Topic: The Declaration: How It Was Written and Led to Independence
When: Tuesday 1/6/2026 at 2:00 pm ET
Join us on Tuesday, January 6, 2pm eastern for our 2026 kickoff podcast as we celebrate the beginning our nation’s 250th birthday year!
In this episode, we will take you behind closed doors to explore the events that led to the drafting and ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress. We’ll learn about the Committee of Five—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston—and guide viewers through the 86 edits made to the Declaration before its adoption on July 4.
This is an episode you won’t want to miss, as we enter our nation’s Semiquincentennial year!
Constitutional Chats are hosted by Janine Turner, Cathy Gillespie, student ambassadors, and experts who join us weekly to discuss hot-topic issues! The audience is not on camera, but you may ask questions!
Meet the Guest
Michael Auslin
Formerly a professor of history at Yale, Michael Auslin is the inaugural Payson J. Treat
Distinguished Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
His latest book is the forthcoming National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence
Made America. The first complete history of America’s founding document, 1776 to the present,
National Treasure is a gripping narrative of how the Declaration survived to inspire each
generation. Timed for the 250 th anniversary of American Independence, National Treasure will
be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2026.
A proud Midwesterner from Chicago, he long focused on America’s engagement with the world,
studying Russian at the end of the Cold War (where he got his nickname of “Misha”) before
becoming a leading historian of Asia. His 2017 book The End of the Asian Century was the first
serious book to forecast the crises now roiling the Indo-Pacific region, while his columns on Asia
for the Wall Street Journal reached millions. Over the years he has published in the world’s
leading publications, including The Atlantic, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy,
The Spectator, The Washington Post, and many others. In recent years he has “returned home”
to focus on American history and in 2024 began the The Patowmack Packet, a Substack on the
past and present of America’s imperial capital, Washington, D.C.
Misha has been widely honored for his work. In 2025, he was named a Distinguished Visiting
Scholar at the Library of Congress’ Kluge Center, and he is the American Heritage Partners
Fellow at the Society of the Cincinnati’s American Revolution Institute. The Royal Historical
Society elected him a full fellow in 2018, and he was named a Fulbright Scholar, a Young Global
Leader of the World Economic Forum, and a German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial Fellow,
among other honors.
A natural communicator, Misha has spoken to hundreds of civic, business, and educational
groups around the world, in addition to having numerous appearances on radio and television in
America and abroad. He was proud to learn a few years back that his books were banned in
Chinese prisons.