Feed Your Mind With a Jeffersonian Dinner

Here at AGEIST, we talk a lot about food. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. But what about who you dine with and the thoughts and words you digest? Turns out one of America’s Founding Fathers can offer some perspective on that.

For Thomas Jefferson, the conversation around the dinner table was just as important as the meal itself—if not more so. The dinner table was not a place to scroll and chew, scroll and chew. Nor was it the designated time to give the lowdown on one’s day. Instead, Jefferson’s “canine appetite for reading” unsurprisingly translated into a voracious hunger for discourse, and, as such, intentional dinner-time conversation was made a priority. 

Yes, mealtime at Monticello during the late 18th century was not just a time to refuel for the third president of the United States but a time to intellectually feed his appetite. As a philosopher and Renaissance man himself, Jefferson became known for hosting dinner parties that invited leaders and thinkers of the time to discuss a topic of choice. He was the host with the most, whose focus on the company he kept led to many fruitful connections and history-changing results. In fact, he is credited with hosting “one of the most momentous dinner parties in U.S. history, one that would shape, and perhaps even save, the American republic”. 

By hosting such thought-provoking dinners, Jefferson seemingly transformed the table into a feast for the mind, not just the stomach—a place where a smorgasbord of ideas could be highlighted, sampled, digested and responded to thoughtfully.

To create a mealtime environment that will feed your mind, foster connection, and unlock new perspectives, here’s how to host your own Jeffersonian dinner:

The Jeffersonian Guest List

Ideally, you invite 12 to 15 guests—a mix of friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, strangers. This is important, as it is not the dinner guests’ familiarity with one another that creates the intimacy and lively conversation but the mix of personalities present. (Of course, you can always engage in this type of experience with any group you find yourself dining with.)

The Setting and Seating

In a quiet, intimate place, such as one’s home, the guests should be sat at random. The beauty of the Jeffersonian dinner is that it brings together a relatively large group and encourages an open conversation amongst all instead of small side conversations between adjacent diners only.

The Meat of It All: the Conversation

As mentioned before, the conversation should be thematic, in response to one thoughtful topic, idea, or question. (When thinking of a topic, it’s often best to choose one that relates to the group at large in some way.) Once the topic is posed, guests are then invited to discuss one at a time (this is the most important part!) throughout the meal.

Allowing each participant to have the floor one at a time encourages active listening and therefore thoughtful responses. To combat any awkward silences, echo chambers, or derailing tangents, a moderator—sometimes referred to as “a Jefferson”—is chosen to keep the conversation flowing and of interest.

One AGEIST team member recently attended a Jeffersonian dinner. Here’s what she had to say: “I recently was on a trip with a group of friends, some of which were new friends and some I had known for a while. We used the themes of Jeffersonian dinners to spark conversation, and we all ended up learning more about one another and exploring topics that we may not otherwise.” 

Now that is something worth dining for.

Image from iStock by Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury.