America at 250: The Racial Divide
Monday, November 17 2025
Last week, I spoke at a symposium on race and the American Revolution. This essay is the result of my deliberations for that event and is one in a series of essays I’m writing reflecting on a range of issues as America approaches its 250th birthday.
- Published in Features
The Latest in My Great 2025 Downsizing Campaign
Tuesday, November 04 2025
Friends have encouraged me to downsize for well more than a decade. I’m making progress!
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The World of Error in a Galaxy of Facts
Tuesday, October 28 2025
Clay ponders the “Truth Taser.” The best invention since the Veg-O-Matic?
- Published in Features
My Adventures in Downsizing
Monday, October 20 2025
After spending five or six decades buying books, an enormous number of books, I have begun to downsize.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
You Don’t End up Here By Accident: Rediscovering Steinbeck’s California Beneath a Lone Valley Oak.
Monday, October 13 2025
Inspired by an image of the famous author in an old poster, and after years of searching, Listening to America’s Russ Eagle, with the help of intrepid friends, discovers the remote spot in the hills near Salinas, California, that John Steinbeck, his dog Charley, and the truck camper, Rocinante, visited on their 1960 journey.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Steinbeck: A Life of Moral Courage
Monday, October 13 2025
While he avoided the public spotlight, John Steinbeck spent a life "in the arena" exhibiting great moral courage both in his writing and deeds.
- Published in Features
Where Steinbeck Said Goodbye to His California Home — Video Dispatch
Thursday, October 09 2025
Clay and Russ Eagle recently visited Fremont Peak, which overlooks California’s Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay. It was an especially important spot for John Steinbeck and deeply tied to his youth. Russ reads a passage from Travels with Charley, where the famous author writes about his last visit to there.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Were They Dreaming? A Rare Visit Inside John Steinbeck’s Iconic Rocinante
Tuesday, October 07 2025
Clay and sidekick, Russ Eagle, spend time hanging out in John Steinbeck's historic truck camper, Rocinante.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Stubborn Enigmas of Lewis and Clark
Monday, September 29 2025
After decades of close study and a year following their trail, Clay remains dogged by the many unknowables surrounding the famous American expedition.
- Published in Features
A Lewis and Clark Report Card: The Phases of a Journey
Tuesday, September 16 2025
How did the Lewis and Clark Expedition stack up against the model for the classic journey? Clay makes his assessment.
- Published in Features