Ian Masters

Background Briefing with Ian Masters

News EN ↓ 500 episodes

BACKGROUND BRIEFING:A radio program featuring international and national news, expert guests, policy makers, and critics offering analysis and insight on national security, foreign and domestic policy, political, cultural, and social issues. Five days a week, Background Briefing asks knowledgeable and thoughtful experts to explain the complexities behind major news stories in long-format interviews. Background Briefing goes far beyond the headlines and deep under the radar to bring forward truths unheard elsewhere in American media. The program airs Monday-Thursday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time and...

Author

Ian Masters

Category

News

Podcast website

backgroundbriefing.org

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

Where to listen?

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Episodes

December 9, 2025 - William LeoGrande | Victor Pickard | Mike Pepi 10.12.2025

Trump Says Maduro's Days Are Numbered at War Against Venezuela Could Break Out at Any Time | The Ellison's Have Promised Trump They Will Revamp CNN to Trump's Liking | Australia's Social Media Ban and How the "Tech Left" Can Mobilize Against Techno-Utopianism backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

December 8, 2025 - William Cohan | Aram Shabanian | Ari Berman 08.12.2025

Trump's Billionaire Buddy Launches a Hostile Takeover To Create a Trump-Friendly Media Giant | Zelensky Meets with Europe's Leaders Alarmed by Trump's New National Security Strategy | How Do the Democrats Take Back the House in the Face of a Partisan Supreme Court, a Serial Coup-Plotter and a Craven GOP Willing to Sell Out American Democracy? backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsk...

December 7, 2025 - Rachel VanLandingham | Lydia Camarillo | Jordan Schwartz | Lisa Graves 07.12.2025

A Former JAG on Hegseth and Trump's Murder Spree Which Are Not War Crimes Because We are Not at War | The Supreme Court Just Gave Republicans 30 of the 38 House Seats in Texas Before a Vote is Cast in November | The Harvard Youth Pollster Who Finds 13% of Americans Between 18 and 29 Say the U.S. is Heading in the Right Direction With Only 39% Supporting Capitalism | The Naked Partisanship of John...

December 4, 2025 - David Broder | Mstyslav Chernov | Casey Michel 04.12.2025

France's Fifth Government in Three Years Collapses as the Far Right in Europe Rises | A Film That Takes You Inside the Battlefield Under Russian Fire as Ukrainian Soldiers Fight and Die Defending Their Land Putin Claims As His | Trump Breaks Records Pardoning Crooked Congressmen, Scammers, Embezzlers, Fraudsters and Fanatics backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profil...

December 3, 2025 - Paul Waldman | Michael Kimmage | Sarah Leah Whitson 03.12.2025

Trump and MAGA's Policies and Politics Are Driven By Sadism | Putin Warns of War With Europe After Which There Will Be No One Left to Negotiate With | In Spite Of the Ongoing Agony, A Plan For Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

December 2, 2025 - Tom Nichols | Jonathan Metzl | William Hartung 02.12.2025

Secretary of Defense Hegseth Needs to Step Down Now! | Could the Democratic Underdog Win Today in Deep Red Tennessee? | With Affordability the Big Issue, Why Can We Afford Guns and Not Butter? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

December 1, 2025 - Alejandro Velasco | Alex Lawson | Sidney Blumenthal 01.12.2025

Trump and His Team Meet on Going to War Against Venezuela | With the House Back in Session, the Fate of Affordable Healthcare Hangs by a Thread | How Much is Melania Mentioned in the Epstein Files Trump is Trying to Suppress? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

November 30, 2025 - Robert Young Pelton | Christine Fair | Tamar Jacoby 30.11.2025

An Investigation Into the CIA-Run "Kill Or Capture" Zero Units the D.C. Shooter Worked With | As Trump Blames Biden, Who is Responsible For the Chaotic U.S. Withdrawal of 76,000 Afghans Including the Shooter? | With Many Trump Teams Negotiating While Putin Has No Interest in Peace, What Impact Will the Resignation of Ukraine's Negotiator Yermak Have? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianma...

November 27, 2025 - Richard Parker | Jackie Mitchell | Brian Holmes 27.11.2025

What We Can Be Thankful For in This Otherwise Bleak Time | Talking Turkey About the Turkey Industry and Its lobbying Clout | How Art in Activism Can Uplift Dissent and Inspire Community Organizing backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

November 26, 2025 - Adele Stan | Julia Loktev 26.11.2025

Will the Shooting of 2 National Guardsmen in Washington D.C. Provide Trump With an Excuse to Invoke the Insurrection Act For Example? | A Warning to the American Press From the Filmmaker of a Powerful New Feature Documentary About Brave Young Russian Women Reporting the Truth as Putin Shuts Down Independent Media and Criminalizes Journalism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia...

November 25, 2025 - Harry Litman | James Green | Tom Mockaitis 25.11.2025

Will There Be Further Vindictiveness After the Dismissals of the Revenge Cases Against James Comey and Letitia James? | Bolsonaros Botched Escape Attempt and Possible Collusion With the Trump Administration | Why Are Trump, Hegseth, and Vance So Freaked Out Over the Video by Six Democratic Lawmakers Who Are Veterans backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmed...

