KPFA - Background Briefing

Feb 03 2025 341 ep. 60 mins 9
KPFA - Background Briefing Podcast artwork

Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”

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Background Briefing – February 3, 2025

Feb 03 2025 59 mins  
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.” The post Background Briefing – February 3, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Gregory Treverton / Jeff Wise

Jan 30 2025 59 mins  
Republican Senators Who Know Better Appear to Roll Over For Trump, Poised to Confirm the Disastrous Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard We begin with the hearings today before the Senate Intelligence Committee for Tulsi Gabbard to become the next Director of National Intelligence and before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Kash Patel to become the next Director of the FBI. Along with RF

Amesh Adalja / Peter Katona / Mae Ngai

Jan 29 2025 59 mins  
Will Republican Senators Watch the Video Caroline Kennedy Sent Them Describing Her Cousin RFK Jr. as a “Predator?” We begin with hearings today before the U.S. Senate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, which was preceded by a video and letter sent to the senators by RFK Jr.’s cousin Caroline Kennedy, which provided a devastati

Michelle García / Sam Quinones / Thomas Berger

Jan 28 2025 59 mins  
Trump’s Reality TV Theatre of Cruelty Underway We begin with Trump’s reality TV theatre of cruelty underway, as Fox and other right-wing media are embedded in ICE raids, with Dr. Phil showing up at a raid in Chicago where migrants are arrested, many with no criminal records and some U.S. citizens or green-card holders. We discuss how Trump is devaluing American citizenship with

Dharna Noor / Herb Lin / Natalie Melnyczuk

Jan 27 2025 59 mins  
Trump’s Embrace of the Fossil Fuel Industry, Which Spent $445 Million to Elect Him and the Republican Congress We begin with the only policy, plan, or program Trump is offering — apart from the reality TV theater of vengeance and retribution, the war on “woke,” and rounding up immigrants — and that is “drill baby drill,” as though unleashing the liquid gold beneath ou

Gil Duran / George Beebe / William Hartung

Jan 23 2025 59 mins  
A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump’s Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives We begin with the Trump/Musk presidency’s steamroller of reactionary initiatives flattening the Democrats and intimidating the press into treating a sociopathic felon as a legitimate leader. We discuss a manifesto of persistence that is resistance in order to stand up to the firehose of unpopular

Anthea Butler / Loch Johnson / Craig Unger

Jan 22 2025 59 mins  
A Real Christian Confronts Trump, Unlike the Christo-Fascists and Evangelical Hucksters Who Worship the False Idol We begin with the plea for mercy from Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde at the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral to Donald Trump, as he sat stone-faced while she gently urged him, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities wh

Michael Podhorzer / Elizabeth Goitein / Spencer Sunshine

Jan 21 2025 59 mins  
How the Roberts Court Laid the Groundwork For a Plutocratic and Theocratic Takeover of American Democracy We begin with the groundwork that was laid so that Trump could take power, backed by the oligarchs and theocrats who financed his election, and focus on the Roberts Court that made it all possible in a purposeful project to do by judicial fiat what could never be done by any ot

Allen Frances / Sidney Blumenthal / Molly White

Jan 20 2025 59 mins  
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Steven Simon / Quinn Slobodian

Jan 16 2025 59 mins  
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