207. Fentanyl Inc. | Ben Westhoff

Ben traveled to China to buy some fentanyl precursors. What he learned shapes health policy to this day. Now he is banned from China travel.

Ben Westhoff is an award-winning investigative reporter whose books are taught around the country and have been translated around the world, including Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic, the bombshell first book about the fentanyl epidemic. He has advised officials at the top levels of government about the opioid crisis, writes the Substack newsletter Drugs + Hip-Hop, and is currently directing a film about the opioid treatment drug naltrexone, called Antagonist. His book Original Gangstas: Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube and the Birth of West Coast Rap is the definitive book about West Coast Hip-Hop. He has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and the Guardian, and been interviewed as an expert commentator on CNN, NPR, and CSPAN, and on full, dedicated episodes of Fresh Air and the Joe Rogan Experience.