Episode 49: Interview with Michael Reagan of the Reagan Legacy Foundation

Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast. We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you if you're a returning listener. Thanks for coming back. Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing.

As our nation honors and celebrates Veterans Day, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes a very special guest to the WWIA podcast, Mr. Michael Reagan. Michael is the eldest son of former President Ronald Reagan and Academy Award winning actress Jane Wyman.

He's the chairman and president of the Reagan Legacy foundation, which seeks to advance the causes President Reagan held dear and memorialize his presidency's accomplishments.

Michael is a syndicated columnist, a former radio talk show host, a dynamic and sought after public speaker, and a New York Times best selling author. Some of his books include on the Outside, Looking In, Twice Adopted and his latest book, Lessons My Father Taught Me.

Michael has had a distinguished and eclectic life, from debating Mikhail Gorbachev to setting world records in powerboat racing.

He spent most of his life in public service and is passionately involved with charities such as the Young Americas foundation and the Mixed Roots Foundation.

Michael has helped raise over $1.5 million for charities like the United States Olympic Team, Cystic Fibrosis, the Juvenile Diabetes foundation and the Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund. Michael has been proudly married for 48 years to his wife Colleen.

They have two wonderful children, a daughter, Ashley, and a son, Cameron, as well as three incredible grandchildren.

We're honored to spend some time with Michael and hope you enjoy getting to know more about his work, his journey and his commitment to honoring America's veterans and service members. Without further ado, let's jump into the conversation with John and Michael now.

Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action Foundation Foundation. And this is our podcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.

And so today, you know, I've got probably the most famous, well, not probably the most famous person I've ever interviewed.

So I'm a little bit nervous here, but I want to, I want to welcome to the program Michael Reagan, the oldest son of the former President Ronald Reagan. Welcome to the program.

Good to be with you. Thank you so much.

Awesome. It's great to see you. Now you're in California.

Born and raised.

Born and raised. Awesome.

Well, I'm in Florida and so through the powers of technology, we're chatting and I just got a big grin on my face because I'm, you know, I just think it's an honor to meet you and spend some time with you. And I'm sure that our listening audience is going to feel the same way. So this is really, really great. You know, let's get right to it.

You know, you are an incredibly interesting man. I did some research on you. Yeah, I sure did. And I found some things that I was like, wow, I mean, I can't wait to talk to this guy.

So first off, you are the chairman and the president of Ronald Reagan Legacy Foundation. Of the Legacy Foundation. And I looked at the projects, at what you do and where your focus is and looks to be like, there's four projects.

A Walkway to Victory, which is the Normandy Memorial at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Okay. Which, you know, has to do with the fall of Germany and the reunification of Germany or the communist regime that once was.

And then of course, you do scholarships for all those sailors and airmen who served on the USS Ronald Reagan, which is a aircraft carrier, a monster, a beautiful ship still in commission today. And then the Normandy Museum that you also have, and that's over in France. I've actually been to that. So what a wonderful thing.

Talk to us about that.

And we came up with the idea of putting together a scholarship program for the men and women who serve a border.

And my wife Colleen really came up and she's come up with some great ideas and she said, why don't we make those scholarships also available to those family members who are at home while their loved ones are on the ship for like a six month tour, who are also trying to better their education.

So we give thousand dollar scholarships to the men and women who serve on the ship, which we just sent out, gosh, this last week, some scholarship money.

And we send $2,000 to the family members because the government, as you probably know, will help those on the ship, but those left home don't get much help from the government at all towards their continuing education. So we give $2,000 to family members, which has really worked out so, so well. And that's an ongoing program.

And then, you know, not too many years ago, we were in Normandy, France, visited St. Mary Glees. Normandy, France, first town freed by America. Morning of D Day. If you ever saw the Longest Day, I'm sure you have. It was filmed at St.

Mary Glee's, Normandy, France. That's where all the paratroopers were going on the morning of D Day.

And so we became friends with basically the two of the sons who were the children of the D Day mayor. So I actually saw it happen in front of their eyeballs.

Wow.

And there's a great museum there with the, you know, the planes and all these other things that are there. And so we helped them put together a building, which is the Ronald Reagan Building, St. Mary Glees, France, for some of the things that they have.

And again, Colleen came up with a great idea to why don't we do a brick project there and allow people to go online, purchase a brick. We're a 501C3.

Sure.

So it's tax deductible.

And purchase a brick with the name of a loved one who served the European theater during the second world War, Put the name on the brick and then put it in the ground at St. Mary Gleeves. And we were given an area of ground to be able to do that. Sure.

