
Background Briefing with Ian Masters
630 episodes — Page 3 of 13
May 24, 2026 - Jonathan Alter | Gregory Treverton | Afshin Matin-Asgari
May 21, 2026 - Jeff Colgan | Ryan Cooper | Edward McCafferey
May 20, 2026 - Rick Wilson | Bruce Fein | Bill Scher
May 19, 2026 - David Adler | Jeremi Suri | Stuart Schrader
May 18, 2026 - Orville Schell | Mike Lofgren | Adam Hanieh
May 17, 2026 - Kent Harrington | William LeoGrande | A.J.A. Woods
May 14, 2026 - David Daley | Victor Shih | Noam Schieber
May 13, 2026 - Dr. Henry Abraham | Juan Cole | David Ost
May 12, 2026 - Sidney Blumenthal | Michael Swaine | Molly Crabapple
May 11, 2026 - Mark Fitzpatrick | Jacob Heilbrunn | Andrew Cockburn
May 10, 2026 - Ori Goldberg | Firmesk Rahim | Marc Bennetts
May 7, 2026 - Dr. Nancy Okail | John Nichols | Quinn Slobodian
May 8, 2026 - Nicholas Grossman | Dr. Sara Vakhshouri | Tom LoBianco
May 5, 2026 - Michael Gorham | Lisa Graves | Scott Ferson
May 4, 2026 - Michael Kimmage | Thomas Berger | Oona Hathaway
May 3, 2026 - Hussein Banai | Charles Derber | Peter Dreier
April 30, 2026 - Karen Greenberg | Tamar Jacoby | Thomas Mockaitis
April 29, 2026 - Harry Litman | Michael McDonald | Thomas Nichols
April 26, 2026 - Bill Scher | Peter Loge | Toby Miller
April 27, 2026 - Ken Klippenstein | Charles Kupchan | Juan David Rojas
April 26, 2026 - Adele Stan | Matthew Petti | Alfred McCoy
April 23, 2026 - Jennifer Kavanaugh | James Zirin | Bruce Fein
April 22, 2026 - Harrison Mann | Jacob Heilbrunn | Kathleen Rogers
April 21, 2026 - Jonathan Guyer | Stephen Marche | Scott Horton
April 20, 2026 - Nader Hashemi | Stephen Kinzer | Fred Turner
April 19, 2026 - Juan Cole | Thanassis Cambanis | Allen Frances
April 16, 2026 - Habib Battah | Basav Sen | Lindsay Koshgarian | Amy Goodman
April 15, 2026 - Paul Pillar | Meghan Schneider | Harold Meyerson
April 14, 2026 - Daniel Immerwahr | Jamie Martin | Maziar Behrooz
April 13, 2026 - Robert Pape | James Carroll
April 12, 2026 - Robert Malley | David Broder | Nina Burleigh
An Experienced Negotiator With Iran on Vance's Failure to Make a Quick Deal With an Enemy of 47 Years | An Update on Hungary's Election That Has Trump and Putin Campaigning For Orban | Threatening to Bring Down the Trump Regime, Melania's Former Friend Warns Her "I Will Tear Down the Entire System - Be Careful Bitch...I will Take Legal Action Against Your Pedophile Husband" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
April 9, 2026 - Hussein Banai | Anthea Butler | James Galbraith
In Desperation, Our Self-Serving and Imbecilic President Has Strengthened a Brutal Regime and Elevated Its Global Position | Will America's Defeat Liberate It From a Broken Imperial Model? | The Pentagon and Trump's War on Pope Leo
April 8, 2026 - Nicholas Heras | Bill Scher | Adam Green
Both the Arsonist and the Fire Brigade, Trump Celebrates His Ceasefire Deal as "A Total Victory 100%" While Iran Says They Dealt the Enemy "A Crushing Defeat" | Questions of Trump's Competence, Morality, Credibility and Sanity Arise | The Cynical Tactics Big Money Now Uses to Attack Progressive Democratic Candidates backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

April 6, 2026 - Adam Weinstein | Dr. Mohsen Sazegara
Trump's Long and Loony Press Conference and How He Has Not "Decimated" Iran's Anti-Aircraft Capacity | A Founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps on What Is Not Being Done to Free Iranians From Their Brutal Theocratic Government backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
April 5, 2026 - Rosemary Kelanic | Moira Donegan | Alex Lawson
Trump's War Has Turned the Strait of Hormuz Into an Iranian Tollbooth With China the Winner | "You're Fired" Pam Bondi and Replaced by an Even Worse Todd Blanche | Trump Told the Truth For Once Trashing Childcare, Medicare and Medicaid as "Scams" With the Military the Only Thing We Have to Take Care Of backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
April 2, 2026 - Corey Brettschneider | Kian Tajbakhsh | Leah Litman
In Three Weeks Trump Will Declare Victory Without Securing a Victory, Leaving Someone Else to Open the Strait of Hormuz | How Do Iranians Feel About Trump Bombing Them "Back to the Stone Age Where They Belong"? | With Trump in the Front Row, the Supreme Court's Right Wing Justices Express Skepticism of Overturning Birthright Citizenship backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

