1 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: One of Franklin's greatest inventions is the character A Bit Franklin. 2 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,640 Speaker 1: He creates it, he polishes it. He does it through 3 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: Poor Richard and through his autobiography. His arrival in Philadelphia 4 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:33,480 Speaker 1: is one of the most famous scenes in autobiographical literature. 5 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 1: He gets off the boat but draggled, and uses coins 6 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: to tip the boatmen. He buys three puffy rolls and 7 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: gives one away to somebody. He says, you're always more 8 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: generous when you're very poor than when you're very rich, 9 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:51,599 Speaker 1: because you don't want people to think you're poor. He 10 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: writes that scene for posterity and also for his son, 11 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: who has become very pretentious and was a royal governor 12 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: back then. He's saying, remember, your humble roots were tradesmen, 13 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:05,680 Speaker 1: were not part of an aristocracy. 14 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 2: So he had figured out a little bit of mythmaking 15 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 2: even at the very beginning. 16 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,640 Speaker 1: But as Shakespeare teaches us, we sometimes become the mask 17 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:20,119 Speaker 1: we wear, and so Ben Franklin, by showing how industrious 18 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: he could be by having the pretense of humility, even 19 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 1: if he couldn't have the reality, was able to make 20 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:32,240 Speaker 1: himself into this type of character that he portrays both 21 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: in Poor Richard's Almanac and in the autobiography. 22 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin was perhaps the quintessential American character. He created 23 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 2: the type through his writing style, through the aphorisms of 24 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: Poor Richard's Almanac, through his picturesque autobiography, and in many 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 2: ways itself humble, industrious, and hopeful. The new American spirit 26 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 2: felt familiar and appealing to colonists and eventually to a 27 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 2: nation eager to forge its own identity. And while the 28 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 2: character Franklin created was in many ways close to Franklin 29 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 2: the person, in others it was painfully far away. In 30 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 2: this second episode of On Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson reveals 31 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 2: how Franklin wrote the American identity into being and just 32 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 2: how far Franklin's own life strayed from this national ideal. 33 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 2: You describe beautifully how he came to represent this certain 34 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 2: part of the American character. And it includes practicality, it 35 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 2: includes compromise. Were there any sort of seminal incidents in 36 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 2: his childhood that you feel like shaped this orientation towards 37 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 2: what became a kind of American character, a central American character. 38 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: When Franklin is growing up in Boston, he had been 39 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: indentured to his brother, who is a publisher, newspaper editor, 40 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 1: and printer. Franklin knew he had to be self educated. 41 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: He knew that his father decided not to send him 42 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: to Harvard, and so every night he would read and 43 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: study at his brother's print shop and publishing house. He 44 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: embarked on a self improvement course. He was one of 45 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: America's great self taught people. And what he did was 46 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: he took down volumes of The Spectator, a daily that 47 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: was being published in London, with wonderful essays by Joseph 48 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 1: Addison and Richard Steele. And what Franklin would do is 49 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: he would turn the essays into poetry. And he thought 50 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: it would help him increase his vocabulary because he would 51 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: have to think of different words that would either rhyme 52 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: or have the right meter. And he would read the essays, 53 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,240 Speaker 1: take notes, jumble up his notes, and then a few 54 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: days later, see if he could recreate the essay, and 55 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: then he would go back and correct. He said, every 56 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: now and then I could write it even better, I 57 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: could improve it, which made me think I would become 58 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,360 Speaker 1: a tolerable writer. Well, not only does he become a 59 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,919 Speaker 1: tolerable writer, he becomes the best and most popular writer 60 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: in America. He also read Cotton Mather's Essays to Do 61 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: Good because Boston then was pretty much ruled by a 62 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:40,279 Speaker 1: Puritan theocracy. Puritan preachers like Cotton Mather were always talking 63 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: about God's grace, that we got salvation through God's grace alone, 64 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: whereas Benjamin Franklin is much more simple. He believed that, well, 65 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: maybe you could earn your way into the good grace 66 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,840 Speaker 1: of the Lord by doing good works and helping your 67 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: fellow citizens. 