A Reagan Forum Podcast

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back to our in-person event with Oren Schneider, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, for his recent book The Apprentice of Buchenwald: The True Story of the Teenage Boy who Sabotaged Hitler’s War Machine, a true story of inner strength, resourcefulness and optimism. Of his grandfather’s life in the concentration camps, Elie Wiesel’s son once said, “Being an inmate of a Nazi concentration camp did not stop Alexander Rosenberg. It did not stop him from doing whatever he could to keep his father alive. And it did not stop him from sabotaging the Nazi war effort by subtly tampering with the weaponry he assembled.” In today’s program, Oren discussed his book with Reagan Foundation and Institute Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Giller.

It’s November and, of course, the month to celebrate Thanksgiving. From all of us at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, we wish you and your family the happiest and healthiest of Thanksgivings. In this week’s A Reagan Forum Podcast, we’re going to go back to 2018’s “Words to Live By” podcast featuring President Reagan’s thoughts and messages to the American people on thanksgiving.

Last week was Veterans Day – a day to honor our nation’s military veterans. Commemorating this day on November 11th each year not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but also helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. In this week’s Reagan Forum Podcast we go back one week to the Reagan Library’s Veterans Day Program, which included an honor guard, live music, and keynote remarks by LtCol Scott Mann (retired). LtCol Mann is a former U.S. Army Green Beret with tours all over the world, including Columbia, Iraq, and multiple tours in Afghanistan. He is also the bestselling author of Operation Pineapple Express, which is an edge-of-your-seat true story thriller about a group of retired Green Berets who come together to save a former comrade—and 500 other Afghans—being targeted by the Taliban in the chaos of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we present Bret Baier - a number one bestselling author and award-winning anchor of Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier. Bret had previously spoken at the Reagan Library four times, the last time in 2019 for his book, Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win WWII which was part of his Three Days series. This time Bret came to discuss his latest book, To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment, which showcases how George Washington rescued the nation and the Constitution three times: first by winning the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the Constitutional Convention and ushering the Constitution through a fractious ratification process, and third by leading the nation as president in its first years. While at the Reagan Library, he sat down in conversation with Janet Tran, the Reagan Foundation and Institute’s Director of the Institute’s Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back just over a week to our October 21, 2023  in-person program with top rated Talk radio host and bestselling author Mark Levin for a conversation on his latest book, The Democrat Party Hates America. While at the Reagan Library, Mark was joined in conversation by Reagan Foundation and Institute President and CEO David Trulio to discuss what Mark calls the radically dangerous Democrat agenda that is upending American life. During the conversation, Mark Levin discusses the destruction he believes this country is facing, and rallies Americans to defeat the threat he sees in front of us.

In this week’s Reagan Forum Podcast we go back just one week to October 17th when we hosted former second lady Karen Pence for a program and book signing on her latest book, When it’s your turn to serve: Experiencing God’s grace in his calling for your life. As she has said about this book, “This is not a memoir, not a book about Karen Pence, but rather a story about how God used me in a mighty way and how he gently and patiently showed me how to wear the mantle he was placing on my shoulders.” During this program, she sat down in conversation with Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Giller to discuss her book, her life, and her connection with God.

In this week’s Reagan Forum Podcast we are replaying a favorite from 8 years ago this week, when football legend Terry Bradshaw shared stories with our sold-out audience.  He spoke at the Library as part of our special exhibition which featured football and he didn’t disappoint.

In this week’s Reagan Forum Podcast we go back to an event our Reagan Institute offices held on September 7th to bring attention to the plight of Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai is a Hong Kong businessman. A prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party, he was arrested in 2020 by Hong Kong police where he currently is serving in prison for organizing illegal protests. During our program, which was co-sponsored by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the audience watched the documentary, “The Fight for Freedom: Jimmy Lai and Democracy in Hong Kong.” Following the screening, a panel discussed his case and the state of freedom in Hong Kong today.

When President Reagan dedicated the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on November 4, 1991, he said that he wanted the Library to be more than just a place where scholars interpret the past, but that he wanted it to be a dynamic intellectual forum where policy makers debate the future. What better way to honor his vision than to host presidential debates at his Library? Since 2007, the Reagan Foundation has hosted 5 republican primary candidate presidential debates: 2 in the 2008 presidential election cycle, 1 in the 2012 presidential election cycle, 1 in the 2016 presidential election cycle, and then our 5th one, just last week, as part of the 2024 presidential election cycle. At our debate, which was broadcast on Fox Business and was in partnership with Univision, Rumble and the RNC, six candidates took the stage. They were, in alphabetical order, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott. Approximately 700 guests watched the debate live in our Air Force One Pavilion, with another 500 members of the media on our campus watching in the filing center and spin room. In this week’s Reagan Forum Podcast we are replaying this debate.

In this podcast we go back to September 12, 2019 when former Secretary of Defense James Mattis came to the Reagan Library to discuss his brand-new book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.

In this podcast, we go back to September 10, 2019, when Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch came to the Reagan Library to discuss his book, A Republic, If You Can Keep It.Let's listen.

In this week's Reagan Forum, we go back to March 7, 2019, to our conversation with Gary Sinise.

In this week's Reagan Forum, we go back to August 2019, when we hosted a conversation with Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. After a brief career as a left-handed pitcher, Tommy Lasorda became one of the most enthusiastic and successful managers in baseball history. Lasorda, who has been with the Dodgers for 65 years, led the team to two world championships, four National League titles and eight division titles in 20 years as manager of the team. Following his retirement as manager, Lasorda became a special advisor to the chairman of the Dodgers. One of his most memorable accomplishments was managing the United States to its first-ever gold medal in baseball at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we look back to May 21, 2013 when we hosted Donald Rumsfeld, who, over the course of his life served as a Member of Congress, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense twice -- the only such example in U.S. history -- and literally a dozen or more important federal advisory roles. Sometime in the 1960s, Donald Rumsfeld began collecting pithy, compelling and often humorous observations about leadership, business and life, gathering them on three-by-five cards and storing them in a shoebox. As his career skyrocketed over time, what started out as scribblings in a shoebox eventually migrated their way to memos, grew sizably and have been distributed widely in one format or another to those who have had the privilege to work with him over the years. In 2013 they were captured in a book, entitled Rumsfeld’s Rules and organized in such a way that they will prove to be priceless pointers to everyone looking to lead in life, from college graduates to business leaders to aspiring public servants. During his remarks at the Reagan Library he discussed those rules.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we look back to July 14, 2009 when Condoleezza Rice addressed our audience. It was less than seven months after serving our nation as the 66th Secretary of State, the first African-American woman to ever serve in this position. Her speech was the most-attended Reagan Forum in the Library’s 18-year history. Condoleezza Rice actually has many things in common with President Reagan. Like the president, she began her political aspirations with the Democratic Party before switching her party registration, and loyalty, to the Republican Party. And, like the President, her unwavering commitment to freedom and democracy and liberty over tyranny led her to an influential position in government, critical in our nation instituting change. During President Reagan’s administration, Condoleezza Rice served as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an arms control and foreign policy specialist. She begins her remarks at the Reagan Library by stating that standing up for democracy is the proposition she wants to defend.