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…
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The Background Briefing with Ian Masters podcast is an excellent source of intelligent and informative discourse on current events. Ian Masters does a phenomenal job of presenting complex issues in a thoughtful and articulate manner. He brings on accomplished and authoritative commentators from around the world, providing a global perspective on the issues at hand. Compared to other news sources, this podcast stands out as being more comprehensive and insightful during chaotic and historic times. Even when Masters slips into "grumpy grandpa" mode, his incredulous questioning adds value to the discussion. Overall, this podcast has been highly educational and I am grateful for it.
One of the best aspects of The Background Briefing with Ian Masters podcast is the choice of interviewees. Masters consistently brings on knowledgeable experts who provide valuable insights into various topics. The questions and remarks by Ian Masters are insightful and well-informed, creating engaging conversations with his guests. The podcast avoids mindless trends and political bias, presenting a fair and unbiased analysis of current affairs. It's impressive how much thoughtful and timely programming is produced every week, showcasing Masters' dedication to delivering high-quality content.
While The Background Briefing with Ian Masters podcast has many strengths, there are a few potential drawbacks. Some listeners may find that the host's biased perspective leans towards what they would consider "reality." However, others may view this as a positive aspect that separates the show from mainstream media's surrender to radical talking points instead of factual analysis. Additionally, although the interviews are insightful, some individuals may prefer a more balanced range of opinions to form their own judgments.
In conclusion, The Background Briefing with Ian Masters podcast is an exceptional source of commentary and analysis on current events. Listeners can expect intelligent discussions with well-chosen guests that provide deeper analyses and insights into pressing issues. While there may be instances where personal biases come through, overall, this podcast offers valuable information for those seeking thoughtful analysis in today's world. Ian Masters' dedication to presenting critical issues with well-informed guests makes this podcast a gem in the media landscape.

Dwarfing the White House, Trump's Monstrous Monument to His Ego Will be an Enduring Insult From the Worst President in Our History That Will Torment Us For the Ages | The Criminal Takeover of America as Trump Punishes His Enemies and Pardons His Friends While Rewarding Himself, His Family and His Cronies | Democrats Must Run With a Liberal/Populist Coalition to Improve the Lives of Americans Not Remind us How Bad Trump is backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How Blue States Can Defend Themselves Against the Divisive Partisan Warfare Trump is Waging Against Them | The White House is Being Trashed to Build a Massive Monument to the Worst President in Our History | A Report From Kyiv on Whether Europe's Tough Talk on Russia Will Translate Into Action backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Although the Oysterman in Maine is Imploding and Senator Fetterman is a Disappointment, Authentic Populist Democratic Candidates Are Emerging on the Left | Disturbing Similarities With Today's Wall Street Bubble and the 1929 Crash | A Wakeup Call as the People's House is Torn Down to Build a Gilded Palace backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Tears Down the East Wing For a Gilded Ballroom While Washington's Government Workers Aren't Getting Paid | Trump's Judges Overturn District Court Rulings For Troops to Intimidate Portland and Chicago | Will Trump Attack Venezuela to Please Little Marco? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Outlandish Vulgarity Has Support in the GOP and Deep Roots in American Politics | Witkoff and Kushner in Israel to Plug Holes in the israel/Hamas Peace Plan With VP Vance Arriving tomorrow For More Damage Control | The Contentious Trump/Zelensky Meeting at Which Trump Parroted Putin's Talking Points and Russian Propaganda backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Resistance to Trump is Growing With 2,600 No Kings Protests Across America | In Spite of JD Vance's Craven Lies, Group Chat Reveals Trump's Appeal to Young Republican Racists, Misogynists and Even Incels | Signs that Trump and Rubio's Plan To Use Military Force Against Venezuela Are Behind the Head of Southcom Stepping Down backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump and Putin to Meet in Budapest Soon For Another Summit After the Alaska Fiasco | Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Action Against Venezuela Announcing "We Are Looking at Land Now" | Friends and Relatives of Our Political Leaders Cash in on Dirty Money From Disreputable Despots backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

