#1577 The Listening to America Origin Story

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Clay Jenkinson’s conversation with occasional guest host David Horton about the origins of the Thomas Jefferson Hour and the purpose of changing the name and focus of the program to Listening to America. Clay sings the praises of two hosts, Bill Crystal, now of Virginia, and David Swenson of Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota. Clay recalls incidents that have occurred in his long career in tights and buckled shoes, and particularly the way in which Jefferson’s hypocrisy on race and slavery has been addressed by members of Clay’s audiences. Plus, what we can expect from Listening to America over the next few years as the United States reaches its 250^th birthday.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and happy holidays.
0:01.8	Guest host David Horton asked me today
0:04.2	if we could talk about my life as a Chautauquan,
0:07.0	how the Jefferson hour began,
0:09.1	what it had to do with my traveling performances of Jefferson.
0:12.8	All we got here over the last 20 some years
0:15.8	and where the program is headed now that it's listening
0:18.5	to America, and particularly what I'm planning
0:20.6	to do with these journeys between now
0:23.0	and the 250th birthday of the country on July 4th, 2026.
0:26.7	So a really interesting program made me sad
0:28.8	in some ways to look back on all of these adventures.
0:32.9	It's been a really interesting ride, and I've been so blessed.
0:38.6	I sometimes forget how blessed I've been to be able to portray
0:43.8	historical figures and to have audiences that are interested
0:48.9	in what I have to say both as myself,
0:52.1	but of course primarily through the voices of others.
0:55.7	And so my gratitude is immense for all of that.
0:58.9	So we talked about how this program really began
1:01.7	at the Bohemian Grove, north of San Francisco,
1:05.0	that exclusive Redwood Club where I've spoken three or four times.
1:09.2	We talked about it's the early iteration
	...

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