Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History has an identity. Two weeks ago, I submitted a design brief to 99designs.com for podcast cover art.

Over the course of a week, graphic artists submitted designs they thought would fit the bill.

I received several worthy designs.

Unable to make up my mind, I polled the Uncommonplace Book Community subscribers, my Twitter followers, and Google+ friends. Over 35 people voted and this design emerged as the clear winner.

Thank you to all who voted. You submitted useful feedback and led me to choose a design that I am very happy with.

Work Still To Do

I still have a lot of work to accomplish before I launch Ben Franklin’s World. I would like to release the first 3-5 episodes in October 2014.

Before I launch, I must complete 6 tasks:

1. Finalize the intro, outro, and show segment music and voice overs 2. Set-up the webpages that will host the show on my website 3. Contact potential interviewees 4. Interview historians 5. Select an audio engineer 6. Send my first episodes to be edited by my engineer

Ways to Get Involved

Would you like to get involved with the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast?

You can get involved in 2 ways.

First, you can sign-up for the Ben Franklin's World mailing list.

The Ben Franklin's World mailing list will keep you up-to-date with the latest news about the podcast. You will also be the first to know when I set the official launch date.

You can sign up using the form at the bottom of this post.

Second, you can suggest a guest.

Do you know of an historian who has an interesting early American history project to share?

I am interpreting “Ben Franklin’s World” broadly. The show will cover the period of Ben Franklin’s life (1706-1790), but it will also discuss the history that produced the “world” Franklin lived in and the “world” Franklin helped to create.

I plan to interview historians who work on projects that relate to the development of early American history between the 17th and early 19th centuries. Therefore, historians who study European, Atlantic, African, and South American history may have projects that would be appropriate for the show.

If you would like to suggest a guest, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

(Yes, you may suggest yourself.)