Jennifer Vanderbes Chronicles the Dark History of Thalidomide

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.1 • 766 Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might know the historical fiction of Jennifer Vanderbes, but just wait until you read Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims. Think thalidomide didn’t affect mothers and children in this country? Think again. Wonder Drug is the hidden American story of thalidomide: yes, it did get to pregnant women and yes there were children born effected by phocomelia in this country. Although the system denied their existence for decades, this beautifully researched book tells their story, as well as the deeply disturbing truth about how this drug was distributed behind the backs of the FDA. Join us. Book mentioned in this week's episode: Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims by Jennifer Vanderbes Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:06.0	And yet today, we send 347 billion emails every single day.
0:12.1	Crypto is no different.
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0:22.6	Go to crackin.com and see what crypto can be. Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the
0:26.7	money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something
0:29.4	goes wrong.
0:36.1	Well, you're back in the land of the bookcase.
0:39.7	I'm Charles Gibson.
0:41.4	Oh, my God.
0:42.0	He makes it sound so dire.
0:44.0	Like, that's not, you know, that's like, welcome, doomed mortals.
0:47.7	Well, I should have done that when we were doing the horror series.
0:50.2	It's such an ominous beginning.
0:54.0	Hi, I'm Kay Gibson, and you are more than welcome.
0:59.0	To bring a little sanity back to our effort. We normally, if you've been listening to the podcast week by week, and I hope you have, we have normally been talking to writers of fiction with an
1:13.9	occasional detour into the land of nonfiction. But our bar is pretty high, I think. But sometimes
1:20.9	we find a book of nonfiction that we say we really should do this. In June, a book came out called Wonder Drug, which is written
	...

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