Tech Whistleblowers Tyler Shultz & Erika Cheung In 'The Dropout' Hulu | Where Are They Now? — Transcript

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1. 0:00probably the biggest thing is trust the
2. 0:01people you hire so that's one thing i
3. 0:03thought thanos did really well was
4. 0:04hiring but it seemed like
5. 0:07they didn't the management didn't listen
6. 0:08to the brilliant scientists that they
7. 0:10actually hired the television series the
8. 0:12dropout has chronicled the fascinating
9. 0:14and wild story of elizabeth holmes and
10. 0:16her defunct company theranos
11. 0:19i feel like if you're watching this
12. 0:20video you've definitely seen the others
13. 0:22that we've done on it so i'll definitely
14. 0:24just be kind of skimming the fraud thing
15. 0:26and speaking more about tyler schultz
16. 0:28the whistleblower who started the
17. 0:30takedown of the entire company he's the
18. 0:32man who went to the wall street journal
19. 0:34with the whole story and the person who
20. 0:36provided enough evidence to possibly
21. 0:38land both elizabeth holmes and sonny
22. 0:40balwani in prison for fraud
23. 0:43now the owner and operator of a
24. 0:44biomedical science company himself we
25. 0:47catch up and see just what tyler schultz
26. 0:49is thinking as the theranos trials take
27. 0:51place not much is known about tyler's
28. 0:53early life and honestly who really cares
29. 0:56what we care more about is his ascent
30. 0:57into the theranos company and how he
31. 0:59obtained the information that would take
32. 1:01the company down a little briefing on
33. 1:03what theranos actually is
34. 1:06it was a private company that touted
35. 1:07itself as a marvel that breakthroughs
36. 1:10health technology
37. 1:11the company claimed to have tech that
38. 1:13could administer blood tests using just
39. 1:15a few drops of blood rather than a
40. 1:17standard full vial
41. 1:19these claims were unfounded and they
42. 1:20conned a bunch of investors into
43. 1:22donating millions of dollars for a
44. 1:24company that had a product that was
45. 1:26extremely faulty with unreliable results
46. 1:29in fact theranos would lie about the
47. 1:31tests being done on their machine and
48. 1:33sometimes they used commercial machines
49. 1:35to administer blood tests after the news
50. 1:38broke and the company faced a string of
51. 1:40legal and financial issues it was
52. 1:42estimated that elizabeth holmes net
53. 1:43worth dropped from 4.5 billion dollars
54. 1:46to virtually nothing tyler schultz is
55. 1:48the grandson of george schultz a
56. 1:51theranos board member and the former
57. 1:52secretary of state for president ronald
58. 1:55reagan
59. 1:56tyler himself worked for the company and
60. 1:58was extremely close with his grandfather
61. 2:01but while in the labs tyler noticed that
62. 2:03the theranos equipment dubbed edison
63. 2:05machines frequently failed quality
64. 2:07control checks and produce widely
65. 2:09varying results
66. 2:10this was extremely dangerous for medical
67. 2:12patients who relied on accurate
68. 2:14information for test results from cancer
69. 2:16diagnosis to whether or not to require
70. 2:18surgery
71. 2:20he had originally met elizabeth holmes
72. 2:22in 2011 while he was visiting his
73. 2:24grandfather tyler describes that he
74. 2:26quote fell in love with her vision of
75. 2:28instant and painless blood tests
76. 2:30after he got his degree in chemical
77. 2:32engineering tyler interned at the
78. 2:33company then was hired on full time
79. 2:36tyler specifically was hired on to be
80. 2:38quality assurance for test results and
81. 2:40so would run blood samples a few times
82. 2:42to make sure that the results were
83. 2:43accurate
84. 2:44one such result tipped him off when it
85. 2:46was claimed that an std was able to be
86. 2:48detected with 95 accuracy when tyler ran
87. 2:52the blood through again he found that
88. 2:53accuracy was much closer to 65 percent
89. 2:57that meant that if 100 people infected
90. 2:59with the disease were tested only with
91. 3:01the edison machine as many as 35 of them
92. 3:04would likely incorrectly conclude that
93. 3:05they were disease-free he also noticed
94. 3:08that the edison machines were
95. 3:09continually flunking quality control
96. 3:11standards he also said that the
