Wind of Change

By Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify

Society & Culture Music

What's Wind of Change about?

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.

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Special Preview: "Rogues" b...

07.21.2022

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 ...

Wind of Change episodes:

07.21.2022 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 ...
10.14.2021 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 ...
04.19.2021 Empire of Pain - An Exclusive Sample of Patrick's New Book While he was working on Wind of Change, Patrick Radden Keefe was also researching and writing a new book, a sweeping investigative chronicle about the billionaire Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose ...
02.10.2021 Preview: Welcome to Your Fantasy It’s 1987, and the Chippendales dancers are packing nightclubs across America with their sold-out male exotic dance shows. As crowds of women scream for the mullets, the spandex, and the tans … a shocking event about to change the course ...
07.06.2020 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 ...
06.29.2020 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. Learn more about your ad ...
06.22.2020 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. Learn ...
06.15.2020 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. ...
06.08.2020 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, ...
06.01.2020 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 ...
05.25.2020 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 ...
05.18.2020 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 ...
05.11.2020 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 ...
04.25.2020 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 ...

Wind of Change

What's Wind of Change about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Wind of Change episodes:

Special Preview: "Rogues" by Patrick Radden Keefe

An Avocado Revolution | Introducing 544 Days

Empire of Pain - An Exclusive Sample of Patrick's New Book

Preview: Welcome to Your Fantasy

Out Now: Bonus Episodes

8. Hello, Klaus

7. Rorschach

6. The Doctor Is In

5. I Follow The Moskva

4. The KGB Rock Club

3. America’s Secret Weapon

2. You Call It An Operation, We Call It A Performance

1. My Friend Michael

Wind of Change, coming May 11

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