The Genius Factory
The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
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The Genius Factory
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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Written by:
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David Plotz
About this listen
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)
©2005 David Plotz (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.Critic Reviews
"Plotz has fun poking holes in the eugenic vision of the repository's founder....More captivating, however, is Plotz's recounting of the efforts of the women who visited the repository to discover the identities of their donors. As he gets to know a cluster of families and donors, Plotz reaches insightful conclusions about the unforeseen emotional consequences of artificial insemination....The attempt to breed genius babies may have an aura of surreal humor, but the sensitive narration always reminds us of the real lives affected, and created, through this oddball utopian scheme." (Publishers Weekly)
“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)
“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)