S9E2 (Ep 99) William Wilberforce: The 20-Year Fight To End The British Slave Trade

He spent 20 years getting laughed out of Parliament before he finally won. Three days after the law he'd fought for his whole life passed, he died. This week we take on William Wilberforce.For our second-ever joint episode, Caleb and Christina team up on one of history's most quietly important figures. We start with his early life: the wealthy son of a Yorkshire merchant, the reluctant politician, and the religious conversion in his twenties that gave him a moral mission he couldn't put down. From there we walk through the two decades he spent introducing anti-slave-trade bills over and over again, getting shot down by his own government, being publicly ridiculed, and refusing to stop.We cover the coalition he built (Quakers, freed enslaved Africans, everyday citizens signing petitions in numbers no one had ever seen), the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, and the final push that led to the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. The bill passed on July 26th. Wilberforce died three days later, on the 29th.Then we get to the part that matters most: what Wilberforce actually tells us about how change happens. It rarely comes from a single dramatic moment. It usually comes from someone quiet, stubborn, and unreasonable enough to keep showing up when everyone else has moved on.Two hosts. One of history's best. A conversation about what it actually takes to change the world.