97. 3:13notoriously rough-handed sunny balwani
98. 3:16had pressured the lab employees to
99. 3:18ignore the failures and run blood tests
100. 3:20on the machine anyways contrary to
101. 3:22accepted lab practices so he sent a
102. 3:25concerned email directly to elizabeth
103. 3:27holmes who did not respond
104. 3:29instead sonny replied quote we saw your
105. 3:32email to elizabeth before i get into
106. 3:34specifics let me share with you that had
107. 3:37this email come from anyone else in the
108. 3:38company i would have already held them
109. 3:40accountable for the arrogant and
110. 3:42patronizing tone and reckless comments
111. 3:44tyler also stated that he would have
112. 3:46been fired had it not been for his
113. 3:48grandfather so he quit
114. 3:51as he was leaving the office he got a
115. 3:53concerned call from his mother who told
116. 3:55him to stop whatever he was about to do
117. 3:57because sonny had called and threatened
118. 3:59her stating that whatever tyler did
119. 4:02would be met with the harshest extent of
120. 4:04the law tyler then went directly to his
121. 4:06grandfather who effectively brushed him
122. 4:09off the theranos board member and
123. 4:11tyler's own grandfather said that the
124. 4:13blood testing machines worked so well
125. 4:15that they were being used in military
126. 4:17hospitals
127. 4:18tyler knew that that was a lie
128. 4:20his grandfather then attempted to
129. 4:22pressure him into signing a
130. 4:23confidentiality agreement after they
131. 4:25found out that tyler had spoken to a
132. 4:27reporter
133. 4:28he continually was pressured to sign
134. 4:30non-disclosure agreements which would
135. 4:32effectively silence him forever he kept
136. 4:34refusing and learned that he was being
137. 4:36followed by private investigators
138. 4:39his parents pleaded with him to sign the
139. 4:41form or they would have to sell the
140. 4:42house to cover legal fees
141. 4:44that being said they later stated quote
142. 4:47tyler had acted exactly like the man we
143. 4:49raised him to be we are extraordinarily
144. 4:51proud of him then in 2015 the article
145. 4:54was published and all contact with nda's
146. 4:56had ceased now though as the trials
147. 4:59occur and elizabeth holmes and sonny
148. 5:00balwani are facing the fullest extent of
149. 5:03the law for their actions tyler opened
150. 5:05up once more about how things have been
151. 5:07since the television series the dropout
152. 5:09aired tyler now works for a
153. 5:11biotechnology company and is
154. 5:13collaborating with a team of researchers
155. 5:15to try and build a portable device that
156. 5:17would be capable of diagnosing a dozen
157. 5:19diseases from a person's blood saliva
158. 5:21and vital signs he also recalls meeting
159. 5:24with his grandfather before the trials
160. 5:25began
161. 5:26they hadn't spoken in seven months
162. 5:29he said he told his grandfather how he
163. 5:30was so disappointed in the lack of
164. 5:32support from him throughout the entire
165. 5:34ordeal
166. 5:35when describing his emotions during the
167. 5:37elizabeth holmes trial quote i decided
168. 5:39to deal with it by playing my guitar
169. 5:41super loud i probably disturbed my
170. 5:43neighbors i had a lot of nervous energy
171. 5:46and i can totally understand why he blew
172. 5:49the whistle on the company when he was
173. 5:50only 22 years old and now being 31 this
174. 5:55has been building for quite some time
175. 5:58although he was at work during the last
176. 6:00trial he recalls his phone buzzing with
177. 6:02a message from his wife
178. 6:03quote it was a text in all caps guilty
179. 6:07all of a sudden it was just a weight was
180. 6:09lifted it's over i can't believe it's
181. 6:12over
182. 6:13after that he and his family decided it
183. 6:15was worth a toast so they popped some
184. 6:17champagne together to celebrate
185. 6:19although tyler wasn't the only
186. 6:21whistleblower he was the first to report
187. 6:22to others about the irregular findings
188. 6:24to regulators when speaking to his
189. 6:26grandfather before elizabeth's trial
190. 6:28went down tyler recalls stating quote i
191. 6:31am pleading with you as your grandson
192. 6:32please do the right thing
193. 6:34he begged his grandfather to distance
194. 6:36himself from theranos publicly
