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

February 13, 2025 - Allison McManus | Michael Hiltzik | Timothy Shenk

Trump is Selling Out Ukraine to Putin Who He Is Going to Bat For to Have the Pariah Readmitted to the G7 | Republican Senators Confirm an Anti-Vaxxer and Conspiracy Monger to Head HHS | How the Left Lost Its Political Footing and How to Get it Back backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 13, 20251 hr 1 min

February 12, 2025 - Steven Pifer | Michael Kimmage | Daoud Kuttab

Hegseth Gives Up Ukraine's Leverage Before Russia/Ukraine Peace Talks Begin | Is the Trump Administration Already Capitulating to Putin? | An Assessment of the Awkward Meeting Between Jordan's King Abdullah and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 12, 20251 hr 1 min

February 11, 2025 - Nicholas Grossman | Lucan Way

The Frightening Pace at Which the United States is Embracing Authoritarianism | Why is it Trump's Priority to Attack Allies Like Canada While Cozying up to Enemies Like Putin? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 11, 20251 hr

February 10, 2025 - Jason Stanley | Jacques Berlinerbau | Allison Pugh

Has Fascism Already Arrived in America? | The MAGA Christian Nationalists' War on the Separation of Church and State | Musk and His Techies Are Purging Workers to Replace Them With Automation and AI Which is Why He's Buying OpenAI For $97.4 Billion backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 10, 20251 hr 4 min

February 9, 2025 - Kathleen Clark | Katherine Stewart | Vanda Felbab-Brown

Technocrats Are Purging Bureaucrats to Grab Data, Control Funds, Weaken Government, Cut Services and Install Loyalists to the Dear Leader | The One-Two Punch of Plutocracy and Theocracy Taking Over the Country | The Tinderbox in Eastern Congo Threatening a Regional War backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 09, 20251 hr 5 min

February 6, 2025 - David Super | Lisa Graves | Michael German

Government Workers Should Not Fall For the Musk/Trump Buyout Trick | The Moral Authoritarian and Billionaire Worshipping Author of Project 2025 About to Head the OMB | Collusion Between the Far Right and American Policing is About to Get Worse Under Trump, Bondi and Kash Patel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 06, 20251 hr 2 min

February 5, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Leila Hilal | Jeet Heer

Netanyahu Meets With the Christian Zionist "Crusader" at the Pentagon Where Top Officials Want to Get Out of the Middle East Quagmire | A Palestinian Perspective on Trump's US-Owned Gaza as a "Riviera of the Middle East" | The Growing Alarm at Musk Having Every American's Social Security Number, Address, Email, Income and Personal Details backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 05, 20251 hr 3 min

February 4, 2025 - Robert Kuttner | Ioan Grillo | Van Jackson

The Fatal Combination of a Mentally Ill President and a Mentally Deranged Billionaire Out to Destroy Our Government and Democracy | Stopping the Deadly Fentanyl Trade in Mexico, China and Now India | The Folly of a Trade War With China and a Saner Way To Ease Tensions backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 04, 20251 hr 6 min

February 3, 2025 - Steve Radelet | Moira Donegan | Adele Stan

Musk Shuts Down USAID After Trump Illegally Freezes Foreign Aid for 90 Days | The Failure of the Democrats and the American Left In Allowing a Disastrous Misanthrope to Be Elected President Not Just Once, But Twice | Do 76 Million Americans Not Want a Functioning Government and Prefer to be Entertained by a Reality TV Star? Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Asher Price

Feb 04, 20251 hr 2 min

February 2, 2025 - William Yeomans | Karen Dolan | Michael Brenes

Trump's Lawless, Petty and Vindictive Purge of the Justice Department and FBI | Musk and Trump's Shock and Awe Campaign to Wreck and Loot the US Government | Trump Slaps Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China in a Dangerous and Misguided Frenzy of America First Nationalism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Feb 02, 20251 hr 3 min

January 1, 2025 - Gregory Treverton | Jeff Wise

Republican Senators Who Know Better Appear to Roll Over For Trump, Poised to Confirm the Disastrous Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard | Rather Than Fix the FAA, Our Reality TV President Blames DEI For the Potomac Plane Crash backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 30, 20251 hr 4 min

January 29, 2025 - Dr. Amesh Adalja | Dr. Peter Katona | Mae Ngai

Will Republican Senators Watch the Video Carloline Kennedy Sent Them Describing Her Cousin RFK Jr. as a "Predator?" | RFK Jr. and the Spread of Medical Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories | Trump Has Already Violated His Oath of Office on the 14th Amendment Birthright and the Funding Freeze He Had to Rescind backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jan 29, 20251 hr 3 min

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
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