Justin Webb

After serving as BBC North America Editor, Justin Webb joined the team of presenters on Radio 4’s influential Today programme. He now interviews the great and the good and those making the day’s headlines - alongside Mishal Husain, Emma Barnett, Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson. 

In the US Justin covered all the twists and turns of the 2008 Presidential election which saw a little-known Illinois senator become the country’s first black Commander-in-Chief. Justin continues to observe the American political, social, and economic climate, assessing the often-dramatic events on Capitol Hill, Wall Street and Main Street. As well as becoming a senior member of the White House press pack, he was the first British journalist to be granted a full television interview with President Obama.

Prior to his Washington posting Justin reported from Brussels as the BBC’s European Correspondent. He has also covered elections in Australia, a coup in the Maldives, the dying days of the Soviet empire, and Mafia trials in Italy. And as well as various overseas postings, he has anchored Breakfast News and The World Tonight.

Justin now spends his mornings grilling British politicians and newsmakers on the agenda-setting Radio 4 programme.  He co-hosts the popular Americast podcast and radio show, taking a both serious and irreverent look at events in the US. He’s also an extremely assured conference chair and awards host, and a wonderfully engaging speaker on everything from Brexit to Trump and beyond. After dinner he uncovers the truth about America and Americans (as in his books Have A Nice Day and Notes on Them and Us) – and has great fun demonstrating some of the differences in interviewing styles between ‘Old’ and ‘New World’ journalists. He has also published a memoir of the nineteen seventies entitled The Gift of a Radio, which the Sunday Times called 'fascinating and hugely entertaining.'