Dr. David Agus appears as a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in December 2021. Agus’ latest book was published this week after a nine-month delay.
(Scott Kowalchyk / CBS )
By Corinne Purtill Staff Writer
Dec. 8, 2023 3 AM PT
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This week, Simon & Schuster finally published “The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life,” the highly anticipated book by USC’s Dr. David Agus whose release was suspended after the manuscript was found to contain numerous instances of plagiarism.
The new version of the book differs subtly from the one originally slated for March, with multiple sections revised and reworded. But there is one conspicuous difference: the removal of a passage in the acknowledgments praising Agus’ former collaborator, Los Angeles writer Kristin Loberg.
“The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life” by Dr. David B. Agus
(Courtesy of David B. Agus M.D., Simon & Schuster)
“We have been working together for thirteen years, and I enjoy every moment we spend together,” Agus had initially penned to the person who co-wrote “The Book of Animal Secrets” and his three previous titles. “You are an amazing partner, an insightful thinker, a remarkably talented writer, and a good friend.”
Agus, an oncologist at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and chief executive of the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, was not the only high-profile figure to have credited Loberg with his books’ success.
“The collaboration I have had with my partner and friend, Kristin Loberg, has been truly special,” CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote in the acknowledgments of his 2021 book “Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age.”
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“We should all be lucky enough to have a real mind meld with someone like Kristin, who immediately understood what I was trying to convey and always helped me get there,” Gupta wrote of Loberg, who went on to produce two more volumes with him. “She is the very best at what she does, and quite simply, this book would not have been possible without her.”
Science & Medicine
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We found 95 instances of plagiarism in a USC scientist’s new book. Sales have been suspended
A forthcoming book by Dr. David Agus is rife with instances of plagiarism. After being contacted by The Times, Agus and Simon & Schuster have halted publication.
March 6, 2023
For years, Loberg was a prolific and sought-after ghostwriter of health- and wellness-themed nonfiction books, a standout in the niche industry of wordsmiths who quietly craft books for authors who lack the time or experience to pen their works alone.
Between 2006 and 2022, the Los Angeles native was credited on 45 titles, nearly all released by the so-called Big Five, the handful of publishers that dominate the U.S. book industry. Books with her shared byline sold millions of copies and garnered coveted bestseller designations from Amazon and the New York Times.
Publishers often introduced her to authors seeking a writing partner, according to Loberg’s former clients and her own previous interviews.
“If the publisher, of all people, is the one doing the recommendation, that’s kind of the gold standard,” said Dan Gerstein, CEO of the agency Gotham Ghostwriters.
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That changed abruptly in March. A review by The Times of Agus’ four books with Loberg found significant plagiarism: not just a recycled turn of phrase or a few missing attributions, but entire paragraphs and pages copied and pasted verbatim from blog posts, news articles and other sources.
Science & Medicine
For Subscribers
Examination of USC doctor’s earlier books finds more troubling instances of plagiarism
The Times reviewed three books by Dr. David Agus and co-writer Kristin Loberg and found over 120 passages that are virtually identical to others’ published material.
March 17, 2023
Her two other best-selling clients, Gupta and celebrity talk show guest Dr. David Perlmutter, issued public statements saying they had reviewed their books and likewise found plagiarized material in their titles.
“I accept complete responsibility for any errors my work may have contained,” Loberg said at the time in a statement that acknowledged “allegations of plagiarism” and apologized to writers whose work was not properly credited.
Publishers pledged to review all of her books and take corrective steps where necessary. In the nine months since, they have been quietly cleaning up an editorial mess that some industry observers say is partly of their own making.
A Times investigation of books by Dr. David Agus found more than 120 passages that are virtually identical to the language and structure of previously published material from other sources.
(Los Angeles Times)
Simon & Schuster said it has released updated versions of six books by Agus and Gupta with the problematic passages either reworked or excised. Loberg’s name is scrubbed from the credits and acknowledgments in the latest editions on Amazon’s Kindle store.
