EPISODE 34: ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY WITH KEVIN BALLESTRINI
Episode 34: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day with Kevin Ballestrini | 14 July 2026
Stephen and Trent interview award-winning Latin and classical history educator Kevin Ballestrini. The trio discusses development and implementation of the text-based alternate reality role-playing game Operation LAPIS, as well as:
Challenges of adapting entertainment-oriented games for educational purposes;
Aiming for a “one-to-one” game objective-to-learning objective ratio;
Similarities and differences between Operation LAPIS and Reacting to the Past;
Leveraging player agency to transfer in-game learning to out-of-game application;
Building a “sandbox-on-rails” that connects macroscopic and microscopic aspects of history;
How Operation LAPIS’ dual-ARG/RPG framework encourages learners to “break the fourth wall”;
Long-term personal impacts of immersive narrative learning;
Balancing historical truthfulness with fictionalized story elements;
Countering modern monolithic stereotypes with real-world evidence of Rome’s cultural and ethnic diversity;
Identifying parallels between historical and contemporary Governmental, Economic, Social, and Cultural substructures;
Intercultural competency as a means of teaching critical thinking and empathy;
Reducing barriers to entry through a self-paced “choose-your-own-path” adventure; and
How humanities education threatens power structures by troubling systems and highlighting weak points.
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