Merry Christmas from America Explained!

*** *** 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.CreditsHost - Andy GawthorpeCo-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 discusses America's attitude towards the creation of the state of Israel in the 1940s.CreditsHost - Andy Gawthorpe

*** *** 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.CreditsHost - 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, election denialism, and abortion are unusually turbo-charged.CreditsHost - Andy Gawthorpe

*** *** 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.CreditsHost - Andy GawthorpeCo-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 the relationship, what drove policy during the Trump administration, and the role that oil plays in the broader U.S. stance in the Middle East.CreditsHost - Andy Gawthorpe

*** *** 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. CreditsHost - Andy GawthorpeCo-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 great book, The Fear of Chinese Power, which examines over 150 years of Western fears of China.CreditsHost - Andy GawthorpeCo-host - Martijn van Ette

*** *** 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.CreditsHost - 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?CreditsHost - Andy GawthorpeCo-host - Martijn van Ette