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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so

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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our own

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Speaker 1: mythical super producer, Max the Radiation Williams, Max Radiation Boy Williams.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I'm just glowing, y'all. You always are you? If

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Speaker 2: you are? You doing a new skincare routine? Hopefully not

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Speaker 2: involving radium? Yeah, or the condition no well fare maybe

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Speaker 2: the written maybe radium could knock the condition right out?

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Speaker 2: Why not try at this point? Why not? Why not? Well,

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Speaker 2: we'll tell you why not? Max it just a little bit.

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Speaker 1: They called me, Ben Bullen. You also just heard mister

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Speaker 1: Noel Brown there and the rumors are true, fellow Ridiculous Historians.

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Speaker 1: We have returned from some time at sea. We're pleased

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Speaker 1: as punch, or perhaps pleased ask plutonium to rejoin you today.

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Speaker 1: So we've all heard of radium, right.

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Speaker 2: M Yeah, And can I just take a quick moment

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Speaker 2: to say I missed you guys, Ben, I saw you,

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Speaker 2: but we didn't record. This is the first recording we've

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Speaker 2: done in a little bit, and we've both been under

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Speaker 2: the weather for travel crowd, and I'm happy to be back. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: radium is certainly something that we learned about when studying

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Speaker 2: the periodic table in school, and I think we all

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Speaker 2: learned about Marie and.

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Speaker 1: Pierre Curie and the discovery of radium. That was going

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Speaker 1: to be I totally forgot you guys. That was going

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Speaker 1: to be part of my intro today and a cooled

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Speaker 1: intro because one fun, dumb fact about me, I'm one

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Speaker 1: of those people who can name every element on the

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Speaker 1: periodic table. It's a useless skill.

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Speaker 2: Incorrect by the slanet parties.

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Speaker 1: Thanks, but we know the periodic table, despite having a

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Speaker 1: weird name, and despite being somewhat imperfect, it is a

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Speaker 1: phenomenal assembly of some amazing revelations, and some of those revelations,

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Speaker 1: as we're going to discover, are indeed deadly revelations. We

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Speaker 1: always talked about Marie Curie, We've mentioned her in the

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Speaker 1: past multiple times.

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Speaker 2: Absolute hero of the show.

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Speaker 1: Her and Pierre, as you said, discovered radium in eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight. But when they discovered it, and these are

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Speaker 1: very clever people, when they discovered it, it is safe

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Speaker 1: to say they weren't sure what they were getting into.

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Speaker 2: No I mean, that's kind of a lot of the

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Speaker 2: stories we talk about n ridiculous sister involving science. There's

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of f around and find out, and

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Speaker 2: oftentimes you have folks like Marie and Pierre finding out

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Speaker 2: not in the best possible way for science. No.

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Speaker 1: Originally, the CUIs, being scientists, had they had an idea

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Speaker 1: of what radium could be used for, or what we

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Speaker 1: would call the applications, and they said, look, radium can

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Speaker 1: help with cancer treatment, or it can help the emergent

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Speaker 1: science of X ray technology. They had no idea about

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Speaker 1: the merch they had no idea about how capitalism and

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Speaker 1: American marketing worked. This was a panacea. This was snake

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Speaker 1: oil medicine. This was a cure all that you could

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Speaker 1: use to treat anything.

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Speaker 2: Sort of like how we're seeing a lot of the

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Speaker 2: marketing and rollout surrounding artificial so called artificial intelligence. Huh's

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Speaker 2: let's just give it a try. Who knows what. We

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Speaker 2: don't have to worry about the knock on consequences. We'll

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Speaker 2: figure that out later. And here's one for the older heads.

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Speaker 1: Back in that halcyon era of the nineteen nineties, when

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Speaker 1: every business discovered the word digital. I've had to put

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Speaker 1: the word digital on everything they made, even.

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Speaker 2: If it did make sense. And now now it seems

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Speaker 2: so data, doesn't it, But you still do see it.

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Speaker 2: It is one of those remnants that has stuck around.

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Speaker 2: So the early nineteen hundred saw radiums well. Actually, to

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Speaker 2: quote our brand new research associate, Dylan, not Dylan the

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Speaker 2: Tennessee pal, but Dylan will come up with a cool

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Speaker 2: nickname for you later this first episode with us, so

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Speaker 2: we're excited to have him join the ridiculous history research cadre.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, the nineteen hundred saw radium's luminescence property is

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Speaker 2: becoming quite in vogue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is ubiquitous at some point. You're seeing it

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Speaker 1: mentioned on the tens for medicine, You're seeing it advertised

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Speaker 1: as a feature of industrial products. It's great for marketers

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Speaker 1: and radiation poisoning aside, it's great for it's great for

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Speaker 1: that consumer and corporations because the luminescent properties are instantly recognizable, right,

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Speaker 1: They're distinctive. So if you are making watches, you are

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Speaker 1: going to use radium based paint on your watches or

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Speaker 1: your airplane dials. Right for instrumentation, if you are going

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Speaker 1: to a party and you want to make an impression

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Speaker 1: as a young lady, you're using radium infused glowing makeup

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Speaker 1: on your face, but also your teeth.

