Background Briefing – January 20, 2025
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”
Upcoming Episode
Background Briefing
3:00 PM PACIFIC TIME: MONDAYS - THURSDAYS
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”
Steven Simon / Quinn Slobodian
An Analysis of the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal
Biden’s Warning of a New American Oligarchy and the Danger of a Tech-Industrial Complex
Charles Kupchan / Elliott Negin / Corey Brettschneider
What Latitude Will “Little Marco” Have As Secretary of State?
The Confirmation of the Pay-to-Play Pam Bondi For Attorney General
Trump’s Grossly Unqualified Wrecking Crew Is Aimed at Deconstructing the American State to Serve the Plutocrats Not the People
Robert Young Pelton / Rachel VanLandingham / Laurie Levenson / Annelle Sheline
Determined to Do Trump’s Bidding, Republican Senators Roll Over the Democrats and Confirm a Dangerously Unqualified Ideologue as Secretary of Defense
A Former Female JAG Officer on Hegseth’s Disparagement of Women in the Military and Military Justice
Jack Smith’s January 6 Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted Had the Case Gone To Trial
Unlike Biden, Trump Uses Leverage to Get a Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal Between Israel and Hamas
LeRoy Westerling / David Smilde / James Zirin
Instead of Helping Angelenos Who Lost Their Homes, Trump Offers Insults
The Third Inauguration of Venezuela’s Maduro, Who Lost the Last Election in a Landslide
The Scofflaw-in-Chief is Now the Felon-in-Chief
James Fallows / Glen MacDonald / Mark Whaling
Today’s Moving Memorial of President Jimmy Carter at His State Funeral
How Climate Change Supercharged the Wildfires That Swept Through LA
A Former LAFD Battalion Chief on What it is Like to Confront a Wall of Flame Driven by 80 MPH Winds
Harry Litman / Dr. Jon Keeley / Jamie Court
The Ghost of Roy Cohn Will Rule Over the Next 4 Years of MAGA Jurisprudence
Environmental and Ecological Factors Behind the Wildfires Raging in LA
Will Homeowners Get Their Insurance Payouts and Will Insurance Still Be Available in Fire-Prone Areas?
Scott Horton / Stephen Kinzer / Alexander Cooley
The Normalization of Trump By the Press and Social Media, as Its Owners Bezos and Zuckerberg Move to Flatter Rather Than Fact-Check Him
At Today’s Rambling Press Conference, Trump Does Not Rule Out Military Force to Take Back the Panama Canal, Grab Greenland, and Make Canada the 51st State
Why is Trump Attacking Our Closest Allies, While Cozying up to Our Worst Adversaries?
Jacob Heilbrunn / Andrew Latham / Thanassis Cambanis
Trump’s Orwellian January 6 Victory – Four Years Later Lies Have Won and Truth is Endangered
Today’s Resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau After 9 Years in Office
The Need to Lift Sanctions on Syria Before Chaos Consumes a Failed State
Robert Pape / Chris McGreal / Stephen Wertheim
The Latest on the Investigations Into the New Year’s Massacre in New Orleans and the Tesla Cyber Truck Explosion in Front of the Trump Hotel
Contrasting the Divisive Trump With Jimmy Carter, Who Tried to Bridge Divides
Could Trump be a Peacemaker, Even If He Only Wants to Win a Nobel Prize?
Wendy Brown / Richard Beck (encore show)
Will the Democrats Confront the Economic Conditions That Gave Rise to Right-Wing Populism?
How 9/11 Made the Trump Presidency Possible and Hollowed Out the Very Idea of Citizenship in the U.S.