Background Briefing with Ian Masters
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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Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 30, 2025 • 1h 5min
December 30, 2025 - Olga Lautman | Luke Goldstein | Anand Giridharadas
Evidence That Putin Owns Trump is Staring Us in the Face | How Google and Big Tech Are Trying to Stop States From Regulating AI | The Enduring Scandal That Above All His Other Outrages, Might Bring Trump Down
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Dec 29, 2025 • 1h 8min
December 29, 2025 - Nina Burleigh | Robert Young Pelton | Rachel VanLandingham
We continue to look back on 2025 by reviewing some of our favorite interviews from November and early December:
More Damaging Epstein Emails Emerge While the Real Smoking Gun Remains Epsteins Ties to Israeli Intelligence | An Investigation Into the CIA-Run Kill Or Capture Zero Units the D.C. Shooter Worked With | A Former JAG on Hegseth and Trumps Murder Spree Which Are Not War Crimes Because We are Not at War
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Dec 28, 2025 • 1h 1min
December 28, 2025 - Sean Wilentz | David Adler | Ken Klippenstein
A 2025 Retrospective - We Are Past a Constitutional Crisis and Should be Working on Restoring Our Democracy and Reviving the Constitution | An Activist on a Boat in a Flotilla Heading to Gaza That the Israelis Have Attacked With Drones | Trump and Miller’s National Security Directive NSPM-7 Outlaws the Common Beliefs of Over Half of the Country
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Dec 25, 2025 • 1h 2min
December 25, 2025 - James Carroll | Steven Simon | Barbara Walter
A Christmas Message | A 2025 Retrospective -The New Hegemon in the Middle East: Israel | Trump’s Dual Strategies of Scaring Off Protests and Instigating Provocations to Enact Fascism
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Dec 24, 2025 • 60min
December 24, 2025 - Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis | Gil Duran | Brooke Harrington
Christmas Eve | A Look Back at 2025 Starting In January - A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump’s Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives | Since Musk’s Assault on the Federal Workforce is Only Saving a Pittance, the Real Intention Then Must Be To Cripple the US Government
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Dec 23, 2025 • 60min
December 23, 2025 - Sidney Blumenthal | Jasper Nathaniel
The Latest Dump of the Epstein Files and Susie Wiles' Expose of the Rot at the Top of the U.S. Government | A Reporter Whose Video of a West Bank Settler Beating An Elderly Palestinian Woman Went Viral Leading to a Rare Arrest
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Dec 22, 2025 • 1h 2min
December 22, 2025 - Lincoln Mitchell | Ben Armbruster | Ariel Dorfman
The Relationship Between Antisemitism and Criticism of Israel | The CBS News Editor Appointed by the Ellisons Spikes a 60 Minutes Segment to Re Edit a More Trump-Friendly Version | Ariel Dorfman From Chile on the Election of a Far-Right President Who Will Free Pinochet's Murderers, Torturers and Kidnappers
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Dec 21, 2025 • 59min
December 21, 2025 - Moira Donegan | James Zirin | Samuel Moyn
Trump's Deteriorating Mental and Physical Health| Trump's DoJ Releases 10% of the Heavily Redacted Epstein Files Trying to Shift the Focus From Trump to Clinton | Ending the Oligarch-Friendly Illegitimate Rule of the Supreme Court
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Dec 18, 2025 • 1h 2min
December 18, 2025 - Mike Lofgren | Francisco Rodríguez | Tim Wu
Trump's Mad, Fact-Free Diatribe to the Nation Telling Us How Bad Biden Was and How Great He Is | A Tanker Blockade and the Venezuelan Navy Going Up Against the U.S. Navy: What Could Go Wrong? | The Former White House Tech and Competition Czar on How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
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Dec 17, 2025 • 58min
December 17, 2025 - Greg Sargent | Sven Beckert
A Profile of the Dark Force Behind the Indiscriminate Roundup of Immigrants and the Revival of the Political Paranoia of the "Red Scare" | With Young Americans Rejecting Capitalism, a Deep Dive Into the History of Capitalism
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