Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with an update on last night's speeches at the Democratic Convention in Chicago and a preview of tonight's lineup, which features Kamala Harris's vice-presidential running mate,

Tim Walsh, who is already getting attacked by 50 House Republicans who are distorting his military record in their

attempt at swift-boating him. Joining us from the Democratic National Convention is Bill Cher,

the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the History Podcast When

America Worked and a co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast, the DMZ.

We'll discuss his article at the Washington Monthly Convention Night 2.

Barack Obama is still showing us how we can depolarize America.

Then we'll examine the generational change underway at the Democratic National Convention with a diverse array of young faces calling out their state's delegates count in last night's roll call.

Joining us is Lincoln Mitchell, who teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science at Columbia University.

He's the author of numerous books on the former Soviet states,

Baseball and Democracy,

the latest of which is the Giants and their city,

Major League Baseball in San Francisco, 1976 to 1992.

And he's the author of the popular substack kibbutzing with Lincoln,

where his latest article is Kamala Harris and Generational Change.

Then finally we'll look into the trial underway in San Francisco at which the Chinese government is suing Stanford University to retrieve the diaries of Mao's secretary that provide an inside look at the Chinese Communist Party's

leadership from 1935 to 2018.

Joining us is Orville Shell, who was formerly the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism

at the University of California at Berkeley and is currently the Arthur Ross Director

of the Asia Society Center

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