In the early 2000s, a man named Erb Avore started selling a male sexual enhancement supplement he called Stiff Nights. The pills were amazingly effective—but the list of ingredients failed to mention a key component, and soon the Food and Drug Administration came calling. On Episode 32 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to the journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling about the poorly regulated world of dietary supplements, Avore’s long quest to find an all-natural alternative to Viagra, and how the internet huckster tangled with the law. Hongoltz-Hetling’s article about Stiff Nights, “The Rise and Fall of an Herbal Viagra Scammer,” appeared in the July-August issue of The New Republic.
