Miracle Blood Test That Baffled Science And Law

About this episode

The episode discusses the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent blood testing technology.

Elizabeth Holmes convinced Henry Kissinger and a Marine general that she'd revolutionized blood testing with a single drop of blood, raised 700 million dollars, and became the world's youngest self-made female billionaire—except the technology never actually worked. For over a decade she ran fake demos with pre-recorded results, put real patients at risk with wildly inaccurate tests at Walgreens, and when whistleblowers tried exposing her, she sicced lawyers on them until a Wall Street Journal investigation brought everything crashing down. She's now serving 11 years in federal prison, her fortune revised from 4.5 billion dollars to literally zero, and her entire persona down to the deep voice and unblinking stare was apparently an act.

People in this episode

Host: Charlie Cruz

Topics covered

• blood testing
• fraud
• biotechnology
• whistleblowers
• legal issues
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• Elizabeth Holmes
• blood test
• fraud
• Walgreens
• whistleblower
• federal prison
• biotechnology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Walgreens, Wall Street Journal

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