Wind of Change

Wind of Change is a wildly entertaining investigative documentary podcast from Crooked Media and Pineapple Street Studios, hosted by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, that investigates one of the most bizarre conspiracy theories of the Cold War era: did the CIA secretly write the Scorpions' power ballad Wind of Change as propaganda to help bring down the Soviet Union? What begins as an almost absurdly fun premise quickly becomes a genuinely fascinating deep dive into the real and documented history of the CIA's involvement in cultural warfare, the use of art and music as tools of geopolitical influence, and the chaotic final years of the Soviet empire. Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker known for his meticulous investigative journalism, brings serious reporting chops to this seemingly lighthearted topic, interviewing former CIA operatives, Scorpions band members, and Cold War historians in his quest for the truth. The result is a podcast that is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely illuminating, revealing how the lines between culture, politics, and espionage have always been blurrier than we might like to believe. Wind of Change proves that the best documentary storytelling can be both deeply entertaining and intellectually rigorous.