
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.
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Latest episodes

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
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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
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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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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