Background Briefing with Ian Masters
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 on Sundays from 11:00 to Noon. Broadcast live on http://www.kpfk.org IAN MASTERS: Ian Masters...
July 16, 2025 - Joshua Landis | Bill Hing | Sylvia Allegretto

Israel Bombs Damascus as the Syrian Government Slaughters the Druze Minority, Exposing the Different Interests of Israel and the U.S. When it Comes to the Jihadi in a Suit Leading the New Syria | Geo Group and Core Civic Feast on Taxpayer Money as ICE Detains Whoever They Can Snatch | Apparently the Rich Are Not Rich Enough in America backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 15, 2025 - Robert Hockett | David Halperin | Matthew Hongoltz-Hettling

Trump Escalates His War Against the Fed and Its Chairman Jerome Powell | The Consequence of the Supreme Court Allowing Trump to Continue Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education | What is Behind the War Inside MAGA Over Not Releasing the Epstein Files As Promised? Music: Carla Bozulich - Glass House Elodie Lauten - Despair Postlude backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 14, 2025 - Michael Kimmage | Casey Michel | Juan Cole

Trump's Tough Talk Threatening Russia With a 50 Day Deadline For a Ceasefire | Trump and His Family's Unprecedented Corruption and How Foreign Regimes Can Now Buy American Elections | Is There Any Hope of Stopping the Slaughter in Gaza? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 13, 2025 - Kevin Hall | Cynthia Schneider | James Green

Could a Top Trump Official Who Lied About Being Born in the Soviet Union be a Russian Plant? | Trump Slashes Soft Power While Adding a $Trilion to Fighting a Nuclear War That Can Only Be Prevented by Diplomacy | Trump Slaps a 50% Tariff on Brazil Along With 35% on Canada and 30% on the EU and Mexico backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 10, 2025 - Johnathan Buma | Kent Harrington | David Cortright

Trump's Deliberate Effort to Destroy the FBI is Going Great Guns with Patel and Bongino in Charge | Trump's Vengeance and Obsessive War Against Reality Over Russia's Help in Electing Him Has the Former Heads of the CIA and FBI Now Under Investigation | The Growing Danger of Nuclear From a Trillion Dollar US Nuclear Buildup Over the Next Ten Years backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Meltdown In MAGAworld Over the So-called Epstein "Client List"

The Meltdown In MAGAworld Over the So-called Epstein "Client List" by Ian Masters
The Pentagon Budget Has Doubled Since 2000 With Trump's Big, Bad Bill Pushing it to $1.06 Trillion

The Pentagon Budget Has Doubled Since 2000 With Trump's Big, Bad Bill Pushing it to $1.06 Trillion by Ian Masters
July 9, 2025 - James Risen | Nina Burleigh | Stephen Semler

The Meltdown In MAGAworld Over the So-called Epstein "Client List" | There is Vast Amounts of Evidence of Trump's Seedy Ties to the Despicable Epstein | The Pentagon Budget Has Doubled Since 2000 With Trump's Big, Bad Bill Extra $156 Billion Pushing it to $1.06 Trillion backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
There is Vast Evidence of Trump's Seedy Ties to the Despicable Epstein

There is Vast Evidence of Trump's Seedy Ties to the Despicable Epstein by Ian Masters
July 8, 2025 - Jeremi Suri | Tom Mockaitis | Dr. Annelle Sheline

Intergenerational Greed and Inaction Led to Underinvestment in Flood Prevention in Kerr County, Texas | Ken Klippenstein's Documents Expose the Military Fiasco Yesterday in Los Angeles's MacArthur Park | The Unctuous War Criminal Recommended the Easily-Flattered Felon For a Nobel Peace Prize backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The BRICS Summit and Trump's Threats to Countries That Side With BRICS

July 7, 2025 - Sarang Shidore backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 7, 2025 - Jeff Masters | Olga Lautman | Sarang Shidore

Extreme Weather and Its Connection to Climate Change as Trump and DOGE's Cuts Impacted The National Weather Service's Response to the Tragic Flash Floods in Texas | Putin's Cabinet Officials Commit "Suicide" as More Top Oil Executives Fall From 10th Floor Windows | The BRICS Summit and Trump's Threats to Countries That Side With BRICS music: Nighttime - The Way Itasca - Milk backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 7, 2025 - Tamar Jacoby | Stavroula Pabst | Samuel Moyn

Trump Gets Stiffed Again by His Idol Putin as China Admits It Wants the Ukraine War to Drag on to Keep the US and NATO Out of Asia | Trump Says he Expects to Close a Ceasefire Deal Between Israel and Hamas Next Week | Trump as a Man of the Past as Zombie Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism Comeback From the Dead backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 3, 2025 - Edward McCaffery | Greg Treverton | Raed Jarrar

The Republican's Cynical Ploy to Give Billionaires Tax Breaks Immediately While Delaying Cuts to Medicaid and Food Assistance Until After the Midterms | In Spite of Ratcliffe's Spin to Please His Boss, the CIA Report Finds That Putin Did Help Trump and Hurt Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Election | US Contractors Shoot Gazans For Sport as Hamas Approves the US Plan for a Hostage Release backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 2, 2025 - Paul Farhi | Patrick Sullivan | Oona Hathaway

