Josh Dean is a journalist and the author of The Impossible Factory, a sweeping history of Kelly Johnson, Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works division, and the engineers who reshaped aviation during the Cold War. Before The Impossible Factory, Dean wrote The Taking of K-129 and co-founded Campside Media.

In this episode, he talks to Matthew about the origins of the Skunk Works, why Kelly Johnson’s philosophy of small teams and minimal bureaucracy still shapes Silicon Valley today, and the challenge of turning deeply technical research into compelling narrative. He also reflects on the realities of historical reporting, organizing massive archives, living inside years of research, and why writing a book often becomes an all-consuming process.

“The most time-intensive part of writing a book is the reporting,” he says. “The writing part you can do at night. You can do on weekends. You can squeeze it around the edges.”

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