29 min listen
Gertrude Elion and Baruch Blumberg: Vaccine Hunters
FromWhat It Takes®
ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Apr 20, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Millions of lives are saved each year with the vaccines developed by these two Nobel Prize recipients. Their discoveries were some of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century. Gertrude Elion was a biochemist, who unraveled the mysteries and mechanisms of leukemia, herpes, gout, malaria & meningitis in order to create effective medications. She transformed kidney transplantation, by creating the first immune suppressant to prevent rejection by organ recipients. And her work led to the first successful HIV/AIDS drug. Baruch Blumberg was a physician who traveled the world studying the interplay of genetics and environment on disease response, and along way discovered the virus that was causing Hepatitis B - a leading cause of fatal kidney disease and cancer. He then created a vaccine for it, and is believed to have prevented more cancer deaths than any other human being.
Released:
Apr 20, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Benazir Bhutto: Paying the Ultimate Price: Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, just after she returned from exile in the hopes of becoming Prime Minister of Pakistan for the third time. She had held the position for the first time in the 1980’s, and then again in the 90’s. When she was still in exile, unsure whether she would ever return to Pakistan to run again, Bhutto sat down with the Academy of Achievement for a long and candid interview. In this episode of What It Takes, you’ll hear the highlights of that conversation. She describes how her childhood fed her belief in democracy and women’s rights, as well as her abhorrence of violence and poverty. She talks openly about the failings of her leadership when she was Prime Minister and the lessons they taught her. It is haunting to hear Benazir’s profound words here and know that Pakistan might have been on a different course were she still alive. “I feel that society is like a canvas, and that if you get into office you' by What It Takes®