Hachette Book Group released new electronic versions of the four books Perlmutter wrote with Loberg, including the bestselling “Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar — Your Brain’s Silent Killers.” Loberg’s name no longer appears in those books either.
“It seems like what they’re doing is something of a stealth new version, where they are letting corrected ones replace the ones with plagiarism relatively quietly,” said Jonathan Bailey, owner of the copyright and plagiarism consultancy CopyByte in New Orleans. “While this is much better than doing nothing, it would be much better to have first pulled the books from sale and then replaced them with clearly marked new editions.”
Representatives for Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Macmillan did not respond to multiple queries about the outcome of promised reviews of Loberg’s books. They also declined to comment on whether they have made any changes in their editorial processes.
Neither Loberg nor her attorney responded to requests to comment for this story.
It’s unclear how plagiarism of this scale evaded notice for so long. In addition to outside sources, Loberg frequently borrowed sections from her projects with other clients. The result was a sort of ouroboros of wellness content across multiple books.
For instance, multiple passages from Dr. Michael F. Holick’s 2010 “The Vitamin D Solution: A 3-Step strategy to Cure Our Most Common Health Problem” and 2011’s “Mom Energy: A Simple Plan to Live Fully Charged” by dietitian Ashley Koff and fitness trainer Kathy Kaehler appeared in Agus’ 2012 bestseller “The End of Illness.”
Parts of “The End of Illness” surfaced the following year in Perlmutter’s “Grain Brain.” A decade later, a long passage on diabetes from “Grain Brain” appeared nearly verbatim in the original version of “The Book of Animal Secrets.”
Examples of duplicate copy in "The Book of Animal Secrets" With the help of a plagiarism detection program called iThenticate, The Times found more than 95 passages in Dr. David Agus’ forthcoming book that bear a striking resemblance to published works.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 12, discussing a book by Harvard paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman
In his 2013 book, The Story of the Human Body, he makes a strong case for our epidemic levels of chronic disease being the result of a mismatch between our evolutionary roots and modern lifestyles. He writes, “We still don’t know how to counter once-adaptive primal instincts to eat donuts and take the elevator.” In a 2015 paper, he explains the paradox: “Humans evolved to be adapted for regular, moderate amounts of endurance physical activity into late age,” but “humans also were selected to avoid unnecessary exertion.”
Sanjay Gupta, 2021 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From Gupta's book "Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age"
In his 2013 book, The Story of the Human Body, Dr. Lieberman makes a strong case that our epidemic levels of chronic disease today are the result of a mismatch between our evolutionary roots and modern lifestyles: “We still don’t know how to counter once-adaptive primal instincts to eat donuts and take the elevator.” In a follow-up 2015 paper, Lieberman calls out the paradox: “Humans evolved to be adapted for regular, moderate amounts of endurance physical activity into late age,” but “humans also were selected to avoid unnecessary exertion.”
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 38
Our pets’ health can often match our own. Anxiety, obesity, allergies, gastrointestinal infections, and even insomnia are all disorders that can exist in pet- owner dyads.
Washington Post, 2019 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the story "A new meaning for ‘sick as a dog’? Your pet’s health may tell you something about your own"
A pet’s health can often reflect our own: anxiety, obesity, allergies, gastrointestinal infections and even insomnia are all disorders that can exist in pet-owner dyads.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 77
He found that the heart has four chambers and that it connects to the pulse in the wrist with the contraction of the left ventricle. He also figured out that currents in blood flow, created in the main aorta artery, help heart valves to close. And he proposed that arteries generate a health risk if they gummed up over a lifetime.
BBC News, 2014 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the story "What Leonardo taught us about the heart"
He found that the heart had four chambers and it connected the pulse in the wrist with the contraction of the left ventricle. He worked out that currents in the blood flow, created in the main aorta artery, help heart valves to close. And he suggested that arteries create a health risk if they fur up over a lifetime.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 134
Remember that the shift to a diet rich in meat and fat occurred at a time when the human population was dominated by hunters and gatherers. The level of physical activity among these human ancestors was much higher than most of us have ever known. And remember too that our ancestors ate bird eggs only in the spring when they were available. Now we eat them year round. They may have hunted one deer a season and consumed it piecemeal over time.
