ZadekpediaThomas Jefferson appears in these excerpts not as the subject of an episode but as a figure invoked by guests and by the host. No excerpt treats his life, writings or presidency directly, and the sources supply only scattered particulars: a violin, a book, a birthday, a constitutional argument, a quoted line about newspapers.
In the founding generation
Bob Zadek recommends Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, describing it as a functioning pre-revolutionary war village where Jefferson and many others walked the streets. The tavern in which Jefferson played his violin to entertain members of the House of Burgesses is there, and among the costumed speakers who take audience questions at the village theater are Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason and George Washington. Bob describes the format as Thomas Jefferson speaking to the audience for 40 minutes in period dress, followed by questions, and says the performers are people who have spent their lives understanding the men they impersonate — so close, in his words, to asking Thomas Jefferson a question George Washington’s Providence (2013).
In a discussion of Adam Smith, Skipper Young states that every one of the Founders he mentions in his book had a copy of Smith’s work. Jefferson’s copy, he says, was given or sold to the Library of Congress and is now there, while George Washington’s copy is at William and Mary’s library Skip Young on The Wisdom of 76: Young America’s Way to Wealth (2016).
Bob Zadek recounts learning about Dr. Benjamin Rush from Joseph Ellis’s Passionate Sage, a book on John Adams’s retirement years. From it he learned that Rush was instrumental in reuniting former President John Adams with former President Thomas Jefferson, who had stopped communicating after Jefferson beat Adams in the presidency campaign in 1800. Rush brought them together and started them corresponding, producing what Bob describes as 150-odd letters between the two Founding Healer (2019).
The Alien Act and immigration
Ilya Somin, discussing what the Constitution says about immigration, notes that the text enumerates many federal powers but not the power to restrict immigration, and that authority over immigration was largely in the hands of the states for most of the first hundred years of American history. He says that even in the 1790s there was debate over the scope of federal power, and that Congress under the Federalists and John Adams enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, giving the president power to expel non-citizens he thought dangerous. Somin states that many people, including James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, argued the Alien Act was unconstitutional because the federal government had no general power to restrict immigration, that they eventually prevailed, and that when Jefferson became president he allowed the Alien Act to expire; it was never actually used Hard Questions About Asylum and Afghanistan (2021).
Liberland
Vít Jedlička, speaking from a boat on the Danube, says the country of Liberland was set up on 13 April to celebrate Jefferson’s birthday, and that they renamed their first boat Thomas Jefferson to honor the legacy of the American Revolution vít_jedlička_on_founding_liberland.
Press freedom
Ted Galen Carpenter, asked whether he would prefer a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, modifies the choice rather than accepting it, saying he would like a very vigorous and diversified press and the most limited government possible, and that we tend to have the opposite: a massive Leviathan government and a timid, obedient press. Bob Zadek frames the question by reading a line he attributes to Jefferson in 1787: that were it left to him to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he should not hesitate to prefer the latter. Bob also describes Jefferson, writing in Paris, as having discussed a battle between his heart and his mind Taking the Lapdog Press to Task on Foreign Policy Reporting (2023).
Across episodes
Four episodes touch Jefferson — 2013-12-23, 2016-03-26, 2019-02-07, 2021-08-23 and 2023-02-27 — but the episodes show no development in treatment: each mentions him in passing, in the service of another subject, and none revisits a question raised by another.