“Freemason TRUTH!” - #1 US Historian on LOST History, Ben Franklin & Washington | HW Brands • 443
Julian Dorey · 3 Jul 2026 · 3h 19m
Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
This conversation with a prolific American historian ranges across the craft of writing history and the lives of the founders. The historian explains why he writes for general audiences rather than narrow academic ones, describes his practice of not moralizing about historical figures, and reflects on how reading is a learned skill unlike spoken language, with implications for how future generations will absorb information. Much of the discussion centers on Benjamin Franklin: his impoverished, self-taught origins, his invention of the fictional persona Silence Dogood to get published in his brother's newspaper, his scientific work on electricity and the Gulf Stream, his romantic entanglements in Paris, and his role as a diplomat securing French support during the Revolution. The conversation then turns to George Washington, exploring what made him an effective leader despite not being the most brilliant person in any room, his evolving views on slavery tied to changes in Virginia agriculture, and his psychological ability to remain calm under mortal danger. Along the way the pair discuss the loss of historical records (including Lyndon Johnson's Dictaphone tapes), the moral complexity of judging historical figures by present-day standards, the mechanics of how the Stamp Act crisis escalated into revolution, and why the American Revolution succeeded in building stable government where many other revolutions collapsed into chaos or reprisal.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Writing history for future generations
- Lost historical records and the LBJ tapes
- Franklin vs. Roosevelt as biography subjects
- Franklin's diplomacy and romances in Paris
- Franklin's self-education and early life
- Franklin's escape to Philadelphia and immigration to America
- Franklin's scientific work: electricity and the Gulf Stream
- Six-volume biographical history of the United States
- Judging historical figures on slavery
- What made Washington a successful leader
- Path to the Revolution and taxation without representation
- Why the American Revolution succeeded where others failed
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“He said, 'That's when I shout.'”
“At this point in my life, I find it not particularly important to conjecture on something that I will soon find out for sure one way or the other.”
“I'm not going to tell anybody whether the New Deal was a good deal or a bad deal, but I'm going to explain to them why it was a big deal.”