The Response – America’s Story Showcases Listeners’ Lives in Their Own Words

“What do you want to tell President-Elect Trump about who you are and the life you lead?”

Our new series, The Response – America’s Story launches today with gathering listeners’ responses to this question.

In a partnership between the BBC and American Public Media, The Response – America’s Story seeks your listeners’ unique stories about the lives they lead, and their hopes and expectations of what the next four years hold for them, their communities, the country and the world. All told by people in their own words, using the technology in their pockets and sent to the BBC, the series The Response – America’s Story, is a chance for Americans to share realities and reflections with the world, and for people around the world to tell the stories they want Americans to hear at this pivotal moment.

Steve Titherington, BBC World Service senior commissioning editor: “These are their stories, not ours. We are going to ask people across the US about their lives and interests and their expectations for their next four years. Moving away from the headlines and the political punditry, The Response – America’s Story, will be a first person collection of stories from across the U.S to provide a unique audio picture of the U.S. in 2017 during a period of historical transition.”

Listeners are invited to record their stories into the voice recorder on their smartphones and email a two-minute audio clip to the BBC. Their stories will be blended with others to create an intimate first person audio collection during a period of historical transition. Submissions are now open and more details can be found here.

Presented by Shaimaa Khalil as a special series of the BBC’s new program The Response, The Response – America’s Story will broadcast as a four-part radio series, with unique one-hour programs distributed in the U.S. by APM. Four half-hour editions will also be broadcast to the rest of the world on BBC World Service.

The themes of the four programs will be framed by the new Trump presidency, and they will be forward-looking, and focused on sharing stories, realities and hopes.

The first program will premiere on January 14, ahead of the Inauguration, and will be followed by monthly broadcasts covering the first 100 days of the new presidency, through April 2017. Each program will be broadcast from a different location in the U.S., with the first edition coming from partner station West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Dave Kansas, executive vice president & chief operating officer, American Public Media: “We are excited to collaborate with BBC World Service to make a unique contribution to the post-election ‘reality check’ happening in the U.S. by giving people a chance to share their stories, in their own words, and be heard worldwide. In pairing producers from both organizations, using The Response’s first-person approach, and reaching across radio, social media, station and community networks, we aim to surface voices that don’t usually make the airwaves, adding new perspectives to what it means to be American at this moment.”

APM and BBC are excited to partner together and with local stations to reach across radio, social media, station and community networks to surface and share new voices with the global community. We will promote the series to a broad audience, and hope to share stories of people and communities that may not currently engage with public radio.

We hope you’ll join us in asking listeners to share their personal stories and perspectives. To help you, we’ve created the following promotional tools:

• A series page in ContentDepot with two on-air promos
• Digital assets:
  • Social media card for Facebook and Twitter, with suggested copy you can customize for your audience
  • Additional digital assets will be available soon