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Welcome back to Forum. I'm Rachel Myro in Fermina Kim. You've heard about

Benjamin Franklin. He was the witty printer from Philadelphia who demonstrated the connection

between lightning and electricity in the 18th century, also a diplomat who chased skirts around Paris and served as the elder statesman

among a gaggle of younger feuding founding fathers here in what became the United States of

America. So I read in school, I'm guessing you did too, and later picked up that he was a slave

owner as well. What more is there to say you ask,

would you believe a lot? Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has turned his camera on Benjamin Franklin

for his latest series, which premieres on PBS next week. Ken Burns, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Rachel, for having me.

You know, you said recently in an interview that you didn't realize before making this series

how superficial your own understanding of Franklin was. How so?

I think it's actually, to be honest, true of every film I've worked on.

They're never sort of me telling you what we already know the last time I checked.

That's called homework, but rather a process of discovery.

And so I think I probably thought it's hard to remember five years back that the lightning

...