The Intercept Briefing

Amidst the grandstanding and partisan bickering, no one wants to talk about the decades of U.S. policy that helped give rise to ISIS and al Qaeda. Jeremy Scahill discusses how U.S. policy opened a Pandora’s box in Iraq and Syria.

Islamic studies scholar Amanda Rogers discusses the actual founder of ISIS, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and how ISIS adopted tactics from the U.S. “war on terror.”

War reporter Mike Giglio talks about his time on the ground covering ISIS. He documents this experience in his new book,  “Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate.”

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Legendary peace activist Liz McAlister has spent her entire life resisting U.S. war. The 79-year-old grandmother of six, who is on trial with her Kings Bay Plowshares co-defendants, explains why she and her friends snuck onto a U.S. nuclear base to deliver an indictment of the U.S. government.

Rudy Giuliani has emerged as Donald Trump’s dollar store Roy Cohn and he has put himself right in the center of the impeachment inquiry. Journalist Johnny Dwyer, author of “The Districts,” chronicles Giuliani’s time as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Giuliani’s connections to shady characters from a host of countries and why he may never face indictment.

Journalist Emily Guendelsberger went undercover working at Amazon, McDonald’s and Convergys. She discusses her experience in the dystopic world of low wage work and her new book “On the Clock, What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane.”

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Adam Serwer of The Atlantic discusses the impeachment inquiry, the cruelty of the Trump presidency and the state of play in Washington D.C.

As Turkey continues its brutal incursion into parts of Syria, U.S. politicians accuse Trump of “betraying” the Kurds. Jeremy Scahill and Dr. Kamran Matin of Sussex University discuss the long history of U.S. support for despotic regimes as they’ve waged genocidal campaigns against Kurdish people.

Author Fatima Bhutto has two new books out, a novel “The Runaways” and “New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop.” Bhutto discusses these books, the role of the CIA in Hollywood and the evolving story of Pakistan in the post-9/11 world.

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Jeremy Scahill is back. Well, sort of. He passes the reins over to Intercepted's producers.

A recent report from Airwars investigates the incredibly thin media coverage of civilian harm during the U.S. war against ISIS. The author of that report, investigative researcher Alexa O'Brien, shares her findings with associate producer Elise Swain. 

Lead producer Jack D'Isidoro interviews Wilfred Chan, who dives deep into the pro-democracy uprising in Hong Kong and explores the protesters' demands. 

The Intercept's Jordan Smith discusses the first abortion case before the Supreme Court since Trump’s new appointments with producer Laura Flynn. They analyze the latest in the war against women's reproductive rights.

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D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim hosts and gives the long history of Hunter Biden in Ukraine. 

Senior National Security Correspondent James Risen explains Donald Trump’s abuse of power, comments on the New York Times publishing information about the whistleblower, he calls for an end to leak prosecutions, especially under the Espionage Act. 

Grim and Risen are joined by Edward Baumgartner, a researcher on Ukraine and Russia, and Kristofer Harrison, a former Defense and State Department adviser during the George W. Bush administration. They discuss Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Ukraine, and the interests of various Trump associates in Ukraine including Rudy Giuliani, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort. 

Reporter Murtaza Hussain asks why the moral outrage over Trump’s abuse of political power is so much greater than it is for America’s endless wars and rising civilian deaths.

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Senior Correspondent Naomi Klein imagines what real climate justice could look like and talks about her new book, “On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal.” 

The Intercept’s Sharon Lerner tells Intercepted’s Elise Swain about her groundbreaking reporting on toxic industrial chemicals.

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden reads an excerpt from his new memoir, “Permanent Record,” and reflects on his time since revealing the broad scope of NSA surveillance with Micah Lee, First Look Media’s Director of Information Security.

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Philosopher Srecko Horvat discusses the historical lessons we can learn from the guerrilla struggle against fascism waged by the Partisans in Yugoslavia during World War II. Horvat also talks about  the recent surge in extreme right-wing political forces in Europe and what that trend and Julian Assange’s case mean for the future of democracy.

Intercepted is going on hiatus for the summer and will return with new episodes in September 2019.

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Rutgers professor and co-host of the Uncivil podcast Chenjerai Kumanyika argues that demands for reparations should include challenging the driving forces behind slavery: capitalism and imperialism. 

The Intercept’s Ryan Devereaux gives an update on the trial for humanitarian aid worker Scott Warren and discusses the dehumanization that has allowed the war on immigrants to continue for decades. 

Artist and musician Nakhane reflects on growing up queer in South Africa and talks about his new record, “You Will Not Die.”

This is our last episode of the season. Intercepted is going on hiatus for the summer and will return with new episodes in September 2019.

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As the U.S. accuses Iran of attacking civilian ships while offering scant evidence, grave historical parallels are emerging with the Gulf of Tonkin incidents in 1964 that were manipulated to justify Lyndon Johnson’s dramatic escalation of the war in Vietnam. 

California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna is preparing legislation aimed at stopping an attack on Iran and he says he would not put it past National Security Adviser John Bolton to manipulate evidence. 

Journalist Negar Mortazavi of The Independent analyzes what war with Iran would look like and exposes the State Department’s funding of propaganda operations against Iran. 

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman talks about the parallels with the build up to the Iraq invasion of 2003 and shares stories from her early life as a journalist.

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In a bombshell series of reports, The Intercept Brasil has revealed dirty tricks used in the prosecution of the leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption charges and improper coordination among prosecutors and judges. Glenn Greenwald discusses the documents in the leaked archive and what this means for Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro. 

Tiffany Cabán, a queer Latina public defender from Queens, New York, talks about her battle with the Democratic Party machine in her bid to become a prosecutor opposed to the carceral state. Chesa Boudin, whose parents were sentenced to lengthy prison terms when he was 14-months-old, is trying to overhaul San Francisco’s justice system and radically change the relationship between cops and the DA. 

As paramilitary forces carry out a massacre against non-violent protesters in Sudan, we get a report from filmmaker Hajooj Kuka who was wounded in the raid in Khartoum last week. And we hear the music of Sudanese-American Ahmed Gallab, the lead singer-songwriter of the band Sinkane, and his experience of monitoring the major developments in his home country.

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