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The Jordan Harbinger Show

1238: Ken Burns | What If the American Revolution Isn't Over?

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Jordan Harbinger

Social Sciences, Self-improvement, Entrepreneurship, Talk Radio, Business, Science, Education

4.8 β€’ 12.1K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The American Revolution isn't over β€” it just changed uniforms. Documentary legend Ken Burns explains why we're still debugging an experiment from 1776.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1238

What We Discuss with Ken Burns:

  • America's origin was born from division, not unity. Ken Burns argues the US was born from violence and division, not unity. The Revolutionary War was a brutal civil war with brother fighting brother, not a clean myth of freedom and fireworks.
  • The Revolution is an ongoing experiment. Ken sees the Revolution as the start of a political experiment still being debugged 250 years later. It's not a finished story but a continuous process of living up to founding ideals.
  • Contradictions compose the country's core. The Revolution's hypocrisy is staggering: freedom built on slavery, liberty denied to women and Native peoples, idealism mixed with self-interest. These contradictions remain eerily familiar today.
  • Good storytelling transcends politics. Ken found that compelling narratives neutralize binary thinking. His Vietnam documentary avoided expected backlash because a good story makes people say "I didn't know that" rather than taking sides.
  • History is an active conversation. History isn't fixed answers, but an ongoing dialogue with the past. By listening closely, we can ask ourselves if we're living up to the promises made β€” and continue writing that unfinished story.
  • And much more...

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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1:16.7

Special thanks to Cayman Jack for sponsoring this episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show.

1:21.0

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show.

1:23.8

America comes out of violence. It's born in violence. People go, oh man, we are so divided. And you go, okay, when were we not divided? If you're at a point now where we are fractured seemingly beyond repair on the verge of dissolution, whatever the chicken little sky is falling thing you're going to say about it, it might be good

1:45.2

to go back to the origin story and sort of pick it up and understand the complexity.

1:53.2

Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the

1:57.3

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2:05.4

Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long-form conversations

2:09.7

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2:15.6

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2:18.3

or Russian chess grandmaster. If you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about

2:22.2

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2:27.0

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2:32.7

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2:36.9

Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started.

2:42.6

Today on the show, what if the American Revolution isn't over?

2:46.3

That's not a conspiracy theory.

2:47.8

That's how Ken Burns, the legendary documentary filmmaker behind the Civil

2:51.9

War, the Vietnam War, baseball, and now the American Revolution sees it. He calls the revolution

...

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