The Thomas Jefferson Hour

#1324 Lochsa

Clay Jenkinson returns from his cultural retreat held at Lochsa Lodge in Idaho last week and reports in on this year's meetings.

#1322 Roosevelt and Jefferson

Prompted by a listener request, and recognizing the 100th anniversary Theodore Roosevelt’s death, this week Clay Jenkinson discusses the differences, and a few similarities, between Roosevelt and Jefferson.

#1321 January First

January 1st was an important day to Thomas Jefferson for many reasons. This week, we speak with President Jefferson about notable New Year's Day occurrences during his life.

#1319 Looking Back

We look back at 2018 and wish everyone a happy New Year. This episode is our chance to revisit all of the great conversations we've had about Jefferson in 2018.

Edmond-Charles Genêt

"We couldn't allow a French national to be here, stirring up anti-administration feeling in this country, or fitting out privateers in our wars." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Liberal Education

"You can have all the information in the world, but it doesn't mean anything unless you have a mental matrix with which to absorb it, evaluate it, analyze it, begin to synthesize it. That's why we go to college." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

#1315 James Madison (Part One)

President Thomas Jefferson speaks about his good friend and adviser James Madison.

#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.

#1312 Elections Matter

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.

#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.

#1310 Valley Forge with Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

Valley Forge was the darkest moment of the revolutionary war. Twelve thousand American troops were stationed at a place 23 miles northwest of Philadelphia. If there could be suffering, they felt it at Valley Forge — nearly starving, mutiny, disease, internecine struggles, you name it. Of all of the people who have a role in this great story, Thomas Jefferson is not one of them, and for that reason, all of those present never quite felt that Jefferson was fully one of the band of brothers.

#1309 Water for a Dry Land with Char Miller

Drop Jefferson into western Kansas or Oklahoma. What does he say about the Ogallala miracle? The Ogallala aquifer is a huge underground water resource which stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas — an underground lake the size of Lake Huron that most people have never heard of.

#1308 American Dialogue with Joseph 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.

#1307 Live in Pittsburg, KS

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.

#1305 Wine and Welshmen

"We should always listen to science. Science is not political. Science is rational." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson President Thomas Jefferson answers listener questions this week, including inquiries about Jefferson and wine, Welsh “Indians” in the Dakotas, repairing friendships, and the idea that “the rain followed the plow” during Jefferson’s time.

Other Explorations of the West

"Down in the southwest, two expeditions occurred during my presidency." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Honoring John McCain

"A statesman is one who always asks what is best for this country." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

How to Handle Partisan Division

"I believe that each faction, each party, has a moral duty to reach over to the other and to try to find common ground, and that each party should take the lead in being civil and respectful and generous." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Civil Discourse

"I think the American people are overwhelmingly good and decent." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Enemy of the People

"Whatever's wrong with the press, we must defend it, because the alternative is tyranny." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

Traveling West

"I would have been able to produce an account of that tour — and I mean no self-aggrandizement in saying this, but just from the sheer discipline of writing every day at great length — would have been one of the classics of the literature of exploration." — Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson

#1297 While You Were Away

"Voltaire at the end of Candide says, just go home and cultivate your garden." — Clay S. Jenkinson This week, we catch up on our mail bag and also speak with a couple of Thomas Jefferson Hour listeners.

#1296 Mil

"When you die, your legacy is the effect you've had on people, and boy did my mother have an effect on people." — Clay S. Jenkinson Clay Jenkinson speaks this week about the death of his mother, Mil, and discusses Jefferson’s thoughts and correspondence about death.

#1295 Too Né

"Too Né's data wound up in the journals and all of it is on the map, and the map deepens the journals, and the journals deepen the map." — Clay S. Jenkinson This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, we feature an extended conversation about the recently discovered map from the Lewis and Clark Expedition drawn by an Indigenous guide named Too Né.

#1294 Judicial Responsibility

"You want people who are moderates, who are not passionate zealots in any particular direction." — Thomas Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson Thomas Jefferson shares his thoughts about the workings of the Supreme Court, allows his personal irritations with the court to show, and explains how he feels the court has drifted from its rightful place in America today.