In 1771, Thomas Jefferson sent his friend Robert Skipwith a curated reading list. In this episode, Jeffrey Rosen, with the help of scholar Eric Slauter and Ken Burns, dives into Jefferson’s recommendations and the importance of deep daily reading.

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John and Abigail Adams formed a partnership fueled by intellectual curiosity, a desire to be the best versions of themselves and many, many letters. Jeffrey Rosen speaks with political historian Lindsay Chervinsky and Ken Burns on how John and Abigail supported each other through the birth of the United States.

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In his autobiography at the age of 79, Benjamin Franklin attributed the happiness of his long life to his “evenness of temper,” rather than to his public accomplishments. Jeffrey Rosen speaks with Franklin scholar Stacy Schiff about why he put temperance first on his list of virtues. Then, Ken Burns shares what he takes away from Ben Franklin’s incomplete quest for moral perfection.

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The “pursuit of happiness” is one of the most famous phrases in American history, and when America’s founders wrote it in the Declaration of Independence, they intended it to mean happiness through lifelong learning and self-improvement.

To start our series, Jeffrey Rosen and scholar Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, trace how the meaning of pursuit of happiness has changed. Then, American filmmaker Ken Burns shares how — even as he has spent his “entire life trying to figure out the United States” — daily self-reflection has given him new perspectives on what the founders faced 250 years ago.

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Here’s something that you probably didn’t learn in school: America’s founders spent much of their time reading about how to be better people. And that lifelong quest for self-improvement––in order to be more virtuous citizens––was what they meant by “the pursuit of happiness.” They defined happiness as a quest for being good, not feeling good. However, the founders often failed to live up to this lofty goal, and many were honest about their shortcomings.

Each episode of Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness expands upon one of the classical virtues that inspired Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson––like temperance, humility, silence, and justice––through the founders’ own writings and through conversations with the historians who know them best. Plus, filmmaker Ken Burns joins host Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, to share their own founders-inspired self-improvement practices.

As we near the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, exploring the true meaning of the “pursuit of happiness” inspires us to reflect on the importance of lifelong learning and how we can change our own lives for the better.

Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness, is a 12-part series hosted by Jeffrey Rosen featuring Ken Burns and leading scholars. It explores how the founders understood personal growth and lifelong learning as essential to the common good, why those ideas matter today, and how you can put them into practice.

Listen to the first episode, “In Order to Be Happy," in your favorite podcast app. New episodes will be released every Tuesday.

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• Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org
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