Mid-Atlantic - conversations about US, UK and world politics

The political map of Birmingham has been redrawn. After decades of Labour dominance, the May elections left Birmingham City Council with no overall control. Anger over the city's financial crisis, the prolonged bin strike, rising council tax and declining public services produced one of the most dramatic electoral shifts in the city's modern history. In this wide-ranging conversation, Roifield Bro...

Mid-Atlantic Podcast Summary This week's Mid-Atlantic examined two stories where sport, politics, identity, and power collided. In the first half, Roifield Brown was joined by John Gunnerson and Tonye Altrade to discuss the 2026 World Cup. The conversation explored FIFA's relationship with political power, visa refusals affecting officials and visitors, Gianni Infantino's leadership, Donald Trump'...

Episode summary Westminster was meant to be projecting calm. Instead, this episode of Mid-Atlantic finds Labour staring into a leadership crisis, with Keir Starmer under pressure after bruising local election results and a party increasingly unsure what, or whom, it represents. The panel weighs whether Starmer can survive, how a Labour leadership contest would work, and why Andy Burnham, Angela Ra...

Episode Summary On this week’s Mid-Atlantic , Roifield Brown convenes his transatlantic panel to examine two democracies straining under the weight of power, personality and public distrust. In Washington, President Trump’s State of the Union address is dissected less as governing document and more as performance art, heavy on self congratulation, generous with medals and applause lines, and sharp...

The Mandelson affair didn’t arrive as a shock so much as a delayed detonation. On Mid-Atlantic , Roifield Brown and his panel argue that the controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US was neither unforeseeable nor accidental. It was the result of a conscious political decision one that traded judgment and party trust for perceived expediency, and one now threa...

In this episode of Mid-Atlantic , Roifield Brown sits down with Canadian political commentator and host of The O Show , Laura Babcock, to dissect Canada’s unexpected political upheaval and its new identity on the world stage. With Mark Carney now prime minister, what was once unimaginable has become policy: a technocratic, globally respected leader is now seen by many Canadians as their country’s...

In this week’s episode of Mid-Atlantic , the panel dissects two unsettling scenes of political drama — one on the streets of Minneapolis, the other in the corridors of Westminster. The fatal ICE shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis, initially misrepresented by the Trump administration, has unleashed a bipartisan backlash. Tensions flare as footage shows an unarmed veteran stepping in to aid a pro...

If you thought the idea of the US buying Greenland was a historical curiosity, think again. In this episode of Mid-Atlantic, Roifield Brown returns to YouTube with geopolitical analyst Pyotr Kurzin of The Global Gambit to peer into the mess that is Trump-era foreign policy is creating in the North Atlantic. Spoiler: It’s not just about a frozen island with more musk oxen than people. It’s a full-b...

A defection, a photocopied resignation, and an airborne crisis: welcome to politics in 2026. In this week’s episode of Mid-Atlantic , Royfield Brown leads a transatlantic panel through the latest signs of fracture on the British right and a chaotic shift in U.S. foreign policy. Robert Jenrick’s defection from the Conservatives to Reform UK is dissected not as a grand ideological realignment, but a...

Host: Roifield Brown Producer: Connor Begley Guests: Mike Donahue, Mike Holden, Tony Alltrade Episode summary This week, Mid-Atlantic looks at what happens when the “rules-based international order” stops behaving like a system and starts behaving like a slogan. The conversation centres on the US seizure/extraction of Venezuela’s president and the eerie normalisation of an act that by the usual st...

In this week’s episode of MidAtlantic , host Roifield Brown asks whether Donald Trump’s corrosive rhetoric is a momentary blip or a seismic shift in the way American presidents speak and more importantly, lead. Is the bar for political discourse permanently lowered, or are we just watching a uniquely toxic figure dominate a uniquely toxic moment? The transatlantic panel includes Steve Krone in LA,...

In this episode, RoyField Brown revisits his Birmingham radio roots with an interview that blends the local and the political. Green Party councillor Julian Pritchard joins from his ward of Druids Heath and Monyhull, a place that even the most civic-minded Brummies might struggle to locate on a map. But that’s the point. Pritchard has been trying to change that for over seven years, turning up, kn...

What do a Democratic Socialist in New York and a Green Party leader in Britain have in common? Charisma, clarity, and, apparently, a hatred of high bus fares. In this episode of Mid-Atlantic , host Roifield Brown and the transatlantic panel tackle the political rise of Manami in NYC and Zack Polanski in the UK—two left-wing politicians who’ve gone from fringe to front page without watering down th...

