Inside America

By BBC World Service

Inside America episodes

January 18, 2017 Trump Tweet by Tweet
What do Donald Trump’s tweets reveal about the man who, on 20 January, will be America’s next president? Will he continue to use what he has called his "beautiful Twitter” account to tell the world what he is thinking - and doing?
27 min
January 16, 2017 The President and the Press
A history of how the White House and the press corps learned how to live with each other. In 1897, when President McKinley was sworn in, there was no working relationship between the office of the US President and the members of the press. McKinley became the first president to allow press briefings, let the reporters into the Oval office and harness the power of the newspapers to affect public opinion.
President Woodrow Wilson treated the press like schoolboys and chatted to them while having his morning shave, but his presidency did establish the principle that journalists could routinely question their country’s leader.
The first televised press conference was with JFK in 1961 and now they are a key part of any US president's relationship with the people who voted for him, with President Obama widening the meaning of the “press” to include Reddit, Google Hangouts and evening chat shows.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to move into The White House, we consider how the presidential relationship with the press will change, given his avowed contempt for aspects of the “Fourth Estate”.
Our Washington correspondent Jon Sopel - no stranger to a presidential press conference - looks at the history of the connection between the US president and the press over more than 100 years and speculates on how it is set to change.
50 min
November 17, 2016 Searching for Tobias
A moving human story. If you listen to just one thing today, make it this one.
In 2008 Chloe Hadjimatheou was covering Barack Obama's first election campaign when she met a 15-year-old black boy in a Mississippi trailer park. Back then the young Tobias was full of potential and had big dreams of becoming a policeman.
"He really made an impression on me when I met him eight years ago. He just seemed like such a smart young man and I was just curious to see what happened to him... I was hoping good things for him."
Eight years later, Chloe goes in search of him to find what became of him. Did Tobias ever fulfil his wishes?
27 min
November 16, 2016 How to Win a US Election
Katty Kay explores the key moments and turning points in the US election campaigns and hears why Trump supporters in the key swing states such as Pennsylvania were so motivated to vote for Trump.
Weeks before, in the run up to the first Presidential debate, polls indicated that the candidates were neck and neck. Then the momentum of the campaign changed, with Donald Trump rocked by the leaked tape of his lewd comments and repudiation by some Republicans. Following an astonishing second debate, Trump fought to keep his campaign on the road, returning to the tactics which had originally secured his nomination, firing up his core support with anti-Washington rhetoric and increasingly bitter attacks on Hillary Clinton. For Hillary Clinton, lingering doubts remained in voters’ minds about her trustworthiness, clouding her bid to become the first woman president, and Donald Trump is now President elect of the United States.
This podcast is from the BBC World Service programme The Documentary. For more like to go to www.bbcworldservice.com/documentary or search for The Documentary in your favourite podcast catcher.
27 min
November 13, 2016 Trump and the Evangelical Vote
Donald Trump predicted that if he won the votes of America's evangelical Christians he would win the election, and he was right.
A quarter of all voters count themselves as evangelical and 81% of them voted for Trump, despite the deep misgivings and public disagreements among Christian leaders over whether their conscience would allow them to endorse him.
Jane Little speaks to four leading evangelical leaders about how they define evangelical Christianity, their hopes and misgivings for the Trump presidency, what role Christian teachings will now play in shaping the country and whether we are in a new era for the religious right in the United States.
Presented by Jane Little, produced by Claire Press and Richard McIlroy.
27 min
November 11, 2016 Trump’s World
What might American foreign policy look like under a Donald Trump presidency? Based on his rhetoric during the campaign, the scale of the departure from the status quo will be profound. He promises to upend long-standing relationships with both America's traditional allies and its foes; he says Europe and Asia should pay more for their own security; and his plans to defeat so-called Islamic State are bellicose but unfocussed. On this week's Newshour Extra, Owen Bennett Jones and his guests take Trump's campaign promises and hold them up to scrutiny. How much of what he's said does he really intend to implement - and will he be able to put policy into practice?
51 min
November 11, 2016 What a Week
People scoffed, the pollsters dismissed it, the media thought better, the world is shocked - Donald Trump is President elect of the United States.
But as one Trump voter put it "He's done something amazing. He has turned the establishment on its end: is a man who never ran for political office, decided he was going to do it, beat the odds. I feel like it's a huge statement."
Jon Sopel and Katty Kay, presenter of the World News America, talk about how people voted in the US elections; discuss sexism in politics and - crucially – speculate how Donald Trump’s choice on who to bring into the White House with him will influence the direction of his presidency.
Also on the programme what the world thinks about his election with the BBC's correspondents in China, Russia and Turkey.
Picture: US President elect Donald Trump savours victory, Credit: Getty Images
24 min
November 07, 2016 Change in America
How has the US changed since 2008? As the world chews its nails, waiting to see how the US election story ends, Lizzie O’Leary looks at data to figure out how America is different now, in November 2016, from the country which elected its first black president eight years ago.
50 min
October 31, 2016 Oklahoma City After the Bomb
In April 1995 a devastating bomb ripped through the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and 168 people died and many more were injured. Emma Barnett travels to Oklahoma City to find out what happened afterwards. She hears stories of resilience, defiance and success against the odds as the city came together to support and help those who suffered.
49 min
October 26, 2016 Hamtramck: America's Muslim Town
Hamtramck, Michigan, is the first Muslim majority city in the United States. Just over 50% of the residents are immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and Bosnia. Only a few decades ago, the city was dominated by Polish immigrants. Jennifer Chevalier meets its residents and asks, can faith bring this city together?
27 min