
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

Mar 31, 2025 • 1h 4min
March 31, 2025 - Paul Pillar | Henry Giroux | Lloyd Green
Is Trump Bluffing With Nuclear Threats Against Iran or Does he Want to Nuke Their Underground Nuclear Facilities | Trump and Stephen Miller are Borrowing From the Argentine Junta, Pinochet and the Nazis | A Former Republican Opposition Researcher on Republican Vulnerabilities and How the Democrats Can Up Their Game
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Mar 30, 2025 • 1h 2min
March 30, 2025 - Harold Meyerson | Aziz Rana
Trump's Top Aides Dig the Hole Deeper on Signalgate Speaking Lies on Behalf of Power | An Examination of the Emerging Resistance and How the Only Pathway Out of Institutional Collapse as Our Democracy is Destroyed is on the Left
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Mar 27, 2025 • 1h 1min
March 27, 2025 - Annelle Sheline | Thomas Bollyky | Ruth Conniff
Team Trump's Amateurs and Incompetents Exposed on the Signal Group Chat Prepare to Bomb the Houthis Again, Maybe This Time With "Clean Opsec"? | RFK Jr's Brutal Cuts to HHS as His Quackery Harms Kids From Cod Liver He Recommends Instead of a Measles Vaccination | Are We About to See a Defeat of Musk in Wisconsin After Successfully Buying the White House, the Senate and the House?
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Mar 26, 2025 • 1h 1min
March 26, 2025 - Lincoln Mitchell | Michael Hiltzik | David Daley
Heading Into the Generational Fight Against MAGA Fascism | Can Social Security be Saved From Musk's Wreck Then Rob | Trump's Executive Order to Rig Elections in His Favor He Claims Have Been Rigged Against Him
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Mar 25, 2025 • 1h
March 25, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Gregory Treverton | Samuel Moyn
The Trump Team Group Chat Revels VP Vance is Running the Presidency Along With Stephen Miller | Incompetent and Unqualified Heads of US Intelligence on Display Before the Senate Intelligence Committee Today | The Courts Will Not Save Us Since They Got Us Into This Mess
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Mar 24, 2025 • 1h 10min
March 24, 2025 - David Phillips | Asher Kaufman | Olga Lautman
Trump Greenlight's Erdogan's Crackdown While Musk Removes Turkish Opposition Content on X | The Strategy Behind Netanyahu's Resumption of His War on Gaza | The Pathetic Asymmetry Between Seasoned Russian Diplomats and Intelligence Professionals Negotiating Against Trump's Real Estate Buddy Witkoff

Mar 23, 2025 • 1h
March 23, 2025 - Fred Turner | Robert Suettinger
Musk's Ungoverning Tactic of "Wreck Then Rob" | Inside the PRC's Secretive Internal Leadership Struggles Between Reformers and Reactionaries
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Mar 20, 2025 • 1h 6min
March 20, 2025 - David Bateman | Ken Vogel | Alex Isenstadt
The MAGA Trump/Vance Takeover of American Education Using Money to Control Minds and Eradicate Intellectual Inquiry | Trump and the GOP Aim to Cripple the Left by Defunding Democrats and It's Underway | Vengeance Drives Trump As He Tears Down People and Institutions
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Mar 19, 2025 • 1h 1min
March 19, 2025 - Marci Shore | Michael Gorham | Henri Barkey
Could Massive Demonstrations Against Despots and Kleptocrats in Serbia and Hungary be a Model For the US to Get Rid of Trump and Musk? | Russia Claims Victory After Trump's Call With Putin Who Paid No Price For Rejecting Trump's Ceasefire Deal | Will Erdogan Get Away With the Brazen Jailing of the Leader of Turkey's Opposition?
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Mar 18, 2025 • 1h 6min
March 18, 2025 - Omar El Akkad | David Faris | Simon Rosenberg
As Netanyahu Renews His War On Gaza, We Challenge the Comfort Zone of What is Happening in Distant Lands | As Musk and Trump Tear Through the Fabric of American Society, the Days of Choosing Between Gutless Liberals and Callous Conservatives are Over | What Kind of Opposition Will Emerge at This Critical Moment For the Survival of American Democracy?
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