The Founding Fathers | The O.G.'s | 2
5/21/202635 min
What turned America's most famous British loyalist into its most dangerous revolutionary? What does a public humiliation in a Whitehall chamber have to do with the Declaration of Independence? And, if the man who designed the American constitution believed men were angels, would he have bothered?
Peter and Afua trace how a candle-maker's son who pulled lightning from the sky and a sickly scholar obsessed with the fall of Rome built the architecture of the most powerful republic in history.
0:00 Franklin: the 18th century's global multimedia superstar
6:10 Poor Richard's Almanac and the art of building a platform from scratch
9:45 From kite and key to the Royal Society — Franklin's lightning moment
13:20 A proud Briton in London: the comfortable life that couldn't last
16:00 The Hutchinson letters, a Whitehall ambush, and an hour of public savaging
18:30 The moment Franklin stopped thinking of himself as British
21:00 Enter James Madison: the smallest man in public life and the biggest thinker
24:30 Two thousand years of history as a laboratory of political failure
28:00 Taxation without representation, the Intolerable Acts, and the radicalisation of Madison
31:30 'If men were angels, no government would be necessary'
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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
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Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsPeter Frankopan· Host0:00
So today we're gonna be talking about an 18th century equivalent of a global multimedia superstar, a scientist who literally pulled lightning from the sky, and a media mogul whose almanac reached more people than most people's modern Substacks.
Afua Hirsch· Host0:14
But Benjamin Franklin wasn't born a rebel. He was a proud Briton until a savage public humiliation in London forced him to realize that the empire he loved didn't love him back.
Peter Frankopan· Host0:28
So needy, these guys. I don't know who that reminds you of in the modern- [laughs] ... American political world. So we're gonna talk about him, and we're also gonna be talking about James Madison, the so-called Father of the Constitution. At just 5 foot 4 and often very sickly, he wasn't a man of the sword, but he was a man of the lab, treating 2,000 years of history as a laboratory of political failure.
Afua Hirsch· Host0:49
Madison is the ultimate 18th century Brexiteer. He didn't just want liberty, he wanted a system that could survive human nature as he saw it, because, in his words, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
Peter Frankopan· Host1:05
So today we're gonna talk about two of the Founding Fathers of the US Declaration of Independence. We're gonna meet its inventor and its architect. This is the story of how a printer and a scholar built the most influential republic in history. [upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to a new episode of Legacy. I'm Peter Frankopan.
Afua Hirsch· Host1:23
I'm Afua Hirsch.
Peter Frankopan· Host1:25
And this is Legacy, the show that explores the lives, events, and ideas that have shaped our world