68 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 2: So Franklin's early years are spent teaching himself to write 69 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 2: moral education, less religious than the puritanical world he lived in, 70 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 2: but focused on practicality and contributing to the world around him. 71 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 2: But even if he was indentured to his brother, he 72 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 2: was still indentured, and naturally he chafed at that, and 73 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 2: the fundamental unfairness of it, along with his core character, 74 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,960 Speaker 2: led him to push back. He has this sort of 75 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 2: maybe inborn but natural resistance to authority, and he abandons 76 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,560 Speaker 2: the apprenticeship, which was, as I understand it, quite a 77 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 2: big deal at the. 78 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:34,240 Speaker 1: Time, right, And he becomes apprentice to his older brother, 79 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: and his older brother was very strict in dealing with 80 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,720 Speaker 1: him and didn't let him write for the paper, which 81 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: is why Franklin writes under the pseudonym and fakes his handwriting, 82 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: and it's called Silence Do Good. It's a triumph of 83 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 1: the imagination because here you have a fifteen or sixteen 84 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: year old kid who had never left Boston, but he's 85 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,400 Speaker 1: writing in the voice of a widowed, elderly woman who 86 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: lives in the countryside. And this is part of Franklin's magic, 87 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 1: which is he has that sense of spunky imagination and 88 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: a colloquial sense to him. Other people at the time, 89 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 1: like Jonathan Edwards are writing in this grand rhetoric about 90 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,120 Speaker 1: centers in the hands of an angry god. But Benjamin 91 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:27,799 Speaker 1: Franklin as a kid almost invents this vernacular auschus cracker 92 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 1: barrel style that you see in Mark Twain and Will 93 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,479 Speaker 1: Rogers and others that pokes fun at the pretensions of 94 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:38,599 Speaker 1: the elite. He became the best writer of his time 95 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: because he had such a colloquial voice. 96 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 2: He goes on to use anonymous writing or pseudonymous writing 97 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 2: throughout his career, even up to major diplomatic incidents later 98 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:54,839 Speaker 2: in life. Can you explain a little bit about why 99 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 2: he uses pseudonyms. Is it a wink wink kind of 100 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 2: pseudonym or is it pure Inneymi. The great thing about 101 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 2: the colonial period is you could write under a pseudonym 102 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 2: and you had some anonymity. But eventually people can find out. 103 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 2: And indeed his brother finds out that young Benjamin is 104 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 2: a run doing Silence do Good. 105 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: So it's good. It gave people a lot of freedom 106 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: to speak, but it still put a little bit of 107 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: a leash on how far they were willing to go. 108 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 2: But not too much of a leish under the pseudonym's 109 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 2: silence do Good. But he was still in Boston writing 110 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 2: for his brother's paper. He tests the limits, and. 111 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: Silence do Good says, I have a natural aversion to tyranny, 112 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: and an he trampling over my rights makes my blood 113 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: boil exceedingly. That's how you know I'm an American. And 114 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: this is ingrained in Franklin, especially since he was indentured 115 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: to his brother. And eventually he runs away and breaks 116 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: the indenture agreement he had made and secretly goes into Filhiladelphia. 117 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:04,440 Speaker 2: And this is the moment in his autobiography, that famous 118 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 2: scene of Franklin walking off the boat with just a 119 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 2: few coins in his pocket, and this picture of how 120 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 2: the world sees him, a young, plucky naif, sharing his 121 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 2: roles and confident in the opportunities ahead. You write that 122 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 2: he became the country's first unabashed public relations expert, and 123 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 2: the first subject of his public relations was himself. 124 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: Yes, even as a young printer opening a shop in Philadelphia, 125 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: he makes a point of carting the paper he needs 126 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,280 Speaker 1: through the streets back and forth to show that he's 127 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:45,600 Speaker 1: diligent in working, rather than having Sarven's other people do it. 128 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: And he cares a lot about not only the reality 129 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 1: of being diligent, but just showing people how diligent he is. 130 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:56,760 Speaker 2: Let's talk about Poor Richard. 