![]() “These are wild tales, but they’re all true,” Keefe says in the introduction, almost as if he himself thinks some of the stories feel too outrageous to be real. But in each there is a commitment to telling the whole story, and revealing all dimensions of a person despite the obfuscations of hearsay, and even when that person has every incentive not to talk to a journalist. From one profile to the next, the moral threads swing wildly: Subjects include a Syrian arms dealer, a criminal defense lawyer specializing in the most heinous cases, and the chef turned globe-trotter Anthony Bourdain. “Rogues” compiles 12 years’ worth of long-form articles Keefe has written for The New Yorker, revealing his predilection for the margins of what we consider acceptable society. With ROGUES: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (Random House Audio, 15 hours, 28 minutes), we’re treated to the same level of journalistic rigor, and the same passion for breaking open mysteries, in an unmistakably bingeable package. In between his regular contributions to The New Yorker, he has published an exposé of the Sackler family and an account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that’s so thrilling I listened to all 15 hours in just three days. The journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a career out of deep dives into fascinating characters - and he’s very good at it. Case in point: These three new audiobooks might make you reconsider the categories into which publishers divide what we listen to. As the soundtrack to my daily life has continued unabated, I’ve recently started to wonder: How do we compartmentalize so many competing stimuli? How does the brain organize it all? As both audiobooks and podcasts continue to surge in popularity, I’d argue it’s becoming less and less clear where those classifications fall - and whether classification even matters. At any given time, I’m usually listening to at least one audiobook, half a dozen podcast series and a handful of new music albums.
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