"Marianne Williamson For President"

Sarah is on holiday so the BBC's US Special Correspondent Katty Kay steps into her breach on Americast, equipped with stories of Dr Anthony Fauci saving a guest at the prestigious Gridiron dinner.

The team speak to Marianne Williamson, who found fame as Oprah Winfrey's 'spiritual advisor', and who now wants to usurp Joe Biden to become the Democratic nominee for President, despite newly-emerged allegations of bullying her staffers.

There are other challenges for Biden this week, though - Marianna Spring talks us through how the president's controversial plans to approve oil drilling in Alaska are being received online.

And a former economist at the United States Department of the Treasury, Brad Setser, explains how damaging the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is for the US.

Americast is presented by the BBC’s US Special Correspondent Katty Kay, Today host Justin Webb, social media and disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring, and North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher.

Find out more about our award winning "undercover voters" here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63530374.

Email [email protected] with your questions and comments and send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, to +44 3301239480.

This episode was made by Rufus Gray and Alix Pickles. The studio director was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor was Simon Watts. The senior news editor was Sam Bonham.

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 listen, just say ‘”Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. Every Monday we answer your questions on Americanswers, with some help from special guests, including Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department for Homeland Security during the Trump presidency before becoming a whistleblower. Got a question or a comment? Get in touch with us on email at [email protected] or WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

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• Latest episode: 2025-06-02
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