131 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,400 Speaker 1: When he had a print shop. With his his own 132 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: colloquial style and wit, he's able to do a really 133 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: fun almanac. He calls it Poor Richard's Almanac. That's just pseudonym, 134 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,239 Speaker 1: but in this case everybody knew it was Ben Franklin 135 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: who was doing it. In the almanac, he has all 136 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: sorts of maxims wisdom from the ages. A penny saved 137 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,680 Speaker 1: is a penny earned early to bed, early to rise, 138 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: And we sometimes mistake the real Benjamin Franklin for those maxims. 139 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: I mean, he was never early to bed, an early 140 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: to rise type person. But through that voice he's able 141 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 1: to create an unpretentious ethic throughout his whole life. He 142 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:46,280 Speaker 1: wants to poke fun at the pretensions of the elite, 143 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: and that's what he starts doing through Poor Richard common 144 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: folk wisdom. 145 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 2: Did people at the time start to see him this 146 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 2: way as embodied by poor Richard? 147 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everybody knew he was writing these almanacs, 148 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: but it was all part of the fun. People knew 149 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin. He was not exactly a very priggish person. 150 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: One of the secrets to his humor and to his 151 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 1: personality was self deprecation. It was not exactly humility, but 152 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,960 Speaker 1: it was the good pretense of humility. He would poke 153 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:25,000 Speaker 1: fun at himself, and especially poor Richard could do it. 154 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,559 Speaker 1: At one point one year instead of Poor Richard writing 155 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:32,719 Speaker 1: the forward to the almanac, is poor Richard's wife Bridget. Now, 156 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,680 Speaker 1: of course this has all been Franklin doing it, but 157 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 1: poor Richard's wife talks about the experiments that poor Richard's 158 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: doing and how it'd be better off if he learned 159 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: how to earn a living. So that notion of a 160 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: self deprecation as a way to be influential and charming 161 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:55,599 Speaker 1: and perhaps settle some disputes is something that Franklin perfected. 162 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 2: But Franklin himself was far from perfect. When he returned 163 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,080 Speaker 2: after the break, we take a look at a family 164 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:05,440 Speaker 2: life that was marked by both tragedy and neglect, and 165 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,320 Speaker 2: also a wonderfully broad sense of what family in this 166 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 2: new country could meet. We haven't talked about his personal 167 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:32,560 Speaker 2: life yet. 168 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, Franklin has a very complicated family life. At one point, 169 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: he has an illegitimate son named William, and he takes 170 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 1: responsibility for the son, brings the son in, and he 171 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: ends up forming a common law marriage with Deborah, person 172 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: who had seen him straggling off the boat when he 173 00:11:53,559 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: first was a runaway from Boston. But her husband had 174 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 1: disappeared and so she couldn't get married married again because 175 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,400 Speaker 1: of the bigamy laws. But she and Franklin create a 176 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: common law marriage and it becomes a very practical thing. 177 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: She's the bookkeeper, she's the person helping run the shop, 178 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,040 Speaker 1: and it's somewhat typical of Franklin. He's not a deeply 179 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,840 Speaker 1: romantic person. They have a beautiful daughter named Sally that 180 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: becomes very close to Franklin, and they have a child 181 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:29,079 Speaker 1: named Frankie. And it was pretty tragic because, just as 182 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:32,600 Speaker 1: nowadays we fight over vaccinations, that was a big fight 183 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: back then, and Franklin's brother had fought against inoculations. And 184 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:43,679 Speaker 1: even though Benjamin Franklin believed that he had not yet 185 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: inoculated his young son, Frankie because he was too young, 186 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 1: and he ends up dying a smallpox and this effects 187 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin the rest of his life. 188 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 2: Was it a scandal when he took in his illegitimate son? 189 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,880 Speaker 2: Was that something that his enemies would use against him 190 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 2: or was that something that was normal that people would 191 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:03,720 Speaker 2: view that as virtuous. 