Elizabeth Holmes, convicted of fraud, is our latest seller of false hope

Perhaps it's only right for a story about a convicted criminal to start with a confession.

The following is a partial list of the media I have consumed on the topic of Elizabeth Holmes (no relation), recently convicted of four fraud-related charges for lying to investors in her company, Theranos.

• The John Carreyrou book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
• The John Carreyrou podcast Bad Blood: The Final Chapter
• The ABC podcast The Dropout
• The Alex Gibney documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

I have listened to the Carreyrou book on audio — twice. I have watched the Gibney documentary, I believe, three times. If Theranos Fever is a disease, I am the patient who kept going back and putting my mouth directly on the water fountain, no matter how many times they tell me to stop, making myself sick all over again.

The draw of the scam

Part of this, I admit, is rooted in a more general weakness for stories about brazen grabs for other, , . There were two documentaries in 2019 about the ill-fated Fyre Festival, and I watched both. I would have watched three. (Who am I kidding? I would have watched ten. That iconic and possibly apocryphal !) I love , about rich types who paid small fortunes for counterfeit wine, and , about a massive bamboozle involving paintings.