Endgame with Fintan O’Toole

For our series premiere, Annette Gordon-Reed joins Fintan O'Toole to discuss Thomas Jefferson's political convictions and contradictions, including his early drafts of the Declaration of Independence, his relationships with the Hemings family, and the contemporary resonance of his advocating for freedom within a racist society.

Annette Gordon-Reed has been a frequent contributor to The New York Review for the last ten years. Her Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family revised our understanding of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, and for the Review she has written about subjects ranging from W.E.B. Du Bois to Hillary Clinton to the history of Texas. She is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Her latest book is Jefferson on Race: A Reader.

Endgame with Fintan O'Toole is a New York Review podcast. Our theme music is "Political World" by Bob Dylan, courtesy of Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Our show art is designed by Jason Logan. And our producer is Erica Getto.

New episodes drop every Tuesday across podcast platforms and at YouTube.com/@nybooks. For more, head to nybooks.com.

What is Endgame with Fintan O’Toole?

Join Fintan O’Toole, Advising Editor at The New York Review, as he and his guests discuss the great unraveling of the American order—and imagine what comes next.

Each week they’ll explore some of the major contradictions that have shaped the United States since its founding 250 years ago, looking closely at subjects that range from Civil War history to contemporary fiction, from Thomas Jefferson to Bernie Sanders, from Gilded Age monopolies to tech oligarchs. What can Shakespeare and Nazi Germany tell us about the current presidency? Making unexpected connections and always drawing out the human drama within complicated ideas, Fintan and his guests—including Annette Gordon-Reed, Ben Lerner, Colin Grant, Jean Strouse, and Dan Chiasson—take the best of New York Review essays and turn them into a conversation.

Endgame with Fintan O’Toole is a New York Review podcast.

Show Art: Jason Logan