Let's face it: whether or not you've been officially following the U.S. presidential race, you've been hearing about it. And the Trump vs. Biden talk is only going to ramp up this fall, as the whole world tunes in to the 2020 election.

Against this backdrop, Party Lines — CBC's hit Canadian politics podcast — is widening its scope for the fall. In a big year for global politics, co-host Elamin Abdelmahmoud will lead a limited-run series focused on the big themes of the U.S. election.

The Party Lines team has also grown to include Tamara Khandaker, who most recently hosted the hit daily podcast Wait, There's More, as series producer. The episodes are geared toward global citizens who understand the borderless stakes of the U.S. election and want to be in the loop but not in the weeds.

So Party Lines remains intact every Thursday and focused on Canadian politics! There's so much to dig into there, with a throne speech on approach, a new Conservative leader, and a fragile pandemic recovery. But we're adding an extra episode every Tuesday as part of a new series called Party in the USA, and this one is all about the U.S. election. I'm hosting those extra episodes which will run from now until November.

We have an exciting roster of U.S. journalists who are living and breathing this election, and every week we'll talk to a different one as we chat about the big themes of the election. These are skilled reporters who look at the election from a variety of lenses, whether it's race or the economy or covering COVID-19. We think their insights will ground us in the facts so we can really dissect the issues.

The idea here is that the U.S. election is actually kind of borderless — it has consequences everywhere from here in Canada to China to the EU. This, of course, has always been true, but with the Trump presidency, it's a bit higher stakes, and with a global pandemic, it's even higher stakes. So our podcast will be offering the global citizen's take on the election, because I think no matter where you are, you still have a stake in the U.S. election.

I think the philosophy that we apply to Party Lines, and will apply to Party in the U.S.A, is that we're all about accessibility. We built the original Party Lines on this belief that politics really is for everyone, even those who aren't always keeping up with the political turmoil, and that's what has made the show a success. All of that is kind of doubled with the U.S. election — there's a sense that the election is stressful and so many people want to tune in but don't know where to start. So we want to be where you start, where you can get a sense of the forces and factors at play, through intelligent conversation that also invites you in.

Oh man! So excited about our introductory episode — Marissa Evans, who's a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Sigal Samuel, who reports for Vox, are my guests in the first go. Marissa covers issues like race and housing, in the place where George Floyd was killed, which sparked a massive racial justice movement. Her perspective is unique and really grounded in what folks are seeing. Sigal covers U.S. foreign policy and has been watching closely as Trump upended many long held conventions, and she can shed light on how America's role in the world has changed so much.

With files from Harpuneet Nijjar/CBC News. Based on a pre-interview for syndication on CBC Radio