Listening to America

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 , recataloging and restoring her wax cylinder recordings. Subscribe to The Densmore Repatriation Project on YouTube to hear the songs and interviews. At Standing Rock in 1911,...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Clay will be performing as Theodore Roosevelt in Downers Grove, IL on October 22nd. Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retrea...

Clay Jenkinson speaks with Beau Breslin, author of A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation's Fundamental Law . The book examines an idea that Jefferson shared with James Madison in 1789: "What would America's Constitutions have looked like if each generation wrote its own?" Books mentioned on this episode . Subscribe to the  Thomas Jeffer...

Clay Jenkinson and David Nicandri discuss the Enlightenment and Jefferson's many inconsistencies. Nicandri is the author of  River of Promise: Lewis and Clark on the Columbia  and  Captain Cook Rediscovered: Voyaging to the Icy Latitudes . Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can lea...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss the Bill of Rights. Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jeffersonhour.com/tours . Check out our  merch .  You can find Clay's books  on our website , along with a list of hi...

Clay Jenkinson welcomes back David Nicandri for a discussion about Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, the explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. They also talk about Thomas Jefferson's influence on exploration. Nicandri is the author of River of Promise: Lewis and Clark on the Columbia and Captain Cook Rediscovered: Voyaging to the Icy Latitudes . Books mentioned on this episode ....

Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky respond questions from a listener about the paradoxes and inconsistencies of Thomas Jefferson's life, including his ownership of enslaved people. Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jef...

In June, Clay Jenkinson was invited to give an endowed lecture on the humanities at the Library Company of Philadelphia, America's first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution. It was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. We discuss that lecture and Alexander von Humboldt, as well as the amazing artifacts Clay saw while in Philadelphia. Mentioned on this episode . Subscribe to...

Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss current events including recent Supreme Court decisions and the Second Amendment. Mentioned on this episode . Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jeffersonhour.com/tours . Check...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson present ten things about the Supreme Court. Mentioned on this episode . Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jeffersonhour.com/tours . Check out our  merch .  You can find Clay's boo...

We are joined this week by three friends and contributors to The Thomas Jefferson Hour: Brad Crisler, Lindsay Chervinsky and Joseph Ellis for a rousing conversation about Independence Day. Mentioned on this episode . Subscribe to the  Thomas Jefferson Hour on YouTube . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cu...

Recently the Thomas Jefferson Hour was contacted by long term listener Vince DiPiazza, the city manager of Uvalde, Texas. Vince wrote, "My community is broken, and we have to figure out now how to come together, pick up the pieces, and try to make some good come out of this terrible event." Clay Jenkinson invited Vince to join us in conversation and speak about the character of the community of Uv...

Clay Jenkinson and Joe Ellis discuss the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement that happened between 1680 and 1840 that believed in rationality, science, the rights of man and the possibility that humans could govern themselves. Joseph Ellis says that the very basis of the Enlightenment was truth and truth seeking. Mentioned on this episode : PBS: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History , PB...

David Swenson speaks with President Jefferson about the cost of the American Revolutionary War, the aid France provided to America, and Jefferson's position on aiding other nations in their struggles for freedom and liberty. Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and...

In the second of two shows devoted to Theodore Roosevelt, Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky discuss Roosevelt's accomplishments and his shortcomings, including his collection of White House pets, his children, and how much the press enjoyed covering his presidency. Mentioned on this episode : The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History by Lindsay M. Chervinsky for The Great Course...

Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky discuss Theodore Roosevelt's accomplishments and his shortcomings, including his great contributions to conservation and government reforms as well as the fact that he was considered a jingoist, an imperialist and at times a eugenicist and racist. Mentioned on this episode :  The Roosevelt Country Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to...

David speaks with President Jefferson about the "original argument" between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton concerning whether or not the United States should have a national bank. Jefferson felt this was in a sense unconstitutional and Hamilton believed we needed a flexible constitution. This program originally aired in June of 2017. Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss John Jay, the American statesman, patriot, diplomat, Founding Father, abolitionist, and signatory of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Jay was a proponent of strong, centralized government, which at times put him at odds with Thomas Jefferson. Jay worked to ratify the United States Constitution in New York in 1788 and was a co-author of The Federalist P...

David Swenson speaks with President Jefferson about Plato's Republic and American democracy. This program originally aired in 2016.   Clay will be performing live as Thomas Jefferson on May 14th in Newport News, Virginia at the Ferguson Center for the Arts . Mentioned on this episode : "Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic" by Andrew Sullivan Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or...

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." Mentioned on this episode : "...

David Swenson speaks with President Jefferson about the American character, both as citizens and as a nation. This program originally aired in May of 2017. Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jeffersonhour.com/tours . Check out our  merch . You can...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father who signed the Declaration of Independence. Rush was the force behind the reconciliation correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams which began in 1812. Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about...

Clay Jenkinson welcomes Yale Professor of History Joanne Freeman for a one on one conversation about her new book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War . In the book, Freeman writes about the physical violence on the floor of the US Congress in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and a...

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Clay Jenkinson discuss Benjamin Franklin. When Franklin was asked what the U.S. Constitution would provide, he answered, "A republic, if you can keep it." Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining the  1776 Club  or by  donating  to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at  jeffersonhour.com/tours . Chec...

This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Clay Jenkinson welcomes the author Derek Baxter to discuss Baxter's recently published book, In Pursuit of Jefferson: Traveling through Europe with the Most Perplexing Founding Father . To write the book, Baxter spent eight years doing research and traveling to sites in Europe that Jefferson visited. Mentioned on this episode . Support the show by joining th...