And by the way, we're going to end this on December 31st because we've run out of room. We're kind of filling all the space that we are given by St Mary Glee, by Normandy, France, by the museum.

And so people can put the names on of a loved one if they don't know. People send us checks. It's $250 for a brick. They send us checks, put in the memo brick project.

There's plenty of military personnel that we can put their names on. And we send people a picture of the brick and the family and who that person was, where they served. And so if they go to normandy, go to St.

Mary Glee's, they can look at the walkway to victory, we call it, and find that brick and say, hey, they were involved in that.

That's cool. Wow. Well, that's quite. You know, that's quite a legacy.

You know, in our pre chat, before we punched record, by the way, we're trying to get this thing wrapped in tribute to this being the podcast for Veterans Day, which is coming up here very shortly. So I think we're going to be able to make that.

But I was on your website, the Reagan Legacy foundation website, and I clicked on first about in the about tab, and then there's your picture, of course, and then it says, a letter from Michael Reagan. That's you.

And it starts off with a quote and with your permission, I'd like to read it, because after I read it, I was like, wow, that is very succinct. It's just two sentences, and it's from your father. Would you mind if I read that?

You're the host.

Yeah. So this is a quote from Ronald Reagan. On the Reagan Legacy foundation website.

It says, whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunities, arm steadying your way. Ronald Reagan.

Isn't that great?

Oh, it's a great quote. In fact, if you visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, the last thing you will see is a video.

At the end of the video is my dad with that quote.

It's very phenomenal. I got to tell you, Michael, we don't have a script, so we just kind of run this thing.

But I want to say a couple of things about your father, because he's my favorite president of all time. Okay? I was. When he was our president, he was number 39 and number 40. Okay? So, right. He did two. He did two tours, you know, back to back tours. Right.

And everybody remembers where they were during certain events. And my first real memory of something that happened that just kind of shook me.

And I was only a junior in high school at the time, was I was walking to the baseball diamond after school. I was a varsity baseball player. And I was just about ready to walk through the gates, and a car pulls up.

And the other students, you know, the parents were. Or athletes, the parents were dropping them off, I guess, you know, for this practice.

And I was just walking from the locker room out to the field, and a car pulls up, and one of the kids gets out, and his dad looks at me, rolls down the window and says, you know, president Reagan's been shot. And I will never, ever forget that. I never forget the feeling that I had. And so, yeah, I mean, what. What an amazing American.

And he was in my opinion, the greatest president we've ever had in modern history. Certainly. And, you know, in my life, he was just, you know, he is the yardstick by which others should be measured, in my opin opinion.

I'm not going to disagree with you.

Yeah.

Oh, I.

He's your dad. This is your dad.

Yeah.

Wow.

Us give a third term. Right, Right. No, that's. You know, and I don't know, you probably know the answer to this, but, you know, some of his speeches. Okay.

And me and my buddies, I got a. You know, I was in. I was in the Rangers. And Rangers have a soft spot, obviously, for, you know, Ronald Reagan. He was a great president.

And he spoke many times at Normandy in.

The Rangers have a memorial there because they scaled the walls, the cliffs at Point the Hawk, you know, and Rangers jump in there every, you know, five years when they have their, you know, their reunion. And so he gave. Your father gave a speech at Point to Hawk that. It just puts chills down my spine every time I listen to it.

And my buddies and I share that, you know, not infrequently. And I just. I can't. I don't know how. I mean, the guy was. And he had a gift. Yeah.

I mean, obviously, probably some really good, you know, speech writers as well. Maybe he did it himself. But I'm telling you, that guy could. That, that guy could rivet you right to your seat.

Yeah. It's really interesting when I told the presidential wannabes back in the debate at the libraries, come ask me, you know, what can we do different?

I said, listen to my father's speeches because my father. You felt what he was telling you. He. You just didn't hear what he was telling.

And I said, the problem with today's politicians is they, like, yell at you and they speak at you, but you remember nothing of what they said.

Right.

And you remember everything my father ever said is because you felt them. He spoke to you in parables and so on. And that point to Hawk.

I've been out there quite a few times, and it's amazing when you go there, I mean, you look down at those cliffs.

You gotta be kidding Me under fire. Under fire. They did that.

And I've been good and bad days, I mean, on good days when I've been there on sunny days, I look at those cliffs and go, how the hell did you figure that one out?

Unbelievable.

