Big Take Weekend Listen: Ken Burns Says Gratitude Is the Missing Ingredient in Our Politics
26 snips
Nov 30, 2025 
Ken Burns, a legendary documentary filmmaker known for his captivating storytelling, discusses his latest PBS series on the American Revolution. He delves into the complexity of the era, emphasizing its global significance and the duality of its ideals versus realities, particularly regarding slavery. Burns shares personal reflections on loss that shaped his career, and the challenges of public broadcasting. He advocates for gratitude in politics, asserting it as a crucial element needed for today's divided society.
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Revolution's Global Complexity
- The American Revolution is far more complex and global than the simple Boston-versus-London story.
- Ken Burns says embracing complexity yields richer, more truthful narratives than binary simplifications.
Iroquois Union As A Model
- Native American confederacies influenced early American ideas of union and government.
- Benjamin Franklin explicitly looked to the Haudenosaunee as a model for colonial unity.
Liberty's Far‑Reaching Consequences
- Revolutionary rhetoric about liberty had broad, evolving implications beyond elite men.
- Burns argues those words seeded global anti-colonial movements and centuries of change.
