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The Michael Shermer Show · 2025-09-30 · 89 min · 14,251 words

Was Benjamin Franklin America's First Scientist?

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player

You're listening to The Michael Shermer Show. All right, everybody, it's Michael Shermer. It's time for another episode of the Michael Shermer Show. My guest today is Dr. Mark Skausen.

He is the Dottie Spoggley Chair of Free Enterprise at Chapman University, where I used to teach. In California as an eighth-generation direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin. That's what his new book is about, Benjamin Franklin. He has a lifetime interest in the grandfather of our nation, not the father of our nation, but the grandfather. Dr.

Skausen's career has often followed that of his illustrious ancestor as a publisher, author, financial advisor, teacher, father, public servant, and world traveler. In 2006, he and his wife Joanne compiled and edited the completed autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, covering the remainder of his career from 1757 to 1790. And his new book is, here it is again, the greatest American. I love that title, Benjamin Franklin, the world's most versatile genius. All right, Mark, nice to see you.

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