195. 6:38although george isn't on the board of
196. 6:40directors anymore after the company
197. 6:42ceased production he is on the board of
198. 6:44councillors
199. 6:45in response to tyler's pleas he was
200. 6:47non-committal he remained on the board
201. 6:50of counselors and the two hadn't seen or
202. 6:52spoken to each other since that meeting
203. 6:55so far during the trials tyler has not
204. 6:57yet been asked to testify against
205. 6:58elizabeth holmes although now that
206. 7:00sonny's trial is underway i feel like
207. 7:02they may very well ask him to testify
208. 7:04there given the emails coming directly
209. 7:06from him
210. 7:08he and his parents obviously not
211. 7:09including his grandfather celebrated
212. 7:11when elizabeth went down for her crimes
213. 7:13and was convicted of fraud
214. 7:14she is currently awaiting a sentence for
215. 7:16a guilty verdict and could face up to 20
216. 7:18years in prison
217. 7:20similarly sunny is currently awaiting
218. 7:22his verdict and sentencing if found
219. 7:24guilty which let's be honest he will be
220. 7:26it's been really great to see that
221. 7:28tyler's parents haven't abandoned him
222. 7:30like his grandfather did although i
223. 7:32totally understand their fear towards
224. 7:33standing up to what once was a
225. 7:35multi-billion dollar company tyler did
226. 7:37the right thing
227. 7:38currently he is the ceo of his own
228. 7:40biomedical science company that focuses
229. 7:42on women's fertility issues while he
230. 7:45says he would never become another
231. 7:46elizabeth holmes he does concede that he
232. 7:48is another startup founder who now
233. 7:50better understands the high pressure
234. 7:52context that might create someone like
235. 7:54holmes in a very recent economic times
236. 7:57article like a couple days ago recent
237. 7:59tyler also stated that although his
238. 8:01grandfather never apologized to him he
239. 8:03did tell tyler that he was right about
240. 8:05theranose all along the two reconciled
241. 8:08very briefly before george schultz
242. 8:10passed away in 2021
243. 8:12i guess in a way that can be closure
244. 8:14enough for the family rift caused by the
245. 8:15dubious ethics of theranos when people
246. 8:18lie on their deathbed i rarely
247. 8:21expect that anyone will say i wish i
248. 8:23worked x more hours to generate why more
249. 8:26of revenue erica chung is the perfect
250. 8:29example of if you don't stand for
251. 8:31something you'll fall for anything
252. 8:33she is a modern day hero who spoke out
253. 8:36against the company that had attempted
254. 8:38to bully her into submission
255. 8:40through guerrilla style tactics
256. 8:43and now viewers get to see it all play
257. 8:45out on the screen with the hulu
258. 8:46miniseries the dropout
259. 8:48she and two other whistleblowers were
260. 8:50instrumental in the takedown of the
261. 8:52fraudster elizabeth holmes who collected
262. 8:55millions of dollars in investors money
263. 8:57on the promise of a machine that didn't
264. 8:59work
265. 9:00and now we see what erica has done since
266. 9:02her time at theranos and how she's
267. 9:04reacting to the ongoing trials let's
268. 9:06just skip from erica's early life to how
269. 9:08she got started at theranos she
270. 9:10graduated from uc berkeley with a dual
271. 9:13degree in molecular cell biology and
272. 9:15linguistics she had gone to a career
273. 9:17fair on campus and got a successful
274. 9:19interview with a small company called
275. 9:21theranose
276. 9:23at the time of erica's application the
277. 9:25company was just starting so she was
278. 9:27there from basically the inception and
279. 9:29creation of the company how erica had
280. 9:32been sold the concept of theranos was
281. 9:34that they had a machine called the
282. 9:35edison that only needed a single finger
283. 9:38prick of blood rather than hooking a
284. 9:40patient up to a needle and getting tubes
285. 9:42of it for testing
286. 9:43the idea was revolutionary and could
287. 9:46potentially open the door to tons of
288. 9:48advancement in medical science
289. 9:50it also meant that if you had a device
290. 9:52that allowed for more frequent and much
291. 9:54less invasive diagnostics and testing
292. 9:57you could potentially catch something in
293. 9:59patients that were in extremely
