Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, an obsessive guide

In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes was the subject of exciting articles touting the ways in which her innovative company, Theranos, specializing in blood testing, could change the world. She was the youngest self-styled billionaire in the world, her photo printed on magazine covers, as she was hailed like the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Today, it is more likely to make comparisons with Billy McFarland or false heiress Anna Delvey.

Since Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou wrote his first investigative article on Theranos in 2015, describing the company as a carefully constructed house of cards, people are fascinated by the woman who left Stanford and founded the company at 19 years old. Holmes was the subject of Carreyrou's bestseller Bad blood, ABC News podcast "The Dropout" and more recently "The Inventor", a documentary premiered on HBO on March 18th (Jennifer Lawrence would be about to play in a movie version of Bad blood, directed by Adam McKay.)

Despite the overabundance of content, Holmes herself has been elusive since the federal authorities accused her of fraud in March 2018 – which only feeds the desire to know everything about her. Is she a sociopath? Did she have just illusions of unfortunate and uncontrollable greatness? Is it the product of a culture that values ​​marketing – products and individuals – compared to many others?

And the fact that she is a woman adds to the plot. Holmes bore the marks of conventional beauty standards: thinness, blond, whiteness, youth. But she also deepened her voice and adopted the black and black turtleneck uniform, made famous by Steve Jobs. In this way, her femininity allowed her to distinguish herself in a space dominated by men without being perceived as a purely badual object.

Where McFarland's ability to defraud people is often attributed to his charisma and charm (although it can be argued, after watching the documentaries about him, that these qualities were overestimated), those who describe Holmes use a language that implies that she has a magic on her, that she had the habit of seducing powerful men. The epilogue of Bad blood describes Holmes as having cast a "spell" on his powerful male investors and his board members. ABC's recent "20/20" episode regularly zooms in on photographs of her bright blue eyes, implying that she used them to attract men like former Secretary of State George Shultz, Stanford professor Channing Roberston and former Trump cabinet member James Mattis. orbit. A recent Forbes article calls Holmes a "charming sociopath who bewitched" these men.

To paint Holmes as a witch-like creature allows culture to see it as a rare and inexplicable exception, rather than what it is: a privileged white lady who has made her way to acclaim in a country desirous to raise people like her.

We live in a world characterized by a constant scam, so often perpetrated by rich and attractive whites, and so perfectly integrated into our culture that these repeated frauds scarcely register. There are Instagram models that sell you tea and nutritional supplements. There are women with whom you went to high school who post your messages on Facebook with "an exciting business opportunity". There are parents who cheat their kids in elite colleges at once legal and criminal means.

The draw of Elizabeth Holmes and her contemporaries from the millennial scoundrel is not just the fact that they have committed shameless frauds with a staggering level of confidence. It's not just because their whiteness, wealth and youth have allowed them to show their credibility without actually having it. They are the living and inspiring logical conclusions of the modern American dream. A scam indeed.

If you too are both repelled and fascinated by the Holmes and Theranos story, you have many resources to satisfy your obsession. Explore them below:

"The inventor: looking for blood in Silicon Valley" directed by Alex Gibney for HBO

How to consume it: On HBO.

What you will get: Although I say it should have been a miniseries, not a single document – there is simply too much information to try to reduce it in two hours – "The Inventor" is still worth watching . The HBO documentary paints a picture, not only of Holmes herself, but also of the culture of Silicon Valley that she came from and which strengthened her. The film does not explore Holmes' motives, but it draws an interesting parallel between Holmes and Thomas Edison, another inventor who promised too much before he could deliver. The other fantastic thing about "The Inventor" is that viewers hear the audio of Roger Parloff's reporters and Ken Auletta's interviews with Holmes before she's exposed. Call all the nerds of the media.

Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley start-up, by John Carreyrou

How to consume it: Buy the best-selling book in your bookstore or online. You can also listen to the Audible audiobook, that I have now done * several * times.

What you will get: If you really want to understand the story of Holmes and Theranos, Bad blood is a must-read. No other journalist has studied his company anymore, and Carreyrou, who first told the story of Theranos' fraud in the Wall Street Journal in 2015, is a brilliant storyteller. The book reads like a thriller and contains a wealth of information that you simply can not incorporate into a limited-edition podcast or a two-hour movie.

"The stall" organized by Rebecca Jarvis for ABC Radio and ABC News "Nightline"

How to consume it: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

What you will get: The first episodes are a bit like retreading information that Bad blood explore much more in detail. The actual value of Jarvis's podcast is in subsequent episodes, which incorporate updates from the saga that is several years in the making Bad blood has been published. Auditors also hear about an older clbadmate from Holmes and a former colleague who met her more recently. It is this understanding of Holmes' psychology, both past and present, that is so captivating.

"The stall" on "20/20"

How to consume it: Sure ABC or Hulu.

What you will get: A 90 minute dive into the history of Holmes and Theranos. If you've listened to the podcast, you'll recognize some of the audio in this version of "The Dropout", but it's not just a recitation of the pod. Like "The Inventor", this piece enjoys its presence on television, allowing viewers to see and hear the people who worked at Theranos and who already existed in the orbit of Holmes. The episode also discusses Holmes' education and the mythology of his family's history, which "The Inventor" has largely evaded.

"How Theranos M misled me" by Roger Parloff

How to consume it: On the Fortune website, right here.

What you will get: An honest reflection on a journalist's past with Holmes and on the role he played in legitimizing it. Parloff, who is featured extensively in "The Inventor," has clearly reflected on the time spent with Holmes and the reporting he has done on her and Theranos, including the June 2014 Fortune cover that propelled her to glory. In December 2015, a few months after Carreyrou's first talk on Theranos, Parloff wrote a new play: a mea culpa.

"In the hive with Nick Bilton" February 19, 2019, and June 7, 2018, episodes

How to consume it: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

What you will get: The June episode is a deep conversation with Bad blood author John Carreyrou. It has always been an excellent interview, which is definitely worth it, but the most recent episode is particularly interesting, as it plunges listeners into the last months and days of Theranos.

"She never turns back: inside the last months of Elizabeth Holmes in Theranos," by Nick Bilton

How to consume it: Vanity Fair. Discover the original piece right here. (And for a bonus follow-up on Holmes partying at Burning Man, head over right here.)

What you will get: Bilton describes the atmosphere that prevailed in the last days and weeks of his term as CEO of Theranos. Despite the mbadive fallout from Carreyrou's reports and subsequent inquiries, Holmes continued to function as though her initial dream for Theranos was still safe, and as if she were still an inventor of high-flying celebrities. Bilton describes Holmes' team of badistants, her newly acquired huskie, Balto, whom she began to call a wolf, and her disconcerting shredder attitude, even as everything seemed to be falling apart. This is also the first article that mentions Holmes' recent commitment, "to a young heir to the hospitality," revealed William Evans – a fact that has become fertile ground for amateur investigators on Reddit and Twitter.