November 24, 2025 - Anand Giridharadas | Robert Benson | Peter Dreier 24.11.2025

America's Morally Bankrupt, Corrupt and Anti-Democratic Power Elite as Revealed in the Epstein Emails | Trump's Treasonous Sellout of Ukraine Is As If Chamberlain Showed Up at Munich With Hitler's "Peace Plan" | Sasha Linden Cohen on How the "Socialist" Handled the "Fascist" backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedi...

November 23, 2025 - Dan Alexander | William Cohan | Anders Aslund 23.11.2025

Trump's Decades-Long Obsession With Getting On the Forbes 400 List and How Much Saudi Money Has Lined His Pockets | Musk's $Trillion Payday and How Billionaires Donated 1 in 13 Dollars Spent in the Last Election, Over 80% of Which Went to Republicans | Trump is Shoving Putin's Wish List Down Zelensky's Throat With a Thursday Deadline to Capitulate backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmaste...

November 20, 2025 - Lucian Truscott IV | JB Branch | Alexander Sammon 20.11.2025

A Dangerous and Demented Trump Calls For the Execution of Democratic Senators and Congressmen and Women Who Are Military and Intelligence Veterans | In the Service of His Billionaire Tech Bro Buddies, Trump Doubles Down on Stopping States From Regulating AI | How Ordinary Citizens Witness and Record ICE and CBP's Brutality and Cruelty backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky....

November 19, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | David Halperin | Christopher Miller 19.11.2025

A Weakened Trump As a Split in MAGA Emerges With Tucker Carlson and J.D. Vance Jockeying to Succeed America's Most Corrupt and Disastrous President | Trump's Plan to Gut the Department of Education That Only Congress Has the Legal Right to Do | Trump is Pressuring a Weakened Zelensky to Accept a Sellout Peace Plan That is Putin's Wish List backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia...

November 18, 2025 - Ken Klippenstein | Sarah Leah Whitson | Brendan Benedict 19.11.2025

The Loophole in the Epstein Files Bill Passed by the House Today 427 to 1 That Allows Trump to Classify What He Does Not Want the Public to See | The Former Pariah's Lavish White House Welcome With Trump Dismissing MBS's Murder and Dismemberment of a Critic as "Things Happen" | Meta Wins the Antitrust Case Against the Tech Giant on the Basis Facebook Has Lost So Much Market Share to TikTok and You...

November 17, 2025 - Jonathan Larsen | Mietek Boduszynski | Ben Freeman 17.11.2025

The Cast of Characters Feeding the Bogus and Delusional Intel Trump is Using to Justify a War With Venezuela | Apparent Russian Sabotage of Poland's Rail Link to Ukraine | As They Throw Money at the Pentagon, When Will Our Politicians Address the Guns Versus Butter Issue? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersm...

November 16, 2025 - Daniel Boguslaw | Faiza Patel | Aaron Regunberg 16.11.2025

Epstein's Ties to Foreign Leaders and How Much the CIA Has an Epstein Problem | In Targeting an Organization That Does Not Exist, Trump Can Now Target Anyone |Will AI be an Issue in the Next Election? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

November 13, 2025 - Matthew Petti | Louise Shelley | Christopher Prebble 13.11.2025

One of the First Journalists to Reveal the Email Trove Linking Epstein With Israeli Intelligence | The Damaging Scandal of Zelensky's Former Media Partner on the Lam With $100 Million in Energy Repairs Stolen | Does the U.S. Need Trump's Security Pact With Saudi Arabia? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmed...

November 12, 2025 - Nina Burleigh | Fred Turner | Jonathan Guyer 12.11.2025

More Damaging Epstein Emails Emerge While the Real "Smoking Gun" Remains Epstein's Ties to Israeli Intelligence | Silicon Valley's Migration to Texas with Musk's Monarcho-Capitalism Embracing the Christian Nationalist of Petrobaptists | A New Poll That Finds GOP Voters See Trump as Tough, Intelligent or a Peacemaker While Democrats and Independents Say He's Destructive, Erratic or Reckless backgro...

November 11, 2025 - John Sweeney | Michael Mann | Olga Lautman 11.11.2025

backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

November 10, 2025 - Jeet Heer | Joshua Landis | Jennifer Kavanagh 10.11.2025

Senate Democrats Defect to Open the Government on Republican Terms With Empty Promises | Can Trump Overcome Supporters of Israel in Congress to End US Sanctions and Stabilize Syria? | Hegseth Wants Defense Contractors on a "Wartime Footing" as He Plans to Attack Venezuela backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

November 9, 2025 - Jeff Wise | David Graham | J.W. Mason 08.11.2025

An Assessment of Air Safety as Air Travel Melts Down | Following Orban's Example, Trump's Announces His Plan to Rig Election So That "We will never lose the midterms, and we will never lose a general election" | A Followup on Mamdani's Victory on How He Will Deal With the Affordability Crisis backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social fac...

November 6, 2025 - Rick Wilson | Michael McDonald | John Lawrence 06.11.2025

Mounting Evidence the MAGA Spell Has Been Broken | As a Blue Wave Looms, What Will Trump Do to Rig the Next Election? | Nancy Pelosi's Former Chief of Staff on Her Decision to Retire backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

November 5, 2025 - Moira Donegan | Alexander Keyssar | Michael Edison Hayden 05.11.2025

Having Shunned Mamdani, Will the Democratic Establishment Now Embrace Him? | California Governor Newsom's Warning That Trump Will Do Anything and Everything to Rig the Next Election | The Republicans Are the Real Radicals and They Have a Nazi Problem backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

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