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Listening to America

#1367 Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson

Listening to America

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2019

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"For Franklin, knowledge was important, but application of knowledge ... mattered to him as much as any pure science." — Clay S. Jenkinson

Thomas Jefferson had an immense respect for Benjamin Franklin, who was nearly 37 years his senior. Franklin became one of the most respected Americans during the revolution and was, in a sense, pushed there by British arrogance.

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog. Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours & retreats at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Check out our new merch. You can find Clay's publications on our website, along with a list of his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and other topics. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Good Day Citizens and Welcome to this week's podcast edition of the Thomas Jefferson Hour in this episode this week is Franklin and Jefferson.

0:10.0

I'm going to say this three times in the course of the next few minutes.

0:13.2

February 25th, Norfolk, the Roper Theater, I'm doing an evening of comedy.

0:17.6

I'm going to be a stand-up humanist.

0:19.2

A stand-up humanist.

0:20.6

We're all waiting for the reviews on that.

0:22.6

February 25th.

0:23.8

So I want people to come the Roper Theater,

0:26.5

February 25th, Norfolk, Virginia,

0:29.7

a night of humanist comedy.

0:31.6

That's never happened before.

0:32.8

We'll have to talk, but perhaps we ought to get you to relate a few jokes to practice.

0:37.6

I'll be here all week.

0:38.6

Yeah. This was real fun this week.

0:40.6

And I say in the show, I thank you for recommending a book to me on

0:45.3

Franklin the first American by H. W. Brands which is just a mammoth read but worth

0:50.3

every page it is so thorough the only criticism I might have is there's not much

0:54.8

of our man Jefferson in the book.

0:57.4

That's certain.

0:58.6

And we didn't cover all of Jefferson's connections

1:01.0

with Franklin in this program, so we should do a second one, but I'll tell you this.

1:05.0

This came about because I ran into Ken Burns at an event in New York last spring and he said,

...

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