New podcast covers the rise of the illicit market for flavored nicotine e-cigarettes

Audible has launched “Backfired,” a new original podcast series from Prologue Projects that focuses on the business of unexpected consequences.

The first season, “Backfired: The Vaping Wars,” is a nine-episode podcast hosted by journalists Leon Nayfakh and Ariel Pardes that covers the controversial Juul story, the emergence of a vast illicit market for flavored nicotine e-cigarettes, and the public health debate surrounding vaping.

When Juul's founders, two Stanford graduate students, set out to develop a cigarette that wouldn't kill them, they didn't expect what would happen next.

Now, more than a decade later, the podcast looks back and explores whether their invention was a solution to one of the world's most pressing public health problems: smoking, or whether it merely introduced nicotine to an entirely new generation.

Neyfakh and Pardes present the definitive account of Juul's backstory, including the first interview with co-founder James Monsees since his departure from the company, and also delve into the illegal e-cigarette market that emerged in Juul's wake.

Backfired: The Vaping Wars is available now on Audible.