And anxiety that must have plagued my mother, who was the only woman on board the ship with three young girls. Surrounded by love, and very secure parents, who really look out for us. So we never felt any want. Do you remember when you were thinking, or what you thought when you landed in america . I thought american roads would be paved with gold. Typical immigrant folklore. America is the land of opportunity, the land of hope. It is a land where everything is good, a land where the roads are paved with gold. As a child, i thought i am coming to america, reunited with our father. That was exciting, but we were coming to a new country, there is a great deal of excitement. Were was home first . Americans parents are of chinese dissent. They left during the height of the civil war. They were located to taiwan. Lateles southeast of the ninth. The youngestame sea captain at the age of 29, which is quite a feat. He was in charge of a ship full of men, away at sea most of the time. Being responsible for multimillion dollar cargo purred he was only 29 years old. When you are at sea in those days, you had to be selfreliant. There was no other way to seek help if anything happened. My father is incredibly inspirational. A cando, selfreliant, independent, very forward thinking and creative person. Turning that into a successful business. He became one of the youngest ship captains at the age of 29, he wanted more for his family. Because he was away for such a long time. So he decided to continue his studies. He took a National Examination in taiwan. This is a longstanding chinese tradition where you take a National Examination, it is given one day a year. It is actually over four days, but it is given once a year. You are given one chance to excel or not. And he studied very hard. He was an excellent student, as well as an outstanding athlete. He scored number one in the whole country. And he broke all the records. And china has a long history. So to break all the records was quite phenomenal. He was written up in the newspapers. And benefactors came forward to offer him scholarship funds. And with that, he was able to come to america. But i want to say that he was allowed to go abroad, but which country do you think he and my mother chose . They chose america, because america, once again, is the land of opportunity and hope. And that is where they wanted to go. So for young couples that had never really been outside their country very much, they knew about america. It says volumes about americas influence and how strongly held it is in the minds of so many outside the country. Host how did you learn english . Elaine it was dubbed the total immersion method, meaning i entered thirdgrade not speaking a word of english. And i just sat in the classroom. I copied whatever was on the blackboard into my notebook and at the end of every day my father, who would be working three jobs, would come back home very late at night. And he would sit with me and we would pour over my notebook, into which i had scrawled and copied the lesson. But i was very young and i do not know english, so i would transpose the letters. It was really hard for him to go through the notebook with me and decipher what the lesson was. But we prevailed and, you know, we went through my notebook and that is how i learned english and within one year, when you are that young, i was proficient. Host where did you grow up . Elaine i grew up in new york city, queens. Host what was that like . Elaine we lived in a one bedroom apartment. Looking back, it was not a great environment. But again, because we were so secure in our home and surrounded by parents who took such care of us and loved us, we did not really feel like we were needing anything. We were quite happy. We were reunited as a family and life was good. And as our Economic Situation improved, we moved to long island. And then we moved to westchester, where we are today. So it is a wonderful story about what america is all about. That is the important thing. Host and your dad is still alive. How old . Elaine he is 89 years old. In chinese terms, he is 90. He is in great health. He still goes to the office every day. And he swims 30 minutes every day without stopping. I am very fortunate to have him, that he is able to be here and and to be able to see the accomplishments of his daughters. So they had three daughters born in taiwan. After we arrived, three more sisters were born. They are all in the northeast area. Host are you more like your mom or your dad . Elaine i like to think i am a combination. My father is very energetic and very forward thinking, very progressive. You know, he loves technology, even today you can text him, email him, he has his ipad and iphone. He is terrific with technology. I really admire that. My mother was a very compassionate, kind person. They came from very different backgrounds. And i think that is a lesson in life. Out of turmoil and hardship, can come opportunity and good things. So for example, my father came from a small farming village of ten families outside of shanghai. 10 families. It was a small village. And my mother came from prosperous, distinguished, welltodo family. It was the turmoil of the times, the country was in domestic turmoil, there was civil war going on. So my mothers family left their home, they went to nanjing, and there were problems over there, obviously when the japanese invaded. And they went to shanghai. Under ordinary circumstances, in the social order of old china , these two young people would have never had the chance to meet, because they were from such different social economic backgrounds. But in the turmoil of the times , my father and my mother went to a high school and she was able to meet different kinds of people. So they were introduced through mutual friends. Host have you been back there . Elaine i have been back to asia. Regularly when i am out of office, not so often when im in office. So i did go back. Host do you remember the first time you walked through the gates of the white house . Elaine i do. It was, it was actually a feeling of awe. But also of loneliness. I always wished that there were more people who are like me who are able to enter the white house. I come from a big family so im used to sharing. And at that time, 1983, it was not a very diverse population at the white house. I think the only asians that were there were the