294. 10:01beginning stages saving countless lives
295. 10:04so erica got the interview and was put
296. 10:06on the team she started out as a junior
297. 10:09lab associate she describes her first
298. 10:11red flag within the company as being
299. 10:13when she would sit in meetings reviewing
300. 10:15data with her co-workers and higher-ups
301. 10:17her higher-ups would request that they
302. 10:19remove the outlier or a data point that
303. 10:22wasn't like the rest to see if it helps
304. 10:24accuracy ratings
305. 10:26in math the outlier is often ignored but
306. 10:28when it comes to medical science the
307. 10:30outlier is a real patient rather than
308. 10:32just a random number
309. 10:34the real patient's blood sample was off
310. 10:37and they decided to ignore it to see if
311. 10:39it would let the accuracy ratings go up
312. 10:42another red flag is when erica was
313. 10:44testing patient blood samples for
314. 10:45prostate cancer she ran it on a
315. 10:47commercially available testing machine
316. 10:49and found that the patient had low risk
317. 10:52then she ran a blood sample on the
318. 10:53edison machine and the results jumped up
319. 10:56to having a high risk of prostate cancer
320. 10:59she ran it again on the edison and it
321. 11:01lowered to a concern
322. 11:02then she ran it third time and it was
323. 11:04low risk the numbers were all over the
324. 11:07place and had no reliability whatsoever
325. 11:11while the idea of a patient receiving a
326. 11:13false cancer diagnosis is heartbreaking
327. 11:15what's worse is if a patient receives a
328. 11:17false negative
329. 11:19what if someone has an extremely high
330. 11:21risk of prostate cancer but the edison
331. 11:23tells them it's low
332. 11:25that person will then take that
333. 11:26information and it could have
334. 11:27potentially life-altering effects when
335. 11:30she took her concerns to sunny belwani
336. 11:32he told her off stating that she didn't
337. 11:34know what she was talking about and that
338. 11:36she should only be doing what they pay
339. 11:38her to do which is essentially to lie
340. 11:41so she met with tyler schultz who was
341. 11:43also becoming disillusioned with the way
342. 11:45that the company was being run and they
343. 11:47went right to tyler's grandfather who
344. 11:50was on the board of directors and the
345. 11:51ex-secretary of state through the u.s
346. 11:54the elder schultz basically said that
347. 11:56while they both seemed smart and capable
348. 11:58much smarter and more capable people
349. 12:01were telling him this machine worked and
350. 12:03would revolutionize health care
351. 12:05erica quit the very next day she went
352. 12:07through a few weeks of a crisis where
353. 12:09she felt like she may have been
354. 12:10overreacting i mean everyone was telling
355. 12:13her she was and elizabeth holmes was
356. 12:15gracing every magazine cover like she
357. 12:17was a hero
358. 12:18then she got contacted by a journalist
359. 12:21at the wall street journal
360. 12:22while she was in the midst of speaking
361. 12:24to him about her concerns theronos
362. 12:26decided to go on a witch hunt to
363. 12:28effectively silence all the former
364. 12:29employees who to them were breaking
365. 12:32non-disclosure agreements by sharing
366. 12:34company secrets
367. 12:37theranos intimidated erica threatening
368. 12:39her and her family with legal
369. 12:41ramifications if she not only talked to
370. 12:44journalists but also if she had any
371. 12:46contact with other employees both
372. 12:48currently working and not
373. 12:50private investigators were called to
374. 12:52follow her she was watched in her home
375. 12:55and so erica called a lawyer who told
376. 12:57her to report to a regulatory agency
377. 13:00she was so petrified about her physical
378. 13:02safety that she begged the agency not to
379. 13:04reveal her identity
380. 13:06remember she was 22 at this point and
381. 13:08this was her first professional career
382. 13:10so i completely understand that fear so
383. 13:13erica was the one to tip off the
384. 13:15scientific lab regulation company which
385. 13:17is basically the feds of scientific
386. 13:19ethical practices and what was going on
387. 13:21at theranos which is essentially the
388. 13:23sole decision that took down the company