192 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,160 Speaker 1: Well, children born out of wedlock were rather common back then, 193 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:11,600 Speaker 1: it wasn't totally usual for a father to take responsibility. 194 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,559 Speaker 1: But Benjamin Franklin not only takes total responsibility for William 195 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,679 Speaker 1: and raising him, but ends up with Deborah and they 196 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 1: raise him together. It does get used against him years 197 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,560 Speaker 1: later in some political campaigns where they talk about it, 198 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,560 Speaker 1: but it never really hurt him, and he took great 199 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: pride in having raised William. 200 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 2: A lot of families today could relate to grandparents taking 201 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 2: in children, unusual family relationships, people being brought into the family, 202 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 2: made part of the family who aren't even blood relatives. 203 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:46,559 Speaker 2: I feel like that is something in Franklin adopting that 204 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 2: and enthusiastically embracing it. It's something that people today could 205 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:51,839 Speaker 2: connect with. 206 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:57,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that Franklin always had a resistance to 207 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: the notion of aristocracy. And you know, in England and 208 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: in to some extent in America, you had children born 209 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:08,360 Speaker 1: illegitimately or out of wedlock or not part of the 210 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 1: Irish ax. Franklin thought that was ridiculous. It becomes complicated 211 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 1: because William has a son born out of wedlock of 212 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: his own, who doesn't actually take in right away. He 213 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: puts him in foster care. But eventually Temple Franklin gets 214 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: brought into the family by Benjamin Franklin, and so there's 215 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin helping to raise his grandson, not quite letting 216 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: everybody know the real relationship. But eventually Temple Franklin becomes 217 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:44,200 Speaker 1: very close to Benjamin Franklin, and so he brings the 218 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: whole family together. And it's not a big distinction made. 219 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,119 Speaker 2: As Franklin star Rose, he traveled first to the colonies 220 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 2: and then also abroad to England eventually France too. It's 221 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,320 Speaker 2: like a lot of ambitious people in big careers. Was 222 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 2: hard on his family, but it wasn't clear that it 223 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 2: made a big difference to Franklin. 224 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: Franklin's love of travel was not very good for his 225 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:10,520 Speaker 1: marriage to Deborah, because as far as we know, Deborah 226 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 1: never spent a night away from Philadelphia. And one can 227 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,560 Speaker 1: blame Benjamin Franklin for always being away from going up 228 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 1: and down the coast of America doing the postal system 229 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,680 Speaker 1: and then going to England and staying there. But also 230 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:30,200 Speaker 1: Deborah Franklin was her choice. He wanted her to come 231 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: to England, but she never ever wanted to travel, especially 232 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: across the ocean, and she was perfectly content, although by 233 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: the end of her life a little bit sad staying 234 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:46,840 Speaker 1: at home without Benjamin Franklin there. When he arrives in London, 235 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:52,200 Speaker 1: he does something interesting, which is he almost recreates his 236 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: life back in Philadelphia. He finds a landlady, missus Stevenson, 237 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: who treats him almost as if an unromantic husband arrangement 238 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,520 Speaker 1: of convenience where she looks after him and she has 239 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:09,960 Speaker 1: a daughter about the same age as Sally, and he 240 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: becomes a father figure to Polly Stevenson flirts with her 241 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: as well. I mean, it's all a little bit odd, 242 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,200 Speaker 1: but there he is, having a comfortable domestic life in 243 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: London that's not all that different from the one he 244 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:23,560 Speaker 1: had in Philadelphia. 245 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 2: And was there something about the fact that those weren't 246 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 2: deep attachments, that they weren't really his family that enabled 247 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 2: him to have an anchor but also be so much 248 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 2: out in the world. 249 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 1: There were no real ties that bound him. I mean, 250 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,080 Speaker 1: he's quite happy to spend many years going to England 251 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: and then going back and forth, as opposed to somebody 252 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 1: who feels tied down. But it was part of his 253 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: own personality, a natural aversion to anything that would restrain 254 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:55,280 Speaker 1: his liberty. 