Insulin: The Crooked Timber

A History from Thick Brown Muck to Wall Street Gold

By: Kersten T. Hall

Narrated by: Mike Cooper

Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. One hundred years after a milestone medical discovery, Insulin: The Crooked Timber tells the story of how insulin was transformed from what one clinician called "thick brown muck" into the very first drug to be produced using genetic engineering, one which would earn the founders of the US biotech company Genentech a small fortune.

Yet when Canadian doctor Frederick Banting was told in 1923 that he had won the Nobel Prize for this life-saving discovery, he was furious. For the prize had not been awarded to him alone—but jointly with a man whom he felt had no right to this honor.

Taking the listener on a fascinating journey, starting with the discovery of insulin in the 1920s through to the present day, Insulin: The Crooked Timber reveals a story of monstrous egos, toxic career rivalries, and a few unsung heroes such as two little-known scientists whose work on wool fibers, carried out in a fume-filled former stable, not only proved to be crucial in unravelling the puzzle of insulin but ushered in a revolution in biology.

©2022 Kersten T. Hall (P)2022 Tantor

Very interesting, but sometimes too technical

I wanted to understand more about insulin, particularly given the “insulin costs too much” issue currently in the news. Didn’t get as much insight into that as hoped, but did learn a lot about diabetes, the discovery of insulin and the extensive work required to make it into a deliverable drug.

Things to complain about:

It can be a fire hose of technical detail. I actually slowed it down to 0.9X speed to try to understand better, and left the whole book at that speed. (Usually I speed them up).

Too much info on jealousies among researchers. Doesn’t add much to understanding the subject.

Despite those issues, I recommend this book.