Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
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Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
2016 Program Archive
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We begin with an analysis of the political upheaval in Turkey where massive demonstrations have taken place in response to a brutal government crackdown on environmental protesters. Asli Bali a professor at the UCLA School of Law who is in Istanbul joins us for an update on the protests and what this means in terms of Turkey’s role in the opposition to the Assad regime in Syria.
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Then we get another analysis on protests against the Islamist government of Prime Minister Erdogan from Soner Cagaptay, a regular columnist for Hurriyat Daily News who writes extensively on U.S./Turkish relations and Turkish domestic policy. He joins us to discuss what looks like a widening religious/secular divide in a country long dominated by the military that has recently seen unprecedented growth and prosperity and an emerging middle class. |
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Then finally, we speak with Michael Klare, a |
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Full Program |
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
Part 1 |
We begin with an analysis of the political upheaval in Turkey where massive demonstrations have taken place in response to a brutal government crackdown on environmental protesters. Asli Bali a professor at the UCLA School of Law who is in Istanbul joins us for an update on the protests and what this means in terms of Turkey’s role in the opposition to the Assad regime in Syria.
|
![]() |
|
Part 2 |
Then we get another analysis on protests against the Islamist government of Prime Minister Erdogan from Soner Cagaptay, a regular columnist for Hurriyat Daily News who writes extensively on U.S./Turkish relations and Turkish domestic policy. He joins us to discuss what looks like a widening religious/secular divide in a country long dominated by the military that has recently seen unprecedented growth and prosperity and an emerging middle class. |
![]() |
|
Part 3 |
Then finally, we speak with Michael Klare, a |
![]() |
|
Full Program |
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
Part 1 |
We begin with an analysis of the political upheaval in Turkey where massive demonstrations have taken place in response to a brutal government crackdown on environmental protesters. Asli Bali a professor at the UCLA School of Law who is in Istanbul joins us for an update on the protests and what this means in terms of Turkey’s role in the opposition to the Assad regime in Syria.
|
![]() |
|
Part 2 |
Then we get another analysis on protests against the Islamist government of Prime Minister Erdogan from Soner Cagaptay, a regular columnist for Hurriyat Daily News who writes extensively on U.S./Turkish relations and Turkish domestic policy. He joins us to discuss what looks like a widening religious/secular divide in a country long dominated by the military that has recently seen unprecedented growth and prosperity and an emerging middle class. |
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|
Part 3 |
Then finally, we speak with Michael Klare, a |
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| LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | ||
| We begin with a report from Beirut-based journalist Habib Battah about the claims just made on Hezbollah’s Lebanese television network by the Syrian dictator Basher al-Assad that the Syrian army has won “major victories” and now holds “the balance of power” in the civil war. We discuss the possibility of a peace settlement in Syria similar to what brought about an end to Lebanon’s bitter civil war. |
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Then the author of a new book “The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right”, Arthur Goldwag, joins to talk about the migration of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories into the mainstream media as anti-government hate speech propagated by right wing Senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul often surprisingly finds a sympathetic audience amongst people who consider themselves leftists. Arthur Goldwag has an article in the Washington Spectator, “Alex Jones’ Weather Weapons”. |
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Then finally we hear about a new economic movement going on under the radar in America that is empowering local communities who are prospering, independent from Wall Street. Historian, political economist, activist and writer Gar Alperovitz joins us to discuss his article at the Washington Spectator “Something is Happening: The New Economic Movement” and his latest book “What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution”. |
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| LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | ||
| We begin with a new study from the Pew Research Center that finds woman are now the primary breadwinners in almost half of all American households. June Carbone, Chair of Law, the Constitution and Society at the University of Missouri Kansas City and co-author of “Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture” joins us to discuss this tectonic shift in our economy and family life. |
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Then we speak with pioneering AIDS researcher Dr. Charles van der Horst, Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Infectious Diseases. He was recently arrested inside the North Carolina state house protesting against laws that hurt children and the poor that have been passed since the Republicans captured all three branches of government and began a legislative assault on the poor, the unemployed, public education and voting rights in a flurry of bills that are transforming North Carolina into a model of right wing governance. |
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Then finally, Stephen Braun, an investigative reporter with the Associated Press who was previously the National Security Editor of the AP and author of a book about the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. “Merchants of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible”, joins us to discuss Russian arm sales to Syria at the same time that the U.S. and Russia are trying to broker a peace conference in Geneva between the Syrian sides fighting to the death in bloody civil war. |
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