Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

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Patrick Radden Keefe (investigative journalist)

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May 6, 2026

Guest

Patrick Radden Keefe

Patrick Radden Keefe, award-winning investigative journalist and New Yorker staff writer, talks about the years-long reporting behind London Falling and how a chance encounter unearthed Zach Brettler’s secret life. He explores identity reinvention, London’s new-money culture, social media’s sway on ambition, and why digressions can deepen storytelling.

01:53:17

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ADVICE

Treat Rejection As A Daily Reporting Habit

Learn to metabolize rejection by treating each refusal as an ordinary step and moving on quickly.
Keefe compares successful reporting to tennis players erasing lost points: call people, get hung up on, and keep pressing forward.

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ANECDOTE

Chance Set Encounter Launched The Investigation

Patrick Radden Keefe met a source on a film set who connected him to the Brettler family and the mysterious death of their son Zach.
That chance conversation — name-dropping rabbi Julia Neuberger — turned into the New Yorker assignment that became London Falling.

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INSIGHT

Containerization Remade London's Economy

London transformed from a manufacturing port to a money center after containerization made docks obsolete and bigger ships couldn't use the Thames.
Eastern docklands emptied, creating decades of blight until 1980s reinvention around finance and real estate reshaped the cityscape Zach inhabited.

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Early life and Boston roots

02:18 • 3min

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Education path: Columbia to Cambridge

05:21 • 5min

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Why law school became the backup plan

10:05 • 6min

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Breaking into The New Yorker

16:32 • 32sec

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Pentagon fellowship impressions

17:04 • 2min

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Becoming a New Yorker staff writer

19:20 • 2min

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Winds of Change podcast origins

21:28 • 5min

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Empire of Pain & investigative approach

26:31 • 24sec

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How the London Falling story appeared

26:55 • 7min

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Brettler family background

34:00 • 4min

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School rejection and identity shift

37:40 • 2min

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London's transformation into a money city

39:27 • 3min

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Social media, ambition, and teenage culture

42:34 • 6min

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Early lies and persona development

48:10 • 2min

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Meeting Mark Foley and escalation

49:53 • 10min

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Akbar, Indian Dave, and the social triangle

01:00:07 • 7min

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Night of Zach's death and initial accounts

01:06:40 • 3min

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Reporting method and reconstructing scenes

01:09:11 • 4min

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Parents' investigation and painful revelations

01:13:30 • 2min

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Wider themes: reinvention and parenting

01:15:14 • 11min

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Digressions, craft, and narrative choices

01:26:31 • 10min

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Lessons on grief and moving forward

• Mentioned in 78 episodes

Say Nothing

A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Ariel Font Prades

Patrick Radden Keefe

The book delves into the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath, focusing on the lives of key figures such as Dolours Price, Brendan Hughes, Gerry Adams, and Jean McConville's children. It explores the civil rights movement, the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign, the 1981 hunger strike, the peace process, and the post-conflict struggle to understand crimes like McConville's murder. The narrative also incorporates the Belfast Project, a secret oral history endeavor that collected stories from former IRA members. The book is a panoramic history that captures the complexities and tragic consequences of the Troubles.

#1054

• Mentioned in 38 episodes

Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Ricard Gil

Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain is a comprehensive and damning narrative about the Sackler family, who built their pharmaceutical empire through aggressive marketing and questionable ethics. The book traces the family's history from their early success with tranquilizers like Librium and Valium to the devastating impact of OxyContin, which contributed significantly to the opioid crisis. Keefe's work is based on extensive research and exposes the family's ruthless business tactics, their influence on medical and governmental bodies, and their attempts to evade accountability for the harm caused by their products.

#334

• Mentioned in 86 episodes

Chatter

The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It

Ethan Kross

In *Chatter*, Ethan Kross delves into the silent conversations we have with ourselves, examining how these internal dialogues shape our lives, work, and relationships. Kross, drawing from his own lab research and real-world case studies, explains how negative self-talk (referred to as 'chatter') can have detrimental effects on our health, mood, and social connections. However, he also provides tools and strategies to manage and harness this inner voice positively. These tools include techniques such as zooming out to gain perspective, using the second person to increase psychological distance, and leveraging the power of nature and placebos. The book is a comprehensive guide on how to transform negative self-talk into a constructive and supportive inner voice.

#2815

• Mentioned in 17 episodes

The Devil in the White City

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Erik Larson

The book tells the dual stories of Daniel H. Burnham, who led the construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims. Burnham faced numerous challenges in building the 'White City', while Holmes constructed his 'Murder Castle', a hotel with secret rooms, torture chambers, and other sinister features. The narrative explores the contrast between the grandeur of the fair and the dark deeds of Holmes, set against the backdrop of late 19th-century America.

#4541

• Mentioned in 11 episodes

London Falling

A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth

Patrick Radden Keefe

London Falling chronicles the true story of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the Thames in November 2019. His grieving parents discovered that Zac had been leading a secret life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch and becoming entangled with dangerous criminals. Patrick Radden Keefe masterfully reports on the family's desperate quest to understand their son's death while exposing the seedy truths behind London's glamorous facade of wealth, corruption, and money laundering by post-Soviet oligarchs.

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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