This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Clay Jenkinson visits with Pat Brodowski, formerly the head gardener at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Pat explains how she found her way to Monticello, what she learned about Thomas Jefferson from working every day in his extensive garden, and how she is occupying her time now as a retiree. Plus, Pat gives tips to our listeners about how to grow something in the next year.
Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss Jefferson's daughters. Thomas Jefferson was highly expectant of their behavior and let them know it through a series of letters. When he died in bankruptcy, his daughter Martha was left nearly penniless and had to deal with the aftermath of Jefferson's poor money management.
Clay Jenkinson speaks with David Swenson about the ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore and her work with the Lakota in the Dakotas beginning in 1911. David has spent the last year working on The Densmore Repatriation Project, re-cataloging and restoring her wax cylinder recordings.
At Standing Rock in 1911, Frances Densmore met with dozens of tribal elders and recorded traditional songs on wax cylinder. Densmore documented this work in her book Teton Sioux Music which became a touchstone for learning about Lakota/Dakota culture. The Densmore Repatriation Project reintroduces the songs with new recordings made by contemporary Native singers.
The Densmore Project’s website: lakotasongs.com
The Densmore Project on YouTube
KX News: Re-introducing Lakota Songs
Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss King George III and his effect on the American Revolution. According to the British historian George Otto Trevelyan, the King was determined to "keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse."
My pessimism and fear come from the fact that nobody in the Republican Party condemned President Trump’s actions. No Republican said that Mr. Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of his chief political rival in the 2020 election was wrong, a violation of public trust, an offense against fair play, and an assault on our system of elections.
We are joined this week by one of our favorite guests, Professor Joseph Ellis. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and American historian whose work focuses primarily on the times of the American founders. Highly recommended are his books, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won a National Book Award and Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History. This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Professor Ellis offers his unique perspective on the volatile times we are living through.
What do you do when Republicans refuse to take seriously what they would find absolutely appalling and outrageous, criminal and treasonous, disgusting and constitution-threatening if it were done by a liberal Democrat? We all know that if the situation were reversed and Barack Obama had reached out to Pakistan to demand that they pretend to investigate Jeb Bush or Donald Trump that the Republicans would be having what we used to call a conniption fit, and we’d be in a constitutional crisis at least as severe as this one.
Here’s why I love what I get to do. The national impeachment crisis over the presidential behavior of Donald Trump has turned us all back to our history books. I have, but have not yet read, several of the recently published books on impeachment, one with chapters by Peter Baker of the New York Times and Jon Meacham, America’s latest favorite presidential historian.
We speak with President Thomas Jefferson about the impeachments that took place during his presidency. There were two impeachments of federal judges, Thomas Pickering and Samuel Chase. In the out-of-character segment, Jenkinson shares the story of Aaron Burr, who had recently killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, presiding over the trial of Chase.
"I take absolutely no joy in any of this. This is a national catastrophe, a tragedy." — Clay S. Jenkinson
On December 4, 2019, four constitutional scholars gathered to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in public hearings. This week in an out of character program we listen to selected portions of that testimony. Clay Jenkinson responds and provides his unique insight.
The words constitutional crisis are thrown about too often, but I must tell you we are in one now. The Trump White House has said it will not comply with the House of Representatives impeachment investigation. What if the Senate removes the last guardrail—legal eviction—and the President realizes that there is no further check on his behavior?
"I am a loyal, proud, cheerleading sort of North Dakotan."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
A listener in Texas admonishes Clay for offering to give up a North Dakota senate seat, and we take questions about the Fourteenth Amendment. Our constitutional discussions continue by reading additional correspondence from listeners.
