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
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Episodes

January 2, 2025 - Robert Pape | Chris McGreal | Stephen Wertheim

The Latest on the Investigations Into the New Year's Massacre in New Orleans and the Tesla Cyber Truck Explosion in Front of the Trump Hotel | Contrasting the Divisive Trump With Jimmy Carter Who Tried to Bridge Divides | Could Trump be a Peacemaker Even If He Only Wants to Win a Nobel Prize? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 02, 20251 hr 11 min

January 1, 2025 - Wendy Brown | Richard Beck | Brooke Harrington

Will the Democrats Confront the Economic Conditions That Gave Rise to Right Wing Populism? | How 9/11 Made the Trump Presidency Possible and Hollowed Out the Very Idea of Citizenship in the US | Plutocrats No Longer Shape Our Government Behind the Scenes, Musk is Now Giving House Republicans Orders backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 01, 20251 hr 35 min

December 31, 2024 - Jason Stanley | Gareth Gore | Timothy Shenk

We Should Take Trump at His Word That He Wants to be a Dictator and Jail His Opponents and the Press | A Deep Investigation of the Far-Right Cult Opus Dei and Its Infiltration of American Politics at the Highest Level | With the Blame Game Underway, the Democrats Need to Focus on Accountability and a Coherent Strategy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 31, 20241 hr 18 min

December 30, 2024 - Sarah Churchwell | Samuel Moyn | Steve Benen

A View From Abroad as Biden Stands Between the Survival of Global Democracy and the Rule of Law and Dictatorship | Beyond Biden, America Has a Problem With Gerontocracy | How a Reality TV Star Living in His Own Reality Captured the GOP and up to Half of Americans Now Living in a Phony Reality backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 30, 20241 hr 15 min

December 29, 2024 - Miles Taylor | Oona Hathaway | Nick Bryant

As Trump Encourages Secession and Threatens Civil War, He Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving to China and Russia | Strengthening the Laws of War as Non-combatants Die in Gaza and Ukraine | The Inevitability of Trump 250 Years in the Making With the U.S. Captive to Its Contentious Past backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 29, 20241 hr 27 min

December 25, 2024 - Rev. Mitri Raheb | James Carroll

A Christmas Day Message From Bethlehem | The Outsized Influence of the Catholic Far Right on the Supreme Court and Project 2025 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 25, 20241 hr 1 min

December 24, 2024 - Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis | Diane Winston

The Contrast Between the Prophet of the Poor and Trump's Billionaires Who Own the White House and Have the Supreme Court | The Troubling Religious Beliefs of Trump's Team of "Christian" Zionists backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 24, 20241 hr

December 23, 2024 - Lisa Graves | John Nichols | Wendy Via

Trump's Triumph of Lawlessness and the Weaponization of Kash Patel's Federal Bureau of Retribution | Will Elon Musk's Threat to Deploy His Unlimited Amounts of Campaign Money Bring All Republicans to Heel? | With Trump Back Hate and Extremism Are on the Back Burner For Now backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 23, 20241 hr 6 min

December 22, 2024 - Robert Hockett | James Thurber | Robert Benson

The Emerging Threat to the US Economy Trump and Musk's Amateurism Poses | An Even More Dysfunctional Congress With Trump and Musk in Charge of Both Houses? | The Foreign Policy Damage Musk is Already Doing backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 22, 20241 hr 1 min

December 19, 2024 - Brooke Harrington | Kim Lane Scheppele

Plutocrats No Longer Shape Our Government Behind the Scenes, Musk is Now Giving House Republicans Orders | MAGA Republicans Follow Orban's Model With Project 2025 While Trump Moves to Control the Media as Orban Did, Turning a Democracy Into a Kleptocracy and Dictatorship backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 19, 20241 hr

December 18, 2024 - Alexander Sammon | Thomas Mockaitis | Christopher Shaw

The Democratic Old Guard Shoots Down a Rising Star Who Appeals to the Youth and Latino Vote | An expert on Terrorism on Charging Luigi Mangione With Terrorism | Jeff Bezos Bends the Knee Today at Mar a Lago as Trump Muses About Privatizing the USPS backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 18, 20241 hr 1 min

December 17, 2024 - Paul Waldman | Jonathan Metzl | Suzanne Schneider

As Trump Declares War on the Press, ABC News Preemptively Capitulates | The Latest of 323 School Shooting This Year Involves a 15-Year Old Girl Who Killed 2, Wounded 6 and Shot Herself at Her Christian School | Our "Christo-Fascists" Compared to the Islamo-Fascists We Decry backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dec 17, 20241 hr 3 min

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
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