Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson says the 2023 State of the Union address was in keeping with a tradition dating back to the republic’s founding, including an increasing element of ‘bread and circuses,’ a mix of political policies and entertainment, ceremony and spectacle, in service of endless campaigning by both parties. Stream the show from www.tfic.tech or subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice. Additional audio courtesy of C-SPAN, Lindrebox, Neural Network and Deep Learning, the National Archives and the Presidential Libraries of Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.