Episode 8: Fake Demos

Bad Blood: The Final Chapter

Sony Music

Society & Culture, News, True Crime

4.7 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elizabeth Holmes wowed investors, board members and journalists with live, in-person demonstrations that made it seem like her blood-testing machine worked. But most of these demos were faked. Behind the scenes, the blood samples were tested either manually or on third-party lab equipment. It's an astoundingly bold deception that was enabled by a software application Sunny Balwani wrote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you ever see a demonstration of the blood analyzer machine that Theranos manufactured?
0:14.1	I've never seen operate yet many times.
0:18.6	Okay.
0:19.6	What do you recall about that?
0:20.6	Well, I recall it.
0:22.6	It was a very simple process.
0:24.6	This little palette is put into a slot in the machine.
0:29.2	He weighed about 30 minutes and now it comes to result.
0:33.5	Okay.
0:34.5	Did you personally stand there next to the machine for 30 minutes while it did its analysis?
0:41.0	I was sitting on a someplace and I was in the room.
0:46.4	That was George Schultz.
0:47.9	One of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, describing how he saw Theranos' blood testing
0:53.2	device work with his own eyes during demonstrations held at the company's Palo Alto offices.
0:59.9	These displays made the former Secretary of State a believer and helped convince him to
1:04.7	join Theranos' Board of Directors.
1:08.2	Schultz was far from the only one.
1:10.7	Dozens of other people ranging from prospective investors to journalists, attended demonstrations,
1:16.4	either at Theranos headquarters or at one of the company's blood draw sites in Walgreens
1:20.6	stores and came away impressed.
1:24.2	Inside the company, they were known as VIP demos.
1:28.2	Theranos even had a dedicated room for the ones held at headquarters.
	...

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