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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Listeners of Background Briefing with Ian Masters that love the show mention: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.
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
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
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
Trump's Memorial Day and West Point Politicization of the Military | An Investigation of the Evident Deterioration of Trump's Mental Health | Instead of Randomly Imposing Tariffs, The World's Biggest Debtor Should Be Showing Some Humility Towards Its Creditors backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Netanyahu Blames the Leaders of the UK, France and Canada For the Murders of Young Israeli Diplomats in DC | A Path Forward For Those Who Want to Stop the Killing of Innocents | The Ongoing Humanitarian Nightmare in Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
What Will the Senate Do With Trump's Robin Hood In Reverse "Big, Beautiful Bill"? |1 Why the Democratic Party's "Brahmin Left" Lost America's Working Men and Women and How to Win Them Back backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The 10 Richest Americans Made $365 Billion More in 2024 and Trump and the GOP Wants to Give Them a Huge Tax Break | In an Oval Office Ambush of South Africa's President, Trump Spewed Lies Musk Had Filled His Head With | More Conspiracy and Quackery From RFK Jr. Before Today's Senate as Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums and Alien Enthusiasts Wreck Science backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Deference to Putin and His Unwillingness to Press For a Ceasefire and Sanction Russia If It Refuses Stuns European Leaders | As the UK, France and Canada Condemn Israel's Gaza Offensive and the Starving of Children, Trump Does Not Come To Netanyahu's Defense | A South African Perspective on Trump's Welcoming of Its White "Refugees" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Phone Call Today With Putin and Others and the Need For More Than a Russia/Ukraine Ceasefire | A Ukrainian Perspective on Trump's Conversations With the Warring Parties | Trump and Family Have Elevated Corruption to an Industrial Scale backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Putin Plays Trump Again Not Showing Up For Farcical "Peace" Talks in Istanbul | A Report From Kyiv on How Much Ukrainians Want Peace But Not Surrender on Putin's Terms | The Death Toll In Gaza Reaches 53, 272 As Trump Plans to Send a Million Gazans to War-torn Libya backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump is Using the Birthright Citizenship Case to Get the Supreme Court to Stop Federal Judges From Blocking His Agenda Nationwide | The History of Birthright Citizenship Which Has been Settled Law Since 1898 | Russia's "Girlfriend" Tulsi Gabbard is Neutering the IC as MAGAworld Makes America Deaf, Dumb and Blind When it Comes to What is Happening in the Real World backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump Lifts Sanctions on Syria Calling Its New Leader, a Former Islamic State Fighter, "a Young Attractive Guy" | A Judge Orders ICE to Release Another Wrongly-Detained Scholar Held For 8 Weeks in Detention in Texas | Will Putin Show Up For Peace Talks and Tulsi Gabbard Fires Top Intel Officials For Telling Truth to Power backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump Signs a $142 Billion Weapons Deal In Saudi Arabia, Not the Peace Deal With Putin He Expected To Sign, But He Still Hopes to Sign a Deal With Iran | As Trump Throws His Lot in With Rich Arabs, How Much is Netanyahu Out in the Cold? | The Good "Christians" Speaker Johnson and the OMB's Vought Are Working Tirelessly to Hurt the Poor and Reward the Rich backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's FBI is Trying to Silence a Whistleblower who Revealed Russian Recruitment of Musk and Thiel | The Mismatch Between Our Constitution and Weaponized Partisan Politics backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Manhandling Congresswomen and Arresting a Mayor Makes it Clear We Already Have an Authoritarian Government | As Stephen Miller Talks of Suspending Habeas Corpus, Justices Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson Warn it is Time to Stand Up | The Law is Being Put to the Test by a Lawless President Who Has Been Given Immunity by a Supreme Court Captured by Right Wing Billionaires backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The 267th Pope is an American and a Peruvian Citizen Who Spent 2 Decades in Peru as a Missionary | A Roman Catholic Woman Priest on The Men-Only Cardinal's Choice of Pope Leo XIV | Is It Safe To Fly After Musk Gutted the FAA and a Reality TV President Chose a Reality TV Secretary of Transportation? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
