Wind of Change

At the end if every episode, I wasn’t sure what would happen next. It was informative and thought provoking, and with plenty of raucous fun via the 80s rock scene.

This is not really a podcast about a half-baked conspiracy theory. This is a podcast about the power of art. Radden Keefe begins this story with an extended meditation on compartmentalization. He describes the divisions between the United States and the Soviet Union, between the public and the CIA, between the art world and the political world. and then as the podcast continues we see how art moves through these siloed realms of human life and infiltrates them more completely than a spy might infiltrate a soviet submarine. Even in these rarified, highly political atmospheres full of spy-craft and mystery, art is there and art is inescapable. In fact, it makes a mockery of the compartmentalization upon which the CIA thrives. As Klaus Meine says “It really shows you the power of music.” much of the podcast centers on this rather seedy notion that the CIA infiltrated the art world and corrupted the purity of a song that was important to people who witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union. But by the end of the podcast, I thought it was clear that the opposite had happened. The power of this song infiltrated the CIA. Either somebody within the CIA wanted to steal valor, or members of the CIA saw the popularity of the song after it had been written and boosted it, but either way they were the ones swept up in the song’s power. art is the great infiltrator, but it is an open, honest and unifying force that transcends every silo you can try to build around it. It is the true wind of change, influencing nations.

This is an older podcast, but it was great. The ‘mystery’ is interesting, but solving it isn’t vital to make it worth listening to. There is no filler or silly cliffhangers. The host is connected and competent, and the journalism is solid. If you like thoughtful, well produced podcasts, it doesn’t get any better.

I just finished this at the recommendation of my brother. We are both state department brats who lived in Germany from 1976 to 1981. Both of us, rather than going to the American school were placed into Gymnasium. So we got completely absorbed into German culture. You don't know how fascinating it was to hear all this. I've always felt a strong admiration for and connection to the Scorpions. I believe it was 1994 when the Scorps came to Dallas. I was playing in various cover bands and was writing my own music. I heard that the Scorpions were hosting a backstage party at a local restaurant so I drove down there and bribed somebody $20 to let me behind the ropes. The only way I could think to get the band's attention was to wear my Deutschland Weltmeister T-shirt and walk up to Rudy and greet him in German. He appeared to be a huge soccer fan so we hit it off. And then I got to speak to Klaus who was such a genuine article. They signed that T-shirt, which I sure hope my wife hasn't thrown away. I can't seem to locate it. Anyway, as a lover of the spy genre, this podcast held me completely spellbound. When my parents returned for another tour of duty to Germany in 1990, my brother and I rode an America military train through East Germany to Berlin and when we got out, we heard the clinking of hammers and chisels as people were ripping out pieces of the wall. My brother still has a piece of the wall with graffiti on it displayed in his front hallway. Sorry, I ramble. This is one of the best podcasts I've ever listened to. Thank you, Patrick for your tireless pursuit of all the threads that led to the amazing patchwork of a story. It is so well crafted and so well narrated. I can't wait to hear what else you have done! Atticus (or as I go by my parody-alter-ego on social media, "Franz Ferkelduft" where I pay homage to the Scorps)

Michael and Patrick, who drive this podcast, opt to take an unscrupulous “all or nothing” approach to the claim motivating the investigation. They dodge around the simplest answers, discounting degrees of separation and “telephone game” in a way that suggests the podcast’s producers are breathing down their backs. After all, if they don’t, how will the producers fill the runtime and connect to all the cool research into espionage? This is a riveting podcast saved by the sweetness of Eastern-Bloc metal-heads and the wit of CIA spooks and their collaborators. Episode two’s opening alone is a tearjerker. It is dragged down by by the men trying to bridge the two. Editing may be at fault for making Patrick seem so bad; all of his threads turn into dead ends, hearsay, or half-remembered notions. In showcasing them, the podcast highlights the moment he taints his witnesses. He’s not some amateur, so his time is valuable; they needed some return-of-investment for this series of nothing-burgers. Michael, on the other hand, comes across as a blusterer, a big talker so used to being at the right place at the right time that he’s unqualified to judge coincidence. He drags his easily-influenced reporter-friend into a rabbit-hole cultivated by his baseless self-assurance. I just hope people don’t take this as a journalistic bellweather. This isn’t what good investigation looks like. Good investigation involves doubt and skepticism, but this podcast uses it at every wrong juncture. It lives on casting aspersions on the notion that West-German rockers, no matter how flamboyant, would actually write about something that deeply affects them. Performers are people too!