Things Erika Says on Podcasts

It's because of the patience, right? It was the simple fact. Like, honestly, this blowing up into a big case and all this, I could have never had any insight into that. For me, it was really we're testing on patients with a faulty product. This product needs to get pulled because it could kill people or could just devastate their lives. And those patients could be my sister. Those patients could be my mom. Those patients could be me. And as much as I try and rationalize for people, it's very intuitive, right? I was very genuine in I joined Theranos because I wanted to be able to make sure that people received good and affordable health care. And when what we were doing was so incongruous with that mission, it's just, I just can't help myself, right? I can't help myself but say something. Even though this whole experience was so hard, it was so easy because it was so clear that this just needed to stop. And, you know, I was so grateful, in fact, for every door that I uncovered to just get people to garner more awareness on we need to stop like that company needs to stop testing patients.…

Of course there will be. Of course there will be, right? Not only do people have to feed their families and are interested in the prospect of like, hey, I need to make an income, but people, especially in the Valley, kind of have this ethos sometimes, right? Like, oh, well, you failed. And then you like can come back and like have this comeback story of building this company that then like proves everyone wrong and you were the underdog. And, you know, this is where you get to show everyone that they were wrong about you. So I think everyone wants to buy in this new narrative of that possibility. So I have, I have no doubts that she will find some subset of people that will buy into her or that will invest in her. It just seems like we've seen this play out in other scenarios too. I think it's the question: is this going to be a successful business? What I know about point of care diagnostics and at least my experience with this person's competency, it's highly unlikely, highly unlikely that that business will take off, in my opinion. And maybe this is more fodder for her too, or Carter. I don't know. But those aren't the ingredients for success in my mind.

screamed at? How many people were threatened to lose their jobs? And that was the same case for me, right? Like for me, coming forward and sharing my concerns about what was happening with the patient testing, you know, I thought this was me doing my job. And to come back and realize, oh, this company spent $150,000 to hire intelligence agencies and private investigators to follow me when I was 22 years old because they didn't want to confront that reality and that bad news. Like that's just so extreme. Like there are these things that I think people are unable to see in this film. And my hope, you know, there's this unsettlingness. I think when I was watching the film, just like you were saying, like there's so much to process. And I think it was a remarkable job that Lance and Nathan did in making us all realize how vulnerable we are to being deceived by what people say. And I think coming out of it, like we're describing, all the former employees, everyone else, the thing that I hope people realize if they're in this position and they're working for a company is it's one thing to pay attention to what people are saying. It's another to be pay attention to what they're doing. And that takes time and that takes just experience with them. And I…

Yeah, I think, you know, AI is kind of too big of a word, but there are certain risks that are going to come with implementing AI models into all these different industries. And I think just like myself, one of the most effective ways to find out. Whether these firms are engaging in things that can harm the public and everyday Americans is through whistleblowing and internal reporting. And we really want to get it to a place that a whistleblower doesn't have to choose between their career and doing the right thing. And so Senator Grassley has been a big supporter of whistleblower bills for decades. And we're trying to really push the AI Whistleblower Protection Act with Congress right now and have been doing a lot of advocacy for that because AI is going to be super pervasive in everything we do. We need to make sure if someone sees something wrong, that they'll be protected. And this lowers the barrier for them to speak up if they see something that harms the public. So I'd be appreciative. Again, that goal of asking people for help, this would be really helpful.

I think you can tell a story of what's possible, but there's still a line to be drawn into saying, hey, I have revenue generating contracts that I don't actually have, right? Hey, I have a product that doesn't work, but I'm still going to test on patients, right? And I think entrepreneurs specifically need to understand like where do they draw those boundaries. A vision is a beautiful thing. The possibilities of where we can go in the world, those are beautiful things. But I think when we deal with the Theranos case, it's very different than, hey, I'm going to treat you like a lab rat and test on you with this thing that doesn't work. And even though you're instilling your trust in me, I'm going to abuse that trust and give you wrong results. So I can see that argument and I understand where people are going, but I think you have to put that argument in an appropriate context and not necessarily leverage that in a way to license bad behavior.