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Speaker 2: Oh and also your fingernails. Yeah. Also, why not go

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Speaker 2: ahead and since we're at the party and we're having

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Speaker 2: a good time throwing a few back, let's just put

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Speaker 2: a little radium in the cocktails for fun. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it is uh boil boy. It makes me think of

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Speaker 2: like Matt Hatter syndrome and just you know, these substances

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Speaker 2: that were just used so ubiquitously and then caused real,

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Speaker 2: real problems down the road. And of course that is

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Speaker 2: because unbeknownst at the time, this radium exposure was incredibly

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Speaker 2: harmful and detrimental to the long term health of the

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Speaker 2: individuals exposed to it.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you've probably heard folks of parables like the

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Speaker 1: story of the Radium Girls, one of the most well

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Speaker 1: known cases of documented overexposure to radium. Their activism and

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Speaker 1: their outcry directly led to stricter workplace laws that also

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Speaker 1: themselves led to the creation of stuff like OSHA, the

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Speaker 1: Occupational Safety and Health Administration. But there's a lot more

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Speaker 1: to it. So we're giving you. We've given you the gist.

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Speaker 1: Let's dive in. Let's understand why the United States went

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Speaker 1: absolutely head over heels for radium. And to answer that

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Speaker 1: question on first step has to be learning what radium

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Speaker 1: is and meeting the Curis and.

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Speaker 2: Dylan.

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Speaker 1: I'm just going to tell you not all the jokes

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Speaker 1: lanned every time.

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Speaker 2: It's okay, it's you know, curry, Currey's curry, potato potatos.

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Speaker 2: We do know about the sarbon, the sarball, the absolutely

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Speaker 2: luminous university if we're talking about glowing stuff more, you know,

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Speaker 2: in the scientific world in Paris, France, where Pierre taught

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Speaker 2: chemistry at the School of Physics and Marie attended college

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Speaker 2: there as a student of physics and maths. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: said it. I'm saying maths. I just like the way

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Speaker 2: it sounds. They had an immediate connection because of shared

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Speaker 2: interests and absolute, unflinching love of science and scientific discovery,

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Speaker 2: and they did eventually get married in July of eighteen

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Speaker 2: ninety five, so just a year later, very quick, quick courtship.

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Speaker 1: And because of their common interests, they were propelled along

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Speaker 1: a professional career as well as a romantic one by

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Speaker 1: the end of eighteen ninety five, our buddy Pierre has

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Speaker 1: published his thesis, his doctoral thesis on the connection between

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Speaker 1: temperature and magnetism, and this was a real banger for

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Speaker 1: the target audience. As a matter of fact, it established

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Speaker 1: what we today call Curie's law.

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Speaker 2: That's right. And then in eighteen ninety seven Marie would

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Speaker 2: join her husband working for the university herself in the laboratory,

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Speaker 2: helping Pierre expand on these discoveries around magnetism. That is,

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Speaker 2: until a new interest caught their attention in a very

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Speaker 2: very real way that would change their lives and carve

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Speaker 2: a path.

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Speaker 1: Through history and science, an irradiated glowing path. So this

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Speaker 1: is how stuff breaks down. Marie is diving into the

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Speaker 1: research of a French physicist, this guy Enton, Henri the Querol.

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Speaker 1: He presented just a really weird talk in eighteen ninety six,

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Speaker 1: on February twenty fourth, about uranium rays. And he was talking,

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Speaker 1: you know, to other people in this rarefied air of

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Speaker 1: scientific research. And while he is in his presentation, folks

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Speaker 1: just picture ted talk, all right, that's the way he's doing.

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Speaker 1: Amrie's doing a tech talk. He's explaining to onlookers that

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Speaker 1: when uranium based crystals are exposed to sunlight, they leave

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Speaker 1: a permanent shadow on photographic plates. This is a weird

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Speaker 1: thing to just tell people. So he demonstrates it on stage,

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Speaker 1: and this is kind of the emergent X ray technology

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Speaker 1: we were teasing at the top here. So Marie Curie

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Speaker 1: sees a lot of potential in this, and she says,

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Speaker 1: what if other elements can do this as well? What

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Speaker 1: if there's a chemical compound that's as good or better

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Speaker 1: than uranium.

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Speaker 2: For X rays? That's right, So she used a principle

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Speaker 2: that was always near and dear to a dear friend

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Speaker 2: of the show, Lauren Vogelbaum, back when she was on

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Speaker 2: tech stuff with frenemy of the show than the Quistor Stricklin.

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Speaker 2: The piezoelectric effect, which is a very fascinating effect which

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Speaker 2: refers to the ability of certain materials, elements, minerals, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Quartz is a good example to generate an electrical charge

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Speaker 2: when they are they have a stress applied to them.

