{"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":"Have the Democrats found a new strategy to scare Trump?","slug":"have-the-democrats-found-a-new-strategy-to-scare-trump","published_at":"2026-04-17T10:55:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/have-the-democrats-found-a-new-strategy-to-scare-trump","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8lyy","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0ndzw76.mp3","summary":"Why has an oyster fisherman from Maine - criticised for having a Nazi tattoo - become a frontrunner for the Democrats, and one of their best hopes to help take back the US Senate in this year’s midterm elections? The north eastern state of Maine has become integral for Democrats as they look to unseat Republican senator Susan Collins, and elect their first Democrat senator in decades. But it also tells a bigger story, about how the Democratic party is looking to take on Donald Trump more widely, beyond this November’s midterms and into the 2028 presidential elections. Justin and Anthony unpack what Maine tells us about Democrat strategy and why Graham Platner, currently polling first, is not a typical Democrat candidate. And does it tell us something significant about what voters want in 2026? Plus, we speak to Josh Keefe, a reporter for the nonprofit Maine Monitor, who went to school with Graham Platner. He discusses his memories of Platner, what Mainers think about his tattoo and Reddit scandals, and he tells us what he loves about his state as in the return of our United States of Americast feature. HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GUEST: • Josh Keefe, Reporter for the Maine Monitor 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 Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now liste…","meta_description":"Why has an oyster fisherman from Maine - criticised for having a Nazi tattoo - become a frontrunner for the Democrats, and one of their best hopes to help…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1993,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/americast-89638/episodes/have-the-democrats-found-a-new-strategy-to-scare-trump/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/have-the-democrats-found-a-new-strategy-to-scare-trump.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}