Selected Press Coverage of The Immortal Life
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has garnered widespread media coverage, with stories about the book appearing everywhere from The Wall Street Journal to Los Angeles Times. Skloot has been interviewed on numerous radio and television shows, including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?, Fox Business News, and the Colbert Report. Below is a selection of that media coverage. For reviews of the book, click here.
- Rebecca Skloot talks with Stephen Colbert about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, irony insurance, and little-known Centipede Cells on The Colbert Report.
- CBS Sunday Morning segment on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, features Skloot and members of the Lacks family.
- Skloot discusses The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.
- WNYC’s Radiolab episode based on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, featuring Deborah Lacks, and audio footage from Skloot’s research tapes.
- Brian Sullivan of Fox Business News says “If you read one book this year, make it this one.” Watch Sullivan and Skloot discuss the book.
- NPR names The Immortal Life as one of the top five Best of the Bestsellers (the only nonfiction book in the top five).
- Skloot discusses The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and answers frequently asked questions about the book on The Agenda, followed by a discussion with experts in law, ethics, and science, on the ethics of gene patenting.
- Skloot and other experts discuss religion, ethics, and tissue research through telling the stories of Henrietta Lacks and the Havasupai tribe on this PBS special.
- Rebecca Skloot and the Lacks Family discuss the legacy of Henrietta Lacks on ABC World News: How One Woman’s Cells Changed Medicine.
- Skloot talks about The Immortal Life on NPR’s All Things Considered with Guy Raz.
- Skloot discusses and reads scenes from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with Frank Stasio on The State of Things
- Skloot interviewed on WHYY’s Radio Times.
- LA Times profile of Skloot, and the making of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: “Henrietta Lacks’s Immortal Roots“
- “For Rebecca Skloot, Community College Assignment Evolves into Exhaustively Researched Book,”a profile of Skloot, and story of the making of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- “Immortal Cells; Moral Issues” an OpEd by Ruth Faden, director of Johns Hopkins bioethics center, exploring the ethical issues raised by Skloot’s book.
- Publishers Weekly profile: “Rebecca Skloot Found a Story of Immortality and Faith in a Young Woman’s Tissue Sample.” (pdf)
- “The Immortal Book Tour,” (pdf) a story by Skloot about the grassroots book tour she organized (more info here).
- Booklist profile: “Story Behind the Story.”
- Wired Magazine’s visual map of HeLa cells’ contribution to science.
- Popular Science names The Immortal Life book of the month for February 2010, calling her story “remarkable,” and running this tribute: “Five Reasons Why Henrietta Lacks is The Most Important Woman in Medical History.”
- “Librarians: The Secret to Narrative History“, an essay by Skloot in Library Journal, about the ways in which librarians helped make it possible to write her book.
A selection of other press coverage
Skloot has been the subject of numerous articles, profiles, and interviews on television and radio and in various magazines and newspapers—from NPR to CBS News to the Baltimore City Paper. Coverage includes:
- “Rebecca Skloot: Class Act,” Memphis Magazine, November 2008.
- “Beyond Seeing Eye Dogs,” NPR Word of Mouth, January 2009.
- “Service Animal Ban,” NPR Here and Now, January 2009.
- “Helper Parrots, Guide Horses Face Legal Challenges,” NPR Day to Day, January 2009.
- “A Conversation With Rebecca Skloot,” Baltimore Review, Summer 2005.