April 1, 2026 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Joseph Cirincione | David Daley
Trump Poised to Announce Victory in a Surrender of His War on Iran | The Origins of Trump's war on Iran | How Serious is An Executive Order That Has Trump Deciding Who Gets to Vote By Mail? backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
March 31, 2026 - Robert Kuttner | Jon Hoffman | Sidney Blumenthal
Trump Will Either Double Down or Cut and Run Leaving Us, Our Allies and the Iranian People So Much Worse Off | Trump's Strategic Failure In Iran | Trump's War is Holding Him Hostage backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

March 30, 2026 - Stephen Biddle | Dean Baker | Garrett Epps
The Strategic and Moral Danger of Having Adolescent Bullies Running an Ill-considered War of Choice | An Assessment of the Damage Being Done to the US and Global Economy | In Stripping Birthright Citizenship, Trump and Miller Want to Create and Exploitable Class on Non-Citizens backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
March 29, 2026 - Lance Dodes | Richard Parker | Matt Angle
Dementia on Display at Trump's North Korean-Style Cabinet Meeting Raises the Alarm For VP Vance to Invoke the 25th Amendment | The Political Impact of the Largest Demonstration Against a Sitting President in the History of the United States | Could James Talarico Flip Ruby Red Texas and the US Senate? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
March 26, 2026 - Jeremi Suri | William Hartung | Frank Dikötter
No Kings and 11 Attempts by Democrats to Fund TSA Blocked by Trump As He Tries To Force His SAVE Act on Senate Republicans | Will Congress Balk at Hegseth's Extra $200 Billion and Trump's Extra $500 Billion on Top of a $Trillion Defense Budget? | Trump Postpones His Summit With Xi While Cutting Off Persian Gulf Oil China Depends On backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
March 25, 2026 - Aslı Bâli | Kim Lane Scheppele | Tom Freston
Our Reality TV President Unable to Deal With Reality, Makes Up Stories About Negotiating With Iran | Trump and Putin Work Together to Reelect Hungary's Kleptocratic Despot Orban | As Trump-Friendly Billionaires Buy Up the Media, the Former CEO of Viacom Now Owned by the Ellisons backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

March 24, 2026 - Ori Goldberg | Nina Burleigh
Life in Bomb Shelters Under Bombardment in a War 90% of Israelis Support | An Update on the Story Trump Has Waged a War to Distract Us From backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

March 23, 2026 - Asher Kaufman | Sarah Leah Whitson | Jamie Court
TACO Trump Now Claims Peace is at Hand But Iran Says No Such Talks Are Taking Place | Crying Foul Over Cluster Bombs as Civilians Are Targeted | Oil Companies and Refiners Are Making Out Like Bandits With California Refiners Gouging a $1.50 Profit Per Gallon at the Pump backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
March 22, 2026 - Robert Young Pelton | Olga Lautman | Nader Hashemi
Contradictory Signals From Trump to Wind Down the War While Sending in More Marines | The Winner of the Iran War Putin Prepares For a Spring Offensive in Ukraine While His Bootlicking Friend Trump Rewards Him With Extra Revenue | Celebrating the Iranian New Year Under Bombardment From Abroad and Repression at Home backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

March 19, 2026 - David Hearst | Harrison Mann | Mike Lofgren
The Global Impact of the Trump/Netanyahu War on Iran as Energy Prices Shoot Through the Roof | A Former DIA Intelligence Officer on the Folly of Sending Marines Into the Gulf | Trump is Being Played at We Deplete Expensive Weapons on Cheap Iranian Drones backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

March 18, 2026 - David Adler | Steven Simon
The Organizer of an International Humanitarian Flotilla Delivering Aid to the Desperate and Starving People of Cuba | Possible Scenarios to End the US/Israeli War on Iran and a More Likely Escalation of Attacks on Oil and Gas Terminals and Storage Facilities backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
March 17, 2026 - Tom Mockaitis | Christine Fair | Luis Martinez-Fernandez
Today's Blowback and the Historical Record of US Meddling in Iran | The Intensifying War Between Afghanistan's Taliba And Their Former Sponsor Pakistan | Trump's Claim He will Have "The Honor of Taking Cuba" Which is Likely to Fall in a Matter of Weeks backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
March 16, 2026 - Joshua Shifrinson | Juan Cole | Adele Stan
Although the US Navy Won't Go Into the Gulf, Trump is Demanding Other Navies Escort Tankers Through the Strait of Hormuz | Iran's Strategic Plans For a Long War With Layers of Redundancy in the Ranks of Leadership | The Crackup on the Right Against Trump's War on Iran backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing
March 15, 2026 - Emma Ashford | Dr. Allen Frances | Justin Levitt
Trump's War of Choice Rattles Allies While Rewarding Russia | Our Commander-in-Chief is a Senile Old Man Who is Losing His Mind | Trump's Cynical SAVE America Act Will Not Save Republicans in November backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing