The Spectral Summit

Creative Actors Lab

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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!

Jul 27

Silence Dogood Essay 10 - Insuring a Widow's Future

Send us Fan Mail In her tenth letter to the New England Courant, Silence Dogood turns her sharp eye to a problem colonial society preferred not to discuss: what happens to a woman when her husband dies and takes the family's security with him. Her proposal — a fund women could pay into during marriage, to protect against poverty in widowhood — was a strikingly modern idea for 1722. What her readers didn't know was that "Silence" wasn't a widow at all, but the pen name of sixteen-year-old apprentice Benjamin Franklin. Join us as we explore this early glimpse of financial foresight, hidden identity, and a teenage boy's surprisingly progressive take on women's economic security. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Jun 29

Silence Dogood - Essay No. 9 - Religious Hypocrites

Send us Fan Mail Benjamin Franklin published fourteen Silence Dogood essays in the New-England Courant in 1722, slipping them under the print shop door so his brother James wouldn't know who wrote them. It's the first case of a founding father not only trolling his brother but also catfishing when James developed an affection for Silence. By Essay Nine, Silence had found her footing — and her targets. This one aims at a particular Boston type: the man who wraps himself in religion just long enough to get elected, then sets it aside like a Sunday coat. Franklin was sixteen years old when he wrote it, and he already understood that the loudest piety in the room is often the least trustworthy. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Jun 1

Episode 10 - Dorothy Parker - The Telephone Call

Send us Fan Mail 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 interior monologues — strips away the wit entirely, leaving a woman in agony over a phone that won't ring. It's Parker at her most unguarded: funny and excruciating at the same time, a masterclass in the way we negotiate with ourselves when we're powerless, so yeah, we’ve all been there. So sit back and enjoy the universal Truth of The Telephone Call. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
May 4

Episode 9 - The Literary Summit - Tell Tale Poe

Send us Fan Mail 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 Poe's classics. In these pieces, Poe invites us to travel through the darker corners of the human mind. The Raven captures the torment of grief and obsession, as a mysterious bird becomes the voice of loss that cannot be silenced. The Tell-Tale Heart plunges into the mind of a narrator who insists on his sanity even as guilt drives him toward confession. Annabel Lee mourns a love so pure and powerful that even death cannot destroy it. Together, these works reveal Poe’s fascination with love and loss, beauty and death, sanity and madness. He believed that great art could emerge from sorrow — that beauty and melancholy are inseparable. Through his rhythmic language, vivid imagery, and hypnotic repetition, Poe created stories and poems that feel both musical and psychological, blending emotion and intellect in ways that still unsettle readers today. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Apr 27

Silence Dogood Essay No. 8 - Freedom of Speech

Send us Fan Mail 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 allowed to publish under his own name, uses his outrage as Silence Dogood to reference an article in the London Journal that addresses what would become our First Amendment. It's a bold essay from a London publication that calls out suppressing a person's right to express freely in 1722. At the end of the essay, we offer some thought-provoking questions about the freedom of expression. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Apr 20

Silence Dogood Essay No. 7 - The Bad Poets Society

Send us Fan Mail 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 ever was written in New-England." Ben Franklin then famously includes a satirical recipe for writing a terrible colonial elegy. He instructs readers to take a person's virtues, mix in a handful of melancholy words (like dreadful or cruel cold death), and "put them into the empty Scull of some young Harvard student to finish the job. It's another example of young Ben's satiric wit. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Apr 13

Silence Dogood Essay No. 6 - The Vice of Pride

Send us Fan Mail 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 own faults while making them hyper-critical of others. You have to wonder what Silence would think of today's influencer culture. While teen Ben Franklin wrote these essays to troll his brother James, who wouldn't publish his writing in his newspaper, but would publish the musings of a middle-aged widow, it's amazing how relevant these essays are today. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.
Apr 6

Silence Dogood Essay No. 5 — Pride and Idleness

Send us Fan Mail In this installment, Teen Ben Franklin uses Silence to push back against a male critic - in today's world, we might call him part of the manosphere- when he suggests that she should criticize women for being lazy before turning her ire to men. Silence turns the tables and shows that men are just as guilty of pride and idleness and are often the cause of a woman's faults. It's a pretty forward-thinking essay written by a 16-year-old in 1722 with a very modern point of view. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com. We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive. This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.

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!

Creator

Creative Actors Lab
Years Active

2026
Episodes

13
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 The Spectral Summit
Show Website

The Spectral Summit