Full episode
246: My Pen Pal

Prologue

Ira talks to historian Ted Widmer about two of the first pen pals in the New World. John Winthrop and Roger Williams were both Puritans in Massachusetts in the 1630s. Then Roger Williams was banished for suggesting the revolutionary idea that there should be separation between church and state. John Winthrop was the Governor of Massachusetts, which exiled him. But the two men somehow stayed friends, writing letters long after Williams was sent away. (6 minutes)