James Madison: Small Man, Massive Constitution (w/ special guest Greg Jackson)

Five-foot-four, barely a hundred pounds, and armed with enough intellectual firepower to reshape a nation, James Madison brought a pen to a political knife fight... and made it everybody else’s problem. For Constitution Day, Ben welcomes back Dr. Greg Jackson of History That Doesn’t Suck to meet the unlikely heavyweight who helped write America’s rulebook, and then fought like hell over how to use it. From the pressure cooker of the Constitutional Convention to vicious newspaper wars, a spectacular falling-out with Alexander Hamilton, and a presidency that included the British setting his damn house on fire, Madison’s career was anything but a quiet life behind a desk. Madison helped design the Constitution, fought to get it ratified, championed the Bill of Rights, and plunged into the partisan battles that would test the government he helped create. Drawing on Greg’s book, Been There, Done That: How Our History Shows What We Can Overcome, Ben and Greg explore the political grudges, constitutional showdowns, and sheer stubbornness behind the American experiment. Turns out, arguing over the Constitution is a tradition as old as the Constitution itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices