Robert and Ben Bowlin sit-down to talk about controversial blood plasma donation program in the Arkansas Prison system under Governor Clinton that killed more than 2 9/11s worth of Canadians.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What controversial topic is discussed regarding blood plasma?
Oh my God, welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast where me and my guest for this week, the great Ben Bolin, are about to get targeted and murdered by the Clinton crime family. Ben, how are you doing today? Finally, you know what I mean?
Finally, yes. We've been living the dream, dying the dream. Yes, here we go. Yeah, it's great to it's great to be back. It's great to hang out with you. I was thinking of you and the team recently because I don't know whether you recall, Robert, but know these many years ago when you were just beginning a podcast called Behind the Bastards.
You graced us with with an appearance, a cameo, dropped a hot 16 on a show we do called Ridiculous. Yes. Do you remember that?
I do remember that. Yes. About the governor of or the founder, one of the founders of Oregon, if I'm not mistaken.
You're right. Yes. Oregon originated as a supremacist.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, today we're not talking about that, although we are talking about something where racism is involved. We're talking about I wasn't entirely joking about the Clintons. They are they are intricately involved in this story, or at least Bill is. But Ben, what do you know about the blood industry?
Do you mean like- Ben Bolin, host of Stuff They Don't Want You to Know and Ridiculous History and a bunch of other stuff. All right, all right. You mentioned one of them, yes. Like as a fan or just the industry overall?
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Chapter 2: Why is blood a major export for the U.S.?
Saving like two and a half million babies. That's great. Donating blood. Great. Blood as a commodity is what we're talking about here. And there's some deeply problematic aspects of it. And I wanted to start by saying, where do you think blood lies on the list of US exports by value?
Ooh, by value, not by liquid weight. Okay.
No, no, blood and blood products. How much of a chunk of the U.S. economy do you think that would be?
Clever, clever question, Robert, because that would factor in things like plasma. Right, yes, of course. Okay, so with that, I would... Gosh, it's a difficult question. It's a difficult question. I don't know the answer.
It is the ninth largest export for the entire United States. Holy shit. Yes. It beats like coal. Blood is a massive industry in the United States. It is like, again, it's one of our largest exports. Blood products make up 1.8% of all U.S. exports, which is up about half a percent from where it was 10 years ago. And blood exports are valued at about $37 billion today. It's much larger.
I did not realize when I started how big a... That's a significant piece of the economy.
That's top 10. Yes. That's top 10.
Yes, yes. Oh, man. And here's the thing. That's shocking when you just like, I never would have thought of... If I had been asked to guess the 10 largest exports, blood wouldn't have been on my list. But here's the thing. Hmm. The United States provides 70% of the blood plasma used worldwide to make medicine. The plasma? Yes, yes.
70% of all blood plasma used on the planet in medicine comes from here. We are the largest exporter of blood products on the planet, and no one else comes very close.
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Chapter 3: How does the blood donation system exploit vulnerable populations?
Chapter 4: What are the dangers of using prison-derived plasma?
And this is one of those things where we're talking about how messed up a lot of this industry is. It's not like some messed up industries where it's like, well, maybe we don't all need this product that the U.S. puts out. Or maybe there's alternatives to this product that has harmful consequences. We do really need a lot of blood and blood products. It's very important for medicine.
A crucial part of keeping people alive. So you can't deny... There's no argument to be made that we don't need to be producing all of this blood. Somebody fucking has to. The problem is that whenever you've got an industry this big, you're going to find people try to find ways to maximize their profits and minimize their costs.
And when you're talking about blood, that's going to lead you to do some fucked up shit that has some hideous consequences, right? Yes. And that's the story that we're telling today.
This week's episode is going to explain why and how a huge chunk of the global blood economy came to rely specifically on a bunch of prison inmates in Arkansas, watched over by a handful of Clinton associates who saw their job as basically a bribe for political loyalty and how this ultimately killed multiple 9-11s worth of Canadians, English people, and other folks around the planet.
This is a dark story, and it's all set in the Arkansas prison system. And it all starts with this immutable fact, which is that human beings die without blood. The average adult has about four to five liters of whole blood in their body at any point in time.
And while we've always known that like you need blood, medical science has tended to focus throughout most of history on like maybe people have too much blood. Maybe they have bad blood and you got to like add in good blood to replace losses. It was a messy process of figuring out like how blood works. Yeah. Yeah.
The first blood transfusion, as far as we know, was attempted in 1628 by an English physician. And I say attempted because it did not work. And I don't think that's a – like it was a messy process, you know, trying to figure out how to do this. And they weren't always using human blood, right? Because if you're like an early doctor in this period –
It might not make you the logical thing wouldn't be that like, well, obviously, a lamb's blood and a human's blood are fundamentally different. And we shouldn't be putting lamb's blood into people. You might not make that jump. Right. Right. Just it all just looks like blood to me.
You know, just like if you put like blood from somebody and somebody who cannot take a donation from them, if you're dealing with 16, you don't know about blood types. How would that possibly come to you?
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Chapter 5: What historical events influenced the blood industry?
Well, I mean, yeah, actually, this one, right?
Chapter 6: How does capitalism affect blood donation practices?
Folks, folks, Robert just did pull it up. And while you know it is to his right, it is to his right.
Keep it near me. You never know. You know, my motto, ABS, baby, always be sacrificing. You never you never know when which God, you know, Babylonian deities. There's all sorts of gods out there that need blood.
Chapter 7: What role does regulation play in the blood plasma industry?
You know, when I when I when I when I'm more recovered from surgery and I'm back to filming, I got to show everyone that knife you got me as a surgery present.
Chapter 8: How did the AIDS crisis impact blood donation policies?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a nice one. Yeah. That's a Ford Bontempski buoy.
It's a really nice knife. Yeah. Oh, wow.
Yeah, the Kiwis in the audience will be impressed. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.
I'm Soledad O'Brien, and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Towpath, I'm taking you back to 1964, to the cold case of artist Mary Pinchot Meyer.
She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
It turns out Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
John F. Kennedy. Listen to Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O'Brien on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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