Ten Drugs cover art

Ten Drugs

How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

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Ten Drugs

By: Thomas Hager
Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
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About this listen

Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine.

Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.

©2019 Thomas Hager (P)2019 Audible, Inc. History History & Commentary History & Philosophy Medicine & Health Care Industry Science World Pharmacology Mental Health

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All stars
Most relevant  
Beautifully written book, amazing stories about live changing drugs together with meaningful data to make inform decisions about the pills we take

A must read for science lovers

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I don’t even know why I bought this, it just struck me as interesting I don’t have a particular interest in the subject matter, but I’m glad I gave it a go. The whole subject is just fascinating, the history of drug development, the pitfalls, the triumphs and advances. It gives food for thought about one’s own decisions and casts a cautious eye over the workings of the drug industry. The book flows well, is very accessible but in depth enough to come away having learned a lot. The narration is also excellent.

Fascinating

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Easy for the layman to understand.
Particularly found the history accounts of drugs and medicines fascinating.

Very informative

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facinating and accessible text for anyone interested in how drugs have shaped human history and society. I would highly recommend this to anyone curious about the world of drugs from a scientific, social or historical perspective.
good narrator, well paced and good recoding quality.

facinating book

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Beautifully read and extremely interesting. From early opium use which was a blessing and a curse, then on to other drugs down the ages, several of which were lauded as a great answer to addiction problems that arose from a previous lauded drug...and so the pattern continued over the decades, each " solution" seemingly more dangerous than its predecessor. Really informative.

Fascinating and informative

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From bigotry to big pharma and the corporate profit associated with your desire to live for ever...or not.

The world of "cures" or maybe not.

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Great narration, good inclusions and a levelheaded presentation. For the layperson and pharmaphile alike.

Pharma for everyone

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Anyone interested in pharmaceuticals and the history and use of drugs in general will enjoy this book. Ironically, I learned that the excellent narrator died of a heart condition very young whilst reading the section on heart medicine.

Very interesting and engaging

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Good book with interesting facts.
listened to it a couple of times and will probably give it another listen.

interesting

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Enjoyable and interesting listen. Author plots an interesting course through medicine from the accidental to the increasingly purposeful and profitable world of modern pharma

Interesting take on familiar topic

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