After Claiming the Houthis Have Cried Uncle, Next Week in Saudi Arabia Will Trump Announce a Nuclear Deal With Iran? | Tit-For-Tat Military Strikes by India and Pakistan Appear Performative Not Escalatory | Musk's Alarming Plan To Build a Single Centralized Database For All the Confidential Government Data DOGE Has Scooped Up backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Unprecedented Monetizing of the Oval Office by the Most Corrupt President in US History | How the Trump Mafia Family's Extortion Can be Stopped | Understanding the Nazi Mind and How it Applies to Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Netanyahu's Plan to "Capture" Gaza Is a Death Sentence For the Remaining Hostages | Does Trump Want to Repeal the 20th Century? | What If America Abandons Ukraine, the Linchpin of European Security? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Budget Cuts the Well Being of the American People While Boosting Exclusion, Retribution and Destruction | Trump Defunds PBS and NPR in His War Against the Truth and Facts | Trump Turns the World Against Us as First Canadians and Now Australians Vote Against Pro-Trump Candidates backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Reality TV Reshuffle of His National Security Team | SCOTUS Appears Poised to Smash Through the Wall Separating Church and State to Force Taxpayers to Subsidize Religious Indoctrination | On This May Day, How Unions Would Be the Only Way Reindustrialized American Factory Workers Could Make a Living Wage to Support a Family backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Two Nuclear Powers India and Pakistan are Poised to Go To War | Trump's 100th Day and the Record-Breaking Collapse of His Poll Numbers | Today's 50th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon Which Trump is Boycotting While Slapping 46% Tariffs on Vietnam backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Thanks to Trump's Bullying, Bluster and Bombast the Liberals Won In Canada | A Presidential Historian on Trump's 100 Day Reign of Ruin | The Intertwined Two Americas as the Colossus of the North Exports State Terror to the South backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Governor Pritzker Wows Democrats in the Key New Hampshire Primary State | Thiel, Musk and Vance's Pro-Natalist Movement Wants More Superior White Children | The Historical Comparisons Between Hilter's Rapid Extinction of German Democracy and Trump's First 100 Days backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
On the Sidelines of the Pope's Funeral, Zelensky Meets With Trump to Discuss the White House's Charade of a Peace Plan/Giveaway to Putin | Trump Orders the DOJ to Investigate Act Blue to Get Private Data on 15 Million Democratic Donors | Opus Dei and "Traditionalist" Forces Inside the Catholic Church Maneuver to Replace a Pope They Hated With a Reactionary backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Why Should Putin Accept Trump's Peace Deal When He Can Wait for Him to Walk Away as Promised? | One-By-One News Organizations are Caving to Trump's Extortion | Inside Project 2025 and the Right Wing Zealots and Culture Warriors Who Crafted the Roadmap For Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Incredible Shrinking Billionaire Who is Destroying Our Government Blames Tesla's Sales Slump on "Paid" Demonstrators | Vance Announces a Shameful Sellout Of Ukraine Allowing Russia to Conquer and Subjugate What Putin Could Not Win on the Battlefield backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Self-Inflicted Wound on Our Economy as Overseas Investors Retreat from Treasuries and the Dollar | An Update From Rome on the Conclave With Cardinals From the Global South in the Mix For a New Pope | On This Earth Day Strategies For Collective Political Action to Make Climate Change the Unifying Crisis of Our Time backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Sadness Around the World at the Death of a Good Man, Pope Francis | The Gap Between a Tolerant and Empathetic Pope and the Reactionary Male-Dominated Institution He Headed | Another Scandal From the White Nationalist, Racist, Book-Burning Reality TV Hire of Trump's at the Pentagon backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Putin's Brief Easter Ceasefire and Trump's Warning he Might "Take a Pass" if a Russia/Ukraine Peace Deal Can't be Made | Trump Threatens To Fire the Chairman of the Fed Which He Can't Do But That Won't Stop Him From Trying | In Picking a Trade War With China, Trump Might End Up With a Real War backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Looming Constitutional Crisis as Trump Continues to Defy the Supreme Court and Federal District Courts With "The Dog Ate My Homework" Excuses | A Little-Noticed FEC Ruling Opens the Door For the Next Frontier of Plutocracy | The Tariff War Trump Has Launched Against China That He Will Surely Lose backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump Appoints Another Unqualified Hack as the Deliberate Destruction of the IRS Continues | The Deliberate Destruction of Social Security With Biden the Wrong Person to Lead the Effort to Save it | An Assessment of Rumors about Witkoff's Ties To Russian Money-launderers backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Harvard Stands up to Trump Then He Hits Then For $2.2 Billion and Threatens Their Tax-exempt Status | Trump's Escalating War on the Press as he Threatens CBS Over an Accurate 60 Minutes Report on Ukraine | A Professor Who Just visited His Postdoctoral Student in an ICE Detention Camp backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Is Trump Using El Salvador's Techno-Autocrat Bukele as an Excuse to Defy the Supreme Court? | Trump and Erik Prince's Plans to Rendition 100,000 Prisoners from American Jails to El Salvador | The New Hegemon in the Middle East: Israel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
