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Podcast: New Books in Medicine
Episode: Joe Miller, "US of AA: How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism" (Chicago Review Press, 2019)
Description: In the aftermath of Prohibition, America’s top scientists joined forces with members of a new group, called Alcoholics Anonymous, and put their clout behind a campaign to convince the nation that alcoholism was a disease rather than a moral failing. Their campaign spanned decades, and from it grew a multimillion-dollar treatment industry that actively promoted AA groups and the Twelve Steps as the primary way to deal with problem drinking. In our conversation about his new book US of AA: How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism (Chicago Review Press, 2019), author Joe Miller discusses the history of...