Listening to America aims to “light out for the territories,” traveling less visited byways and taking time to see this immense, extraordinary country with fresh eyes while listening to the many voices of America’s past, present, and future.
We invite you to join us on this journey.
“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”
John Steinbeck
“Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?”
Jack Kerouac
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Eliot
“Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Hope, one feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. . . . A journey, in fact, appeals to the Imagination, to Memory, to Hope—the three sister Graces of our moral being.”
Richard Francis Burton
Book Club
Thursday, October 22 — evening
4:30 Pacific / 5:30 Mountain / 6:30 Central / 7:30 Eastern
Tuesday, October 27
Smithsonian Associates Lecture: How To Read a Film
Online
Saturday, October 31
Live Event: Ever Ready Teddy: John Williams sits down with Theodore Roosevelt
Downer's Grove, Ill.
Thursday, November 19
Smithsonian Associates Lecture: AI and the Humanities
Online
Friday, November 20
Benefit Concert: Clay Jenkinson and the Virginia Symphony: America Coming of Age, a Benefit Concert & Event for The Muse Writers Center
Norfolk, Va.
January 3–8, 2027: Winter Retreat: The Beatles in Four Albums
January 10–15, 2027: Winter Retreat: Thoreau and the American Dream
January 17–22, 2027: Winter Retreat: The Novels of Jane Austen
July 25-August 3, 2027: Cultural Tour: Lewis & Clark
Books We’re Reading
A prolific author and noted humanities scholar, Clay Jenkinson is a frequent guest on national media and is regularly featured in documentary films, including several by Ken Burns. Clay is the recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Listening to America
What happens if the Great Salt Lake disappears? The consequences could reach far beyond Utah, from toxic dust and respiratory problems to the future of See more
Listening to America
The Beatles were more than a band. They defined an era. Clay Jenkinson reflects on why the eventual loss of Paul McCartney will mean so See more
Listening to America
What if we’ve only been hearing half the story of Lewis and Clark? Author Craig Fehrman explores how bringing Native perspectives into the story changes See more
