Were our 2025 predictions right?
Americast
BBC
4.2 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What did the Americast team get right when they made their predictions for what the big news stories of 2025 might be? Justin, Anthony, Sarah and Marianna look back at a tumultuous year for Donald Trump in his second term, which include deportation raids, Elon Musk’s role, the war in Gaza, the US shutdown and more. It’s time to open up the Americast time capsule of predictions and find out what we got right and what we got wrong…
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Senior Correspondent
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This episode was made by Rufus Gray and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on. |
| 0:13.0 | Which is where newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears. |
| 0:23.6 | It does mean we have to put in the hard work though. Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:26.6 | We've had some correspondence. It comes from Paul in London. |
| 0:29.6 | Hello all. I've been replaying your old episode of a mirrorcast in the background as I work. |
| 0:35.6 | My playback start date was the Joe Biden debate. |
| 0:38.7 | What is interesting is how much you got right and how much otherwise. |
| 0:43.8 | Do you ever review your old broadcasts to measure your performance and effectiveness? |
| 0:48.6 | Sounds a bit brutal. |
| 0:49.7 | We don't really measure our performance and effectiveness, Paul, |
| 0:51.9 | because that might have an impact that we don't want to have. |
| 0:54.1 | But, I mean, the answer, Sarah, is yes. |
| 0:56.3 | Yes, we do, whether we were right or otherwise. That was a very diplomatic of Paul way of saying that, yeah, we do sometimes get it wrong. |
| 1:03.8 | But this is our annual feature where we specifically do that. We're going to revisit the predictions we made at the beginning of this year |
| 1:10.9 | to find out what came true, what didn't, |
| 1:14.1 | and who was right more often. |
| 1:15.8 | So welcome to the AmeriCast time capsule opening of 2025. |
| 1:23.3 | AmeriCast. |
| 1:24.0 | AmeriCast from BBC News. |
| 1:26.3 | When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir. |
| 1:28.6 | Right away, sir. |
... |
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