Podcast
Transition Lab is a must-listen for anyone interested in developing a better understanding of what needs to happen before a president takes office or starts a second term.
The second season of Transition Lab explores the connections between transition and democracy and provide analysis of the 2024 transition.
Listen to the podcast’s first season for interviews with former presidential chiefs of staff, transition team leads and other presidential transition experts.
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Season Two
How do you lead a presidential transition? With former Governor Mike Leavitt
A law on presidential transitions bears former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt’s name for a reason: he wrote the book on managing the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next. Twelve years ago, Leavitt built “the ship that never sailed:” the Romney Readiness Project. He memorialized this work in a book by the…
Two parties, too many problems? With Lee Drutman
Red versus blue, Republican versus Democrat, liberal versus conservative. Today’s politics are driven by intense partisan conflict, but things haven’t always been this way. In this episode of “Transition Lab,” we talk to Lee Drutman about how our two-party system and winner-take-all elections have inflamed our political divisions. Not to worry, though: He also tells…
Why should we care about government, anyway? With Eric Liu
On today’s episode of Transition Lab, we talk with Eric Liu, co-founder of Citizen University. He talks about the importance of a peaceful transfer of power as a civic ritual and proof of the rule of law.
How Fragile is American Democracy? With Archon Fung
As the 2024 presidential election approaches, you can almost feel the tension rising in the air. Today on Transition Lab, we talk with Harvard professor Archon Fung about why political discourse today feels so rough, why our democratic institutions feel so fragile and what we might do about it.
America’s at a crossroads. Where do we go from here? With Judy Woodruff
Journalist Judy Woodruff spent the last two years “reporting on America” by traveling the country to speak to people and try to find out why we’ve become so polarized. Today on Transition Lab, she tells us about how politics has changed since she arrived in Washington, D.C., during the Carter administration, how these changes inspired her current series, “America at a Crossroads,” and what she’s learned from it.