The Age of Ben Franklin: Daily Life and Complicated History

Young Ben Franklin

GZM Shows

Arts, History, Performing Arts, Fiction

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part three of our conversation with Ben Franklin expert, Dr George Boudreau, we get a glimpse into what daily life might have been like as Ben Franklin was coming of age through multiple wars, pandemics, and a changing country. Season 2 of Young Ben Franklin: Welcome to New York launches in 2 weeks on February 23rd!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey grownups, the Cat in the Hatcast is a new podcast from Wondry perfect for the whole family.
0:06.0	Join the Cat in the Hat in your favorite Dr. Seuss characters as they get whisked away on a new adventure every week.
0:13.0	Listen to the Cat in the Hatcast early and add free on Wondry Plus.
0:31.0	Hello and welcome back. I'm Claire McClanahan, producer here at Gen Z Media.
0:36.0	We've been talking with Ben Franklin expert Dr. George Boudreau about founding father and inventor Benjamin Franklin.
0:43.0	Today we're going to learn more about the world in which Benjamin Franklin lived.
0:49.0	Dr. Boudreau, as you know, season two of young Ben Franklin takes place in New York City,
0:54.0	so tell us a little bit about what colonial life was like in New York City at that time.
1:00.0	I think in some ways it must have seemed like an exciting time to be alive because the world was expanding.
1:08.0	New opportunities were opening up new technologies new methods.
1:13.0	You know, the novel was invented when Benjamin Franklin was a young man magazines were being founded for the first time.
1:21.0	Newspapers were spreading so you could sit in New York and read about the price of butter in Boston and that was exciting.
1:30.0	I think it was also scary time and if today's kids are scared and wonder our bad times going to come get us.
1:38.0	And we've had to live through that and we've had to live through schools getting shut down from COVID testing.
1:44.0	We have to think also they did too. Benjamin Franklin's first son died of smallpox.
1:52.0	These kids haven't seen measles, but it was like a highly, highly contagious, deadly version of the measles.
2:00.0	We've talked a lot about Ben Franklin, the statesman, founding father, inventor, a revered man who made important impacts on the world as we know it.
2:11.0	But when looking back at history, I do think it's important to look at the whole picture, the whole story.
2:19.0	New York City at that time had one of the largest populations of enslaved people.
2:24.0	What do we know about Franklin's connection to slavery and what can we learn from that part of his story?
2:31.0	Well, slavery is a founding part of the story of what is now the United States of America.
2:38.0	The first enslaved people from Africa were brought into the Virginia colony in 1619.
	...

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