255 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:58,240 Speaker 2: It was that aversion to tyranny that helped him to 256 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,080 Speaker 2: break free from his intentured service to his brother as 257 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:03,600 Speaker 2: a young man. But it was hard to square the 258 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 2: completely untethered, somewhat selfish version of Franklin with the moral 259 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,919 Speaker 2: characters and poor Richard in Silence do Good? Was there 260 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:16,359 Speaker 2: real Ben Franklin so unsentimental and when he broke his 261 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,119 Speaker 2: apprenticeship was he severed from his family? Did he remain 262 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 2: close to his family even after he was in Philadelphia. 263 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: When Franklin runs away from his apprenticeship to his brother, 264 00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:30,720 Speaker 1: he does it secretly at night, and for a long 265 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 1: time the family has no idea where he went. I mean, 266 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,639 Speaker 1: he goes to Philadelphia and gets himself a job there, 267 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,240 Speaker 1: and at one point, after he becomes successful, he goes 268 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,639 Speaker 1: back to Boston. He's got some silver coins in his 269 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 1: pocket and he shows off, goes in to see his brother, 270 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:54,960 Speaker 1: and his brother, of course, is very annoyed by it. 271 00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: Franklin realized he had shown pride there and that he 272 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 1: had alienated it brother. And throughout his life Franklin kept 273 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:06,320 Speaker 1: a ledger of the mistakes he had made. He called 274 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,879 Speaker 1: him Erota on how he tried to rectify it, and 275 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 1: mistake number one in his ledger book was running away 276 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,679 Speaker 1: from his indentured service to his brother and alienating himself 277 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,600 Speaker 1: from his brother. And then the way he rectified it 278 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:26,959 Speaker 1: is when his brother died, he took his brother's son underwing, 279 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:31,200 Speaker 1: and Benjamin Franklin helped set him up in business, helped 280 00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:35,320 Speaker 1: educate him, and it was his way of doing that 281 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 1: balance of trying to reconcile himself to his family. He 282 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:44,920 Speaker 1: was very close to his youngest sister, Jane, and their 283 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:50,520 Speaker 1: letters are truly delightful. That's how we know about Franklin's 284 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,199 Speaker 1: battle against pride and desire to at least have the 285 00:18:54,240 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: pretense of humility. And I think that relationship was probably 286 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: the most enduring of his life. 287 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,320 Speaker 2: When we come back, Franklin's autobiographical writings reveal the super 288 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 2: awkward way he chose his wife, and how his belief 289 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 2: in meritocracy didn't necessarily extend to a rejection of nepotism. 290 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 2: We know about Franklin because he wrote so much and 291 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 2: so well. It's how we get a sense of who 292 00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:37,639 Speaker 2: he was and the kind of personality he made for 293 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 2: the world to see the mix of poor Richard and 294 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:43,640 Speaker 2: silence do good and of course the Franklin we see 295 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,399 Speaker 2: in his autobiography, and it's through his writings that Walter 296 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:46,960 Speaker 2: met him too. 297 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,440 Speaker 1: Back then they want digitized, I'd go to Yale Library. 298 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 1: I think it had had forty or fifty feet of shelves. 299 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:58,600 Speaker 1: And he has such an approachable style of writing that 300 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: it made it to you could write a history of 301 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: him that was storytelling because we have all of his letters, 302 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,440 Speaker 1: his notes as journal, the anecdote he wrote as a fifteen, sixteen, 303 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:15,480 Speaker 1: seventeen year old, and I became entranced with Benjamin Franklin, 304 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: the inventor, the scientist, the state crafter, the writer, but 305 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 1: also the storyteller. 306 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 2: Much like Walter's stroll through Franklin's handwritten letters and notebooks, 307 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:29,920 Speaker 2: ben Franklin's autobiography gives us a glimpse into how Franklin 308 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 2: worked to mold his character, how he was on this 309 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,479 Speaker 2: continuous campaign of self improvement. But that warts and all 310 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:39,119 Speaker 2: story wasn't just for future Americans hoping to follow in 311 00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 2: Franklin's footsteps. It was also written for one young man 312 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:44,200 Speaker 2: in particular. 