The Race to the White House covers everything you need to know about the 2016 US elections and dives deep into the people, policy and political manoeuvres that will decide who becomes the 45th President of the United States of America. Each week, Brendon O’Connor and Tom Switzer from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney will dissect the news of the week and the issues that matter with Emma Lancaster from 2ser 107.3FM.

In the first episode of the series, Emma, Brendon, and Tom look at the state of the race so far. Who is leading in the polls, which states will matter in November and how can each candidate carve out a path to the 270 electoral college votes required to win? With less than two weeks until the first Presidential debate, what does each candidate need to do next to ensure they come out on top?

Also, should we consider Trump a populist politician? Populism has been used as a catch-all term for a diverse set of political movements and has been applied around the world in Europe, Asia and Latin America to refer to politicians from both sides of the political spectrum. Are Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump two sides of the same coin? They argue that populism is more than an appeal to the lowest common denominator, it is a serious rebuff of liberal democratic politics as usual; the problem is populist ideas are near impossible to put into action.