What Made America: The Constitution & The Franklins

What Made America: The Constitution & The Franklins

From American History Hit by History Hit

June 8, 2026 · 34 min · Episode 390

About this episode

Jill Lepore discusses the impact of Jane Franklin's life and letters on the understanding of America's constitution.

We've asked some of our favorite historians for their number one moment from these 250 years of the United States' History. For this episode, we're honored to welcome Jill Lepore back to the show. How do the life and letters of Jane Franklin, beloved sister of THE Benjamin Franklin, reflect the nature and constitution of America? You can read more about this in Jill's book THESE TRUTHS: A History of the United States , the Jubilee Edition of which is out now. Jill is a Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe .   All music from Epidemic Sounds. American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Guest: Jill Lepore

Topics covered

  • American history
  • The Constitution
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Jill Lepore
  • Jane Franklin
  • historical analysis

Keywords

  • Constitution
  • Franklin
  • American history
  • Jill Lepore
  • historian
  • Jane Franklin
  • history podcast

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard University, The New Yorker, History Hit, Acast

Books & works: THESE TRUTHS: A History of the United States

More episodes of American History Hit

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the American History Hit podcast page.