America Explained

Andy and Martijn unpack Trump's first six months and what the Republican Congress has - and hasn't - accomplished.

Andy and Catherine talk about what was and was not accomplished at last week's NATO summit. At least Donald Trump didn't have a tantrum, but is that really enough?

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get  ⁠⁠⁠⁠15% off for podcaster listeners⁠⁠⁠⁠ ! Andy and Martijn talk about Trump's falling approval ratings and how much they matter.

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get  ⁠⁠⁠15% off for podcaster listeners⁠⁠⁠ ! Andy is joined by Jeff Le, who among a host of other jobs was California's negotiator with the first Trump administration, to discuss all things Trump, trade, and technology.

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get  ⁠⁠15% off for podcaster listeners⁠⁠ ! Andy and Catherine discuss the Trump administration's deportation of migrants to a mega-prison in El Salvador and the threat it poses to the rule of law in the United States.

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get  ⁠15% off for podcaster listeners⁠ ! Andy and Martijn discuss Trump's shocking policy towards Ukraine and its impact on Europe and beyond.

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get ⁠15% off for podcaster listeners⁠ ! Andy and Catherine talk about the history of USAID and why the Trump administration picked it as the first target of its efforts to destroy the federal bureaucracy.

Check out our weekly newsletter - and get 15% off for podcaster listeners ! It's Inauguration Day and America Explained is backed. In today's episode, Andy and Martijn discuss what to expect from Trump in foreign and domestic affairs in the coming months - and whether he will really be the unconstrained MAGA steamroller that a lot of commentary assumes.

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Catherine talk through the latest polls, and about how much to trust polling in general. Andy also shares his number one nightmare scenario for Harris losing on election day. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy is joined by Elena Guido from the Leiden Asia Centre to discuss all things North Korea. We talked about North Korea's growing alignment with Russia and China, what trends have been affecting the country domestically, and whether - as some former U.S. officials have claimed - war on the peninsula is imminent. Credits Host - Andy...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Martijn talk about what the foreign policy of a Harris administration might look like, touching on Ukraine, Israel, China and more. Plus, what's the foreign policy connection of ther recent Trump assassination attempt? Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Catherine discuss the latest from the DNC, how Tim Walz is being received, and the protests over U.S. policy towards Gaza. They also talk about the history of party conventions and how modern conventions differ from those of the past. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Martijn discuss last month's NATO summit. Although the event ended up getting overshadowed by concerns about Biden's health and age, it was an important event in its own right - and a good moment to take stock of the challenges currently facing the alliance. We talked about NATO's new secretary general Mark Rutte, the state...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Catherine discuss the head-spinning events of the past few weeks, focusing on why Joe Biden decided to drop out and what Kamala Harris needs to do next to win. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Nowadays we're used to the idea that America will stick by Israel almost no matter what. But American policymakers didn't always view Israel as an ally or a strategic asset for the United States. On the anniversary of the partition of Palestine by the United Nations - an event which set the stage for the modern Middle East - Andy dis...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** What's the relationship between U.S.-China competition, and the global struggle against climate change? Andy explores how the former is making the latter harder. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** In the first of a series, Andy gives explainers on U.S. swing states. Up first is Arizona, whose identity and politics are very different to the Midwestern states which people usually have in mind when they think about the most hotly-contested states. It's also a place where the big issues driving this election - immigration, electio...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Catherine talk about Trump's trial in New York, and whether there's any real chance of him going to jail before the November election. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** Check out the America Explained Substack newsletter for a few written posts a month on the big issues in U.S. politics and foreign policy and no extra spam: https://amerex.substack.com/ *** In this episode I spoke to Gregory Brew, deputy editor of the Texas National Security Review and a historian of U.S.-Iranian relations, about U.S. relations with Iran. We talked about the deeper history of...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Andy and Catherine go over some lesser-known and surprising recent Supreme Court decisions covering democracy, animal rights, and Native affairs. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Catherine Wood

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** Nowadays we're used to the idea that antagonism exists between the West and China, but we don't often pause to consider that this antagonism long predates China's rising economic and military power. Our guest today, Professor Jeffrey Crean from Tyler Junior College in Texas, is someone who has considered this - and he's written a gre...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** In this special 100th episode of America Explained, Andy zooms out to look at what happened in the four years since the podcast launched to bring us back to this moment - one in which Donald Trump could once again become president of the United States. Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** In this episode, Andy is joined by Martijn to talk about the hold-up in getting aid for Ukraine through the House of Representatives. How is it that Speaker Mike Johnson can single-handedly hold up this aid? And will Ukraine eventually get it? Credits Host - Andy Gawthorpe Co-host - Martijn van Ette

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** In this special episode, Andy is interviewed by Phil Dobbie and Roger Herring of The Why Curve podcast about how Europe should prepare for a second Trump presidency. We talked about trade, alliances and democracy, as well as how Trump's re-election might lead to an undignified scramble to get on his good side. Credits Host - Andy Gaw...

*** *** Receive 15% off the America Explained newsletter *** *** The border is the big news in America right now. The Biden administration has embraced a hard-right approach to border security - but Republicans in Congress won't pass it because they want the president to look bad. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is taking the law into his own hands - using arguments that date back to the civ...