313 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: William loved a book called The Habits of the well 314 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 1: Born and Practices, And so he become somebody who hangs 315 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:54,639 Speaker 1: around with the dukes and the urals and the aristocracy, 316 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: and is very good at putting on airs and pretenses, 317 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:00,959 Speaker 1: which his father doesn't like. That's one of the reasons 318 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,399 Speaker 1: his father writes the autobiography. It starts with the words, 319 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,160 Speaker 1: dear son, and it says, hey, remember who we are, 320 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,119 Speaker 1: a middle class people. We don't have the pretensions of 321 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,360 Speaker 1: the aristocracy. But one of the cool things about Franklin 322 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,280 Speaker 1: is hees a little bit upfront about his moral failings, 323 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 1: makes fun of him, sometimes makes us realize, well, he's human, 324 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: all too human, And in some ways I think that 325 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: makes him more inspiring and more of a role model. 326 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 2: Sometimes Franklin told on himself a little more subtly, like 327 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 2: what he writes about his system for making decisions, something 328 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:37,399 Speaker 2: that would be very familiar to fans of Stephen Covey 329 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,280 Speaker 2: and fans of workplace efficiency in general. 330 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,800 Speaker 1: Whenever he had a decision to make, he did a calculus. 331 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 1: He took a piece of paper and on one side 332 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:50,560 Speaker 1: of the paper he wrote all the reasons for something, 333 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: the pros, and then on the other side he wrote 334 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 1: all the things against all the cons and he designed 335 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:01,320 Speaker 1: weights to each of the factors, and he'd say, does 336 00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:04,919 Speaker 1: the pros outweigh the cons or not? And it was 337 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: his bookkeeping mentality, his sort of very scientific and experimental 338 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 1: way of doing things. And he even does it when 339 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,679 Speaker 1: he's trying to decide whether to take Deborah as his 340 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,639 Speaker 1: common law wife. Now, I love the notion of doing 341 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: a calculus to figure out how to make tough decisions, 342 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,480 Speaker 1: but one criticism of Franklin is to do it when 343 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:31,720 Speaker 1: trying to decide whether to get married or not. There 344 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: was a little something unromantic about his calculus. 345 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,240 Speaker 2: If you decide pro and get married, you should probably 346 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 2: not let your spouse see the pro con list after. 347 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:45,440 Speaker 1: That, definitely, And I think he has poor Richard say 348 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shot 349 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,680 Speaker 1: after a marriage. In other words, once you've made your decision, 350 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 1: tolerate the flaws of the other person. 351 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 2: So often Franklin's writing is cheeky. He fills his autobiography 352 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,679 Speaker 2: with wit and happily winks at the reader as he 353 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 2: relais his tales. But while the style is entirely his own, 354 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 2: the structure of his biography is lifted from another work, 355 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,720 Speaker 2: a book that influenced him decades earlier, back when he 356 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:14,840 Speaker 2: was still an apprentice in his brother's print shop. 357 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:22,199 Speaker 1: He really identified with Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress because it's about 358 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: a person making his way in the world, trying to 359 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,480 Speaker 1: be moral, trying to be practical, and it was a journey. 360 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:34,720 Speaker 1: And if you read Franklin's autobiography, it's really the first 361 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,639 Speaker 1: self made person memoir we have. But it's written in 362 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 1: the style of a real pilgrim's progress, a very practical 363 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,399 Speaker 1: Ben Franklin making his progress in the world. 364 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 2: He made his life into a pilgrim's progress. 365 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 1: When Fredlin was a young tradesman in Philadelphia, Franklin embarked 366 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: on what he called grandly his moral perfection project. Now 367 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 1: you have to know there's a bit of a sense 368 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:03,720 Speaker 1: of irony when he's writing about this in his autobiography. 369 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: He's looking back at it somewhat amused because it's this 370 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,719 Speaker 1: very earnest sort of thing. But he made a list 371 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,120 Speaker 1: of virtues and values that you were supposed to have 372 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: if you were going to be successful, and they're very 373 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:31,399 Speaker 1: pragmatic values. There's temperance, there's silence, there's order, there's resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, 374 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:36,240 Speaker 1: and tranquility. And after he made the list, his friend said, Franklin, 375 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: you're really proud of that list, but you are to 376 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,600 Speaker 1: add one thing. And he said, what's that? And the 377 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,080 Speaker 1: friend says, humility. You might want to try that one 378 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:49,119 Speaker 1: for a change. If you look at the list of 379 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 1: virtues and values, they're not honor and duty and classical virtues. Instead, 380 00:24:56,600 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: they're very Ben Franklin like, they're things like fruge reality, 381 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:04,600 Speaker 1: industry moderation that just make you a good citizen. 