Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with an analysis of what Governor Tim Walsh brings to the Harris-Waltz

and speak with Jonathan Alter, an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.

He's the former senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, and the author of The Promise, President

Obama Year 1, and The Defining Moment, FDR's 100 Days in the Triumph of Hope, both New York

Times bestsellers.

His latest books are The Center Holes, Obama and his enemies, and his very best Jimmy Carter

a life.

His forthcoming book is American Reckoning

Inside Trump's Trial and My Own, and he runs the Substact newsletter Old Goats, and we'll

discuss his article at the New York Times, why the electoral math on Tim Wals makes sense.

Then we'll look into how much Elon Musk is turning into a global menace

as he stokes racial unrest in the UK predicting the country will soon be engulfed in a civil war.

Joining us is Quinn Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University,

where he teaches histories of modern Europe, international history,

social movements, and the intellectual history of neoliberalism. He's the author of

globalists, the end of empire and the birth of neoliberalism, crack up capitalism, market

radicals and the dream of a world without democracy. And his forthcoming book is Hayek's

bastards, race, gold, IQ, and the capitalism

of the far right. And we'll discuss his article at the news statesman, Elon Musk wants us to have

more children. Is demography the new front line of the culture wars? Then finally we'll assess what can be done to save government oversight

...