Welcome to Grit Nation. I’m Joe Cadwell the writer, producer, and host of the show and on today’s episode I have the pleasure of speaking with author Kathleen McLaughlin, about her new book titled; Blood Money – The Story of Life, Death and Profit Inside America’s Blood Industry.

In her book Kathleen turns the lights on a healthcare crisis hidden in plain sight and reveals a stunning example of economic inequality in action.

Intertwined with her own story as a working-class American managing a chronic illness, she finds an industry that targets and exploits America’s most marginalized communities to feed the hunger for human blood plasma.

Over 20 million pay-for-extractions occur each year of American blood, which is then processed, and packaged for sale as part of a $30 billion-dollar global industry.

Blood Money reveals the controversial and unbalanced power structures behind the blood industry.

From China’s blood black market to Silicon Valley tech startups, this electrifying expose demonstrates the shadowy overlap between big medicine and big business while painting a searing portrait of the extent to which American industry is eager to feed on the country’s most vulnerable.

The Show Notes

Kathleen McLaughlin
https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Kathleen-McLaughlin/179283499

Blood Money
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blood-Money/Kathleen-McLaughlin/9781982171964