Podcasts about thomas jefferson the art

  In the lead-up to the November 2016 elections, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham joined Dialogue host Marcia Franklin to talk about presidential character. Meacham talks with Franklin about the qualities he believes are essential to being a successful president, and the unique nature of the 2016 presidential race. An executive editor at Random House, Meacham is well-known for his appearances on political discussion programs. He started his journalistic career at the Chattanooga Times and rose to become the editor of Newsweek. Meacham was the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council's 2016 Distinguished Humanities Lecture in Boise. Meacham's latest book is His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope with an afterword by John Lewis. His 2015 book Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush was a #1 New York Times bestseller. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2009 for his book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He's also the author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation. Originally Aired: 10/20/2016 Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter! 

Barry Klein is Vice president of Success and Enablement at Austin-Based Talroo, the data driven job and hiring event advertising platform that helps businesses reach the candidates they need to build their essential workforce. Barry provides leadership to Talroo's team of Customer Success Analysts who have both revenue and customer service responsibilities for multiple verticals.  Passionate about establishing “customers” as “partners”, he focuses on long-term relationships, lifetime value and establishing raving fans. With more than 30 years of experience in customer-facing and executive roles, including Vice President of Sales Engineering for Vignette Corp, Barry also spent several years running his own small business and consultancy. Barry holds a BS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.   Questions ·    We always like to hear from our guests in their own words, how did you get from where you were to where you are today? · Can you share with our listeners a little bit about why you believe recruitment is so important as it relates to customer service delivery? · In terms of how do we hire well and focus on cultural alignment? And I imagine this begins in the interview process. What are three main things that you believe if you're tasked with that responsibility for an organization, where would you put your focus, maybe three top areas that you put your focus on if we're trying to get cultural alignment? · Now, could you share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? · Could you also share with our listeners maybe one or two books that you've read, it could be a book that you read recently, or one that you read a very long time ago, but it has had a great impact on you. · Can you share with us also, what's one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. ·  Where can listeners find you online? ·  Before we wrap our episodes up, we always like to ask our guests do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge you will tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you got derailed or there was an obstacle or hurdle that was presented to you and it caused you to not be on track but when you thought of that quote or when you recited that quote, it kind of got you back on track. Do you have one of those?   Highlights Barry's Journey  Me: Now, we always like to give our guests an opportunity to share in their own words a little bit about their journey. So, I know we read your bio that gives us formally how it is that you got to where you are today, but we always like to hear from our guests in their own words, how did you get from where you were to where you are today?    Barry stated that he appreciates Yanique asking and thanked her for mentioning his alma mater, RPI. As he said, he was a Computer Science Major and he was in college in the late 80s. So, the world of programming was very different than it would be today. But he wrote a lot of codes, in fact, when he went to his parent's house years after he graduated, and he saw the Dot Matrix Paper printouts of the code he had written, he was like, who wrote this, he couldn't in a million years, he couldn't have recreated that code.   But by the time he graduated college, he knew that while he enjoyed coding very much, and it was why he went to get a computer science degree, he done enough. And what he became intrigued about was the intersection of the technology and people. And his first roles out of college were not really tech support per se but sort of high-end engineering support for customers who are developing with their platform and that led him closer to customers.  And what he found he really enjoy and what he imagines he's best that if he has to choose his best skill is, is explaining and painting a picture about technical topics for non-technical folks, that is very gratifying.  It's allowed him to have experience both with frontline decision makers, frontline influencers at any given customer, as well as executive suite folks who need these pictures drawn and need that insight. And he really enjoyed that, and he especially enjoy not only doing that himself, but enabling teams to do that with best practices, all the nuance that you need when you're in that customer facing role, whether it's pre sales or post sales, not just what you say, but how you say it. All of those things come together to create the kinds of roles that are always dynamic, and no two days are ever the same.    The Importance of Recruitment as it Relates to Customer Service Delivery Me: So, a big part of what you're doing at your current organization is recruitment, correct? So, can you share with our listeners a little bit about why you believe recruitment is so important as it relates to customer service delivery, maybe connect the dots so that our listeners can have a good understanding of why having good recruitment techniques is critical to ensuring that you are aligned properly to get the kind of deliverables that you're looking from as it relates to customer service.   Barry shared that it is an interesting intersection because the skills and mindset of customer success folks is something that would exist regardless of what the industry you happen to be in is, but in their case, because Talroo is a talent matching platform that strives to match opportunities, especially for frontline workers with having the frontline worker at the right job, in the right place, at the right time, for the right price, so that they get the happy connection between an employer who needs the talent and the person who has the talent, making that connection is very gratifying and their entire platform is aligned around that.  And it does create an interesting mindset for them because they're helping employers recruit and then you say, “Well, how does that affect our own recruitment? What are we looking for? What are the processes? Everything from how do we source our candidates to how do we interview them to how do we determine their cultural alignment with our organization?”  So, all things recruitment is really near and dear to their heart.  And the other thing that makes it fun is, what they do is at an intersection of such a huge part of the economy, he can't read a newspaper or put on CNBC or watch a business channel, and not have them talking about the unemployment rate and the impact. So, they are really in the forefront of all of that.   But one of the things that they've really been focusing on as they craft where Talroo is going is very personal to him in terms of how he recruits and who he hires and who he looks for. One of the things they're seizing on as sort of their mission is improving the lives of both employers and candidates, one person at a time. And he loves that tagline because it captures how personal it is, it's one person at a time.   And he believes in a leadership role, the single most important thing that you can do is hire well, that is absolutely the single most important thing, if you hire well, most things take care of themselves, you hire well, you train well and you correct hiring problems quickly, if you've made a mistake, if you don't have that proper connection, that's always very painful, if you have to do that.   And then really the role he believes of a leader is to create the environment in which these talented people who are motivated and intelligent, where they can succeed. So, he often says he doesn't do any real work, the thing that he's most proud of is creating an environment in which these folks can succeed, get the political stuff out of the way, and set them up for success. And if we found the right people who are customer success oriented, whether that service-oriented heart, they can then teach them what they need to know about their technology, their solution, but if they are the right cultural fit and the right kind of person, then they're 80% of the way there.   Areas to Focus On To Achieve Cultural Alignment Me: So, I like the fact that in your explanation just know, you spoke about cultural alignment, and I think I would love for you to go a little bit more granular as it relates to that in terms of how do we hire well and focus on cultural alignment? And I imagine this begins in the interview process. Are there some key questions that you think may need to be asked? Does it boil down to the advertisement that you put out in terms of who you're attracting to apply in the first place? Where do you start? And maybe what are three, I would say main things that you believe if you're tasked with that responsibility for an organization, where would you put your focus, maybe three top areas that you put your focus on if we're trying to get cultural alignment?    Barry stated that it is a huge topic for them and in fact, he was just speaking with her CEO and they were thinking back on some candidates who didn't work out, not his organization per se, but across the company.  And in every case, when they violated in a sense their own rules, not that there are hard and fast rules, but when they looked past a lack of cultural alignment, the candidate didn't work out.  And they have a very formal process whereby, typically, it's done by their HR Department as part of the interviewing cycle, where a series of questions that are available are asked, in theory, the same topics would have come up in the other interviews with you want a candidate to meet some peers, of course, he interviews them as the hiring manager, and then they meet with HR.  And he will tend to focus on interpersonal relationships and problem solving. When you look at their values and we've written them down and he thinks so many companies these days happily have their pillars of their culture on their website, whether they live by them, it's hard to say. He appreciates candidates who challenge them on those things and want to make sure that it's real. But they talk about things like being customer first, they talk about teamwork, they talk about accountability. He will and others, he will focus very much on the teamwork aspect of things and conflict resolution all with an eye toward, are we doing the right thing for their customer and for themselves, he can become a Johnnie one note around win-win scenarios. He has no interest in someone who is so accommodating of a customer that they might put his company at risk.  They look for partners and they don't say that in a glib fashion or as a soundbite, it's true. The nature of their business is such that if they have a customer who just wants them to service them and does not want to meet them at an appropriate point, in terms of communication and keeping data flowing and sharing reality, what's going on, if they're not a real partner, they don't do well with them.  And so, he needs customer success folks who understand that, who understand how to deal with conflict, who can navigate the complexities of those interpersonal relationships.  So, they'll ask questions around, of course, “Give him a scenario where you and a colleague were out of alignment and in disagreement, what did you do?” And you will hope that the candidate is honest and doesn't just tell you what you want to hear, normally you can figure out if they're telling you what you want to hear.  But that ultimately leads them to the single most important question in their values alignment survey when they take a candidate and they ask them to meet for half hour with their HR Department, the single most important question came out of a real life scenario with their CEO actually, where it led to the following question, “You go to a restaurant and you have your iPad on the front seat of your car, you park your car, and you don't lock the door, when you come back, the iPad is gone. Whose fault is it?”   