
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

Feb 9, 2025 • 1h 5min
February 9, 2025 - Kathleen Clark | Katherine Stewart | Vanda Felbab-Brown
Technocrats Are Purging Bureaucrats to Grab Data, Control Funds, Weaken Government, Cut Services and Install Loyalists to the Dear Leader | The One-Two Punch of Plutocracy and Theocracy Taking Over the Country | The Tinderbox in Eastern Congo Threatening a Regional War
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Feb 6, 2025 • 1h 2min
February 6, 2025 - David Super | Lisa Graves | Michael German
Government Workers Should Not Fall For the Musk/Trump Buyout Trick | The Moral Authoritarian and Billionaire Worshipping Author of Project 2025 About to Head the OMB | Collusion Between the Far Right and American Policing is About to Get Worse Under Trump, Bondi and Kash Patel
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Feb 5, 2025 • 1h 3min
February 5, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Leila Hilal | Jeet Heer
Netanyahu Meets With the Christian Zionist "Crusader" at the Pentagon Where Top Officials Want to Get Out of the Middle East Quagmire | A Palestinian Perspective on Trump's US-Owned Gaza as a "Riviera of the Middle East" | The Growing Alarm at Musk Having Every American's Social Security Number, Address, Email, Income and Personal Details
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Feb 4, 2025 • 1h 6min
February 4, 2025 - Robert Kuttner | Ioan Grillo | Van Jackson
The Fatal Combination of a Mentally Ill President and a Mentally Deranged Billionaire Out to Destroy Our Government and Democracy | Stopping the Deadly Fentanyl Trade in Mexico, China and Now India | The Folly of a Trade War With China and a Saner Way To Ease Tensions
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Feb 4, 2025 • 1h 2min
February 3, 2025 - Steve Radelet | Moira Donegan | Adele Stan
Musk Shuts Down USAID After Trump Illegally Freezes Foreign Aid for 90 Days | The Failure of the Democrats and the American Left In Allowing a Disastrous Misanthrope to Be Elected President Not Just Once, But Twice | Do 76 Million Americans Not Want a Functioning Government and Prefer to be Entertained by a Reality TV Star?
Host: Ian Masters
Producer: Graham FitzGibbon
Assistant Producer: Asher Price

Feb 2, 2025 • 1h 3min
February 2, 2025 - William Yeomans | Karen Dolan | Michael Brenes
Trump's Lawless, Petty and Vindictive Purge of the Justice Department and FBI | Musk and Trump's Shock and Awe Campaign to Wreck and Loot the US Government | Trump Slaps Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China in a Dangerous and Misguided Frenzy of America First Nationalism
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Jan 30, 2025 • 1h 4min
January 1, 2025 - Gregory Treverton | Jeff Wise
Republican Senators Who Know Better Appear to Roll Over For Trump, Poised to Confirm the Disastrous Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard | Rather Than Fix the FAA, Our Reality TV President Blames DEI For the Potomac Plane Crash
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Jan 29, 2025 • 1h 3min
January 29, 2025 - Dr. Amesh Adalja | Dr. Peter Katona | Mae Ngai
Will Republican Senators Watch the Video Carloline Kennedy Sent Them Describing Her Cousin RFK Jr. as a "Predator?" | RFK Jr. and the Spread of Medical Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories | Trump Has Already Violated His Oath of Office on the 14th Amendment Birthright and the Funding Freeze He Had to Rescind
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Jan 28, 2025 • 1h 3min
January 28, 2025 - Michelle Garcia | Sam Quinones | Thomas Berger
Trump's Reality TV Theatre of Cruelty Underway | Trump Will Hurt the Construction Industry Now in Demand to Rebuild Houses Lost to Hurricanes and Wildfires | Can Musk Buy Elections in the UK and Germany As He Just Did Here?
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Jan 27, 2025 • 1h 7min
January 27, 2025 - Dharna Noor | Dr. Herb Lin | Natalie Melnyczuk
Trump's Embrace of the Fossil Fuel Industry Which Spent $445 Million to Elect Him and the Republican Congress | China's DeepSeek AI Model Threatens US Dominance as Tech Stocks Tumble | Will Trump Fall For Putin's Flattery?
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Music Breaks:
Cate Kennan - Thielsen
Black Devil Disco Club - To Ardent (Vitamin Wig C Remix)