Living History and Family Legends

In this episode, we dive deep into how people connect to the past through living history and genealogy. Interviews with Civil War reenactors Ken Irvin and Shane Seley grapple with the work of preserving history and engaging the next generation. Some say living history is a dying field—Ken and Shane beg to differ. By the end of this episode, listeners will better understand the question: What drives us to study our family history?

Written and narrated by: Katelyn Irvin 

Producer and engineer: Kyle Jackson 

Interview guests: Ken Irvin, Shane Seley (Wide Awake Films)

Theme Song: Fog Holler (Used with permission)

Additional Musical Elements: Fog Holler, Casey James Holmberg, Kyle Jackson, Kate Bone

What is Wheels Across the West: History and Legacy of the Santa Fe Trail?

"Wheels Across the West: History and Legacy of the Santa Fe Trail" invites listeners on a fun and fact-filled adventure across time and territory to make sense of an oft-overlooked overland trail. Created, written, and narrated by students at the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, Wheels Across the West covers a wide range of topics that intersect with the past and present of the American West: mules, military forts, missionization, Hollywood Westerns, gun culture, living history reenactors, pioneer women, Black cowboys, and so much more. Transporting listeners from Indigenous pathways, to international wagon caravans, to railroads, highways, and modern-day Main Streets, this series reveals how the infrastructure and cultural landscape of the West has been constructed atop foundations laid long ago.