What’s Really Happening in the US‪?‬ John Simpson's World Podcast

If you’ve found yourself wondering WTF is going on in the USA – which we’re pretty sure the whole world has – this episode is for you. With over 53 years of political reporting behind him John gives us his unique take on American politics from the 60s until today and the explains the reasons behind the success of Trump. Along with producer Lisa Francesca Nand, John talks about presidents past and present, news reporting, perceived BBC bias, Brexit, immigrants, guns, the electoral college system, Facebook fiddling and above all why we should sod Make America Great Again and instead Make America Cool Again. You heard it here first.
 
On this episode we cover:
 
One man giving some people a voice
The weird US constitution and electoral college system
A strange vengeance about the Trump administration
John being covering US politics since the Kennedy days
The US was run by a section of society – more open than British society then
People who thought differently were silenced
Covering the 1964 election with President Johnson and Barry Goldwater
The Republican party allowing Goldwater to go forward because they knew they couldn’t win
Ronald Regan allowing the rich to get richer with fewer taxes
The divisions between rich and poor being far higher now than the 1980s
A side effect of this being a bitterness in American society
It is THIS that has lead to Trump’s success
Trump’s ‘ineffable’ tweets from his lonely bedroom
A multi millionaire how has screwed plenty of little people over the decades pretending he’s standing up to the little man
The excitement of seeing a president say the sort of thing some people who are thinking
How do Trump and Farage convince people they’re on their side?
People want to be convinced
Grabbing women by the pussy
The religious right being among Trump’s strongest supporters
The confusing contrasts of the US
Britain having nothing to pat itself on the back for at present
President Regan scrapping the law that broadcasting had to be balanced
The subsequent rise of the shock jock
The chances of Trump winning the elections of November 2020
Whether the electoral college system will change
Most political scientist in the US feeling it doesn’t change the popular will
Social media and Facebook being used by nefarious organisations
John being a product of the ‘intellectual elite’
Being the BBC’s longest serving journalist, probably
Does the BBC really strive to make things balanced?
Do the BBC have an internal bias?
How the BBC balancing the argument in the referendum had the opposite effect
People allowed to broadcast outright lies
The BBC’s strict fact checking process
Listen up Daily Mail – there is no official editorial line to toe at the BBC
John feeling the BBC has to fight against an institutional timidity
The importance of diversity in recruiting
How casting the same white, middle aged, privately educated men ain’t helpful
Lisa getting John sacked
The other things going on in the US
How a controversial figure like Trump generates alternative views on the other side
People who have never had a voice before on both sides
The sons and daughters of immigrants and even immigrants now speaking out
The US being a great society
How Lisa wants to ‘Make America Cool Again’
Who would want to share a bed with Trump?
John’s liberating first visit to the US in the 60s
Returning to England ‘like catching a sailing ship back to the middle ages’
Nowadays Britain and Europe being far ahead of the US in many ways
How can you buy automatic weapons over the counter?
Seen the US move from the most advanced society in the West to an old-fashioned regressive society
Britain isn’t perfect, but you cant buy sub machine guns over the counter
Our message to the USA
Let’s Make America Cool Again