Each week on In the Room with Peter Bergen, the national security journalist and bestselling author goes beyond the headlines to explore important global stories from a nonpartisan perspective. Alongside informed analysis and interviews with top experts and leaders, Bergen shares his top picks for further listening on each episode's topic, collected here. Check back weekly to see more.
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Episode 62: Does the Pentagon (or the Cops) Know What Side of the Bed You Sleep On?
Recommended: Stasiland by Anna Funder
Episode 62: Does the Pentagon (or the Cops) Know What Side of the Bed You Sleep On?
Recommended: Means of Control by Byron Tau
Episode 61: How Tiny Qatar Became a Global Player
Recommended: The Arabs by Eugene Rogan
Episode 61: How Tiny Qatar Became a Global Player
Recommended: Inside Qatar by John McManus
Episode 60: The One Way Out of an Israeli-Palestinian Forever War
Recommended: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
Episode 59: The Rise, and Maybe Downfall, of Liberal Democracy
Recommended: Age of Revolutions by Fareed Zakaria
Episode 58: The Right-Wing Plan for Trump to Root Out the “Deep State Department”
Recommended: American Ambassadors by Dennis C. Jett
Episode 57: How Women Became Central to the Central Intelligence Agency
Recommended: The Unexpected Spy by Tracy Walder
Episode 57: How Women Became Central to the Central Intelligence Agency
Recommended: Code Girls by Liza Mundy
Episode 57: How Women Became Central to the Central Intelligence Agency
Recommended: The Sisterhood by Liza Mundy
Episode 56: India’s Modi Will (Likely) Get the Most Votes in Human History. Why?
Recommended: Incarnations by Sunil Khilnani
Episode 55: The Man Who Led NATO Is Trying to Frighten You
Recommended: 2054 by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis
Episode 55: The Man Who Led NATO Is Trying to Frighten You
Recommended: 2034 by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis
Episode 54: The View From a Newsroom in the Middle East
Recommended: Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
Episode 54: The View From a Newsroom in the Middle East
Recommended: The Achilles Trap by Steve Coll
Episode 52: Is America Headed into a New Cold War?
Recommended: New Cold Wars by David E. Sanger
Episode 52: Is America Headed into a New Cold War?
Recommended: The Perfect Weapon by David E. Sanger
Episode 50: Where Did the Migrant Crisis Come From?
Recommended: Border Wars by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear
Episode 50: Where Did the Migrant Crisis Come From?
Recommended: Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer
Episode 49: What UFO Conspiracies Have to Do with Jan. 6th
Recommended: UFO by Garrett Graff
Episode 49: What UFO Conspiracies Have to Do with Jan. 6th
Recommended: Watergate: A New History by Garrett Graff
Episode 48: Counterterrorism Chief Says Hamas Attack and Gaza War Have Reshaped Terror Threat
Recommended: The Longest War by Peter Bergen
Episode 48: Counterterrorism Chief Says Hamas Attack and Gaza War Have Reshaped Terror Threat
Recommended: United States of Jihad by Peter Bergen
Episode 47: Can the U.S. Just Pull Out of the Middle East?
Recommended: All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer
Episode 47: Can the U.S. Just Pull Out of the Middle East?
Recommended: Revolutionary Iran by Michael Axworthy
Episode 46: How Does the U.S. Government Get Detained Americans Home?
Recommended: News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez
Episode 46: How Does the U.S. Government Get Detained Americans Home?
Recommended: We Want to Negotiate by Joel Simon
Episode 45: A Friendly Warning for America
Recommended: The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
Episode 45: A Friendly Warning for America
Recommended: The Prince of the Marshes by Rory Stewart
Episode 45: A Friendly Warning for America
Recommended: How Not to Be a Politician by Rory Stewart
Episode 43: Did Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bomb Make the World Safer?
Recommended: The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis
Episode 43: Did Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bomb Make the World Safer?
