Background Briefing with Ian Masters

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

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

Robert Baer, former CIA Middle East officer and analyst, Matthew Petti, Iran reporter who covers Persian and English media, and Stephen Wertheim, Carnegie foreign‑policy scholar, discuss the U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran. They explore why the strikes happened, how Iranians are reacting on the ground, risks of open-ended regime-change aims, and the regional and global consequences of escalating conflict.

John Nichols, Washington correspondent on U.S. politics and progressive movements. Wladimir van Wilgenburg, journalist covering Kurdish politics across Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Mohsen Malani, political scientist expert on Iran and regional strategy. They debate Noem's Senate fallout and impeachment prospects. They examine CIA reports about arming Iranian Kurdish fighters and the logistics and trust issues. They consider Khamenei succession rumors and Iran's survival strategy.

March 3, 2026 - Sidney Blumenthal | Sina Toossi | Bruce Schneier by Ian Masters

March 2, 2026 - Thanassis Cambanis | Daryl Kimball | Robert Pape by Ian Masters

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

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

Rick Wilson, conservative strategist known for co-founding the Lincoln Project. Angela Stent, scholar of Russia and Eurasia, former National Intelligence Officer. Nick Schwellenbach, investigator of DHS and Justice Department contracts. They dissect Trump’s State of the Union theatrics and political effects. They unpack U.S.-Russia negotiation postures and Putin’s playbook. They reveal who profits from immigration enforcement contracts.

February 24, 2026 - Tamar Jacoby | Eric Blanc by Ian Masters