it explores the love affair between thomas never son and sally hemmings, his slave, and examines the inhuman compromise they made at america's birth. jackie plays james madison in the production in herry this at cal debut. >> he asked me if i was going to sing tonight. i'm not. >> i tried. >> come see the show and i will. >> you understand the debut means there will be more to come. >> i definitely hope so. the play is wonderful. the music is just totally engrossing and very thought-provoking and jackie, it's dynamite. we have tickets on sale as you leave this evening. you can check in at the table and hope you will join us. my next invitation is to join me in taking politics for the people nationally. i began politics for the people over a decade ago to bring these dialogues to independent-minded new yorkers. in january of this year, i took the interpret nationally. i launched a blog and online book club so that independents across the country could be part of creating these cutting edge conversations. very important project. i want to invite all of you who are listening in the c-sp

the timing of this work so of course there is the first woedthw tt reallspeaks rdeehema ffern sally hemmings and american controversypublished in 1997, the story of one of the founding fathersrelaship i dedii e not for that work, would this have been a more difficult story to tell? would it be harder for ec inas ra raunhepl significant fact of the moe launch of humanity represented by this mixture of european,of afrinndiver? >> thi it s ceainl lptoinse at han ei heads abou wh this kind of situation might be like. wabu nn e ytyt eissiasnngng di hink that was a vital part of that. >> so you have described it as a hard history. what do u mean hat tot utt'rdoeo htth eaa young girl, you know, maybe 14, 15, 16 thartgs at kay --somee tok t oo and actually in the research it was quite clear to me that this extended both to ites and blacks. and iinth mes an sof conversations with descendents, white and black, it was interesting because even we in cnteorar s cey tharopho s hsy. siy- iviho conversations, were not always easy. i remember one descendent oa slave owner who sd to m, y knownhee pe d t dwa e

that will speak volumes to what exists, but i also wonder if the work of the thomas jefferson and sally hemming american controversy in 1997, the story about the founding father relationship with his wife's cousin or enslavement strays. i wonder if that were not without were, would this have been it more difficult story to tell? would it be harder for her select to the imagination to wrap our heads around the deeply significant act of the milan should humanity represented by the mixture of european, african native americans? >> it was certainly helpful to me in the sense that there is a framework that people had in their heads about what the situation might be late. for michelle obama's family, it was quite different in a lot of ways. but i think in some ways the discussion has been ongoing and i think that was a vital part of that. >> c. describe this is a hard history. what do you mean by that? >> i think it is hard for people to talk about. i think it is the idea of a young girl, you know, maybe 14, 15, 16, being raised by her owner's family. these are things a lot of people don't want to ta

but french cuisine, he been -- >> james hemmings, right, the brother of sally hemmings, who, of courseerson. james hemmings is the reason we have french fries in america. he was there for the french revolution and brought them back. >> event french chefs inspired from cuisine from the french caribbean and africa. you could argue that african cuisine and french cuisine and later american case evcuisine ts element to french cuisine. later on picked up by blacks. >> not just always this don't feedback. >> nowhere more so than the south. i'm thinking about new orleans. the food we eat is always french and caribbean and southern, all together on a single plate. are you coming home to new orleans when you are done here? >> of course i am. >> yes. >> good. >> and are you planning to work in a fine dining establishment when you come home? >> you know what? when they first asked me that question, starting off, i would say, yes, fine dining, i thought that's what you had to do. but now being in it, i'm like i want to learn everything of it, but when i come back, i want to do like something like