2025 Nominees

Backfired: Attention Deficit

Prologue Projects, Audible

USA

- Podcast: Non-Fiction

From Prologue Projects, the team behind Fiasco and Think Twice, the Backfired franchise is about what happens when solving one problem creates a host of new ones. Following the acclaimed Backfired: The Vaping Wars, this second season delves into the complex history of what has become the defining diagnosis of our time: ADHD. Over 9 propulsive episodes, co-hosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes explore the unintended consequences of ADHD’s surprising evolution from a rare, poorly understood condition known in the ‘60s as “minimal brain dysfunction” to the center of a billion-dollar industry serving millions of children and adults. ADHD is now the most common psychiatric disorder in kids, and the third-most for adults, after anxiety and depression. Backfired: Attention Deficit is a meticulous investigation into how that happened, and what it means that stimulant medication – which is now so widely prescribed that there’s a national shortage – has become a routine part of American life.