That Time Everyone Loved Radium: What Could Go Wrong?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Ridiculous History

Episode: That Time Everyone Loved Radium: What Could Go Wrong?

Release Date: October 28, 2025
Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Super Producer: Max "The Radiation" Williams

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the bizarre and cautionary saga of humanity’s early obsession with radium—a radioactive element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie and hailed as a miracle substance in the early 20th century. Ben and Noel trace radium’s journey from groundbreaking scientific discovery to the widespread “radium fad” that saw it marketed in everything from cosmetics to soft drinks, and finally to the devastating public health scandals that followed. Through fascinating anecdotes, wry banter, and notable case studies like the “Radium Girls” and Eben Byers, the hosts unpack how scientific ignorance, unchecked capitalism, and a dash of human optimism collided in this truly ridiculous episode in history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Discovery of Radium and Its Early Promise

⏰ [01:00] – [02:49]

• Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898 (as well as polonium—a substance 300x more radioactive than uranium), not understanding just how dangerous it was.
• Scientific context: Early applications included treating cancer and aiding new X-ray technology.
• Ben: “It is safe to say they weren’t sure what they were getting into.”

2. From Science to Miracle Product: The Radium Craze

⏰ [05:51] – [16:51]

• Once radium’s luminosity became known, it entered the mass market as a cure-all and a sign of technological sophistication.
• Marketing parallels: Ben and Noel liken the blind rollout of radium to more recent tech crazes, e.g., the AI buzz or slapdash use of “digital” in the 1990s.
• Noel: “Let’s just give it a try. Who knows? We don’t have to worry about the knock-on consequences. We’ll figure that out later.” [06:42]

3. Everywhere You Look, There’s Radium

⏰ [07:30] – [16:51]

• Radium used in:
  • Watch and clock dials (radium paint for glow-in-the-dark features)
  • Cosmetics (makeup, nail polish, even on teeth for parties)
  • Water (as “Liquid Sunshine” and Radithor)
  • Chocolate bars (in Europe)
  • Creams, salts, suppositories, household paints, light switches, toys
• Ben: “If you drink Lacroix, you don’t really have room to talk. No, it was the Lacroix of its day. It just happened to have radium in it for sure.” [21:19]
• Fad products made incredible (and false) health claims.

4. The Radium Girls and Workplace Tragedy

⏰ [32:26] – [46:44]

• US Radium Corporation’s Undark Paint:
  • Women (dial painters) routinely ingested radium by “lip-pointing” brushes to paint tiny watch numerals.
  • Management knew of radium’s dangers—lab workers and executives avoided exposure.
• The story of Grace Fryer:
  • She and her coworkers began suffering horrific symptoms; management insisted everything was fine while encouraging them to wear and use radium paint as a sort of brand ambassadorship.
  • Memorable quote:
    • Grace Fryer (recounted by Ben): “Our instructors told us to point them with our lips. I think I pointed mine about six, six times to every watch dial. It didn’t have any taste, and I didn’t know it was harmful.” [41:34]
  • Her activism led to lawsuits—the “Radium Girls” sued for damages, and their case directly led to stronger worker safety regulations and ultimately, the creation of OSHA.
  • Sadly, Grace died at just 34 years old as a result of radium poisoning.

5. Eben Byers: The Cautionary Tale of an Influencer

⏰ [47:12] – [52:03]

• Wealthy businessman and “amateur golf champion” Eben Byers began taking Radithor to treat an arm injury on his doctor’s advice—drinking an average of three bottles a day.
• Gruesome results:
  • “His whole upper jaw except two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body was slowly disintegrating and holes were actually forming in his skull.” (Quote from FTC investigator Robert Wynn, read by Noel) [49:37]
• Ironically, Byers evangelized the product to friends, giving it to horses and business partners.
• Byers’s high social status brought attention to the dangers of radium, prompting government action.

6. Regulation & Reckoning

⏰ [52:03] – [55:48]

• High-profile cases (Grace Fryer, Eben Byers) finally led to lawsuits and prompted both public outrage and government action.
• Federal Trade Commission filed against makers of dangerous radium products—not for poisoning, but for fraud and false claims, reflecting regulatory limitations of the era.
• Ben: “This ultimately leads to OSHA. This leads to workers’ rights.” [55:10]
• Previously, consumer protections (like the modern FDA) didn’t exist—companies abused the knowledge gap for profit.