Recommended: American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Episode 42: China is Stalking Its Dissidents — Even on U.S. Soil
Recommended: Surveillance State by Josh Chin and Liza Lin
Episode 42: China is Stalking Its Dissidents — Even on U.S. Soil
Recommended: The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa Lim
Episode 41: Why America’s Biggest Terror Threat Is Homegrown
Recommended: Bring the War Home by Kathleen Belew
Episode 41: Why America’s Biggest Terror Threat Is Homegrown
Recommended: Hateland by Daryl Johnson
Episode 39: Being a Spy Can Be Pretty Stressful. The CIA is Trying to Help.
Recommended: The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence by Douglas London
Episode 49: What UFO Conspiracies Have to Do with Jan. 6th
Recommended: UFO by Garrett Graff
Episode 37: As the Arctic Ice Melts, Could a New Kind of Cold War Be Coming?
Recommended: The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell
Episode 37: As the Arctic Ice Melts, Could a New Kind of Cold War Be Coming?
Recommended: Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
Episode 36: Yes, the United States has a Space Force. Stop Laughing.
Recommended: Ghost Fleet by P. W. Singer, August Cole
Episode 35: The Americans Who Would Be on the Frontline of a War in the Pacific
Recommended: The Conquering Tide by Ian W. Toll
Episode 35: The Americans Who Would Be on the Frontline of a War in the Pacific
Recommended: How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
Episode 34: Who Controls America’s Past?
Recommended: Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule
Episode 34: Who Controls America’s Past?
Recommended: How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
Episode 34: Who Controls America’s Past?
Recommended: You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe
Episode 33: How to Beat the Russian Army?
Recommended: By All Means Available by Michael Vickers
Episode 32: Could Prosecuting the Former President be Bad for American Democracy?
Recommended: The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies by Aziz Z. Huq
Episode 31: Is Israel Prepared for this Ground War?
Recommended: Degrade and Destroy by Michael R. Gordon
Episode 30: Turning Bad News into a Great Read
Recommended: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Episode 30: Turning Bad News into a Great Read
Recommended: Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Episode 30: Turning Bad News into a Great Read
Recommended: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Episode 30: Turning Bad News into a Great Read
Recommended: Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
Episode 29: A General and a Military Historian Say Israel-Hamas War is Most Challenging Conflict Since 1945
Recommended: Conflict by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts
Episode 27: How Does the Russian Propaganda Machine Work?
Recommended: Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev
Episode 27: How Does the Russian Propaganda Machine Work?
Recommended: Between Two Fires by Joshua Yaffa
Episode 27: How Does the Russian Propaganda Machine Work?
Recommended: Between Two Fires by Joshua Yaffa
Episode 26: You Should Worry About A.I., but Not for the Reason You Think
Recommended: The Age of AI by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher
Episode 24: The War that Americans Forgot, Iraqis Can’t — and Iran Won
Recommended: The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky
Episode 22: How Hackers Stole Half of Americans’ Private Information - and Why
Recommended: Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan
Episode 21: Lessons From the Man Who Got bin Laden
Recommended: Manhunt by Peter Bergen
Episode 21: Lessons From the Man Who Got bin Laden
Recommended: Sea Stories by William H. McRaven
Episode 20: On the Trail and Inside the Mind of Osama bin Laden
Recommended: The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden by Peter Bergen
Episode 20: On the Trail and Inside the Mind of Osama bin Laden
Recommended: The Bin Laden Papers by Nelly Lahoud
Episode 20: On the Trail and Inside the Mind of Osama bin Laden
Recommended: Raising Supers by Gina Bennett
Episode 19: China, Critical Minerals, and the National Security Threat in Your iPhone
Recommended: Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara
Episode 19: China, Critical Minerals, and the National Security Threat in Your iPhone
Recommended: The Avoidable War by Kevin Rudd
Episode 19: China, Critical Minerals, and the National Security Threat in Your iPhone
Recommended: Volt Rush by Henry Sanderson
Episode 18: How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine?