And it's a fascinating question because what they are looking for is, “It's my fault.”  It doesn't mean the thief doesn't have some accountability.  And it doesn't mean that the restaurant might not have a more secure parking lot.   But in the end, you left a valuable item out in the open with an unlocked door, they didn't even have to smash the window, they just opened the door and took your very expensive piece of equipment. How do you not think that was my fault? I live in the real world, I have to have accountability for that kind of thing.  It leads to interesting discussions; they've had discussions around none of us ever want to blame a victim in the course of a crime being committed.  And the reason he liked that scenario so much is the car wasn't even violated. Were you a victim? Or were you just dumb? You invited someone you say, “Please rob me!”  If he leaves his front door unlocked, okay, you blame the thief, you shouldn't be robbed, society shouldn't allow that to happen. But you know what, he lives in the real world, he locked his door when he leaves.  So, those kinds of questions really matter. And that question in particular, and he will tell you, he's very pleased, their candidates are honest, and their HR folks take very good notes, offer their own opinions. He'll go into their ITS and read those notes. And that's the question he's looking for.   Are you personally accountable for your actions?  You can give 10% to the thief and you can give 10% to the to the restaurant, but if you're not thinking that you're 70% or 80% responsible for that, you might be looking for excuses as to when things don't go your way. And they're just too small a company too and they wear too many hats for anyone who has that opinion.   Me: Wow, I love that question. Thank you so much for sharing very, very good one.   App, Website or Tool that Barry Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business When asked about an online resource that he can't live without in his business, Barry shared that it's funny, he hates to have it be the technological death star of our industry that he's dealt with since he got into technology. But really it's their day to day tools with Microsoft, they are a Teams shop and they are finding more customers who are using Teams, of course you have Teams aficionados, and you have a lot of folks who are passionate about Slack. But they're using Teams and informally don't tell their IT Department they have some Slack channels going too. But that kind of real time communication with themselves because his team is fully remote. And so, their ability to stay in real time communication and in many cases in real time communication with their customers is proving ever, ever more valuable, they couldn't live without it at this point.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Barry When asked about books that have had a great impact, Barry shared that it's fun to think about, currently he's been enjoying reading history, the historian and he is a professor at Vanderbilt University, Jon Meacham is his name. He's the kind of fellow who when he's a guest on a news programme, and he finds him and he sees him, he's actually glad they're talking about it. He's hoping there's a way to sign up for when is Jon Meacham going to be on TV so he can go find him. He hangs on his every word and it's the kind of guy you kind of wish he was your grandfather telling you stories about the world in the past.  His biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have been his latest readings. And he enjoys that because, a, he enjoys the break from technology and what they do every day, get his brain around something else. But it's the lessons from these great thinkers like a Thomas Jefferson as presented by a great thinker in the form of Jon Meacham where he finds himself reading his books with a highlighter, because it's not just the observations, the historical observations, but his observations when he ties these topics together. So, he always finds that fascinating, especially from a leadership standpoint.   And it's funny, the other thing that comes to mind is, it's again, he's so much older than probably many of the listeners, but when he was in high school, he read a book by a gentleman named Roger Kahn, he became famous for his book, The Boys of Summer, which was about the 1950s, 40s and 50s, Brooklyn Dodgers.  And he wrote a book called Good Enough to Dream. And it was about his ownership stake in a minor league baseball club in Utica, New York. And the opening line has stayed with him, “The first dream full of innocence and sunlight is to play the game.” which he always loved. But early in the book, he says to someone who's associated with the team, “Are these guys any good?” And the response was, “They're good enough to dream.” And that has always stayed with him. “Am I the best at something? Is my company the best at something?” He doesn't know, but they're good enough to give it a try and see where it leads them. And that's always stayed with him.   What Barry is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that he's really excited about, Barry shared that within his organization, he doesn't mind doing a commercial for the product Gainsight, which is the customer success platform. They recognized about 15 months ago as Talroo was growing both in terms of their customer base and their staff, that as a Salesforce shop and as a Microsoft shop, the needs for customer success weren't being met, in terms of what do they need to record? What do they need to predict? Do they have a sense around who will keep their contracts going, versus who is at risk of cancelling.  Just as a quick sidebar, Talroo, unlike a typical SaaS company does not have a long-term contract, they have to earn their customers business every month, they can cancel at will.   And so, it creates unique challenges and a real time need to know what's going on with each customer. And so, about 15 months ago, they embarked upon a project to implement a customer success platform. They ultimately chose Gainsight, he will say for anyone who is looking for a customer success platform, all of the players in the industry who they looked at were terrific, he doesn't think you could go wrong. ChurnZero to Tango, others, they were all first-class organizations, and they happened to choose Gainsight and that became an immediate game changer and continues to be.  And so, thank you for the question about what he's focused on? Where are they growing? How are they evolving?   When they first rolled out Gainsight, it was primarily to support their efforts to track and manage and deal with renewals and even upsells are very important for upsells with their direct customers, employers who come to them and say, “Talroo will work with you directly to please advertise our jobs out in the world.” And that's what they really started with for the majority of their first year with the product.  But he has other caliber of customers who his team has to look after, including advertising agencies, and including job boards who they've had relationships with for years, who send them their jobs to advertise. And the needs are different across those different caliber of customers, and getting Gainsight rolled out now for the other members of his team and candidly getting adoption of it.   One of the things they've done very well and that he would encourage anyone thinking about any large software purchases, the people can kill a project. If any given team refuses to use Salesforce, Salesforce will fail. If any team refuses to use Gainsight, Gainsight will fail, people can win, and really torpedo a project.  So, they've done a really good job of getting buy in, forming a user council, the gentleman who is Andy Trevino, who is their administrator and RCS Ops Manager, who looks after Gainsight is always open to feedback, he's always soliciting feedback, so that they can make the solution match the way they work. He doesn't like software solutions where they have to change their behaviour in order to accommodate the tool, he wants the tool to accommodate the workflow and the processes that they already know work. And as they roll out the usage of Gainsight to this extended team, their needs are very different than their counterparts who work with their direct customers. So, getting that right is important.  And that accountability is incredibly important, because he no longer could afford and one of the reasons they went with Gainsight and started this whole project was when he wants to ask the very simple or get an answer to what he hopes would be a simple question of what's going on with fill in the blank of the customer name, it shouldn't take him 20 minutes to figure it out.  He needs all the information in one place and they're doing a terrific job of that with Gainsight with their direct customers, and getting members of his team who aren't used to it and haven't had to use it in the past, he needs to bring them along and their feedback. And he needs to make sure the product gets built out in a way that makes their lives easier, and that they see the value of it and that it's not just busy work, it's not just bureaucracy, it's that they really are using the product to make their lives better and then he gets what he needs in a leadership role, their C suite gets what it needs when they have questions about what's going on with the customer.  Many folks may have thought of this or use this line, traditionally, it's with Salesforce, they would say, on the sales side, if something isn't recorded in Salesforce, it didn't happen. That's the source of truth and that's where he's going with Gainsight, if you don't have notes and details and specifics in Gainsight, then it didn't happen. And you don't want to do that for bureaucratic reasons, you want to do it because it makes the organization better and your customers more successful.   Me: Awesome. So, Gainsight is where you have most of your head wrapped around right now and just trying to build that out.   Where Can We Find Barry Online LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/klein-barry/   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Barry Uses When asked about a quote that he tends to revert to, Barry shared that he has two, one is more serious than the other but the other, the funny one was his high school yearbook quote, but he will say plainly, he's not a praying or religious person by nature, but he will go back to, “Dear God, grant me the strength to change the things I can, accept those that I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference.”   It really gets hard to know where you need to invest your time and energy. What should you care about? What do you need to back off of? What can't you change?  So, the wisdom to know the difference between what you can change and what you have to accept is something he thinks about a lot.  The more fun quote is from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show, in the episode in which the character Chuckles The Clown is tragically killed, because he is the master of ceremonies for a parade. And he gets run over by an elephant dressed as a peanut, which leads to a ridiculous number of jokes and things about a man dressed as a peanut killed by an elephant. But because he was a clown by nature, his quotes, and the things that he did become a big part of the show. And his (Barry) high school yearbook quote was, “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.” Moments of stress, you know what, how serious can life be? “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.”    Me: I love it. Okay, Barry, thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule and hopping on our podcast today and sharing all of these great insights as it relates to cultural alignment and recruitment, ensuring that you're getting the right fit to ensure that you're able to meet the deliverables and as you mentioned, just mitigating against the wrong fit and mitigating against challenges and issues that could have been prevented had the recruitment been aligned and selected properly from day one. So, I thought it was a great conversation and I just want to say, thank you so much for taking time and sharing with us today.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •     Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham •     American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham •     The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn •     Good Enough to Dream by Roger Kahn    The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

