Join Clay for Shakespeare without Tears at Lochsa Lodge, January 19-24. You will be amazed by the joy, laughter, and literary satisfaction you will experience in this humanities retreat.
Interview with Dan Flores
Interview with Dan Flores, author of The Natural West and American Serengeti, by Clay S. Jenkinson for We Proceeded On.
#1314 Our Friend Beau
"Whatever your politics are, to think that the country is being taken seriously by young men and women who want us to be a Jeffersonian republic is just such a gratifying thing to me."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
We greet a special visitor, our friend Beau Wright. Beau traveled from Lynchburg, Virginia to join us at the studio for a fruitful and interesting conversation about American ideals.
Thanksgiving
#1313 Gratitude and Thanks
We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving from the Thomas Jefferson Hour. This week, we speak to four friends including Lisa Suhay, who tells us about her new book America the Grateful; Pat Brodowski, the head gardener at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; luthier Kevin Muiderman, who gives us an update on the ukulele he is building for Clay; and Nashville-based songwriter Brad Crisler, who tells us about his plans for Thanksgiving in Alabama.
Divided Government
#1312 Elections Matter
“You have a population of 330 million. This is a way that the whole system is designed to distill their will.” — Clay S. Jenkinson
The results of the 2018 midterm elections are what we try to sort out this week: what it means, what it implies, and how it fits into Jefferson's view of the United States.
The Midterm Election of 2018
Jamal Khashoggi
#1311 Jefferson's Views
"This is a French school of economics and social thinking that I subscribed to, at least in part, that says that wealth comes from the soil"
— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson
President Jefferson answers listener questions about Jefferson as a guide for our troubled times, Jefferson’s views on slavery, and his thoughts on J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur's Letters from an American Farmer, published in 1782.
Voting
#1310 Valley Forge with Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
#1309 Water for a Dry Land with Char Miller
"Our technology that has unleashed such creativity has also unleashed the capacity for us to destroy the very things that we were creating."
— Char Miller
Clay and David speak with Char Miller, one of the three authors of the 3rd edition of Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land. Char Miller is Director of Environmental Analysis, and W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College.
Water
Book Club: Valley Forge on 10/30
On October 30th, we're going to have Bob Drury and Tom Clavin on the show. They're the authors of a new book, Valley Forge, which will be our next book club selection.
Ancient Rome's Influence
#1308 American Dialogue with Joseph Ellis
"Indeed, if I read the founders right, their greatest legacy is the recognition that argument itself is the answer."
— Joseph J. Ellis
We welcome back Professor Joseph Ellis — the eminent historian, author and friend of the Jefferson Hour — to speak about his new book, American Dialogue: The Founders and Us, which is out now.
No historian of the early national period of American life has done more than Joseph Ellis to give us a sense of what it was like then: what were the challenges, what were the opportunities, the different types of personalities that went into the mix. It was not a monolith. Ellis is maybe the most spirited prose stylist of all of the historians of that period, and he's interested in four of our national figures from that era, particularly Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and the first president of the United States, George Washington. Ellis uses the founders as a springboard to wrestle with eternal problems of American life.
#1307 Live in Pittsburg, KS
"You think I'm joking, but I wanted a square America."
— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson goes on the road this week to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. The performance was taped live at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts on September 15, 2018 in front of an audience of over 500 people. The event was hosted by Dustin Treiber, the program director of Four States Public Radio station KRPS.
The subject of this episode was the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson, to begin the conversation, pointed out to the citizens of Kansas that he bought the state for three cents per acre from Napoleon Bonaparte.