{"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":644,"summary":"Insight and analysis on what's happening inside Donald Trump's White House. 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 social media investigation 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 BBC Radio 4 and every Saturday on th…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-22T06:20:31.692128+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638"},"episode":{"title":"How will Democrats fight Trump after dumping their candidate Graham Platner in Maine?","slug":"how-will-democrats-fight-trump-after-dumping-their-candidate-graham-platner-in-maine","published_at":"2026-07-08T16:39:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/how-will-democrats-fight-trump-after-dumping-their-candidate-graham-platner-in-maine","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nxmb0m","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nxm966.mp3","summary":"Top Democrats are urgently searching for a new senate candidate in Maine. Graham Platner, the former marine and oyster farmer, lost his party’s support after serious allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies. Winning Maine is pivotal to the Democrats’ chances of gaining back control of the Senate in this November’s midterm elections. Now the party is scrambling for alternative candidates, with questions around they type of candidate the party should choose, and how the Democrats will choose to fight Trump. Before these allegations emerged, Graham Platner was heralded as a non establishment candidate with a ‘chequered’ past who ordinary voters could relate to. In this episode, Anthony and Sumi also discuss the wider consequences for the Democrats as they choose candidates in other states going into this November’s midterms and the presidential election in 2028. HOSTS: • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent • Sumi Somaskanda, Chief Anchor, BBC News 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 and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. 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 listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say \"Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts fami…","meta_description":"Top Democrats are urgently searching for a new senate candidate in Maine. Graham Platner, the former marine and oyster farmer, lost his party’s support af…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1774,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/americast-89638/episodes/how-will-democrats-fight-trump-after-dumping-their-candidate-graham-platner-in-maine/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/americast-89638/how-will-democrats-fight-trump-after-dumping-their-candidate-graham-platner-in-maine.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}