On this episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson examines the new Indo-Pacific Strategy with Stewart Beck, Jean Charest, Jonathan Fried, and the Hon. Frank McKenna. Participants' bios: Stewart Beck is a retired diplomat, former CEO of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, and a CGAI fellow – https://www.cgai.ca/stewart_beck Jean Charest is former Premier of Quebec and Cabinet Minister, and a member of CGAI's Advisory Council – https://www.mccarthy.ca/en/people/jean-charest Jonathan Fried is a retired diplomat and a CGAI Fellow – https://www.cgai.ca/jonathan_fried The Hon. Frank McKenna is former Premier of New Brunswick, former ambassador to the U.S., and now Deputy Chair at TD Securities – https://www.tdsecurities.com/ca/en/frank-mckenna-biography Host Bio: Colin Robertson is a Senior Adviser and a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute – https://www.cgai.ca/staff#robertson Read and Watch: Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine by Lawrence Freedman – https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250796899/thestoryofrussia The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes – https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250796899/thestoryofrussia The Indo-Pacific: New Strategies for Canadian Engagement with a Critical Region edited by Fen Osler Hampson – https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/product/indo-pacific/ Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham – https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/209959/thomas-jefferson-the-art-of-power-by-jon-meacham/ State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny – https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/State-of-Terror/Louise-Penny/9781982173685 Three Pines – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15351648/ Recording Date: 7 December 2022. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on Apple Podcast! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

