PODCAST · news
Transition Lab
by Partnership for Public Service
Transition Lab is a behind-the-scenes look at presidential transitions. Join Valerie Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition for candid discussions with transition experts, exploring the relationship between presidential transitions, effective government and a strong democracy. 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.
Episodes
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The 2024 Presidential Transition: What Happened? With Heath Brown
The peaceful transfer of power occurred successfully at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, when President Joe Biden handed control of the federal government to President-elect Donald Trump. After an election cycle characterized by intense partisanship and distrust, how did officials manage this monumental...
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How’s the 2024 transition going? With Max Stier
‘Tis the season – and not just for the holidays! The 2024 transition is in full swing, so for this episode of Transition Lab, we invited our CEO and president Max Stier to join us for a discussion of President-elect Donald Trump’s (second!) presidential transition and how it stacks up against…
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Too many cooks in the kitchen? With Lanhee Chen
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. Campaigns already do policy work, so why does a transition need a policy team, too? Today on “Transition...
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How do we build a better government? With Jenny Mattingley
Political pundits wax on about government waste, red tape and inefficiency, but the truth is that while the federal government can learn plenty from the private sector, no magic wand would make government operate exactly like a business—and for good reasons. This week on “Transition Lab," we…
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How do you become a political appointee? With Kathryn Dunn Tenpas
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 role of political appointees in the federal government and the pathway to these jobs. Tenpas…
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Ever heard of an agency review team? With Melody Barnes
During every presidential transition, flocks of people parachute into agencies across the federal government. From November to January, these agency review teams serve as the bridge between the president-elect and the mammoth organization they will soon oversee, relaying information back and…
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What if the Constitution had the solutions all along? With Yuval Levin
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. Constitution—despite being centuries old—could help us address our most pressing modern social and...
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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...
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What can we learn from the 2016 transition? With Ann O’Leary and Rich Bagger
We remember the 2016 election as one of the most bruising, knockdown, polarized elections of our time, but behind the scenes, representatives for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were quietly preparing each candidate to transition into office. Today, we speak with Ann O’Leary, co-executive...
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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…
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Why should we care about government, anyway? With Eric Liu
Once we leave high school social studies behind, government can feel distant, complex, impersonal and overwhelming. On today’s episode of Transition Lab, we talk with Eric Liu, co-founder of Citizen University. Eric established Citizen University to rebuild a civic culture in America and help...
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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....
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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...
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Is history repeating itself? With Lindsay Chervinsky
Do you know all the ways that America’s first presidential elections look like today’s? We sure didn’t! In this episode of Transition Lab, historian Lindsay Chervinsky tells us the story of America’s first two presidential transitions and how George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson...
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Transition Lab Season 2 Trailer
Welcome to season two of Transition Lab, hosted by Valerie Boyd, Director of the Center for Presidential Transition. During the first season, we introduced the public to the inner workings of a presidential transition by featuring former White House chiefs of staff, members of Congress and other...
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Exploring “The Peaceful Transfer of Power”
Rachel Klein-Kircher and Loren DeJonge Schulman are joined by three practitioners and experts on presidential transitions who discuss the major challenges the Biden-Harris team had to overcome during the toughest transition in modern U.S. history.
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Yamiche Alcindor and David Marchick on a Transition Like No Other
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.
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Chris Liddell on Trump's Transition Out Of Office
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 Readiness Project, a comprehensive presidential transition guide. In this episode of Transition…
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Yohannes Abraham on Leading the Biden Transition
In this episode, host David Marchick spoke with Abraham about leading the Biden-Harris team, the lessons he has learned from previous transitions, and how the country’s health and economic crises have affected his work.
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Phil Schiliro and Candi Wolff on the Senate’s Role in a Presidential Transition
This week’s episode of Transition Lab focuses on the Senate confirmation process with Phil Schiliro and Candi Wolff. Wolff, the head of global government affairs at Citi, served as the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs under President George W. Bush. She was the first woman to…
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The Biden Transition to Power
Ted Kaufman and President-elect Joe Biden go way back. Kaufman helped organize Biden's first Senate office in 1972 and served as his chief of staff for nearly two decades. Kaufman left the Senate in 1994, but later returned to fill his old boss’s seat after Biden became Barack Obama’s vice...
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Representative Derek Kilmer on Congressional Modernization and Transitions
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 way Congress works. During this episode of Transition Lab, Kilmer joined host David Marchick to...
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State of the Transition: An update with Ken Burns, Josh Bolten and Eric Rauchway
Host David Marchick, along with award winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, former George W. Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten, and historian Eric Rauchway, reflects on the current state of the transition, the costs of delay, and how this moment will be remembered. See Privacy Policy at...
