In the Room with Peter Bergen

Don’t Miss These Upcoming Episodes of In The Room Aug 13, 2024

In the Room will be covering national security, broadly defined, as the U.S. heads into an exceptionally consequential election and contends with multiple destabilizing dynamics around the world. Here’s a sneak peek at some upcoming episodes, and more of the direct-from-the source reporting you’ve come to expect. Plus an important announcement about where to find the show.

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Does the Pentagon (or the Cops) Know What Side of the Bed You Sleep On? Jul 09, 2024

In the wake of 9/11, a massive surveillance system quietly made its way onto our smartphones. The data of millions of Americans is for sale to the highest bidder — and it’s not always clear who’s buying. Here’s how information about everything, from where you got a drink last night (and maybe even with whom) to where you sleep, might be available for purchase by the national security apparatus — or even your own local police department. And they don’t need a warrant.

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How Tiny Qatar Became a Global Player Jul 02, 2024

These days when a thorny international conflict is resolved, more and more often a major player in the negotiation has been the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The country has made itself uniquely indispensable on the global stage by trying to play nice with pretty much everyone, including Hamas and Iran. And also by keeping on very good terms with the United States. Peter visits Qatar to see this high-wire act of diplomacy up close.

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The One Way Out of an Israeli-Palestinian Forever War Jun 25, 2024

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman has been thinking about the Middle East since he was 15 years old and he’s been covering the region for 45 years. He remains adamant that the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians is through a two-state solution. He tells Peter what it will take to get there.

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The Rise, and Maybe Downfall, of Liberal Democracy Jun 18, 2024

Veteran journalist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria has made a career of putting hard questions to many of the world's most powerful people. Taking the temperature of global politics these days, he’s worried democracy is on a dangerous downward slide. He explains why — and where — leaders are taking their countries down dark paths, and what can be done to rescue democracy as we know it.

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The Right-Wing Plan for Trump to Root Out the “Deep State Department” Jun 11, 2024

You may have heard some ruckus about Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 887-page plan to overhaul the federal government, fire thousands of career bureaucrats and bring in loyalists if Trump wins a second term. But what would this look like in practice? You’ll hear from the author of one chapter of the plan who says curing what ails the US State Department should start with replacing many of its diplomats. And you’ll hear why a couple of veteran US diplomats believe doing so will threaten national security.

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How Women Became Central to the Central Intelligence Agency Jun 04, 2024

When the CIA got started in 1947 it recruited women for one type of job: typing and filing. Very few women were out in the field gathering intelligence and recruiting foreign agents. But once they finally got the chance, they proved instrumental to obtaining secret codes and tracking down terrorists - despite sometimes facing discrimination and harassment. Women also found ways to use gender stereotypes to their advantage in their spycraft. Peter speaks with a former agent who entered the CIA in 1968, another who got her start just before 9/11, and the author of The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA.

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India’s Modi Will (Likely) Get the Most Votes in Human History. Why? May 28, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is the most popular leader in the world — and he’s poised to win reelection to a third term. With his embrace of religious nationalism, is India’s secular democracy in peril? Or is Modi just giving the country’s 1.1 billion Hindus what they want?

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The Man Who Led NATO Is Trying to Frighten You May 21, 2024

How could the US lose a war with China? What happens if American political divisions keep getting more extreme? And what in the world will A.I, mean for national security? These are the questions that keep the former commander of NATO, retired Admiral James Stavridis and retired Marine Captain Elliot Ackerman up at night. But unlike a lot of people in their shoes, they haven’t been harrying policymakers with op-eds or whitepapers. Instead they teamed up to write a set of novels showing how badly things could go—and what the US can do to avoid a nightmarish future.

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The View From a Newsroom in the Middle East May 14, 2024

Mina Al-Oraibi is the editor of The National, an English-language newspaper headquartered in Abu Dhabi. She shares how the post-October 7th news landscape looks inside the Middle East: how Hamas is viewed in the region, how much of a threat Iran poses, and why she calls the conflict in Gaza “Joe Biden’s war.”

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1-on-1 with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (9/26/23 Rebroadcast) May 07, 2024

RFK, Jr.’s views on vaccines and his penchant for questioning official narratives have kept him on the fringes of American politics for years. But now, as a third-party presidential candidate he is polling around 10% — enough to affect the outcome of an election that is expected to be decided on a razor-thin margin. In this lengthy sit-down, first published in September, 2023, Peter probes Kennedy’s unrelenting skepticism about a wide range of issues, from the war in Ukraine to the fentanyl epidemic — and whether he buys the official narratives about 9/11 and the moon landing.

