The 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. Future episodes include interviews with Warren G. Harding, FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt and Edgar Allen Poe. Stay tuned!
The Spectral Summit
Latest Episodes
Episode 10 - Dorothy Parker - The Telephone Call
Join us as we explore the wit and dark humor of Dorothy Parker who is best remembered for her razor wit. "The Telephone Call" which originally appeared in the January 1928 issue of The Bookman, is one of her most psychologically raw in...
Episode 9 - The Literary Summit - Tell Tale Poe
Welcome to our exploration of The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and Annabel Lee — three of Edgar Allan Poe’s most haunting and enduring works. In this episode, Kelley discusses the meaning while Max reads three of...
Silence Dogood Essay No. 8 - Freedom of Speech
In this essay, teen Ben Franklin addresses the importance of Freedom of Speech after his brother James is arrested by the authorities in New England for "Publishing too freely." While his brother is in jail, Ben the apprentice, who was not allo...
Silence Dogood Essay No. 7 - The Bad Poets Society
In this essay, in which Teen Ben Franklin trolls his brother James, Silence Dogood features a real poem (An Elegy upon the much Lamented Death of Mrs. Mehitable Kitel) and dryly praises it as "the most Extraordinary Piece that ev...
Silence Dogood Essay No. 6 - The Vice of Pride
Having moved from the countryside to Boston for the summer, Mrs. Dogood sets her sights on one of colonial society's most despised flaws: pride. Franklin crafts a sharp and funny meditation on vanity, describing how pride blinds people to their...
