FEATURES
Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Annexation of Cuba (And More)
Tuesday, February 25 2025
The United States has a long, tortured relationship with Cuba, including Thomas Jefferson’s imperial designs on the island. As Clay travels to Cuba this week to lead a cultural tour, he reflects on a bit of forgotten history between the U.S. and the island nation 90 miles from Key West, Florida.
- Published in Features
Word From Our European Friends, February 2025
Tuesday, February 18 2025
Clay Jenkinson spent 10 days in Europe in early February, read the English language magazines and newspapers, conferred with old friends and new in England, France, and Switzerland, and attempted to assess the mood of Europe as the second Trump administration began. Here is his report.
- Published in Features
Pushing “Send” From Somewhere Under the English Channel
Tuesday, February 11 2025
Amazing Engineering Grace: The Brave New World we take for granted. Clay reports from “The Chunnel” traveling between England and France.
- Published in Features
The Cuban Missile Crisis, John Steinbeck, and the Nobel Prize — October 1962
Tuesday, February 04 2025
In preparation for a cultural tour of Cuba Clay will lead later this month, he came across a surprising connection between John Steinbeck, Adlai Stevenson, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Published in Features
Why I’m Changing The Channel
Tuesday, January 28 2025
Clay details how cable news has long failed to reliably serve Americans, why he is tuning out, and what he’ll do instead.
- Published in Features
21,000 Miles Around America — Why I Did It and What I Learned
Saturday, January 18 2025
Clay sat down with editors at LTA to answer questions and discuss his recent 41 State, 21,000 mile journey around America.
- Published in Features
Reading Walden and Wrestling With Thoreau
Tuesday, December 31 2024
As I look to the start of the new year, Thoreau’s 1854 classic, Walden, still deeply challenges and inspires me.
- Published in Features
Traveling With Charley: 1960 in the American South
Monday, December 23 2024
Road-weary and keen to return home to New York, the final leg of Steinbeck’s cross-country journey took him through the troubled South of 1960.
- Published in Features
My John Steinbeck Tour: A Preliminary Report — What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Tuesday, December 10 2024
Beginning in April 2024 and concluding just before Thanksgiving, Clay traveled over 21,000 miles and visited 41 states, roughly following John Steinbeck’s route as chronicled in Travels with Charley. Clay notes he undertook the cross-country journey partly to gain his own appraisal of America as it approaches its 250th birthday.
- Published in Features
My Quest for the Ultimate Gumbo and Other Culinary Misadventures South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Tuesday, December 03 2024
A lighter report on heavier cuisine as Clay takes a gastronomic excursion through the American South.
- Published in Features