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Is America Headed into a New Cold War? Apr 30, 2024

David Sanger thinks so. After four decades at The New York Times, he may be America’s most experienced national security reporter, and he thinks superpower conflict is back. He describes how the U.S. overestimated the democratizing power of globalization, underestimated the ambitions of Russia and China, and what, if anything, can be done to counter the “grand delusion” that kept so many smart observers from seeing this new era coming.

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What Happened When the Migrant Crisis Came to Chicago? Apr 23, 2024

Busloads of migrants have been arriving in northern cities for the past two years, testing the patience of some residents and bringing out empathy in others. We go to Chicago to find out what the real, local effects of this surge are — not just what the politicians with their megaphones say they are. And we explore some solutions to a problem that has become the number one issue on voters' minds in this crucial election year.

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Where Did the Migrant Crisis Come From? Apr 16, 2024

American voters say immigration is the number one issue on their minds in this crucial presidential election year. How did we get here? In part one of this series we look at Venezuela, a country that has seen a massive exodus of its population over the past decade, many of whom end up in cities and states across the U.S.

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What UFO Conspiracies Have to Do with Jan. 6th Apr 09, 2024

The Pentagon UFO office just released its investigation of UFO sightings going back to the 1940s. We talk with maybe the most serious historian to study UFOs, Garrett Graff, to learn what UFO questions the Pentagon investigation has laid to rest, what new questions have been raised, why it’s sometimes in the interest of national security to keep information secret, and the connection Graff sees between UFO conspiracy theories and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Counterterrorism Chief Says Hamas Attack and Gaza War Have Reshaped Terror Threat Apr 02, 2024

When Christine Abizaid — the director of the National Counterterrorism Center — first began working for the United States government in 2002, the biggest terror threat facing the U.S. was from Al-Qaeda. Now, homegrown far-right terrorists pose a key threat, the Hamas attacks on October 7th and the ongoing war in Gaza are fueling new risks, and some American politicians claim that lots of terrorists are entering the U.S. through the southern border. In a rare interview, Abizaid describes the real terror threats facing the United States today.

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Can the U.S. Just Pull Out of the Middle East? Mar 26, 2024

The answer is probably not. And that has to do with oil, the internet, and one of America’s most persistent foes, Iran.

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How Does the US Government Get Detained Americans Home? Mar 19, 2024

Almost immediately after Hamas attacked Israel, the US began a well-coordinated, high-level, high-wire effort to free the Americans taken hostage. It wasn’t always like this. Until a few years ago, the US had no effective approach to securing the release of its citizens held overseas. After multiple Americans died in captivity while the government flailed, their loved ones set out on a campaign to force change. This episode's guests are two of the top-ranking administration officials currently tasked with bringing Americans home and two women who, through their grief, got the US to do better.

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A Friendly Warning for America Mar 12, 2024

With November’s election approaching, it feels like the United States is at a crossroads — not just at home, but abroad too. Will the country continue to lead the global order, as it’s done so successfully since the end of WWII? Or will it retreat into isolationism? A distinguished foreign friend of America’s — the British soldier, diplomat, politician, and adventurer Rory Stewart — shares his views on what’s at stake, both for the world and for the U.S. itself.

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You Should Worry About A.I., But Not For The Reason You Think Mar 05, 2024

New tools like Chat GPT have sparked futuristic fears about intelligent machines wiping people out. But there’s a more immediate A.I. threat coming, in a year when half the world’s population is headed to the polls.

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Did Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bomb Make the World Safer? Feb 27, 2024

The wild success of Oppenheimer, with 13 Oscar nominations and nearly $1 billion in ticket sales, has revived a debate about the most destructive weapon ever created — and renewed concerns about how close the world might be to nuclear war. The leader of the project to build the bomb during WWII, Robert Oppenheimer, believed — at first — that it could help prevent wars between the superpowers. There hasn’t been one since. So was he right?

