Wind of Change (podcast)

The podcast is hosted by Patrick Radden Keefe and co-produced by Pineapple Street Media, Crooked Media, and Spotify.^[1] The show is composed of 8 episodes.^[2] The series is over 6 hours long.^[3] The research for his recent book Say Nothing had been gruelling and Radden Keefe was looking for a change so he turned to a rumor he had heard a decade earlier from a friend in the intelligence community.^[4] The podcast focuses on the rumor that the Scorpions song "Wind of Change" was written by the CIA.^[5]

The podcast discusses similar instances of the CIA using music such as the jazz ambassadors tour where Louis Armstrong visited the Congo.^[6] Similarly, the CIA front organization called the American Society of African Culture sent Nina Simone on tour in Nigeria in 1961.^[7]

The show followed Radden Keefe as he travels to Washington DC, Kiev, St Petersburg, Ohio, Moscow, Florida, and Hanover to interview various people including Klaus Meine.^[8] Klaus Meine denies that the CIA was involved in the creation of the song.^[9] Radden Keefe also interviews Doc McGhee who was a band manager involved in drug smuggling.^[10] The series discusses how music was often distributed via samizdat cassettes in the USSR.^[11]

Radden Keefe hinted at the possibility of a season 2.^[12]

The show reached the top 10 podcasts in the United States and Australia when it debuted on May 11, 2020.^[13] Nicholas Quah wrote in Vulture that the show was a "really enjoyable listen" if a little "meandering at times".^[14] Eoghan O’Sullivan critcized the show in the Irish Examiner calling it a "bloated damp squib".^[15]

The series was optioned by Hulu for a television series.^[20]