Really something to go there. And my dad was the first president to ever go to Normandy on D day and speak on D Day.

And every president since my father has gone to Normandy on D day and spoken on D Day. So he really kind of led the charge on people knowing where Normandy was and how important it was.

As we now have, what, about a hundred, still about 100,000 veterans from that period who are still alive, right?

Yes, yes.

An incredible feat what they did, you know, scaling those cliffs, you know, as we entered Europe, you know, and freed all of Europe from, you know, Nazi Germany. Incredible. Just incredible feat. Yeah.

But you know, the problem, you know, the problem is lots of problems. Unless we tell our children that they don't know that's true, we don't teach history anymore.

That's right.

And for some reason we think someone else is going to teach the history to our children.

And I learned about, I learned about America and the history of America sitting in the right front seat of a skate wagon on eight, given Saturday morning when my dad would pick me up from mom to drive me out to the ranch and we spend the day at the ranch.

But for that half hour drive, 40 minute drive out to the ranch, he regaled me with songs in the army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard and tell me stories.

I love it.

We don't do that anymore.

No, no. I tell you, I have a, I have a. You know, this is probably shock to you, but I have 10 year old and an 8 year old boy. Okay.

And, and I'll, and I love them to pieces. Right.

And, and this morning as I woke him up for school, I was sitting on their, you know, they sleep in a bunk, in bunk beds, one on top of the other because I, you know, I mandated, you know, in my house that that's what happens. You two will bunk together, you know, until, until otherwise directed. Right. I just think it's important.

And, and so they're bunking together, they're waking up and I'm sitting on the bed and the lower bunk as they're, as they're rousting out of the rack and I start in with my army Jodies. I don't know, it's funny you just said that, but that's, that's what I did this morning.

You know, I Was, you know, I want to be in Airborne right now. Just, just, just to get them, you know, just to get them cranked up, you know, and it's just hilarious. I love it.

So I gotta ask, you know my son Cameron.

Yeah.

Who has two girls.

Yeah.

Eight year old and a six. Excuse me. Now a little boy who's going to be two gage. You know, he'll, he'll on, on Veterans Day.

Yeah.

Or Memorial Day or usually it's Veterans Day. He'll. He'll take him to a cemetery.

Yeah.

That's. And he'll, he'll tell him the story.

Yeah.

And he does it. I, I didn't tell him to do that. You know, just the way he's raised and, and what you're.

He'll take him up to his grandfather, my dad's library, who always has events on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and what have you up there with.

The military's there and the bands are there and walking through my dad's library where they learn about their grandfather, but they also learn about freedom and all of those things that again, if we're not going to teach them ourselves, don't expect the, don't expect the school system to do our job right.

No, that's a, that's a great point for parents or anybody really.

You know, teaching our youth about our history, you know, that the, you know, that freedom isn't free and that many, you know, great men and women, you know, sacrificed a lot that to make this country as strong and as free as it is. And oh, by the way, it's not just this country, it's. It's globally.

Yeah. Well, he was very proud that not one inch of land was taken during his eight years by his 40th president of the United States, not the 39th.

But yeah, he Very, very proud of that.

You know, we always thought, my sister and I thought, you know, if he doesn't make President United states in the 80 election, you know, we will run him for, you know, head of the Boy Scouts and give him an Eagle badge, you know, because he was, he was a Boy Scout basically. At heart, he was just an Eagle badge. Like running for president was like a Boy Scout trying to get Their eagle badge.

Right.

And that was his eagle badge. He was laughable, you know, great sense of humor. Storyteller.

Yeah.

Well, I have to ask you, some of my staff obviously knew that I was going to be chatting with you today, and one of them asked, you know, well, you should ask him what his favorite memory is of his father. And I thought, you know, that's actually a really good idea. So I'm going to throw that at you if you don't. If you don't mind.

I know it's kind of a curveball maybe, but do you have a favorite memory of your dad?

Well, you know, what I would say is this. Before and after, and everything has to be for politics. After politics.

Right.

Because when you're in politics, you're not allowed to have those favorite moments because there's too many other people vying for that moment, if you will.

So before politics, right out the ranch, my dad, any given Saturday morning, hearing stories from my dad, riding horses with my dad, shooting ground squirrels with my dad, swimming with my dad, chopping firewood. I gave him his first chainsaw. My God, you know, so he could, you know, cut some prunes and trees.

Those were great moments with my father as a child, prior to politics and then after politics. I would tell you probably the best time with my dad is when he had Alzheimer's.

Wow.