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China is Stalking its Dissidents — Even on U.S. Soil Feb 20, 2024

The United States is home to countless dissidents from around the world who have fled repression in places like Iran, India, Russia and, increasingly, China. But US soil — even U.S. citizenship — isn’t a guarantee they’ll be left alone. Why are foreign governments daring to harass, hurt, or even kill their foes in the U.S. — and what's being done to stop them?

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Why America’s Biggest Terror Threat Is Homegrown Feb 13, 2024

The January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol was the culmination of political trends in the United States that have festered for decades. And it may be a dress rehearsal for what comes next.

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Hunting the Bidens Feb 06, 2024

How did Hunter Biden’s laptop, a digital chronicle of misadventures by President Joe Biden’s troubled son, become a political flashpoint and help spark potential impeachment proceedings? What personal and business secrets buried in the old computer are being weaponized against the Biden family during the 2024 campaign? Are any of them cause for concern about our government’s integrity or our national security? And how does the Hunter Biden saga stack up against corruption allegations against other White House families, including the Trumps?

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Being a Spy Can Be Pretty Stressful. The CIA is Trying to Help. Jan 30, 2024

The job comes with all sorts of risks and responsibilities plus exposure to a lot of violence and trauma — whether that’s out in a war zone or in the office, where analysts may work on cases involving horrific human rights abuses. All of that can take its toll. CIA Director William Burns has acknowledged the agency needs to do more to “take care” of its officers. You’ll hear how stressful and crushing intelligence can be from former intelligence officers who did it and from the CIA’s top psychologist and the CIA’s new wellbeing chief, about what can be done about it.

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Is The Pentagon Really Hiding Crashed Alien Spaceships? Jan 23, 2024

Sean Kirkpatrick is one of the best guys on earth to answer that question. He set up the Pentagon’s new office tasked with investigating UFO sightings by the US military. But he rarely gives interviews. Until now. You’ll hear what his investigators found out about sightings going back to Roswell, and what he thinks is the biggest UFO conspiracy of all.

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As the Arctic Ice Melts, Could a New Kind of Cold War Be Coming? Jan 16, 2024

Until recently, the eight nations whose borders creep into the icy Arctic haven’t had much of a reason to fight over this forbidding landscape. But as climate change melts the ice and opens up access to all kinds of precious resources, the United States is preparing for the possibility of conflict. So how will the U.S. defend its interests in a place where most of us have never set foot?

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Yes, the United States has a Space Force. Stop Laughing. Jan 09, 2024

Meet the newest branch of the American military and learn how life as you know it could stop if it fails to do its job.

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The Americans Who Would Be on the Frontline of a War in the Pacific Dec 19, 2023

In the summer of 2022, the United States military ran a major training exercise to prepare to respond if its ally Taiwan gets invaded by China. Central to the strategy: the tiny American island of Guam, the westernmost part of the United States, where the U.S. has more than doubled defense spending in recent years. But not everyone on Guam is convinced that all this additional military buildup, meant to deter China, will ultimately make them safer. As one legislator put it, it’s like the island has “a bullseye” on it. So how did this tropical island become central to U.S. strategy in the Pacific?

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Who Controls America’s Past? Dec 12, 2023

Revisiting history is never simple. Especially the history of the United States, which is often painful, and, invariably political. At dinner tables, school board meetings, and political protests, Americans disagree not only about how our past should be interpreted, but what actually happened in the first place.

From the myth about George Washington’s teeth to the true cause of the Civil War, three historians bring us into the impassioned debates about America’s origins and ask, does the fight over America’s past threaten our security today?

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How to Beat the Russian Army Dec 05, 2023

Hollywood may have portrayed him as a nerd, but Mike Vickers was the superstar architect of America’s covert war in the 1980s that drove the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. And this alum of the Green Berets and the CIA has some ideas about how to do the same thing in Ukraine today.

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Could Prosecuting the Former President be Bad for American Democracy? Nov 28, 2023

Some countries have fallen into a toxic cycle of tit-for-tat prosecutions, where every ex-president has to expect they’ll eventually end up behind bars. Could the U.S. be next? Two constitutional experts warn that some of the criminal cases against Donald Trump could cause cycles of retribution that poison our politics. And why our saving grace just might be — get this — government bureaucracy.

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Is Israel Prepared for this Ground War? Nov 14, 2023

Experts on urban and underground warfare explain why an aerial campaign alone can’t defeat Hamas, what the shortcomings are of the Israeli Defense Force, and how long, complicated, and tragic this war will be.

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Turning Bad News into a Great Read Nov 07, 2023

How do two of America's leading nonfiction writers turn some of the biggest issues affecting us into juicy narratives that change hearts and minds — and maybe even policies? Patrick Radden Keefe on how he rendered the opioid crisis as a dramatic tale of money, power, and human suffering in his book Empire of Pain, and Elizabeth Kolbert on how she illuminates what we are losing as global temperatures rise, as in her most recent book, Under a White Sky.

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A General and a Military Historian Say Israel-Hamas War is Most Challenging Conflict Since 1945 Oct 31, 2023

General David Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts, co-authors of the new book “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine,” discuss how they believe this war will evolve, how it compares to other conflicts of the last seven and a half decades, and what we can learn from the mistakes made during those wars.

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Can the Next Mass Shooting Be Prevented? Oct 27, 2023

Another mass shooting is making headlines in the United States. With it comes the familiar feeling of powerlessness. But a rare peek inside the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit reveals that at least some shootings are being prevented, using techniques to identify people headed down the ‘pathway to violence.’ In the absence of gun reform, agents share what ordinary people can do to help. And a mother recounts the harrowing story of how she discovered her son’s plans to shoot up a school — and what happened next.

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How Does the Russian Propaganda Machine Work? Oct 24, 2023

When Ukrainian soldiers liberated the town of Bucha, Ukraine in March, 2022, news reports showed scenes of bodies lying in the streets. Human Rights Watch documented cases of summary executions. But on Russian state television, the news was presented as “fake,” a staged event. Objective reporting about the war in Ukraine is now against the law in Russia and journalists can’t even use the word “war” in their stories. But it wasn’t always like this. Two veteran Russian journalists, who’ve experienced the changes firsthand, explain what has happened.

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You Should Worry About A.I., but Not for the Reason You Think Oct 17, 2023

New tools like Chat GPT have sparked futuristic fears about intelligent machines wiping people out or, at the very least, taking all our jobs. But there’s a more immediate A.I. threat coming for us, as soon as the next election.

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The Future of War Oct 10, 2023

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” Mike Tyson famously once said. Vladimir Putin thought he could defeat Ukraine in three days. How did he get it so wrong? And what can we learn from his mistake? Throughout history, according to one of the world’s leading experts, wars have almost never played out as predicted. But if that’s the case, how are we supposed to prepare for future wars — like a potential one with China?

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The War that Americans Forgot, Iraqis Can’t — and Iran Won Oct 03, 2023

Twenty years ago, a massive statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down in Baghdad, a day that for many Iraqis signaled hope for the future of the country. But America’s invasion did not come with a coherent plan for what should come next, and those hopes were dashed. What is the legacy of U.S. intervention in the country today? Peter travels to Iraq to find out.

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1-on-1 with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Sep 26, 2023

Please note: The views shared in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of Audible or "In the Room with Peter Bergen."

RFK, Jr.’s views on vaccines and penchant for questioning official narratives have kept him on the fringes of American politics for years. His blistering critiques of the Biden Administration on everything from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine have earned him praise from Republicans. Now, he’s running to beat President Biden in the Democratic primaries. In this lengthy sit-down, Peter probes Kennedy’s unrelenting skepticism about a wide range of issues.

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How Hackers Stole Half of Americans’ Private Information - and Why Sep 19, 2023

The wild story of the 'worst corporate data breach ever,' the man who got blamed for it, and the sleuths who figured out who actually did it.

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Lessons From the Man Who Got bin Laden Sep 12, 2023

Meet Admiral William McRaven, the Navy SEAL who literally wrote THE book on special operations, and who says the best way to plan the raid for the world’s most wanted man - or do pretty much anything else - is to start by making your bed.

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On the Trail and Inside the Mind of Osama bin Laden Sep 05, 2023

It's impossible to understand the events of 9/11 without understanding Osama bin Laden. Who was he? What was he hoping to achieve with the attack? How did the US track him down? And what can we learn from that story now? Three women - a CIA analyst, an FBI investigator, and a scholar who read 6,000 pages of documents recovered from bin Laden’s compound after he was killed - recount how they came to know and understand Osama bin Laden.

Hear Peter Bergen on a recent episode of Global Dispatches.