SCOTUS Appears Poised To Gut the Voting Rights Act Again to Give Republicans 10 to 12 New House Seats at the Expense of Black Voters Before Votes Are Cast in the Midterms | Younger Candidates Challenging the Gerontocracy Ruling Our Politics | The Weak and Vindictive Case Trump Has Ginned Up Against Leticia James backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Hamas Moves to Assert Control Over Gaza Making the Prospect of an Arab/Muslim Police Force Taking Over Dubious While Trump, Miller and Vance's Demonization of the American Left is Ludicrous, We Look Into Rifts Between the Fundis and the Realos | How Far Will the Country Sink Into the Trump Abyss of Corruption, Venality, Malevolence and Vulgarity? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Veteran Middle East Negotiator on the Gaza Peace Deal and Trump's Middle East Peace Plan | The Absence of Palestinian Representatives in the Peace Deal and Reconstruction Plans Underway | So Far So Good But Can All the Benchmarks Be Met? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to...Maria Corina Machado Not Donald J. Trump | The Latest Moves by the Shadowy Power Broker Who Owns J.D. Vance, Peter Thiel | Thom Hartmann on His Latest Book The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party and a World on the Brink backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Peace Deal Underway With Trump In Israel on Monday to Greet the Hostages | Not If But When Trump and Miller Will Invoke the Insurrection Act | Liberals With Attitude in the Past Needed Now in the Present backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The James Comey Show Trial by Trump and Bondi Gets Underway | Trump's "War Within" is Underway and It Will Be a Long One | America's Sea Change of Views on Israel Two Years After October 7 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

On the Second Anniversary of the October 7 Massacre: The Role of $21.7 Billion in U.S. Military Aid | The Trump Judge Who Blocked His Deployment to Portland Saying "This is a Nation of Constitutional Law, Not Martial Law" | Cory Doctorow on How the Digital World Has Turned to S**T backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Is Trump Crazier Than Ever Or Has He Always Been Crazy? | Trump Moves To Bail Out American Soybean Farmers Who Lost the Chinese Market Because of Trump and Now Trump is Bailing Out Argentina's Milei Who Has Opened His Soybean Market to China | 905 U.S. Billionaires (Up From 66 in 1989) Now Own $7.8 Trillion Compared to the $4.1 Trillion of 66 Million American Households backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will Peace Happen in Gaza and Trump Get His Nobel Prize? | The Second Trump Coup Is Underway and Will We Have an Election Next November? | What Happens After This Long, Cruel Is Over? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

October 2, 2025 - Elizabeth Goitein | Lisa Graves by Ian Masters

Trump and Miller's National Security Directive NSPM-7 Outlaws the Common Beliefs of Over Half of the Country | Trump Is More the Latin American Caudillo Than the European Fascists of the 1930's | Trump and Vought Use the Government Shutdown to Gleefully Inflict Trauma on Public Service Workers and Their Families backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How Trump Will Take Advantage of the Government Shutdown | Trump Tells Our Admirals and Generals That the Enemy is Within and Democratic U.S. Cities Should be Military Training Grounds | Ignorance is the Key Ingredient That Keeps MAGAworld Believing Trump's Lies and Absurdities backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Promises Eternal Peace in the Middle East With a Peace Plan Hamas Has Yet to Sign | Trump Meets With Democratic Leaders to Avoid a Shutdown Making it Clear He Won't Compromise | Can Democratic Senators Convince the Public You Can't Make Deals With Republicans Acting in Bad Faith backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Consiglieres Running Trump's Private Law Firm, the DoJ as Junkyard Dogs Unleashed to Hound, Harass, Bankrupt and Jail the Mob Boss's Enemies | An Activist on a Boat in a Flotilla Heading to Gaza That the Israelis Have Attacked With Drones | A Senior Middle East Negotiator for Clinton, Obama and Biden on the Pursuit of Israel/Palestine Peace and the Horrors of Today backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Leninists and Stalinist at the Head of MAGA and the Trump White House | Trump Trashes the UN Leaving China to Fill the Void After the US Withdraws From the World Body | Silicon Valley's Merging of Techno-Fascism and Christo-Fascism as Musk Merges X with xAI is His Latest Grift backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Could Our Democracy Be Over Before We Get to Vote in 2026? | Zelensky Warns the World is "in the Most Destructive Arms Race in History" | Harris' Book Reminds Us That Biden's Inner Circle Are Responsible For the Catastrophic Return of Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 23, 2025 - Dulcie Leimbach | Arthur Caplan | Maha Nassar Trump Trashes the Countries of the World at the UN in Front of the World's Leaders | The Deadly Consequences of Trump's Lies and Quackery As He Announces a "Cure" For Autism | At the UN Today Trump's Call to End the Wars in Ukraine and Gaza Repeats an Empty Promise backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Does Recognizing Palestine Create an Illusion of Action to End the Agony in Gaza? | Massive Demonstrations Across Brazil Against Pardoning Bolsonaro and How We Should Have Jailed Trump After His Coup Attempt | Trump Spews Hatred at Charlie Kirk's Memorial After Kirk's Widow Invokes Her Christian Faith To Forgive Her Husband's Murderer backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Trump Coup Underway and His Assault on the First Amendment | The Real Epstein Files Story in the 7,000 + SARS Files at Treasury and the Central Role of Robert Maxwell and His Depraved Daughter backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Richest Man in the World, Trump's Buddy Larry Ellison, Will Soon Own Most of the Media and We Will Have Government TV and Wall-to-Wall Fox News | Trump's MAGA Apparatchik Brendon Carr Uses Charlie Kirk to Kill Free Speech | Time For Jimmy Kimmel to Sue the Trump Administration backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 17, 2025 - Dean Baker | Ben Freeman | Jonathan Alter by Ian Masters

Peter Thiel's Obsession With the Antichrist Brings Techno-Fascism and Christo-Fascism Together | The Senate Grills the Unqualified and Incompetent Kash Patel as the FBI's Top Talent is Purged | Israel Invades Gaza City as a UN Report Concludes Israel is Commititng Genocide in Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Ben Burgis Who Debated Charlie Kirk on "Democratic Socialism vs. Conservative Populism" | Echoes of the 60's and 70's From Protest Songs Against Trump and MAGA Fascism | An Assessment of the Military Standoff Between Russia and Ukraine backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump and His Co-President Stephen Miller Declare War on the Democratic Party Which Miller Calls "A Domestic Terrorism Organization" | Charlie Kirk's Christian Nationalism is Embraced by the Shadow Rulers J.D. Vance, Mike Johnson and Russ Vought | Reality Winner Got 5 Years in Prison While Trump Got a Free Pass From a Judge he Owns For Far, Far Worse Breaches of the Espionage Act of 1917 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 11, 2025 - Barbara F. Walter | Thomas Mockaitis | Bruce Cumings by Ian Masters

Putin Tests the NATO Alliance With a Drone Incursion Into Poland | Why Are Democratic Leaders Avoiding Popular And Promising Candidates Like Mamdani and Maine's Oysterman? | Qatar Was Not Warned About the Israeli Attack Which Happened at 3.46 Because the US Told Them About it 10 Minutes Later at 3.56 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The US Tells the Europeans We Will No Longer Work With Them Against Disinformation Warfare by Ian Masters

Did the US Allow Israel to Strike an Allied Country That Hosts the Biggest US Base in the ME? by Ian Masters

With a Sept. 30 Gov Shutdown Looming, Do the Dems Get Blamed or Do They Let the Republicans Own it? by Ian Masters

