Ben Franklin's World
Ben Franklin’s World is an award-winning podcast about early American history. It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world. Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
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447 The Other Committee Members: Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the Declaration of Independence
07/21/2026
447 The Other Committee Members: Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the Declaration of Independence
Five men served on the Continental Congress’s Declaration Committee. We know three of them well: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. But who were the other two? In this episode, we explore the lives and contributions of Robert R. Livingston of New York and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Historians Geoff Benton and Michael Morand join us as we uncover the stories of the other Committee members. Clermont State Historic Site Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:46 The Lee Resolution and the Committee of Five 00:05:26 Robert R. Livingston's Early Life 00:06:56 Colonial New York Politics 00:11:02 Livingston's Appointment to the Second Continental Congress 00:15:20 Why Livingston Chosen for Declaration Committee 00:18:44 Livingston's feud with John Adams 00:19:18 Livingston Misses the Vote for Independence 00:20:50 Livingston Becomes Chancellor of New York State 00:24:06 Livingston's Role in Steam Navigation 00:26:15 Clermont State Historic Site 00:32:35 Roger Sherman's Early Life 00:36:47 Sherman's Family and Life in New Haven 00:37:43 Sherman's Involvement in the Imperial Crisis 00:40:38 Sherman's Role in the Second Continental Congress 00:42:28 Why Sherman Chosen For Declaration Committee 00:43:42 Sherman's Role in Drafting the Declaration 00:46:16 The Connecticut Compromise, 1787 00:50:28 What Made Sherman Effective in Legislatures 00:53:47 1776 in Context 00:58:10 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft, 2026
07/14/2026
BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft, 2026
Every American knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but was he really its sole architect? In this revisited episode, we sit down with three scholars to pull back the curtain on how the Declaration came to be written. Danielle Allen of Harvard University, Patrick Spero of the American Philosophical Society, and Peter Onuf of the University of Virginia reveal that the Declaration was never one man's work. Together, they show how John Adams — not Jefferson — was the intellectual architect behind "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." How Benjamin Franklin changed the Declaration with just four or five surgical edits. And what the Second Continental Congress cut from Jefferson's original draft, including his striking grievance blaming King George III for the international slave trade. Originally recorded in 2017 as part of Ben Franklin's World's Doing History to the Revolution series, this episode pairs with Episode 446 and Episode 447 to mark the Declaration's 250th anniversary. Danielle’s | Patrick's | Peter's | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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446 The Declaration of Independence at 250
07/07/2026
446 The Declaration of Independence at 250
250 years after its signing, the Declaration of Independence remains an unfinished document. Its famous assertion "that all men are created equal" and endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness stands not as a settled truth, but as a call every generation of Americans must answer on its own terms. What did the founders mean by "all men are created equal?" Who did they believe was eligible to pursue life, liberty, and happiness? And how are the generations living in the United States today thinking through their own answers? Four historians join us to explore these questions. and draw on their new books to help us understand what it meant in 1776. and show us how two 250th anniversary museum exhibitions use objects to make the Declaration's living legacy tangible, and to remind us that its promises have always been claimed not just in words, but in action. | | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:44 Celebrating the Declaration of Independence 00:03:50 The Declaration As An Ongoing Experiment 00:04:14 Anthea Hartig on the National Museum of American History 00:05:30 Virginia Scharff on the Autry Museum of the American West 00:07:58 Robert Parkinson on Understanding the Declaration 00:19:17 Steve Sarson on the Declaration's Philosophical Argument 00:21:10 The Original Meaning of the Declaration 00:34:47 Conclusion 00:41:16 The Massachusetts Historical Society's Declaration Exhibit RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration 🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft 🎧 Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness 🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence 🎧 Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News in 1776 🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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445 How Independence Happened, Pt 3: The Articles of Confederation
06/30/2026
445 How Independence Happened, Pt 3: The Articles of Confederation
The man Congress chose to draft the United States’ first constitution refused to vote for independence. John Dickinson wrote a bold plan, one with a strong central government, religious liberty protections that included women, and a question in the margins about whether Congress should abolish slavery. Congress stripped out nearly all of these ideas and provisions. What replaced it sparked a debate over federal vs. state power that has never gone away. This is the third episode in our How Independence Happened series. In Part 1, we explored Richard Henry Lee's Virginia Resolution of June 7, 1776. In Part 2, we examined the Model Treaty and how the new United States made foreign alliances. In this third part, we're joined by historians and so we can investigate the Articles of Confederation, the third element of independence. Jane's | Jonathan's | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:34 The Articles of Confederation 00:08:29 Why A Confederation Was Important 00:12:49 Why the Second Continental Congress Create A Formal Union 00:21:44 Drafting the Articles of Confederation 00:22:38 John Dickinson's Role in Drafting the Articles 00:45:50 The Founding Generation's Ideas About Government 01:05:40 Viewing the Articles of Confederation in Context 01:13:07 The Unwritten Constitution of the People RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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444 How Independence Happened, Part 2: The Model Treaty
