Episode 113: Inside the Reagan White House – Lessons for Today’s Politics with Frank Lavin

Global Economy Podcast

ECIPE

Business

4.2 • 5 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frank Lavin joins Fredrik Erixon on the ECIPE Global Economy podcast to discuss his book Inside the Reagan White House: A Front Row Seat to Presidential Leadership with Lessons for Today. The conversation centres on Reagan’s leadership and the philosophical pillars of his presidency. Lavin reflects on Reagan’s views on government, the Cold War, and his moral approach to foreign policy, comparing it to today’s tendency to use more grievance-driven rhetoric. They also explore Reagan’s ability to unite people across political divides, his optimism, and his focus on individual empowerment. The discussion highlights valuable leadership lessons for today’s political climate. You can watch a video recording of this conversation here. You can read a transcript of the chat here. Order Mr Lavin’s book “Inside the Reagan White House: A Front-Row Seat to Presidential Leadership with Lessons for Today” here. Frank Lavin is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University). He was CEO of Export Now and he is the author of several books on economics and international affairs, including “Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II (War and Society in North America)”. Frank has had senior posts in national security and international policy in the administrations of the two Bush presidencies and was Director of Politics under Ronald Reagan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to ESOBS Global Economy Podcast.
0:15.0	My name is Frederick Ericsson and today I am pleased to welcome back to the podcast my old friend Frank
0:21.3	Lavin who is now spending quite a lot of time promoting his new book that just also has been
0:27.4	released in Europe it is titled inside the reagan white house a front row seat to presidential
0:34.8	leadership with lessons for today and it is a delightful read with strong
0:39.5	analysis and piercing observations about America, of course, but also U.S. domestic and foreign policy
0:45.7	and the world of then and today. The front row seat that Frank has in the title, of course,
0:53.9	refers to the fact that he worked in the Reagan White House, starting as a volunteer in Reagan's transition office and staying mostly throughout his two terms in office in various White House positions.
1:08.5	After his time in the Reagan White House, Frank has had very senior positions in the Bush positions. After his time in the Reagan White House, Frank has had very senior positions
1:13.3	in the Bush administrations, Pair and Fee, and pursued a business career between government
1:20.1	service, which included, among other things, the launch of a successful e-commerce platform
1:25.3	in China. Now, Frank is, among other things, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
1:33.3	Frank, welcome to the podcast.
1:35.9	Frederick, thank you for having me on, and thank you very much for your gracious comments about the book.
1:40.5	It was an exciting project.
1:42.5	I think I tried to capture that moment and
1:44.4	tried to draw some general conclusions about US government and US policy formulation and
1:50.1	US role in the world. And it's the whole point of writing a book is of course to share it.
1:56.0	So I'm delighted to share it with you and share it with other friends as well. And thank
2:00.2	you for having me on today.
2:02.1	No, and I am also being honest when I say, I think it is a truly delightful read.
2:08.1	And I certainly learned a lot from reading it.
	...

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