Bozeman Magazine

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In our new monthly IN CONVERSATION series we are inviting our community to join two incredible local authors in conversation about a recent title. This month we are excited to announce Kathleen McLaughlin's new book BLOOD MONEY, a thrilling investigation on the little understood plasma industry. Author Betsy Gaines Quammen will be joining McLaughlin at Country Bookshelf to discuss her new work Thursday, March 23rd, at 6pm.

Amid the pandemic, the American Red Cross declared the worst blood shortage the nation has seen in over a decade. While the fear of blood shortages makes front-page news, what is rarely discussed is the twenty million Americans who sell blood plasma for cash every year in a barely regulated market dominated by private industry and off-the-grid trafficking.

In BLOOD MONEY, Kathleen McLaughlin explores how the commercial plasma industry preys on an insatiable market for medical and scientific innovation, exploiting some of the country’s most marginalized communities, such as undocumented immigrants and residents of poverty-stricken Flint, Michigan.

Based on a cross-country investigation into the plasma-giving capitals of the country, in-depth research into the blood industry, and her personal experience as a beneficiary of plasma-derived treatment for a rare condition, Kathleen McLaughlin’s BLOOD MONEY reveals the controversial and unbalanced power structures behind the blood industry. From China’s blood black market to Silicon Valley’s tech startups, this is an electrifying exposé that demonstrates the shadowy overlap between big medicine and big business while painting a searing portrait of the extent to which American industry feeds on the country’s most vulnerable.