
Backfired: The Vaping Wars
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Leon Neyfakh
-
Arielle Pardes
About this listen
When two Stanford graduate students set out to create a new kind of cigarette that wouldn’t kill them, they didn’t foresee all the obstacles that lay ahead — or the powerful forces their invention would unleash. Nearly 10 years after the launch of the JUUL, Backfired: The Vaping Wars asks: Could e-cigarettes have been the solution to one of the world’s most pressing public health problems—or was this technology doomed to introduce a whole new generation to nicotine, and end up perpetuating an intractable addiction?
Backfired is the latest podcast from Prologue Projects, the award-winning team behind Slow Burn, Fiasco, and Think Twice: Michael Jackson. Backfired is a show about the business of unintended consequences—what happens when solving one problem inadvertently leads to a host of new ones?
In this tale of opportunity, addiction, and good intentions gone awry, hosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes offer a definitive account of Juul Labs’ rise and fall, as well as the ubiquitous illegal vape market that sprouted up in its wake. Through dozens of original interviews, they gain access to the key players who got swept up—sometimes unwittingly—in the firestorm that reshaped the culture of nicotine.
For a list of books, articles, and documentaries used in the research for this podcast, please visit bit.ly/backfiredbib.
The senior producer of Backfired: The Vaping Wars was Sam Lee. The editor was Kim Gittleson. Producers were Dustin Desoto, Leon Neyfakh, Arielle Pardes, and Katherine Sullivan. The assistant producer was Arlene Arevalo. Sound design by Andrew Parsons. Archival research and fact-checking by Francis Carr. Theme song and score composed by Emma Munger. Audio mix by Erica Huang. Backfired was co-created for Prologue Projects by Kim Gittleson.
©2024 Prologue Projects (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC
About the Host

About the Host
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Backfired: Attention Deficit
- By: Leon Neyfakh, Prologue Projects
- Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh, Arielle Pardes
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
ADHD may be the defining diagnosis of our time. According to the latest data, more than 10 percent of American children (that’s 7.1 million kids) have been diagnosed with ADHD. And the number of stimulant prescriptions for adults in their 30s has shot up nearly threefold since 2012. In recent years, this explosion in demand has combined with other factors to create a widespread stimulant shortage in the US. In the second installment of Backfired, cohosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes look at the unintended consequences of the ADHD industry, and trace the surprising path that brought us here.
-
-
Avoid if recently diagnosed with ADHD as an Adult
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-24
By: Leon Neyfakh, and others
-
Pipeline to Power
- The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court
- By: Vicky Ward
- Narrated by: Vicky Ward
- Length: 4 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty years ago, following the appointment of their professors to the federal bench, a tiny group of conservative law students at Yale Law School worried that their ideas might disappear from intellectual discourse in this bastion of liberal thought. They set out to fill that void. But they ended up achieving way more than that. Over the next few decades, the Federalist Society became an integral tool in the larger conservative movement, with political, judicial, and social repercussions ending in the conservative capture of the Supreme Court and the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.
-
-
Disturbingly Timely
- By pilatesgal on 09-24-23
By: Vicky Ward
-
The Perfect Weapon
- War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents - Bush and Obama - drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal.
-
-
mix of information and propaganda
- By Inthego on 06-14-19
By: David E. Sanger
-
Hold Fast
- The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website
- By: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.
-
-
An amazing, crazy ride. Highly recommend.
- By Tara N on 04-17-24
By: Trevor Aaronson, and others
-
Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer
- By: Leon Neyfakh
- Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer tells the fascinating story of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who became the beloved mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio before morphing into a symbol of cultural decline. Through dozens of intimate and revealing interviews with those who knew Springer best—from his big sister to his early political aides to the producers who shaped his show—listeners will be transported into the world of this singular figure’s rise to notoriety, and his fascinating struggle to reconcile his status as “the king of trash TV” with his lifelong dream of returning to politics.
-
-
Jerry Springer's Story
- By Andre on 05-02-25
By: Leon Neyfakh
-
This Is Not a Game with Marc Fennell
- By: Marc Fennell
- Narrated by: Marc Fennell
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Is Not a Game is the extraordinary untold story of the internet’s first conspiracy theory, the legend of Ong’s Hat. Marc Fennell will dive deep into a previously unexplored world of tech hippies, eccentric web subcultures and simmering paranoia, uncovering how this tongue-in-cheek artistic experiment backfired on its creator and went on to influence much of what’s wrong with the internet today.
-
-
WOW!
- By pondo on 05-09-24
By: Marc Fennell
-
Backfired: Attention Deficit
- By: Leon Neyfakh, Prologue Projects
- Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh, Arielle Pardes
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
ADHD may be the defining diagnosis of our time. According to the latest data, more than 10 percent of American children (that’s 7.1 million kids) have been diagnosed with ADHD. And the number of stimulant prescriptions for adults in their 30s has shot up nearly threefold since 2012. In recent years, this explosion in demand has combined with other factors to create a widespread stimulant shortage in the US. In the second installment of Backfired, cohosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes look at the unintended consequences of the ADHD industry, and trace the surprising path that brought us here.
