It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall just fell. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. And the soundtrack to the revolution is one of the best selling songs of all time, the metal ballad “Wind of Change,” by the Scorpions. Decades later, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe heard a rumor: the song wasn’t written by the Scorpions. It was written by the CIA. This is his journey to find the truth. Wind of Change is an Original Series from Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media and Spotify.
Publisher
Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify
Special Preview: "London Falling" by Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick has a new book coming out April 7, a true story about Zac Brettler, a London teenager who died under mysterious circumstances in 2019. After Zac's death, his parents, Rachelle and Matthew, made a shocking discovery: Zac had been leading a secret double life, posing as the son of a Russian oligarch. "London Falling" is the story of two grieving parents who set out to investigate their own son's death, a journey that pulled them into a side of their city they had never known before, a murky underworld of power, money, danger, and deceit. This exclusive preview for "Wind of Change" listeners is the prologue from the Penguin Random House audiobook, read by Patrick. "London Falling" is available for pre-order wherever books are sold.
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7 Jun 2023
Introducing Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto
Chapter 1: Bug’s Plan. It’s 2014. Adelanto is a bankrupt city in the California desert known for its massive detention centers and not much else. Then, a stranger comes to town with a wild idea to make Adelanto great again: Become the first city in Southern California to legalize commercial weed cultivation. Subscribe to Dreamtown to hear episode two right now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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11 Oct 2022
Bonus #3 - Scorpions Live from New York | Fundraiser For Ukraine
When Patrick Radden Keefe heard that the Scorpions were coming to town last month, he knew he had to go to the show. So he called his friend Michael, his source for the original CIA conspiracy theory, and they headed to UBS Arena on Long Island, microphones in hand. Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, the song Wind of Change has taken on new meaning -- and new lyrics, courtesy of lead-singer Klaus Meine. Patrick wanted to feel first hand how the powerful ballad of hope sounded in this new context of Russian aggression.
We're also raising funds for medical supplies in Ukraine and encourage you to join us in giving to United24. The link is here: https://u24.gov.ua/
This episode was recorded in late September. Given the recent attacks in Ukraine we especially encourage you to donate.
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21 Jul 2022
Special Preview: "Rogues" by Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick has a new book that's just out, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. It's twelve strange but true stories of skulduggery and intrigue. Listen to an exclusive excerpt from the audiobook, narrated by Patrick, about the flamboyant, un-catchable arms trafficker known as the Prince of Marbella.
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14 Oct 2021
An Avocado Revolution | Introducing 544 Days
Everything was going great for Jason Rezaian. He was The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran. He had just gotten married. Then, in July of 2014, Jason and his wife were arrested and thrown in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
This is the first episode of 544 Days, a new podcast from Gimlet, Crooked Media, and A24. Find the rest of story for free at gimlet.media/544days.
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6 Jul 2020
Out Now: Bonus Episodes
Thanks for listening to Wind of Change. We’ve made two additional episodes of the show — a pair of stories that we couldn’t fit into the main season of the podcast, but are so wild we had to share them with you. Both episodes are only available exclusively on Spotify.
The first one is available right now. It’s called "The Love Song of Joanna Stingray." And next Monday, July 13, we’ll drop another episode, called "Rocking Venezuela."
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29 Jun 2020
8. Hello, Klaus
HANOVER, GERMANY, 2020: There is one last person Patrick needs to ask about “Wind of Change.” At a small hotel in sleepy Hanover, Germany, it is time to confront Klaus Meine about his biggest hit.
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22 Jun 2020
7. Rorschach
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 2019: On a boat ride down the Moskva River, Patrick starts to fear that this entire podcast could itself be CIA propaganda. Or worse, Ksenia, his Russian fixer points out: propaganda by the successors to the KGB.
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15 Jun 2020
6. The Doctor Is In
CAYMAN ISLANDS, 1982: The Scorpions’ manager Doc McGhee has a secret past: he played a role in one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history, working with a smuggling ring that included CIA asset (and Panamanian dictator) Manuel Noriega. Nearly everyone went to prison. But Doc didn’t serve a day. Patrick heads to Naples, Florida, to find out why Doc threw a rock festival in Moscow instead of going to prison.
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8 Jun 2020
5. I Follow The Moskva
MOSCOW, USSR, 1989: Klaus Meine, the lead singer of the Scorpions, has said for 30 years that the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989 inspired him to write “Wind of Change.” Bon Jovi, booze, Ozzy Osbourne, cocaine, fireworks, fist fights, the KGB -- Patrick takes you step by step through the wildest music festival in Russian history. But something about the concert doesn’t add up.
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1 Jun 2020
4. The KGB Rock Club
LENINGRAD, USSR, 1988: Patrick finds another person who has told an eerily similar story about the Scorpions and the CIA. But he won’t answer emails, so Patrick travels to a GI Joe convention in Dayton, Ohio to try to make contact. Plus, a former CIA clandestine officer suggests there may be other musical acts still collaborating with the agency.
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25 May 2020
3. America’s Secret Weapon
LAGOS, NIGERIA, 1961: One of America’s most beloved singers died without ever knowing that during the Cold War she had been used by the CIA. And a 40-year-old mystery resurfaces: when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was picked to tour behind the Iron Curtain in 1977, was an undercover CIA officer planted among their entourage?
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18 May 2020
2. You Call It An Operation, We Call It A Performance
KYIV, UKRAINE, 2019: Patrick flies to Ukraine and witnesses how fully the political message of “Wind of Change” still resonates with fans at a Scorpions show in Kyiv. Plus: what does the CIA say when you come right out and ask about the agency’s connection to the band?
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11 May 2020
1. My Friend Michael
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA, 2011:
The Scorpions’ song “Wind of Change” became the soundtrack to the end of the Cold War. But decades later, New Yorker investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe heard a rumor from a trusted source: the Scorpions didn’t write the song. The CIA did.
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25 Apr 2020
Wind of Change, coming May 11
A power ballad helped bring down the Soviet Union. Was it written by the CIA? Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe investigates the secret history of Cold War espionage and heavy metal.
Wind Of Change is an Original Series from Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media and Spotify.
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Inside a recent episode
Special Preview: "London Falling" by Patrick Radden Keefe
Published 23 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Occasionally, a bottle knows whale will veer off course, separated from its pod, and wander down river, dangerously far from the ocean. When the tide recedes, the Thames shrinks, its level plummeting by as much as 20 feet, exposing a muddy shoreline. Urban beachcomers, mudlarks, as they're known, have unearthed artifacts of previous civilizations from the silt along the river banks, Bronze Age daggers, and Iron Age coins. It was the Thames that first drew the Romans 2 ,000 years ago to establish a walled antropo, which they gave the name Londonium. By the heyday of the British Empire, London had colonized a quarter of the globe. […]
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