
392 episodes

Listening to America with Clay Jenkinson Listening to America
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- Society & Culture
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4.6 • 977 Ratings
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The Thomas Jefferson Hour features conversations with Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, as portrayed by the award-winning humanities scholar and author, Clay Jenkinson. The weekly discussion features Mr. Jefferson’s views on events of his time, contemporary issues facing America and answers to questions submitted by his many listeners. To ask President Jefferson a question, visit our website at jeffersonhour.com
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#1549 Welcome to Listening to America
This week, Clay Jenkinson inaugurates the first episode of Listening to America with WHRV's Barbara Hamm Lee in the studios of WHRV in Norfolk, Virginia. How will Listening to America be different from the Thomas Jefferson Hour? Clay explains the mission of Listening to America--to go out and find the authentic voices of America as we approach the 250th birthday of the United States. In a nation as large and diverse as the US is it even possible to seek the Soul of America? The first of the Listening to America episodes was recorded in front of a live audience at WHRV.
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#1548 Ten Things about Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address
This week, Clay Jenkinson discusses Jefferson’s first inaugural address with regular guest Lindsay Chervinsky. The speech, inaudibly delivered on March 4, 1801, is regarded as one of the top five in American history. After a hotly contested election, Jefferson was able to say, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.” Part utopian vision for America, part political theater, part endorsement of the strength and durability of a republican form of government, the first inaugural address was one of the handful of Jefferson’s greatest written statements.
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 his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson. -
#1547 Jefferson, John Marshall, and Judicial Review
This week, Clay Jenkinson interviews frequent guest Beau Breslin of Skidmore College about the most famous decision in Supreme Court history. One William Marbury sued the US Government for not installing him into a post to which he had been appointed by outgoing President John Adams. Marshall could not find a way to get Marbury his job, but he did declare that the Supreme Court was the final arbiter of the Constitution, that it emphatically had the duty of determining which laws were constitutional and which were unconstitutional. Beau Breslin helps Clay sort out this monumental decision of 1803, which changed the nature of the US Court System forever.
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 his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson. -
#1546 The Founders and the Cutting Room Floor
Professor Beau Breslin of Skidmore College returns to the Thomas Jefferson Hour to talk about important passages that were edited out of key American documents of the Founding Era, including the famous anti-slavery passage of the Declaration of Independence. How would America have been different if Jefferson’s attack on the slave trade had been included in the birth certificate of America. Clay and Beau also discuss the congratulatory letter to President-elect John Adams that Jefferson wrote but Madison persuaded him not to send. John Dickinson tried to include in the original Articles of Confederation a passage guaranteeing women religious freedom. Why was it removed?
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 his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson. -
#1545 Live from Radford University
This week's episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour was recorded live at Radford University in Radford, Virginia in February 2023.
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 his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson. -
#1544 Ten Things about Woodrow Wilson
This week, Clay Jenkinson’s conversation with Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky about the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson. Best known for his Fourteen Points and the League of Nations, Wilson was one of the most pronounced idealists among American presidents. He said he wanted to make the world safe for democracy. Meanwhile, at home, he supported some of the most repressive censorship and anti-dissident programs in the history of America. He re-segregated the U.S. government bureaucracy and came late to women’s suffrage. Before the end of his second term, Wilson had a massive stroke. His second wife Edith took over and in some respects became the first female chief executive in American history.
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 his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson.
Customer Reviews
Love this show regardless of my personal politics
Started listening to it many years ago when I started at the post office and I have never stopped. I started this podcast as a fairly conservative person and now as a leftist and a normie(not historian) I haven't always agreed with the hosts and some of their guests (conservative) conclusions over the years and yet, I’ve rarely felt that they didn’t treat the subject of that episode with great care and thoughtfulness. I have also enjoyed the overall trend of their opinions and views. Despite being an Adams man, this podcast has made me appreciate Jefferson despite some of the things we tend to judge great figures for (and rightly) years later. This podcast made me decide to visit both Monticello and Poplar Forest, both of which I enjoyed and I was especially impressed with the care Monticello took explaining Jefferson and his life of which I think this podcast also does. Great job. “United we bargain, divided we beg.”
Drifting away from Jefferson
The show has drifted too far away from Jefferson and his times. There are many podcasts we can go to for current events and relatively few for history. I hope the podcast goes back to a more historical perspective.
Historical accuracy, interesting conversations
It’s very nice to listen to a podcast that is historically accurate with an interesting take on society. Anyone who says there is a bias here has probably been programmed by Fox News to think that the US history is a certain way. I dare you to find one thing that Clay or his guests say that isn’t an accurate depiction of the the history of America. In a time when people think it was “you”Join or “you” Die, they show that it’s really “we” Join, or “we” Die