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China, Critical Minerals, and the National Security Threat in Your iPhone Aug 29, 2023

We can’t do much without batteries and microchips; they power everything from smartphones to electric cars to defense systems. But the U.S. ceded control of the raw materials required to make them - to its chief rival, China. Is it possible to catch up, especially given America’s more stringent labor and environmental standards?

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How Did a 60-Year Old American Veteran Wind Up Fighting in Ukraine? Aug 22, 2023

Malcolm Nance was retired from the U.S. Navy, but the Russian invasion of its neighbor compelled him to dig out his old weapons and equipment, and join up with the International Legion fighting in Ukraine. He explains how the International Legion functions, what it’s like to take a direct hit from a Russian shell, and why he doesn’t believe he and his fellow legionnaires have run afoul of an 18th century law against Americans fighting in other people’s wars.

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What if There Were a 9/11 Commission for Covid? Aug 15, 2023

Actually, there basically is - led by the same guy. They have found that President Trump didn’t cause the botched response (although they label him a “comorbidity”). Neither did partisan politics (although there are some isolated exceptions). And if you think that’s surprising, wait till you hear how prepared we are (not) for the next pandemic.

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How Was Afghanistan Lost to the Taliban - Again? Ep. 2 Aug 08, 2023

In the final chaotic days of the US presence in Afghanistan, a young survivor of a Taliban attack was trying to get to the airport, the top American diplomat was doing his best to make the departure as orderly as humanly possible, and the Afghan national security advisor was fleeing with the president on a helicopter. You will hear from all of them and more in this exploration of how the US pullout has reverberated - through individual lives and throughout geopolitics.

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How Was Afghanistan Lost to the Taliban - Again? Ep. 1 Aug 01, 2023

After a 20-year war that cost the United States two trillion dollars and led to nearly 200,000 deaths, the Taliban are back in power - and offering safe haven to Al Qaeda once again. General David H. Petraeus, Trump advisor Lisa Curtis, Afghan ambassador to the US Roya Rahmani and others, bring us "in the room" to explain how this debacle came to pass, and warn us of the consequences.

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What Would a Second Trump Presidency Mean for the World? Jul 25, 2023

When he first ran for president, Donald Trump didn’t have any record on foreign policy. Now he does, and that offers more than a hint of how he might lead if he were to win the White House again in 2024. Peter dissects the Trump record with one of the ex-president’s best-known former foreign policy advisors - and critics - John Bolton, who doesn’t mince words in assessing Trump’s handling of Russia and China, Ukraine and Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea. Bolton takes us around the world and on the roller coaster ride that was the West Wing of the Trump White House.

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What Makes a Great Authentic Spy Novel? Jul 18, 2023

Double agents, dead drops, and deadly missions enliven some of the most popular and well-known spy novels. But do you need to have been an ACTUAL spy in an intelligence agency like the CIA to write like one? And how do real spies rate the fictional ones?

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Can the Fentanyl Epidemic Be Stopped? Jul 11, 2023

In the past five years, overdose death rates have skyrocketed in the United States, with fentanyl - a synthetic, cheaply produced opioid - now a leading cause of death for 18-45 year-olds. How do the chemicals used to make fentanyl get from China to Mexico to the United States? Why would drug dealers sell a substance that’s killing off so many of their customers? What is the Biden administration doing to stop these deaths? And what can ordinary Americans do to keep their communities safe?

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Michael Flynn’s New War Jul 04, 2023

How “America’s General” joined a movement that’s fired up about COVID, conspiracies, and Christ - and just might be headed to a town near you.

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What on Earth Happened to Lieutenant General Michael Flynn? Jun 27, 2023

A storied Army general, a key intelligence figure in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a registered Democrat—and now, a full-blown right-wing conspiracy theorist. How did this all-American war hero disappear down the Q-Anon rabbit hole? We’ll retrace the unraveling of Michael Flynn’s legendary career and explain how a once-trusted general ended up lying to the FBI, denying the 2020 election results, and instigating one of the most bonkers meetings ever held at the White House. He is also now positioning himself as a leader of the Christian nationalist right as we head into the 2024 presidential elections.

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Does Anything Scare War Correspondent Clarissa Ward? Jun 20, 2023

CNN’s chief international correspondent has seen the worst of humanity. But she’s also experienced amazing acts of kindness under some of the most difficult circumstances. And she’s learned a lot about what drives countries into war in the first place.