-
-
Avoid if recently diagnosed with ADHD as an Adult
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-24
By: Leon Neyfakh, and others
-
Pipeline to Power
- The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court
- By: Vicky Ward
- Narrated by: Vicky Ward
- Length: 4 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty years ago, following the appointment of their professors to the federal bench, a tiny group of conservative law students at Yale Law School worried that their ideas might disappear from intellectual discourse in this bastion of liberal thought. They set out to fill that void. But they ended up achieving way more than that. Over the next few decades, the Federalist Society became an integral tool in the larger conservative movement, with political, judicial, and social repercussions ending in the conservative capture of the Supreme Court and the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.
-
-
Disturbingly Timely
- By pilatesgal on 09-24-23
By: Vicky Ward
-
The Perfect Weapon
- War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents - Bush and Obama - drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal.
-
-
mix of information and propaganda
- By Inthego on 06-14-19
By: David E. Sanger
-
Hold Fast
- The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website
- By: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.
-
-
An amazing, crazy ride. Highly recommend.
- By Tara N on 04-17-24
By: Trevor Aaronson, and others
-
Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer
- By: Leon Neyfakh
- Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer tells the fascinating story of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who became the beloved mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio before morphing into a symbol of cultural decline. Through dozens of intimate and revealing interviews with those who knew Springer best—from his big sister to his early political aides to the producers who shaped his show—listeners will be transported into the world of this singular figure’s rise to notoriety, and his fascinating struggle to reconcile his status as “the king of trash TV” with his lifelong dream of returning to politics.
-
-
Jerry Springer's Story
- By Andre on 05-02-25
By: Leon Neyfakh
-
This Is Not a Game with Marc Fennell
- By: Marc Fennell
- Narrated by: Marc Fennell
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Is Not a Game is the extraordinary untold story of the internet’s first conspiracy theory, the legend of Ong’s Hat. Marc Fennell will dive deep into a previously unexplored world of tech hippies, eccentric web subcultures and simmering paranoia, uncovering how this tongue-in-cheek artistic experiment backfired on its creator and went on to influence much of what’s wrong with the internet today.
-
-
WOW!
- By pondo on 05-09-24
By: Marc Fennell
-
The Last Showman
- Words + Music, Vol. 41
- By: Usher, Gerrick Kennedy
- Narrated by: Usher
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past 30 years, Usher has exhilarated audiences with stadium-sized anthems, innovative choreography, and dazzling charm that has made him a once-in-a-generation superstar. The Last Showman is an introspective look into the past, present, and future of a beloved global R&B icon. Usher opens up about the inspirations, heartache, and growth that fueled the creation of his record-breaking magnum opus, Confessions, while revisiting some of its most iconic tracks.
-
-
love you Ursher
- By Amazon Customer on 02-06-25
By: Usher, and others
-
Exposed
- The Ashley Madison Hack
- By: Sophie Elmhirst, Maria Luisa Tucker
- Narrated by: Sophie Nélisse
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people–looking to cheat on their partners–signed up for Ashley Madison in the early 2000s, seeking a private space to share their public desires. The promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015, when anonymous hackers stole the company’s cache of user information and published it worldwide. The result? One of the most shocking data breaches of the internet age. Overnight, millions of unfaithful spouses had their real names, addresses and sexual preferences published online in a searchable database that anyone could browse.
-
-
Hard to feel sorry for the cheaters
- By Kim Kormylo on 02-21-24
By: Sophie Elmhirst, and others
-
Finding Tamika
- By: Erika Alexander, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and others
- Narrated by: Erika Alexander
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black girls and women disappear every day, but not without a trace. Join actress and activist Erika Alexander in a neo-noir, true crime drama as she searches for Tamika Huston, a 24-year-old Black woman from Spartanburg, SC who went missing in 2004. Her case became a rallying cry for other missing Black women in America and led to a growing demand to expose a system that ignores missing girls and women of color.
-
-
Cynical conflation of two tragedies
- By Buretto on 03-26-22
By: Erika Alexander, and others
-
No Calculator? No Problem!
- Mastering Mental Math
- By: Art Benjamin, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Art Benjamin
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No Calculator? No Problem! Mastering Mental Math , award-winning professor of mathematics and celebrated “mathemagician” Arthur T. Benjamin delivers 10 fun-filled lessons on how to do math in your head with confidence, accuracy, and speed - sometimes faster than a calculator. By the end of Professor Benjamin’s lessons, you’ll be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers faster than ever before. And with your newfound skills, you’ll soon find yourself amazing other people and, perhaps more important, yourself.