I was doing one of those things, you know, like, jeez, God, you know, my dad never really told me he loved me, and that sucks. And I need to. What can I do about it? And I was playing that. That thing kind of helped destroy a lot of good stuff I was doing. And.

And I think a lot of people do, they say, well, my parents didn't say they love me, therefore I'll be a failure. And they. They use that excuse to fail. And like, God came to me and said, when's the last time you told your dad you loved him?

There you go.

I realized at that point I never told my dad I loved him, but I was kind of ticked off he had never told me he loved me. And I was using that as an excuse for failure.

Right.

And. And God just said, hey, next time you see your dad, give him a hug, tell him you love him. And I was doing my radio show at the time.

You know, I was in radio 27 years and my dad came to be interviewed by me. I was booking American Life, and I decided to fulfill my promise to God. And when he walked in the studio, I went over to him and I hugged him.

Scared the hell out of him. He looked at the Secret Service. I'm being attacked by my own child here. What's going on? And I hugged my dad and I said, I love you, dad.

You know, my dad said to me, well, I love you, too.

Oh, my God, that sounds just like a man.

Wow. And I thought to myself, so I've been using that as excuse. And all I had ever had to do was tell him I love him.

And so we started telling each other we loved each other, you know, until the time when. And we would hug and tell each other we loved each other. And then he get Alzheimer's came about.

And it came to a point in his life where he couldn't say my name, but he remembered I was the person who hugged him. And so when I would walk into the room to see him and visit, his arms would open up.

He couldn't say my name, but his arms would open up because he remembered I was the guy who would hug him low and hug him goodbye. And the seminal moment was Colleen and I, my wife, went to visit Nancy. You couldn't visit with daddy more, but he was in the room.

I sit in a chair, and we had to go. And we got up to leave, went out to our car. I was getting in the car to leave. My Colleen says to me, you forgot something. I said, what? I forget?

Look at the front door. I turned around, looked at the front door of the house, and my dad was standing in the front door with his arms wide open.

I had forgotten to hug him goodbye. And he, with Nancy's help, had taken little tiny baby steps with help to the front door and was standing there, the front door with his arms open.

And I ran back to that door, fell into his arms. He hugged me. I hugged him, I love you, dad. And he turned and Nancy walked back in the house. I went to the car.

I will never forget that moment in my entire life. Here was somebody with Alzheimer's who had remembered I had forgotten to hug him goodbye.

Here was a guy without Alzheimer's who had forgotten because I was too busy to remember.

Wow, that's. That's a great story. Thanks for sharing that, Michael. That's. That's. That. That some. That's some powerful stuff right there. It really is. That's great.

Wow. Well, you took a chance, right? You know, and you. And you Owned it. And look at, look at what it did. That's just a wonderful. Oh, yeah, that's one.

I wrote a book called Lessons My Father Taught Me. And that story I think is in the book is.

Yeah. So you're an author to switching gears on you. I mean, tell me about the books you've written. What, two or three books now?

Probably six or seven Sixers.

Okay. Okay. Well, I beg your pardon, sir. While you're a prolific writer. Okay, tell us about your books.

Well, yeah, the last was Lesson My Father Taught Me.

Yeah.

But nothing really before that. You know, Twice Adopted because I was adopted. And so that. That book is probably a really great book to get.

The other ones are political for the most part. My first book was on the Outside Looking in, which really told story to tell the story of my life.

And the book end of that would be, you know, Twice Adopted. And so if you're going to get my books, what I would do is I get Twice Adopted Lesson My father taught me.

Those two you can still find on the outside Looking in. But you know, I. I went through a lot, a lot of stuff when I was a child, sexually molested as a child, for a year of my life.

Walked away from God, walked away from my mom, walked away from my dad, walked away from myself and, and what have you. And writing the first book on the outside, you know, looking in and all that really was therapeutic because I.

I had to go back and relive those moments, which are the toughest things in the world.

Right.

And I found that was the best therapy for me was reliving the moments and really dealing with them. And then also in. In Twice Adopted that also chapters in there. So it really became therapeutic for me in those books, writing those books.

And it probably saved me because I was, you know, I was a wreck.

But I just had to deal with all of those things to get my relationships correct with my mom, with my dad and what have you and try to make up for those. Those things in My life that I had walked away from.

Like I told people, I said, I have no friends from my childhood because I was fearful of having friends. They found out what I knew about me, they would have walked away from me.

So it was easier for me to walk away from them and let them try and figure it out and what have you. I've had few get back at me in the years from high school and go, gee, I never knew. I said, well, you never knew because I never told anybody.

