Background Briefing with Ian Masters - podcast cover

Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Background Briefing goes far beyond the headlines and deep under the radar to bring forward truths unheard elsewhere in American media. Background Briefing features international and national news, expert guests, policymakers, and critics offering analysis and insight on national security, foreign and domestic policy, political, cultural, and social issues. backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Episodes

December 16, 2024 - Annelle Sheline | Matt Bruenig | Thomas Berger

Jordan Faces Collapse With Israel's Proposed Annexation of the West Bank | An Alternative to Our Broken "Healthcare" System That Does Not Waste Trillions While Delaying and Denying Care | The Fall of the German Government and Whether Support For Ukraine Will Continue

Dec 16, 20241 hr 3 min

December 15, 2024 - David Hearst | Jason Wilson | Alex Scribener

Is Another Arab Spring Possible With Syria's New Leader and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood? | With Trump's Manic Fanboy Kash Patel in Charge of the Country's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, Patel's Delusional List of "Traitors" Will Soon Fill the MAGA Gulag | Georgia's Pro-EU Protests Intensify as the Pro-Russian Parliament Installs a Right Wing Footballer as President backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 14, 20241 hr

December 12, 2024 - Robert Young Pelton | Nader Hashemi | Stacy Mitchell

Will Trump and His Shills For Russia like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard Turn Us Into Putin's America? | Israel and Turkey Appears to be the Winners in Syria While Russia and Iran are the Losers | How Rising Food Prices Played a Decisive Role in the Election and Efforts to Rein In Food Monopolies Like WalMart backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 12, 20241 hr 2 min

December 11, 2024 - Wendell Potter | David Ignatius | Wladimir van Wilgenburg

Wall Street's Role in Why We Have the Worst and Most Expensive "Healthcare" in the Developed World | How Ukrainian Military Intelligence Helped the Syrian Rebels | The Vulnerability of the Kurds to Erdogan's Murderous Militia in the New Syria backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 11, 20241 hr 4 min

December 10, 2024 - John Donohue | Anthony Grasso | John Stoehr

Ghost Guns Now a Proven Untraceable and Undetectable Tool For Assassins | America's Dual System of Justice: Punishing Street Criminals While Corporate CEO's Get a Slap on the Wrist | Kash Patel's FBI Will Go After Trump's Enemies While Opening up the U.S. to Putin's Spies backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 10, 20241 hr 3 min

December 9, 2024 - Paul Pillar | Dr. Nancy Okail

How the Islamist Capture of Syria Upends Regional and Global Geopolitics | How Americans Need an Alternative to the Choice Between Trump's "America First" Unilateralism and Biden's "America is Back" Nostalgia

Dec 09, 20241 hr 4 min

December 8, 2024 - Olga Lautman | Patrick Blanchfield | Helaine Olen

The Fall of Assad Could End Putin, But Trump Will Rescue Him | Rage for Across the US at the Sickness-for-Profit “Healthcare” System | Musk Will Put Millions Out of Work While Making Billions Out of the Government He is Hollowing Out backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 08, 20241 hr

December 5, 2024 - Eric Kingson | Richard Beck

"It's Going to Be Fun" Says Ramaswamy Who Along With Musk Will Try to Cut $2 Trillion By Targeting Social Security and Medicare | How 9/11 Made the Trump Presidency Possible and Hollowed Out the Very Idea Of Citizenship in the US backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 05, 20241 hr 2 min

December 4, 2024 - Sarah Anderson | Joshua Landis | Stavroula Pabst

The Champion of Working Class Voters' Big Con As Trump Forms a Government Of, By and For Plutocrats | The Syria Rebels Just Blew Up Secret US-Israel-UAE Efforts to Lure Assad Away From Iran | What Trump's Pick of Feinberg as Number 2 at DOD Means For the Silicon Valley Defense Tech Takeover of the Pentagon Budget Credits backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 04, 20241 hr 5 min

December 3, 2024 - Stephen Noerper | Juan Cole | David Shapiro

South Korea's President Yoon Declares Martial Law Then Has to Back Down | Trump Threatens There'll Be " All Hell To Pay in the Middle East" If Hamas Does Not Release the Hostages Before His Inauguration | Will the Apolitical Rank and File at the FBI Survive a Fanatical Pro-Trump Ideologue as Their Director? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 03, 20241 hr 1 min

December 2, 2024 - Max Kiefel | Lincoln Mitchell | Scott Horton

The Democrats as a Vision Starved Blob Made up of Candidates, Billionaire Donors and Data Addled Consultants | Trump Wins by Calling the System Rigged While the Democrats Remain Silent | Will the FBI Survive a Fanatical Pro-Trump Ideologue?

Dec 03, 20241 hr 5 min

December 1, 2024 - Robert Kuttner | William Arkin | Steven Simon

If the Senate Has Hearings, Hegseth, Gabbard and RFK Jr. Will Not Be Confirmed | Trump's Envoy To Ukraine General Kellogg's Plan to End the War | With Iran and Hezbollah on the Ropes, Syrian Rebels Backed By Turkey Make Surprising Gains backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 01, 20241 hr 7 min

November 28, 2024 - Richard Parker | Moira Donegan | Stephan Schwartz

What We can Be Thankful For in These Bleak Times | How Women Can Resist and Fight Back Against a Regime of Hate and Misogyny | What We As Individuals Can Do to Resist and Overcome the Coming Darkness backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 27, 20241 hr 6 min

November 26, 2024 - Scott Kennedy | Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera | Habib Battah

