Background Briefing with Ian Masters cover image

Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Latest episodes

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Jul 3, 2025 • 1h 2min

July 3, 2025 - Edward McCaffery | Greg Treverton | Raed Jarrar

The Republican's Cynical Ploy to Give Billionaires Tax Breaks Immediately While Delaying Cuts to Medicaid and Food Assistance Until After the Midterms | In Spite of Ratcliffe's Spin to Please His Boss, the CIA Report Finds That Putin Did Help Trump and Hurt Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Election | US Contractors Shoot Gazans For Sport as Hamas Approves the US Plan for a Hostage Release backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jul 2, 2025 • 1h 2min

July 2, 2025 - Paul Farhi | Patrick Sullivan | Oona Hathaway

Another Big Media Company Caves to Trump's Extortion | Four of the Worst Horrors in the Awful Republican Megabill | As Trump Uses War and the Threat of War, He Ignores the UN and the US Congress backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jul 1, 2025 • 1h 2min

July 1, 2025 - Will Bunch | James Thurber | Meghan Pazik

Trump's Casualty Cruelty as He Tours a New Gulag Celebrating the $75 Billion He Just Got For ICE and DHS | Republican Senators Shamelessly Pass a Massive Transfer of Wealth From the Poorest to the Richest Americans | Today's Misanthropic Assault on Our Kids and Grandkids From Republican Whores and Hirelings of Big Oil and Dirty Coal
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 2min

June 30, 2025 - Corey Brettschneider | Mike Lofgren | Assal Rad

The Supreme Court Has Sold Out the Constitution and the Rule of Law to Reward a Lawless Trump, and Now The Republican Legislative Branch is Selling Out Their Constituents to Reward the Super-Rich | From Authoritarianism to Totalitarianism as Trump Erases the Distinction Between Civil Society and the State | Signs That Iran Was Not "Obliterated" and Could Quickly Resume Their Nuclear Program backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 29, 2025 • 1h 4min

June 29, 2025 - Lisa Graves | Garrett Epps | Sam Tanenhaus

Welcome to One Party Rule As SCOTUS Removes the Last Check on Trump | We Are Back in the 1850's With ICE Repeating the Cruelty of the Fugitive Slave Act | There Was a Respectable Right Before Trump's MAGA Took Over the GOP backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 26, 2025 • 1h 1min

June 26, 2025 - Dr. Trita Parsi | Michael German | Dr. Allen Frances

The Supreme Leader Congratulates Iranians on Their "Victory" over Israel and the US While the Head of the IAEA Says Fordo is "No Longer Operational" | As Trump Demonizes Democrats and Democratic Lawmakers Are Assassinated, How Long Before ICE and DHS Start Rounding up His Political Enemies? | Explaining the 60-Fold Rise in Autism While the Quack Heading HHS, RFK Jr. Still Blames it on Vaccines backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 25, 2025 • 1h 1min

June 25, 2025 - Jennifer Kavanagh | Joseph Cirincione | Brian Levin

With Trump and Hegseth's Bombastic Claims of "Total Obliteration" Blowing Up, Will Iran Now Sprint to a Bomb? | While Talking Peace, This is Trump's War and It's Only Just Beginning | Trump and Miller's ICE Stormtroopers' Reckless and Brutal Roundups of Non-Criminals on the Streets of LA backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 24, 2025 • 1h 5min

June 24, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Susan Kang | Ali Afshari

Trump's Waffling on Article 5 of the NATO Treaty as European Leaders Try to Avoid a Clash Between Him and Zelensky at the Summit Underway | Today's NY City Race For Mayor Exposes the Division in the Democratic Party as a Talented Young Leader Faces a Disgraced Relic | Iran's Divided Opposition With the US and Israel-Backed MEK and Shah's Son Hated For Their Collusion With Israel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 23, 2025 • 1h 3min

June 23, 2025 - Eli Clifton | Maziar Behrooz | Eleni Schirmer

A Specialist on Iran Who Recently Met With Iranian Foreign Ministry Officials and Nuclear Negotiators | The State Of the Iranian Opposition as Trump Muses About Regime Change | The MAGA and Project 2025 Plan to Dumb Down America to Become an Idiocracy in Service of a Plutocracy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
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Jun 22, 2025 • 1h 5min

June 22, 2025 - David Albright | Elizabeth Saunders

US Bombs Have Fallen on Iran, What We Know and Don't Know About Iran's Secret Nuclear Program | Trump, the Triumphant and Imperial President at Home and the Emperor Abroad backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

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