The Intercept Briefing

This year in the National Football League, there have been 281 recorded concussions that players have suffered — spanning from the pre-season right up to the last playoff games. This weekend is Super Bowl Sunday. That is a macabre sort of record — it represents the most concussions in a season since the NFL started keeping track six years ago. The hits that these players take over and over during their careers can lead to very serious brain damage and a  degenerative condition known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE.We are doing this special episode of Intercepted to highlight a gut-wrenching new short film that The Intercept’s Josh Begley has directed. It is called "Concussion Protocol."In this special bonus episode of Intercepted, Josh Begley, The Intercept’s Shaun King and Donte Stallworth, a ten year veteran of the NFL, discuss brain injuries, the #TakeAKnee protests, and Trump’s attacks on athletes.Josh Begley’s video “Concussion Protocol” can be viewed at theintercept.com/NFL. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Naomi Klein and Jeremy analyze Trump’s threats toward North Korea, his Executive Order on Guantanamo and the attack on immigrants, the poor, and the environment. Veteran journalist Juan González dissects the roots of fascism, the rise of authoritarian movements, and global migration trends. Marcy Wheeler gives a brief analysis of a theory floated by a former CIA officer that the “Steele dossier” contains Russian disinformation. Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada discusses Israeli collusion with the Trump campaign and Mike Pence’s trip to Israel. And Franklin James Fisher of the band Algiers talks about their music from "The Underside of Power." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Donald Trump forges ahead with his plans for mass deportations and Democrats flail in their response, Ninaj Roul and Yanira Arias describe the plight of hundreds of thousands of people in imminent danger of deportation. Journalist Nick Pinto reveals how ICE agents are staking out churches and homes of immigrant rights activists. Intercept Washington D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim breaks down a clause slipped into the budget bill that gives the White House authority to fund CIA programs without oversight. We talk to revolutionary musical artist Seun Kuti, son of the legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela, and hear music from his forthcoming album, Black Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We live in a society that does not study its own history —  its unvarnished history — and often current events are analyzed in a vacuum that almost never includes the context or history necessary to understand what is new, what is old and how we got to where we are. As Trump celebrates his first year in office and demonstrations confront a year of his rule, leading Marxist scholar David Harvey sat down for an interview on Intercepted. Harvey is one of the leading Marxist thinkers in the world and a leading authority on Marx’s "Das Kapital," which turned 150 years old late last year. Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the City University of New York. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeremy lays out the bloody US history in Haiti and El Salvador and blasts the bipartisan, selective amnesia and historical revisionism that “American exceptionalism” demands. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard discusses U.S. regime change, North Korea and why Bernie Sanders would have defeated Trump. As Robert Mueller hits Bannon with a Grand Jury subpoena, former CIA operative and  Cipher Brief columnist John Sipher and journalist Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel analyze the Russia investigation and the Steele dossier. Leading Marxist scholar David Harvey talks about debt peonage in the age of Trump and the crimes of capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Risen is a legend in the world of investigative and national security journalism. As a reporter for the New York Times, Risen broke some of the most important stories of the post 9/11 era, from the warrantless surveillance against Americans conducted under the Bush-Cheney administration, to black prison sites run by the CIA, to failed covert actions in Iran. Risen has won the Pulitzer and other major journalism awards. But perhaps what he is now most famous for is fighting a battle under both the Bush and Obama administrations as they demanded — under threat of imprisonment —the name of one of Risen’s alleged confidential sources. But it isn’t just the government that Risen had to fight. He also battled his own editors and other powerful figures at the New York Times. Risen is now a senior national security correspondent at The Intercept where his incredible inside story has now been published. We talk with Risen about his career at the New York Times in a special edition of Intercepted. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean talks about the Mueller investigation, how the CIA may benefit from Trump’s presidency and how Trump stacks up to Nixon and Reagan. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg talks about the classified secrets he has kept for decades. He has just published his story in a new book, The Doomsday Machine. Field of Vision takes us inside the very strange world of Steve Bannon’s films. Patterson Hood of the band Drive-By Truckers performs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Cole joins Jeremy for a discussion about their explosive report in The Intercept that Blackwater founder Erik Prince has been pitching a private spy operation to the White House and CIA. Activist and comedian Randy Credico, who has been hit with a subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee investigating Trump and Russia, joins us.  Journalist Barrett Brown talks about the FBI’s campaign against him and offers a critique of Wikileaks. Singer Amanda Palmer talks about her provocative new video for a cover she did of Pink Floyd’s “Mother." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Intercepted: Sen. Chris Murphy blasts the US government for its role in the destruction of Yemen. Jeremy tears apart Thomas Friedman’s gross love letter to the Saudi Crown Prince and talks about the bi-partisan war against journalism from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. The Intercept’s Betsy Reed and Buzzfeed’s Katie Baker analyze this unprecedented public fight against sexual assaulters. Analysis from Harare, Zimbabwe on the ouster of Robert Mugabe. Comedian Joe Para performs a dramatic reenactment of a secret Snowden document. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Intercepted: Rami Khouri breaks down the Saudi agenda in the Middle East, its destruction of Yemen and the bizarre case of the exiled Lebanese prime minister. Aram Roston of Buzzfeed, Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast, and The Intercept’s Matthew Cole join Jeremy for a discussion on the mysterious death of a Green Beret in Mali and why the CIA and US military are quite content with the Trump presidency. Wikileaks slid into Donald Trump Jr.’s DMs. Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald analyzes what the messages say and how the media covered the story. And we talk to two newly elected Democrats in Virginia: Lee Carter and Elizabeth Guzman. Donald Trump stars in American Beauty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.