Another Big Media Company Caves to Trump's Extortion | Four of the Worst Horrors in the Awful Republican Megabill | As Trump Uses War and the Threat of War, He Ignores the UN and the US Congress backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
July 1, 2025 - Will Bunch | James Thurber | Meghan Pazik

Trump's Casualty Cruelty as He Tours a New Gulag Celebrating the $75 Billion He Just Got For ICE and DHS | Republican Senators Shamelessly Pass a Massive Transfer of Wealth From the Poorest to the Richest Americans | Today's Misanthropic Assault on Our Kids and Grandkids From Republican Whores and Hirelings of Big Oil and Dirty Coal
June 30, 2025 - Corey Brettschneider | Mike Lofgren | Assal Rad

The Supreme Court Has Sold Out the Constitution and the Rule of Law to Reward a Lawless Trump, and Now The Republican Legislative Branch is Selling Out Their Constituents to Reward the Super-Rich | From Authoritarianism to Totalitarianism as Trump Erases the Distinction Between Civil Society and the State | Signs That Iran Was Not "Obliterated" and Could Quickly Resume Their Nuclear Program backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 29, 2025 - Lisa Graves | Garrett Epps | Sam Tanenhaus

Welcome to One Party Rule As SCOTUS Removes the Last Check on Trump | We Are Back in the 1850's With ICE Repeating the Cruelty of the Fugitive Slave Act | There Was a Respectable Right Before Trump's MAGA Took Over the GOP backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 26, 2025 - Dr. Trita Parsi | Michael German | Dr. Allen Frances

The Supreme Leader Congratulates Iranians on Their "Victory" over Israel and the US While the Head of the IAEA Says Fordo is "No Longer Operational" | As Trump Demonizes Democrats and Democratic Lawmakers Are Assassinated, How Long Before ICE and DHS Start Rounding up His Political Enemies? | Explaining the 60-Fold Rise in Autism While the Quack Heading HHS, RFK Jr. Still Blames it on Vaccines backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 25, 2025 - Jennifer Kavanagh | Joseph Cirincione | Brian Levin

With Trump and Hegseth's Bombastic Claims of "Total Obliteration" Blowing Up, Will Iran Now Sprint to a Bomb? | While Talking Peace, This is Trump's War and It's Only Just Beginning | Trump and Miller's ICE Stormtroopers' Reckless and Brutal Roundups of Non-Criminals on the Streets of LA backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 24, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Susan Kang | Ali Afshari

Trump's Waffling on Article 5 of the NATO Treaty as European Leaders Try to Avoid a Clash Between Him and Zelensky at the Summit Underway | Today's NY City Race For Mayor Exposes the Division in the Democratic Party as a Talented Young Leader Faces a Disgraced Relic | Iran's Divided Opposition With the US and Israel-Backed MEK and Shah's Son Hated For Their Collusion With Israel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 23, 2025 - Eli Clifton | Maziar Behrooz | Eleni Schirmer

A Specialist on Iran Who Recently Met With Iranian Foreign Ministry Officials and Nuclear Negotiators | The State Of the Iranian Opposition as Trump Muses About Regime Change | The MAGA and Project 2025 Plan to Dumb Down America to Become an Idiocracy in Service of a Plutocracy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 22, 2025 - David Albright | Elizabeth Saunders

US Bombs Have Fallen on Iran, What We Know and Don't Know About Iran's Secret Nuclear Program | Trump, the Triumphant and Imperial President at Home and the Emperor Abroad backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 19, 2025 - Steven Simon | Adam Weinstein | Mark Fitzpatrick

Trump on the Brink of Embroiling the US in Another Forever War | Repeating the Ignorance and Hubris That Got Us Into the Iraq War, There Appears to Be No Plans For the Day After We Bomb Iran | The Iran Nuclear Issue Moves From Crisis to Tragedy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 18, 2025 - Nicholas Heras | Ben Burgis | Deborah Baker

Trump's "To Do Or Not To Do" on Bombing Iran | The Split in MAGA Illustrated by the Clash Between the Insidious Tucker Carlson and the Odious Ted Cruz | The Legacy of Charlottesville Now That White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis Can Apply For a Job at ICE and DHS backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 17, 2025 - David Hearst | Marci Shore

Putting the US in Alignment With Israel, Trump Claims We Own the Skies Over Tehran | The Moral Dilemma of Fleeing Trump's Fascism or Making a Stand With the Growing Opposition backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 15, 2025 - David Schultz | Sidney Blumenthal | Paul Pillar

MAGA Political Hatred Has Moved From Talk to Action With the Assassination of Democratic Lawmakers in Minnesota | Raining on Trump's Parade as Our Fuhrer Takes the Stand to Review the Troops Like the Dictators He Admires | Trump on the Sidelines as Israel Wages War on Iran With Netanyahu Promising Regime Change backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 12, 2025 - Elizabeth Goitein | Sasha Abramsky | McKenzie Funk

