Magic Pill Audiobook By Johann Hari cover art

Magic Pill

The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs

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Magic Pill

By: Johann Hari
Narrated by: Johann Hari
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About this listen

The bestselling author of Lost Connections and Stolen Focus offers a revelatory look at the new drugs transforming weight loss as we know it—from his personal experience on Ozempic to our ability to heal our society’s dysfunctional relationship with food, weight, and our bodies.

In January 2023, Johann Hari started to inject himself once a week with Ozempic, one of the new drugs that produces significant weight loss. He wasn’t alone—some predictions suggest that in a few years, a quarter of the U.S. population will be taking these drugs. While around 80 percent of diets fail, someone taking one of the new drugs will lose up to a quarter of their body weight in six months. To the drugs’ defenders, here is a moment of liberation from a condition that massively increases your chances of diabetes, cancer, and an early death.

Still, Hari was wildly conflicted. Can these drugs really be as good as they sound? Are they a magic solution—or a magic trick? Finding the answer to this high-stakes question led him on a journey from Iceland to Minneapolis to Tokyo, and to interview the leading experts in the world on these questions. He found that along with the drug’s massive benefits come twelve significant potential risks.

He also found that these drugs radically challenge what we think we know about shame, willpower, and healing. What do they reveal about the nature of obesity itself? What psychological issues begin to emerge when our eating patterns are suddenly disrupted? Are the drugs a liberation or a further symptom of our deeply dysfunctional relationship with food?

These drugs are about to change our world, for better and for worse. Everybody needs to understand how they work—scientifically, emotionally, and culturally. MAGIC PILL is an essential guide to the revolution that has already begun, and which one leading expert argues will be as transformative as the invention of the smartphone.

* This audiobook edition contains a downloadable PDF with additional resources and endnotes.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Johann Hari (P)2024 Random House Audio
Diets, Nutrition & Healthy Eating Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Weight Loss & Weight Control
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Critic reviews

“Compelling, thoughtful and fascinating, a revealing and inspiring meditation on weight loss, addiction, and the new drugs that may change the way we think about and treat obesity.”—Maia Szalavitz, author of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

Magic Pill may be the most revolutionary, honest and important book you read about weight loss, the body and food. As is always the case with a Johann Hari book, what appears to be a story about the drug, Ozempic turns out to be a portal into the deepest investigation and revelation on how to live a healthy life.”—V (Formerly Eve Ensler), The Vagina Monologues, Reckoning

“A deep-dive into Ozempic couldn’t be more timely—and necessary—to get the full scope of how and why everyone is suddenly skinny!”—Andy Cohen

Balanced Perspective • Thorough Research • Great Narration • Personal Storytelling • Informative Content • Clear Speech
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Well done research. I appreciate all the different angles/arguments presented . It is very thought provoking and I will look at my diet differently from now on.

Great book!

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So informative while also told with compassion and raw honesty. I love all Hari’s books and wish they were taught in schools.

Thorough and honest

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Summarizes a lot of known science about weight, the food and drug industries all in a personal and digestible way. I would recommend this highly.

Best book I’ve read on weight and weight loss drugs

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Well written with some real “make you think” aha moments. Well done. Some science but more a psychology take

Such a great listen

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This book was so good. I was looking for information about GLP 1’s and got so much from this book, along with an education on food, obesity, the culture and historical trajectory of obesity, and detailed information on side effects, while at the same time being entertaining and easy to digest. Johann Yohari has a very soothing voice and reads the book in storytelling fashion rather than textbook/lecture. The info is so good, I’d recommend it to anyone regardless of interest in GLP’s

In-depth research, easy listen

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In an engaging story-style, the author investigates the issues related to everyday weight loss problems and addresses them in common sense ways from eating and psychological changes to prescription interventions.

Fantastic Thoughtful Examination of Weight Loss

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He does a great job narrating. He is very clear and concise and therefore easy to follow, even with the scientific information.

So much good information

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An insightful listen on a an early stage uptake of the solution that is shaping how we may see weight loss.

An insightful listen

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This is an urgent message to us all about obesity, food relations, societal impacts, and a medication that brings it all into focus. A raw, honest, balanced assessment around whether or not the new weight loss medications are good or bad, helpful or hurtful, promising or discouraging. Hari does great investigative work to try to find answers to the tough and insightful questions. This is a must read for society at large today!

Phenomenal!

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The author’s candidness and empathy shines through. While I thought this was mostly about the “Magic Pill”, it was much more. Anyone who has struggled with their weight should read this book. This book is a gem.

Wonderful story done in a wonderful thoughtful way

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