382 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,159 Speaker 2: Silence is one that feels like it's sometimes in short supply. 383 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the fact that silence is on the list. 384 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:17,199 Speaker 1: He says, speak not but what may benefit others, avoid 385 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: trifling conversations. And nowadays we're always in the cable TV 386 00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:28,440 Speaker 1: and social media world trying to have our hot takes. 387 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,439 Speaker 1: But at various important parts of his life, including when 388 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,240 Speaker 1: he's being grilled by a committee of Parliament during the 389 00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: lead up to the American Revolution, Franklin just stands there silently. 390 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,520 Speaker 2: Even in his earlier writings The Silence Do Good Essays, 391 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,400 Speaker 2: he would point out the hypocrisy of the strict morality 392 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 2: of the times and in himself. 393 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 1: Franklin was very good at writing in the voice of women. 394 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: Silence Do Good the very first thing he writes as 395 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: a teenage it's in a woman's voice, And when he 396 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: gets to Philadelphia, he writes the story of Polly Baker, 397 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: a woman who was on trial for having five illegitimate children. 398 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,080 Speaker 1: Polly Baker, she argues she was doing good for the world, 399 00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: bringing five children in and she had relied on the 400 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 1: promises made to her by men, and men had broken 401 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: those promises. And she says that at least I'm taking responsibility. Remember, 402 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 1: Franklin had an illegitimate child and he took responsibility for it. 403 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,480 Speaker 1: So he's poking fun at men who have illegitimate children 404 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,480 Speaker 1: and then look down on the women. And at the 405 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:42,600 Speaker 1: end of the piece is funny. She's in front of 406 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,400 Speaker 1: the magistrates, even hints that one of the magistrates may 407 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 1: have been amongst those who misled her, and at the 408 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,240 Speaker 1: end she's acquitted. The interesting thing is that throughout his 409 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,399 Speaker 1: life Franklin had pretty much the same style that he 410 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,880 Speaker 1: developed in the Silence Do Good Essays. He wrote hoaxes 411 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,399 Speaker 1: and parodies, He wrote him in conversational style, and even 412 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 1: on his deathbed he's writing a parody of a speech 413 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 1: that you can almost hear Silence Do Good, giving. 414 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,400 Speaker 2: The sort of virtues of writing with simplicity and humor 415 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,640 Speaker 2: those started in his teenage years and not just carried through. 416 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:23,440 Speaker 1: One of the Silence Do Good Essays is an attack 417 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,600 Speaker 1: on Harvard, the elite college where he was supposed to go, 418 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 1: but then his father decided not to send him there, 419 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,359 Speaker 1: and so he has silence do good in a dream 420 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:38,320 Speaker 1: thinking about sending kids to Harvard and how only rich 421 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: kids got to go, and they consulted their purses Franklin 422 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,400 Speaker 1: wrights as opposed to their brains. And he said, Harvard 423 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:50,080 Speaker 1: only knows how to turn out dunches and blockheads who 424 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:53,680 Speaker 1: can enter a room genteely, something they could have learned 425 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: better in dancing school. And so it was him being 426 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,399 Speaker 1: self aware. And this is just a teenage boy, but 427 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: throughout his life he's always poking fun at credentialism and 428 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:06,679 Speaker 1: the pretensions of the elite. 429 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 2: It feels like something that's in a way so modern. 430 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 2: Now you have people, particularly running for public office, who 431 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 2: go to Harvard or Yale and then still poke fun 432 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 2: at it, still disclaim the elite status that comes from 433 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:21,360 Speaker 2: attending those institutions. 