Jazz, James, and Borzoi return once again to America’s founding, this time to explore the life of Ben Franklin. In this series, we present the stories of our nation’s founders, told from our perspective and freed from neoliberal indoctrination and mindless jingoism. Expanding on previous episodes in the series, including American Coup D’Etat (a primer for the series), American Mephistopheles (Hamilton Deep-Dive), and American Ozymandias (Jefferson Deep-Dive), this episode is a survey of the cultural and political context in which Franklin lived, his many contributions, especially in the field of science and Pre-Revolutionary American populism, as well as his faults and unfortunate associations.
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American Prometheus Part 1:
00:00:00 – Intro
00:10:00 – Early Life
00:20:00 – The Junto
00:38:00 – Franklin English Family History
00:58:00 – BREAK
01:00:00 – Cultural Contributions to Pre-Revolutionary American Culture and Populism
01:10:00 – Egalitarianism and Anti-Elitism
01:20:00 – The Virtue of Mediocrity
01:30:00 – Collectivist Organizations for the Common Good
01:45:00 – Moral Improvement Project
01:55:00 – Poor Richard, Wealth of Common Sense
02:26:00 – Outro
American Prometheus Part 2:
02:26:00 – Franklin’s Political Record
02:46:00 – Irish Culture Shock
02:50:00 – Role in the Revolution
03:00:00 – America: Land of Mediocrity
03:20:00 – On Population Growth
03:30:00 – Race and Slavery
03:46:00 – Indians/Paxton Boys
04:15:00 – BREAK
04:17:00 – From Parlor Tricks to Scientific Discovery
04:25:00 – Franklin Fried Turkey
04:30:00 – New American Prometheus
04:45:00 – Franklin Prophesy Debunked
04:55:00 – Jews in Pre-Revolutionary America
05:15:00 – Haym Solomon Megaloans
05:30:00 – Rabbi Moral Improvement Rip-Off
05:39:00 – Outro
First 3 FTN Deep-Dives on America’s Founding:
- American Coup D’Etat (Washington and the Constitution)
- American Mephistopheles (Alexander Hamilton)
- American Ozymandias (Thomas Jefferson)
