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

the populist promise on the left backfiring in Maine, where the most beatable Republican Senator

Susan Collins has been given a reprieve with a gift from disturbing revelations about the

insurgent Oyster Man, Graham Platner's viability as a candidate from his damaging early social media

posts. Similarly, there was early enthusiasm on the left. Poor Senator Fetterman, whose votes

lately have taken a sharp right turn. Joining us to discuss the emergence of exciting and authentic

populist candidates running as

Democrats who can effectively challenge phony maga populism is Jared Abbott, a professor of political

science at Cal State Los Angeles and director of the Center for Working Class Politics,

with nearly two decades of experience in progressive politics

and the Labour movement. His research focuses on class politics, participatory democracy,

and the left in the United States and Latin America. And he has a recent article of The Guardian,

A new generation of populists is showing Democrats how to defeat Trump.

Then with Wall Street Insiders, along with Andrew Ross Salkin's new book, 1929, warning about today's market bubble and its similarity to the buildup to the 1990 crash and the Great Depression.

We will speak with Robert McElvane, a professor of history and chair of

arts and letters at Millsaps College. He is considered one of the world's leading historians of the

era of the Great Depression and is the author of 10 books, including the Encyclopedia of the

Great Depression, and most recently the times they were a changing.

1964, the year the 60s arrived and the battle lines of today were drawn.

He is currently completing a book with the working title and agreed upon fiction,

...