7. Reflections: Science, Capitalism, and Human Folly

⏰ [56:01] – End

• The hosts reflect on how scientific discoveries can be rapidly commercialized without consideration of long-term effects, drawing parallels with other fads (like mercury) and warning against repeating such blunders.
• Side note: The infamous “Radioactive Boy Scout” and the continuing presence of hazardous materials in everyday items.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Noel: “There’s a whole lot of eff around and find out. And oftentimes you have folks like Marie and Pierre finding out not in the best possible way for science.” [02:49]
• Ben (on marketing excess): “At some point you’re seeing it mentioned on the tins for medicine, you’re seeing it advertised as a feature of industrial products...consumers and corporations [loved] the luminescent properties. Radiation poisoning aside, it’s great for that!” [07:30]
• Ben (on human curiosity and folly): “There’s something that’s always baffled me about humanity...Humanity runs into every new discovery, and some member of the species says, also, we should see if we can put it in our butts.” [28:00]
• Noel (on awareness lag): “The reason we know about Grace is because she was the one who stood up and spoke up and became sort of a figurehead for all of the voiceless workers…” [44:37]
• FTC Employee Robert Wynn, read by Noel (on Eben Byers):
  • “His whole upper jaw except two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body was slowly disintegrating and holes were actually forming in his skull. A more gruesome experience in a more gorgeous setting would be hard to imagine.” [49:37]
• Noel: “The case against Bailey Radium Laboratories was actually filed by the Federal Trade Commission...They just didn’t have the mechanisms at this time to necessarily pursue them for putting out poison and not saying that’s what it was. So they had to get them almost on, like, I don’t know, fraud, false claims. That’s exactly right.” [53:13]
• Ben (final takeaway): “Despite the grisly ends that Grace Fryer, the Radium Girls, and Eben Byers met, yet their suffering did lead to positive change…stuff like government regulations, like, hey, freedom.” [52:03]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:00] — The Curies’ discovery of radium
• [05:51] — Radium as a “miracle” marketed product
• [07:30] — Luminescent properties and mainstream adoption
• [21:07] — Radium beverages (Liquid Sunshine, Radithor)
• [32:26] — Radium in household goods and children’s toys
• [39:04] — Who were the “Radium Girls”? Explanation of their job and exposure
• [43:27] — Grace Fryer’s realization and activism
• [46:44] — Legal case & outcome for the Radium Girls
• [47:12] — Eben Byers and the tragedy of Radithor
• [52:03] — Societal impact, emergence of regulation, and FTC lawsuits
• [55:10] — Discussion of OSHA, regulatory legacy
• [56:01] — Reflections & parallels to other hazardous fads (e.g., mercury)

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Tone and Style

• Conversational, irreverent, witty.
• Frequent winking asides and pop culture references (e.g., Fallout video games, “Lacroix of its day”).
• Deep empathy for those harmed, skepticism toward unchecked capitalism and marketing hype.

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Summary Takeaways

• Radium’s story is a powerful warning: An era’s greatest scientific wonders can become its greatest health threats when optimism, ignorance, and profit-seeking intersect.
• Regulation exists for a reason: Without public outcry and legal battles like those fought by the Radium Girls, dangerous pseudoscience can wreak havoc unchecked.
• Humans are endlessly inventive—and often blindly trusting: The radium fad reminds us to ask questions, do our homework, and consider the true costs of the next “wonder invention.”

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For more, listen to the full episode of Ridiculous History on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform.

Transcript

[A]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you, as always, so much for tuning. And let's hear it for our own mythical super producer, Max the Radiation Williams.

[B]

Max Radiation Boy Williams.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I'm just glowing.

[A]

Y' all just glowing.

[B]

You always are. You all. Are you doing a new skincare routine? Hopefully not involving radium.

[A]

Yeah. Or the condition.

[B]

No. Well, fair. Maybe the. Maybe radium could knock the condition right out. Why not try at this point?

[A]

Why not? Why not?

[B]

Well, we'll tell you why not, Max, in just a little bit.

[A]

They call me Ben Bullen. You also just heard Mr. Noel Brown there, and the rumors are true. Fellow ridiculous historians, we have returned from some time at sea. We're pleased as punch, or perhaps pleased as plutonium, to rejoin you today. So we've all heard of radium, right?

[B]

Yeah. And can I just take a quick moment to say I missed you guys. Ben, I saw you, but we didn't record. This is the first recording we've done in a little bit, and we've both been under the weather for some travel crud. And I'm happy to be back. Yeah. Radium is certainly something that we learned about when studying the periodic table in school. And I think we all learned about Marie and Pierre Curie and the discovery of radium.

[A]

That was going to be. I totally forgot you guys. That was going to be part of my intro today. And a cool intro, because one fun, dumb fact about me, I'm one of those people who can name every element on the periodic table. It's a useless skill.

[B]

Incorrect. Excellent at parties.

[A]

Thanks. But we know the periodic table, despite having a weird name and despite being somewhat imperfect, it is a phenomenal assembly of some amazing revelations. And some of those revelations, as we're going to discover, are indeed deadly revelations. We always talk about Marie Curie. We've mentioned her in the past, multiple times. Absolute hero of the show. Her and Pierre, as you said, discovered radium in 1898. But when they discovered it, and these are very clever people, when they discovered it, it is safe to say they weren't sure what they were getting into.

[B]

No, I mean, that's kind of a lot of the stories we talk about on ridiculous history involving science. There's a whole lot of eff around and find out. And oftentimes you have folks like Marie and Pier finding out not in the best possible way for science. This is an iHeart podcast. Hey, audiobook lovers. I'm Kalpen. I'm Ed Helms. Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our new podcast, Irsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Each week we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and.

[A]

Greatest audiobooks from audible.

[B]

Listen to Earsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Earsay and start listening on the free iHeartradio app today is moderate to.

[C]

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[D]

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[A]

I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.

[B]

It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people.

[A]

We got clear facts. Maybe we can calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts.

[B]

Let's move forward from there.

[A]

NBC News reporting for America Now. Originally, the curies, being scientists, had an idea of what radium could be used for, or what we would call the applications. And they said, look, radium can help with cancer treatment, or it can help the emergent science of X ray technology. They had no idea about the merchant, they had no idea about how capitalism and American marketing worked. This was a panacea. This was snake oil medicine. This was a cure all that you could use to treat anything.

[B]

Sort of like how we're seeing a lot of the marketing and rollout surrounding artificial so called artificial intelligence.

[A]

Yeah, uh huh.

[B]

Let's just, let's just give it a try. Who knows? We don't have to worry about the knock on consequences. We'll figure that out later.

[A]

And here's one for the older heads. Back in that halcyon era of the 1990s when every business discovered the word digital, I had to put the word digital on everything they made, even if it didn't make sense.

[B]

I know now it seems so dated, doesn't it? But you still do see it. It is one of those remnants that has stuck around. So the early 1900s saw radium's. Well actually to quote our brand new research associate, Dylan, not Dylan the Tennessee pal. But Dylan will come up with a cool nickname for you later. It's his first episod with us, so we're excited to have him join the ridiculous history research cadre. But yeah, the 1900s saw radium's luminescent properties becoming quite in vogue.

[A]

Yeah, this is ubiquitous. At some point you're seeing it mentioned on the tins for medicine, you're seeing it advertised as a feature of industrial products. It's great for marketers at radiation poisoning aside, it's great for that consumers and corporations because the luminescent properties are instantly recognizable, they're distinctive. So if you are making watches, you are going to use radium based paint on your watches or your airplane dials. Right. For instrumentation. If you are going to a party and you want to make an impression as a young lady, you are using radium infused glowing makeup on your face, but also your teeth. Oh, and also your fingernails.

[B]

Yeah, also. Why not?

[A]

Go ahead.

[B]

And since we're at the party and we're having a good time throwing a few back, let's just put a little radium in the cocktails, you know, for fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. Boy, oh boy, it makes me think of like Mad Hatter syndrome and just, you know, these substances that were just used so ubiquitously and then caused real, real problems down the road. And of course that is because unbeknownst at the time, this radium exposure was incredibly harmful and detrimental to the long term health of the individuals exposed to it.

[A]

Absolutely. And you've probably Heard folks of parables like the story of the Radium Girls, one of the most well known cases of documented overexposure to radium. Their activism and their outcry directly led to stricter workplace laws that also themselves led to the creation of stuff like osha, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. But there's a lot more to it. So we've given you the gist. Let's dive in. Let's understand why the United States went absolutely head over heels for radium. And to answer that question, our first step has to be learning what radium is and meeting the curies. And Dylan, I'm just going to tell you, not all the jokes land every time.

[B]

It's okay. It's, you know, curry, Curry's curry. Potato, potato. We do know about the Sorbonne. The Sorbonne, the absolutely luminous university. If we're talking about glowing stuff. More, you know, in scientific world. In Paris, France, where Pierre taught chemistry at the School of Physics and Marie attended college there as a student of physics and maths. Yeah, I said it. I'm saying maths. I just like the way it sounds. They had an immediate connection because of shared interests, an absolute, absolute, unflinching love of science and scientific discovery. And they did eventually get married in July of 1895. So just a year later, very quick, quick courtship.

[A]

And because of their common interests, they were propelled along a professional career as well as a romantic one. By the end of 1895, our buddy Pierre has published his thesis, his doctoral thesis on the connection between temperature and magnetism. And this was a real banger for the target audience. As a matter of fact, it established what we today call Curie's Law.

[B]

That's right. And then in 1897, Marie would join her husband, working for the university herself in the laboratory, helping Pierre expand on these discoveries around magnetism. That is, until a new interest caught their attention in a very, very real way that would change their lives and carve a path through history and science.

[A]

An irradiated, glowing path. So this is how stuff breaks down. Marie is diving into the research of a French physicist, this guy, Anton Henri Becquero. He presented just a really weird talk in 1896 on February 24th about uranium rays. And he was talking to other people in this rarefied air of scientific research. And while he is in his presentation, folks, just picture a TED Talk. All right? That's what he's doing. Henri's doing a TED Talk. He's explaining to onlookers that when uranium based crystals are exposed to sunlight, they Leave a permanent shadow on photographic plates. This is a weird thing to just tell people. So he demonstrates it on stage. And this is kind of the emergent X ray technology we were teasing at the top here. So Marie Curie sees a lot of potential in this, and she says, what if other elements can do this as well? What if there's a chemical compound that's as good or better than uranium for X rays?

[B]

That's right. So she used a principle that was always near and dear to dear friend of the show, Lauren Vogelbaum, back when she was on tech stuff with frenemy of the show, Jonathan the Quizter Strickland. The piezoelectric effect, which is a very fascinating effect, which refers to the ability of certain materials, elements, minerals, et cetera, quartz is a good example to generate an electrical charge. When they are, they have a stress applied to them. That's something that Lauren was always fascinated by. I remember whenever the piezoelectric effect would come up, she would light up. So this is exactly what Marie used to test her theory about other chemical compounds. So the strength of radiation isn't dependent upon the compound itself, but it's dependent on the levels of uranium or thorium that it contains. She also found that many chemical compounds of the same element are different in structure and in chemical characteristics. Finally, the ability to radiate is tied directly to the interior of the atom, and only uranium and thorium contain the ability to give off radiation at this point in time. That is the case in the trajectory of her discoveries and, you know, the greater scientific body of knowledge around these elements.

[A]

And so, folks, what would you do if you were Marie? For anybody who's been in a successful, loving relationship, probably you want to brag to your partner, right? Because we're always trying to get our significant others to think of us as cool people. So she runs and tells Pierre, Pierre joins her and says, let's keep researching this together. Fast forward, it's June 1898. They achieved Marie's long sought after discovery. And the next month, a publication in July breaks the news to the world. The Curies have discovered a substance 300 times the strength of uranium. And they named it Polonium. And then the Curies ride back in 1898, December 26, to the Academy of Sciences and they say, DJ Khaled voice another one. We found something else. We're calling this one radium.

[B]

So in 1903, while Antoine Henri Bacquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie shared in a Nobel Peace Prize in physics for their discoveries in radiation, the Rest of the world was looking to the future and wrapped up in this new marketing craze around the miracle compound as it was pitched known as radium.

[A]

Yeah, this is where we see the origin of the radium fad, or what Dylan rightly calls the radium era. The radium fad reaches US shores around 1904. And do check out our earlier episodes on medicine shows and other quack cockamamie cures and grifts, folks who will enjoy that. And you definitely should know about medicine shows, but so that's kind of the milieu in which this is occurring. We don't have things like the FDA in its current form. You know, we don't have as a young nation, we don't have these federal resources and institutions to keep corporations and doctors honest. You can literally have a good enough patter, as we call it in British grifting. And you can go and sell whatever kind of malarkey you want as long as you get away before the law finds you. Look, I don't want to be unfair. I'm not saying that all these people selling radium branded stuff were themselves bad faith actors because they did see doctors across the pond use radium to kill cancerous cells. Right? And they didn't know. Just like the curies didn't know at the time. They didn't know about the damaging effects of radiation exposure. This was still very new, untrammeled ground.

[B]

Right. And it wasn't until the 30s that evidence of this type of poisoning became very apparent and the government then had to act. But we'll get to that.

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[B]

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[D]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[C]

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[B]

Okay, that's really sweet. I appreciate that. But are you sure I'm not the dad? I'm not Mr. Bennett. Here, listen to Earsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Book Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

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[B]

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[B]

Yeah, it's the stuff of the future, you know, and it glows. What else do you want? So we start to see some sort of trendy applications of radium. In 1904, for example, someone named D. Garner came out with a product, a drink called Liquid Sunshine.

[A]

Oh yeah, I remember that one.

[B]

Did not have any LSD in it either. Just lots of poison. This was a radium based water beverage and it was mega popular in the early 20th century, specifically around New York City.

[A]

And again, I know it's easy for some of the younger folks in the crowd to make fun of us New Yorkers at the turn of that century who were drinking radium based water beverages. But listen, folks, if you drink Lacroix, you don't really have room to talk. No, it was the Lacroix of its day. It just happened to have radium in it for sure.

[B]

And Dylan also points out a fad that I think you and I and Max all remember where there were like gummies and various sweetie snack kind of things that would like dye your tongue and teeth certain colors. And speaking from experience, it also had the potential to dye your poop.

[A]

And then in 1914 we have the again, we have a water based thing, the Great Radium Spring Water Company, which was originally Fred M. Ostier's company. They come directly from another bit of quackery, the concept of restorative waters, which is very popular here in the United States and is indeed the reason that one of our streets in Atlanta is named Ponce de Leon. This is a true story. The Ponce City Market, where our office was based for a number of years, contains one of the seven sacred springs of indigenous native culture. It's a fun fact if you ever get the chance to visit. There is a water tower that still collects water from that spring. So people were very into restorative waters or curative waters.

[B]

The fountain of youth, I believe. Yeah, for sure. And this is also, I think, pretty synchronous with the work of John Harvey Kellogg, who was a huge fan of enemas. And also things like restorative waters and sort of like Med Health Spa kind of treatments. And of course, the inventor of corn flakes.

[A]

Yeah. And so our pal Fred M. Ostier, he originally names his water company Pitfields Pine Crest Spring and then changes the name because he's like, ah, we gotta get around with this radium hype. Yeah, all the kids love this radium, Stu. We're going to call our company the Great Radium Spring Water Company.

[B]

Doing jazz hands while he did jazz hands. One million percent. Yep. And they made some pretty bold claims that were not necessarily, you know, accurate or able to be backed up at this point. Creating lore. Yeah, for sure. They claimed that the water was from the titular Great Radium Spring, of course, wherever the hell that was supposed to be, but later went on to pivot, you know, and Sell ginger ale instead. Right.

[A]

And they. Maybe they had to pivot because there were so many other radium beverage groups getting in the mix. I think it was 1920s. We got Bailey Radium Laboratories, who made.

[B]

Radithor Radithor with my favorite Pokemon in.

[A]

Its final form, Radithor energy drinks. Radithor, Bailey Radium and Radithor, therefore, are founded. Created by William J. Bailey and their advertisement. So if you see them in the grocery store, their advertisement is triple distilled water that is guaranteed to contain at least one micro curie each of Radium 226 and Radium 228.

[B]

It's a feature, not a bug, you know.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Give us just a little radium for a treat. He actually went so far as to try to back up this claim with the something of a reward for anyone who could prove he's proved me wrong. He says prove that it contained any less than the advertised amounts of one microcurie each of those two substances. He also offered a guarantee that Radithor is harmless.

[A]

Oh, good.

[B]

In every respect.

[A]

Great. Yeah, this is. This is weird because they were positioning themselves to be the Red Bull or the Monster Energy or the Celsius of their. And this, again, it shows us how much more blurry the line was between medicine and a treat, because Radithor is getting prescribed by actual facts. Shout out to you, Lauren. Actual facts. Doctors to cure injuries.

[B]

You can just pour it right on there.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Just slug half of this and then pour the rest of it on the gunshot. You'll be fine.

[B]

A real Wolverine situation, you know.

[A]

Right. Bite down and pour the Radithor on the wound so we know that there's more ahead. While we're on the subject of food and Bev, I think we should talk about German radium chocolate.

[B]

Can we. Can we please? Radium Radium chocolate. Oh, man. Yes. From Burke Unbraun. Not Braun. B, R O W M Braun. B R A U, N perhaps pronounced Braun. Likely. This did not make it into the US Sort of like today, you can't find a proper kinder egg anymore because they think we're too stupid and we're gonna choke on the little tiny toy inside. Which, you know, to be fair, maybe is true. But it is refreshing to be in Europe where you can get a proper kinder egg.

[A]

That's one of the first things I buy in town. Also, I don't. I don't like the pseudo kinder eggs where they're different halves that are individually wrapped.

[B]

It's a little dull.

[A]

You don't get to dig for the thing.

[B]

It's like a little. Almost like a Nutella biscuit thing. Like, it's got like a little pocket of Dunkaroos type that you put on this other thing. Not fond of it. But yes. Radium chocolate was likely not sold in the States because at this point, the awareness of the dangers surrounding radium by 1931 was much more widely known. It was advertised as an energy bar type food with the tagline eat this and feel great. I'm gonna do a quick translate. I kind of know roughly what it is, but German. Yeah. In German, it would be Essen sie das und fullen Sie sich Gross Arch. Yeah, there you go.

[A]

And it goes. We see this craze going through other products as well, like makeup and skincare. There was a ton of stuff released in Europe and in the United States that said if you put radium on your skin that glow, will that luminescence will do something curative for your epidermis.

[B]

Very curative.

[A]

Right. There we go. We're talking creams, salts, suppositories, man.

[B]

Yeah. You know what I can't help but think about, And I'm sure you're on the same page, and I'm sure Max is too. At least it's crossed your mind with all of this stuff, especially the glowing aspect of it and the sort of 1920s trendiness of it all. The Fallout games, There's so many. The glowing one. All of these ghouls that have clearly been so irradiated that they're actually putting out like a. A ghoulish green glow. It's just such a cool franchise. And I'm so stoked about the next season of the series coming out soon. And to jump in here, think about what is the best Nuka Cola, at least in terms of, like, isn't it Nuka Cola Radium? It's the quantum Quantum which. Which radiates.

[A]

There you go. Y. Yeah, we. I mean, we see this all the time in. In the intersection of capitalism and scientific innovation. Also, there's something. Look, we're adults here, folks. I'm going to keep it PG 13. But there's something that's always baffled me about humanity ever since the early days. The suppository idea. Humanity runs into every new discovery, and some member of the species says, also, we should see if we can put it in our butts. What if we put it in our butts for everything? You know, from fire, for the wheel, for rockets? Radium is no different.

[B]

Who's putting fire in there, bud. Seems like you'd learn your lesson from that one real quick.

[A]

Yeah, I just don't know why this is a continual thing that humans do. So in radium, the advertisers, some of whom were grifters and some of whom were just misled.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

They were seeing this panacea, right? This cure all for everything from acne to warts. A lot of stuff that could be a more vague general condition, like having a bad headache, or a very general condition like having what is called insanity, but then also stuff like blindness or.

[B]

Just general malaise for pep. Spoon your way to health with Vitamida Radium.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, And I love the nomenclature for the specific names in this era of fake medicine also. All right, so these are like the new kids on the block when it comes to snake oil salesmen.

[B]

Right.

[A]

They're basically the Wall street version of.

[B]

This, which we have an episode on. Just this concept of multiples. I'm sure if you go back. But I do seem to recall a recent one where we talk a lot about the origin of the term snake oil and various qu. Remedies.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the one we mentioned there at the top. We've got to find the name of that one, Max. If you could look that up, you'll be an absolute legend. Not that you aren't already a legendary glowing ghoul. Yeah, not that you aren't already good save bit. So. No. We also know that radium found its way into household goods. I think everybody in the US has one of those mysterious under the sink storage spots for cleaning stuff. And sometimes you just get it for one specific kind of cleaning and it just lives in your house under the sink for years afterwards.

[B]

Yeah. Until the one time where you actually need to use it, perhaps, if that ever even comes. But it's better to have than not to have. Or have even four of them because you forgot you bought it already. And then the actual situation comes up where you need it and you're. Man, this happened before. And I have too many bottles of sewer fly drain cleaner. So companies were quick to jump on the radium train. Household goods companies, folks manufacturing things like paint because they love the luminescent properties of radium. And that also extended to everything from light switches giving a glow in the dark quality to your switch so you could see it in the dark. We now know how to do that, I think, without radium. Thank God. So this would, of course, make finding the switch in the dark a little bit of an eas task. We even saw it in children's toys. And we are of course segueing gently into the true dark side of the, you know, the knock on consequences of all of this radium craze.

[A]

Yeah, you knew it was going to happen. Folks. A lot of this goes back to maybe not specific toy manufacturers, but more the manufacturers of components that were used in finished products. Most especially makers of radium luminescent paint. The big one here is the United States Radium Corporation. They had a claim to fame, a paint called Undark, which I love by the way.

[B]

That's solid branding.

[A]

Yeah. Undark is luminescent because it contains radium. It's invented by a guy whose name I love, Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocki. And he top notch name, Dr. Von Sochocki, which does sound like something I would make up in an improv set. He says, look, yeah, it's well and good that I've made this magic glowing paint for watch faces and airplane instrumentation. But I see a future that's much bigger. We can take Undark and we can paint entire rooms with it. Entire houses.

[B]

Oh boy. We'll have a town. We'll have a towel.

[A]

Vandar.

[B]

Slow your roll. Van Shocky. Von Shocky, yeah.

[A]

And him coughing at the end is because of the radium exposure.

[B]

He's losing it. He's also just so excited he can't contain himself. The light thrown off by radium paint, he says on the walls and ceilings would in color be like soft gentle moonlight. And it would also be, you know, killing you softly, you know, with its song. So we're getting to it here it is the devastating reality of radium use. We're gonn into the story of the Radium girls, which we teased there at the top of the episode. And then get into a person named Eben Byers.

[C]

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[B]

Hey, what's up?

[D]

It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions. Whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor. Check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to [e-mail] blue campaign.

[B]

Hey everyone, Ed Helms here and hi, I'm Cal Penn and we're the hosts of Irsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Jenny Garth, host of the iHeart podcast. I choose me to discuss the new Audible adaptation of the timeless Jane Austen classic Pride. And this is not a trick question. There's no wrong answer.

[A]

What role would I play?

[C]

You know what? I can see you as Mr. Darcy. You got a little Colin Firth.

[B]

Okay, that's really sweet, I appreciate that. But are you sure I'm not the dad? I'm not Mr. Bennett. Here, listen to Earsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

This episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you in part by American Public University.

[B]

You're juggling a lot. Full time job, side hustle, maybe a family.

[A]

And now you're thinking about grad school.

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That's not crazy, that's ambitious.

[A]

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[A]

So.

[B]

Although radium products continue to exist in the US well into the early 30s, the first signs, as we mentioned, and the government kind of starting to take notice of these horrific effects, started to become clear nearly a decade prior to that. You know, the wheels of regulation do grind slowly, it would seem the same as it ever was. Two of the most prominent cases that brought some of these dangers to light are the case of Grace Fryer and her fellow Radium Girls. And then, of course, as we teased, the case of Eben Byers. Why don't we start right up with Grace Fryer and the radium girls?

[A]

Yeah. And on our way to that, folks, one thing we want to establish here is why. Why radium poisoning in particular is so terrible for you. This is it. Basically, we've been dancing around this, but to give it to you playing, the human body treats radium like calcium, so it deposits the radium deep within your bones. And once the radium infiltrates your bones, it can just chill there. It can be dormant in a state of torpor for years and years and years before you get the first sign of radium poisoning.

[B]

That's why it took so long.

[A]

It's just sort of irreversible damage. That's why it was such a stealth killer, 100%.

[B]

And it took them some time to start to see these results playing out. It's like, oh, oops, I guess we might have. Should have done our homework a little.

[A]

More 30 years ago or so, right? When people like Grace Friar start realizing something's wrong. Now, she is one of those people we mentioned earlier, a dial painter. So if you have a wristwatch or if you have an airplane, two things I'm sure everybody has, it's the dream.

[B]

A wristwatch in an airplane.

[A]

In every household, the backing on your watch face has to be made by someone.

[B]

And isn't that funny, Ben? The trend of this, obviously they figured out better ways to do it, but like the Indiglo watches, you know, obviously a safer alternative to radium, but something that kind of carried forward because of this sort of precedent here with the glowing watch faces. It was, in theory, a good idea. And again, like the glow in the dark, everything. I'm glad they figured out a way to do it because it is a cool effect and quite useful in a watch.

[A]

Oh, this is going to lead to a weird tangential story at the end, by the way, folks, so stay tuned. All right, Grease Friar has painted loads and loads of dials with this undark paint. It's her job. She checks into the factory. She's about that life. She does this every day. It is like so many other factory jobs, Repetitive, tedious, and demands precision because she has to apply paint to the tiny numbers on the dial. The DTB T12, D1, D D2, DI3. That's her whole day. So when you're doing this, you have to continuously move the brush and pointing it in different directions, and you can't mess up the dial. You can't paint too far over the boundary. So the Thing that Grace and a lot of the radium girls start doing is dragging the bristles of the brush between their lips, wetting it with their tongue. It's kind of like how people. Some people, often older readers, have the habit of licking their finger when they turn the page.

[B]

Yeah. But radium or no, probably not the best practice. Don't lick paint. Just don't do it.

[A]

Don't lick paint.

[B]

Gotta be a better way to do that. So, yeah, she was doing this day in and day out, painting hundreds and hundreds of these dials. Grace is quoted saying this about her experience working in the factory or on the line. Our instructors told us to point them with our lips. I think I pointed mine about six, six times to every watch dial. It didn't have any taste, and I didn't know it was harmful.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. This is. And this makes sense for anybody who's a painter or an artist hanging out with us today. We've all done that thing at some point where you try to. You just improvise some way totally to get a finer tip on the brush. So this makes sense. They're following like they're. They're not dummies. They're good employees. They're doing what their bosses told them to do. And the Radium Core management has what a lot of therapists call toxic positivity. They just keep saying, everything is great. This is gonna be fine. Yeah. Lick the tip of that radiated brush. And also, hey, you're not just factory workers. This is a radioactive Olive Garden. When you're here, you're family. You're a brand ambassador. So, ladies, go rep the product. Put undark on your nails. Put it on your face, Put it on your teeth. You know?

[B]

Exactly. Just inject it right into your neck.

[A]

Why don't we have makeup for teeth? Says radium core.

[B]

That's a great idea, Ben. I think you're onto something. Let's put that. Let's put a pin in that one. Yeah. And some of these little tricks evolved organically as ways of kind of passing the time at work, trying all these different methods of using. Using the paint in some of these fun ways. And to your point, Ben, it then became this sort of brand ambassador quality of parading the stuff and evangelizing the wonders of radium and radium paint. So Grace didn't really notice any ill effects for years until one day she was working at a bank, well after her career as a Radium girl had come to an end. And she blew her nose into a handkerchief and it glowed.

[A]

I Don't love hearing that. Also, we do have knowing bad guys in the story.

[B]

Of course, they knew. They knew what they knew.

[A]

Yeah. Just to emphasize, right, everybody who was involved with the actual chemistry and production of Undark and all the C suite guys, they wouldn't touch this stuff. They knew what was up. So how inhuman is it for them to watch these poor workers throwing this on everywhere? So Grace has the glowing snot booger moment, and then she realizes maybe upper management hasn't been telling her the entirety of the truth.

[B]

No.

[A]

Her condition progresses. By 1922, she starts to lose teeth. She gets severe acute pain in her jaw. So she goes in for an X ray. Right. And X ray technology has been evolving in step with this as well. And the doctors look at the X rays and say, holy crap, you have severe bone decay. What happened? It's as though the calcium that should be in your bones was replaced with something else.

