Sam Talbot and the Curious Case of the Donut Butt Plug

Note: Beta Cell is an audio podcast and includes emotion that is not reflected in text. Transcripts are generated by human transcribers and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting.

To celebrate the launch of our new show, The Bolus, we're releasing some podcast versions of classic Beta Cell blog posts.

This one originally went up back in July 22nd, 2020. And it's kind of the moment that we all became aware of how beyond type one's moral compass had started the shift. There are more podcast episodes on what has happened with Beyond Type 1 since this, linked in the show notes. Here we go.

It all started when Sam Talbot, celebrity chef and one of four Beyond Type 1 co-founders, posted information on how to find type 1 diabetes equipment during the pandemic. Michael, who lives with type 1 diabetes, responded that people need insulin—which isn’t affordable because of the pharma companies that give money to Beyond Type 1.

It could’ve ended there: Sam could’ve referred him to Beyond Type 1 staff, sent a generic statement about partnerships, or even just ignored the message. But, instead, Sam called Michael a “whiny scumbag,” sent him a picture of a butt plug in a donut, and told him to stick it up his ass.

Michael posted the insane response and the outrage spread. Sam issued an “apology.” Beyond Type 1 issued a statement only on their Twitter (their social media account with the least number of followers). Then Sam resigned from the Beyond Type 1 board. But in the end, Sam’s message was just a distraction. It was reprehensible and immature, for sure, but the real issue isn’t Sam’s behavior, it’s the growing dissatisfaction among people living with type 1 diabetes that Beyond Type 1 is partnering with pharmaceutical companies.

When Beyond Type 1 was founded, they specifically said that they would not accept money from the big three insulin makers (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi) in order to keep their objectivity when talking about the insulin pricing/access crisis. That moral compass turned and Beyond Type 1 did not (as has not as of writing this) overtly disclose that it was going to start taking money from insulin makers or explain its reasoning behind that decision to its followers, supporters, fundraisers, and volunteers. Instead, Beyond Type 1 hid this fact.

In March 2019, when Beyond Type 1 ran an article titled “Half-Price Generic of Humalog Insulin Launched by Lilly,” which included a quote from the Beyond Type 1 CEO, they had already taken money from Eli Lilly and there was no disclosure of the financial deal. When the Lilly Insulin Value Program was announced, Beyond Type 1 sent an email to its subscribers, along with quotes from the Beyond Type 1 and JDRF CEOs. This program, my endocrinologist discovered, had a Spanish hotline with no Spanish speakers available. Why is up to an endocrinologist to do investigative journalism while Beyond Type 1 writes PR pieces glorifying pharma? If Beyond Type 1 wants to tout itself as a news platform, they should at the very least hold themselves to the basic disclosure principles adhered to by all unbiased journalists.

Earlier this week, I went to the Beyond Type 1 Sponsors webpage (which has since been deleted) and was told it had not been updated since 2016—a year after it was founded. Its “Funding Model” page merely states that it accepts money from corporations, not from who or for what programs. There are currently no pages on the Beyond Type 1 website listing its sponsors.

The root issue is one of transparency. When a nonprofit receives money from a corporation, we, the people that the nonprofit was formed to serve, should be made aware of who gave that money so that we can ensure that the nonprofit remains unbiased and hold them accountable. Beyond Type 1 needs to make substantial changes to the ways it addresses its sponsorships, content, advocacy, and diversity. Beyond Type 1 needs to ask itself if it serves all people with type 1 diabetes or just the ones who can afford the insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors they run ads for on their website.

Beyond Type 1 is right, there is no one right way to advocate. But there is a wrong one.

And a brief update since this was first published in July of 2020. Beyond type 1 continues to take money from insulin makers, despite people's objections.

Their Funding Model page now discloses the money they're getting from pharmaceutical companies, and they include some rationalization as why they do that, even though when they were founded, they said they would never do it because it would hurt their ability to be objective. But apparently they've found a way to get over that. When listing the amount of money it gets from sponsors, they don't say the exact amount, they just say it's over a certain amount.

So we know that from. Eli Lilly, Novo, Nordisk, and Sanofi. In addition to Roche, Tandem, Viatris, Xeris, Mannkind, One Drop, Prevention Bio, Insulet, and Dexcom, Abbott, and a bunch of others, they've received over $50,000 from each of them in the last year. It could be $500,001. It could be $5 million. We don't know.