Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday after a days-long, multi-state manhunt following the suspected murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Brian Thompson. It’s led to a debate about the health system in America and also prompted anonymous donors to chip in thousands of dollars towards Mangione's defence through online fundraisers. Sarah, Anthony and Marianna assess the reaction to the case, and why the case is dividing the public. This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Catherine Fusillo, Rufus Gray and Claire Betzer. The technical producers were Michael Regaard and Hannah Montgomery. 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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Marianna There is so much news in America this week in Washington.
We've been covering the developments in Syria, we've been watching appointments to the Trump administration.
But the only story we're really all talking about among ourselves, to be honest, whenever we gather around the kettle is the suspected United Healthcare shooter in New York, Luigi Mangione.
First of all, the manhunt for him and then everything we've discovered about him since he was arrested.
It is gripping.
Yeah.
And he's not just been the Talk of Washington, D.C.
from the sounds of it, Sarah, he's also been the talk of social media.
I mean, you almost cannot move for the amount of posts and content about, about this man.
Everything from people digging up his own kind of social media profiles, the kinds of stuff he's been reading and reviewing, but then also different people posting their takes and views about what's happened.
Abuse, targeting people in McDonald's, who spotted him, you know, you name.
Everything is unfolding online.
So it feels like it's a very appropriate topic for today's episode.
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