But it was a horrific, horrific thing to go through. And I got speak on these issues to different groups and what have you, because it is what you do.

Somebody who's sexually molested and had photographs taken of you, as I did by my molester and blackmailed by molester with the photographs, they really take your childhood away. Yeah, and so my childhood was taken away.

So my favorite, favorite parts, as I told you, riding with my dad out to the ranch on Saturday morning, be with him, you know, I felt safe, sure. That's the only place I really felt safe was in the right front seat of my dad's station wagon on a Saturday morning.

That's a very powerful story and I appreciate you sharing that with us. It takes a, it takes a lot to one to tell that story, but.

More to have endured as I'm on that issue. It takes a child seven times to tell someone that they're being abused or what have you before the first person listens. Wow, seven times.

And now you know why A lot of kids just say screw it.

Right done right. Well, and there's a whole thing in there too, like this idea of self worth and self love, love.

And you know, that's challenged in that process when you've become abused, you know, and, and there's a lot of layers to it and to work your way back through that and make right in your life, you know, especially as a child, you know, and then even later as an adult, you know, I mean that, that it's just not an easy thing. And God bless you.

Fears I had fears, I write in the first book, fears that if, if anybody found out about the photographs that were taken of me and they became public, my dad never would have become governor.

Right.

My dad wouldn't become president. I thought I would be the reason that he, in fact, it would lose.

And somebody asked me at one point what would have happened if the photographs that the he took of that man took of you had ever come out. I said I wouldn't been alive for the first interview. I would have committed Suicide.

Because suicide becomes an option for a child that's been molested.

Yeah.

Because it really does. And you read about that all the time where a child's been molested, whatever, commits suicide because it's just. It's the nature of the beast.

Yeah.

But there is an option. Because I was twice adopted, instead of running away from God, I decided to run back to God.

Yeah.

And with my wife's help, really. And Jack Hayford, a few of other people that really, really helped me.

Well, that's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that with us. That's some pipe hitting hard stuff right there. But you're right.

It's the, you know, it's the good Lord, it's the relationship with the Almighty that can heal all wounds, you know, it really, it really can. Especially, you know, once you've given yourself to him. Right. And ask for forgiveness, ask for help.

I'm one of those guys, though. I love when people say, I accepted Christ and everything's wonderful in my life. I go, I have to do that every day.

Well, I think we all should.

Every day start there.

That's right.

I'm in trouble.

That's right.

It's like the alcoholics, you know, guys and gals that are part of aa, you know, I've heard them say, you know, you know, hey, my name is fill in the blank and I'm an alcoholic. You know, it's this admission that you, that you.

That you are what you are and by exercising that or communicating that, you know, is where the road to recovery really begins. Yeah, wonderful. And so I gotta tell you, switching gears on you. When I read about you setting world records, Okay.

I mean, look at this, look at this life you've had. That's unbelievable. So I said at the pre show, I was like, yeah, and you even set some world records in powerboat racing.

And you held up your hand and said, five. You know, I'm like, okay, so I got to ask you. Okay, so I'm kind of a speed freak too, you know, and I've been on the.

I've been on the water my whole life. And I, you know, got a boat in my backyard and all this.

And I love going fast in my boat, but it's a fishing boat, you know, it's not one of those power boats. Like what you were. So tell us about these world records that you set. Five world records. And, oh, by the way, the proceeds of.

I think it was something like $1.5 million that, that you actually, actually more than that.

It just hit. But it's you're right.

That you gave to charity, though, right?

Wow.

And when my dad became, you know, president and I sold Sea Ray boats for years.

That's a good boat.

When my dad became president, nobody wanted to give me a job.

No, you would think it would be the opposite. You think everybody be like, why wouldn't you want to hire the president's son?

You have five, six guys around you all day long with guns.

Well, there you go. That's kind of a problem. If you want to work behind the counter, we're gonna go for a demo.

And don't let that Coast Guard cutter next to you bother you, you know?

Right.

And. And so really media and all this other stuff. So I create a situation.

Yeah.

And Larry Smith, great friend of mine, who designed scarab boats.

Yeah, I know that. I know that brand.

And Larry and I have known each other, gosh, since the 60s.

Yeah.

He came to me, we were talking. He said, what. What would happen if we put together some long distance races to break some records and we do it for charity?

I said, that'd be a great idea. Can we do that? So, well, craft boats down there in Florida, you know, Bob Long. Well, Craft said, hey, I can work with you on that.

