HeyJaredThe Spectral Summit
This podcast looks at historic literature and figures from the past. We'll start with a 16-year-old Ben Franklin pranking his brother James in 1722 by writing essays as a middle-aged New England widow who savagely critiques colonial Boston and Harvard.
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Silence Dogood Essay No. 4 — The Temple of Learning (opens the original)
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Send us Fan Mail What does a 16-year-old writing under a fake name have to say about college education — and why does it still sting? In 1722, Benjamin Franklin's fictional widow Silence Dogood took aim at Harvard and the parents who sent unprepared students there, not for wisdom, but for status. Through a vivid dream sequence, Dogood walks listeners into the "Temple of Learning" — and what she finds there is more farce than philosophy. Tune in as we unpack Franklin's sharp wit and surprising...
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