In this charged episode of Mid-Atlantic , host Roifield Brown is joined by Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani , along with regular contributors Cory Bernard in Manchester and Mike Donahue in Los Angeles, to lay bare the harrowing conditions in Gaza and the political cowardice of the West. With over 60,000 Palestinians killed and famine declared by the IPC, the panel asks a blunt question: why does...

Mid-Atlantic: Gaza—Moral Clarity and Complicity Guests: Dave Smith (North London), Michael Donahue (Los Angeles), Tonye “T” Trade (East London), Safana “Saf” Monajed (East London) Host: Roifield Brown Episode summary Roifield opens with a stark personal statement: Gaza is a genocide, and Britain’s leadership—particularly the Labour government—has failed morally and politically. The panel examines...

This week’s Mid-Atlantic served up a blistering transatlantic roundup, with host Roifield Brown and a sharp panel of commentators dissecting political dysfunction from the White House to Westminster. First, Elon Musk’s abrupt departure from the Trump administration drew collective side-eye. Denise Hamilton called it a “planned grift,” while Michael Donahue reminded us Musk’s firms are still swimmi...

British politics post-local elections resembles less a democracy in action and more a therapy session with occasional shouting. In this episode of Mid-Atlantic , the panel tears into the latest electoral results, with Reform UK bulldozing their way through local councils, Labour sleepwalking through governance, and the Tories doing their best impression of a political hospice. Dave Smith kicks thi...

In this post-election special of Mid-Atlantic , host Roifield Brown and Canadian political analyst Adam Schaan break down what might be the most consequential Canadian election in recent memory—not just for the results, but for what they signal about the country’s identity. In a week where Donald Trump’s bombastic threats of annexation echoed from below the 49th parallel, Canada’s electorate respo...

In Washington, a rare flicker of institutional resistance is lighting up the political gloom. As the Supreme Court sides 7-2 against mass deportations and Harvard takes legal aim at executive power, Roifield Brown and his panel ask the awkward but necessary question: Is the American Republic finally growing a spine? Panelists Denise Hamilton and Mike Donahue agree that while Trump’s pressure tacti...

This week on Mid-Atlantic , Roifield Brown hosts a packed panel to break down Donald Trump's latest economic gamble: a 10% blanket import tariff and steeper levies on select countries, with China squarely in the crosshairs. The result? Global market chaos, retaliatory threats, and international alarm bells over the US’s role in the rules-based economic order. Joining from across the Atlantic and t...

This week’s Mid-Atlantic felt like reading classified memos in the group chat, except the group chat accidentally included a journalist and the memos were about bombing Yemen. Host Roifield Brown and his panel of sharp minds, Aram Fischer in Oakland, Denise Hamilton in Houston, Steve O’Neill in London, and Leah Brown in Broadstairs, looked at two transatlantic absurdities: national security leaks...

Mark Carney is Canada’s new prime minister, the Liberals are surging in the polls, and the country is locked in an escalating trade war with its unpredictable southern neighbour. At the centre of it all? Donald Trump. Since returning to the White House, Trump has hit Canada with aggressive tariffs and even floated the outrageous idea of annexation. The result? A nationalist backlash, a boycott of...

On this episode of Mid Atlantic , host Roifield Brown, broadcasting from sunny Oakland, takes on a transatlantic feast of political intrigue with guests Aram Fischer, Cory Bernard, Denise Hamilton, and Mike Donahue. In the U.S., Kash Patel’s confirmation as FBI director raises alarm bells about the erosion of institutional integrity. Denise calls it “catastrophic,” while Aram points out the grim n...

This episode of Mid Atlantic tackles two seismic geopolitical issues shaping transatlantic discourse. First, Donald Trump’s alarming suggestion that the U.S. should take control of Gaza sparks global outrage, raising questions about America’s stance on foreign intervention and human rights. The panel—featuring host Royfield Brown , progressive organizer Aram Fischer , polling expert Logan Phillips...

This episode of Mid-Atlantic examines the latest political and economic turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US, Trump’s sweeping executive orders, including plans for an immigration detention center at Guantanamo Bay, signal a hard-line second-term agenda. His tariffs threaten global trade, while his federal appointments prioritize loyalty over competence. Across the UK, immigration domi...