In this episode, John discusses the John Adams administration and the most significant events and developments of the period in which he presided as the second President of the United States. John begins by going over the factors that led to further political polarization, as the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans grew further and further apart on the issues. John explains the importance of the growing political press in the United States during the 1790s and the increasing demand for a more participatory democracy from Americans all over the country.

John goes on to discuss the very serious conflict that emerged between France and the United States just as the Washington administration was ending and John Adams was taking office. John breaks down the reasons that the French and the U.S. became embroiled in the "Qasi-War", what that looked like compared to a more traditional sort of war and how it affected various parts of American society. John closes out the episode with an explanation of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the response to that legislation as represented in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and how the fighting between the U.S. and France came to an end in 1800.

In this episode, John discusses the circumstances surrounding the presidential election of 1796. John explains how the Democratic Republican Party and the Federalist Party had become more or less fully formed partisan organizations by the time the election was to take place and what the issues were that divided the two of them. John goes into detail about how each party viewed itself, its place in American Politics and each party’s vision for the future of the United States as the election approached.

John then goes on to discuss what actually happened in the presidential election of 1796 and how it was that John Adams ended up as the winner. John reviews the mechanism of the electoral college and how it functioned quite differently from today; he closes with a brief discussion of the rift between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton within the Federalist Party.

In this episode, John discusses the origins of the United States’ first political parties: the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party. John goes over the various factors that created enough political division to account for political parties coming into existence, despite the fact that this was not anticipated at the Constitutional Convention or during the ratification process. John breaks down the issues that created opposing constituencies for two political parties, including the interpretation of the constitution, Alexander Hamilton’s financial program and whether the United States should more closely align itself with Britain or with France in the early years of the new Republic.

John also covers the fundamentals of the Whiskey Rebellion and how it contributed to the political divisions that resulted in the two party system of late 18th century America. John explains what drove the rebels to take the actions they did and how the Washington Administration’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion instilled hope or fear about the new federal government depending on the perspective of those who observed events as they unfolded. Finally, John talks about the French Revolution and how it served to solidify the already-existing political divisions and make it easy for opposing forces to organize into Federalist and Democratic Republican camps.

In this episode, John dives into the details of westward expansion after the Revolutionary War and the ways that both the movement of the United States and white Americans west affected Native Americans. John begins with a brief recap of how Native Americans and European-descended white settlers had interacted prior to the Revolution and then explains how the Revolution affected the relationship between Native Americans and whites in some general and specific ways. John talks about the motivations for those on either side of the divide and how the existence of an independent United States, various state governments and white Americans eager for cheap land on the frontier created existential challenges for Native Americans east of the Mississippi River.

John then discusses the new approach of the George Washington Administration and the new Federal government under the U.S. Constitution, beginning in 1789. He explains what Washington and Henry Knox, his closest collaborator in Native American policy early on, were thinking and trying to achieve as they took power. Finally, John discusses why Washington’s policies failed to work out as he’d hoped and how the administration and Congress then chose to approach westward expansion and Native Americans in the 1790s.

In this episode, John gets into the first ever United States Congress and the beginnings of the first Washington Administration as they begin to govern under the recently ratified Constitution. John discusses the realization of the founding fathers that they will not be able to govern as they had envisioned and, instead, will have to embrace a governing system of democratic advocacy. John talks about how the Congress set up the basic structures for both the Executive and the Judicial branches as well as determining some of the ways in which the legislature would work with the new President.

Also in this episode, John explains the ideas and role of Alexander Hamilton in the Washington administration. John goes through the basics of the Hamiltonian economic program and why it was that, as Secretary of the Treasury Department, Hamilton chose to pursue the policies that he did. Finally, John explains the constitutional implications of Hamilton's policies and how those policies, like creating the Bank of the United States, portended the creation of the first political parties in U.S. History.

In this episode, John sets up the circumstances the Washington Administration and the first Congress inherited as it formed the new national government under the Constitution. John talks about the expanding democratic rights Americans during and after the Revolution and how this dynamic affected the evolution of American government at the local, state and national levels in the 1770s, 80s and 90s. John also discusses the demands that newly empowered citizens were making of the their governments and how these demands made the governing and economic elite nervous, which resulted in the “conservative backlash” of the Constitution.

Finally, John explains the major challenges facing the United States as the new government under the Constitution takes over. He discusses the threats from foreign powers, the conflict emerging between Native Americans all over the new country and European-descended settlers increasingly encroaching upon their ancestral lands and the difficulties of operating without governmental precedents in a new federal system.

In this episode, John discusses the religious beliefs of some of the most prominent and impactful of the founding fathers. John begins by briefly reviewing over the broad strokes of the religious history of the British North American colonies from the early 1600s to 1770, discussing the religious diversity of the colonies, the most common denominations and the Great Awakening. John then explains the fundamentals of one of the most important belief systems embraced by a number of the founding fathers he covers later in the episode: Deism.

John spends a few minutes on the religious beliefs of each of the following American leaders: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot and John Jay. He separates the men into two basic groups, the Deists and the Orthodox Christians and compares and contrasts their beliefs and how those beliefs impacted the structure of American government. John closes by giving his conclusions based on what he has learned by putting together this podcast.

In this episode, John finishes his discussion of the Constitutional Convention and the ratification of the document that created the current United States government. John briefly recaps the major accomplishments of the first two months of the Constitutional Convention and then discusses the Committee on Postponed Parts and how it proposed to resolve some of the major debates still taking place among the delegates. John profiles the presidency, as envisioned by the delegates, and explains what it was about the office, its powers and the concerns for how the person who filled the position would be selected that made the convention agree to the Electoral College.

Finally, John covers in some detail the process of ratification in the 13 states. He explains the motivations and perspectives of the various groups that influenced the process of ratifying the Constitution, how the process differed in each of the 13 states and which states had the most difficult time getting their conventions to approve the Constitution. John also briefly touches on the Federalist Papers and why they are so important to our understanding and interpretation of the Constitution.