Corruption in a Shameless Age

Patrick Radden Keefe on investigative storytelling and why no one sees themselves as the villain

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A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER

Tamara Sepper is the Executive Producer of The Long Game.

Investigative reporter Patrick Radden Keefe is known for entering hidden worlds and revealing how power actually works. From the Sackler dynasty and the IRA to oligarch money in London, he investigates not only what powerful people have done, but also how they justify it. As Patrick puts it, “Nobody ever gets there overnight.” Corruption begins with “incremental deviations.”

Nobody thinks they are the villain. Gangsters, corporate dynasties, and political leaders alike tend to believe they’ve simply been misunderstood. “Most villains don’t think that they’re the villain in the movie,” Patrick says. “They think they’re the hero.” In a shameless age, that self-delusion becomes dangerous: “Everybody just kinda shrugs and it's sort of priced in and it keeps going.”

Patrick joined Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer on the show this week to discuss what happens when that mindset spreads from individuals to an entire culture.

They also discuss the mysterious death at the center of Patrick’s new book, London Falling, and how oligarch wealth transformed the city; the 1972 murder he investigated in Say Nothing and the truths left buried by the Good Friday Agreement; and whether the CIA helped turn the Scorpions’ “Wind of Change” into a Cold War anthem.

At the end of the episode, Patrick, Jake, and Jon share their summer reading recommendations.

We love hearing your thoughts. Please comment below or email Jake and Jon at longgame@voxmedia.com.

Transcripts here.

REFERENCES & SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

• Patrick Radden Keefe, London Falling, Doubleday, April 7, 2026.

• Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing, Vintage, February 25, 2020.

• Patrick Radden Keefe, Empire of Pain, Vintage, October 18, 2022.

• Patrick Radden Keefe, Chatter, Random House, July 11, 2006.

• Evan Osnos, The Haves and Have-Yachts, Scribner, June 3, 2025.

• Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age, Penguin Classics, September 1, 2001.

• Pamela Colloff, Catch the Devil, Knopf, July 14, 2026.

• Jon Ronson, The Castle, Riverhead Books, September 1, 2026.

• Ben Lerner, Transcription, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 7, 2026.

• John Steinbeck, East of Eden, Penguin Classics, October 18, 2016.

• Carlos Barragán, The Yahoo Boys, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 9, 2026.

• Edward Fishman, Chokepoints, Portfolio, February 25, 2025.

• Jeffrey Ding, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, Princeton University Press, August 20, 2024.

• Amy B. Zegart, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Princeton University Press, February 1, 2022.

• Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan, Random House Trade Paperbacks, April 3, 2007.

• Daniel Mason, Country People, Random House, July 7, 2026.

• Daniel Mason, The Piano Tuner, Vintage, August 19, 2003.

• Daniel Mason, North Woods, Random House Trade Paperbacks, October 1, 2024.

• John Updike, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu, Library of America, April 29, 2010.

• Photo by Albert Llop/NurPhoto via Getty Images