Why am I passionate about this?

I think technology is the closest thing to magic we have in our world, and I’ve always been fascinated by its impact on our lives. During the Obama Administration, I worked as the senior civilian aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the National Security Council, and as a founder of the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley Office, Defense Innovation Unit. This gave me a front-row seat to how quickly technology changes war and geopolitics. I’m passionate about sharing what I’ve seen and think will likely happen shortly and helping people everywhere grapple with the changes unfolding in places like Ukraine and the Middle East.


I wrote

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

By Christopher Kirchhoff, Raj M. Shah,

Book cover of Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

What is my book about?

With drones, AI, and autonomous weapons, we stand at the precipice of a revolution in military affairs that the U.S.…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

Christopher Kirchhoff Why did I love this book?

This book is a real-life thriller. Andy Greenberg chronicles the battle between crypto-enthusiasts determined to mint untraceable currency that would evade controls by all governments and the mathematicians, cryptologists, and law enforcement agents who hunted down those who used cryptocurrencies to break the law.

The story is about technological cops vs robbers. Still, in another way, it tells a tale about what it will take for states to maintain sovereign control when powerful digital tools and encryption become widely distributed. The same wave of powerful technology enabling a skilled set of crypto hackers to nearly outrun the entire FBI is also why scrappy Ukrainian technologists are building drones in garages that can take out Russian tanks. We are in a brave new world, which you can see on these pages.

By Andy Greenberg,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Tracers in the Dark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis)

Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers,…


Book cover of The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

Christopher Kirchhoff Why did I love this book?

War is a fundamentally human enterprise. This vivid retelling of how pioneering figures like Haywood Hansell and Curtis LeMay struggled to make the best and most humane use of the powerful new military technology of high-altitude aerial bombardment is also a parable for our age. 

In the book, which began as a podcast and whose audiobook is especially engaging, Malcolm Gladwell explores themes still with us as we wrestle with how to ethically adopt AI-driven autonomous weapons and the uses to which they should be put.

By Malcolm Gladwell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Bomber Mafia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'A parable written for the age of technological disruption . . . brilliantly told' Sunday Times

The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century

'The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry. When some shiny new idea drops from the heavens, it does not land softly in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters.'

In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put…


Book cover of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Christopher Kirchhoff Why did I love this book?

This is a book about how the U.S. military missed every major technology revolution in the 2010s: the shift to modern software development methods, cloud computing, the revolution in commercial space, and, most critically, artificial intelligence.

A former advisor to the legendary Senator John McCain, Brose’s diagnosis of how the U.S. military was so “ambushed by the future” in his memorable phrase is as sharp as his prescriptions for what to do about it. Brose also has a thorough overview of the rise of China and why the People’s Liberation Army is on its way to achieving a near-parity with U.S. forces in the Pacific.

By Christian Brose,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Kill Chain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From a former senior advisor to Senator John McCain comes an urgent wake-up call about how new technologies are threatening America's military might.

For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war.

As Christian Brose reveals in this…


Book cover of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology

Christopher Kirchhoff Why did I love this book?

Wars used to be fought with steel. Today, they are fighting with Silicon. Chris Miller writes powerfully about this shift, the inventors, inventions, and supply chains that made this possible, and how precarious global chip supplies are today, with tensions between China and the U.S. rising. 

Miller takes us to Taiwan, where most of the advanced chips in the world are manufactured, as well as inside debates in Washington about what to do about China’s ability to hold hostage TSMC chip foundries that make the material underpinnings to the modern world.  A must-read!

By Chris Miller,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Chip War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

***Winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award***

'Pulse quickening. A nonfiction thriller - equal parts The China Syndrome and Mission Impossible' New York Times

An epic account of the decades-long battle to control the world's most critical resource-microchip technology

Power in the modern world - military, economic, geopolitical - is built on a foundation of computer chips. America has maintained its lead as a superpower because it has dominated advances in computer chips and all the technology that chips have enabled. (Virtually everything runs on chips: cars, phones, the stock market, even the electric grid.) Now…


Book cover of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Christopher Kirchhoff Why did I love this book?

This book recounts the fascinating history of the Troubles in North Ireland and the period of violence that ensued between Irish separatists seeking freedom from England and the British Army, who essentially occupied entire parts of Ireland and put its citizens under martial law. 

Part the biography of key figures in the Irish Republican Army, part anatomy of how violence happens in inter-communal disputes, the book reminds us that the same dynamics that existed during the Iraq War in Anbar province between occupier and occupied also existed in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.

By Patrick Radden Keefe,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Say Nothing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •From the author of Empire of Pain—a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions

"Masked intruders dragged Jean McConville, a 38-year-old widow and mother of 10, from her Belfast home in 1972. In this meticulously reported book—as finely paced as a novel—Keefe uses McConville's murder as a prism to tell the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Interviewing people on both sides of the conflict, he transforms the tragic damage and waste of the era into a searing, utterly gripping saga." —New York Times Book Review

Jean McConville's…


Explore my book 😀

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

By Christopher Kirchhoff, Raj M. Shah,

Book cover of Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

What is my book about?

With drones, AI, and autonomous weapons, we stand at the precipice of a revolution in military affairs that the U.S. and its allies are not ready for. My book is an account of the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley office, Defense Innovation Unit X.  As its inaugural leaders, we were charged with getting the best technology onto the battlefield and making the U.S. military operate more like a start-up.  

The book is filled with amazing gadgets and the stories of the entrepreneurs who created them, from flying cars to low-cost spy satellites that can see a basketball from low earth orbit. If you want to know what the future of war will be like, give Unit X a read!

Book cover of Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
Book cover of The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
Book cover of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mimi's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.


By Mimi Zieman,

Why should I read it?

26 authors picked Tap Dancing on Everest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


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