About this episode

The episode discusses the life of Benjamin Franklin and the creation of a documentary about him with guests Dayton Duncan and David Schmidt.

This week, as we approach the 250 th anniversary of American independence, we shine a light on one of the founding generation's greats: Benjamin Franklin It's difficult to fathom how Franklin accomplished so much in a single lifetime. It's equally difficult to imagine how to take such an incredible life and consolidate it into four hours of documentary film. In this episode, we cover both feats with writer Dayton Duncan and producer David Schmidt, two of the great minds behind Ken Burns' documentary on Benjamin Franklin. Dayton and David discuss Franklin's life, the work that goes into creating a historical documentary film, and their process for deciding the best way to tell an American icon's story in a pair of two-hour episodes. Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns is available via PBS.org on your local PBS station and we highly recommend it! If you enjoy this episode, check out Ben and Bob's conversation with Ken Burns in episode #191. This episode originally aired as #229 on April 4, 2022. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

People in this episode

Host: Ben Sawyer

Guests: Dayton Duncan, David Schmidt

Topics covered

• Benjamin Franklin
• documentary filmmaking
• American history
• founding generation
• Ken Burns

Keywords

• Benjamin Franklin
• documentary
• Ken Burns
• American independence
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ken Burns, PBS

Books & works: Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns

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