06/23/2026
444 How Independence Happened, Part 2: The Model Treaty
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers. Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison — to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation. Historians and guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and how the founders understood that the United States would need to become a "treaty-worthy" nation before France would take them seriously. This is the second episode in a three-part series. Sara’s | Lige's | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:21 Three Legs of Independence 00:01:17 The Second Continental Congress Votes Independence 00:02:58 The Second Leg of Independence: Foreign Alliances 00:03:28 The Model Treaty 00:07:12 Why the Virginia Resolution Included Foreign Alliances 00:19:00 Specifics of the Model Treaty 00:21:30 Founders' Goals for the Model Treaty 00:28:21 The Model Treaty Drafting Committee 00:41:20 The Model Treaty as a Document 00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense 00:50:07 Commercial Alliances 01:04:42 The Model Treaty's Place in the American Revolution RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
06/16/2026
443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for independence. But that vote didn't begin with the Declaration of Independence. It began on June 7th, when Richard Henry Lee rose before Congress and introduced a resolution with three parts: declare independence, forge foreign alliances, form a confederation. A three-legged stool. Without all three legs, independence wouldn't hold. Historians and reveal who actually drove that process — and it wasn't just the men on the $2 bill. Voters, county conventions, and ordinary people from Massachusetts to Georgia had as much to do with independence as Adams or Jefferson. Episode 1 of a three-part series. Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:15 The Lee Resolution and the Second Continental Congress 00:07:35 Virginia's Path Toward Independence 00:09:14 The Coming May 15, 1776 Vote 00:15:28 Dunmore's Proclamation and Virginia's Journey to Independence 00:20:16 John Adams' Resolution Recommending New State Governments 00:27:56 Richard Henry Lee Introduces the Virginia Resolution 00:42:13 The Virginians in the Second Continental Congress 01:03:29 Time Warp 00:35:55 Paine's View of the American Revolution 00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense 00:50:34 Measuring the Reach of Common Sense 00:59:34 The Legacy of Common Sense and Thomas Paine 01:02:54 Time Warp 01:08:05 Commemorating the Declaration of Independence RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 040: For Fear of an Elected King 🎧 Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson 🎧 Episode 188: The Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798 🎧 Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson 🎧 Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton 🎧 Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of An American Institution SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality
06/09/2026
BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality
On July 4th, 2026, the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence announced a new nation to the world. But how well do we actually know the document we're celebrating? Most of us can recite "We hold these truths to be self-evident," but how many of us have read all 1,337 words, and traced the argument the Declaration actually makes? Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author of , reveals how New Hampshire's desperate need for a functioning government set the Continental Congress on the path toward independence, why the Declaration was authored by many voices — not just Thomas Jefferson — and how a slow, careful reading of the document uncovers a powerful argument that freedom and equality are entwined. You cannot have one without the other. This is the essential starting point for Ben Franklin's World's Independence at 250 series. Danielle’s | | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 ry SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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442 Everyday Military Life in the American Revolution
06/02/2026
442 Everyday Military Life in the American Revolution
When we picture the American Revolution, we picture battles. But for the men and women who actually lived and fought in it, the Revolution was also a job with mess rotations, night watches, short rations, and children underfoot. Historians , , and pull back the curtain on everyday military life during the War for Independence. They discuss how the armies were structured, what soldiers actually ate, what camp followers endured, and how soldiers found humanity amid grinding hardship. You'll hear about a Black Continental soldier who had eaten nothing but bread for eleven days, and was still writing letters home that went unanswered. A Georgia soldier who agreed to fight for the British just to escape a prison ship, then deserted and marched across two states to rejoin Nathanael Greene's army. And you'll discover why John Adams believed the most dangerous moment of the Revolution wasn't a battle at all. Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:05:44 Structure of the British and Continental Armies 00:10:33 Militia, German Soldiers, and Indian Allies 00:20:43 Everyday Life in the American War for Independence 00:25:80 Camp Followers 00:33:10 Downtime in the Army 00:36:59 Soldiers' Letters 00:46:00 Food Procurement & Supply Chains 00:50:27 Supplementing Rations 00:55:34 War Mementoes & Plunder 00:58:36 Medical Care in the Army 01:08:07 The Revolution in Context RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Valley Forge
