Welcome to episode two of season two!

In this episode we get to realize our dream of being Bill and Ted: plucking a historical figure out of time and sitting down with them to talk history and hear one of their most juicy (and most excellent!) stories!

We are joined in the Smoke Circle by Bryan Austin, first person historical interpreter of Benjamin Franklin as well as other historical people in America's founding. We talk about his experience as a first person interpreter as well as dig into one of the juiciest and potentially scandalous stories from Ben's life--the Craven Street Corpses (did you hear that they found skeletons in the basement of the house Franklin lived in while in London?!)

Afterwards, Laurel talks about the lost state of Franklin, named after ol' Benny Franks, which was almost America's 14th state. We also learn about other potential states that nearly became a part of the union. Kt wraps things up with the history of the Boston Tea Party, celebrating its 250 year anniversary on December 16th, 2023!

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Connect with Bryan Austin!

Let's Be Frank: An Auditory Almanac of the Curious Mind Podcast on Spotify (also on all major podcast platforms)

Website for Let's Be Frank

Bryan on Instagram -- @bfranklinlive

Bryan on TikTok -- @bfranklinlive

*~*~*~* Mentioned In the Stories:

"Benjamin Franklin" on The Office Benjamin Franklin House and Pictures

Map of The State of Franklin *~*~*~* The Socials! Instagram⁠ - ⁠⁠@HightailingHistory⁠⁠ TikTok⁠- ⁠⁠@HightailingHistoryPod⁠⁠ Facebook⁠ -Hightailing Through History or ⁠⁠@HightailingHistory⁠⁠ ⁠Twitter⁠ - ⁠⁠@HightailingPo⁠⁠d YouTube- ⁠⁠Hightailing Through History⁠⁠ *~*~*~* Source Materials: Lost State of Franklin--

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/1763-proclamation-of

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/true-story-short-lived-state-franklin-180964541/

https://www.history.com/news/5-would-be-u-s-states

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7935&context=penn_law_review

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-state-of-franklin-starts-its-brief-existence

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.stateoffranklin.net/johnsons/pdf/barksdale_state_of_franklin.pdf

Boston Tea Party--

https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-tea-act#:~:text=The%20tea%20tax%20was%20kept,India%20Company%20out%20of%20debt.

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-boston-tea-party

https://www.britannica.com/money/topic/East-India-Company

*~*~*~*~ Intro/outro music: "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/