Backfired: Attention Deficit

By: Leon Neyfakh, Prologue Projects

Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh, Arielle Pardes

ADHD may be the defining diagnosis of our time. According to the latest data, more than 10 percent of American children (that’s 7.1 million kids) have been diagnosed with ADHD. And the number of stimulant prescriptions for adults in their 30s has shot up nearly threefold since 2012, hitting 15.3 million in 2021. It’s increasingly common to hear people who haven’t been diagnosed at all say they’re “so ADHD,” as if it’s more of a personality trait—or a zodiac sign—than a medical condition. In recent years, this explosion in demand has combined with other factors—including federally mandated limits on production—to create a widespread stimulant shortage in the US.

In the second installment of Backfired, cohosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes look at the unintended consequences of the ADHD industry and trace the surprising path that brought us here.

Backfired: Attention Deficit is the latest podcast from Prologue Projects, the award-winning team behind Slow Burn, Fiasco, and Think Twice: Michael Jackson, and the second season of the Backfired franchise, a show about what happens when solving one problem inadvertently leads to a host of new ones. Backfired: Attention Deficit follows the acclaimed first season Backfired: The Vaping Wars.

For a list of books, articles, and documentaries used to research Backfired: Attention Deficit, please visit bit.ly/backfiredbib.

Backfired: Attention Deficit was hosted and produced by Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes. The executive producer was Andrew Parsons. The senior producer and story editor was Madeline Kaplan. Producers were Dustin Desoto and Danielle Hewitt. Fact-checking by Maggie Duffy. Research by Frank Zhou. Archival research by Francis Carr. Theme song and score composed by Emma Munger. Audio mix by Aman Sahota. Backfired was co-created for Prologue Projects by Kim Gittleson.

©2024 Prologue Projects (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

Thurough & well rounded research

The piece was well researched and presented multiple points of view, leaving The Listener to draw their own conclusions. A fascinating history of ADHD.

well researched, well presented.

I listen to a lot of podcasts. this one has been outstanding in the depth of research, the clarity of presentation, tiny, the waving together of disparate threads, and the pacing, which kept it very understandable but also very dynamic.

Feel pumped listening to this! Want rounded follow up!

Engaging take down - hit piece about how Pharma, Med Health, and Social Media industries conspire to confuse folks into believing that synthetic Rx meth and coke alternatives are good for us - while retaining that they do actually help a lot of people. Way to ride the line! Loved it! I signed up for more with another episode.

Feels like listening to the most entertaining audio- docuseries with music and great sound bites from direct sources, but they leave some key sources and facts out and by the end it drags on like an indictment of the medical, social media & Pharma industries for like tricking anxious or depressed people into hoarding all the best psych meds for themselves, causing shortages “for people who really need them”.

I’d press them to interview old guard Stanford University professors and researchers who can define and explain ADHD so clearly and concisely according to medical definitions that even a monkey like me could understand.

They also leave out the new research on alternative treatments and how much diet and physical exercise, fresh air & sunlight, can impact ADHD, especially processed foods like red and blue dyes, sugar compounds…

Love the fact that this audiobook’s not just medical jargon and it goes deep into the social and historic waves of research and products, and urges us to ask the bigger questions about what ADHD means and will mean to society’s future.

I wish they’d add chapters about the possible link to autism…

I wanted to hear more.
Loved it! So comprehensive with the zoom ins on case studies and zoom outs of societal historic and socioeconomic changes!

But in the end I felt no better equipped for the decision of whether or not to medicate my 7 y/o who has such mysterious psych issues from a complicated birth that we’re on our way to Amen Clinics to get him scanned.

Did SPECT brain scans or EEGs or Cat scans or extensive 4 hour ADHD testing make it into your series? I might have missed those chapters.

Thanks. Please fill in the blanks with a follow up!!! Loved this! I felt pumped listening to it!

Excellent!

Incredibly well researched and excellently presented on a seriously growing topic. Thank you for bringing awareness.

Unbiased and Professional

There’s so many good things to say about this! I love the way they spun the story and connected their various interviews. I thought the hosts did an awesome job of going back to the beginning and getting interviews even from people in that time period. They presented both sides of ADHD really well, both with interviews in support and against the medications. I was hooked from start to finish; they have a knack for podcasting and audiobooks.

Title a bit misleading

I thought the series was going to be about ADHD itself, but really it was about the misuse and abuse of ADHD stimulants, and overly irresponsible diagnosing. Most of the information about stimulants here is about people who don’t really have ADHD, but for those who do, stimulants can be life changing. There wasn’t much talk about that except for a couple sentences here and there. For me I spent 5 hours waiting to hear the positive sides, so I felt a bit shorted.

muy bueno

es una muy buena investigación en la historia del ADHD. el formato de entrega esta muy bien adaptado al formato de audiolibro. la posibilidad de revisar las referencias (libros, artículos, etc) en una pagina aparte es sumamente útil

Insightful!

This audiobook is a balanced overview with insightful interview and history on ADD and ADHD... definitely recommend.

Excellent research

I was diagnosed with adult ADHD when I was 26 years-old. While the medication helped me a lot in some ways such as with focusing and understanding as in reading, comprehension there were negatives, such as it made me feel very jittery. I know I have some symptoms of ADHD, but don’t know if I was really on the spectrum that I should have been diagnosed with it, and given drugs. I didn’t like the idea of being dependent on drugs, and I went off of the medication after less than a year. I think the book offered important research, and insights into how influenced by corrupt pharmaceutical companies, doctors and even non-medical individuals are irresponsibly misdiagnosing ADHD and prescribing drugs for it.

All sides

All sides of many issues were covered. I really liked the original tapes of many interviewees. Very thorough.