Donald Kirsch: Getting to Know a Drug Hunter

We’ve all been there. You are at a party and someone asks, “So, what do you do?” Dr. Kirsch always found it hard to explain his career as a discovery scientist. He decided to write a book about it.  The Drug Hunters: An Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines is a colorful, fact-filled narrative history of the search for new medicines from our Neolithic forebears to the professionals of today, and from quinine and aspirin to Viagra, Prozac, and Lipitor.  

We talk to Dr. Kirsch about his own experiences as a scientist, the daunting odds of finding an actual medicine, and the additional human hurdles that can make these discoveries even harder. He also talks to us about the things he learned as he wrote The Drug Hunters with his co-author Ogi Ogas, Ph.D.  

Credits:

Sound Design: Jacob Tompkins (losstudiosnc@gmail.com)  

Music: “Origins” Per Kilstofte https://machinimasound.com/ 

“AS – Tribal O1” Aaron Spencer https://machinimasound.com/ 

Graphic Design: Heather McCullen (heathermccullen@salemoaks.com)  

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