BBC’s Justin Webb, Sarah Smith and Marianna Spring join Americast

The hit podcast returns to BBC Sounds on Wednesday 31 August

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BBC Sounds

Today presenter Justin Webb, North America editor Sarah Smith and disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring have been announced as the new hosts of Americast, joining North America correspondent Anthony ‘The Zurch’ Zurcher.

New episodes of Americast will be released on Wednesdays on BBC Sounds.

Justin says: “We know how much this podcast means to Americasters. I look forward to dusting off my former North America editor hat and delving into the issues and controversies that define the US as a nation. I have a daughter who’s a US citizen and I have a great love for the dynamism and inventiveness of the American spirit. I am also - unusually perhaps - optimistic about its future."

Sarah says: "This is a fascinating time in America - as huge cultural and social issues define the increasingly polarised political debate. I’m excited to be able to tell the story of a changing country with on-the-ground insights from right across America. I’m also married to a US citizen so we are getting competitive about this!”

Jonathan Aspinwall, Senior Editor, News Podcasts, says: “It’s the perfect time for Americast to return, as the next year brings a massive range of engaging topics for us to cover. The congressional mid-terms and the primaries and campaigns leading up to them will provide ready-made drama, with winners and losers among many interesting personalities.

“We’ve signed up a brilliant team of Justin, Sarah and Marianna along with the Zurch. I know they’ll become trusted friends to Americasters who’ve been asking us to bring back the pod.”

Each week on Americast, BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring will investigate the content that is recommended to US voters on social media. Marianna has created undercover voters – multiple social media accounts belonging to different characters and she’ll track the content that is pushed at them.

The profiles have computer-generated photos and will sit across the political spectrum in the US. The ground breaking investigation will cover a turbulent time for the US politics with speculation over a Trump bid for the presidency and Biden facing domestic and international challenges. BBC Undercover Voters is an Americast collaboration with BBC Newsnight.

About

Biographies

Sarah Smith is an award-winning journalist who was the BBC’s first ever Scotland editor in 2014. Before that she was based in the United States for several years working for Channel 4 news, where she covered the 2008 Presidential election, the Haiti earthquake and the global financial crash.

Justin Webb joined the BBC as a graduate trainee in 1984 working in Belfast. He has presented BBC Breakfast and the Six O'Clock News. He was the BBC's Europe correspondent before being posted to Washington. The eight years Justin spent in the US was bookended by some of the most powerful events in US history - the attacks of 9/11 and the election of Obama. Justin was the BBC’s first North America editor and has written two books about the USA “which, he admits, have been rather overtaken by events!”

Marianna Spring is the BBC’s first disinformation and social media correspondent. After the success of her BBC Sounds podcasts for Radio 4 - Death by Conspiracy? and War on Truth, and her recent Panorama on the Olly Stephens case, she’ll be fronting more podcasts and documentaries investigating disinformation and social media while balancing that with wider reporting commitments.

Anthony Zurcher (the Zurch) is a BBC correspondent in Washington DC and has been on Americast from the start. He joined the BBC in 2013 and has covered the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, and state and local politics and culture across the US over the course of his career. Anthony was born in California and grew up in Texas. He can count the US states he hasn't visited on one hand.

Source BBC Sounds