Episode description

Fiona Hill is a foreign affairs specialist who advised Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. She came to wider public attention in 2019 when she testified against President Trump during his first impeachment.

Fiona was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Her father was a former coal miner who worked as a hospital porter and her mother was a midwife. After graduating in Russian and History from St Andrews University, she won a scholarship to read Soviet Studies at Harvard. She spent the next three decades establishing herself as a policy expert on Russia.

In 2017 she joined the National Security Council at the White House as deputy assistant to President Trump and senior director for Europe and Russia. She left the administration in 2019 and later that year she testified to the US Congress as a witness in the hearings which led up to Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020.

Fiona’s performance and North East accent caused a stir and her personal story was discussed in American newspapers and on television. Strangers in the street thanked her, but she also received death threats from people who opposed the observations she recounted during her testimony.

Fiona is a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington DC. She became an American citizen in 2002.

DISC ONE: Message in a Bottle by The Police DISC TWO: It’s only a Paper Moon by Ella Fitzgerald DISC THREE: Ghost Town by The Specials DISC FOUR: The Passenger by Iggy Pop DISC FIVE: Goodbye America by Nautilus Pompilius DISC SIX: On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons DISC SEVEN: Hypersonic Missiles by Sam Fender DISC EIGHT: This is the Day by The The

BOOK CHOICE: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Fiona writes about how her dad saved up to buy the Encyclopaedia Britannica – you’ll find the story in the Background section. LUXURY ITEM: Crystallised ginger CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: This is the Day by The The

Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley