That Time Everyone Loved Radium: What Could G...

Have you ever been so broke that you ended up creating your own currency? It may sound like a crazy idea today, but during the Great Depression multiple communities actually created and circulated their own forms of local currency. And this wasn't a lark -- it was a matter of sur ...  Show more

Despite the misleading name, the U.S. "Civil War" was anything but. As North fought South, this short-lived, bloody conflict fundamentally shifted the course of the country. Yet if you go just a bit further west to Missouri, you'll encounter a story history largely forgot: amid t ...  Show more

At the intersection of scientific advancement and tragedy is the story of US Radium and the young women who stood up to them. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

When Radium popped on to the scene in the early 1900s, it was called “liquid sunshine” and a “mythological superbeing.” Why? Because it was incredibly powerful and literally glowed. But then a few companies had the bright idea to start making watches with it. Today, Bailey tells ...  Show more

The Radium Girls painted watched with glow-in-the-dark radium in the 1920s and '30s. Most got sick, many died. This is their story. 

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we all know today that radium in a very dangerous substance , but way back in the early1900s , it was seen as a miricle element , a health suppliment , and even could increase sexual vitality , it was also used to paint watch dials and many other instruments for the army , and th ...  Show more