Person
Every book Shawn Ryan recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Shawn Ryan has recommended or discussed 59 books on podcasts, as of November 5, 2026.
- Shawn Ryan has talked about books on 2 podcasts, as of November 5, 2026.
- Those books came up in 53 episodes, as of November 5, 2026.
- The 3 books Shawn Ryan has mentioned in the most episodes, as of November 5, 2026: Jesus Calling, The Case for Christ and The Four Agreements.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Shawn Ryan aired on November 5, 2026.
Updated
Shawn Ryan’s most recommended books
- Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
- The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
- Imagine Heaven by John Burke
- Operation Pineapple Express by Scott Mann
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Back to the Basics by Marvin Hall
- Benghazi : Know Thy Enemy by Sarah Adams
- Fossil Future by Alex Epstein
- The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill
Shawn Ryan is an American podcaster and a former U.S. Navy SEAL who later worked as a Blackwater contractor for the CIA's Global Response Staff. He hosts The Shawn Ryan Show and founded Vigilance Elite, a tactical training company. He is not the television writer of the same name who created The Shield.
On his show he shares book recommendations with his audience and his guests. He has repeatedly brought up Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, a daily devotional he says he reads every morning and gives away to guests who are exploring faith. For practical survival skills he recommended Marvin Hall's Back to the Basics series, which runs from building a cabin to filtering water and making soap. He has called Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged his favorite book, while granting that no book is perfect. He pointed to Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm when talking about how communities prepare for threats, and to John Burke's Imagine Heaven in a conversation about near-death experiences. This page collects every book he recommended or discussed, each with his own words and a link to the episode.
Books Shawn Ryan recommended or discussed
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Jesus Calling
Discussed“Have you heard of the Jesus Calling book? Honey, I give them out too.”
Where to get it
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The Case for Christ
Discussed“Have you ever heard of Lee Strobble? Of course. Yeah. Case for Christ. Yeah, man. I read that back in high school, man.”
Where to get it
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The Four Agreements
Discussed“have you ever read the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz”
Where to get it
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Imagine Heaven
Discussed“The Case for Christ. I mean, him John Burke wrote Imagine Heaven. I mean, I love these guys, you know, and and uh and I think I”
Where to get it
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Operation Pineapple Express
Discussed“you're the president and founder of rooftop leadership a New York Times best-selling author of operation Pineapple Express”
Where to get it
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Atlas Shrugged
Recommended“Have you read Atlas Shrugged? No. It's my favorite book. It's no book's a perfect answer and there's a lot about the book I don't like.”
Where to get it
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Back to the Basics
Recommended“It's called Back to the Basics. And um they have like a whole series hardback and it teaches you everything from cabin to how to how to filter water, how to wash your clothes, how to make soap.”
Where to get it
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Benghazi : Know Thy Enemy
Recommended“and don't forget Benghazi know thy enemy the best book on terrorism to ever be written”
Where to get it
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Fossil Future
Recommended“guys if you want to pick up alex's new book which is already an amazon bestseller and it hasn't even been released yet releases on the 24th of this month links below”
Where to get it
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The Gathering Storm
Recommended“we spoke about the Gathering storm look this is the best of what we have right now and and it is it's coming from a Former Intelligence targeter”
Where to get it
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The Truth About Watergate
Recommended“and and uh the link to your new book The Truth About Watergate will be in the description below”
Where to get it
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While Time Remains
Discussed“you've offered two books in order to live in the latest one while time remains”
Where to get it
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13 Hours
Discussed“co-author of the best-selling book 13 hours, the inside account of what really happened in Benghazi, a des a dedicated husband and father of twin sons, and most importantly, out of everything, you're a Christian.”
Where to get it
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Area 51
Discussed“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.”
Where to get it
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Biological War
Discussed“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.”
Where to get it
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Coming Home to Myself
Discussed“In 2005, your memoir came out, Coming Home to Myself. Public Triumph vs. Private Struggles with Money, Food, Self-Worth and Relationships.”
Where to get it
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Day of the Ranger
Discussed“uh why do you say that why do you say it could have been a better story well in the book day of the Ranger right it's more of a perspective on the unit guys that were out there there's more feedback from them right”
Where to get it
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Delta Force
Discussed“According to Charlie Beckwood's book, Delta Force, you had 20 hours to do the 40 mileer. Had to do two hours, 2 miles an hour in very hilly terrain. Very hilly train. Some of it on roads, some of them on trails, some of them cross country. And you had to do it in 20 hours.”
Where to get it
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Extraterrestrial
Discussed“you have public popular science books including extraterrestrial the first sign of intelligent life beyond Earth in 2021 in interstellar the search of extraterrestrial life and our future and the stars in 2023 your book extraterrestrial became an international bestseller and was translated to 26 languages”
Where to get it
- Forever Strong by Gabrielle Lyon
- Game Changers by Scott Mann
- Geneva Bible by K. Jadoon
- Imagine the God of Heaven by John Burke
- In the Name of My Father by Ahmad Massoud
- Interstellar by Avi Loeb
- Is God Real? by Lee Strobel
- Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
- Means of Control by Byron Tau
- Meditations by Aurelius Marcus
- No Easy Day by Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
- No Easy Way by Mick Fowler
- Nobody Is Coming to Save You by Scott Mann
- Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor
- Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
- One Man In by Christian Craighead
- Operation paperclip by Annie Jacobsen
- Red-Handed by Peter Schweizer
- San Fransicko by Michael Shellenberger
- Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi
- Settle for More by Megyn Kelly
- Sex Talks by Vanessa Marin
- Superpower in Peril by David McCormick
- Surprise, Kill, Vanish by Annie Jacobsen
- The Action Bible by Doug Mauss
- The Fall of Republics by Thomas F. Madden
- The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant
- The Man in the Arena by Eddie Gallagher
- The Nature and Psychology of Diabolic Influence by Chad Ripperger
- The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen
Shawn Ryan’s latest episodes with books
Shawn Ryan’s book recommendations by year
All 59 books Shawn Ryan recommended or discussed across 51 episodes, filed by the year each episode came out. Each year goes episode by episode, with the minute every book came up.