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

January 28, 2025 - Michelle Garcia | Sam Quinones | Thomas Berger

Trump's Reality TV Theatre of Cruelty Underway | Trump Will Hurt the Construction Industry Now in Demand to Rebuild Houses Lost to Hurricanes and Wildfires | Can Musk Buy Elections in the UK and Germany As He Just Did Here? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 28, 20251 hr 3 min

January 27, 2025 - Dharna Noor | Dr. Herb Lin | Natalie Melnyczuk

Trump's Embrace of the Fossil Fuel Industry Which Spent $445 Million to Elect Him and the Republican Congress | China's DeepSeek AI Model Threatens US Dominance as Tech Stocks Tumble | Will Trump Fall For Putin's Flattery? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia Music Breaks: Cate Kennan - Thielsen Black Devil Disco Club - To Ardent (Vitamin Wig C Remix)

Jan 27, 20251 hr 7 min

January 26, 2025 - Michael Weinstein | Russell Muirhead | Michael Albertus

In Their Jihad Against DEI, Trump and Hegseth Are Creating Affirmative Action for White Losers, Drunks and Incompetents | Trump's Wrecking Crew and the Politics of Destruction | Trump Eyes Panama, Greenland and Canada For a Land Grab backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 26, 20251 hr 3 min

January 23, 2025 - Gil Duran | George Beebe | William Hartung

A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump's Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives | Trump Threatens to Sanction Putin and Calls on OPEC to Lower Oil Prices to Force Russia's to End Its War On Ukraine | The Tech-Industrial Complex's Plans to Capture the Defense Budget backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 23, 20251 hr 2 min

January 22, 2025 - Anthea Butler | Loch Johnson | Craig Unger

A Real Christian Confronts Trump Unlike the Christo-Fascists and Evangelical Hucksters Who Worship the False Idol | Trump's Choices to Head American Intelligence Might As Well Have Been Chosen By Putin | The Treason That Helped Elect Nixon, Reagan and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 22, 20251 hr 5 min

January 21, 2025 - Michael Podhorzer | Elizabeth Goitein | Spencer Sunshine

How the Roberts Court Laid the Groundwork For a Plutocratic and Theocratic Takeover of American Democracy | Trump's Plans From 1798 to Use the US Military Against Migrants and Drug Cartels | In Releasing Jailed Militia Leaders, Is Trump Following Mussolini and Hitler's Playbook of a "Blackshirt" and "Brownshirt" Assault on Democracy? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 21, 20251 hr 6 min

January 20, 2025 - Dr. Allen Frances | Sidney Blumenthal | Molly White

Today Trump Issued a Death Sentence to Our Children and Grandchildren | The Unreality of the Reality TV Star Spewing Lies as Promises | The Crypto Grift of $Trump Even Before He Became the Grifter-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 20, 20251 hr 7 min

January 19, 2025 - Sean Wilentz | Fred Turner | Cayce Myers

The Incoming Horror of Trump and the Outgoing Sadness of Biden | Biden's Warning of a Tech-Industrial Complex and That We Are Losing Our Democracy to Plutocracy | The Future of TikTok Which the Supreme Court Shut Down Today backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 19, 20251 hr 6 min

January 16, 2025 - Steven Simon | Quinn Slobodian

An Analysis of the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal | Biden's Warning of a New American Oligarchy and the Danger of a Tech-Industrial Complex backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 16, 20251 hr 8 min

January 15, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Elliot Egin | Corey Brettschneider

What Latitude Will "Little Marco" Have As Secretary of State? | The Confirmation of the Pay-to-Play Pam Bondi For Attorney General | Trump's Grossly Unqualified Wrecking Crew Is Aimed at Deconstructing the American State to Serve the Plutocrats Not the People backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 15, 20251 hr 4 min

January 14, 2025 - Robert Young Pelton | Rachel VanLandingham | Laurie Levenson | Annelle Sheline

Republican Senators Roll Over the Democrats Determined to Do Trump's Bidding and Confirm a Dangerously Unqualified Ideologue as Secretary of Defense | A Former Female JAG Officer on Hegseth's Disparagement of Women in the Military and Military Justice | Jack Smith's January 6 Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted Had the Case Gone To Trial | Unlike Biden, Trump Uses Leverage to Get a Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal Between Israel and Hamas backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianma...

Jan 14, 20251 hr 4 min

January 12, 2025 - LeRoy Westerling | David Smilde | James Zirin

Instead of Helping Angelenos Who Lost Their Homes, Trump Offers Insults | The Third Inauguration of Venezuela's Maduro Who Lost the Last Election in a Landslide | The Scofflaw-in-Chief is Now the Felon-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 12, 20251 hr 4 min

January 9, 2025 - James Fallows | Glen MacDonald | Mark Whailing

Today's Moving Memorial of President Jimmy Carter at His State Funeral | How Climate Change Supercharged the Wildfires That Swept Through LA | A Former LAFD Battalion Chief on What it is Like to Confront a Wall of Flame Driven by 80 MPH Winds backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 09, 20251 hr 5 min

January 8, 2025 - Harry Litman | Dr. Jon Kelley | Jamie Court

The Ghost of Roy Cohn Will Rule Over the Next 4 Years of MAGA Jurisprudence | Environmental and Ecological Factors Behind the Wildfires Raging in LA | Will Homeowners Get Their Insurance Payouts and Will Insurance Still Be Available in Fire-Prone Areas? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 08, 20251 hr 6 min

January 7, 2025 - Scott Horton | Stephen Kinzer | Alexander Cooley

The Normalization of Trump By the Press and Social Media as Its Owners Bezos and Zuckerberg Move to Flatter Rather Than Fact-Check Him | At Today's Rambling Press Conference Trump Does Not Rule Out Military Force to Take Back the Panama Canal, Grab Greenland and Make Canada the 51st State | Why is Trump Attacking Our Closest Allies While Cozying up to Our Worst Adversaries? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 07, 20251 hr 3 min

January 6, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Andrew Latham | Thanassis Cambanis

Trump's Orwellian January 6 Victory - Four Years Later Lies Have Won and Truth is Endangered | Today's Resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau After 9 Years in Office | The Need to Lift Sanctions on Syria Before Chaos Consumes a Failed State

Jan 06, 20251 hr 3 min

January 5, 2025 - Karen Greenberg | Ruth Ben Ghiat | Craig Aaron

Trump's Ominous Response to the Recent Terrorist Attacks | An American Despot is About to Take Charge With So Much More Power Than Hitler Had in 1933 | A Republican Court Kills Net Neutrality to Reward Unpopular and Antiquated Cable and Telecom Giants backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 05, 20251 hr 3 min

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, 20252 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