So they built me a scarab and put three V8 outboards on it from Evinrude. And our first race from. Was from New Orleans to St. Louis on the Mississippi River, 10, 27 miles.

And we broke and put in a new world record, and that ended up raising $500,000. We sold off the mileage, dinners and lunches at both ends, and we raised $500,000 for the United States Olympic team by doing that.

Wow.

We honored Augie Bush at the end, at the dinner, which is great. And it was a, gee, let's do another one. So we did another one. We did from Chicago to Detroit, and we broke that record.

Raised another 50 or 100,000, whatever it was, the United States limited team. Then Cystic fibrosis came to me, good friends of mine for years, 40 years, by the way, this year, and said, would you do one for cystic fibrosis?

From Ketchika, Alaska to Seattle. Okay. And we put that together. When should we put that together? We raised $250,000 for cystic fibrosis. Largest fundraiser they had ever had.

And we just had a dinner. I was at Fundraiser for cystic fibrosis the other day and we auctioned off a ranch tour there.

And the $250,000 he raised was the first funding for the Cystic Fibrosis Guild of Seattle. And they still have dinners every single year and raise millions of dollars.

And then a few years ago, who's the big tech guy who came up with the first computers?

Bill Gates.

Bill Gates. Bill Gates heard about that organization we put together for the race, what we did and what have you.

And I said to Sue, I said, if I went up there to the dinner in a year, they wouldn't know who I was.

Right?

But I said, but we started it and so it really shows. You put it, you throw a pebble into the water, you never know what's going to happen. No, but we did that. We did Chicago, Detroit, we did. Gosh, L.A.

san Francisco, L.A. we tried to break the record up to New York from, from Miami.

But I used to, you know, I used to race boats with Don Arono, Bob McGoon, all those guys down in Florida used to race at Miami marine Stadium.

Wow.

By 18 and 20 footer.

And was it just you and then or was it two people in the boat? How many were in that crew?

Oh, the scare of three.

So yeah.

Navigator throttle on the left, navigator on the right.

And where were you? Are you steering it?

I'm in the center steering wheel.

Wow. And you, so you got a throttle guy.

That's what I'm trying to get my head around, you know, is okay, my job is to steer the boat, but I got a dude that's powering it. You know, I mean, you two have to be obviously well in sync.

And he's got to be looking at the waves and he's got to be looking at the water and the competition. If there is any, you know, I mean, that, that. That's usually done by one person, but when you split it up, you know, it's just.

To me, it's like, wow, that's just an idea that I can't have a little bit of difficulty getting my head around.

Well, I know you'd really have to trust each other to throttle, man.

The driver, right.

A navigator on the Mississippi river was tough because you got all the deadheads.

You couldn't go throttle down the whole way. You must have had to. The Mississippi. There's got to be places where you got to go down to an idle, right?

No, not really. We average 75 miles an hour at night.

Holy cow.

Because we drove at night, too.

Like, that's not without risk, man. That's not without risk. I mean, you go down to Mississippi with all the obstructions to navigation, et cetera, at 75 miles an hour at night.

I mean, that's. That's like scalded ape with your hair on fire, man.

You know, I love it. More people are worried about me than we were.

That's awesome. That's just awesome. Wow. I mean, that's crazy. You know, you just have got a. In an incredible. You've lived an incredible life.

And that's radio, by the way. What's that?

Yeah. So tell us about this radio show that you were the host of Syndicated radio. What was that all about?

No, I just. I was having lunch with a gentleman who was the general manager at KBC Radio in la. And after lunch, he said, you got a good personality.

Ever thought about doing radio? And I said, oh, I think about every day when I wake up, but nobody ever asks, is that true?

He said, well, you know, Monday, our number one host is taking off. Why just sit in for him? I said, oh. I said, okay. So I actually sat in for a week at kbc. I take it over for the regular host, Michael Jackson.

That was Nick, who was on vacation. And I. My first interview was on the road with Charles Kuralt.

Oh, wow.

I did that interview with him.

And then I guess Sunday morning. Charles Corralt, that guy. Like, what was that program? What was that? Was it a good. Good Morning America? Or was it. Or that was his own program.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was the very beginnings of talk radio back in the.

Right.

In the early 80s.

Got great voice. Yeah, yeah.

And the. So I did that, and now I got a show down in San Diego, and I go down there and do the show and come back home in la, where I lived.

Oh, remember that guy?

