Book Critics

"Cold Wars: The Zicam Story" is a non-fiction book that tells the story of Dr. Charles B. Hensley, an unconventional former professor, and his journey to develop Zicam, a potential cure for the common cold. Hensley teams up with former student Rob Davidson to launch a biotech company, facing various challenges such as investor skepticism, partnership conflicts, and competition from established products like Cold-EEZE.

Despite these difficulties, they successfully develop Zicam, utilizing their research on zinc's impact on cold viruses. The book captures their journey through triumphs and struggles, highlighting key moments involving investor negotiations and the eventual launch of Zicam, which receives notable attention and acclaim.

The narrative explores themes of ambition, resilience, and transformation, reflecting Hensley's personal growth and stability. Ultimately, Zicam emerges as a successful product, changing the lives of its founders and having a lasting impact on the healthcare industry.

Sylvia Jacobs

As a Film Critic, I see Cold Wars: The Zicam Story as a stylistic "DNA splice" of several distinct cinematic movements. It doesn’t just sit in the lab; it dances on the edge of the following influences:

1. The Fincher-Sorkin "Intellectual Thriller"The most obvious ancestor is The Social Network (2010). The film adopts that rapid-fire, walk-and-talk dialogue where scientific jargon is weaponized. It attempts to make the discovery of ionic zinc feel as high-stakes as coding the world’s largest social network, using a propulsive, synth-heavy score that echoes Trent Reznor’s atmospheric tension.

2. Oliver Stone’s Corporate ParanoiaThere is a distinct shade of Wall Street (1987) in how it portrays the "Big Pharma" antagonists. The visual language uses high-contrast lighting and Dutch angles during boardroom scenes to suggest a world of predatory capitalism, framing Dr. Hensley as the "outsider" fighting a rigged system.

3. The "Scientific Procedural" of The Martian. Where  the film leans into its "Science Fiction" branding, it mirrors the "competence porn"found in Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015). It celebrates the "science-ing the sh*t out of it" mentality, using stylized CGI sequences to visualize the molecular "war" occurring between the virus and the zinc ions.

4. Docu-Drama Flair of The Big Short audience from drowning in biophysics, the film utilizes fourth-wall-breaking expositions. Similar to Adam McKay’s style, it uses kinetic graphics and "pop-up" facts to explain the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia and regulatory loopholes, turning a dry legal reality into a fast-paced montage.