
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

Apr 28, 2025 • 1h 3min
April 28, 2025 - Lisa DeMio | Moira Donega | Sean Wilentz
Governor Pritzker Wows Democrats in the Key New Hampshire Primary State | Thiel, Musk and Vance's Pro-Natalist Movement Wants More Superior White Children | The Historical Comparisons Between Hilter's Rapid Extinction of German Democracy and Trump's First 100 Days
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Apr 27, 2025 • 59min
April 27, 2025 - Simon Shuster | Craig Holman | Gareth Gore
On the Sidelines of the Pope's Funeral, Zelensky Meets With Trump to Discuss the White House's Charade of a Peace Plan/Giveaway to Putin | Trump Orders the DOJ to Investigate Act Blue to Get Private Data on 15 Million Democratic Donors | Opus Dei and "Traditionalist" Forces Inside the Catholic Church Maneuver to Replace a Pope They Hated With a Reactionary
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Apr 24, 2025 • 1h 3min
April 24, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Jameel Jaffer | David Graham
Why Should Putin Accept Trump's Peace Deal When He Can Wait for Him to Walk Away as Promised? | One-By-One News Organizations are Caving to Trump's Extortion | Inside Project 2025 and the Right Wing Zealots and Culture Warriors Who Crafted the Roadmap For Trump
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Apr 23, 2025 • 1h 1min
April 23, 2025 - Fred Turner | Olga Lautman
The Incredible Shrinking Billionaire Who is Destroying Our Government Blames Tesla's Sales Slump on "Paid" Demonstrators | Vance Announces a Shameful Sellout Of Ukraine Allowing Russia to Conquer and Subjugate What Putin Could Not Win on the Battlefield
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Apr 22, 2025 • 1h
April 22, 2025 - J.W. Mason | Kate McElwee | Malcolm Harris
Trump's Self-Inflicted Wound on Our Economy as Overseas Investors Retreat from Treasuries and the Dollar | An Update From Rome on the Conclave With Cardinals From the Global South in the Mix For a New Pope | On This Earth Day Strategies For Collective Political Action to Make Climate Change the Unifying Crisis of Our Time
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Apr 21, 2025 • 1h
April 21, 2025 - Kenneth Briggs | Frances Kissling | Lawrence Korb
Sadness Around the World at the Death of a Good Man, Pope Francis | The Gap Between a Tolerant and Empathetic Pope and the Reactionary Male-Dominated Institution He Headed | Another Scandal From the White Nationalist, Racist, Book-Burning Reality TV Hire of Trump's at the Pentagon
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Apr 20, 2025 • 1h 4min
April 20, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Justin Wolfers | Jake Werner
Putin's Brief Easter Ceasefire and Trump's Warning he Might "Take a Pass" if a Russia/Ukraine Peace Deal Can't be Made | Trump Threatens To Fire the Chairman of the Fed Which He Can't Do But That Won't Stop Him From Trying | In Picking a Trade War With China, Trump Might End Up With a Real War
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Apr 17, 2025 • 1h 2min
April 17, 2025 - Bruce Fein | Bill Scher | Scott Kennedy
The Looming Constitutional Crisis as Trump Continues to Defy the Supreme Court and Federal District Courts With "The Dog Ate My Homework" Excuses | A Little-Noticed FEC Ruling Opens the Door For the Next Frontier of Plutocracy | The Tariff War Trump Has Launched Against China That He Will Surely Lose
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Apr 16, 2025 • 1h 2min
April 16, 2025 - Edward McCaffery | Nancy Altman | Craig Unger
Trump Appoints Another Unqualified Hack as the Deliberate Destruction of the IRS Continues | The Deliberate Destruction of Social Security With Biden the Wrong Person to Lead the Effort to Save it | An Assessment of Rumors about Witkoff's Ties To Russian Money-launderers
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Apr 15, 2025 • 59min
April 15, 2025 - Ryan Enos | Aram Shabanian | Nader Hashemi
Harvard Stands up to Trump Then He Hits Then For $2.2 Billion and Threatens Their Tax-exempt Status | Trump's Escalating War on the Press as he Threatens CBS Over an Accurate 60 Minutes Report on Ukraine | A Professor Who Just visited His Postdoctoral Student in an ICE Detention Camp
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