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Melody Barnes on the 2008 transition and what lies ahead for the Biden-Harris team
Melody Barnes has had a distinguished political career. She has worked in various roles on Capitol Hill, held senior positions with the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign and transition teams, and led the White House Domestic Policy Council from 2009-2012. Currently, she is the co-director…
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How does the GSA "ascertain" the outcome of an election? An inside look at the GSA, ascertainment and the 2000 election
On this week’s episode of Transition Lab, host David Marchick unpacks the contested 2000 election with David J. Barram, who served as GSA administrator from 1996-2000. Barram discusses the process of ascertainment, his work during the 2000 election and how that contest differed from the 2020…
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John Podesta on the 2020 Presidential Transition
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 2008-2009 and chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 while overseeing her...
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An inside look at how the Partnership for Public Service helps build better presidential transitions
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 the Defense Department and National Security Council, most recently as the senior advisor to...
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Planning Transitions During Unprecedented Times: A Virtual Conference
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 Transitions: Perspectives for First-term and Second-term Administrations.” The event included former...
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Steve Hadley and Kurt Campbell on National Security Transitions
Stephen Hadley held key national security positions in three Republican administrations before working on the George W. Bush transition in 2000-2001 and serving as Bush’s national security advisor. Kurt Campbell is an expert on East Asian affairs who served in the Clinton and Obama…
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Michael Froman on Selecting a President-elect's Cabinet
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 later served as a White House deputy national security advisor and as the U.S. Trade…
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Famed journalist John Dickerson on “The Hardest Job in the World”
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 for 60 Minutes and is the recent author of “The Hardest Job in the World: The American…
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The Art of Agency Review During a Presidential Transition
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 of Transition Lab, host David Marchick speaks to Lisa Brown, co-chair of agency review for the…
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The Best of Transition Lab
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 about some of the most notable transfers of power in U.S. history. In this episode, host David...
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Two Transitions Planners Reflect on 2016 Presidential Election
Marchick asks Meier and Bagger about how they prepare to lead their respective transition teams.
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All-star reporters discuss covering presidential transitions
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, and previously collaborated on several transition stories during the 2016 election. In this...
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Key Transition Lessons from Two Former White House Chiefs of Staff
Josh Bolten and Denis McDonough discuss how they helped orchestrate successful transfers of power, fostered bipartisanship during those difficult times and helped set the standard for successful transitions today.
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Intelligence Briefings During Presidential Transitions
David Marchick joined former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell for a wide-ranging discussion about intelligence-sharing during presidential elections and transitions, foreign interference during presidential elections, and how the 2020 candidates can build strong relationships with the...
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Preparing the government for a presidential transition
Mary Gibert has one of the most important jobs in Washington today, preparing the federal government for a possible presidential transition. As the federal transition coordinator at the General Services Administration, Gibert and her team are working closely with the White House, the campaign of...
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Planning Presidential Conventions
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 and in the future.
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Breaking into a Male-Dominated National Security Arena
Jamie Jones Miller and Nina Hachigian talk with host David Marchick about their careers in government, how they handled uncomfortable situations and the importance of bringing more women into leadership positions.
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Chris Christie on Trump’s Transition to Power
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie explains how he planned the Trump transition and where it went wrong.
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Help Wanted: The Critical Job of Selecting 4,000 Presidential Appointees
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.
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The George W. Bush Transition to Power
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 transition in history at just 39 days.
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The Man Who Ran Washington: James Baker
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.
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Navigating the Screening Process for High Level Political Appointees
Powerhouse attorneys Leslie Kiernan and Robert Rizzi explain how political appointees navigate the vetting process when seeking a political appointment.
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The Worst Transition in U.S. History, with Ted Widmer
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 tone for his presidency.
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The Rocky Transition from Hoover to FDR : How FDR Overcame the Odds
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.
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The Clinton Transition to Power
Mack McLarty, former White House chief of staff, shared insights on the Clinton transition as well as President Clinton’s first year in office, as well as the privilege of serving alongside the president, a friend from childhood. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California...
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Ken Burns on Presidential Leadership During American Crises
Filmmaker Ken Burns and historian Geoffrey Ward share stories with Transition Lab about the biggest crises in our nation’s history and how our past informs the present.
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Planning for a President’s Second Term
Professor Michael Nelson, an expert on the American presidency, joins Transition Lab to discuss the political dynamics that define a president’s first and second term. Nelson explains how new presidents can maximize their impact during their first year in office and outlines the challenges…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Transition Lab is a behind-the-scenes look at presidential transitions. Join Valerie Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition for candid discussions with transition experts, exploring the relationship between presidential transitions, effective government and a strong democracy. 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.
HOSTED BY
Partnership for Public Service
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Transition Lab have?
Transition Lab currently has 65 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Transition Lab about?
Transition Lab is a behind-the-scenes look at presidential transitions. Join Valerie Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition for candid discussions with transition experts, exploring the relationship between presidential transitions, effective...
How often does Transition Lab release new episodes?
Transition Lab has 65 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Transition Lab?
You can listen to Transition Lab on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Transition Lab?
Transition Lab is created and hosted by Partnership for Public Service.
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