Presidential historian, Contributing Editor at TIME, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham is Executive Vice President and Executive Editor at Random House. Meacham's latest book, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, will be published by Random House on November 10, 2015. His book, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, was a New York Times bestseller. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2009, the book was cited as an “unlikely portrait of a not always admirable democrat, but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life.” His other New York Times bestsellers include Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, exploring the relationship between the two great leaders who piloted the free world to victory in World War II, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the executive board of the Society of American Historians, Meacham is a regular guest on “Morning Joe” and also occasionally appears on “Meet the Press,” “Charlie Rose,” and other broadcasts. He is editor-at-large of WNET Public Media, New York's public television station. After serving as Managing Editor of Newsweek for eight years, Meacham was responsible for all day-to-day editorial operations of the magazine as Editor from 2006 to 2010. He is a former editor of The Washington Monthly and began his career at The Chattanooga Times. Born in Chattanooga in 1969, Meacham was educated at St. Nicholas School, The McCallie School, and graduated from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, with a degree summa cum laude in English Literature; he was salutatorian and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Meacham is a communicant of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, where he has served on the Vestry of the 180 year-old Episcopal parish. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees and of the Board of Regents of The University of the South, and currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University. Meacham also serves on the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street and the Leadership Council of the Harvard Divinity School. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University in 2005 and also holds five other honorary doctorates. He lives in Nashville and in Sewanee with his wife and children.

