mediapolarization

Trump will face a criminal trial in front of a jury before the presidential election. He'll be the first ex-president to do so - all while he has to stump up the not so measly 175 million dollars to write off his fraudulent asset evaluations. At least it's not the original $464 million - which was knocked down at the eleventh hour on Monday. Truth Social, his social media site, looks to be earning him a pretty penny at least as it's set to go public.

Plus - we talk to Ben Smith of Semafor about the crisis at MSNBC after the network hire Republican election-denier Ronna McDaniel to be part of the 'sensible right-wing commentators' paid to contribute on the shows.

Editor: Gabriel Radus

Video Production: Rory Symon

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Rarely a week goes by without a fresh skirmish in the culture wars between the right and the left. Whether it’s cancel culture, wokeism, defining a woman or marking colonial history, battles between the warring tribes are increasingly having an impact on our lives.

With the row over Rishi Sunak’s joke at Prime Minister’s Questions over defining a woman still reverberating around Westminster, this week Amol and Nick look at the roots of culture wars, why they matter and where they’re going.

They’re joined by Jon Ronson, the journalist, documentary-maker and podcaster whose series ‘Things Fall Apart’ has catalogued and defined culture wars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.

If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producers are Hazel Morgan and Joe Wilkinson. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Jack Graysmark and digital production from Elliot Ryder.