A Lost Son in Russia: Brett Forrest on the tragic human collateral loss of the FBI's secret wars


Author: Andrew Keen May 31, 2023 Duration: 37:58
Podcast episode
A Lost Son in Russia: Brett Forrest on the tragic human collateral loss of the FBI's secret wars

EPISODE 1502: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the author of LOST SON, Brett Forrest, about Billy Reilly, a young American sucked into the FBI's secret war in Russia

Brett Forrest is a national-security reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where his investigative work focuses on the former Soviet Union. In the Russo-Ukrainian war, Brett was the first reporter to reach the town of Bucha and uncover evidence of atrocities. He is the author of Lost Son: An American Family Trapped Inside the FBI’s Secret Wars, The Big Fix: The Hunt for the Match-Fixers Bringing Down Soccer, and Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV’s Biggest Fiasco. Brett co-directed the ESPN true-crime documentary, Pin Kings, an Emmy nominee, and is an executive producer on Netflix’s feature adaptation of The Big Fix. Brett was formerly a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine, where he reported on crime and corruption in global sports and where he shared a National Magazine Award. His international-affairs reporting has appeared in, among many publications, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and National Geographic. He has lived and worked in Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, and other countries. An article of Brett's about match-fixing in international soccer inspired an episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson, as a World Cup referee, faces a moral quandary.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.


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