In this episode, Nate Claiborne asks Senior Pastor Damein Schitter about what he's reading this summer. Here are the books he mentioned:Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power1776LincolnSocial: Why Our Brains Are Wired to ConnectThe Science of VirtueAttachment Theory in PracticeHold on to Your Kids

You're listening to Lingo Phoenix's word of the day for March 13. Today's word is husband, spelled h-u-s-b-a-n-d. hus‧band /ˈhʌzbənd/ verb [transitive] formal to use something carefully so that you do not use all of it Here's the word used in a sentence: The country has husbanded its resources well. husband our natural resources so that our children and grandchildren may benefit from them The defeat at the hands of slave forces in St. Domingue was especially galling to Napoleon, who believed he needed to husband his resources for campaigns closer to home. — Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power With your word of the day, I'm Mohammad Golpayegani. Join our Telegram channel @lingophoenix to make sure you never miss an episode of Lingo Phoenix's Word of the Day.

Being great afficionados of great thinkers who are impossible contradictions, we turn our attention to American founding father Thomas Jefferson: the man who penned the stirring words of the Declaration of Independence that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" ... and yet, in his lifetime, owned over 600 slaves including a (for lack of a better term) concubine, Sally Hemings (who also happened to be his deceased wife's half-sister...!!), manumitted only two of those slaves and none of them his own children by Sally until after his death according to his will, and made at best lackluster gestures toward the injustice of it all, not to mention its moral corruption of slaveholders. In this episode, we try to make sense of this "American sphinx" and especially his revisionist attitude toward Christianity, producing a variation on the faith with no power to set slaves free—or Jefferson himself. Notes: 1. Ellis, American Sphinx 2. Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power 3. Jefferson, Writings (Library of America). See in particular the following: Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787 letter to Peter Carr, 1803 letter to Joseph Priestley, 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush, 1813 letter to John Adams, 1816 letter to Charles Thomson, 1819 and 1820 letters to William Short, 1822 letter to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1826 letter to James Heaton. 4. Locke, Second Treatise of Government and Letter concerning Toleration 5. Havel, “The Power of the Powerless” 6. Manseau, The Jefferson Bible Do you rejoice every other Tuesday to see a new Queen of the Sciences episode appear? Then consider supporting us on Patreon. You can start at just $2 a month; more gets you swag. Or just pay us a visit at sarahhinlickywilson.com and paulhinlicky.com!

This week, Alyson spoke with author Neal Thompson about his new book, “The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty”.  Click to watch the interview. “Here is that rare thing: an untold chapter in the Kennedy saga. Neal Thompson has given us a compelling and illuminating book about one of the most important families in our history—a family that represents so much about America then. And now.”  —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times best-selling author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power  Buy the book: https://amzn.to/3C2mkAA https://www.nealthompson.com https://www.instagram.com/neal_thompson   Shop New Merch: www.kennedydynasty.com/shop Recommendations: www.kennedydynasty.com/recommendations Instagram: www.instagram.com/kennedydynasty Patreon: www.patreon.com/kennedydynasty Website: www.kennedydynasty.com

