
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

May 22, 2025 • 1h 5min
May 22, 2025 - Rob Johnson | Joan Williams
What Will the Senate Do With Trump's Robin Hood In Reverse "Big, Beautiful Bill"? |1 Why the Democratic Party's "Brahmin Left" Lost America's Working Men and Women and How to Win Them Back
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May 21, 2025 • 1h 1min
May 21, 2025 - Rebecca Riddell | Dr. Steven Nabieu Rogers | Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
The 10 Richest Americans Made $365 Billion More in 2024 and Trump and the GOP Wants to Give Them a Huge Tax Break | In an Oval Office Ambush of South Africa's President, Trump Spewed Lies Musk Had Filled His Head With | More Conspiracy and Quackery From RFK Jr. Before Today's Senate as Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums and Alien Enthusiasts Wreck Science
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May 20, 2025 • 1h 1min
May 20, 2025 - Alexander Motyl | Asher Kaufman | Patrick Bond
Trump's Deference to Putin and His Unwillingness to Press For a Ceasefire and Sanction Russia If It Refuses Stuns European Leaders | As the UK, France and Canada Condemn Israel's Gaza Offensive and the Starving of Children, Trump Does Not Come To Netanyahu's Defense | A South African Perspective on Trump's Welcoming of Its White "Refugees"
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May 19, 2025 • 1h 3min
May 19, 2025 - George Beebe | Natalie Melnyczuk | Casey Michel
Trump's Phone Call Today With Putin and Others and the Need For More Than a Russia/Ukraine Ceasefire | A Ukrainian Perspective on Trump's Conversations With the Warring Parties | Trump and Family Have Elevated Corruption to an Industrial Scale
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May 18, 2025 • 1h 4min
May 18, 2025 - Steven Pifer | Tamar Jacoby | Omar El Akkad
Putin Plays Trump Again Not Showing Up For Farcical "Peace" Talks in Istanbul | A Report From Kyiv on How Much Ukrainians Want Peace But Not Surrender on Putin's Terms | The Death Toll In Gaza Reaches 53, 272 As Trump Plans to Send a Million Gazans to War-torn Libya
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May 15, 2025 • 60min
May 15, 2025 - Alan Morrison | Gabriel Chin | Gregory Treverton
Trump is Using the Birthright Citizenship Case to Get the Supreme Court to Stop Federal Judges From Blocking His Agenda Nationwide | The History of Birthright Citizenship Which Has been Settled Law Since 1898 | Russia's "Girlfriend" Tulsi Gabbard is Neutering the IC as MAGAworld Makes America Deaf, Dumb and Blind When it Comes to What is Happening in the Real World
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May 14, 2025 • 1h 3min
May 14, 2025 - Joshua Landis | Nader Hashemi | Angela Stent
Trump Lifts Sanctions on Syria Calling Its New Leader, a Former Islamic State Fighter, "a Young Attractive Guy" | A Judge Orders ICE to Release Another Wrongly-Detained Scholar Held For 8 Weeks in Detention in Texas | Will Putin Show Up For Peace Talks and Tulsi Gabbard Fires Top Intel Officials For Telling Truth to Power
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May 13, 2025 • 1h 2min
May 13, 2025 - Sarah Leah Whitson | Jon Hoffman | Alex Lawson
Trump Signs a $142 Billion Weapons Deal In Saudi Arabia, Not the Peace Deal With Putin He Expected To Sign, But He Still Hopes to Sign a Deal With Iran | As Trump Throws His Lot in With Rich Arabs, How Much is Netanyahu Out in the Cold? | The Good "Christians" Speaker Johnson and the OMB's Vought Are Working Tirelessly to Hurt the Poor and Reward the Rich
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May 12, 2025 • 1h 3min
May 12, 2025 - Scott Horton | Paul Pierson
Trump's FBI is Trying to Silence a Whistleblower who Revealed Russian Recruitment of Musk and Thiel | The Mismatch Between Our Constitution and Weaponized Partisan Politics
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May 11, 2025 • 60min
May 11, 2025 - Lucan Way | James Zirin | Leah Litman
Manhandling Congresswomen and Arresting a Mayor Makes it Clear We Already Have an Authoritarian Government | As Stephen Miller Talks of Suspending Habeas Corpus, Justices Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson Warn it is Time to Stand Up | The Law is Being Put to the Test by a Lawless President Who Has Been Given Immunity by a Supreme Court Captured by Right Wing Billionaires
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