Social media platform Bluesky has passed the 20 million user mark and its growing popularity has some listeners wondering if it will lead people towards their existing beliefs and away from political debate. Could its rise further polarise an already divided electorate? And it's just under two months until Donald Trump is inaugurated as president for a second time. We answer your questions on whether his supporters will descend upon Washington DC and whether Elon Musk is likely to foot the bill... HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Marianna Spring, Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email Americast@bbc.co.uk * Or use #Americast This episode was made by George Dabby with Catherine Fusillo. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm
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Hello to all the new Americasters who've joined us in the last few months.
More of us now, Marianna, than ever before.
I know it's brilliant and that's really good because there's so much going on that we want to tell you about.
Between now and Donald Trump's inauguration in January, we're gonna be looking at all sorts of things.
Who he's picking for his team, what this can mean for the next four years, how the Democrats regroup, you name it.
So if you have any questions or comments, do get in touch.
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So here is today's Enjoy BBC Sounds Music Radio podcasts.
Hello, it's Justin at quarter to four in the afternoon UK time and we have just recorded americansus on five Live.
And it's Mariana sitting next to Justin still.
Justin hasn't actually visited the worldwide headquarters since we've been back from the United States, but he will, he will later in the week.
And I mean, there's been lots of news.
It kind of feels like there's this endless bingo of who is going to be in Trump's cabinet.
What are our latest, who are our latest additions?
There's actually a really big name and a really important one that's just come today, and that is Scott Besant, who is hedge fund manager, who is going to be Treasury Secretary.
That is, if he gets through the Senate, and he's very likely to get through the Senate because he is a very serious customer.
So we talk, and we're going to talk on the Americanzas that we're about to play to you about the clown car, as some people call it, and the things that are going wrong and the kind of mad stuff.