3/27/26. UW-Parkside Librarians / Author Rick Riordan

Part One: We speak with UW-Parkside librarians Shauna Edson and Heather Spencer about the research they have been doing into an interesting chapter in the school's history: how Parkside was host to Gen Con, the largest convention that gathers together fans of Dungeons and Dragons and other table-top role-playing games. Parkside hosted Gen Con from 1978 to 1984. They are in the midst of creating an oral history project about it and are still in search of first-person accounts from anyone who visited gen con at Parkside during those years. Part Two: best-selling author Rick Riordan, who has created (among other things) the popular Percy Jackson series for young readers. This particular interview concerns his "The Trials of Apollo" series.