#353 The American Revolution w/ Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A decade after Ken Burns decided it was time to take on the American Revolution, the film is finished and premieres on your local PBS station on Sunday, November 16! In this episode, we talk with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, who directed the six-part series alongside Burns, to find out more about the stories and process that they used to construct this remarkable look at one of history's most fascinating and consequential events.
Click here to find out more about The American Revolution: A Film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt at PBS.com and make sure to tune in for the premiere on Sunday, November 16!
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:06.0 | And I'm Ben Sawyer. |
| 0:08.0 | And this is the road to now. |
| 0:10.0 | What a nice road it is today, Bob. |
| 0:12.0 | It is a glorious road. |
| 0:13.0 | It's a road that took over a decade to get here. |
| 0:17.0 | Because while you and I were starting a fledgling Joe Schmo podcast about history and about |
| 0:26.3 | what was going on in this country in 2016, there were a team of people up in New Hampshire |
| 0:33.9 | working on perhaps the greatest of all the great history documentaries. |
| 0:40.9 | Yes, it is. |
| 0:42.6 | And a documentary that I have been excited for since I heard about it, |
| 0:48.6 | getting to watch these on the screeners was like if you were a child in November and |
| 0:53.2 | Christmas came the next day out of nowhere. |
| 0:55.9 | And it definitely paid off. So let's introduce our guests. Bob, do the honors. |
| 1:00.8 | Our guests today are directors of the new Ken Burns documentary, The American Revolution, |
| 1:08.2 | Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt. Hi. Good to be you. David, you've been with us before. |
| 1:14.3 | I have. We talked about Ben Franklin. Sarah, welcome. We're excited to have you today. Where to begin with this. |
| 1:23.6 | It took 10 years to create. Talk about when this idea that is so obvious, but Ken had done the |
| 1:32.1 | Civil War in Vietnam and World War II and country music and baseball and jazz, when did the |
| 1:39.2 | idea of the American Revolution as a whole kind of hit the table for you guys. |
| 1:45.2 | I'll channel Ken for a moment. |
| 1:47.8 | So after the Civil War came out, Ken vowed that he would never do another war film. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Benjamin Sawyer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Benjamin Sawyer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.