Chicago’s Morning Answer host Mike Koolidge, filling in for Dan Proft, spoke with John Tillman, founder and CEO of Hall of Giants and former head of the Illinois Policy Institute, about an ambitious museum and cultural project honoring American entrepreneurs. Tillman described the venture not as a traditional museum but as an amusement park built around a hall of fame, featuring immersive rides intended to trace the arc of American innovation, including a planned attraction that carries visitors from a horse-drawn wagon in 1776 through steamships, locomotives, automobiles, jet aircraft, and ultimately a rocket landing on Mars.
Tillman said the project grew out of a concern that American culture has lost its appreciation for entrepreneurs, arguing that early-stage business owners struggling to meet payroll are widely admired, while those who achieve significant financial success are often recast as villains. He said Hall of Giants is designed to counter that narrative by telling both well-known and lesser-known stories of American entrepreneurship, from figures like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie to lesser-known pioneers such as Madam C.J. Walker, widely regarded as the first self-made female millionaire in the United States. He said the organization is actively collecting stories from across the country as part of a touring exhibit tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary, with hopes of eventually incorporating contributions from every state and many individual cities.
Koolidge noted the range of names featured on the Hall of Giants website, spanning figures such as Yuengling Brewery founder Dick Yuengling, Goya Foods founder Robert Unanue, Spanx founder Sara Blakely, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, and Hobby Lobby founder David Green, and asked Tillman to respond to what he described as growing skepticism among younger Americans toward wealth and entrepreneurial achievement. Tillman traced the origins of the project back to remarks made by then-Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels responding to comments from President Obama that Tillman felt diminished the risk entrepreneurs take on when building businesses. Tillman argued that the founding of the United States, alongside works like Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and the writings of John Locke, redirected human ambition away from historical patterns of conquest and domination toward building enterprises that serve others, a shift he said modern cultural criticism of business success tends to overlook.
Tillman said the project’s advisory board includes economist Stephen Moore, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, and philanthropic leader Kim Dennis, and that Hall of Giants is in the midst of a capital campaign aiming to raise approximately two hundred seventy five million dollars. He said the organization hopes to break ground sometime between 2029 and 2030, with a tiered donation structure that recognizes early contributors as founding supporters while the project works toward securing a smaller number of much larger lead gifts. Koolidge closed the conversation by encouraging listeners interested in supporting or learning more about the project to visit its website and join its mailing list.