(USC professor Craig Stanford is mentioned in the book, but his quotes are not attributed to him. His USC colleague Caleb Finch is not in the book at all.)
USC, 2004 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Press release titled "Evolution's Twist"
“This shift to a diet rich in meat and fat occurred at a time when the population was dominated by hunters and gatherers,” said [Caleb] Finch, a USC University Professor and holder of the ARCO-William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging.
“The level of physical activity among these human ancestors was much higher than most of us have ever known,” he said. “Whether humans today, with our sedentary lifestyle, remain highly tolerant to meat eating remains an open question researchers are looking into.”
[USC professor Craig] Stanford, co-director of the university’s Goodall Research Center, said that modern-day humans “tend to gorge ourselves with meat and fat.”
“For example, our ancestors only ate bird eggs in the spring when they were available,” he said. “Now we eat them year-round. They may have hunted one deer a season and eaten it over several months.”
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Pages 153-155
Bats in flight have an increased metabolic rate and heightened body temperature, resulting in body temperatures similar to those seen in other mammals that have fevers (100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit). This may suggest that flight protects bats from infection in the same way that fever protects other mammals—by modulating their immune response. ...
If the high metabolic rates and “feverish” body temperatures that accompany flight activate the immune system, then flight could be the ultimate explanation for how bats evolved to harbor viral infections without signs of illness.
LiveScience, 2014 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the story "Why Bats Carrying Deadly Diseases Don't Get Sick"
When they fly, bats increase their energy expenditure (metabolic rate) and body temperature, resulting in body temperatures similar to those seen in other mammals that have a fever (100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit), the researchers said. This suggests that flight protects bats from infection in the same way that fever protects mammals — by boosting their immune response, the researchers said.
If the high metabolic rates and high body temperatures that accompany flight activate the immune system, then flight could be the ultimate explanation “for the evolution of viral infections without overt signs of illness in bats,” the researchers wrote in a paper in the May issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 154
For me, knowing that bats have an extra large number of DNA repair genes that play a role in preventing disease is intriguing, as bats don’t get cancer.
Rhonda's Wanderings, 2017 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the blog post "Bat Quiz 101"
Researchers also learned the bats have an extra large number of DNA repair genes that also play a role in preventing disease. In addition to avoiding viral infections, bats also don’t suffer from age-related diseases or cancer.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 155
Bats are the only mammals ever to evolve true powered flight. We can infer that they gradually evolved true flight from a gliding arboreal ancestor, possibly using the gliding membrane as a sort of net while the flight stroke evolved.
UC Museum of Paleontology, 2005 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the article "Vertebrate Flight"
[Bats] are the only mammals ever to evolve true powered flight. ... We can infer that bats gradually evolved true flight from a gliding arboreal ancestor, possibly using the gliding membrane as a sort of “net” while the flight stroke evolved.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Pages 165-166
The potential of CRISPR is tremendous, and it’s incredibly inexpensive, versatile, and easy. In the past, it might have cost thousands of dollars and months of tinkering to alter a gene. Now it might cost under $100 and take only a few hours. …
It may one day allow us to wipe out entire populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes or tick-borne pathogens or even resurrect once-extinct species like the passenger pigeon.
Vox, 2018 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the article "A simple guide to CRISPR, one of the biggest science stories of the decade"
And it’s incredibly cheap and easy: In the past, it might have cost thousands of dollars and weeks or months of fiddling to alter a gene. Now it might cost just $75 and only take a few hours. …
CRISPR could one day even allow us to wipe out entire populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes or resurrect once-extinct species like the passenger pigeon.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 168
Learning how ants age depending on their role may ultimately shed more light on aging in general, including in humans. Queens stay youthful through their long lives, whereas workers age quickly and die fast. Scientists can rush, slow, or even reverse aging in ants and bees simply by having them mate or changing their tasks.
