109. The Rise and Fall of Enterprise Square, USA

109. The Rise and Fall of Enterprise Square, USA

From Museum Archipelago by Ian Elsner

February 24, 2025 · 16 min

About this episode

The episode explores the history and impact of Enterprise Square, USA, a high-tech museum in Oklahoma City focused on Free Market Economics, through the experiences of guest Barrett Huddleston.

For the last few decades of the 20th century, if you visited Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, you could have been serenaded by a barbershop quartet of audio-animatronic portraits of America's founders as framed on U.S. currency. This was one of the many exhibits at Enterprise Square, USA, a high-tech museum dedicated to teaching children about Free Market Economics. The museum, which found itself out of money almost before it opened, shut down in 1999. Barrett Huddleston first encountered these exhibits as a wide-eyed elementary school student in the 1980s, mesmerized by the talking puppets, giant electronic heads, and interactive displays that taught how regulation stifled freedom. Years later, he returned as a tour guide during the museum's final days, maintaining those same animatronics with duct tape and wire cutters, and occasionally being squeezed inside the two-dollar bill to repair Thomas Jefferson. He joins us to explore this collision of education, ideology, and visitor experience, and how the former museum shapes his own approach to teaching children today. Cover Image: Children watch audio-animatronic portraits of America's founders, as framed on U.S. currency, sing a song…

People in this episode

Host: Ian Elsner

Guest: Barrett Huddleston

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Enterprise Square, USA

Books & works: U.S. currency

Places: Oklahoma City

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