Speaker 1: And he trampling over my rights makes my blood boil exceedingly.
Speaker 1: That's how you know I'm an American.
Speaker 2: Those are the words of Benjamin Franklin, and.
Speaker 1: We think him as a doddling dude flying a kite
Speaker 1: in no rain. But those electricity experiments are the most
Speaker 1: important scientific discoveries of the time.
Speaker 2: But maybe the reason we have misunderstood this most fascinating
Speaker 2: founding father for so long was Franklin himself.
Speaker 1: One of Franklin's greatest inventions is the character of Bed Franklin.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was never early to bed, an early
Speaker 1: to rise type person.
Speaker 2: I'm Evan Ratliffe. Last season, in my conversations with epic
Speaker 2: biographer Walter isaacsonon we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk.
Speaker 2: This time we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker 2: another genius with even more facets and possibly more relevance,
Speaker 2: who's desperate to be dusted off from history.
Speaker 1: His media empire makes him the most successful self made
Speaker 1: business person in America. And if you see the charging
Speaker 1: makes of the Gulf Stream, it's remarkably similar to the
Speaker 1: one that's now on the NASA website. He loves leading
Speaker 1: the good life, even playing chess while he's in the
Speaker 1: bathtub with one of his mistresses.
Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin is so many things.
Speaker 1: A writer and printer, He created poor Richard, and he
Speaker 1: created newspapers.
Speaker 2: A scientist, an inventor whose work is still in use today.
Speaker 2: They would consecrate the bells of churches to ward off
Speaker 2: the lightning, but the lightning kept striking church steeples, and
Speaker 2: Franklin said, maybe we should try some other theory of it.
Speaker 2: An unlikely celebrity at home and abroad.
Speaker 1: Crowds turn out and women shart wearing their hair and
Speaker 1: what was called the coiffor a la Franklin.
Speaker 2: But perhaps more importantly, a key architect of a new nation.
Speaker 1: Franklin was the only one of the founders who is
Speaker 1: involved in all four of the great founding documents of America.
Speaker 2: But there are parts of his story that history books
Speaker 2: like to skip over.
Speaker 1: Everybody's wondering what side is he going to be on,
Speaker 1: and before he can announce it, he has to have
Speaker 1: a meeting with his illegitimate son.
Speaker 2: But by the end of his very long life he
Speaker 2: lives to be eighty four years old. He had earned
Speaker 2: near universal love as the Sage of Philadelphia, and maybe
Speaker 2: more importantly, a man uniquely gifted at bringing people together
Speaker 2: and without rival, and his devotion to democracy.
Speaker 1: The only other person who could have possibly been the
Speaker 1: first president would have been Benjamin Franklin, but he's too
Speaker 1: old and wants Washington to do it voluntarily. Forsaking power
Speaker 1: is at the heart of what a democracy is.
Speaker 2: Listen to on Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on America's
Speaker 2: number one podcast network, iHeart, open your free iHeart app
Speaker 2: and search on Benjamin Franklin and start listening.