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episodeSelected References:2:07 - See “Literary Periods, Movements, and History” (The Literature Network)5:10 - See “What is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant - “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.”5:12 - The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy by Norman Melchert6:10 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 11 - “Darwin & The Dude: Darron’s Path to Poetic Naturalism”7:23 - Such notable figures as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, were building off of Enlightenment thought in the time leading up to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, See “American Enlightenment Thought” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) and “American Enlightenment” (Wikipedia) for more8:25 - See “Allen Ginsberg’s Definition of the Beat Generation” (Literary Hub) for more on Jack Kerouac and the naming of the Beat Generation, then listen to Jack Kerouac read “San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation)” from his 1959 spoken word album Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation, and “Is There a Beat Generation?” - a live lecture by Kerouac to students of Hunter College on November 6, 195812:30 - Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press around 1436 setting the stage for the dissemination of knowledge on a wider and faster scale than ever before, for more see “7 ways the Printing Press Changed the World” (History.com), “The Printing Press and the Spread of Ideas” (Encyclopedia.com), and “The Evolution of Media” (University of Minnesota Libraries)14:56 - The Origins of Creativity by E.O. Wilson20:27 - Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett24:42 - See the entry on “allostasis” from the extended endnotes of How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett and/or the “Allostasis” Wikipedia entry28:37 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 07 - “Boxing Aristotle”32:15 - In 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain, Barrett states this explicitly with the half lesson that opens the book titled “Your Brain is Not For Thinking” which lays the foundation for the subsequent 7 lessons, - In a New York Times op-ed piece of the same title published in November 2020, after drawing a brief sketch of the evolution of the animal brain, she writes “This story of how brains evolved, while admittedly just a sketch, draws attention to a key insight about human beings that is too often overlooked. Your brain’s most important job isn’t thinking; it’s running the systems of your body to keep you alive and well. According to recent findings in neuroscience, even when your brain does produce conscious thoughts and feelings, they are more in service to the needs of managing your body than you realize...Your brain runs your body using something like a budget...This view of the brain has many implications for understanding human beings. So often, for example, we conceive of ourselves in mental terms, separate from the physical...In body-budgeting terms, however, this distinction between mental and physical is not meaningful...Your brain is not for thinking. Everything that it conjures, from thoughts to emotions to dreams, is in the service of body budgeting.” 35:02 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 03 -  “The Examined Life” , according to Plato, in defending himself at his trial Socrates said “I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.”.38:11 - See the entry on “Tuning and pruning” from the extended endnotes of Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett40:20 - Listen to episode 89 of The Knowledge Project Podcast - “Less Certainty, More Inquiry” featuring an interview with psychologist, writer, and poker player Maria Konnikova44:30 - Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aaronson49:51 - The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent58:14 - Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meacham59:04 - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari 1:01:01 - See “Why Chimpanzees Don’t Hold Elections: The Power of Social Reality,” an excerpt from Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman BarrettThis episode was recorded remotely via Zoom in February 2021The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” - Thomas Jefferson 0:00 Introduction 1:05 The Power of the Individual 2:54 The Greats Are Human Too 4:40 Make Others Feel Valued 6:13 Progress Over Perfection 8:19 You Can't Please Everyone 10:53 Next Week's Book Read Along: Week 1: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9xA... Get the Book: https://amzn.to/2LcYLij Week 2 - The Ride Of A Lifetime by Robert Iger Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWa9B... Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3oSEMUr Week 3 - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciJFw... Get the Book: https://amzn.to/2JSd7EE Week 4 - The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell Watch the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJtOa... Get the Book: https://amzn.to/2J5lcFo Week 5 - The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3rwCqga Week 6 (This Week) - Thomas Jefferson, The Art of Power by John Meacham Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3rzTFNA Week 7 (Next Week) - The Success Principles by Jack Canfield Get the Book: https://amzn.to/2XvvpOV

On today's Global Exchange Podcast, Colin Robertson talks to Hon. Frank McKenna on how the United States and Canada can move on from the 2020 elections . Participants' Bios: - Hon. Frank McKenna was former Premier of New Brunswick, former US Ambassador, and is now Deputy Chair of TD Bank. (https://www.tdsecurities.com/ca/en/frank-mckenna-biography) Host Bio: - Colin Robertson (host) is a former Canadian diplomat, now Vice President of and Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson What Hon.Frank McKenna is reading: - Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0089EHKE8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) Recording Date: 6 Nov 2020 The Global Exchange is part of the CGAI Podcast Network. Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on LinkedIn. Head over to our website at www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. Music credits to Drew Phillips

In the lead-up to the November 2016 elections, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham joined Dialogue host Marcia Franklin to talk about presidential character. Meacham talks with Franklin about the qualities he believes are essential to being a successful president, and the unique nature of the 2016 presidential race. An executive editor at Random House, Meacham is well-known for his appearances on political discussion programs. He started his journalistic career at the Chattanooga Times and rose to become the editor of Newsweek. Meacham was the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council’s 2016 Distinguished Humanities Lecture in Boise. Meacham’s latest book is His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope with an afterword by John Lewis. His 2015 book Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush was a #1 New York Times bestseller. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2009 for his book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He’s also the author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation. Originally Aired: 10/20/2016 Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter! 

