Book · 2015 · History
The Pentagon's Brain
An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
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You've written best-selling books including Area 51, Operation Paperclip, The Pentagon's Brain, Surprise Kill, Vanish, Nuclear War: A Scenario, and your newest release, Biological Warfare: A Scenario.
Shawn Ryan · The Shawn Ryan Show · Jul 2026 The best things said about it
That now there is more power in the hands of six private individuals. Full stop. Then the government organization that I myself have written about DARPA, which I used to say when I wrote the book The Pentagon's Brain, which published, you know, 10 years ago.
Your third book the one that you wrote immediately before this was a Pulitzer Prize finalist the pentagon's brain.
Where and when it comes up
Most mentions, by podcast
4 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen is a comprehensive nonfiction investigation into the origins, history, and profound technological impact of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, commonly known as DARPA. Several media personalities and the author herself discussed the book across multiple podcast appearances. Kurt Metzger mentioned the work on The Joe Rogan Experience while attempting to recall the author's name during a conversation about government projects and Roswell lore. Author Annie Jacobsen appeared on Breaking Points to discuss her book published a decade prior, using it to frame contemporary arguments about the immense power concentrated in the hands of private individuals compared to government defense organizations. Shawn Ryan listed the title on The Shawn Ryan Show as part of an overview of Jacobsen's bestselling catalog of investigative books on military and intelligence history. Furthermore, Pamela Paul brought up the book on The Book Review, reminding listeners that Jacobsen's previous work on the Pentagon had been recognized as a Pulitzer Prize finalist before the release of her subsequent projects.
Every mention
Annie Jacobsen That now there is more power in the hands of six private individuals. Full stop. Then the government organi… 1
“That now there is more power in the hands of six private individuals. Full stop. Then the government organization that I myself have written about DARPA, which I used to say when I wrote the book The Pentagon's Brain, which published, you know, 10 years ago.”
Kurt Metzger So, do you remember Diana Pulka or not? Uh, not not Dian Pilka. Um, the one that wrote the DARPA book. I'm… 1
“So, do you remember Diana Pulka or not? Uh, not not Dian Pilka. Um, the one that wrote the DARPA book. I'm blanking on Annie Jacob. Annie Jacobson.”
Pamela Paul your third book the one that you wrote immediately before this was a Pulitzer Prize finalist the pentagon's… 1
“your third book the one that you wrote immediately before this was a Pulitzer Prize finalist the pentagon's brain”
Shawn Ryan You've written best-selling books including Area 51, Operation Paperclip, The Pentagon's Brain, Surprise Ki… 1
“You've written best-selling books including Area 51, Operation Paperclip, The Pentagon's Brain, Surprise Kill, Vanish, Nuclear War: A Scenario, and your newest release, Biological Warfare: A Scenario.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (6: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And so, that really threw me because being someone who essentially wrote the book on DARPA called The Pentagon's Brain, I was a Pulitzer finalist for it.”
“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.”
“I wrote about in The Pentagon's Brain, if you want a little homework, you know, and you go into the back and in the index and look up brainwashing.”
“It's something I covered at length in The Pentagon's Brain, which is the book about DARPA.”
“And it was giant vacuum tubes, and he would do these tests, and I describe this in The Pentagon's Brain, because it's really interesting to think this was only in 1945.”
“which brings me to another book i wrote called the pentagon's brain”