Reflections on America and the Open Road
Tuesday, April 15 2025
In a few weeks, Clay will embark on an 11,000-mile trek following the Lewis and Clark trail across the continent and back. As he loads his pickup and prepares to hit the road, Clay ponders what he has learned so far in his multi-year project to Listen to America.
- Published in Features
Clay Announces Cultural Tour of John Steinbeck’s California
Tuesday, March 25 2025
An exciting new addition to Clay’s slate of LTA Cultural Tours for 2025! We’re headed to Steinbeck Country — California's Central Coast. On this tour we’ll visit Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, and just across the Santa Lucia mountains, the author’s hometown of Salinas. These California landscapes stayed close to Steinbeck’s heart throughout his life and shaped the Nobel Prize-winning author’s indelible literary legacy.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Enduring Appeal of Louis L’Amour and American Western Fiction
Tuesday, March 25 2025
Louis L’Amour is widely considered the best-selling author of Western fiction of all time. Still highly popular with readers around the globe, L’Amour has sold over 320 million books, with numerous film and TV adaptations of his work.
- Published in Features
Visions of John Wesley Powell and the Great Canyons of the Southwest
Monday, March 17 2025
John Wesley Powell, the extraordinary one-armed Civil War veteran, was the first to explore the canyons of the Colorado Plateau by river. His remarkable story still fascinates and inspires me.
- Published in Features
Shakespeare and Company, the Legendary Bookshop in the Heart of Paris — Video Dispatch
Monday, February 10 2025
In Paris, France, this week Clay stops in at Shakespeare and Company, a legendary English-language bookshop in the heart of Paris.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
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
John Steinbeck’s Childhood Home — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, January 14 2025
Earlier last summer Clay visited Steinbeck’s childhood home in Salinas, California.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Shakespeare, Thoreau, and Ed Abbey in the Bitterroot Mountains
Tuesday, January 14 2025
Clay reports from his annual humanities retreat near the Montana-Idaho border in the Northern Rockies.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road