Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Grand Convention - An Assembly of Demigods
Season 16 Episode 2
4 prisoners from the Walnut Street jail carried Benjamin Franklin to the Constitutional Convention in a sedan chair — the oldest delegate, 81, riding…
1 month, 1 week ago
The Grand Convention - Eleven Days Early
Season 16 Episode 1
James Madison stepped off the New York stage on May 3rd, 1787 — 11 days before the Federal Convention was scheduled to open, and 22 days before it ac…
1 month, 1 week ago
A Failed Nation - Sole and Express Purpose
Season 15 Episode 13
This is the finale of A Failed Nation. In February of 1787, the Confederation Congress faced the most awkward decision in its short and unhappy life:…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - A Convention of the States
Season 15 Episode 12
The convention that produced the Constitution was born, improbably, out of a fishing dispute and a failure. This is the story of the strange chain of…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - Vices of the Political System
Season 15 Episode 11
While the Confederation staggered, a small, sickly, soft-spoken Virginian sat in his study and tried to think his way out of the crisis. This is the …
1 month, 3 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - On an Equal Footing
Season 15 Episode 10
The Confederation has failed at nearly everything — paying its debts, defending its frontier, commanding the world’s respect. This is the episode abo…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - Thirteen Nations
Season 15 Episode 9
There were thirteen United States — and to the rest of the world, there were thirteen nations. This is the story of what that cost. In 1785, pirates …
1 month, 4 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - Driven into a Separation
Season 15 Episode 8
The Treaty of Paris handed the United States a wilderness empire running to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes — and the bankrupt Confederation need…
1 month, 4 weeks ago
A Failed Nation - The Closed River
Season 15 Episode 7
In 1784, Spain closed the lower Mississippi River — and with it, the only road to market for the tens of thousands of Americans pouring into Kentucky…
2 months ago
A Failed Nation - Shays’ Rebellion
Season 15 Episode 6
In the winter of 1787, a few thousand indebted farmers in western Massachusetts marched on their own government — and though they lost their one real…
2 months ago