Trump Declares a Day One Trade War on China, Mexico and Canada | Tariffs on Mexico Will Not Solve Immigration or Drug Consumption in the US | An Update on the Ceasefire Deal Between Israel and Hezbollah backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 26, 20241 hr 5 min

November 24, 2024 - Thomas Mockaitis | James Green | Stephen Biddle

Trump's Choice to Head the DOD Sees Half the Country as the Enemy and That There Will Be Civil War | The Arrest of Coup Plotters in Brazil Who Trump Supports For a Military Takeover That Could Happen Here | Putin's Latest Nuclear Sabre Rattling as NATO Crosses Its Red Lines backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 24, 20241 hr 6 min

November 21, 2024 - James Zirin | Craig Holman | Richard Falk

Gaetz Withdraws AG Nomination as Trump's Pentagon Choice Faces Sexual Assault Allegations | The International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, His Former Defense Minister and an Hamas Leader Presumed Dead | An Update on the House Vote To Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Nonprofits backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 21, 20241 hr 2 min

November 20, 2024 - Noah Hurowitz | William Cohan | Michael Gorham

Can a MAGA Bill to Kill Nonprofits They Don't Like Disguised as an Anti-Terrorism Bill Be Stopped Tomorrow? | As Comcast Sheds MSNBC, Could Elon Musk Buy it and Turn it Into a Platform For Right Wing Trolls? | The US and NATO Are Poised For Hybrid Warfare Retaliation From Putin Now That US Missiles are Striking Russia backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 20, 20241 hr 5 min

November 19, 2024 - Ryan Cooper | Lawrence Gostin | Victoria Hui

Evidence of Drug Use and Underage Sex by Matt Gaetz is Cracking Open as the Senate is Soon to be Put to the Test | With the Focus on Trump's Appalling Choices, Will RFK Jr Slip By? | 45 Hong Kong Democracy Activists Jailed Under China's National Security Law backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 19, 20241 hr 4 min

November 17, 2024 - Nina Burleigh | Tom Nichols | Mark Galeotti

"Trump 2.0: Here Comes The Night" | A Hari Krishna-Like Cult Member and Russian Asset in Charge of US Intelligence! | Russia's Military: It's History and It's War Today backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 17, 20241 hr 4 min

November 14, 2024 - Lisa Graves | Robert Young Pelton | Gregory Treverton

Trump's Choice of an Unqualified and Incompetent Ideologue to Head the DOJ Who Has Be Charged With Sex Trafficking an Underaged Girl Across State Lines | Trump's Choice of a Fox Propagandist, Grifter and Supporter of For-Profit Colleges That Rip off Veterans to be Secretary of Defense | Trump Wants a Member of a Fringe Hindu Cult and Fan of the Syrian and Russian Dictators to be the Next Head of Our Intelligence Agencies backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianm...

Nov 14, 20241 hr

November 13, 2024 - Anders Aslund | Jacob Silverman | Molly White

It Looks Like Trump is No Longer Afraid of Being Blackmailed By Putin | Trump Shows Up at the Congress Today With His New Playmate Elon Musk | The Outsized Role the Crypto Industry Played in Electing Trump and Republicans backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 13, 20241 hr 1 min

November 12, 2024 - Ankush Khardori | Jeet Heer | Adam Weinstein

The Greatest Failure of Federal Law Enforcement in History Thanks to Garland, McConnell and Roberts | Senator Murphy Agrees With Bernie That Democrats Have Abandoned the Working Class | Saudi Arabia and Iran Get Closer in Anticipation of a Trump Presidency backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 12, 20241 hr

November 11, 2024 - Josh Paul | Lucian Truscott IV | Will Bunch

Too Little Too Late, Biden is Finally Ready to Stand Up to Israel | On Veterans Day, Will We Have Trump Wars and More American Veterans? | We are Entering America's Strongman Era backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 11, 20241 hr 4 min

November 11, 2024 - Timothy Shenk | Sean Wilentz | Robert Benson

With the Blame Game Underway, the Democrats Need to Focus on Accountability and a Coherent Strategy | The Failure of the Legal System to Bring a Career Criminal to Justice Before he Took Over the World | The Global Implications of the Enormous Power Trump Will Wield backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 10, 20241 hr 1 min

November 7, 2024 - James Thurber | Jeff Hauser | Michael Kazin

With Republicans Needing 7 and Democrats Needing 15 Seats to Flip the House, Will Trump End Up With the Trifecta of White House, Senate and House? | The Frightening and Less Frightening Contenders for Trump's White House and Cabinet Positions | Democrats Have Joined the Global Trend of Left and Social Democratic Parties Losing to the Far Right backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 07, 20241 hr 4 min

November 6, 2024 - John Nichols | Lily Geismer | Charles Kupchan

Trump Won in a Landslide With 4 Million Fewer Votes Than 2020 While Harris Won 66 Million, Far Less Than Biden's 81 Million in 2020 | The Education Divide With Harris Winning the Educated and Trump the Less Educated | Will Trump and Vance's "America First" Isolationism Define the Next 4 Years? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Nov 06, 20241 hr 3 min

November 4, 2024 - Jared Holt | Greg Palast | David Faris

Trump's Not-So-Veiled Threat That "Bad Things Could Happen" If He Loses the Election | The Pernicious GOP Operation Underway by Partisan Vigilantes to Purge Voter Rolls | Kamala May Win Big and She Has to Because Trump's GOP Will Cheat Rather Than Compete

Nov 04, 20241 hr 2 min