Patrick Radden Keefe (investigative journalist)

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Comedy, Music, Tv & Film

4.6 • 69.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 114 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Patrick Radden Keefe (London Falling, Empire of Pain, Say Nothing) is an award-winning investigative journalist, bestselling author, and staff writer for The New Yorker. Patrick joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in a deeply intellectual household, developing a childhood obsession with writing for The New Yorker, and navigating a winding academic path through Columbia, Cambridge, and Yale Law. Patrick and Dax talk about the years-long reporting process behind London Falling, how a chance encounter led him to the story of Zac Brettler, and the challenges of investigating a mysterious death tied to hidden identities and extreme wealth in modern London. Patrick explains how proximity to oligarch culture and social media can warp ambition, why digression can be the soul of storytelling, and how to hold empathy for people navigating unknowable circumstances.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert.
0:02.5	Experts on Expert.
0:21.5	I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Today we have an award-winning investigative journalist. He writes for The New Yorker on staff. Patrick Radin-Keefe is a writer for the New Yorker. He's also written a couple of, well, several incredible books. Rogues, Empire of Pain, Say Nothing, The Snakehead.
0:29.5	And he has a new book out now that we're talking about, London falling, a mysterious death in a gilded city and a family's search for truth.
0:31.4	I fell in love with Patrick.
0:32.9	He's fantastic.
0:34.7	And he's such a good writer.
0:36.3	I loved Empire of Pain.
0:36.8	Yeah.
0:38.4	He's also stunning to look at. He is a handsome man. And very charismatic. He's such a good writer. I loved Empire of Pain. Yeah, he's also stunning to look at. He is a handsome man.
0:40.0	And very charismatic.
0:41.5	And then he has stumbled upon this absolutely mind-blowing story that took place in London.
0:47.1	So please enjoy Patrick Radden Keefe.
0:50.6	This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace.
0:53.7	I feel like Spring always does this thing where you realize you've been thinking about something for a long time, and suddenly it feels like, okay, maybe I actually do something with it.
1:02.8	Totally. It's less pressure, but more like readiness.
1:06.1	Yeah, like you've been sitting on an idea or a project or even just a perspective you care about. And now you're like,
1:11.2	maybe this deserves to exist somewhere outside of my own head. In May being Mental Health
1:15.1	Awareness Month, there's already this broader conversation happening. People are more open,
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1:24.0	that jump from idea to actual thing feel way less overwhelming.
1:28.4	You can build a site that looks good, works well, and actually reflects what you're trying to put out there.
	...

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