Background Briefing with Ian Masters
News & Politics Podcasts
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. backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Location:
United States
Description:
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. backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Twitter:
@ianmastersmedia
Language:
English
Contact:
213 422 0537
Website:
https://backgroundbriefing.org/
Episodes
March 9, 2026 - Nicholas Heras | Kian Tajbakhsh | Oona Hathaway
3/9/2026
A War Iran Only Has to Stay in While We Can Only Win At a Price We Are Unlikely to Want to Pay | An Analysis of a Brutal Regime From Which the Iranian People Desperately Want to be Freed But Have No Power to Do So | A Lawless World Trump is Dragging Us Into Based on Force and His Whims backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Duration:01:04:06
March 8, 2026 - Ken Klippenstein | Paul Pillar | Gabby Birenbaum
3/8/2026
How Relying on Regime Decapitation Could Backfire | As Evidence Mounts That the War on Iran Is a Disaster, We Will Look For Some Kind of "Success" | Our Gen Z Reporter on the Texas Senate Race as Republicans Panic Over the Talented Young Talarico backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:01:01
March 5, 2026 - Matthew Petti | Stephen Wertheim | Robert Baer
3/5/2026
The U.S. Continues to Resort to Force at Growing Cost in a Region of Diminishing Importance | How Do Iranians Feel About Being Bombed to Become Free as Their Government Increasingly Oppresses Them | A Highly Decorated Former CIA Officer Who Operated Against Iran in Iraq and Lebanon Explains What a Disaster Trump Has Blundered Into backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:01:31
March 4, 2026 - John Nichols | Wladimir van Wilgenburg | Mohsen Milani
3/4/2026
Could Kristi Noem be the First in the Trump Kakistocracy's Clown Car Cabinet to be Impeached? | A Report From Iraqi Kurdistan On the CIA Arming Kurdish Iranian Militias | The Anointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's New Supreme Leader backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:03:14
March 3, 2026 - Sidney Blumenthal | Sina Toossi | Bruce Schneier
3/3/2026
March 3, 2026 - Sidney Blumenthal | Sina Toossi | Bruce Schneier by Ian Masters
Duration:01:00:20
March 2, 2026 - Thanassis Cambanis | Daryl Kimball | Robert Pape
3/2/2026
March 2, 2026 - Thanassis Cambanis | Daryl Kimball | Robert Pape by Ian Masters
Duration:00:59:28
March 1, 2026 - Nader Hashemi | Nina Burleigh | Jessica Gonzlez
3/1/2026
Trump's Reality TV War and the Prospect He Will Sell Out The Iranian People Just as He Sold Out the Venezuelan People For Oil | The DoJ Leaks the FBI Reports Bondi Held Back to The Guardian and Breitbart to Discredit Trump's Then 13 Year Old Rape Accuser | Following the Putin-Orban Playbook, Right Wing Trump-Friendly Billionaires Are Buying Up the Mainstream Media backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:02:57
February 26, 2026 - Anne Nelson | Heather Ann Thompson
2/26/2026
With the President of the United States Accused of Raping a 13 Year-Old Girl, the Brazen and Shameless Hypocrisy of Mike Johnson's Christian Nationalists and the MAGA Movement | Sasha Linden Cohen With Heather Ann Thompson on a Crucial Turning Point When Rupert Murdoch Stoked White Rage in the Reagan 80's backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:00:59:45
February 25, 2026 - Rick Wilson | Angela Stent | Nick Schwellenbach
2/25/2026
Had All the Democrats Boycotted the State of the Union, Trump Would Have Been Left Insulting Empty Chairs | The Performative Nature of US/Russian Negotiations as Putin Strings Trump Along | The Top 10 Companies Profiting From ICE's Cruelty Host: Ian Masters Producers: Graham FitzGibbon, Asher Price & Sasha Linden Cohen
Duration:01:02:41
February 24, 2026 - Tamar Jacoby | Eric Blanc
2/24/2026
February 24, 2026 - Tamar Jacoby | Eric Blanc by Ian Masters
Duration:01:00:42
February 23, 2026 - Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera | Robert Creamer | Josh Gerstein
