Audiobook Review – Pandora’s Lab by Paul A. Offit MD, Narrated by Greg Tremblay (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Non-fiction/Science
Length: 7 hours and 51 minutes
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Release Date: April 04, 2017
ASIN : B06XGJFNQM
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible Plus
Rating: 4/5 stars
“What happens when ideas presented as science lead us in the wrong direction? History is filled with brilliant ideas that gave rise to disaster, and this book explores the most fascinating – and significant – missteps.
Pandora’s Lab takes us from opium’s heyday as the pain reliever of choice to recognition of opioids as a major cause of death in the United States; from the rise of trans fats as the golden ingredient for tastier, cheaper food to the heart disease epidemic that followed; and from the cries to ban DDT for the sake of the environment to an epidemic-level rise in world malaria.
These are today’s sins of science – as deplorable as mistaken ideas from the past such as advocating racial purity or using lobotomies as a cure for mental illness. These unwitting errors add up to seven lessons both cautionary and profound, explained by renowned author and speaker Paul A. Offit. Offit uses these lessons to investigate how we can separate good science from bad, using as case studies some of today’s most controversial creations: e-cigarettes, GMOs, and drug treatments for ADHD.
For every “Aha!” moment that should have been an “Oh no”, this book is an engrossing account of how science has been misused disastrously – and how we can learn to use its power for good.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this audiobook through Audible Plus.
Audiobook Quality (4/5): The narration for this audiobook is fine; it’s easy to understand and follow.
Story (4/5): This is a series of seven stories about amazing discoveries in science that also led to huge tragedies. They are best listened to individually over time. My family really enjoyed learning about some of these things when we were listening to this an hour or two at a time. Listening to them one after another (on a long car trip) got a bit boring and repetitive. Still the stories were well put together and interesting, even if the last couple did feel a bit longer than they needed to be.
Writing Style (4/5): The stories can wander a bit from the main topic but are generally well put together. Offit makes the science easy to understand and does a good job of explaining chemistry matters in a way that my whole family easily understood. We all learned a lot and enjoyed some of the things that we learned. Towards the end this started to feel a bit long, the recap at the end felt repetitive and we could have done without it.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I am glad I listened to this. I learned a lot and most of it was very interesting. While I don’t plan on seeking out more of Offit’s books (I don’t listen to a lot of non-fiction), I would definitely consider listening to more of his books if I stumbled across them in the future. This was well done and easy to listen to but does require a bit of concentration. It’s not really one of those audiobooks you can listen to absently while doing other things.
