If We Can Keep It with Aaron Evans Sat, 04 Jul 2026 15:17:50 -0400 https://www.ifwecankeepitpodcast.com en-us © 2026 If We Can Keep It with Aaron Evans yes 24a40918-4ac9-5f8e-82f2-a59c4b4f1f4f aaron@aaronevans.org Aaron Evans serial false In 1787, Ben Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention on the last day. A woman named Elizabeth Powel stopped him and asked what they'd built in there. He said, "A republic, if you can keep it." This commemorative podcast celebrates some of the most perilous steps along the 250 year journey in the creation of a new nation.


I'm Aaron Evans. I run a PR firm and a strategic comms consultancy, and I've spent my career watching people try to build things that outlast them - companies, campaigns, coalitions, movements. Almost every story I care about in American history comes down to the same question Franklin was answering on the courthouse steps: is this republic worth the work it takes to hold it together, and are we the generation that's going to do the work?


Each episode is one story. Short. Focused. No panel, no politics-of-the-week, no shouting. I take one moment - Valley Forge in the snow, three guys in a room writing the Federalist Papers under a pen name, a Jewish broker on Front Street bankrolling Washington's army, the first peaceful handoff of power in 1800, Lincoln in 1858, Eisenhower's farewell, the Watergate tapes, the contested elections of 2000 and 2020 - and I pull it apart. What actually happened. Who did the hard work. What it cost them. And what it means for the people who are trying to build and lead something today.


This isn't a history lecture. It's a working conversation for the people I know are listening: business owners writing paychecks, executives running teams, officeholders trying to serve, and citizens who still believe the American experiment is worth defending.


New episodes weekly. If it hits, share it with someone who's building something that matters.


A republic. If we can keep it.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) aaron evans, benjamin franklin, America, America's 250th, liberty, leadership, freedom Aaron Evans aaron@aaronevans.org https://storage.buzzsprout.com/3uo5qozfad772qrwnb4r7z0j62h0?.jpg If We Can Keep It with Aaron Evans https://www.ifwecankeepitpodcast.com Aaron Evans If We Can Keep It If We Can Keep It Send us Fan Mail

It's Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. Four months of arguing behind closed windows in the summer heat. Franklin is 81 years old, sick, being carried in and out of the State House on a chair. On the last day, they sign. He walks out. A woman named Elizabeth Powel stops him and asks, "Well, Doctor, what have we got - a republic or a monarchy?" He says, "A republic, if you can keep it."

In this first episode of If We Can Keep It, Aaron Evans walks through what really happened in that room, what Franklin was actually warning her about, and why that one sentence has outlasted almost every other line from the Founding.

Also in this episode:

  • Why Franklin's "rising sun" chair moment on the last day matters
  • What Elizabeth Powel was really asking (she wasn't a random bystander)
  • The three specific things Franklin thought would make or break the republic
  • What owners, executives, and officeholders can pull out of it for the work they're doing right now

New episodes weekly. Subscribe or follow so you don't miss Episode 2 - Valley Forge, and the eight thousand men who stood in the snow.

A republic. If we can keep it.

]]> Send us Fan Mail

It's Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. Four months of arguing behind closed windows in the summer heat. Franklin is 81 years old, sick, being carried in and out of the State House on a chair. On the last day, they sign. He walks out. A woman named Elizabeth Powel stops him and asks, "Well, Doctor, what have we got - a republic or a monarchy?" He says, "A republic, if you can keep it."

In this first episode of If We Can Keep It, Aaron Evans walks through what really happened in that room, what Franklin was actually warning her about, and why that one sentence has outlasted almost every other line from the Founding.

Also in this episode:

  • Why Franklin's "rising sun" chair moment on the last day matters
  • What Elizabeth Powel was really asking (she wasn't a random bystander)
  • The three specific things Franklin thought would make or break the republic
  • What owners, executives, and officeholders can pull out of it for the work they're doing right now

New episodes weekly. Subscribe or follow so you don't miss Episode 2 - Valley Forge, and the eight thousand men who stood in the snow.

A republic. If we can keep it.

]]> Aaron Evans Buzzsprout-19444721 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 15:00:00 -0400 1109 1 1 full false