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
Jun 9, 2025 • 1h 2min
June 9, 2025 - Manuel Pastor | John Lawrence | Barbara Walter
An Eyewitness to Trump's Dictatorial Dream of Crushing Blue State Opposition on His Way to Becoming An American Fuhrer | With Trump Itching to Provoke an Insurrection to Justify a Dictatorship, Has LA Played Into His Hands? | Trump's Dual Strategies of Scaring Off Protests and Instigating Provocations to Enact Fascism
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Jun 8, 2025 • 1h 1min
June 8, 2025 - Moira Donegan | Harold Meyerson | Michael Gorham
More Tabloid Headlines From a Tabloid Presidency As the Marriage of Wealth and Power Between Two Infantile Ego-Maniacs Heads For Divorce | Political Activism Versus Centrist Pragmatism: The Choices Facing the Moribund Democratic Party in New York City's Mayoral Race | Trump Claims Putin is "Tapping Him Along" But is Trump Stringing Us All Along?
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Jun 5, 2025 • 55min
June 5, 2025 - Miles Taylor | John Nichols
What it is Like to Be An American Citizen Targeted by the Most Powerful Person in the World Who is Accusing You of Treason For Speaking the Truth | Trump's America: The United States of Cruelty
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Jun 4, 2025 • 1h 1min
June 4, 2025 - Robert Hockett | Oleh Kotsyuba | Mohsen Milani
Trump Digs the Deficit Hole $2.4 Trillion Deeper to Punish the Poor and Reward the Richest | Trump Sells Out Ukraine Again in His Call Today With Putin | Trump Pressure Iran to Sign or Get Bombed, Making a War That Will Not Be a Cakewalk More Likely
Trump Digs the Deficit Hole $2.4 Trillion Deeper to Punish the Poor and Reward the Richest | Trump Sells Out Ukraine Again in His Call Today With Putin | Trump Pressure Iran to Sign or Get Bombed, Making a War That Will Not Be a Cakewalk More Likely
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Jun 3, 2025 • 1h 3min
June 3, 2025 - William Arkin | Halie Soifer | Johnathan Buma
The Pentagon's Slow Learning Curve on Asymmetrical Warfare | The Latest Attacks on Jewish Americans As Our President Continues to Signal his Anti Semitic Leanings | A Former FBI Counterintelligence Whistleblower on the Wrecking of the FBI by Patel and Bongino
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Jun 2, 2025 • 1h 4min
June 2, 2025 - Michael Swaine | Ryan Cooper | George Packer
The Smallest Man With The Biggest Job in America Calls Out China in a Hegemonic Showdown | Trump and Musk's Refugees From an Imaginary White Genocide | Part 2 of George Packer's Atlantic Article on Our Next President, "The Talented Mr. Vance"
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Jun 1, 2025 • 1h 1min
June 1, 2025 - Robert Kuttner | Lisa Graves | George Packer
President TACO Zig-Zags on Tariffs as the Senate Takes Up His "Big, Beautiful Bill" Which Some Republicans Want to Cut More and Others Cut Less | Trump Calls Leonard Leo a "Sleazebag" and Regrets Following the Advice of the Federalist Society | The Growing Possibility Our Next President Will Be J.D. Vance Before Trump's Term is Up
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May 29, 2025 • 1h 4min
May 29, 2025 - Aram Shabanian | Olga Lautman | Chris Hedges
How the Trump Wrecking Crew Are Destroying Our Defense and National Security | How the Media Falls for Trump's Theatre While Ukraine Burns | A Pulitzer Prize-Winning NYT ME Bureau Chief and Veteran War Correspondent on Gaza
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May 28, 2025 • 1h
May 28, 2025 - Daniel Treisman | Jacob Heilbrunn | David Victor
Trump Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About How He Protects Putin | Musk, JD Vance and Rubio Praise the German Neo-Nazi AfD Party While the Trump Administration Weaponizes Aniti-Semitism | The Impact of the US Senate's Republicans Revoking California's Electric Car Mandate
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May 27, 2025 • 1h 1min
May 27, 2025 - Mike Konczal | Joe Cirincione | Jacob Silverman
The Cruelest Cuts in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill | Trump's Golden Dome - A Massive Boondoggle and Payoff to Musk and Thiel | As Trump Monetizes His Presidency, Thanks to Crypto, His Family's Net Worth Increased by $2.9 Billion to $ 5.4 Billion
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