A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing &#160; The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions&mdash;Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm. Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury. Forty years later, Raymond&rsquo;s son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valium&mdash;co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug&rsquo;s addictiveness&mdash;was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die. This is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces&#160;of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d&rsquo;Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.&#160; Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama&mdash;baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful. Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America&rsquo;s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world&rsquo;s great fortunes.

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, read by Patrick Radden Keefe

Filmmaker and screenwriter Ned Benson joins Daniel Ford on the show to discuss his new film "The Greatest Hits." 

He chats about his screenwriting process, which has involved working with the likes of Jessica Chastain and Scarlet Johansson, how he rounded up the terrific ensemble cast for the “The Greatest Hits,” and his approach to collaborating with said cast as a director.

Episode 650: Ned Benson, Writer/Director of 'The Greatest Hits'

This month, Dave Pezza is joined by none other than Daniel Ford, author and host of the Writer’s Bone podcast. Daniel returns once again to NovelClass to discuss a pair of short story collections titled Men Without Women. This first is Ernest Hemingway’s famous collection, first published in 1927. The second is by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, originally published in the Japanese in 2014.

4.03: Haruki Murakami & Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women

Aspiring writers, best-selling scribes, and award-winning screenwriters confront existential dread and writing angst! A podcast for the conversationalist.

Episode 650: Ned Benson, Writer/Director of 'The Greatest Hits'

Writer's Bone

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