Benjamin Franklin helped to create the modern world. His legacy is all around you — from the electricity which powers and illuminates our homes to the ideas that form our system of government.
For the past three episodes of The First: Stories of Inventions and their Consequences (the Bowery Boys spin-off podcast from 2016-2018), Greg Young has taken you through the story of the Founding Father’s extraordinary life by way of his inventions — printing innovations, the Franklin stove, the bifocals.
In his final years, as the most esteemed member of Congress, he brought his scientific mind into service to create a new country.
All three episodes of this series are now available. You can find The First: Stories of Inventions on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast or wherever you get your podcasts. (Just search for ‘The First Stories’.)
And you can listen to them right here. Enjoy!
PART ONE Franklin Gothic: The Invention of Benjamin Franklin
PART TWO Lightning Strikes: Franklin’s Philadelphia Experiment
PART THREE The Rebel: America’s Founding Inventor