Trump's Lawless Unleashing of the Military as He Threatens Americans Not to Protest His Strongman Military Parade | Finally Governor Newsom Steps Up to Challenge Trump | Trump is Asking For $45 Billion More for Private Prisons Where 90% of Immigrants Are Detained backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 11, 2025 - Lincoln Mitchell | Gerardo Chagolla | Barry Naughton

Like All Dictators, Trump Now Controls the Security Services Via His Obedient Flunkies | A Young Latino Journalist Who Has Covered the LA Protests Since Friday | Is Trump's Triumphant Announcement of a Trade Deal With China and EXCELLENT Relations With Xi Jinping Warranted? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 10, 2025 - Michael Hiltzik | Tom Mockaitis | Alexander Reid Ross

The Escalating War of Words Between President Trump and Governor Newsom | In Sending in the Marines Against Protesters in LA, is Trump Stoking a Possible Civil War? | Trump Offers Up His Tesla For $69, Trashing His Former Best Buddy and Biggest Donor Who Bought Him the Presidency
June 9, 2025 - Manuel Pastor | John Lawrence | Barbara Walter

An Eyewitness to Trump's Dictatorial Dream of Crushing Blue State Opposition on His Way to Becoming An American Fuhrer | With Trump Itching to Provoke an Insurrection to Justify a Dictatorship, Has LA Played Into His Hands? | Trump's Dual Strategies of Scaring Off Protests and Instigating Provocations to Enact Fascism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 8, 2025 - Moira Donegan | Harold Meyerson | Michael Gorham

More Tabloid Headlines From a Tabloid Presidency As the Marriage of Wealth and Power Between Two Infantile Ego-Maniacs Heads For Divorce | Political Activism Versus Centrist Pragmatism: The Choices Facing the Moribund Democratic Party in New York City's Mayoral Race | Trump Claims Putin is "Tapping Him Along" But is Trump Stringing Us All Along? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 5, 2025 - Miles Taylor | John Nichols

What it is Like to Be An American Citizen Targeted by the Most Powerful Person in the World Who is Accusing You of Treason For Speaking the Truth | Trump's America: The United States of Cruelty backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 4, 2025 - Robert Hockett | Oleh Kotsyuba | Mohsen Milani

Trump Digs the Deficit Hole $2.4 Trillion Deeper to Punish the Poor and Reward the Richest | Trump Sells Out Ukraine Again in His Call Today With Putin | Trump Pressure Iran to Sign or Get Bombed, Making a War That Will Not Be a Cakewalk More Likely Trump Digs the Deficit Hole $2.4 Trillion Deeper to Punish the Poor and Reward the Richest | Trump Sells Out Ukraine Again in His Call Today With Putin | Trump Pressure Iran to Sign or Get Bombed, Making a War That Will Not Be a Cakewalk More Likely backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia...
June 3, 2025 - William Arkin | Halie Soifer | Johnathan Buma

The Pentagon's Slow Learning Curve on Asymmetrical Warfare | The Latest Attacks on Jewish Americans As Our President Continues to Signal his Anti Semitic Leanings | A Former FBI Counterintelligence Whistleblower on the Wrecking of the FBI by Patel and Bongino backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 2, 2025 - Michael Swaine | Ryan Cooper | George Packer

The Smallest Man With The Biggest Job in America Calls Out China in a Hegemonic Showdown | Trump and Musk's Refugees From an Imaginary White Genocide | Part 2 of George Packer's Atlantic Article on Our Next President, "The Talented Mr. Vance" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
June 1, 2025 - Robert Kuttner | Lisa Graves | George Packer

President TACO Zig-Zags on Tariffs as the Senate Takes Up His "Big, Beautiful Bill" Which Some Republicans Want to Cut More and Others Cut Less | Trump Calls Leonard Leo a "Sleazebag" and Regrets Following the Advice of the Federalist Society | The Growing Possibility Our Next President Will Be J.D. Vance Before Trump's Term is Up backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
May 29, 2025 - Aram Shabanian | Olga Lautman | Chris Hedges

How the Trump Wrecking Crew Are Destroying Our Defense and National Security | How the Media Falls for Trump's Theatre While Ukraine Burns | A Pulitzer Prize-Winning NYT ME Bureau Chief and Veteran War Correspondent on Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
May 28, 2025 - Daniel Treisman | Jacob Heilbrunn | David Victor

Trump Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About How He Protects Putin | Musk, JD Vance and Rubio Praise the German Neo-Nazi AfD Party While the Trump Administration Weaponizes Aniti-Semitism | The Impact of the US Senate's Republicans Revoking California's Electric Car Mandate backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
May 27, 2025 - Mike Konczal | Joe Cirincione | Jacob Silverman

The Cruelest Cuts in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill | Trump's Golden Dome - A Massive Boondoggle and Payoff to Musk and Thiel | As Trump Monetizes His Presidency, Thanks to Crypto, His Family's Net Worth Increased by $2.9 Billion to $ 5.4 Billion backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia