Why people recommend it
Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen is an investigative history of America's most top-secret military base, drawing on declassified documents and extensive interviews with former workers and engineers. On The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan thanked the author for bringing a first edition copy of the uncensored history and later referenced the book to transition into broader conversations about UAP disclosure and government transparency. On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Lex Fridman praised Jacobsen's body of work on war, government secrecy, and national security, explicitly listing Area 51 among her notable books. During an episode of Timcast IRL, the host discussed a controversial anecdote from the book involving alleged government experiments from the mid-20th century, while Lenny Clarke also mentioned reading the investigative history on Rogan's podcast.
Who recommended it
- Joe Rogan Discussed
- Lex Fridman Discussed
- Lenny Clarke Discussed
Joe Rogan — 2 mentions
Discussed
“Um I wanted to talk to you about your Area 51 book because uh in the time since you released that book when we first talked, a lot has changed.”
Discussed
“thank you very much for this uh first edition copy of your area 51 an uncensored history of america's top secret military-based book”
Lex Fridman — 1 mention
Discussed
“The following is a conversation with Annie Jacobsen, an investigative journalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of several amazing books on war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security, including the books titled "Area 51", "Operation Paperclip", "The Pentagon's Brain Phenomena", "Surprise, Kill, Vanish", and her new book, "Nuclear War".”
Lenny Clarke — 1 mention
Discussed
“and I think I think I read the book area 51 two years ago”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 1
Discussed
“I always like to say this, too, when talking about aliens: Annie Jacobson wrote this crazy book where she interviewed a guy from Area 51, some high-up guy. He said back in the 50s or 60s, I think it was the 60s, our government was taking severely autistic children and mutating them to look like extraterrestrials to scare the Soviets.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (11: passing, ad reads, own books)
Own book
“So, when I was writing Area 51, I interviewed the CIA's first director of the Directorate of Science and Technology.”
Own book
“My first six books were written in the past tense. Like, you know, the Nazi scientists who came to America, Area 51, um The Pentagon's Brain.”
Own book
“Is when I was writing Area 51, I interviewed the first director of the CIA's Department of Science and Technology. His name was Dr. Bud Won.”
Own book
“And when I was interviewing Dr. wheelon for Area 51. My handler, when you interview these kind of former CIA guys you have, I call them a handler. They're called like a liaison. And uh this person said to me, "You may not talk to, you know, Dr. Wheel will answer all your questions about 51, about the spy planes,”
Own book
“The short version is I report in Area 51 that they were not UAPs, that they were something else, a terrible, you know, human experiment program. But, you know, that really is a longer conversation because it's so dark, so ugly, and deeply controversial. But I have no reason to believe that it that you know offplanet extraterrestrial beings or”
Own book
“you have to read the whole Area 51 book to kind of swallow that. Um but that is that was the position he maintained until he died.”
Own book
“My first book, Area 51, is about a a joint CIA Air Force base out there in the Nevada desert inside a secret test and training range where the United States government used to explode nuclear weapons.”
Own book
“When I wrote the book Area 51 the word Area 51 was still classified.”
Passing
“The following is a conversation with Annie Jacobsen, an investigative journalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of several amazing books on war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security, including the books titled 'Area 51', 'Operation Paperclip', 'The Pentagon's Brain Phenomena', 'Surprise, Kill, Vanish', and her new book, 'Nuclear War'.”
Own book
“I mean, my first learning about the CIA came from the work I did on the "Area 51" book about their aerial reconnaissance programs, which were set up again to prevent World War III, nuclear World War III.”
Passing
“she did the other famous book on Area 51”