05/26/2026
BFW Revisited: Valley Forge
Most of us learned the same story: During the winter at Valley Forge, George Washington's army suffered and endured. Ragged soldiers huddled together in frozen huts and gnawed on shoe leather for food. But what if that story is mostly myth? Military historian , author of , reveals what was really happening during the winter of 1777–1778. Valley Forge wasn't a place of frozen inactivity, it was a hub of military operations. The army's survival depended not on virtue and willpower alone, but on the armed foraging columns Washington sent into the Pennsylvania countryside to seize food, horses, and supplies from the civilians he was fighting to protect. Rick’s | | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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441 The Escapes of David George
05/19/2026
441 The Escapes of David George
When David George lay sick with smallpox in Savannah during the Revolutionary War, he faced three possible outcomes: death, re-enslavement, or freedom. , Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz, follows David George across six decades and three continents, from enslaved Virginia to the Muscogee Creek nation, and from British-occupied Georgia to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, in his new book, . It's a story that will change how you think about what the Revolution actually delivered, and for whom. Greg’s | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:14 Welcome to Ben Franklin's World 00:02:31 Introducing Greg O'Malley and David George 00:05:43 David George's Odyssey Begins 00:08:12 The Rare Narrative of David George 00:11:07 Authenticating David George's Voice 00:13:39 David George's Multiple Escapes from Slavery 00:20:30 David George's Conversion to Christianity 00:24:53 Why Baptist? The Appeal of Evangelical Faith 00:29:52 David George's Family and Name 00:37:12 Life in Nova Scotia as a Refugee Preacher 00:42:03 Journey to Sierra Leone 00:54:44 Piecing Together David George's Later Years 00:59:49 Discovering the Silver Bluff Baptist Church 01:06:24 Time Warp: What If David George Stayed? 01:10:29 Reflections and Takeaways RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 008: Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade 🎧 Episode 322: Running from Bondage in Revolutionary America 🎧 Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation 🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Brothers: Freeborn Black Soldiers 🎧 Episode 440: Brooke Newman, Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Running from Bondage in the American Revolution
05/12/2026
BFW Revisited: Running from Bondage in the American Revolution
She fled on horseback in the thick of war. Her six-year-old son rode with her. The white tailor at her side would pass, when anyone asked, as her husband. Her name was Sarah. She was one of tens of thousands of enslaved people who self-emancipated during the American Revolution, and one of the many women earlier histories barely noticed. In this Revisited episode, author of , recovers their stories. We learn how Lord Dunmore's 1775 proclamation reshaped the landscape of resistance, why motherhood drove women to flee rather than keeping them in place, and what creative, subversive strategies they used to slip out of bondage and into freedom. This is the companion conversation to Ep. 440's exploration of Jefferson's cut grievance. If Brooke Newman gave us the view from the throne, Karen Cook-Bell gives us the view from the ground. And it changes what the proclamations look like. Karen's | | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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440 Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
05/05/2026
440 Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence contained 28 grievances against King George III — not 27. The final grievance, the one Congress cut before signing, accused the British king of waging cruel war against human nature by trafficking enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, forcing slavery onto unwilling American colonists, and then inciting those same enslaved people to rise up and kill their enslavers. Did King George III and the British monarchy actually bear responsibility for slavery in the 13 colonies? Or was Jefferson's grievance a strategic sleight of hand — an attempt to pin a uniquely American system onto the crown he wanted to escape? Historian Brooke Newman, author of The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery, joins us to find out. She traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade from Queen Elizabeth I through King George III, examines what Jefferson got right and what he got wrong, and delivers her verdict on one of the most explosive what-ifs in United States history. Brooke's | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:24 Episode Welcome and Jefferson's Cut Grievance 00:03:15 Guest Introduction: Brooke Newman 00:04:58 Jefferson's Claim and Brooke's Research Origins 00:09:28 Timeline of Monarchies and Terminology 00:12:03 England Enters the Slave Trade under Elizabeth I 00:17:41 Crown Investments and Royal African Company 00:30:15 Colonies Structured for Slavery 00:37:02 Logistics of the Slave Trade by Revolution 00:47:01 King George III's Views on Slavery 00:52:20 Virginia's 1772 Slave Trade Ban and Royal Veto 00:57:35 Dunmore's Proclamation: Not a Royal Act 01:01:17 Was George III to Blame? Jefferson's Strategy 01:04:26 Time Warp: If George III Abolished Slavery 01:10:56 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Whose Fourth of July?