[B]

Yeah. And the reason we know about Grace is because she was the one who stood up and spoke up and became sort of a figurehead for all of the voiceless workers and folks that had been consumers. Likely we don't know all those stories, but we know Grace's story. This set her on a mission to get justice for herself and those in her same position who were knowingly exposed to this stuff by some really bad actors. So specifically, we're talking about the dial painters. They had now, for purposes of public, you know, perception, been dubbed the Radium Girls. And they were railing against the harmful conditions that they were exposed to to by US Radium Corporation.

[A]

Absolutely. And in doing so, there's no two ways about it. They saved people's lives. People who otherwise would have been exposed to this stuff. But as in any underdog story, this is a real speaking truth to power situation. The good guys are outnumbered and they are out financed. So they have an uphill battle in the courts. Luckily, there are good guy lawyers who come by to contribute their efforts to the cause. In particular, I'm thinking of Raymond Barry, the lawyer who, along with the Radium Girls, launched a lawsuit against the company, US Radium Corp. For $250,000. Because of the horrible conditions that each of these people were laboring under lender, they were living on borrowed time. They literally, physically probably would not survive the full grind of a court case of this magnitude with something as well funded as this corporation. So they made the decision. Well, they were forced to settle for $10,000 each and an annual payment of 600 bucks. Better than nothing. But to them, I think More important than the cash was the recognition of what had happened.

[B]

That's exactly right. Sadly, as triumphant, relatively speaking, an outcome as this was, and a win for all of the folks that did not have a voice who were exposed to this stuff. Grace Fryer was, in her pursuit for justice, not able to outlive the harmful effects of the radium exposure, and passed away, sadly on October 27th of 1933 at the age of 34.

[A]

Right. We can't overemphasize that, folks. 34 years old. We have one other story, one to wrap up with here about the radium era. This is a name we mentioned that might be familiar to some of us in the audience today. Eben Byers.

[B]

Slight trigger warning for this one. It's a little grislier than the last one.

[A]

It's some real body horror stuff. It is Eben Byers. We'll get into it with humor. He is called a US Amateur golf champion. And the phrase amateur golf champion feels paradoxical.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[A]

Yeah, right. I'm a professional amateur. Anyway, I love that he's an elderly orphan. He's the president of AM Buyers Company out there in Pittsburgh. And in 1927, he's got a pretty gnarly arm injury because the guy's always going golfing, right. And his doctor, CeCe Moyar, says, all right, Eben, here's what you gotta do. Your arm's not feeling 100%. You gotta drink this new thing I just learned about. It's called Radithor. Yeah.

[B]

£ half of it and dump the rest right on the arm.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that's what it is.

[B]

Can I just say that Cece Moyard sounds like the kind of thing that would be emblazoned on the side of one of those quack snake oil salesman wagons? Just. I'm sorry, no offense to anyone with this name, but something about a doctor named CC Moyar just seems a little bit sus. So at the time of this prescription, he was 50 years old. And over the next three years, until 1930, he consumed a lot of this stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Three bottles of Radithor per day on average. And remember what we said about Radithor earlier, folks. This is the one that was guaranteed.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

To have at least one micro curie each of radium 226 and 228.

[B]

Two flavors.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

@ the same time.

[A]

And if it didn't have that, the company would give you a thousand dollars if you could prove it didn't have all that radium. So this is. This is One of the ones that definitely is going to poison you. And oh yeah, as. As he goes through chasing that radium dragon, his teeth begin to fall out.

[B]

Cause as we mentioned, this stuff hits you right in the bone density. It replaces that calcium that gives us healthy bones. And his teeth begin to fall out, as you said. And an FTC employee, Robert Wynn, in the course of the case surrounding this gentleman and his condition, had this to say. And this is the grisly it. His whole upper jaw except two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed. All the remaining bone tissue of his body was slowly disintegrating and holes were actually forming in his skull. A more gruesome experience in a more gorgeous setting would be hard to imagine. What is the gorgeous setting he's referring to, I wonder. Pittsburgh Unclear.

[A]

We do know this is a terrible way to go, folks. As far as death and illness. We do know this was happening to other people. Again, Radithor was an energy drink. People were drinking it like you would drink an energy drink today. So Byers is not the only person who suffers these terrifying consequences. But because he is of the patrician class, because he is a businessman, a professional amateur golf champion. Professional. Yep. Yep. Nope, that's technically true. Because of his place in society, more people are paying attention to what happens to him. And this leads to a higher public awareness of radium and jet.

[B]

And that goes two ways, Ben. Because of that position that he occupied in the upper echelons of society there in Pittsburgh, he was something of an influencer. He was an evangelist of this stuff. And he was telling all his friends about it. And I bet he offered it to his golfing buddies, not to mention feeding it to his racehorses and gifting cases of it to his business colleagues. And there's an incredible article that Dylan linked us to from Orau.org that has a bunch of great details about this case. And this man seemed like an interesting fellow. He apparently was quite the ladies man. And he earned at Yale as a young man the nickname Foxy Grandpa.

[A]

Foxy Grandpa. All right, well, love a Foxy grandpa. We also know that despite the grisly ends that Grace Fryer, the Radium Girls and Evan Byers met, yet their suffering did lead to positive change. Challenging something as powerful as a corporation at a time when women's rights were still considered a controversial thing. That's huge. And the fact that the Radium Girls won their case in any form, shape or fashion is monumental. The Eben Byers tragedy makes another comparable lasting impact in the Progression of things that we enjoy today but don't really recognize until they're gone. Stuff like government regulations, like, hey, freedom.

[B]

Freedom of speech.

