Labor Day on the Glorious Little Missouri River — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, September 05 2023
I visited the Little Missouri River in the Badlands of North Dakota over the Labor Day weekend. Of all the rivers I know, the Little Missouri is the most sacred to me.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
Friday, September 01 2023
Katherine Rundell’s new book on the great English writer and cleric, John Donne is, among other things, a work of evangelism. Rundell says one of her goals is to get everyone to read some of Donne’s poetry. I could not agree more.
- Published in Books
The Long Dreamed Airstream Joins the Listening to America Team
Monday, August 28 2023
A new chapter in my life begins. For the next several years, I plan to spend about half of the year on the road with my new Airstream trailer for our big humanities initiative, Listening to America. My plan is to get out on the open road, see the vastness of America and report my findings to you.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
India’s First Lunar Landing and America’s Sense of Wonder
Thursday, August 24 2023
Today, I read in my news feed that India has successfully landed a probe on the south pole of the moon. Chandrayaan-3 touched down at 8:30 a.m. EDT, August, 23, 2023. U.S. news of the event seemed decidedly matter-of-fact.
- Published in Features
Nuking the Rocky Mountains
Tuesday, August 22 2023
Clay and two colleagues met near the town of Rifle in western Colorado to visit the spot where the federal government set off a nuclear device in 1969 to test the feasibility of using atomic bombs in oil “fracking.”
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Tragic History of Sand Creek, Colorado
Sunday, August 20 2023
Clay drives into eastern Colorado to spend time at the site of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and then to Denver to see an exhibit on the tragic event at the History Colorado Center. .
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Visiting the Cabin Where Crazy Horse Was Killed
Tuesday, August 15 2023
Leaving South Dakota, I drove south to Fort Robinson in Nebraska, the site where the great Oglala leader Crazy Horse died. He was killed unnecessarily on September 5, 1877, at about 33.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Jackalopes, Black-Footed Ferrets and Big, Big Sky
Monday, August 14 2023
On Clay’s third day from Bismarck to Vail, he travels through Wall, South Dakota and visits the U.S. National Grasslands Visitor Center and Badlands National Park.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Professor Who Changed My Life
Saturday, August 12 2023
I was leaving Three Forks, Montana, when I got the call. My beloved English professor Thomas Clayton died this morning, August 9, 2023. He was 90 years old and an exceptional educator who made all the difference.
- Published in Features
A Day With Three Extraordinary Missile Men
Sunday, August 06 2023
I spent the day with three extraordinary men at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site learning the “on the ground” operations of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles during the Cold War.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road