389. 13:26her whistleblowing led the regulators to
390. 13:28shut down holmes's lab and prevent them
391. 13:30from sending their blood test results to
392. 13:32real patients
393. 13:34and so now after she effectively saved
394. 13:36lives we catch up to just exactly where
395. 13:39erica chung is now in 2021 erica
396. 13:42testified against elizabeth during her
397. 13:44trial she describes the constant
398. 13:46bullying and the culture of silencing
399. 13:48those who tried to speak up for their
400. 13:49rights and to advocate for patience and
401. 13:51reliable test results
402. 13:53being that she was the one who
403. 13:55instigated the takedown she was called
404. 13:57to provide proof of the private
405. 13:58investigators sent to harass her she
406. 14:00also provided proof of the emails that
407. 14:02were sent to her to effectively gaslight
408. 14:04her into thinking that she didn't know
409. 14:06what she was talking about all while she
410. 14:08held the data to show that quote the
411. 14:10accuracy of the edison machine was like
412. 14:12a coin toss
413. 14:13effectively she basically personally
414. 14:16handed elizabeth holmes the guilty
415. 14:17sentence as it stands now elizabeth
416. 14:19hasn't been charged yet but that's only
417. 14:21a matter of time
418. 14:23similarly with sonny belwani because he
419. 14:25was tried separately his trial is still
420. 14:28underway we don't yet have a sentence
421. 14:30for sonny but if elizabeth's guilty
422. 14:32status is any indication i can pretty
423. 14:34well say with some certainty that
424. 14:36sonny's will be as well
425. 14:38the two will also probably face jail
426. 14:40time and heavy fines for duping billions
427. 14:42of dollars out of investors for a
428. 14:44machine that didn't really exist
429. 14:46they lied and schemed their way on a
430. 14:48machine that barely worked
431. 14:51additionally i got most of the
432. 14:52information for this video in a ted talk
433. 14:55that erica conducted back in november
434. 14:572020 she has dedicated years of her life
435. 15:00to informing and advocating for
436. 15:01employees who speak up if they witness
437. 15:04something wrong within their company
438. 15:06she is the co-founder and ceo of ethics
439. 15:08and entrepreneurship and describes
440. 15:10herself as a quote medical researcher
441. 15:13turned technology and innovation
442. 15:14ecosystem builder
443. 15:16her work is dedicated to supporting
444. 15:18whistleblowers within their own
445. 15:19companies and protecting their legal
446. 15:21rights
447. 15:22as her linkedin states if erica is
448. 15:24emailed about someone concerned with
449. 15:26going public about their issues with the
450. 15:28company
451. 15:29she and her business will use their team
452. 15:31of lawyers to make sure that no rules
453. 15:33are broken under whistleblower
454. 15:34regulation so the threat of a lawsuit is
455. 15:37diminished
456. 15:38she also goes around the world giving
457. 15:40talks about her experience with theranos
458. 15:42she enunciates the need for employee
459. 15:44rights and safety to speak up within a
460. 15:46workplace she asks a question of her
461. 15:48audience quote what happens when the
462. 15:51vision is so compelling and the desire
463. 15:53to believe is so strong that it starts
464. 15:55to cloud your judgment about what
465. 15:57reality is
466. 15:58oftentimes projects like this do more
467. 16:01harm than good because people are so
468. 16:03hyper focused on the goal and less on
469. 16:05how to achieve it which can lead to
470. 16:07damage to the world at large
471. 16:09the mission statement of the company is
472. 16:11quote to foster stronger cultures of
473. 16:13people who speak up and listen to those
474. 16:15who speak up it's interesting what erica
475. 16:17did with her brief but impactful time at
476. 16:19theranos and while very little if any
477. 16:21good came out of theranos itself it
478. 16:23would appear that erica is doing her own
479. 16:25great work and now you can watch the
480. 16:27real thing play out on hulu through
481. 16:29their miniseries the dropout which
482. 16:31documents basically the entire thing
483. 16:33from the inception of theranos to its
484. 16:35eventual downfall
485. 16:42[Music]
486. 16:48[Music]
487. 16:53[Music]
488. 16:56you