The Forgotten Battle of Whitestone Hill, North Dakota
Monday, July 31 2023
My first stop was the lonely Whitestone Hill, a grass hill in south central, North Dakota. It is the site of the bloodiest battle in North Dakota history in 1863.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
My Favorite Photographs of Robert Oppenheimer
Monday, July 31 2023
Inspired by the new Oppenheimer film here are a few of my favorite photographs of the noted physicist.
- Published in Features
The Story Behind a Famous White House Dinner
Wednesday, July 26 2023
Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed new film has ignited a fascination with Robert Oppenheimer. Clay reflects on a surprising connection between Oppenheimer, John F. Kennedy, and “America’s da Vinci,” Thomas Jefferson.
- Published in Features
I Was First in Line To See the New Oppenheimer Film
Monday, July 24 2023
I sat in the theater Friday for three hours and was mesmerized. The film is historically accurate. Oppenheimer is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Remembering the Great Charles Wilkinson
Monday, July 17 2023
A beloved educator and leader in environmental and Native American law, Professor Charles Wilkinson of Colorado University, Boulder had a profound impact throughout the American West and beyond.…
- Published in Features
Sorting Myth From Fact: Can We Truly Know Sacagawea?
Tuesday, July 11 2023
You cannot think about the Lewis and Clark story without trying to come to terms with Sacagawea. She is the most statued woman in American history. And she is one of the two most prominent Native American women in American memory. And yet, to borrow Winston Churchill’s famous description of the Soviet Union, “she is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Inspiration and Nostalgia on Visiting My Alma Mater — Video Dispatch
Monday, July 10 2023
A short video I recorded recently on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Minnesota. I was a student there in the early 1970s and after class I often found myself at the base of Northrup Auditorium, incised with what I still regard as the perfect mission statement.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America
Sunday, July 09 2023
In 1994 San Francisco journalist Mike McIntyre got it into his head to try to cross the county with no money. No money whatsoever. With a borrowed 50-70 pound backpack, he traveled literally penniless for 4,223 miles from San Francisco to Cape Fear, North Carolina. That's fourteen states, 82 rides, five laundry loads, and one golf round.
- Published in Books
Artificial Intelligence: A Collision of Opportunity and Challenge
Tuesday, July 04 2023
Machines, it turns out, think and learn in pretty much the same ways that humans do. They also possess some of the same weaknesses. Clay explores the topic of artificial intelligence with futurist, David Horton.
- Published in Features
With the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
Tuesday, July 04 2023
As the editor of the Lewis and Clark quarterly journal, We Proceeded On, I attended the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation annual meeting in Missoula at the end of June.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road