Home » Interviews » Author Gerald Posner and PHARMA

Author Gerald Posner and PHARMA

Introduction to Gerald Posner. 7:09 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Videography: Lee Skye. Music: Dee Yan-Kee. Recorded via Zoom. 10/27/2020, Miami Beach.

Editor’s Note: This video interview with Gerald Posner was recorded by ArtSpeak via Zoom for use at the Miami Book Fair 2020. We are publishing it now on the ArtSpeak website in 2021 because the topics discussed are still extremely important and relevant.

GERALD POSNER is the author of thirteen acclaimed books, including New York Times nonfiction bestsellers Case Closed, Why America Slept and God’s Bankers. Posner was a finalist for the Pulitzer in History. The New York Times said his latest book (2020), PHARMA, was “a withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients…[it] reads like a pharmaceutical version of cops and robbers.”

Posner was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. A Political Science major, he was a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he was also a national debating champion. At Hastings Law School, he was an Honors Graduate and was the Law Review’s Associate Executive Editor. He was a litigation associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore before leaving in 1981 to co-found Posner & Ferrara, a New York public interest law firm. Several years of a pro bono legal representation on behalf of surviving twins of Nazi experiments at the Auschwitz death camp led him to coauthor his first book in 1986, MENGELE: The Complete Story, a bestselling and critically acclaimed biography of the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele. In the past, Posner was a regular panelist on HistoryCENTER, the History Channel’s Sunday current events program. He has been a freelance writer for many news magazines, and a regular contributor to NBC, the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, CBS, and MSNBC. His wife, author, Trisha Posner, works with him on all projects. See the ArtSpeak video interview Trisha regarding her most recent book, The Pharmacist of Auschwitz.

— www.posner.com

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

SERENDIPITY: 1:38 min.

You have presented many of your books at the Miami Book Fair and Books & Books.

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE: 1:35 min.

We should have followed the example of professional sports and placed cardboard cutouts of your adoring fans behind you.

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 0:46 sec.

Another thing that’s lost when you present virtually is the long lines of people that want to step up to a microphone and ask you questions.

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 3:27 min.

On November 22, 2016, the anniversary of the assassination of President John Kennedy, you debated Roger Stone at Books & Books regarding who killed JFK. What was that experience like?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 2:02 min.

Focusing on your current book, “PHARMA,” when did the idea first occur to you to write a book about the Pharmaceutical Industry?

SELF-CONFIDENCE: 3:30 min.

What was your motivation to write “PHARMA”? Did you have an endgame in mind when you started doing your research?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:31 min.

Your wife, Trisha, works with you on all your books. How did her contributions and roles differ on “PHARMA”?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 1:43 min.

At what point did you realize the scope of the pharmaceutical industry might be broader than you imagined?

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 2:09 min.

If I had to remember all of those pharmaceutical names my head would have exploded and I would have abandoned the project.

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 3:56 min.

How did you structure your research and writing for “PHARMA”?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:47 min.

Are wars great incubators for the discovery and production of new drugs?

RESILIENCE: 3:21 min.

Was there a moment when Big Pharma became aware of your activities and tried to restrict your access to information?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:57 min.

In what ways has Big Pharma tried to muzzle you?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:38 min.

Is it true that Big Pharma cultivates and manages both sides of the aisle in Congress?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 0:58 sec.

The complicity of politicians in enabling profit-making by Big Pharma is so disappointing.

CRITICAL THINKING: 3:22 min.

Why are we being flooded with pharmaceutical ads on broadcast media these days, when alcohol and tobacco have been banned from advertising?

CRITICAL THINKING: 5:43 min.

Doctors used to be the most sainted of professionals. Did Big Pharma undermine the ethical and moral code of the medical profession?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 2:01 min.

Is there one person or product associated with Big Pharma that is readily identifiable as the worst thing that Pharma has done?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:41 min.

What percentage of doctors are guilty of over-prescribing drugs, and what should be their punishment?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:47 min.

Where do cannabinoids fit into the pharmaceutical industry?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 2:15 min.

Who are some of the inspiring activists doing battle with Big Pharma?

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 1:31 min.

What are the demographics of the audience for “PHARMA”?

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 1:28 min.

Since Big Pharma is a global topic, what’s been the reception for your book abroad?

COMMUNITY VALUES: 2:03 min.

In an ideal world, what kind of impact would you like “PHARMA” to have?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 3:08 min.

What are the top five worst things that the pharmaceutical industry has done?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:54 min.

You were a lawyer before you became a writer. Can you explain how people who subverted the college admission process served jail time, while Big Pharma executives responsible for killing people walk free?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:45 min.

Have you heard any viable strategies for stemming the opioid crisis?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:59 min.

What are your thoughts about the October, 2020 legal settlement with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma?

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY: 1:40 min.

What’s on your drawing board?