25 Discussion Questions for Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (With Analysis) | Chapterly Blog
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 2018, the book is based on Carreyrou's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting for the Wall Street Journal. It details how Theranos raised nearly $1 billion, achieved a $9 billion valuation, and attracted some of the most powerful people in American business and politics to its board — all while its core technology never worked. Patients received inaccurate blood test results that led to real medical harm. These 25 questions are organized by theme. What Readers Most Commonly Get Wrong About Bad Blood "Theranos failed because the technology did not work." This is the surface-level...