Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Project on US Relations with the Islamic World and the author of the new book Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World. Shadi sat down with Benjamin Wittes to discuss his book, which examines Islam’s unique relationship with democratic politics and the modern world. It's a thoughtful discussion of liberalism’s complex interaction with Islamic history and politics from the Enlightenment through to the present day.

Steve Budiansky is the author of Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union. He joined Ben at the Hoover Book Soiree for a live conversation about his new book, which studies the National Security Agency’s origins in World War II codebreaking and its development throughout the Cold War. Budiansky goes deep into how the organization’s history has shaped its mission and culture. It’s a fascinating discussion of the NSA’s past, present, and future, from the Cold War to the Age of Snowden.

Will McCants, a Senior Fellow at Brookings and the Director of the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World, comes on the podcast to discuss ISIS’s involvement in the recent spate of terrorist attacks across the globe. To what extent has ISIS really been involved in these attacks? How does their involvement reflect a change in strategy or a response to recent territorial losses? And how does group that presents itself as a caliphate continue to exist without controlling any land?

It’s the Lawfare Podcast Episode #179: Will McCants on “A Caliphate Without A Caliphate.”

FBI Director James Comey faced the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week for live long hours over the Clinton email investigation. We hacked it down to 90 minutes. Just the questions. Just the answers. None of the crap. 

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin has a new law review article on a "whole of government" and "all-tools" approach to national security cyber threats. He sat down with Benjamin Wittes this week to discuss the article and the progress the government has made in confronting bad cyber actors internationally.