[A]

Yeah, let's not put fingers in the chili. That used to be a hot take. And companies used to say, don't tread on me, man. We can't afford to not have a few fingers go into chili. You're going to mess up our business.

[B]

Well, that's where the flavor comes from. And Ben, to your point earlier about regulations, in terms of what we now have, for better or worse, at times, an agency, the fda, that is responsible for overseeing and regulating and making sure that things that consumers consume do not contain poison at the very least. But again, results may vary, but the case against Bailey Radium Laboratories was actually filed by the Federal Trade Commission. It's almost like when you, you know, it's like you get somebody that's done one really horrible crime on another technicality like racketeering or whatever it might be because you can't get them for the other thing. And they just didn't have the mechanisms at this time to necessarily pursue them for putting out poison and not saying that that's what it was. So they had to get them almost on, like, I don't know, fraud, false claims. That's exactly right.

[A]

Thank you. And the doctor, by the way, Dr. C.C. mor is lying his keister off all the time and he's saying, look, I drink the same stuff I recommended to my guy. I'm 51 years old. I'm active, I'm healthy.

[B]

Healthy as a racehorse.

[A]

Yeah. So people are still. Not until these consequences occur. People still don't understand what's happening when they take radium, but they are. But the companies have a spidey sense. They know this is not entirely on the up and up. They definitely know it doesn't fix stuff that they claim it fixes. They definitely know they can sell a lot of it and become wealthy.

[B]

Well, you know what the markup was, Ben? I think 404%. Crazy town, dude. And that guy Bailey was made a very, very wealthy man. But this case from the FTC did finally put an end to his radium reign.

[A]

Come good. I mean, Jesus H. You know, this ultimately leads to osha. This leads to workers rights.

[B]

OSHA being the occupational safety and basically an organization that makes sure that work conditions are not detrimental to workers.

[A]

Yes, yes, exactly. It's one of those things that sounds boring to a lot of people here in the United States. Pretty often when you get your very first. First job somewhere in the employee area, there's going to be usually an elderly laminated sign from osha.

[B]

That's exactly right. And you hear people griping about OSHA inspections and things like that, OSHA violations, like it's some sort of gripe, basically. But the alternative is far, far gripier.

[A]

Yes. Yeah. And I like that turn of phrase there. There's one story where we're not going to have time to get to, but I want to shout out David Hahn, the radioactive Boy Scout. You remember this guy?

[B]

I know him by name, but I'd love just the tiniest bit of overview if that's.

[A]

Oh, yeah, of course. This is the kid who. This classic Boy Scout stuff. This is a Michigan kid who built a homemade nuclear reactor. What? He was 17.

[B]

I want to go get.

[A]

Get her.

[B]

You love to see it.

[A]

He figured out that he could scrape radioactive material from household project products, including watch faces.

[B]

Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting we didn't talk about this, but mercury occupied a similar space in consumer products. People were just crazy for the stuff. And as we mentioned earlier, it does look really cool. And as we mentioned earlier, it was used to treat the felt in hats. And that's where the term mad as a hatter came from. But I think mercury thermometers are maybe a little less popular than they used to be, but you can still get them. And, you know, kids would break them open and watch the little ball roll around. And a few years ago, went to Spain and went to the institute of this really cool artist, Joan Miro, and he made a fountain filled entirely with mercury, and it's encased in a glass thing because it's, you know, but it wasn't for a really long time. You could just walk right up to it and put your finger in it and. Yeah. But anyway, one of the coolest things. Things I've ever seen. But yeah, there's an interesting parallel between the radium craze and the mercury craze.

[A]

I love mercury. It's so interesting. It looks so cool. Don't touch it. Don't play with it. Don't break the thermometer. The thermometers that are really popular now, I see this anytime I'm in Japan. We actually picked one up, I think. Yeah, they're in the States, too. It's the thermometer that looks like a little guy gun. No way. Yeah. Yeah, it looks like a little gun with a. A flat, abbreviated style.

[B]

How fun.

[A]

And so you put it on someone and then you just pull the trigger and it goes beep. Beep. Temperature.

[B]

Yeah, there you go.

[A]

Yeah, there's, there's one example that Max is holding up here. There are other ones that can do it from further away, which is uncomfortable because I've been in situations where I'm walking in and the authorities figure just holds the gun up and shoots it at you to check your temperature in the days of COVID Anyway, story for another day, folks. We are back in the saddle. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. Big thanks to our super producer, Max the Watch Face Williams. Big thanks to our composer, Alex Williams, who created this slap and bop you're hearing right now.

[B]

Huge thanks to mega, mega wonderful addition to the ridiculous history research team, Dylan Clark. This was such a wonderful first entry for our buddy Dylan to the show. We're happy to have him. And huge thanks to Chris Fraciotes and Eth Jeffcoats, both here in spirit.

[A]

Big, big thanks to friend of the show, Lauren Vogelbaum. Big thanks to the rude dudes of ridiculous crime. If you dig us, you'll love them. Reluctant, grudging, faint praise, Very scant, performative, insincere attempt at thanks. Wow. To Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizter.

[B]

Oh, man, you really laid it on. I'm with you. No. All jokes aside, we love Jonathan. And huge thanks to you, Ben. This is a lot of fun and, you know, disturbing fun, but also educational and of course, ridiculous.

[A]

Let's get go get some energy drinks.

[B]

We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[D]

Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can accept exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to [e-mail].

[B]

Bluecast hey, audiobook lovers, I'm Cal Penn. I'm Ed Helms. Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our new podcast, Hearsay. The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Each week we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks. From Audible, listen to Earsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart Followersay, and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today. Get ready to power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2. Power up the visuals with 4K support.

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And a bigger, more vivid screen.

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