Part One: Tiffany Cross, author of "Say it Louder: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving our Democracy." Part Two: from the archives- Jon Meacham, author of "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power."

Start of Interview [1:33]Suzanne's start in the U.S. Air Force [2:50]Her transition to cyber operations [4:25]Suzanne's take on transitioning from the Military to corporate boardrooms [7:25]Adding former military leaders in the boardroom adds to "diversity of thought": "[Board composition] should seek concinnity, rather than falling into the lowest common denominator which would be consensus" [09:07]At the time of Suzanne's transition to the private sector, "the Government had recognized that [cyber] was an area where there was going to be significant change and significant attention was needed" [11:15]Collaboration in the Cybersecurity field: "The private sector wants to protect who they are, the Government wants to protect how they know" [13:19]How to think about offensive and defensive capabilities in cybersecurity: "On the offensive side of cybersecurity you only have to succeed once, on the defensive side you have to protect everything, all the time." [15:42]General Alexander: "the difference between bolting it in on and baking it in"  [16:00]"In 2020 we are in the half-way point, we still have an architecture that relies on technology that is fundamentally at risk but technology is getting better and more secure" [17:58]How sitting on boards in different industries shapes her cybersecurity approach: Battelle Memorial Institute, Parsons Corporation, Wells Fargo, CSX [19:38]How to think about cybersecurity expertise in the boardroom [22:52]Cybersecurity education for corporate directors [24:39]What is the best way for the board to address cyber risk [28:30]"You want to have good baseline security systems, plus resilience and redundancy" [30:25]Recommended cybersecurity resources  for directors: [33:03]Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)Cyber ScoopSans NewsBitesSecureworks Recommended Frameworks: [36:48]National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE)"The people in your organization are the  greatest risk vector because that's the easiest path in" [38:56]How COVID-19 has impacted cybersecurity risks [39:30]The increase in cyber risks, particularly with "work from home" trend. "the vectors have increased for ransomware attacks involving health professionals. Sans "Work from Home" Guide. [42:45] Her take on greatest cyber challenges moving forward: [46:12]Critical shared infrastructure (power, transportation, etc.)Supply chains (praising DARPA doing bug bounty program for hardware)Her recommendations to other directors on cybersecurity matters [51:14]Ask about current tech or framework and what are the risks to such foundations/systemsWhere are you most at risk for litigation (for example: privacy)Her favorite books [53:21]:She's a Malcolm Gladwell fan, most recently read "Talking to Strangers" and "David & Goliath.""Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" by Jon Meacham."First Ladies" by Margaret Truman."Dr Seuss and Philosophy" by Jacob Held.Suzanne's mentors [55:35]:Earlier in her career: Gen. Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., Gen. John Shalikashvili, and Col Adelbert Buz" Carpenter"As a board member: Dan Schulman and Doug Baker.Her favorite quotes: early in life "Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump bump bump..." Later: Colin Powell's "Eternal optimism is a force multiplier." John Schofied: "The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment..." [59:40]The living person she most admires: Condoleeza Rice [01:02:25]___Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License 

From the archives- Historian Jon Meacham talks about his book "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power," an interview that originally aired on President's Day in 2014.

A ''tough-minded'' but ''nuanced and persuasive'' (The New York Times Book Review) expert on history, politics, and religion in America, Jon Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. His other bestselling nonfiction includes American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Currently executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, Meacham was formerly editor-in-chief of Newsweek. In The Soul of America, Meacham contextualizes the country's current political climate by looking back at the critical periods in our past when what Lincoln prophetically termed ''the better angels of our nature'' defeated fear, demagoguery, and division. Watch the video here. (recorded 7/12/2018)

Today on The Neil Haley Show, The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview New York Times Best Selling Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Jon Meacham. JON MEACHAM is a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian. A contributing writer for The New York Times Book Review and a contributing editor of Time magazine, he is the author of theNew York Times bestsellers Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, American Gospel, and Franklin and Winston. Meacham lives in Nashville, Tennessee. THE SOUL OF AMERICA The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham, #1 New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize “The battle between the ideal and the real, between what's right and what's convenient, between the larger good and personal interest is the contest that unfolds in the soul of every American. The creed of which Myrdal and Schlesinger and others have long spoken can only find concrete expression once individuals in the arena choose to side with the angels. That is a decision that must come from the soul—and sometimes the soul's darker forces win out over its nobler ones. The message of Martin Luther King, Jr.—that we should be judged on the content of their character, not on the color of our skin—dwells in the American soul; so does the menace of the Ku Klux Klan. History hangs precariously in the balance between such extremes. Our fate is contingent on which element—that of hope or that of fear—emerges triumphant.”–Jon Meacham  

In honor of President's Day, biographer Jon Meacham explores Jefferson's complicated legacy and suggests how we might reclaim the Jeffersonian insistence that political leaders be conversant with the philosophical and cultural currents of their time. Meacham wrote the No. 1 New York Times bestseller "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power."

