Episode 2: Kate Carté, Brian Franklin, and Ronald Johnson

Season Six, Episode 2, Civics in the Classroom: Kate Carté, Brian Franklin, and Ronald Johnson
May 15, 2026

This is Civics in the Classroom, a podcast series from the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Civics in the Classroom is part of the A250 Summer Teacher Seminar, America's First Principles. This program to promote innovative K-12 instruction in U.S. history and civics was designed by the Center for Presidential History with support from the U.S. Department of Education and in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. In the first year of this three-year project, our workshops and lectures will focus on the causes and context of the movement for U.S. independence and the production and legacy of its most famous document, the Declaration of Independence.  

This episode features a conversation between Drs. Kate Carte, Brian Franklin, and Ron Johnson, all of whom will be giving lectures this June as part of our A250 Summer Teacher Seminar. Their lectures will look at specific sections of the Declaration of Independence, as well as some other primary documents from the period. They’ll hone in language and phrasing, and in doing so break down how it is that we have come to understand the Declaration today. In the meantime, stay tuned for more episodes of Civics in the Classroom and more conversations about the lessons that U.S. history holds for the present.  

The music for this series comes from the album K2 by Blue Dot Sessions under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.