Michael McBride closes Yale's Freshman Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 125B) with a review lecture built around Woodward's 1951 total synthesis of cortisone. He surveys the biological activity of steroid hormones and the seven Nobel Prizes awarded for steroid research between 1927 and 1975, then walks through Woodward's synthesis step by step, using it to revisit reactions covered across the semester. McBride contrasts the low overall yield typical of sequential syntheses with the efficiency of convergent routes, and covers practical industrial syntheses of cortisone based on modifying steroids already available from nature. A closing section surveys other milestones in total synthesis, from natural product work to designed pharmaceuticals, before McBride ends the course thanking teachers, colleagues, family, and students. Chapter markers divide the lecture into five clear segments.