04/28/2026
BFW Revisited: Whose Fourth of July?
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and asked one of the most searing questions in American history: "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?" To answer Douglass's question, we have to go back to the Revolution itself; to the choices Black Americans made in wartime, to the ways they read, used, and interrogated the Declaration of Independence, and to the alternative celebrations they created when the Fourth of July felt like someone else's holiday. Historians and help us explore what the Fourth of July meant for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how their experiences with the Fourth contributed to the larger history of the nation's founding. Christopher's | Martha's | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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439 When the Declaration of Independence Was News
04/21/2026
439 When the Declaration of Independence Was News
The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, but it had absolutely no plan for telling the world about it. Congress sent just one copy of the Declaration to France. It was lost at sea. Printers ran the text however they liked. And the first formal acknowledgment of American independence came not from a European court, but from a Native American chief responding to a verbal translation of the Declaration in the middle of a treaty negotiation. Historian and Declaration expert joins us to explore what the Declaration of Independence looked like when it was just news — urgent, imperfect, and far beyond anyone's control. Emily’s | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:07 The Declaration as a Congressional Product 00:06:28 Jefferson's humble signature 00:11:10 Congress Has No Plans for Circulation 00:16:22 News of the Declaration Breaks 00:24:36 Pubilc Readings of the Declaration 00:27:27 Ministers Spread News of the Declaration 00:32:57 German-American Translation of the Declaration 00:42:04 French Translation Failures 00:46:42 Verbal Translations of the Declaration 00:51:52 No Official Copy Sent to King George III 00:58:43 The Declaration of Independence as News 01:02:17 Time Warp 01:07:48 Upcoming 250th Exhibitions 01:11:24 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: The Age of Revolutions
04/14/2026
BFW Revisited: The Age of Revolutions
Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them — the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. But what about all the rest? And what connected them to each other? In this episode, we're bringing back our conversation with , Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and author of , and , Associate Professor of History at William & Mary, who helps us understand why historians are increasingly looking at the American Revolution through an international lens. Together, they reveal why the Age of Revolutions happened when it did, how the American Revolution fit within this larger Atlantic-wide moment of upheaval, and how revolutionary ideas traveled across borders through people, print, and rumor. Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World
04/07/2026
438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World
What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia? Most of us learned about the Revolution as a story of thirteen North American colonies pushing back against a distant king. But this episode reveals something far wilder: a genuinely global war whose consequences rippled across every inhabited continent — reshaping empires, forcing migrations, and planting the seeds of more than a hundred declarations of independence that would follow over the next two and a half centuries. Joseph Adelman joins historian to explore the American Revolution as a world war. They discuss: Why the Declaration of Independence was really a Declaration of Interdependence How Hyder Ali, the Muslim ruler of Mysore in southern India, became George Washington's ally by the logic of wartime coalitions How Spain's campaign to recapture Florida tied down thousands of British troops How Britain's convict crisis, caused by losing access to Maryland and Virginia, led to the founding of Australia at Botany Bay. Rick's | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:28 Differences in Perception of the American Revolution 00:09:00 Reframing the Declaration of Independence 00:17:32 Molly Brandt and Haudenosaunee Diplomacy 00:24:38 Baron von Steuben: A Mercenary's Tale 00:29:15 The American Revolution: Myth vs. Reality 00:35:02 The American Revolution and Florida 00:43:39 The American Revolution's Impact on India 00:50:24 The Connection Between the American Revolution and Australia 00:56:50 Themes of the American Revolution 00:59:16 The Time Warp 00:62:00 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft 🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America 🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold 🎧 Episode 348: Valley Forge 🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution 🎧 Episode 437: The Home Front SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778
03/31/2026
BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778