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Decoding Trump's Classified-Documents Indictment Jun 16, 2023

Why is it so important to keep the country’s secrets secret? And what does the alphabet soup of national security-related acronyms in the indictment against the former president actually mean? Three intelligence professionals with more than 80 years of combined experience explain what’s involved in collecting and protecting the people, methods and information in classified documents—and the potential consequences of their exposure.

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Who Is Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—and What Does He Want? Jun 13, 2023

Known as MBS, the 37-year-old de facto Saudi ruler has ambitious plans to modernize society. But he has also been accused of brutal human rights violations, including ordering the operation that led to the medieval-style death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Should America still be his friend? And with the US now much less dependent on Saudi oil, does it really need to?

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Stop Keeping Your Password on a Sticky Underneath Your Keyboard Jun 06, 2023

Cyber criminals and states like China and Russia are targeting the computer networks of everything from America’s hospitals to the water coming out of the kitchen tap. Jen Easterly, the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), breaks down the biggest cyber threats and what the government, companies, and the rest of us need to do about them.

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What Should the U.S. Do About Havana Syndrome? May 30, 2023

It started in 2016 when a small group of American diplomats and spies in Havana, Cuba said they heard a piercing sound and became debilitatingly ill. Seven years later, more than a thousand Americans all over the globe now say they’ve also gotten sick. Despite several scientific studies and numerous government investigations, the debate around what’s making people sick still hasn’t been fully resolved. Could the job these foreign-service and intelligence officers do—trying to keep America safe—in outposts like Cuba and Russia and China be so stressful that it causes serious neurological symptoms? And is Havana Syndrome still a national security threat—since it’s taking out some of the best and brightest Americans in the foreign service and intelligence?

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The CIA's Secret Museum May 23, 2023

Tucked away deep inside the intelligence agency’s headquarters in Langley, VA is a museum most of us will never see. It chronicles the organization’s history—including some of its most important missions and greatest failures. The public isn’t allowed in, but in this episode you get a peek inside.

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Can You Trust the Pentagon About UFOs? May 16, 2023

A media frenzy erupted after US war planes shot down UFOs in American airspace and the government reported hundreds more mysterious sightings it can’t explain. Pilots and former Pentagon officials say it’s time the US government study the issue seriously and tell the public what it knows. But the Pentagon’s bizarre history of stifling—and stoking—UFO panic makes it hard to know how out-there the truth will turn out to be.

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What Keeps General David Petraeus Up at Night? May 16, 2023

The celebrated general takes you on a world tour of hotspots, sizes up the threats posed by China and Russia, assesses the risk of a military coup in the US, discusses a future where AI-powered machines are doing most of the war-fighting, and explains why he thinks the most apt metaphor for the challenges facing America in the current global landscape is…a very tricky circus act.

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Will Vladimir Putin Get Away with War Crimes? May 16, 2023

When a newly-hired intern at the International Criminal Court was arrested and revealed to be a Russian spy, it begged the question: what was he up to?

Now that Vladimir Putin has a warrant from this court for his arrest, it’s not hard to imagine that the spy was planning to tell Moscow about the evidence that is accumulating in the case against Russia for its atrocities in Ukraine. Turns out the evidence is abundant—and this may be the conflict that finally makes it hard to get away with war crimes.

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Trailer May 01, 2023

Overwhelmed by conflicting narratives and sensationalism in the news? Wondering where you can get an objective analysis and direct-from-the-source reporting?

Look no further than In the Room with Peter Bergen. In a weekly nonpartisan news podcast, longtime national security journalist and bestselling author Peter Bergen goes beyond the headlines, to explore the world’s most important and captivating stories.

Each week, listeners are invited to join Peter as he covers a news topic like war, artificial intelligence, UFOs, and more, including a rare peek inside the FBI's unit that is trying to prevent mass shootings. Balancing various perspectives on the subject, he combines narrative-rich storytelling and interviews with top experts and leaders like former Acting US Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, US Army General David Petraeus, Jen Easterly who leads US efforts to prevent cyberattacks, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, first-ever female Afghan ambassador to the US Roya Rahmani, and CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward.

Listeners go “in the room” with Peter as he presses his contacts for accurate, on-the-ground information to help his listeners contextualize and understand the impact of these stories on their lives through a quality, trustworthy, and engaging lens.

Get the real story from the people who are there as it unfolds with In the Room with Peter Bergen.

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