25 Discussion Questions for Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (With Analysis) | Chapterly Blog
Quick Answer: The strongest Bad Blood discussions resist treating Elizabeth Holmes as a singular villain and instead examine the system that produced and protected her — the celebrity board with no scientific expertise, the investors who skipped due diligence, the Silicon Valley norms that rewarded exaggeration. Frame the conversation around a single question: at each stage, who could have stopped Theranos, and why didn't they? That moves a group past the spectacle of the fraud and into the governance, incentive, and whistleblowing failures that actually let it continue for over a decade. John Carreyrou's Bad Blood is one of the most gripping business books of the twenty-first century, and Bad Blood discussion questions force readers to confront uncomfortable truths about how fraud thrives in plain sight. The story of Theranos — the blood-testing startup that promised to revolutionize healthcare but delivered nothing but deception — is a case study in how charisma, ambition, and willful ignorance can combine to create catastrophic harm. Whether you are part of a business book club, an ethics course, or a leadership development program, these questions are designed to move beyond the spectacle and into the systemic failures that enabled Elizabeth Holmes's fraud. Published in...