In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory. But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there? Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers, watch their fences get chopped up for firewood, and figure out which neighbors to trust when it was all over. In this episode, , a professor of History at Rider University, , a public historian and Executive Director of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum in Germantown, PA, and historical interpreter , now the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, take us inside occupied Philadelphia. Together, they reveal how a city that was never fully committed to independence experienced nine months of British rule, and what the occupation cost everyone who lived through it: Quaker women negotiating with soldiers at their back gates, merchants whose fortunes rose on British hard currency while their neighbors went hungry, and Black Philadelphians who looked at the upheaval and asked whether it might open a door to freedom. Plus: the most extravagant party thrown in eighteenth-century America, staged while the city's almshouses overflowed. Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
03/24/2026
437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do? For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American War for Independence — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah — this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about. Lauren Duval, author of joins us to explore what the War for Independence actually looked like from inside the household. Women who negotiated quartering terms and held their ground. Men who came to blows over who controlled the parlor. Enslaved people who used the chaos of occupation to reunite families and reach British lines. The revolution didn't just happen on battlefields. It happened at kitchen tables, in back gardens, and on doorsteps. Lauren's | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:38 The Home Front of the American Revolution 00:05:24 The Gensis of the Revolutionary Household 00:10:49 Why Focus on Urban Port Cities 00:19:46 The British Occupation's Impact on City Life 00:25:55 Quartering a British Officer: The Drinker Household 00:33:38. Quartering Experiences in Male-Headed Households 00:39:22 Lower-Class Experiences During British Occupation 00:40:55 The Impact of British Hard Currency on Urban Labor Markets 00:44:21 Black Experiences During British Occupation 00:51:21 The Overall American Experience of the War for Independence 00:54:01. The Time Warp 00:59:47 Conculsion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
03/17/2026
BFW Revisited: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston: driven out by cannon that had traveled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga. But where did the plan for those cannon take shape? In this Revisited episode, we return to our conversation with now Program Manager for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at Saratoga National Historical Park, to explore the in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This Georgian mansion served as George Washington's home and headquarters for nearly nine months during the Siege of Boston. In this house, Washington forged the Continental Army and plotted the moves that liberated the city. Garrett reveals the house's Loyalist origins, life inside during the siege, and how poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later transformed it into a literary landmark. A companion to Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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Episode 436: Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
03/10/2026
Episode 436: Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, driven out by cannon hauled 300 miles through winter wilderness from a crumbling fort in upstate New York. Join Curator at , as we trace the fort's dramatic history from its French origins in the Seven Years' War, its chaotic capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in May 1775, and Henry Knox's legendary expedition to move nearly 60 tons of artillery to George Washington's army. Discover the logistics, rivalries, and resourcefulness behind one of the Revolution's most remarkable feats. Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:26 British Withdrawl from Boston 00:07:55 Fort Ticonderoga's Origins 00:25:05 British Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 1756 00:28:04 British Improvements to Fort Ticonderoga 00:32:44 American Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 1775 00:49:06 Henry Knox's Expedition 01:04:46 Cannon on Dorchester Heights 01:10:36 British Evacuation of Boston 01:13:43 Legacy of Knox's Noble Train of Artillery 01:17:36 Visiting Fort Ticonderoga 01:24:65 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation
03/03/2026
435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation
In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later, that question still doesn't have a good answer. To mark the anniversary of *Common Sense*, we traveled to Lewes, England, the town where Paine lived before he ever set foot in America, and recorded our first-ever LIVE episode inside Bull House, the building where Paine honed his ideas about citizens and their government. Joseph Adelman chairs a panel with scholars , and as they dig into the legacy of *Common Sense*: democracy's "day two problem," the women Paine wrote out of his own story, why "the law is king" keeps showing up on protest signs, and what a 15th-century building in a small English town can teach us about where democratic ideas actually take root. Recorded live in partnership with the at Iona University. Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 What Happened After the Revolution? 00:02:59 Live from the Bull House in Lewes, England 00:04:49 A Template for Common Sense and Civic Life 00:07:12 Thomas Paine's Legacy in Lewes, England 00:10:24 Thomas Paine's Legacy in New Rochelle, New York 00:16:04 Democracy's "Day Two Problem" 00:22:50 Local Civic Engagement in Lewes 00:27:46 Women and Common Sense 00:34:54 Paine's Family Life in Lewes 00:35:31 Reconstituting Government 00:42:44 Violence and Change 00:49:31 "No Kings" Protest and 'The Law is King' 00:56:29 Thomas Paine's Legacy 00:58:10 Audience Q&A 01:18:20 Episode Wrap-Up RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
