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One out of every 4 people with Type 1 and 2 diabetes rations insulin. Adeline Umubyeyi is among them. She’s a college grad with a professional job and health insurance who still sometimes goes to bed without dinner — because skipping a meal allows her to skip a dose of her costly insulin.
On Episode 5 of “An Arm and a Leg,” meet Umubyeyi and take a 98-year journey with host Dan Weissmann as he traces insulin’s origins. It begins with a couple of scrappy researchers, toiling in a sweltering attic, who left a trail of dead dogs in their wake. And the trip includes a visit to an unconventional lab space in present-day Oakland, Calif., where amateur researchers are working on a 21st-century recipe for affordable insulin.
Season 2 is a co-production of Kaiser Health News and Public Road Productions.
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