Transition Lab

Assigning one job to two people can be a recipe for disaster. Yet, presidential candidates typically have two policy teams—one for the campaign operation and one for the transition operation. Campaign...

Getting a job can be really hard—but getting a job as a Senate-confirmed, presidential appointee can be even harder. Today on “Transition Lab,” we welcome Kathryn Dunn Tenpas for a conversation about ...

The federal government seems broken, but it might not be for the reasons you think. In this episode of “Transition Lab,” Yuval Levin talks with us about the surprising ways in which a the U.S. Constit...

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...

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 “Transit...

Coming soon! Season two of the Partnership for Public Service podcast. This is the last episode on the 2020 transition, but the podcast will return later in the year with a new focus. Stay tuned. ...

Chris Liddell is the Trump administration’s leading transition expert. A deputy chief of staff, he previously served as executive director of the Romney transition team and helped author The Romney Re...

Representative Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) is the chair of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, a bipartisan panel that has produced nearly 100 recommendations focused on improving the wa...

John Podesta served as President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff from 1998 to 2001, founded the Center for American Progress, was the co-chair of Barack Obama’s presidential transition in 20...

This week’s episode of Transition Lab features three leaders from the Partnership for Public Service. One is special guest host Loren DeJonge Schulman, a national security expert who spent 10 years at...

On October 2, the Center for Presidential Transition, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and several presidential foundations and libraries hosted a virtual conference called “Talking Transit...

Michael Froman has had an extraordinary career. After serving in the Department of the Treasury under President Clinton, he became the head of personnel for the 2008 Obama-Biden transition team and la...

John Dickerson has covered Washington politics for more than two decades as a reporter for Time, Slate Magazine and CBS News. He previously hosted Face the Nation, currently works as a correspondent f...

Agency review – the process of informing new administrations about the work of the federal government’s various departments – is a critical aspect of presidential transition planning. In this episode ...

Since launching in January 2020, Transition Lab has offered a close look at the world of presidential transition planning, featuring in-depth interviews with those who have organized, led and written ...

Marchick asks Meier and Bagger about how they prepare to lead their respective transition teams. ...

Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia know all about presidential transitions. They currently write about transition planning and presidential politics for Politico and the Wall Street Journal, respectively...

Rev. Leah Daughtry and Maria Cino discuss the role of conventions in political campaigns, whether they give a boost to the candidates, and how the COVID-19 pandemic will change conventions this year a...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie explains how he planned the Trump transition and where it went wrong. ...

Jonathan McBride and Liza Wright, former directors of the PPO under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush share their advice on how to land a political appointment. ...

Clay Johnson, the executive director of Bush’s transition, tells host Dave Marchick how Bush brought many of his personnel practices as Texas governor to Washington during the shortest official trans...

Former White House Chief of Staff and Cabinet Secretary James Baker joins host David Marchick on Transition Lab to discuss his long and distinguished career on the national stage. ...

Historian Ted Widmer tells host David Marchick about Lincoln's two-week train ride from Illinois to Washington, D.C. in February 1861 that helped him find his voice, build public support, and set the ...

President Herbert Hoover and President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt failed to cooperate in any matter during the four-month transition that occurred in the midst of the Great Depression. ...

Stephanie Cutter shares her perspective on managing the Obama-Biden transition during the global financial crisis. ...

Admiral Thad Allen, talks about his experience leading the U.S. response to some of the most challenging modern crises. ...

Admiral Thad Allen discusses how he kept morale high when communicating with troops, media and the country during times of panic. ...

Former governor of Utah and Romney Transition chairman, Mike Leavitt, shares how he planned the 2012 presidential transition had Mitt Romney won the election. ...

Chris Lu explains his role in the 2008 transition and the challenges he faced coordinating the biggest hand off of power in the world. ...

Former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy shares insights from her experience running the Agency Review team for the Obama transition and serving as Undersecretary of Defense. Flournoy also di...

Josh Bolten and Denis McDonough, Chiefs of Staff for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, talk about three types of transitions - into government, to a second term, and the handoff to the next ...