02/24/2026
434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
What would you fight for if you were free but still not equal? In 1777, brothers William and Benjamin Frank answered that question by enlisting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. Freeborn men of color, they gambled that military service would earn them what freedom alone had not: equality, land, and a better future. Historian Shirley Green, author of Revolutionary Blacks: Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence, joins us to tell their story. Drawing on genealogical research rooted in her own family history, Green reveals what daily life looked like for free Black families in Revolutionary Rhode Island, how the Frank Brothers fought at the Battles of Red Bank, Monmouth, and Rhode Island, and how the Revolution ultimately divided them—one brother serving through Yorktown, the other crossing to the British side and resettling in Nova Scotia as a Black Loyalist. Their story is a window into the full range of Black experiences during the Revolution, and a reminder that for men like William and Benjamin Frank, choosing a side was never simple. It was a calculated gamble, shaped by promises made—and promises broken. Shirley’s | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:19 The Frank Brothers' Revolutionary Choices 00:05:14 Discovering the Frank Brothers Through Family Oral History 00:09:01 Blending Genalogy and Microhistory 00:15:22 Life for Free Black Families in Early Rhode Island 00:20:50 Why Free Black Men Joined the Continental Army 00:24:00 Motivations: Land, Pay, and Equality 00:29:15 The Gamble of Military Service Amid Policy Shifts 00:41:13 Daily Life and Combat in the Integrated Regiments 00:44:46 Ben Frank's Desertion 00:52:51 The Book of Negroes 01:00:02 Postwar Outcomes: Did Promises of Land, Pay, and Equality Hold? 01:02:47 Lessons from Black Soldiers' Experiences 01:07:26 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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Revisited: The American Revolution's African American Soldiers
02/17/2026
Revisited: The American Revolution's African American Soldiers
More than 6,000 Black men—free and enslaved—served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Yet their stories remain some of the least told of the war. In this revisited episode, we rejoin Judith Van Buskirk, Professor Emerita of History at SUNY Cortland and author of , to explore what motivated African American men to fight for the Revolutionary cause, how the Continental Army's policies toward Black enlistment shifted over the course of the war, and what life and service looked like in units like the First Rhode Island Regiment. Judy's Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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433 Entangled Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence
02/10/2026
433 Entangled Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence
What if the American Revolution was never just an American story? Historian Ronald Angelo Johnson helps us uncover the deep connections between the American and Haitian Revolutions to reveal how both revolutions emerged from the same Atlantic imperial struggle for empire, racialized power, and war. Using details from his book Entangled Alliances, Ron will guide us from the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to the Siege of Savannah in 1779, where hundreds of Black soldiers from French Saint Domingue landed on Georgia’s shores—not as enslaved laborers, but as uniformed volunteers ready to fight for American Independence. Ron's | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:08 Episode Overview 00:04:50 The Treaty of Paris 1763 and its Impact 00:09:09 Consequences of the Seven Years' War for Saint Domingue 00:18:39 Saint Domingue Society Post-Seven Years' War 00:24:32 French Imperial Reaction vs. Local Resentment 00:28:36 Circulation of News Between British North America & Saint Domingue 00:39:22 France's Strategy to Assist American Revolutionaries 00:50:42 Reception of the Chasseurs Volontaires Regiment in Georgia 00:54:42 Re-evaluating the American Revolution 00:57:32 Time Warp 01:05:38 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: The Marquis de Lafayette
02/03/2026
BFW Revisited: The Marquis de Lafayette
What does it take to become a revolutionary in more than one revolution? In this revisited conversation with Mike Duncan, we explore the life of the Marquis de Lafayette—an ambitious young Frenchman who crossed the Atlantic to fight for the American cause and later carried those lessons into the political storms of France. From early idealism to a complicated role in two upheavals, Lafayette’s story reveals how ideas, alliances, and personal relationships shaped the Age of Revolutions. You’ll hear how Lafayette became close to George Washington, what he learned in America, and why his legacy makes the most sense when you follow him across borders. Mike’s | | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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432 How France and Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
01/27/2026
432 How France and Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
