Ten Drugs cover art

Ten Drugs

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

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Ten Drugs

By: Thomas Hager
Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

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 World Pharmacology Mental Health
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Animal Societies cover art
A Nation in Pain cover art
Cancerland cover art
The Man Who Touched His Own Heart cover art
The Alchemy of Air cover art
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health cover art
Firmament cover art
The Drug Hunters cover art
The Molecule of More cover art
Less Medicine, More Health cover art
Bernoulli's Fallacy cover art
Cells Are the New Cure cover art
The Lucky Years cover art
Aroused cover art
Lost Connections cover art
The Mind of a Murderer cover art

What listeners say about Ten Drugs

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    328
  • 4 Stars
    122
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    304
  • 4 Stars
    90
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    301
  • 4 Stars
    97
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must read for science lovers

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very informative

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

facinating book

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and informative

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The world of "cures" or maybe not.

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pharma for everyone

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very interesting and engaging

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

interesting

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting take on familiar topic

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!