Hello everyone it's Clay Jenkins

sitting across from my dear friend mr David Swenson the semi-permanent guest host of the Thomas Jefferson

hour we're in a new year and a kind of a new era David this week we've returned to the 101 series because we promised

and we keep our word. And I think we're up to what episode 16? 17 something?

We will get Jefferson through his life in this calendar year.

If we live long enough, but we're into this very interesting period,

the second episode discussing it,

of Jefferson's retirement, he handed in his letter of resignation to George Washington and off

to Monticello he went.

Where he tried to improve things.

The House was sort of already needing extensive repairs. He tore it down and doubled the size using a dome and the architectural principles that he had observed in Paris.

He started a nail factory, which he thought would be a diversification that would provide some

sort of financial stability.

Which led us into our darker part of the conversation.

You know what I think of you know so so I prepared this program with some care and I know you did too and

I knew that the word slavery would come up, but I didn't think that it would engulf us.

And it's like...

It always does, though.

It's like a vortex.

You get close to it.

And you know, so I wrote this essay that's at the end of this program. This is a new feature. I'm very

pleased with I want to know what people think of it. But the Jefferson Watch. And when I wrote it, I thought, I sort of fell in love

...