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview author Jon Meacham. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JON MEACHAM received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion. An executive editor at Random House, he is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Gospel, and Franklin and Winston. Meacham, who teaches at Vanderbilt University and at The University of the South, is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He lives in Nashville and in Sewanee with his wife and children.  

Sep. 5, 2015. Jon Meacham discusses "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" as part of a special celebration of Jefferson's Library at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Speaker Biography: Jon Meacham is the executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. During his career, he has been editor-in-chief of Newsweek, a contributing editor to Time Magazine, editor-at-large of WNET and a commentator on politics, history, and religious faith in America. Meacham’s book "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for biography. He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book World. Meacham has written the best-selling book "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation" and edited "Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement," a collection of distinguished nonfiction about the midcentury struggle against Jim Crow. His most recent work is “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power." For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7028

The nation couldn't think of anything else better to do, so they kicked the President out and went to war with France. Join us as we discuss... political tensionsthe Quasi-War against France,how big of a jerk Aaron Burr was,how Jefferson become the Presidentand more!For more information, check out the following books... Thomas Jefferson: The Art of PowerThe Forgotten Wars: The U.S. Navy in the Quasi-war with FranceAmerican Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America________________________  Be sure to subscribe to the show! Leave us a review on iTunes - It really helps us out! Facebook  |  Twitter  | Instagram ________________________ Make sure you sign up for our newsletter for news, resources, freebies, and more! ElectionCollege.com/Newsletter ________________________ Music from: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music ________________________ Some links in these show notes are affiliate links that could monetarily benefit Election College, but cost you nothing extra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Meacham discusses his book Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.

Who was the most fascinating, influential founding father?  According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, it wasn't our first President George Washington or inventor/diplomat/statesman Benjamin Franklin, it was Thomas Jefferson.  In this one on one conversation, Meacham states his case to back up this statement and gives insight into the intriguing, complicated, contradictory life of Thomas Jefferson.  Some of the topics covered include: Jefferson's ability to compromise over the dinner table, his ability to combine ideas and plans to bring forth momentous events like the Louisiana Purchase, his affair with slave Sally Hemings and the incredible debt he accrued before his death on July 4, 1826.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham discusses Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power with veteran journalist Mike Barnicle.

If we were talk about a time of bitter angry partisanship, flawed leaders lusting after women and power, worried perhaps more about their legacy than their constituents. Politicians who were accused of being pragmatic rather than idealistic. Who sometimes did care about ideas, but to the determent of good politics. We might easily be talking about current members of Congress, President Obama, President Clinton or Jack Kennedy. In fact, we’d also be talking about Thomas Jefferson. The man whose idealization has in many ways clouded how we should see and understand the better nature of politics...even today. Pulitzer prize winning biographer and journalist Jon Meacham, in his new book Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gets to the heart of who Thomas Jefferson really dined with, when he dined alone. My conversation with Jon Meacham: var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-6296941-2"); pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {} My conversation with Jon Meacham:

The College of Charleston Friends of the Library hosted a lecture by Jon Meacham, presidential historian, contributing editor at Time and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. Known as a skilled raconteur and an eloquent speaker with a depth of knowledge about history, politics and religion, Meacham is one of America's most prominent public intellectuals and understands how issues and events impact our lives. Meacham's appearance is part of the Friends of the Library Addlestone Authors' Series. Meacham's keynote address was entitled "The Media's Secret Bias: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Truth about the News." For some, the key to understanding the media is ideology -- that outlets are driven by politics rather than objectivity. There is much truth to this, and the 21st century is now more like the 18th and 19th in terms of partisan news. But there's an even more fundamental point Americans should grasp: that many journalists are driven as much by conflict as by creeds. Jon Meacham brings renewed perspective to the issue of media bias, grounded in historical analysis and his own life's work with print and television news media outlets. Meacham cuts to the core of media bias, explaining how politics and human nature shape the news you see and read. Mr. Meacham's New York Time bestseller, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2009 and was cited as an "unlikely portrait of a not always admirable democrat, but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life. His biography, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, is scheduled for a November 13, 2012 release. He is also working on a biography of President George H.W. Bush. His other New York Times bestsellers include Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, which explored the fascinating relationship between the two great leaders who piloted the free world to victory in World War II, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. As executive vice president and executive editor at the Random House Publishing Group, Mr. Meacham currently is editing a book by Al Gore and a series of e-books published by Politico on the 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. Meacham is a regular guest on Morning Joe and has appeared on such programs as Charlie Rose, Meet The Press, The O'Reilly Factor and The Colbert Report. After serving as managing editor of Newsweek for eight years, Mr. Meacham was responsible for all day-to-day editorial operations of the magazine as editor from 2006 to 2010. The New York Times called him "one of the most influential editors in the news magazine business."