filipino stewards. And i thought, how wonderful it would be if my immigrant community could come with me in to see what is in the white house. And people of different backgrounds to come and see how the government functioned. So when, you know, when i was secretary of labor i actually had appointed a number of different young people to be liaisons to underserved communities. And to communities of color, so that we can reach out to make sure that they feel comfortable entering into the federal government. That this is their government. I remember how i met my first cabinet officer at the age of 39. I was so intimidated. I came to the Labor Department at that time, and i saw these huge doors. They are beautiful wooden doors. Brown, iiful color of still remember them. I was on the outside and i thought, gosh, she must be inside. Thinking she was right inside the front door. And then of course, when i got to the department of labor, i realized that was only the front door. There was a whole lot of offices back there. So i did not want people who are not part of mainstream america to feel intimidated. And i felt a responsibility to develop leaders for our country for the future that were of diverse backgrounds. Host lets talk about the 4 president s you worked with, beginning with Ronald Reagan. In a sentence or so, describe your interactions with them and what they were like as a boss, beginning with president reagan. Elaine president reagan, i was a white house fellow, i was so young at the time that if i caught a glimpse of the president that would have made my day. So i really did not have much interaction, but i will say that i think president Ronald Reagans presidency was successful for many reasons. Two i will cite that pertain to me. One is i was actually independent. I was not very much involved in politics at all. But president reagans inaugural message, and his goals of smaller government, stable monetary policy, less regulations, really resounded with me. That kind of, kind of like touched a chord that made me realize i am actually conservative. So president Ronald Reagan was actually able to reach out to parts of the population that did not view themselves as republicans, who nevertheless connected with his message. Secondly, because he had such simple but clear principles, it was actually relatively easy to be in his administration, because you knew what he stood for. What the administration stood for. And every day when he went to work, you knew the principle that you are supposed to follow to carry out daily tasks. Host george h bush, you had a number of appointments, including peace corps director. Elaine i was the deputy secretary in george h. W. Bushs administration, as well as being the peace corps director. Let me talk about the peace corps director first, because that was really interesting and it speaks to one of the great strengths of president george h bush, that is he had an insightful international view. In the summer of 1991, he already knew and sensed that the former soviet empire was going to collapse. And he knew that peoples of the different republics of the former soviet union were going to need a different kind of assimilation into the rest of the world. So that is what he wanted the peace corps to do, is to help develop, send in volunteers with a different kind of skill set. Volunteers who were older, who had more experience, and you would be able to help the peoples of the former soviet into adjust and assimilate a new post soviet union world. Host eight years as the labor secretary, both terms of george w. Bush, what was he like to work with . Elaine he was very, he was a very good boss. He expected his people to do their jobs. And, um, he gave you the ability to do your job. So i thought he was a very good boss. And his white house was experienced, because he was with his father when president george h. W. Bush was president. And i think president george w. Bush learned a great deal from those four years. Even though his Administration Transition period was cut short by 37 days due to a dispute about who had won the election, on january 20, they were ready. Host how do you prepare to manage an agency or Department Like labor, or now, transportation . Elaine i think first of all it is important to understand the contribution of the career ranks. For example, when i came in and came in as secretary of labor and as secretary of transportation, the first thing i did on the very first day was gather the career acting heads, the career leadership, and thank them for carrying on the mission of the government in the transition period. It can be very chaotic, the transition can be anxiety ridden, and we really need to thank the career folks for providing stability and carrying on the mission of the government. Host why transportation . Why did you decide to take the position and was it something you wanted . Elaine i was hoping to get transportation in 2001, because my background is in trade and transportation. I was a transportation banker for a number of years for both citicorp and bank of america. I had worked for transportation companies, so my whole background was actually in transportation. So it is nice to return to a field now in which i had worked previously and it is nice to be able to be back in a department i am familiar with. Host so the fourth republican president you are working with, the current president. Elaine President Trump is very social, very sociable and social. He is very quick. He learns very quickly. And he drills down and he is interested and curious about everything. So he is great fun to be with. He has good instincts. He picks good people, present company excluded. So he has good instincts. And he is also able to connect with the american people, he speaks in a plainspoken way and obviously seen from the results of the election, he connects with people on a very real and authentic level. Host if you were to write an opening paragraph describing elaine chao, what would you write . Elaine i would write, she hopes she made a contribution to her country and society. That she kept her humanity and compassion and humility. And that she helped a lot of people along the way. And that she was a good daughter, a good wife, good sister. Host you are also misses mitch mcconnell. How did the two of you meet . Elaine we met through mutual friends in the best chinese way, we were introduced