I went, okay. I said, what now what? So I said, do it to others before they could do it to you again. So I started my own national show with no money, nothing.

Yeah, and when I read, when I read about that a little bit, I was like, well, it's not, I'm not going to have a hard time in this interview because this guy's polished at it. You know, you've done very, very well for yourself. Wow. Okay, so listen, I gotta, I gotta also, you know, a lateral back to you here, Michael.

You know, is there anything else that you'd like to chat about that our listeners might find interesting or about your work with the foundation?

Well, you know, I had a mother.

I'd like to share that with people, please, please do.

Yeah, really. Until my dad ran for governor, I was Jane Wyman's son.

Yes, I read that.

Yeah. Ronald Reagan's son.

She was an actress, wasn't she?

Academy Award winning actress.

That's right, that's right.

Nominated four times for best Actress. She got, I think three or four Golden Globes.

She had, in fact, when dad was president, she had the number one television show on TV called Falcon Crest. So she had Falcon Crest. She was number one on television. Dad was President, United States in Washington D.C.

Unfortunately, her and I were the only ones born into a family where the father would go on to become President, United States and the mother would go on to become Academy winning actress. Nobody else has lived that life. So I go out and I'll speak and, and what have you. All over the country I give speeches.

If I second ago to Q A, the first question is, how is it being raised by Ronald Reagan? You know, because nobody else would live that life. And probably nobody will ever live that life, you know, again.

So to be literally part of living history.

Yeah. Well, what was your mom like? I mean, what. Tell us about who that woman was.

Oh, she's great, Mom. Mom was. Mom was tough. Mom is Midwestern girl. St. Joe, Missouri, St. Joe here. When I. When I was growing up, I want a 10 speed bike.

And all the other kids were getting one. She made me sign a note with her and she loaned me the money for the 10 speed bike.

So I sold papers in front of Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills, split the profits with her on Sunday morning until I paid her back when I started my national radio talk show and I was driving to San Diego, back every day, 272 miles. I called her one day, I said, you know, Colleen, I got two kids. There's no money coming in. While getting this thing all started. Can you help us out?

Help us out. She absolutely said, what can you do, Mom? She's like, I tell you this, shut up and keep driving.

She hung up on me and I called her back, what the hell was that all about? She said, did somebody die and say, you didn't have to pay your dues like everyone else? I said, no. Well, shut up and keep driving.

God bless her.

That was the lesson. So right I did. And that show lasted, you know, a long time.

That show lasted what, 8, 17, 18 years till I walked away from it and started doing the Reagan Legacy foundation speaking and, and all of those things. So, you know, she was tough. She was great. I am the way I am because of my mother, politically, my dad, but the way I am is because of my mother.

It's like I tell people when I open a door for a young lady to go into a building or what have you, they say, thank you. I said, don't thank me, thank my mother. Because it was up to me. I'd slam the door.

But my mother raised me correctly, and that's why I'm opening the door. So thank my mother. And so any woman out there who has a man open the door for them, thank their mother.

Don't thank them, thank their mother, because that's who instilled those values in that person. Who opened the door for you? So my mom was great. And, and, you know, the movie's out, Reagan, it's online. It's, you know, Amazon and what have you.

Great movie, came out in August and is now online streaming. Okay, my mother's depicted the movie correctly. She hated politics. Hate it. And they do a great job with that.

So, you know, go see the movie Reagan, but go to ReaganLegacyFoundation.org and look at what we're doing and get yourself a brick to honor A World War II veteran who served in the European theater. Get in the ground. December 31st is our cutoff date. Whatever we finish selling by that time, they're going to honor them.

They'll find the space, but then it's over because we filled by obligation that area that they allocated to us.

That's wonderful.

Saint Mary Lee's.

Yeah.

You know, before we close here, you mentioned Mikhail Gorbachev, which, you know, I remember, and anybody who was living at the time and, you know, and saw it or heard about it probably remembers it, too. But, you know, your father standing up at a podium, you know, I think in Berlin, not. Maybe not in Berlin. I don't know exactly where it was.

Someplace in Germany. I think you can tell the story better. But I remember him looking at the camera. I remember watching it live on TV and he's, you know, Mr.

Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Remember?

Yeah, that was in Berlin.

Berlin, that's right. That's right. And then the war, the wall got torn down. Germany became, you know, reunited. Right. East and west, and.

And your father was the pivotal figure that. That helped that make that happen.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people worked out, but you're right.

Yeah.

But that's Berlin Wall. That was, you know, back. Back in the day. But, you know, I tell.

