Episode · Stuff You Should Know · 2025-09-27
Books mentioned on Selects: How Area 51 Works
The secret military base Area 51 is inextricably linked to every secret, shady project the US government is rumored to be involved in – from reverse-engineering alien technology to coordinating a one-world government. The truth is much more mundane.
Josh Clark discussed Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Area 51
Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen is an investigative history exploring the secrets, extreme boundary-pushing nuclear testing, and national security operations of America's most famous top-secret military base.
Discussed“Well, this is from a book by um an author named uh Annie Jacobson, I believe, and she this book came out in 2011, and she based this whole thing on an alleged Area 51 insider, who was her source, who said that he worked on a project um that had to do with this somehow, some way, but that”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Native Son
“many years later I meet my wife uh which is almost 8 years ago now and quickly found out that her favorite writer is uh Richard Wright since reading his novel Native Son has wanted to name her kid Richard to honor the impact he had on her life. She had visited his grave in Paris and has every book”