Patrick Winn

Patrick Winn is an award-winning investigative journalist. He mostly covers rebellion and black markets in Southeast Asia.

Winn is the author of two narrative non-fiction books:

Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel that Survived the CIA (PublicAffairs / Icon Books)

Hello, Shadowlands: Inside the Meth Fiefdoms, Rebel Hideouts and Bomb-Scarred Party Towns of Southeast Asia (Icon Books)

Winn is currently the Asia correspondent for The World, a radio program broadcast on more than 300 NPR stations across America. His writing and short documentaries have appeared in/on The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the BBC, The Atlantic and many other outlets. He has received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (also known as the ‘poor man’s Pulitzer’) and a National Press Club award. He’s also a three-time winner of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Press Awards among other prizes.

Winn has appeared on screen as an expert source on two documentaries.

Narco Wars (National Geographic, broadcast on Hulu), Season Three, Episode Two: “Prince of Death”

The Business of Drugs (Netflix), the “Meth” episode.

Winn was an associate producer on Hope Frozen, a Netflix original documentary, and a field producer for the debut Myanmar episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Both won Emmys.

Winn was raised in Eden, a dwindling North Carolina factory town that once manufactured carpets and beer. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2003 with a journalism degree. His early reportage explored economic decay in the American south and crime within the US military.

Since 2008, Winn has lived in Bangkok and reported on Southeast Asia. He reads and speaks Thai — and occasionally sings it, badly, in upcountry karaoke joints.