How to Ruin a Country | From a Nation of Immigrants to a Nation of Hate, Xenophobia, Exclusion and Cruelty | An Inside Look Into the Fateful Campaign That Brought Back Trump to Finish Off America Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Asher Price
Trump's MAGA Economy Driven by Greed, Stupidity and Cowardice | Will Trump's Weakening of the Dollar Lead to a New Global Reserve Currency? | The Hollow Nature of Trump's Promise of Gain After the Pain backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Amateurism on Display or is He Shorting the Market for His Family and Cronies? | An Assessment of the Amount of Damage Ahead From Trump's Trade War | Today's Drop in Oil To $56 From $72 a Barrel Last Week and What Kind of a Deal Could Emerge Between the US and Iran on Saturday? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Chinese Response to 104% Tariffs and Insults From Vance | Trump Announces Talks Between Iran and the US in Oman on Saturday | Trump's DOJ Will No Longer Stop Crypto Scams and Cyber Command Will No Longer Stop Ransomware Attacks backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump Urges Americans Not to Be "Weak or Stupid" as the Meltdown on Wall Street Continues | Who Benefits From Trump and Musk's Deliberate Destruction of the American Economy, Our Government and Our Standing in the World? | Saturday's 1,200 "Hands Off" Demonstrations in American Towns and Cities and Others Around the World backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Looney Girlfriend Purges the NSC and NSA | The Future of NATO and a Europe Without the US | In Search of a Methodology Behind the Economic Lunacy of Trump's Tariffs? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Growing Grassroots Revolt Against the Slash and Burn of the American Government, Our Institutions and Our Democracy by Trump and Musk | Trump's Broadside of Tariffs Amid a Blizzard of Lies From the Rose Garden | After Trump, Musk and RFK Jr. Have Purged Scientists, Researchers, Innovators and Experts, Who Will Make America Great Again? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Hope on the Horizon for Democrats | Trump's Erratic Middle East Policy as He Threatens to Bomb Iran While Israel Annexes Gaza | Will the Earthquake in Myanmar Spell the End of the Military Junta? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Looney Girlfriend Purges the NSC and NSA | The Future of NATO and a Europe Without the US | In Search of a Methodology Behind the Economic Lunacy of Trump's Tariffs? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Thanks to Musk, the US is Not Helping the Victims of the Earthquake in Myanmar Because There Are Only 15 Employees Left at USAID | Who Will be Freed on Trump's "Liberation Day" Tomorrow When We'll All Be Paying More? | More Nuclear Proliferation as Europeans Plan to Develop Their Own Nuclear Deterrent and Tactical Battlefield Nukes backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Is Trump Bluffing With Nuclear Threats Against Iran or Does he Want to Nuke Their Underground Nuclear Facilities | Trump and Stephen Miller are Borrowing From the Argentine Junta, Pinochet and the Nazis | A Former Republican Opposition Researcher on Republican Vulnerabilities and How the Democrats Can Up Their Game backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump's Top Aides Dig the Hole Deeper on Signalgate Speaking Lies on Behalf of Power | An Examination of the Emerging Resistance and How the Only Pathway Out of Institutional Collapse as Our Democracy is Destroyed is on the Left backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Team Trump's Amateurs and Incompetents Exposed on the Signal Group Chat Prepare to Bomb the Houthis Again, Maybe This Time With "Clean Opsec"? | RFK Jr's Brutal Cuts to HHS as His Quackery Harms Kids From Cod Liver He Recommends Instead of a Measles Vaccination | Are We About to See a Defeat of Musk in Wisconsin After Successfully Buying the White House, the Senate and the House? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Heading Into the Generational Fight Against MAGA Fascism | Can Social Security be Saved From Musk's Wreck Then Rob | Trump's Executive Order to Rig Elections in His Favor He Claims Have Been Rigged Against Him backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
The Trump Team Group Chat Revels VP Vance is Running the Presidency Along With Stephen Miller | Incompetent and Unqualified Heads of US Intelligence on Display Before the Senate Intelligence Committee Today | The Courts Will Not Save Us Since They Got Us Into This Mess backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Trump Greenlight's Erdogan's Crackdown While Musk Removes Turkish Opposition Content on X | The Strategy Behind Netanyahu's Resumption of His War on Gaza | The Pathetic Asymmetry Between Seasoned Russian Diplomats and Intelligence Professionals Negotiating Against Trump's Real Estate Buddy Witkoff
Musk's Ungoverning Tactic of "Wreck Then Rob" | Inside the PRC's Secretive Internal Leadership Struggles Between Reformers and Reactionaries