Some conservation advocates say political leaders like Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, and Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak are betraying Theodore Roosevelt's conservation legacy even as they attend the opening of a presdiential library dedicated to him.

"When you see the attacks on national monuments, when you see national park staff being cut all across the board, it's hard to say, yes, these people are TR champions," John Bradley, executive director of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation, said in this episode of Plain Talk.

"TR ended the Gilded Age, and it seems to be that we're right back in a Gilded Age where people with money and people with power and influence can run roughshod on our public lands, our national narrative," he continued.

Bradley says that what his organization wants is balance.

"We have an approach that it's not one or the other," he said. "It's not 'our public lands must be protected in in pristine wilderness,'" he said. "What we're seeing, though, is just a shift from a more balanced approach to this administration with their their drill baby drill policies."

Brock Wahl, chair of the North Dakota chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said North Dakota's leaders aren't listening to his organization. "If they're not talking to us hunters in North Dakota, us residents, then whose opinions are they listening to?" he asked.

Also on this episode, we discuss the complicated legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, and respond to listsener feedback on tuition waivers, the property rights issues around data centers, and a controversial survey conducted by the North Dakota Ethics Commission.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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There will be a lot to see when the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens in Medora next month.

There will be traditional exhibits and artifacts and eight "adventure galleries" where visitors can learn from Theodore Roosevelt instead of just about him. Among the experiences available will be sitting around a camp fire and talking to characters from Roosevelt's era, a train ride experience simulating Roosevelt's frantic trip back to New York to be with his suffering family, a 14-minute canoe ride down the "River of Doubt," and an opportunity to interact with an AI-simulated version of Roosevelt himself.

But one of Robbie Lauf's favorite features, he told us on this episode of Plain Talk, is the building itself. "We built what I think is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world," he said.

Lauf is the executive director of the library, which he says will help change the shape of tourism in North Dakota, moving it from being, somewhat infamously, the last place people think to visit in the United States to perhaps a spot much higher on the list.

"I hope this is an incredible story of what our state can do and when we dare greatly and put big ideas out there," he said.

He also said the library is in a strong fiscal position, and hasn't yet touched the funds made available by the State of North Dakota. "The state of North Dakota put the first $50 million as a challenge grant to raise $100 million to access that 50. That is an endowment," he said. "So zero dollars of that $50 million has been spent on construction. Zero dollars of the earnings, frankly, have been spent. We have it siphoned off in a separate fund where it hasn't been touched, because that, for us, in the legislative intent, was for the operations and maintenance of a facility."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the potentially divisive distraction President Donald Trump's visit to the library opening festivities could cause. We also talk about some of the misguided partisan analysis around Fargo's recent local elections, and respond to listener feedback.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Vern Thompson began this political cycle running for the U.S. House, but when delegates to the Democratic-NPL convention gave their endorsement to Trygve Hammer instead, he shifted his focus to a race for Agriculture Commissioner.

It also marked a shift in Thompson's strategy. Of late he, and Hammer, have been courting votes from the far-right populist wing of the North Dakota Republican Party, which is feeling disaffected after their candidates were trounced by more moderate Republicans in the state's recent primary.

"I'm going after any vote that's out there," Thompson said of the strategy on this episode of Plain Talk.

Thompson also took questions on his very vocal opposition to data centers. He's calling for the state to implement a one-year moratorium on the projects "so we can give communities the time they need to make informed decisions and weigh the benefits and the impacts."

Though Thompson, who referred to the decision by some North Dakotans to support data centers as "greed" and a desire to "go take all the money they can get," claims he's not necessarily against the projects. "I'm not against industrial development. I'm all for it. We own a business. But the fact is, this is being pushed down our throats so fast by a lot of out-of-state multi-billionaire corporations and I just think we have to slow down."

He also accused his opponent, Republican incumbent Doug Goehring, of being more loyal to those interests than North Dakota voters. "He's just going along with whatever the the big money out of state multi-billionaires want," Thompson said. "He's he's kind of gotten to be a corporate shill."

Also on this episode, we discuss the controversy around long-time state lawmaker Rep. Jim Kasper, who suffered a brain bleed more than a year ago and still hasn't fully returned to work. Is it time for him to step aside so that someone more capable can represent the voters of District 46?

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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