← Home
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard · May 6, 2026 · 1h 53m

Patrick Radden Keefe (investigative journalist)

Dax Shepard, Patrick Radden Keefe

Patrick Radden Keefe, author of London Falling, Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing, joins to discuss his winding path from an intellectual upbringing to writing for The New Yorker. He describes the years-long investigation behind London Falling, the mysterious death of Zac Brettler tied to hidden identities and extreme wealth, and how proximity to oligarch culture and social media can warp ambition. The conversation explores the soul of storytelling through digression and the challenge of holding empathy for people in unknowable circumstances.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Highlights

•
The mysterious death of Zac Brettler and hidden identities
Keefe recounts the central case of London Falling: the death of Zac Brettler, a young man whose life and death were entangled with hidden identities and extreme wealth in modern London.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini
•
Proximity to extreme wealth and social media warps ambition
Keefe observes that being near oligarch culture and the performative worlds of social media can distort what people consider success and fuel dangerous striving.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini
•
From an intellectual household to The New Yorker
Keefe describes growing up surrounded by ideas and following a circuitous path through elite universities before finally landing at The New Yorker.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini

Editorial

•
Digression as the soul of storytelling
Keefe argues that narrative digression—following tangents and unexpected threads—is what gives long-form journalism its depth and humanity.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini
•
Holding empathy for people in unknowable circumstances
Keefe reflects on the ethical challenge of writing about people caught in opaque systems where intentions and truths will never be fully known.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini

References

■
London Falling — Patrick Radden Keefe — discussed as his latest investigative book
Was this useful?