Björn Soenens

Experienced and award-winning journalist.
Analist on world affairs (radio/tv). Weekly podcast on interesting times in the world (“De Verrekijkers”) since May 2025. In 2021, he won the Belgian Podcast Award for best “Documentary” (“Björn in the USA). He won again in 2023 as best “History” podcast. Soenens was nominated  for the international AIB TV Awards in London for the documentary films “Stemmen uit Iowa” (2013) and “Oh, Baltimore!” (2019), and for his podcasts “The turbulent revolution of George Floyd”(2021) and “Heavens’s Gate” (2024), both of which AIB “highly commended” in the award ceremony. Winner of the Dexia Press Prize for radio as “The Amerikawatcher” (2010).

Björn received a knighthood (The Order of the Crown) by the King of Belgium in 2023. His journalistic work as a US correspondent (between ‘17 and ‘25) focused mostly on the fate of ordinary, voiceless or powerless Americans. Soenens interviewed quite a number of legends in different areas of American society: ex-FBI boss James Comey, UN SG Guterres, investigative journalist Seymour Hersch, civil rights activist Al Sharpton, former UN ambassador and USAID boss Samantha Power, writer Robert Kaplan, political thinker Noam Chomsky, historian Thomas Frank, economy Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman, food expert Mark Bittman, MMT economist Stephanie Kelton, legendary reporters Bob Woodward and Maggie Haberman, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, biologist Jane Goodall, renowned actors Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Danny Glover, Bryan Cranston, JK Simmons and Hugh Jackman. He had two sit-down interviews with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives (2017 and 2018). He put his microphone under the noses of Donald Trump jr, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom, Lindsey Graham and even current president Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign.

Soenens is the former editor in chief of the Flemish public tv news VRT (2013-2016). He also led the foreign news department. He is a firm believer in contextualized journalism and was a keynote speaker on constructive journalism in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zürich and Rome.
Soenens is also the writer of six books on American history, politics and culture: “ Blijven proberen, Obama!” (2010), “Amerika, een biografie van dromen en bedrog”(2012), “Amerika. De droom op drift”(2016), “Dagen zonder Trump” (2018), “De lengte van een oceaan”(2020, 15,000 copies sold) His most recent book deals with the unsalted history of the US: “De laatste walvis”, published in May 2024 and became his biggest instant number 1 bestseller (+20,000 copies!)