Profound Conversation invites thought leaders to explore the enduring and contested idea of the “American experiment.” Rooted in Enlightenment principles and launched in 1776, this experiment was never merely about forming a government; it was about testing whether diverse peoples could build and sustain a society on the radical premise that all are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights.
Yet, from its inception, the experiment has been fraught with contradiction and doubt. Early observers, including Benjamin Franklin, acknowledged the fragility of this undertaking: “A republic, if you can keep it.” The American project has always been a wager on the capacity of ordinary people to govern themselves, and history has tested that wager—through slavery and the Civil War, through the civil rights struggle, through ongoing debates about equality, justice, and belonging.
This episode grapples with the question: Is the American experiment succeeding, failing, or still unfolding in ways we have yet to grasp?
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