through mutual friends. We were introduced by the first asianamerican u. S. Ambassador in our country. She was the ambassador to nepal. Her father and our family knew each other. So through family relations, she introduced mitch and me. Host did you know right away . Elaine i always liked him because he was not your usual politician. He was not backslapping. I actually, i did not like i am going to cut back on that one. No, but i liked him in this sense, i was going to say i did not really like politicians very much, because i thought they talked too much and in asian culture we emphasize more humility. So, that is why i liked mitch. I thought he was always very thoughtful. He was deliberate. And he was always listening and learning. And i thought that he was a very real person. He was very grounded, very humble, and i like that. Host is he a master of the senate, and does he love the senate . Elaine he is very humble. You will have to ask him. That term has a lot of connotations. Mitch is a very serious student of american history. You ask him about any aspect about american history, you ask him about any election, house or senate, he will know the answer probably. He reads all the time. And he values the lessons that history offers. Host so if the two of you have a day with nothing on your schedule, what do you do . Elaine we talk about really mundane things, kind of boring. You know, we actually have a private life so we deal with the things every other couple deals with, like who will take out the garbage, how are we going to get our schedules to mesh on saturday, what are you doing this saturday i am going to the gym and where you going . Just like every other couple. Host you made news in a podcast, you said i prepare somewhat more than some of my male colleagues. Elaine i did not repair too much today because it has been a busy day. Well, i want to do well. Your listeners are so kind to tune in and i want to do a good job for the listeners. I want them to feel like it was worth their time to listen. I feel that way about everything i do. People are giving me their time and attention and i have a responsibility to do a good job to justify their trust in me. Every job i have had i have been so grateful to people who have trusted me, even though they may not have known me, they have given me a job in a want to do my best. Host how do you prepare your own learning curve, whether it is head of united way, or peace corps, now transportation . Elaine i think it is a matter of being thoughtful and considerate. And i do not like it when people come and they are unprepared. Because the time you spend is so precious, if you come to see the secretary, you want her full attention, you want her to know what you are talking about rather than having to explain this is a, this is b, this is c. Hopefully if the principle is well prepared, the discussion can be richer, more meaningful, productive and it will be of good use of the visitors time as well. That is what i always think. I remember when i was on the outside and i would be so disappointed if the person i was seeing did not know who i was, what my background was. So as an example, when i go anyplace, you know there are some the people who want to see me and they have been waiting maybe 15 minutes, half an hour, or 45 minutes i always make a point to know who they are, what their names are, and what they are doing their. There. I think they deserve that. I think it is the respect i can show them when i visit them. So i tried to be prepared out of respect for the person i am meeting with. Host lets talk about one issue that the president talked a lot about over the campaign, infrastructure. Specifically highspeed rail. You have traveled around the world, you see what japan has, what europe has, what would it take for america to get that . Elaine we currently do not have high speed rail expertise. That brings into question a number of issues which we can discuss. We have highspeed rail projects in the united states. It is a very promising one, between houston and dallas. There is a very promising one in soon to be opened later this year in florida. Of course, there is one, there are a couple in california. There are some in the chicago area. We of course have amtrak, we can reach 135 miles per hour, but basically the highspeed rail, for it to exist there needs to be a straightaway. When the road curves, or the track curves, that is when the rail car must the bank and slow the rail car has to bank and slow down, so first and foremost we need the land. So that is restrictive. Secondly, as i mentioned, we do not really have the highspeed rail expertise. The highspeed rail expertise can be found in spain, italy, france, japan, china, and then the question is, you know, as we consider the infrastructure proposal, we need to be careful how these transactions are structured. Because i think there would be concerned if foreigners were to know about parts of our infrastructure. We are looking at that very carefully. But the president is an enthusiast for highspeed rail. He is very interested in how we can achieve a more comfortable experience for passengers, get them from point a to point b in a faster and more comfortable way that contributes to improving the quality of life. And that is not spoil the environment. Host do you think we will get there at some point . Elaine i think we will. I do not know when, but as i mentioned there are a number of projects in the country right now. So lets see how they develop. Some of them are funded totally with private funding. They probably need some help with waivers from regulatory aspects. And so as we talk about infrastructure, we are concerned about the Regulatory Overreach that may have occurred in the past, and have hampered some of the projects from coming to fruition at a faster rate. We are also looking at regulations on employers that could hamper the rate of job creation, which is this president is concerned about. Host speaking of regulation, is there a role for federal government when it comes to airline overbooking . Do you have a view on that . Elaine we are very concerned about that and we are keeping close tabs on the airlines on the issue, and of course with united we have been, we have been talking to them, asking them what is going on. We have looked into it and we have posted on our website a passengers bill of rights. We want every