FEATURES

After leading a 10 day cultural tour through England, Clay assesses how Brits view America in the Fall of 2024.
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Two journals John Steinbeck kept while writing his two most famous novels provide an intimate look into the author’s creative process.

Looking for America in London

Clay shares impressions from a recent visit to England, where he led a cultural tour.
Edward Abbey

To the Desert With Edward Abbey

Clay visits with Edward Abbey, the colorful, eloquent, and passionate advocate of the American West.
Teddy Roosevelt at Yosemite Valley, CA. 1903.
Imagine America if Theodore Roosevelt had never been president. During his tenure, the “Cowboy President” set aside an astounding 230 million acres of U.S. public land as National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Game Preserves.
Just as rivers serve as an automatic and compelling metaphor for our life journeys, so roads invite us to muse about the trajectory of our lives.
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft

Interstellar News From NASA

Apparently lost and 15 billion miles from Earth, NASA’s Voyager 1 calls home.
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Lewis and Clark at Columbia

Happy Birthday Meriwether Lewis

August 18 was Meriwether Lewis’ 250th birthday. Clay reflects on the short life of this protégée to President Jefferson and one of the nation’s most well-known explorers.
Clay will join noted author and MacArthur Awardee Patricia Limerick at the Vail Symposium in Colorado on August 21 to discuss George Orwell’s novel 1984.
John Steinbeck loved Montana — actually, he fell in love with it. So far as we know, he had never been there before 1960. His travels across the country had all been at lower latitudes.