Wind of Change
What if it turned out your favorite song was actually a piece of government propaganda? Listen along with the New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe as he explores a tantalizing tip he received that the Scorpions’ 1990 hit “Wind of Change” was composed by the CIA to help defeat the Soviet Union. Vacillating between debunking and chasing a conspiracy theory, Keefe interviews musicians and their fans, historians, and ex-CIA spooks. He even confronts the possibility that he might be unwittingly spreading CIA propaganda himself. After all, the agency might like it if people thought they were behind a popular power ballad. Part spy caper, part Cold War-era music history lesson, Wind of Change is the perfect high-quality escapism we needed in 2020.
Storyline
What if it turned out your favorite song was actually a piece of government propaganda? Listen along with the New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe as he explores a tantalizing tip he received that the Scorpions’ 1990 hit “Wind of Change” was composed by the CIA to help defeat the Soviet Union. Vacillating between debunking and chasing a conspiracy theory, Keefe interviews musicians and their fans, historians, and ex-CIA spooks. He even confronts the possibility that he might be unwittingly spreading CIA propaganda himself. After all, the agency might like it if people thought they were behind a popular power ballad. Part spy caper, part Cold War-era music history lesson, Wind of Change is the perfect high-quality escapism we needed in 2020.
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