-
-
Excellent but need PDF
- By Majeed on 10-15-19
By: Art Benjamin, and others
-
How to Stop People-Pleasing
- By: The Great Courses, Wind Goodfriend
- Narrated by: Wind Goodfriend
- Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all want to be liked and appreciated by the people around us, but some of us may let this desire dictate our choices and behaviors in a way that can become unhealthy. In How to Stop People-Pleasing, psychology professor Dr. Wind Goodfriend examines what drives many of us to sacrifice our well-being to please others and offers guidance on how you can set healthy boundaries and start prioritizing yourself.
-
-
Author's Disclaimer unecessary..Text obviates lack of experiential knowledge
- By dc customer on 11-12-24
By: The Great Courses, and others
-
30 Days to a New Relationship with Alcohol
- By: Holly Whitaker, 30-Day Guides to Improve Your Life
- Narrated by: Holly Whitaker
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you’d like to give up alcohol or just drink less—or you’re just thinking about drinking less—this guide is for you. Each day for 30 days, New York Times best-selling author and recovery expert Holly Whitaker brings you a 5- to 10-minute reflection aimed at helping you change your relationship with alcohol, drawing on her personal experience and grounded in the latest research. 30 Days to a New Relationship with Alcohol is crafted to help you gently but powerfully change your brain and your life. All you have to do is listen.
-
-
Excellent
- By lily morrill on 01-04-25
By: Holly Whitaker, and others
-
Meditation for Aries
- By: Jessica Lanyadoo, Audible Sleep
- Narrated by: Jessica Lanyadoo
- Length: 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This meditation is designed to complement the sign of Aries. Aries is the first zodiac sign, and it rules over the head and face. When Aries energies are activated in your life, especially when you are striving to assert yourself and achieve things, you may find that you hold tension in your face, head, and jaws. This meditation will help you to gently release the tensions you've been holding in your body so that you can return to your day feeling relaxed and unencumbered.
-
-
Super relaxing meditation
- By Abril on 03-25-25
By: Jessica Lanyadoo, and others
-
American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby?
- By: Blanchard House
- Narrated by: Joe Nocera
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just before the small-time bootlegger Max Gerlach died, he tried to reveal his secret: he was the inspiration for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It’s a nice story, but was he telling the truth? Veteran reporter Joe Nocera and producer Poppy Damon investigate this century-old literary mystery and uncover untold secrets about the Great American Novel.
-
-
Not an audiobook
- By George on 05-31-24
By: Blanchard House
-
Means of Control
- How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State
- By: Byron Tau
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past five years—ever since a chance encounter at a dinner party—journalist Byron Tau has been piecing together a secret story: how the whole of the internet and every digital device in the world became a mechanism of intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring.
-
-
Political biased for absolutely no reason
- By Red on 09-28-24
By: Byron Tau
-
Order from Chaos
- The Everyday Grind of Staying Organized with Adult ADHD
- By: Jaclyn Paul
- Narrated by: Vanessa Daniels
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late fees on forgotten bills. A home full of clutter and unfinished projects. Eroding respect with your friends, family, and colleagues. Health worries from doctor's appointments you keep meaning to schedule. Nonstop anxiety as you wait for the other shoe to drop. You deserve better. Order from Chaos will teach you how your brain works and how to stop getting in your own way.
-
-
Disorganized & boring
- By Reviewer 123 on 10-29-21
By: Jaclyn Paul
-
Getting Along
- How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)
- By: Amy Gallo
- Narrated by: Amy Gallo
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to disengage. In Getting Along, workplace expert and Harvard Business Review podcast host Amy Gallo identifies eight familiar types of difficult coworkers—the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the know-it-all, the biased coworker, and others—and provides strategies tailored to dealing constructively with each one.
-
-
Getting Along
- By Anonymous User on 02-09-24
By: Amy Gallo
-
The Showman
- Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky
- By: Simon Shuster
- Narrated by: Daniel Gamburg
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time correspondent Simon Shuster chronicles the life and wartime leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky from the dressing rooms of his variety show in Ukraine to the muddy trenches of his war with Russia. Based on four years of reporting; extensive travels with President Zelensky to the front; and dozens of interviews with him, his wife, his friends and enemies, his advisers, ministers and military commanders, The Showman tells an intimate and eye-opening story of the President’s evolution from a slapstick actor to a symbol of resilience.
-
-
Cuts through the war propaganda fog!
- By Eric W Thomas on 02-15-24
By: Simon Shuster
Compelling and well researched
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Business cycle and market cycles
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s helped me see how vaping has affected my life, with my mood my tolerance for others, am I overall sense of well-being.
The narrators were very enjoyable to listen to in tone and cadence. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about the vaping industry, and how I was right in the middle of all of it.
I’m glad that were an are addicted to cigarettes have an option. I just don’t know how to keep the rest of us from starting.
The guy that started, I loved how he wanted to have an option for people to get off of vaping ❤️
It’s REALLY addictive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Intriguing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Insightful and comprehensive look at the evolution of vaping
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting and Informative
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Phenomenal Hosts
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Documentary “page” turner!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.