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Rearview Mirror Chronicles
Keith Hockton, FRAS, is a writer, publisher, and award-winning podcaster based in Penang, Malaysia, with a deep passion for uncovering the stories that shaped our world. As the Southeast Asia Editor for International Living magazine, Keith explores the intersections of history, culture, and modern life across the region.
A dynamic lecturer and storyteller, he speaks internationally on Southeast Asian politics, economics, and history—bringing the past to life with clarity, wit, and insight. Keith is also a proud Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and is on a mission to make history not only accessible but genuinely entertaining for everyone.
His published books include:
• Atlas of Australian Dive Sites - Travellers Edition (Harper Collins Australia, 2003).
• Penang - An inside guide to its historic homes, buildings, monuments and parks (MPH Publishing, 2012; 2nd Edition 2014; 3rd Edition 2017).
• Festivals of Malaysia (Trafalgar Publishing, 2015).
• The Habitat Penang Hill: A pocket history (Entrepot Publishing, 2018)
• Alana and the Secret Life of Trees at Night (Entrepot Publishing, 2018)
• Penang Then & Now: A Century of Change in Pictures (Entrepot Publishing, 2019; 2nd Edition 2021
• Bersama Lima - Five Together (Entrepot Publishing, 2022)
www.entrepotpublishing.com
Rearview Mirror Chronicles
Regan - Let's Make America Great Again
Ronald Reagan. The smiling cowboy president who told Americans he would make their country great again, long before that slogan returned to stalk the halls of power. But behind that easy grin was a far more complex figure, and in this episode I step into the darker rooms of his legacy.
Reagan sold a dream of American renewal, but for many it came wrapped in fear, austerity, and a widening gulf between those who had plenty and those who were quietly abandoned. His tax cuts rewired the American economy, his rhetoric reheated the Cold War, and his administration walked the tightrope between bold gambles and disastrous judgement. Then came Iran Contra, a scandal so murky it still feels like a political fever dream, a tangle of secret deals, shadow wars, and a president who seemed to drift further away from the controls.
With President Trump again sharpening that familiar make America great again slogan, it felt like the right moment to look back at the first man who used it, and to ask what it really left behind.
This is Reagan stripped of the Hollywood lighting. The charm, the contradictions, the damage, and the ghosts that still walk American politics today. Step in, if you dare.
For books written and published by Keith Hocton