In her new book, Off the Scales: the Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity, writer and journalist Aimee Donnellan begins with the story of a woman called Sarah. A marketer at a large firm in Michigan, Sarah notices her life change dramatically when she begins taking Ozempic; but the changes weren’t confined to the number on her weighing scales.
Suddenly, the 34-year old finds herself being promoted at work, men open doors for her, people stop and chat, even her father begins to treat her better. The author writes, “Sarah was being seen, she was being heard, and she could see that in the eyes of her colleagues, friends, and family, she was now worth their time”.
For Sarah it was a stunning revelation, one that was both “exciting and depressing”. Nothing about her had changed, other than her weight. But here she was, being treated like her ideas, her stories, even her work ethic had somehow improved. This, Donnellan notes, is just one of the many extraordinary effects of weight-loss drugs: how they can provide the user with an “economic ladder” of sorts.
It is this shift in attitudes that the writer explores in Off the Scales, alongside the seismic impact that weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have had on the body positivity movement. In the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast, Donnellan explains how even “the language around these jabs is really problematic to body positivity”.
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Speaking to podcast presenter Roisin Ingle, she says, “Somebody said to me recently, people have no excuse now [to be overweight].”
“I’m asked regularly, who do I think is on it, who’s not on it, all those types of things. I think it’s a depressing conversation to be having”.
However, the book isn’t just about shifting beauty ideals, it’s also a compelling deep-dive into the history of Ozempic; how it was first made and the characters behind its development. Among them is Svetlana Mojsov, a young scientist from Macedonia whose research set the wheels in motion for this life-changing drug.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Donnellan shares a glimpse of that fascinating history and explains how the discovery of GLP-1s (made in the mid-1980s) eventually created a pharmaceutical gold rush.
You can listen back to Ingle and Donnellan in conversation in the player above, or wherever you get your podcasts.
