Annie Jacobsen

I believe I also believe that.

If I can be as factual and dramatic as possible, then I will have the most readers, which is the point.

I am actually not trying to save the world as a journalist.

I'm trying to get you to read what I write because I found it super interesting.

reporting it and learning about it and also the whole process for me that i think is the most interesting is going to some of these people who are truly some of the smartest scientists in the world and getting them to explain it in the most basic like i say you have to tell it to me like i'm a kid because i don't have a science mind and that part is so that excitement part of it

balances out with the terror of it because i i do also understand why most people don't want to know about this it's too dreadful but they also don't want to know because they end up feeling sort of looked down upon i think if they ask basic questions like wait a minute how does a missile work or like you said what's what can't the hypersonics shouldn't we invest in hypers well

Who really wants to be lectured?

And so what I try to do is condense the lectures that I receive about how it all works into this dramatic form, which is how I landed on this format for this book, which I think is really effective, which is giving it to you like a scenario, like this is what would happen.

And then going back to all my sources, I mean, like, okay, here's an example.

We haven't even talked about submarines.

But the submarines are completely, you cannot find them in the sea.

They are stealth beyond stealth.

I interviewed the former commander of the nuclear sub forces, a guy called Admiral Conner.

Never given an interview like this before.

And I said, like, how hard is it to find a nuclear armed sub?

And he said, Annie, it's easier to find a grapefruit sized object in space than a nuclear sub under the sea.

And these things are, by the way, I have a map in the back of the book that shows you how close our adversaries, enemies, call them what you will, China and Russia, how close they come to the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States regularly, which means it reduces that launch time I told you about of 26 minutes, 40 seconds.

That reduces it down to sort of 10 minutes or less.

I thought, wow.

I mean, when I began reporting this book a couple years ago, never did I think that I would see that while I was talking about my book with people like you after publication.