Episodes

Introducing Worlds Turned Upside Down, a podcast about the history of the American Revolution. Coming fall 2023 from R2 Studios.

Season One of Worlds Turned Upside Down, "The Crisis," follows the stories of American colonists, Indigenous peoples, and Europeans as they grappled with the revolutionary consequences of Great Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)....

In the 1750s, tensions between the British, the French, and Indigenous peoples over control of the Ohio Country in North America lead to the outbreak of a global war with revolutionary consequences.  Featuring: Fred Anderson, Christian Ayne Crouch, Max Edelson, Patrick Griffin,...

Following the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in North America, the British and French begin mobilizing for war and appoint commanders-in-chief to lead the war effort, only to clash with colonists over how power, authority, and honor should be used...

Following three years of stinging defeats in the Seven Years' War, the British begin to turn the tide against the French in North America in no small measure because Indigenous peoples decided the war should end.  Featuring: Fred Anderson, Christian...

Great Britain's conquest of New France in North America and its victory in the Seven Years' War inspired British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic to look forward to a future they could see but through a glass darkly, as they struggled to make...

As the British began to assert control over North America in the wake of the Seven Years' War, the actions of British American settlers and the messages of a native prophet convinced some Indigenous peoples throughout the Ohio Country and beyond that...

Against the backdrop of Pontiac's War in North America, George III's ministers in London draw on lessons learned in colonial Nova Scotia to begin drafting a blueprint for transforming British America into an empire of order. Featuring: Fred Anderson,...

With a blueprint in place for transforming British America into an empire of order, George III's government begins sending an army of cartographers to map North America, while diplomats in the colonies open negotiations with native nations to draw a...

At the dawn of a new era after the Seven Years’ War, British officials envision commerce and colonies as the key to British independence and its rising glory, but trade in commodities and manufactured goods comes at an awful price.

In the 1760s, Jamaica and the islands of the British Caribbean were the crown jewels of Britain's American Empire. And as King George III's ministers searched for solutions to a vexing imperial puzzle and moved to a counter pernicious threat in the...

In the mid-1760s, British fears that a new war with France was only a matter of time leads King George III and his ministers to draw up plans for a permanent army in North America, and a Stamp Tax on the colonies to pay for it, sparking massive...

With the Stamp Act defeated, the Sons of Liberty in New York City celebrate by raising a Liberty Pole in tribute to George III, William Pitt, and Liberty, provoking a violent confrontation with British soldiers quartered in the city's barracks.

In the wake of the Stamp Act Crisis, the British chart a new course for empire in North America by imposing taxes on paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea, pitting British Americans against Parliament…and each other.

In response to rioting and protests over the Townshend Acts, the British deploy four regiments to Boston, leading to a deadly shooting on March 5, 1770, a massacre that wounds a family.

Months after the Boston Massacre, British Americans calling themselves "Regulators" launch a rebellion in western North Carolina that threatens to engulf the colony in revolution and civil war.

The detainment of a West African-born enslaved Virginian named James Somerset in London leads to a court case decided by England's most powerful judge that challenges the foundations of slavery in the British Empire.

British Americans' unquenchable thirst for tea and a looming financial disaster for the East India Company leads to a new crisis in North America when seven tea-laden ships are sent to the colonies in 1773.

In the wake of the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passes a series of coercive and intolerable acts to punish the tea destroyers and bring order to British America. Featuring: Benjamin Carp, James Fichter, and Mary Beth Norton. Voice Actors: Kristin Jacobsen, Gillian MacDonald, Amber Pelham, Adam Smith, Anne Fertig, Issac Loftus, Patrick Long, and Jordan Slome. Narrated by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Music by Artlist.io This episode was made possible with support from a 2024 grant from the Nationa...

Fourteen years after British forces conquered New France during the Seven Years’ War, Parliament’s passage of the Quebec Act in 1774 resurrects old fears of French Catholic tyranny in Protestant British America. Featuring: Katherine Carté, Christian Ayne Crouch, Brad Jones, and Jeffers Lennox. Voice Actors: Jan Hoffmann, Craig Gallagher, Emmanuel Dubois, Grace Mallon, Bertrand van Ruymbeke, Adam Smith, Anne Fertig, Annabelle Spencer, and Patrick Long. Narrated by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Mus...

With British authority collapsing in North America, Britons on both sides of the Atlantic including Benjamin Franklin, Caroline Howe, and Lord Dartmouth engage in desperate and secret negotiations to avoid all the horrors of civil war.

With tensions mounting in British America over Parliament’s Coercive Acts, colonists begin losing faith in King George III, while British soldiers march out of Boston to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington and Concord. Featuring: Rick Atkinson, Fred Anderson, Wendy Bellion, Katherine Carté, Frank Cogliano, Brad Jones, and Andrew O’Shaughnessy. Voice Actors: Anne Fertig, Adam Smith, Evan McCormick, John Turner, John Winters, Grace Mallon, Peter Walker, Craig Gallager, Spencer McBride, an...

The long-simmering rivalry between Virginians and Pennsylvanians for control of the Ohio Country leads to the 1774 massacre of Soyechtowa James Logan’s family at Yellow Creek along the banks of the Ohio River, igniting a war for revenge with tragic results. Featuring: Robert Parkinson and Christopher Pearl. Voice Actors: Adam Smith, John Terry, Anne Fertig, and Evan McCormick. Narrated by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Music by Artlist.io This episode was made possible with support from a 2024 gra...

Hours after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, rebel British Americans begin laying siege to Boston, trapping thousands of civilians and soldiers in town for months with dwindling supplies, compelling the British to make a costly assault on nearby Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill. Featuring: Rick Atkinson, Lindsay Chervinsky, Brad Jones, and Rosemarie Zagarri. Voice Actors: Adam Smith, Grace Mallon, John Turner, Annabelle Spencer, Evan McCormick, John Terry, Spencer McBride, and Peter Walke...