‘The Dropout’ Creator Liz Meriwether & EP Rebecca Jarvis On The Rise & Fall Of “Audacious” Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes – Crew Call Podcast

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The Searchlight series The Dropout drops on Hulu tomorrow, March 3, at an intriguing time, close to two months after Therano founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on four out of 11 federal charges, specifically charged with defrauding investors.Holmes’ tale is that of a Silicon Valley tragic hero, a Mark Zuckerberg in reverse; a brilliant Stamford University dropout who raised masses of money, and made all sorts of political connections in an effort to revolutionize blood testing using small volumes of blood from a fingerprick.

The Edison blood testing device was the aorta of this idea, however, she could never get it off the ground. At one point in time, Theranos was valued at $9 billion and had Walgreens as a major retail partner in 2013.

On today’s Crew Call, we talk to series creator, showrunner and EP Liz Meriwether and Rebecca Jarvis, based on the ABC New Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent’s podcast, The Dropout, which was launched in 2019 after the SEC charged Theranos and Holmes with deceiving investors by “massive fraud” over the accuracy of its blood-testing technology.“Everyone walks away still sort of thinking this woman is an enigma,” Jarvis tells us about her fasciation with the aspiring Silicon Valley trailblazer.“To see so many young women initially look up to Elizabeth Holmes, and to see the downfall, you don’t want to see women be set back,” says Jarvis about aspiring female Silicon Valley pioneers in the wake of the Theranos founder, “There is a thing such as conditioning, and it is something that other women, other founders are talking about.”“She had this audacious goal that was suppose to change the world for the better,” said Jarvis, “And I think as a journalist, it’s