The Genius Factory Audiobook By David Plotz cover art

The Genius Factory

The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank

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The Genius Factory

By: David Plotz
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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From the former editor of Slate and CEO of Atlas Obscura comes the unbelievable story of “the Nobel Prize sperm bank” and the children it produced—“a superb book about the quest for genius and, ultimately, family” (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Talking to Strangers).

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

It was the most radical human-breeding experiment in American history. The Repository for Germinal Choice—nicknamed “the Nobel Prize sperm bank”—opened to notorious fanfare in 1980, and for two decades women flocked to it from all over the country to choose a sperm donor from its roster of Nobel-laureate scientists, mathematical prodigies, successful businessmen, and star athletes. But the bank quietly closed its doors in 1999—its founder dead, its confidential records sealed, and the fate of its children and donors unknown. Crisscrossing the country and tracking down previously unknown family members, award-winning Slate columnist David Plotz unfolds the full and astonishing story of the Nobel Prize sperm bank and its founder’s radical scheme to change our world.

Praise for The Genius Factory

“[David] Plotz’s wonderful history of the Nobel sperm bank is filled with wit, pathos and insight. . . . [He acts] as narrator, ethnographer, historian, social critic and even go-between, brokering reunions between children and their genitors.”—Chicago Tribune

“Perfectly pitched—blithe, smart, skeptical, yet entranced by its subject.”—The New York Times

“By turns personal, confounding, creepy, defiant of expectations and touching . . .The Genius Factory isn’t merely curious, it’s useful.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Tense, hilarious, and touching . . . wonderfully readable and eye-opening.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Terrific . . . [a] lively account.”—The Washington Post Book World Evolution & Genetics Biological Sciences Genetics Evolution Science History & Philosophy History Anthropology

Critic reviews

“[Plotz] pulls off the tricky feat of taking readers on a trip both serious and silly. . . . In between the alarming and the absurd, we also get something more, something unexpected: an ongoing, fascinating and deeply felt meditation on fatherhood and family.”—Salon
“The human story is painful and brilliantly related. . . . This is not just another local tale of American freakery, this is the story of a fundamental change in our attitudes to reproduction. Unpretentious, well organised, simply and readably told, this is a fine book about the human spirit and its indomitable pursuit of error.”—The Sunday Times (London)

“I want to start a terrific writers sperm bank, and the first seed I want in the inventory is David Plotz’s. Plotz has it all. He’s an incredible, unstoppable reporter—unrelenting yet always fair and compassionate—and a deft, witty writer. Plotz’s account of the Nobel Prize sperm bank is an absorbing, surprising, deeply human tale of deceit and megalomania, of hopes and dreams and eugenics gone wild.”—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Spook

“A moving, even tender, tribute to the multiple ways in which families are created, revised, and sustained.”—Washingtonian

“Is The Genius Factory a cautionary tale? An exposé? . . . A fun, easy read? A sensitive portrayal of the lengths that people will go to create clan? The answer is all of the above.”—Newsday
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As has been said, the book goes somewhat astray of it's title but that's OK. The characters are real and interesting. Oddly, there are few if any super brain stories here. The Nobel babies struggle to decide what happens now that their "gift" is out, then life happens, pure and simple. Ditto the donors who run the gamut from hoping to someday meet their offspring to those who have all but forgotten they donated at all.

The authors spin on the larger picture represented here is balanced and his first person account is endearing. The book sneaks up on you, it's a good one. I liked the reader a lot as well. I'd definitely recommend this one.

A good read

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Great introduction into the world of AID (artificial insemination by donor), its history, its issues and successes. If anything, I wish the author sounded less judgemental in some of the chapters.

Swallowed it over the weekend

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This was really interesting! Was it eugenics? Yep. Was it the way families were formed before speed banks were a mainstream option? Yep. Does it bring so many moral reckonings? Absolutely!

I enjoyed learning about the Genius Factory and all it’s foibles.

As a fan of Slate and David Plotz, I would have liked to hear this narrated by the author.

Sperm banks are a wealth of contradicting problems

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An interesting listen for finding what had happened to the "breed your own Nobel Winner" idea. The development of the history and insight of expectations that were generally unmet gives a good base for cloning expectations. I had a feeling of closure, and that was satisfying.

Rest of the story..

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I listened to this in the space of three days, partly because I was doing a bit of driving, but also because the story was surprisingly engaging. The stories of some of the progeny play out a bit Jerry Springer/Real Housewives, but on the whole remain very grounded.

Overall this didn't conflict with my expectations of genetic predisposition but it was an interesting romp through an aspect of the fertility industry. There are biographic aspects that are a bit boring and all too predictable even if Plotz does try to balance and contextualise, overall succeeding, which are not as engaging, but a turn for the interesting and intriguing is always around the corner. In the end I guess this is a bit voyeuristic, like reality tv, but it lacks the over the top peaks those programs focus on and remains grounded even if some of the individuals do drag the discussion into that direction.

So, interesting but not surprising, with dramatic interludes but lacking drama (in a good way).

Surprisingly engaging albeit a bit soppy

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