2/23/2026
February 23, 2026 - Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera | Robert Creamer | Josh Gerstein by Ian Masters
Duration:00:59:58
February 22, 2026 - Justin Wolfers | David Cay Johnston | Alexander Cooley
2/22/2026
Trump's Tariff Meltdown and What the Supreme Court Ruling Does and Doesn't Do | In a Plea Deal Could Former Prince Andrew Implicate Others Including Trump? | "The Age of Kleptocracy: Geopolitical Power, Private Gain" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:01:47
February 19, 2026 - Toby Miller | Thomas Zeitzoff
2/19/2026
Justice With the Arrest of the Former Prince Andrew in the UK But In Contrast, a Coverup by the Consiglieres at DoJ Protecting the Mob Boss in the Oval Office | Will the Environmental Movement Become More Radical as Trump Kills Off Efforts to Curb Global Warming? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:00:58:54
February 18, 2026 - Aziz Huq | Lauren Prather | Victor Pickard
2/18/2026
The Breathtaking and Brazen Corruption of Trump and His Family As They Shamelessly Monetize the Presidency | Thanks to Trump, Trust In Elections is Cratering As Trump Claims They're Rigged, Unless He Happens to Win | Why the US Media is in Crisis and How to Rescue It backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:00:59:13
February 17, 2026 - Rabbi Steven Jacobs | Paul Farhi | Sasha Abramsky
2/17/2026
A Close Friend Who Worked With Jesse Jackson for 40 Years On Jesse's Fight to Give Peace a Chance | The Bloodbath at The Washington Post and Censorship at CBS | The Trump/Republican Crackup Has Begun backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Duration:01:03:28
February 16, 2026 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Stuart Schrader | Jonathan Handel
2/16/2026
The Contrast between AOC and Rubio's Reception in Munich and the Possibility They Will be Running Against Each Other For President | How Trump's Top-Down Fascism Could Meld With Bottom Up Authoritarianism From America's Police Forces and Police Unions | An AI Video Has Hollywood Alarmed They Could Be Replaced By AI as Wall Street Pours Billions Into AI and Tech Bros Buy Up the Media backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Duration:01:01:34
February 15, 2026 - Michael Bustamente | Charles Kupchan | Michael Mann
2/15/2026
Trump and Rubio Turn the Screws of Collective Punishment on the Cuban People | Rubio Makes Nice in Munich Without One Word About Ukraine | Trump Issues a Death Sentence on Our Children, Grandchildren and the Planet With His Payoff to the Fossil Fuel Industry backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:00:54
February 12, 2026 - Desirée Cormier Smith | Mark Fitzpatrick | Lisa Graves
2/12/2026
Today's Senate Hearing Grills a White Supremacist, Racist, Homophobic Antisemite Trump Nominated to Interact With the UN and international Organizations | Will Trump's Yearning For a Nobel Prize Overwhelm Netanyahu's Opposition to Making a Nuclear Deal With Iran? | With a Lawless DoJ Acting as Trump's Crooked Law Firm, How Do We Protect and Preserve the Rule of Law? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:01:58
February 11, 2026 - Adam Klasfeld | David Daley | Charles Derber
2/11/2026
Trump Has Finally Found His Roy Cohn in the Disgraceful and Corrupt AG Pam Bondi | The Trump and Republican Plan to Prevent a Blowout Electoral Loss in November: The SAVE Act | How to Fight the Oligarchy and Reclaim America With Positive Populism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
Duration:01:14:13
February 10, 2026 - Stephen Marche | Lindsay Koshgarian | Laura Field
2/10/2026
Trump's Demented Rant Warning Canada that China Will Terminate ALL Ice Hockey and Eliminate the Stanley Cup Suggests We are Nearing the 25th Amendment | The Heads of ICE and CBP in the Hot Seat Today Before the House Homeland Security Committee | Why Are So-Called MAGA Intellectuals With All The Power and Billionaire Money, So Angry? backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Duration:01:00:15