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Ben Franklin's World

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

This is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. It’s a show for people who love history and who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world. Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Top 10 Ben Franklin's World Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Ben Franklin's World episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Ben Franklin's World for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Ben Franklin's World episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Ben Franklin's World - 319 Cuba: An Early American History
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01/04/22 • 68 min

One of the Caribbean islands that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492-voyage was an alligator-shaped island that sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico in between the Yucatán and Florida peninsulas. This is, of course, is the island of Cuba.

What do we know about early Cuba, the island the Spanish described as the “Key to the Indies?” What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States?

Ada Ferrer, a Professor of History at New York University and author of Cuba: An American History, joins us to investigate the early history of Cuba.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions

🎧 Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier

🎧 Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery

🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions

🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1

🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2

🎧 Episode 313: Mike Duncan, The Marquis de Lafayette

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Ben Franklin's World - 316 Yellow Fever, Immunity, & Early New Orleans
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11/23/21 • 49 min

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited the city’s Yellow Fever problem.

Kathryn Olivarius, an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/316

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans

🎧 Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early America Republic

🎧 Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum

🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1

🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

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WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter

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SAY THANKS

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Ben Franklin's World - 325 Everyday People of the American Revolution
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03/29/22 • 79 min

What do we know about the American Revolution? Why is it important that we see the Revolution as a political event, a war, a time of social and economic reform, and as a time of violence and upheaval?

Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, joins us to explore and discuss answers to these questions so that we can better see and understand the American Revolution as a whole event.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/325

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 060: David Preston, Braddock’s Defeat

🎧 Episode 128: Alan Taylor: American Revolutions: A Continental History

🎧 Episode 144: Rob Parkinson, The Common Cause

🎧 Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator

🎧 Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 181: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire

🎧 Episode 294: Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution

🎧 Episode 296: Serena Zabin, The Boston Massacre

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

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WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter

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🦋 Liz on Bluesky

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SAY THANKS

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

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Ben Franklin's World - 297 Indian Removal Act of 1830

297 Indian Removal Act of 1830

Ben Franklin's World

play

03/16/21 • 62 min

The history of Native American land dispossession is as old as the story of colonization. European colonists came to the Americas, and the Caribbean, wanting land for farms and settlement so they found ways to acquire lands from indigenous peoples by the means of negotiation, bad-faith dealing, war, and violence.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is deeply rooted in early American history.

Claudio Saunt, a scholar of Native American history at the University of Georgia, and author of the book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, joins us to discuss the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and how Native Americans in the southeastern part of the United States were removed from their homelands and resettled in areas of southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Ben Franklin's World - 320 Benjamin Franklin's London House
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01/18/22 • 74 min

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, to Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Although Franklin began his life as the youngest son of a youngest son, he traveled through many parts of what is now the northeastern United States and the Province of Quebec and lived in four different cities in three different countries: Boston, Philadelphia, London, and Passy, France.

In honor of Benjamin Franklin’s 316th birthday, Márcia Balisciano, the Founding Director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s life in London using details from the largest artifact Franklin left behind: his rented rooms at 36 Craven Street.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/320

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 001: James N. Green, Library Company of Philadelphia

🎧 Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache

🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London

🎧 Episode 169: Thomas Kid, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin

🎧 Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House

🎧 Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

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WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter

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LISTEN 🎧

🍎 Apple Podcasts

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🦋 Liz on Bluesky

👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn

🛜 Liz’s Website

SAY THANKS

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

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Ben Franklin's World - 221 The Culinary Adventures of Benjamin Franklin
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01/15/19 • 56 min

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Ben Franklin's World - 169 The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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01/16/18 • 52 min

We remember Benjamin Franklin as an accomplished printer, scientist, and statesman. Someone who came from humble beginnings and made his own way in the world. Rarely do we remember Franklin as a man of faith.

Benjamin Franklin spent more time grappling with questions of religion, faith, virtue, and morality in his writing than about any other topic.

Thomas S. Kidd, a Professor of History at Baylor University and author of Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, leads us on a detailed exploration of the religious life of Benjamin Franklin.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/169

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The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States.

Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director of Collections and Engagement at the American Jewish Historical Society, join us to explore the history and experiences of Jews in early America and their contributions to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/317

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World

🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its culture

🎧 Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora

🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Cartè, Religion and the American Revolution

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

📫 [email protected]

WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter

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LISTEN 🎧

🍎 Apple Podcasts

💚 Spotify

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CONNECT

🦋 Liz on Bluesky

👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn

🛜 Liz’s Website

SAY THANKS

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚 Leave a rating on Spotify

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ben Franklin's World - 359  Trans-ing Gender in Early America
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06/06/23 • 56 min

“People are complicated” is a truism that holds in the past and the present. Seldom do we find a person where all of their actions and thoughts are black and white. What we see instead is that people are colorful because they aren’t just one thing and they don’t think and act in one way.

Human identities are one area where we find a lot of colorfulness and complexity. Most humans have multiple Identities based in geography, nationality, religious affiliation, race and ethnicity, and also gender.

Jen Manion, a Professor of History and of Sexuality and Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College and author of the book, Female Husbands: A Trans History, joins us to investigate the early American world of female husbands, people who were assigned female at birth and then transed-gender at some point in their lives to live as men.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/359

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 002: Cornelia King, “That So Gay” Exhibit at the Library Company of Philadelphia

🎧 Episode 013: Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America

🎧 Episode 080: Jen Manion, Liberty's Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America

🎧 Episode 266: Johann Neem, Education in Early America

🎧 Episode 292: Craft in Early America

🎧 Episode 309: Philip Reid, Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century

🎧 Episode 354: John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Gir’s Tale

🎧 Episode 357: Eric Jay Dolin, Privateering During the American Revolution

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

📫 [email protected]

WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter

👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community

LISTEN

🍎 Apple Podcasts

💚 Spotify

🎶 Amazon Music

🛜 Pandora

CONNECT

🦋 Liz on Bluesky

👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn

🛜 Liz’s Website

SAY THANKS

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚 Leave a rating on Spotify

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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FAQ

How many episodes does Ben Franklin's World have?

Ben Franklin's World currently has 444 episodes available.

What topics does Ben Franklin's World cover?

The podcast is about Society & Culture, History and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Ben Franklin's World?

The episode title '319 Cuba: An Early American History' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Ben Franklin's World?

The average episode length on Ben Franklin's World is 56 minutes.

How often are episodes of Ben Franklin's World released?

Episodes of Ben Franklin's World are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Ben Franklin's World?

The first episode of Ben Franklin's World was released on Sep 27, 2014.

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