Good day citizens and welcome to this very special edition.

This week's Thomas Jefferson Hour, we have secured a guest.

You know, I listened to Professor Joseph Ellis talk and, you know, you know how

years ago we met Dan rather and interviewed him?

I recall.

And he has those one-liners. The famous ratherisms. Yeah, I think Ellis gives

him a run for his money. Ellis is one of the most charming and entertaining public intellectuals

that I've ever known.

He's had a distinguished academic career.

He's written 11 or 12 books.

He's an old friend of mine.

We were together as two of the historical advisors on Ken Burns' film,

That's a great story, Thomas Jefferson, and we actually got rebuked by Ken Burns at one point

for cutting up for being irreverent in the studio. But I, from that moment moment I gained the deepest respect for Joseph Ellis.

There have been a few little ups and downs in his career, but he is a magnificent historian.

He's won all the awards.

Oh and he's so much fun to read you know we're hawking books here for him but I have no

problem doing that they're just they're they well-written. They're clever well-written

humane, amused. He's constantly amused by these historical figures. He's back, you

know you say this he makes him real. You say back by popular demand, but he actually is. People love the show in which we talked about him before, and now he's back and I proposed to him, as you know, in a letter letter I said we want you to come on and talk

about five or six of your books and this one first family is the first in our book club

series the next book we're going to talk about with Joe is His Excellency, his biography

...