Times Union Online, 2021 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
From the story "Aging Studies Can Learn A Lot From A Bug’s Life"
While queens stay youthful through their long lives, workers age quickly and die fast. ... Scientists can rush, slow or even reverse aging in ants and bees simply by having them mate or changing their tasks.
"Animal Secrets" UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Page 227
This makes it hard to study how a potential drug can change the disease. We’re not about to start experimenting on dolphins in a laboratory setting the way we do with mice. But if altered insulin signaling can make an animal more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease, we might be able to produce mice that are a true model of the disease and test them to find new treatments.
Labroots.com, 2017 UPDATED March 7, 2023 | 9:47 AM
Quoting Simon Lovestone, a professor of translational neuroscience at the University of Oxford:
“This makes it difficult to find new targets for curing the disease, as well as studying how a potential drug can change the disease,” he said. “But if altered insulin signaling can make an animal more susceptible to Alzheimer’s Disease, we might be able [to] produce mice that are a true model of the disease, which we can then test to find new treatments.”
SHOW MORESHOW LESS
Previous Loberg clients contacted by The Times described her as a skilled professional with a warm demeanor.
“She was super to work with and very talented,” said Dr. Carl Lavie, who collaborated with her on his 2014 book “The Obesity Paradox: When Thinner Means Sicker and Heavier Means Healthier.”
In a statement posted temporarily to her website, Loberg described the errors as inadvertent.
“I have never intentionally used another author’s work without attribution,” she wrote in the statement, which was removed after a few weeks. “The most troubling part for me is thinking and knowing I was doing everything right, only to learn that I was not as meticulous and diligent as I thought. In all my years in this profession, I’ve never once had a complaint about content.”
Yet the sheer amount of work Loberg took on during those years should have raised red flags, according to people familiar with the publishing industry. Other ghostwriters working in similar genres told The Times they tend to focus on one project at a time, frequently spending a year or more on a single book. Including the original version of Agus’ “Animal Secrets,” Loberg’s name has appeared on 46 titles since 2006.
“The original sin here was not factoring in what Loberg’s workload was,” said Gerstein of Gotham Ghostwriters. “Very, very few ghostwriters who work at that level would take on that much work for a prolonged period of time.”
The Times discovered the misappropriated material by running thee manuscripts through iThenticate, a plagiarism-detection software program used frequently by researchers, publishers and instructors.
Surprisingly, Loberg once described the same program as an essential part of her own professional process.
In a since-removed 2014 post on the Los Angeles Editors & Writers Group blog, she wrote that she had started using iThenticate the previous year, and encouraged other writers to do so “to ensure that our works are bulletproof.”
“It’s far too easy to cut and paste with good intentions during the crazy writing process and later find yourself accused of plagiarism,” Loberg wrote. “So while you might think that the secret to truly original content is just great writing, let me suggest that you add, ‘And it’s been certified organic by an anti-plagiarism program’!”
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How a Times reporter found a pattern of plagiarism in a USC doctor’s books that his publisher missed
The process of testing Dr. David Agus’ work “took under 15 minutes.”
March 20, 2023
Whereas Loberg and her higher-profile clients have publicly apologized for misusing authors’ words without attribution, the companies that published the books have been largely quiet.
Given that Agus issued an apology after problems with his books came to light, “it’s not that much different a context or that hard a lift for the publishers to do the same,” Gerstein said, especially considering their role in pairing Loberg with authors.
“There was nothing in her past to indicate that she was capable of this, or this was a high risk,” he said. “But given that they did recommend her, then to make a statement of some responsibility, and to acknowledge their role in it at a minimum, wouldn’t seem that much to ask.”
The muted response from publishers is “very disheartening and disconcerting, to say the least,” said Barbara Glatt, a forensic plagiarism investigator based in Chicago.
If publishers are slow to react “even when armed with incontrovertible proof,” she said in an email, “one can only imagine that going forward with the continued advances in machine learning (ChatGPT for example) that the line between plagiarism and originality will be further blurred.”