435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation
In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later, that question still doesn't have a good answer. To mark the...
3 Mar 1h 23min
434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
What would you fight for if you were free but still not equal? In 1777, brothers William and Benjamin Frank answered that question by enlisting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental A...
24 Feb 1h 13min
BFW Revisited: The American Revolution's African American Soldiers
More than 6,000 Black men—free and enslaved—served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Yet their stories remain some of the least told of the war. In this revisited episode, we rej...
17 Feb 53min
433 Entangled Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the American Revolution
What if the American Revolution was never just an American story? Historian Ronald Angelo Johnson helps us uncover the deep connections between the American and Haitian Revolutions to reveal how both...
10 Feb 1h 9min
BFW Revisited: The Marquis de Lafayette
What does it take to become a revolutionary in more than one revolution? In this revisited conversation with Mike Duncan, we explore the life of the Marquis de Lafayette—an ambitious young Frenchman w...
3 Feb 1h 8min
432 How France and Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
The American Revolution wasn’t just a colonial rebellion; it was a global conflict shaped by European rivalries and high-stakes diplomacy. Without the help of foreign allies like France and Spain, the...
27 Jan 1h 4min
BFW Revisited: The Common Cause
Before Common Sense could ignite a revolution, colonists had to be convinced they shared a cause worth fighting for. So how did Revolutionary leaders turn thirteen very different colonies into “Americ...
20 Jan 58min
431 Common Sense at 250: The Pamphlet That Sparked a Revolution
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense turned a colonial rebellion into a full-blown revolution. But how did one pamphlet move so many minds in 1776—and why does it still matter 250 years later? To commemorate ...
13 Jan 1h 14min
