Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avregand.

This day, early October 1776, Benjamin Franklin has just been named the first American

diplomat by the Continental Congress and is preparing for a trip to France.

Franklin was 70 years old, very much an elder statesman of sorts at this point,

and I don't know, sometimes we think about these late career diplomatic appointments as cushy gigs like hey your new job is to go to

Paris and attend fancy dinners and there is a little bit of that in this story as we will discuss.

But of course this is 1776 revolution Revolution is in the air. The ink has barely dried on the Declaration of Independence, and France is a key ally in the fight for American independence.

So let's talk about why Franklin goes to France just as

war is breaking out at home. Our very special guest for this episode is Mike

Duncan History Podcast Royalty, I would say,

the host of a number of epic history series,

including the History of Rome

and the ongoing Revolution series,

each season or installment of which

tells the story of a different revolution from England and

Haiti and Russia and Mexico and yes the American Revolution which he did back in 2014

and there's a long bio m. He's done so much.

His book is Hero of Two Worlds,

The Marquis of Lafayette in the Age of Revolution,

which is very relevant to what we're discussing today.

But Mike, thank you so much for

...