Jonas Salk Audiobook by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs episode artwork

EPISODE · May 1, 2026 · 20H 14M

Jonas Salk Audiobook by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs

from Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Science & Technology Leaders · host Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/33/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Jonas Salk Subtitle: A Life Author: Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs Narrator: Pam Ward Format: Unabridged Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins Language: English Release date: 10-06-15 Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 21 votes Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Science & Technology Leaders Publisher's Summary: The authoritative account of one of the 20th century's most important - and controversial - scientists. When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a 20th-century icon - a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people. And yet the one group whose adulation he craved - the scientific community - remained ominously silent. "The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success," Salk later said. "I knew right away that I was through - cast out." In the first complete biography of Jonas Salk, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs unravels Salk's story to reveal an unconventional scientist and a misunderstood and vulnerable man. Despite his incredible success in developing the polio vaccine, Salk was ostracized by his fellow scientists, who accused him of failing to give proper credit to other researchers and scorned his taste for media attention. Even before success catapulted him into the limelight, Salk was an inscrutable man disliked by many of his peers. Driven by an intense desire to aid mankind, he was initially oblivious and eventually resigned to the personal cost - as well as the costs suffered by his family and friends. And yet Salk remained, in the eyes of the public, an adored hero. Based on hundreds of personal interviews and unprecedented access to Salk's sealed archives, Jacobs' biography offers the most complete picture of this figure. Salk's story has never been fully told; until now, his role in preventing polio has overshadowed his part in codeveloping the first influenza vaccine, his effort to meld the sciences and humanities in the magnificent Salk Institute, and his pioneering work on AIDS.

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This episode is 20 hours and 14 minutes long.

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This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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