434 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: America's always had mixed feelings about elite credentials. People like 435 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 1: to brag they go to Harvard or Yale, you see 436 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,119 Speaker 1: it in a JD Vance, but also they want to 437 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,560 Speaker 1: poke at the pretensions of the elite. And it's the 438 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:36,400 Speaker 1: same as it was in. 439 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 2: Franklin jer It's funny that there is a presidential candidate 440 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 2: running today Trump, who does brag about attending the university 441 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 2: that Benjamin Franklin began. 442 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:52,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure how Benjamin Franklin would feel that 443 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,440 Speaker 1: the first US president to come out of the university 444 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,280 Speaker 1: that he created was Donald Trump. 445 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,440 Speaker 2: Franklin didn't think it was very American to have anything 446 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 2: like an aristocracy. He was self made and thought it 447 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 2: was important for people to make their own ways. But 448 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:12,040 Speaker 2: it was easier in theory than in practice. Even someone 449 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,760 Speaker 2: who so thoroughly believes in sort of meritocracy and pulling 450 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,480 Speaker 2: yourself up. He is always trying to help his grandson 451 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,120 Speaker 2: get a position somewhere. He can't quite get this grandson, 452 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:23,280 Speaker 2: can't quite get a foothold. 453 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, they can't really help himself. He's got 454 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:33,400 Speaker 1: this charming grandson, very good looking, but who isn't exactly 455 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,320 Speaker 1: the strongest character, and so he's always trying to get 456 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: him appointment to be the secretary to the delegation in 457 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,120 Speaker 1: France and other political appointment. So there's a little bit 458 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: of nepotism there. It doesn't quite work. Temple doesn't amount 459 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,200 Speaker 1: to do much. I feel like it almost comes back 460 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:54,200 Speaker 1: to silence, do good. He hates nepotism. And elitism up 461 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:58,400 Speaker 1: any stripe. He believes in this rugged meritocracy. It's how 462 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 1: he lived his life and made all his success, and 463 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: yet he can't help but want better for his grandson. Franklin, 464 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: like the rest of us, but more evidently, is always 465 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: wrestling with the virtues and the values, looking after his 466 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,960 Speaker 1: own self interests but also what's good for the community. 467 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: He was the most successful self made person of his time, 468 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: and that's what his autobiography is about. But he also 469 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:27,760 Speaker 1: felt that the pursuit of money for its own sake, 470 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:33,400 Speaker 1: to have riches, to be an aristocrat, was unappealing. I 471 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:35,920 Speaker 1: think the word he would use, and so even though 472 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: he becomes successful, he doesn't build grand mansions, he doesn't 473 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: patent his invention. He tries to do well, but not 474 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: be excessive, not put on airs, not be indulgent, and 475 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: he felt too that was part of America's character. 476 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 2: On the next episode of On Franklin, we'll get into 477 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin, the business savant and champion of the new 478 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,840 Speaker 2: middle class, and find out how his cunning helped him 479 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,320 Speaker 2: build the first American media empire. 480 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 1: That made Franklin charming at times, but also he's able 481 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,240 Speaker 1: to rub people the wrong way and make enemies of 482 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: the people he went into business with. 483 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,400 Speaker 2: This show is based on the writing and research of 484 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 2: Walter Isaacson. So stood by me Evan Ratliffe, produced, mixed 485 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,520 Speaker 2: and sound designed by Anna Rubinova. Adam Bozarth is our 486 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 2: consulting producer. Lizzie Jacobs is our editor. Social media by 487 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 2: Dara Potts. The show was engineered at CDM Sound Studios 488 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,960 Speaker 2: from iHeart Podcasts. The executive producers are Katrina Norvell and 489 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:46,000 Speaker 2: Ali Perry. For Kalledyscope, it was executive produced by Mangeshetigador, 490 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:51,400 Speaker 2: with an assist from Ozwalishan Kostaslinos and Kate Osborne. Special 491 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,120 Speaker 2: thanks to Amanda Urban, Bob Pittman, Will Pearson, Conor Burnt, 492 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 2: Nikki Etour, Carrie Lieberman, Nathan on Tuski and Ali Gavin 493 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:03,080 Speaker 2: And If you like podcasts about inventions what they mean 494 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 2: for humanity, check out my other show shell Game, about 495 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,120 Speaker 2: how it created an AI clone and said it loose 496 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 2: on the world. It's a shell Game dot co and 497 00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 2: for more shows from Kaleidoscope, be sure to visit Kaleidoscope 498 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,280 Speaker 2: dot NYC. Thanks so much for listening.