Recommended: Hacking ISIS by Malcolm Nance
Episode 18: How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine?
Recommended: Defeating ISIS by Malcolm Nance
Episode 18: How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine?
Recommended: The Plot to Destroy Democracy by Malcolm Nance
Episode 18: How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine?
Recommended: The Plot to Hack America by Malcolm Nance
Episode 18: How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine?
Recommended: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Episode 17: What if There Were a 9/11 Commission for Covid?
Recommended: Lessons from the Covid War by COVID Crisis Group
Episode 17: What if There Were a 9/11 Commission for Covid?
Recommended: The Plague Year by Lawrence Wright
Episode 15: How Was Afghanistan Lost to the Taliban - Again?; Part 2
Recommended: The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
Episode 15: How Was Afghanistan Lost to the Taliban - Again?; Part 2
Recommended: The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock
Episode 15: How Was Afghanistan Lost to the Taliban - Again?; Part 2
Recommended: Directorate S by Steve Coll
Episode 14: What Would a Second Trump Presidency Mean for the World?
Recommended: The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
Episode 14: What Would a Second Trump Presidency Mean for the World?
Recommended: The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton
Episode 13: What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel?
Recommended: Red Widow by Alma Katsu
Episode 13: What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel?
Recommended: Blowback by Valerie Plame
Episode 13: What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel?
Recommended: American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Episode 13: What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel?
Recommended: Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré
Episode 12: Can the Fentanyl Epidemic Be Stopped?
Recommended: The Least of Us by Sam Quinones
Episode 12: Can the Fentanyl Epidemic Be Stopped?
Recommended: Dreamland by Sam Quinones
Episode 11: Michael Flynn's New War
Recommended: Taking America Back for God by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry
Episode 10: What on Earth Happened to Lieutenant General Michael Flynn?
Recommended: Trump and His Generals by Peter Bergen
Episode 10: What on Earth Happened to Lieutenant General Michael Flynn?
Recommended: The Field of Fight by Michael T. Flynn
Episode 9: Does Anything Scare War Correspondent Clarissa Ward?
Recommended: No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid
Episode 9: Does Anything Scare War Correspondent Clarissa Ward?
Recommended: We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled by Wendy Pearlman
Episode 9: Does Anything Scare War Correspondent Clarissa Ward?
Recommended: On All Fronts by Clarissa Ward
Episode 13: What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel?
Recommended: Red Widow by Alma Katsu
Episode 39: Being a Spy Can Be Pretty Stressful. The CIA is Trying to Help.
Recommended: The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence by Douglas London
Episode 52: Is America Headed into a New Cold War?
Recommended: The Perfect Weapon by David E. Sanger
Episode 5: What Should the US Do About Havana Syndrome?
Recommended: Havana Syndrome by Robert E. Bartholomew and Robert W. Baloh
Episode 5: What Should the US Do About Havana Syndrome?
Recommended: Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O’Sullivan
Episode 5: What Should the US Do About Havana Syndrome?
Recommended: Clarity in Crisis by Marc Polymeropoulos
Episode 5: What Should the US Do About Havana Syndrome?
Recommended: There Is Nothing for You Here by Fiona Hill
Episode 20: On the Trail and Inside the Mind of Osama bin Laden
Recommended: The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden by Peter Bergen
Episode 3: Can You Trust the Pentagon About UFOs?
Recommended: Escaping the Rabbit Hole by Mick West
Episode 3: Can You Trust the Pentagon About UFOs?
Recommended: Mirage Men by Mark Pilkington
Episode 2: What Keeps General David Petraeus Up at Night?
Recommended: Tell Me How This Ends by Laura Robinson
Episode 29: A General and a Military Historian Say Israel-Hamas War is Most Challenging Conflict Since 1945
Recommended: Conflict by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts
