Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything

The history of endocrinology is replete with daring medical sleuths, desperate patients and unfortunately swindlers. There are doctors who have tinkered with hormones to devise life-saving therapies and shed light on the inner workings of our bodies. And yet, along the way, there have been hucksters exploiting the seeds of these discoveries to peddle quack cures touting all sorts of promises, including libido-boosters and anti-aging remedies. Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein will separate the hype from the hope and elucidate how discoveries and mishaps in the past shape our perceptions, our hopes, and our fears about hormones and hormones therapies today.

About the Speaker

Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, MPH, is an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a lecturer at Yale University. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate and other national publications. She is the author of Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank (W.W. Norton: 2010). Her forthcoming book, also to be published by W.W. Norton, is about the history of hormones.