This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011. I'm Caleb Brown.

James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history,

although he's sometimes overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries, Madison helped to shape our country as perhaps no other founder did,

collaborating on the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights.

At a recent Cato book form, Richard Brookheim the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights.

At a recent Cato book form, Richard Brookheiser discussed his new book, James Madison.

This is a portion of his remarks.

Madison had two children. His wife, Dolly, had one who became Madison's stepson. He was a man named John Payne Todd and he became

a cross to both his mother and his stepfather.

But Madison's two children are much more important to us.

And as David said, the one we're most familiar with

is the Constitution.

He was called the father of the Constitution even in his own lifetime and the title has stuck.

And that's not because he got the Constitution of his dreams.

Nobody did. Everybody was disappointed.

All of the author of the Constitution

lost something that they would have wanted.

But he was called the father of the Constitution

because he alone was a major player in every step of its evolution, of its creation, and of its ratification.

In 1786, he and Alexander Hamilton essentially

hijack a conference on interstate commerce in Annapolis, Maryland,

and turn it into a call for Constitutional Convention in

...