From Baghdad to Bestsellers: A Conversation with Alex Berenson

The Jack Carr Channel

Jack Carr

Society & Culture

4.9 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on DANGER CLOSE, Jack Carr is joined by Alex Berenson—former New York Times reporter, bestselling thriller author, and investigative journalist. Alex began his career as a journalist after graduating from Yale with degrees in history and economics, joining The Denver Post and later becoming one of the first reporters at TheStreet.com. He spent more than a decade at The New York Times, where he covered everything from Big Pharma to Hurricane Katrina—including two assignments reporting from Iraq. Those experiences inspired his debut spy novel, THE FAITHFUL SPY, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Alex went on to write twelve bestselling novels in the John Wells series—gritty, high-stakes thrillers centered on a rogue CIA operative who infiltrates al Qaeda and operates in the shadows of global terrorism – and a standalone thriller titled THE POWER COUPLE. Berenson eventually stepped away from the series, pivoting back to journalism and nonfiction with TELL YOUR CHILDREN and PANDEMIA. In this episode, Alex discusses the personal and professional journey that shaped his fiction, his thoughts on the thriller genre today, and what he’s working on next. FOLLOW ALEX Instagram: @alberen X: @AlexBerenson Facebook: @AlexBerensonAuthor Website: https://alexberenson.com/ FOLLOW JACK Instagram: @JackCarrUSA X: @JackCarrUSA Facebook: @JackCarr YouTube: @JackCarrUSA SPONSORS CRY HAVOC – A Tom Reece Thriller https://www.officialjackcarr.com/books/cry-havoc/ Bravo Company Manufacturing - https://bravocompanyusa.com/ and on Instagram @BravoCompanyUSA THE SIGs of Jack Carr: Visit https://www.sigsauer.com/ and on Instagram @sigsauerinc Jack Carr Gear: Explore the gear here https://jackcarr.co/gear

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the Danger Close podcast is brought to you by Cry Havoc
0:04.0	from New York Times number one best-selling author Jack Carr.
0:10.0	Cry Havoc, a Tom Rees thriller. Order now. If you saw a bunch of people outside the mosque descending on a guy in a blue sheep,
0:28.9	and almost staring at limb from limb, that was me.
0:34.2	I mean, and that was a very intense, obviously, moment in my life.
0:39.1	And it definitely led into the faithful spot.
0:41.8	Like, that book could not have been written without, you know, without being in Iraq.
0:47.0	And I think without sort of that day.
0:53.9	Music There he is.
1:02.9	Alex, how are you?
1:03.8	I'm good.
1:05.7	It's great to see you.
1:08.5	It's funny, you know, this is, I mean, if this will be good, it's like a blast from the past.
1:15.2	Exactly.
1:15.7	I was hoping for.
1:16.3	I know you're, especially over the last five years, but really, really six, you've been
1:21.8	asked about a lot of things and less and less about these amazing 12 novels that you wrote,
1:29.4	some of which while you were at the New York Times, and then half of them, I think, when you were attached still as a contributor. And I want to ask you
1:36.0	about all of this, but I'm so excited to talk to you about this because I've seen you so much over
1:39.5	the last five, six years, but no one never asked you about this anymore. No, and it is funny because,
1:45.2	you know, like I get about an email every three to four days from somebody who says,
1:52.1	are you going to write another Wells now? Like what, what happened? And people still find them.
	...

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