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“In the Room with Peter Bergen” Podcast Investigates Domestic Terrorism

Don’t get turned off because Peter Bergen is from CNN. This guy is good. Very good. Look at his photo below. He could be the protagonist, or villain, in any John LeCarre or Robert Ludlum spy novel. I think Bergen even knows Jason Bourne.

Here’s the pitch for In the Room with Peter Bergen. “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 his 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.”

While there’s some hyperbole there, it’s also true that Bergen is a traditional journalist, searching for the truth and not worrying about ideological camps.

Each week, Bergen 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.

The conceit of the podcast is that Listeners go “in the room” with Peter Bergen 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.

Recent episodes I’ve enjoyed are “Is The Pentagon Really Hiding Crashed Alien Spaceships?” and “Yes, the United States has a Space Force. Stop Laughing.” Bergen is excellent at drilling down below the headlines.

On this week’s episode of his In the Room with Peter Bergen politics podcast, Bergen — CNN’s National Security Analyst, and world-renowned terrorism/extremism expert who landed the first TV interviews with both William Pierce, a key leader of the American neo-Nazi movement and The Turner Diaries author, and Osama bin Laden — dives deep into the ongoing issue of domestic terrorism in the United States.

During the episode, titled “Why America’s Biggest Terror Threat Is Homegrown,” Bergen is joined by his fellow domestic extremism expert Daryl Johnson, Northwestern University professor Kathleen Belew, and American political analyst Bruce Hoffman to investigate how the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol was the culmination of political trends in the United States that have festered for many years and how it may be a dress rehearsal for what comes next.

Check out In the Room with Peter Bergen. You can actually witness what a real journalist does. Or is he a spy?

Podcast
Journalism
Investigative Journalism
Terrorism
News
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