With a September 30 Government Shutdown Looming, Do the Democrats Get Blamed or Do They Walk Away and Let the Republicans Own it Since They Don't Negotiate in Good Faith? | Did the US Allow Israel to Strike an Allied Country That Hosts the Biggest US Base in the Middle East? | The US Tells the Europeans We Will No Longer Work With Them Against Russian, Chinese and Iranian Disinformation Warfare backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Major TV Network Caves Again, Censoring Trump Protests at the US Open Men's Tennis Final | The Growing Rift Between the Supreme Court and the Lower Courts | A Chicagoan Manning the Barricades Ahead of Trump's "Invasion" in His War on Chicago backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Escalates Threats Against Venezuela as Rubio Calls For a Regional Latin American Campaign of Extrajudicial Killings | The Weak and Cynical Trump Plans For Defending Ukraine In a Possible Deal With Putin | The Consequence of DHS Violence Prevention Funding Cuts to Minnesota Just Ahead of the Minneapolis Mass Shooting of Kids on Their First Day of School backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 4, 2025 - Jonathan Guyer backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

RFK Jr. Grilled by Senate Democrats Who Want him Fired and Republicans He Lied To | A Congressional Reporter on the Women Abused And Trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell as Trump, the Doj and the House Speaker Fight to Keep the Epstein Files From the Public | The Moral and Strategic Collapse of US Policy in the Middle East backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

With Trump's DoJ and House Republicans on the Side of a Depraved Socialite Instead of the Victims of Her Sex Trafficking, Maxwell's Survivors Had to Speak in Front of the Capitol Today | Is Trump Cooking Up a Nice Little War to Take Out Maduro as a Distraction From Epstein? | ICE's Shameful Deportation of Asylum Seekers Back to Russian Torture and Imprisonment backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Federal Court Rules That Trump and Hegseth Violated the Posse Comitatus Act and That Trump is Creating a National Police Force With Him As Its Chief | Does Xi Jinping Command the World Stage Because of His Diplomatic Skills or Because of Trump's Blundering Lack of Diplomacy? | A Mayor Mamdani Will Need A Mass Movement Behind Him To Overcome an Establishment Out to Crush Him backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The State of Working America Under Assault From Trump and Project 2025 | How Trump and Project 2025 Have Turbocharged the Plutocratic Takeover of American Democracy | The History of Labor Day As Opposed to May Day That Others Celebrate backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump, Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Patel, Bongino and Noem Might as Well be Working For Putin and Xi as They Destroy Our National Security | How the Conspiratorial Mindset of an Entitled Wastrel From a Famous American Political Dynasty is Collapsing America's Public Health | The Blowback at Home From America's Killing Machine in the War on Terror backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Another Mass Murder of Children, This Time While They Were Praying in Church on Their First Day at School | The Sadistic Absurdity of Trump, Miller, Noem, Lewandowsky and Homan | Democrats Can Learn From Our Best President's Strategic Shift in the Civil War to Save Our Democracy From America's Worst President backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The U.S. is Caught Spying on a NATO Ally in Support of Trump's Plot to Steal Greenland | Trump's Antisemitic Conspiratorial Rant Threatening George Soros and His Son | Having Survived a Coup Attempt, Can We Endure Dictatorial Creep? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Another Governor, Illinois' Pritzker, Stands up to Trump While Democratic Leaders in the House and Senate are MIA | After Trying to Terminate the Fed Chair, Trump Fires the First and Only Black Woman on the Fed, But She is Staying Put | How the U.S. Should Deal With the Way the World is, Not How We Wish It To Be backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Since Oval Office Flattery is Required, South Korea's President Praises Trump's Garish Redecoration Only to Have Trump Heap Praise on the North Korean Dictator Who Wants to Annihilate South Korea | A Directionless DNC Meets Today With Coffers Empty and a Growing Split Between Younger Activists and Older Centrists While Trump's GOP Moves to Wipe Out the Opposition and Install a Dictator | 5 More Palestinian Journalists Killed Today as Starvation Takes Hold in Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Rewrites His Epstein/Maxwell History as He Has Done With "Russiagate" and "Stop the Steal" But This Time Are the American People That Stupid? | Joining the Residents of Washington DC As They Demonstrate Against the Military Occupation of Our Nation's Capital | Among the First to Warn About Global Warming, Bill McKibbon on His New Book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Patrols the Streets of the Nation's Capital as He Wages War on the Truth | A Case For a Real Democracy in the U.S.A. backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia