{"podcast":{"title":"Americast","slug":"americast-89638","podcast_index_feed_id":89638,"rss_url":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p07h19zz.rss","website_url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h19zz","image_url":"http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0k99j29.jpg","author":"BBC","episode_count":592,"summary":"Americast is the authoritative US news and politics podcast from the BBC. Each week we provide audiences with the best analysis from across the BBC, with on-the-ground observations and big picture insights about the stories which are defining America right now. The podcast is hosted by trusted BBC journalists including the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, BBC Radio 4 presenter, Justin Webb, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, and BBC North America correspondent, Anthony Zurcher. As well as political analysis, we also specialise in social media. Each week Marianna Spring brings listeners the latest updates from the BBC’s Undercover Voters, our award-winning investigation into the content that is recommended to US voters on social media. The team is also joined by special guests each week, like CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour, Emmy Award-winning TV host, Rachel Maddow, and Succession actress, J Smith-Cameron. Podcasts are published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As well as being a podcast, we are also available every Friday on the World Service. Oh, and by the way, you can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to l…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638"},"episode":{"title":"Does Trump need China to end the war in Iran?","slug":"does-trump-need-china-to-end-the-war-in-iran","published_at":"2026-05-13T18:28:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/does-trump-need-china-to-end-the-war-in-iran","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nl1r5w","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nl1pp3.mp3","summary":"It’s Donald Trump vs President Xi, as the US president is on his first China visit in nearly a decade. A fragile truce exists after both countries came close to a fully blown trade war last year, and now the U.S may need China to help end the war in Iran. As ever, Donald Trump is hoping a positive personal relationship with Chinese president Xi Jinping will help broker a number of trade deals, and has brought with him a fleet of tech CEOs including Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Larry Fink of BlackRock, as well as other executives from Meta, Visa, JP Morgan, Boeing, Cargill and more. But hanging over the entire trip is the fragile ceasefire in Iran, which Trump says is on “massive life support”. China is a key ally of Iran and may have greater ability to broker a peace deal, but what would Beijing want from any peace deal, and would the US president be able to resist the opportunity to end a war that’s deeply unpopular with Americans back home? Back in Washington DC, FBI Director Kash Patel has been facing more questions over reports of allegations of excessive drinking, this time during a congressional hearing over the FBI’s budget. Patel continues to deny the allegations and has sued The Atlantic for defamation over its reporting. Why can’t he shake off the claims, and will Donald Trump take notice? HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email Americast@bbc.co.uk • Or use #Americast This episode was made by George Dabby with Tom Gillett and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The se…","meta_description":"It’s Donald Trump vs President Xi, as the US president is on his first China visit in nearly a decade. A fragile truce exists after both countries came cl…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1796,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/americast-89638/episodes/does-trump-need-china-to-end-the-war-in-iran/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/does-trump-need-china-to-end-the-war-in-iran.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}