Encore: Theranos | The Walgreens Deal | 2
American Scandal
Wondery
4.6 • 18.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Theranos prepares to go public with its blood-testing devices. But the company faces increased scrutiny, as problems with its technology—and its leadership—add up.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wundry Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American scandal early and ad free right now. |
| 0:05.7 | Join Wundry Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | A listener note, this episode originally aired in 2021. It's |
| 0:25.0 | 2010 in Palo Alto, California. |
| 0:29.0 | Inside Therinos Headquarters, a column of sunlight streams through the windows landing on Chelsea Burkett, one of the company's employees. |
| 0:37.0 | Burkett shades her pale blue eyes as she rounds a corner. |
| 0:40.0 | And when she arrives at the office of the company CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, |
| 0:44.7 | Burquette pauses. |
| 0:46.4 | Today is not going to be easy. |
| 0:48.6 | Burquette and Holmes have been friends for years, and just six months ago Holmes hired Bur Burkett to come work at Thernos. |
| 0:55.0 | At first it seemed like a dream job. |
| 0:58.0 | Burkett would set up studies with the company's blood testing devices. |
| 1:01.0 | She would get to travel the world helping develop a new |
| 1:04.4 | piece of medical technology that could save people's lives. But these last few |
| 1:09.0 | months, Birkette has grown deeply pessimistic. Theranos' company culture has grown |
| 1:13.7 | toxic under the leadership of Sunny Balwani, a senior executive. |
| 1:17.7 | Balwani is a harsh and cruel leader and he also happens to be Elizabeth Holmes' boyfriend. But bad leadership isn't the only problem. |
| 1:26.8 | There is also all the gossip that's circulating among employees. |
| 1:30.3 | Inflated revenue projections, mysterious firings, bribes to foreign governments. |
| 1:35.0 | All of that has been upsetting for Burkett, but then came the breaking point. |
| 1:39.0 | Holmes convinced a man having a health scare to let Therinos test his blood for cancer. |
| 1:44.0 | The implication was that he should use the results to make medical decisions |
... |
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