Nina Sankovitch with Jennifer Finney Boylan: Not Your Founding Father

In this episode of Library Talks , historian Nina Sankovitch discusses her new book Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America's Most Radical Revolutionary. In 1776 a 23-year-old woman named Jemima Wilkinson suffered a severe illness, declared her past self dead, and then rebranded as the Public Universal Friend, a genderless messenger of God. In a few short years the Friend preached across the Northeast and attracted a devoted band of followers known as the Society of Universal Friends.

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Nina Sankovitch with Jennifer Finney Boylan: Not Your Founding Father is an episode from The New York Public Library Podcast by The New York Public Library.

This episode is 55:24 long.

This episode was published on Mar 4, 2026.

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