Hey, y’all, I know Val usually does the honors on previewing guests, but I hope you all will forgive me for handling this one early because I’m just tickled pink over it. See, a couple of days ago, I noticed a tweet from Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, announcing that she would be a guest on The Colbert Report on March 16th.
Being the hopeless bookworm that I am, I immediately let out a thoughtless “whoo hoo!” in my office, because I’d been reading this book during my morning commute over the last week. I just finished it yesterday, and it’s outstanding. The New York Times ran several reviews of the book last month, and DB and I had actually emailed each other at the time to express our hopes that Ms. Skloot would show up on The Colbert Report.
For those of you who might be interested, I strongly recommend you read the various reviews and articles from The New York Times (try this one or this one). Ms. Skloot’s book asks hard but incredibly timely questions about race, class, privacy, consent and medical ethics. Henrietta was a black woman from an uneducated family whose cells were obtained in an era when “informed consent” was not required. The development of HeLa was invaluable in fighting diseases like polio, but the historical context (although a different type of research, it took place at the same time as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study) underscores questions about how scientific discoveries were and are made. Who currently benefits — and who should — from medical research (particularly with respect to the increasingly-common pharmaceutical practice of patenting genes)? How do you balance the need to keep access to research open while respecting the rights of individuals to control their own cells? There’s so much food for thought in this book.
I have no idea how the interview will turn out and what they’ll have time for on the show, but I’m over the moon about seeing this author on the guest list.
NPR had a great interview with the author of this book. It was absolutely fascinating. So if you haven’t listened to it yet, I suggest searching the NPR website for it. Well worth the listen.
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Your enthusiasm has me interested – I may need to check this book out. Definitely looking forward to the interview!
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You totally should check out the book, whether the interview turns out well or not. It’s really a wonderful book, sensitive to the Lacks family but realistic about the practical research issues implicated, too. There’s a lot of science, but it’s a very human story, regardless.
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seriously, when I scrolled down and saw the book cover, I just had to squee about it a little bit. I read a WSJ article recently about how well this book has been marketed, and I’m definitely among those who were captivated at an early stage. a lot of the science bloggers I follow got advance copies, and their universal rave reviews that led me to pre-order it. I’m about a third of the way through because I like to take good books slow, but it’s SO impressive. I know I am learning so much, and all the information is presented perfectly (and completely, because of the thorough research), but I don’t ever feel like I’m being virtuous or slogging through; it’s totally captivating.
I can’t wait for Stephen’s take on it! :D
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Yeah I think she said that it took her about 10 years to do all the research. I couldn’t imagine taking that long to write a book, but the story is incredibly fascinating.
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I have heard so many good things about this book and have it on my list to read but haven’t picked it up yet. I’m really looking forward to the interview!
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