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The Story

Empire of pain: The Sacklers and the opioid crisis

The Story

The Times

Daily News Podcast, Exclusive Interviews, Daily News, Current Affairs, Global News, News, Investigative Reporting, Long-form Audio, In-depth Journalism, Audio Storytelling, News Analysis, Politics, Uk News

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As we head towards the end of 2021, we bring you some of the best episodes of the year.

Today: Once hailed as a pain obliterating wonder drug, OxyContin helped give birth to one of the most devastating public health crises in the developed world. 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guests: Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker staff writer and author of Empire of Pain. 

Host: David Aaronovitch. 

Clips: CBS News, CNN, C-Span, France 24, Kentucky Attorney General, KSBY, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, MSNBC, NBC News, Newsy, PBS, Purdue Pharma, Reuters, Tylenol, Vice, WAVY TV, WMUR TV.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The British Red Cross is here to welcome people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

0:07.0

We're here to help people the safety when stalks here.

0:12.0

We're here to show anyone's struggling that someone cares.

0:16.0

Thanks for coming.

0:17.0

We're here for humanity.

0:19.0

With your support, the Red Cross has helped millions of people in the UK and 191 other countries.

0:25.0

The search British Red Cross to support us.

0:27.0

Together, we are the world's emergency responders.

0:36.0

Hello, it's Callum McDonald here.

0:38.0

Now, as this year comes to a close, I'm sure you, like us, have taken stock.

0:42.0

You have looked back.

0:43.0

You've tried to pinpoint the key moments for your year.

0:46.0

Now, that has been difficult this year and last year as well, actually.

0:50.0

Because of the slight days that the pandemic has thrown us all into time, seems to be a blur,

0:55.0

seems to be difficult to kind of focus on what those things were that we really treasured.

1:00.0

So what we did at Stories of Our Times was we got our heads together, we did some big thinking,

1:05.0

we sought out some blue sky and found it.

1:08.0

And we've managed to find our favourite episodes.

1:11.0

Those episodes that really stand out in our memories from 2021 as being significant,

1:17.0

important of value to us and we hope of value to you as well.

1:22.0

So welcome to our run of our favourite Stories of Our Times from 2021.

1:27.0

Today, we are revisiting a crucial episode that we first broadcast in May.

...

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