Key events of the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1975, Lyndon Johnson and the escalation of the Vietnam War, the significance of the Tet Offensive, Richard Nixon's strategy to end the Vietnam War, Paris Peace Accords of 1973

52:03 - How the end of the Vietnam War and North Vietnam (the Vietnamese communists) conquering South Vietnam affected the people of Vietnam, how the conclusion and aftermath of the war affected the Vietnamese people, the Vietnamese death toll during the Vietnam War, the American death toll during the Vietnam War, the onset of wars between Vietnam and Cambodia and China in the years after the Vietnam War, the effects of the war on the Vietnamese economy

54:56 - Vietnam's economic and political systems today, reforms in Vietnam's economy, communism in Vietnam today, Vietnam's role and place in the modern world

58:19 - Vietnam's tricky position in the current geopolitical struggle between the United States and China

1:00:54 - More information about the guest's work