I Told You So! by Matt Kaplan ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted—from Darwin to Pasteur to modern-day Nobel Prize winners.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A Free book was provided for an honest review.

January 2026; Macmillan Audio; 9781250435521
audio (9h 17m), ebook, print; nonfiction

Matt Kaplan draws the reader into the cut-throat world of scientific medical research. We all learned about Galileo when he challenged the earth-centric viewpoint of the universe and instead detailed a sun-centric solar system. Kaplan touches on this event as well as many other examples of challenging the established paradigms both past and present. He also details ethically questionable actions and comments on the practices that might encourage such actions.

Kaplan touches on a number of fascinating topics in this book. That is both a good thing (the topics are interesting and thought-provoking) and a bad thing (there is a lot of information). He bounces from science history to modern issues to science writing/communication (and a few personal stories from his career) to his opinions on the state of research funding. 

I'm a big science history buff, so I really enjoyed the stories about Pasteur and Lister. I was also really wrapped up in the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a 19th-century obstetrician, who passionately pursued the cause of puerperal fever (a fatal disease women contracted after giving birth) and was devastated when he learned that he (and other doctors) was responsible for the death of thousands of women. If this were the only story Kaplan had detailed, it would be worth the read.

I struggled with the bouncing around Kaplan did. I was okay when he would tie a current example of a similar struggle to the past event he was describing. It was more the side stories about his journey as a science writer. They are fascinating, and I was drawn to them as a science communicator myself, but I would have preferred it to have been its own book, as it often felt like we went down an unrelated rabbit hole. 

I also found the concluding chapters, where he suggests different funding decision methods, to be more of a soapbox moment than to add anything to the stories of those who challenged the status quo. 

Even with these couple of problems, I enjoyed the book. The stories he told were lively - they read like a fictional story - and totally engaging. 

I listened to the audiobook, which is read by Sean Pratt, and it felt like I was sitting down one-on-one having a conversation with the author. 

Buy I Told You So! at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour. 

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