Patrick Radden Keefe

Patrick Radden Keefe (born 1976) is an American writer and investigative journalist. He is the author of six books—Chatter, The Snakehead (2009), Say Nothing (2018), Empire of Pain (2021), Rogues (2022), and London Falling (2026)—and has written extensively for many publications, including The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times Magazine. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Early life and education Keefe was born in 1976. Keefe grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts and attended Milton Academy.

He received his B.A. in history from Columbia University in 1999 where he was a resident of Schapiro Hall. He won a Marshall Scholarship in 1999. He then obtained a M.Phil. in international relations from Cambridge University at Hughes Hall and a M.Sc. in new media and informations systems from the London School of Economics. He then returned to the U.S. and earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School. He passed the bar in 2005. Keefe won the 2021 Ambies award for "Best Podcast Host".

In 2025, Keefe was hired by J.Crew for a modeling campaign. The New York Times wrote that "Keefe has achieved a level of celebrity that most of his literary peers have probably never even considered: He has been a fashion model."

In 2026, he was a guest on How to Fail .

Books Chatter: Dispatches From the Secret World Of Global Eavesdropping (2005) Keefe describes how American security agencies, including the National Security Agency, eavesdrop on communications between people suspected of involvement in terrorism to determine the likelihood of terrorist attacks in the near future. The book focuses on the 1993 Golden Venture incident in which a cargo ship smuggling 286 undocumented Chinese ran aground, ultimately killing ten passengers. Keefe describes how Ping illegally smuggled immigrants from China into the U.S. on a massive scale through cargo ships. The book includes interviews with several of those immigrants, who describe their lives in the U.S. In 2000, Ping was arrested by the U.S. government and sentenced to 35 years in prison for her part in leading these operations. Janet Maslin of the New York Times called The Snakehead a "formidably well-researched book that is as much a paean to its author's industriousness as it is a chronicle of crime." He travelled to Ireland seven times over the course of four years while writing the book, interviewing over 100 people. The book was subsequently adapted into a miniseries of the same name in 2024 on FX on Hulu.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021)

In April 2021, his book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty was published by Doubleday. The book examines the Sackler family and their responsibility in the manufacturing of the painkiller OxyContin by Purdue Pharma. It is an extension of his 2017 New Yorker article "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain."

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth (2026) In April 2026, Keefe's latest book London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth was published, again by Doubleday. In the book, he examines the mysterious death of teenager Zac Brettler in London, and explores connections to the city's underworld. A24 UK secured the rights to the book before it was published, and plans to create a television adaptation.

Personal life Keefe is married to international financial-crime policy lawyer Justyna Gudzowska. They met while they were both studying at Cambridge and later studied at Yale together.

Awards and accolades

Year Award Category Nominee Result 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship Patrick Radden Keefe 2012 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship 2014 National Magazine Awards Feature Writing "A Loaded Gun" 2015 Reporting "The Hunt for El Chapo" 2016 “Where the Bodies Are Buried" 2019 National Book Award Nonfiction Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland National Book Critics Circle Award Nonfiction Orwell Prize Political Writing 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Arthur Ross Book Award Gold Medal 2021 Ambies Best Podcast Host Wind of Change – Patrick Radden Keefe Best Reporting Best Scriptwriting, Nonfiction Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award Goodreads Choice Awards History & Biography 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize 2025 Peabody Awards Entertainment Honoree Say Nothing USC Scripter Awards Episodic Series Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe and Joshua Zetumer 2026Kirkus PrizeNonfictionLondon FallingFinalist