The American Revolution wasn’t just a colonial rebellion; it was a global conflict shaped by European rivalries and high-stakes diplomacy. Without the help of foreign allies like France and Spain, the United States might never have won its independence. Historian John Ferling joins us to explore the international dimensions of the Revolutionary War. Drawing from his new book Shots Heard Round the World, Ferling reveals how secret aid, political gambles, and naval power from Europe (especially France) influenced the outcome of the war, and nearly derailed it. John’s | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:01:06 Introduction 00:01:52 Why European Powers Intervened 00:08:02 International Interest in the American Revolution 00:14:20 French Reaction to the Outbreak of War 00:19:28 Initiation of Foreign Aid 00:23:46 British Expectations of a Quick Victory 00:25:35 Saratoga as a Turning Point 00:31:46 French Naval and Military Support 00:37:36 Spain's Ambitions and Entry into the War 00:42:55 Britain's War Fatigue and Missed Opportunities 00:51:31 Outcomes for France and Spain 00:54:53 Time Warp 00:59:20 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: The Common Cause
01/20/2026
BFW Revisited: The Common Cause
Before Common Sense could ignite a revolution, colonists had to be convinced they shared a cause worth fighting for. So how did Revolutionary leaders turn thirteen very different colonies into “Americans”—and what stories did they tell to make that unity feel real? In this Ben Franklin’s World Revisited episode, historian Robert Parkinson returns to explore how newspapers and wartime messaging helped forge the Revolution’s “common cause”—and how that campaign leaned on fear, race, and exclusion to build a new national identity. Rob’s | | Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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431 Common Sense at 250: The Pamphlet That Sparked a Revolution
01/13/2026
431 Common Sense at 250: The Pamphlet That Sparked a Revolution
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense turned a colonial rebellion into a full-blown revolution. But how did one pamphlet move so many minds in 1776—and why does it still matter 250 years later? To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, historian and Director of the at Iona University, , joins us to explore Paine’s life, the pamphlet’s explosive impact, and what this revolutionary text still teaches us about democracy, communication, and civic life. ITPS Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 Thomas Pain's Early Life and Influences 00:05:53 The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies 00:07:51 Thomas Paine as an English Excise Man 00:13:34 Paine's Ideas for Reform of the British Government 00:19:27 Reception of Paine's First Pamphlet 00:21:48 Paine's Intellectual Life in England 00:27:30 Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin 00:31:44 Paine's Migration to Philadelphia 00:35:55 Paine's View of the American Revolution 00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense 00:50:34 Measuring the Reach of Common Sense 00:59:34 The Legacy of Common Sense and Thomas Paine 01:02:54 Time Warp 01:05:02 Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of Common Sense 01:08:17 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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BFW Revisited: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
01/06/2026
BFW Revisited: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
Common Sense didn’t just make an argument for independence—it moved through a world of newspapers, pamphlets, and personal networks that carried revolutionary ideas from one doorstep to the next. So how did political news travel in 1776, and what made print such a powerful engine of persuasion? As we approach the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, Ben Franklin’s World Revisited returns to Episode 156 to explore how early Americans shared, debated, and embraced revolutionary ideas. You’ll discover how print and networks spread the Revolution, what made Common Sense a publishing phenomenon, and how media shaped political debate and public opinion. Show Notes: RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 TAKE THE QUIZ 🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes) 👉 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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The Founding Father of American Medicine: Benjamin Rush
12/30/2025
The Founding Father of American Medicine: Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was one of early America’s most fascinating figures. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a leading Philadelphia physician, and a thinker who believed that a healthy body was the foundation of a healthy republic. In this episode, historian , author of introduces us to Rush as both doctor and political philosopher. We’ll explore: How Rush developed an “American system” of medicine His groundbreaking ideas on mental health and addiction And why he believed the human body modeled the ideal form of government. Rush may be what Sarah calls a “B-list Founding Father,” but his influence on early American science, politics, and public health was anything but minor. Sarah’s | | Show Notes: EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 Episode Introduction 00:04:48 Who Was Benjamin Rush 00:13:52 Benjamin Rush's Medical Practice 00:17:01 The American System of Medicine 00:22:30 Rush's Ideas about Civic Health 00:29:07 Rush's Approach to Mental Health 00:33:53 Rush's Views on Addiction 00:48:00 Rush's Legacy 00:52:13 Time Warp 00:55:00 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 SUPPORT OUR WORK 🎁 REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 📫 WHEN YOU'RE READY 👩💻 🌍 LISTEN 🎧 🍎 💚 🎶 CONNECT 🦋 👩💻 🛜 SAY THANKS 💜 💚 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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