When I take people on tours at the library, and people should really, if they come to la.

Yeah.

Go to the library in Simi Valley. Right.

You come home from school, you say, your mom, I was invited to have dinner, go see a movie with Aunt Sophie. And your mom says, yeah, honey, that's great. Tell my sister I love her. It gets to be too late. Spend the night.

Yeah.

Because at midnight of the 12th, the morning of the 13th, barbed wire, dogs, contractors come in building the Berlin Wall. Wherever you spent the night, you were there. Unless you find a way to escape. That's how quickly you can lose your freedom.

That's right.

And we don't tell that story enough.

Right.

I tell that story to every child that comes out to the library. I put him in front of that Berlin Wall and I let them know that's how quickly they can lose their freedom.

Ask the people of Ukraine, how quickly can you lose your freedom? Hello.

Right.

You know, immediately, if you're not paying attention and what have you.

So if you want to honor, you know, honor of that ReaganLegacyFoundation.org scholarship program, or the BRIC project, which is really important, we really finished it out by December 31st. It's a great project, as I said, is tax deductible and what have you. And it's one of the stories I tell. I told Mark, who did the movie.

This shows up in the movie is when Gorbachev tells my dad, you know, my. At the end, at least they show it at Reykjavik, where I was this summer. You know, my grandmother was a Christian.

She used to go to church every day and she come to the Kremlin and visit me, said, mikhail, I went to church today. I prayed for the atheist Mikhail, I prayed for you. And so that was.

So I told that story to Mark years ago because I got that story from an event I did with Mikhail Gorbachev and which, by the way, no Reagan people knew about his grandmother being a Christian woman.

Didn't you like debate that guy?

Yeah, we had. Yeah, we had. Yeah, we had a couple of. One down in Florida and one out here at a college here in California. And it was more like.

Yeah, it was debate, conversation, whatever, but it was great. And we all became basically friends to an extent, as much as you can.

Sure.

You know, he sappy at dad's funeral, he was the one sitting behind us, you know, dad and up to the ranch, had him out to the library and what have you. My dad made friends of enemies, not enemies of friends. And my dad stoves still so, you know, uplifted all around the globe, no matter where I go.

My wife owns a travel business, so we travel a lot, take groups out. And it's nice to have a father who's loved and revered as much as my dad and my mom. And it's, you know, it's really nice.

Well, you certainly are A raconteer extraordinaire, my friend. You, you're a great storyteller, you know, and that the two things I wrote on my.

And underlined on my note sheet here that, you know, that I got from listening to you and about your dad and his legacy, you know, liberty and global democracy, you know, I mean that he was the champion of those. Those two wonderful ideas that are also very fragile.

And like you've said, it's our job to educate our children and to keep the momentum going regarding the legacy of your father. And I want to thank you again for your time today.

If I gave one more suggestion.

Absolutely.

Veterans Day coming up. People say, what can you do? Yeah, you do bricks and stuff like that, but here's just something small you can do.

If you're having dinner at a restaurant and you see a member of the military, you know, in uniform sitting there with their family having dinner or breakfast or lunch, pick up the tab.

Yeah.

And say thank you. If you're on a plane flying from point A to point B and you're sitting in business class or first class, remember the military gets on stand up.

Give them your ticket, take theirs. You sit where they have their seat and let them sit in your business, your first class seat and say thank you.

There's little things you can do to honor our veterans, honor our military.

They're out there serving today, and sometimes we don't think about those little things that we can in fact do on Veterans Day, Memorial Day, whatever. Take your children, as my son does. Take them to a cemetery, military cemetery, and let them see the crosses. They explain the crosses to them.

Let them tell them the story. Don't count on someone else to tell that story. You tell the story to your, to your children and instill it in them so they have that pride.

Because what's happened is we forgot how to love America and we need to relearn how we can love America. And that's as good a start as any.

Well said. Thank you very much. I wish I could shake your hand and. Yes, sir, I wish I could virtually shake your hand here. And thank you for your time today.

And I understand it's also your anniversary, so you and your bride. Congratulations on. What'd you tell me? It was like 48, nine. How long you been 49?

49.

49. So go and you make her coffee every morning and God bless you.

Oh, yeah, I love it. Best thing I tell you, if it wasn't for her, I'd be a homeless person in LA in a tent be a nice tent, but I'd be homeless.

That's awesome. All right, well, listen, thanks for your time and what an honor it was to meet you, Michael.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

God bless you. I'll talk to you soon. Okay. All right, bye.

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