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Speaker 2: That's something that Lauren was always fascinated by. I remember

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Speaker 2: whenever the pioso electric effect could come up, she would

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Speaker 2: light up. So this is exactly what Marie used to

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Speaker 2: test her theory about other chemical compounds, so the strength

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Speaker 2: of radiation isn't dependent upon the compound itself, but it's

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Speaker 2: dependent on the levels of uranium or thorium that it contains.

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Speaker 2: She also found that many chemical compounds of the same

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Speaker 2: element are different in structure and in chemical characteristics. Finally,

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Speaker 2: the ability to radiate is tied directly to the interior

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Speaker 2: of the atom, and only uranium and thorium contain the

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Speaker 2: ability to give off radiation at this point in time.

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Speaker 2: That is the case in the trade jectory of her discoveries,

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Speaker 2: and you know, the greater scientific body of knowledge around

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Speaker 2: these elements.

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Speaker 1: And so, folks, what would you do if you were Marie?

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Speaker 1: For anybody who's been in a successful loving relationship, probably

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Speaker 1: you want to brag to your partner, right, because we're

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Speaker 1: always trying to get our significant others to think of

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Speaker 1: us as cool people. So she runs and tells Pierre.

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Speaker 1: Pierre joins her and says, let's keep researching this together.

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Speaker 1: Fast forward. It's June eighteen ninety eight. They achieved Marie's

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Speaker 1: long sought after discovery, and the next month, a publication

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Speaker 1: in July breaks the news to the world, the Cures

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Speaker 1: have discovered a substance three hundred times the strength of uranium,

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Speaker 1: and they named it polonium. And then the Cures ride

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Speaker 1: back in eighteen ninety eight, December twenty sixth to the

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Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences and they say, dj college voice, another one.

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Speaker 1: We found something else. We're calling this one radium.

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Speaker 2: So in nineteen o three, while Antoine, Henri baccorel Pierre

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Speaker 2: and Marie Currie shared in a Nobel Peace Prize in

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Speaker 2: Physics for their discoveries and radiation, the rest of the

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Speaker 2: world was looking to the future wrapped up in this

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Speaker 2: new marketing craze around the miracle compound, as it was pitched,

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Speaker 2: known as radium.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is where we see the origin of the

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Speaker 1: radium fad, or what Dylan rightly calls the radium era.

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Speaker 1: The radium fad reaches US shores around nineteen four And

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Speaker 1: do check out our earlier episodes on medicine shows and

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Speaker 1: other quack kaka meimi cures and griffs, folks. You will

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Speaker 1: enjoy that. And you definitely should know about medicine shows.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of the milieu in which this is occurring.

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Speaker 1: We don't have things like the FDA in its current form.

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Speaker 1: You know, we don't have as a young nation, we

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Speaker 1: don't have these federal resources and institutions to keep corporations

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Speaker 1: and doctors honest. You can literally have a good enough pattern,

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Speaker 1: as we call it in British drifting, and you can

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Speaker 1: go and sell whatever kind of monarchy you want, as

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Speaker 1: long as you get away before the law finds you. Look,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to be unfair. I'm not saying that

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Speaker 1: all these people selling radium branded stuff were themselves bad

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Speaker 1: faith actors, because they did see doctors across the pond

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Speaker 1: use radium to kill cancerous cells, right, and they didn't know,

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Speaker 1: just like the curies didn't know at the time, they

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Speaker 1: didn't know about the damaging effects of radiation exposure. This

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Speaker 1: was still very new, untrammeled ground.

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Speaker 2: Right, and it wasn't until the thirties that evidence of

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Speaker 2: this type of poisoning became very apparent and the government

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Speaker 2: then had to act. But we'll get to that.

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Speaker 1: There is an insane number of companies during the radium

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Speaker 1: era that included radium in whatever they were already making

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Speaker 1: as as like a selling point. So the idea was

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Speaker 1: radium as a concept was so popular, so established in

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Speaker 1: the zeitgeist that if you're walking through your local market

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Speaker 1: or general store, you probably would be more likely to

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Speaker 1: buy anything that had the word radium on it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the stuff of the future, you know, Man,

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Speaker 2: it glows. What else do you want? So we start

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Speaker 2: to see some sort of trendy applications of radium. In

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Speaker 2: nineteen oh four, for example, someone named L. D. Garner

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Speaker 2: came out with a product, a drink called Liquid Sunshine. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I remember that one did not have any LSD in

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Speaker 2: it either, just lots of poison. This was a radium

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Speaker 2: based water beverage and it was mega popular in the

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Speaker 2: early twentieth century, specifically around New York City.

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Speaker 1: And again, I know it's easy for some of the

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Speaker 1: younger folks in the crowd to make fun of us

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Speaker 1: New Yorkers at the turn of that century who were

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Speaker 1: drinking radium based water beverages. But listen, folks, if you

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Speaker 1: drink Laqui, you don't really have room to talk now,

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Speaker 1: kind of. It was the lacua of its day. It

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Speaker 1: just happened to have radium in it, for sure.

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Speaker 2: And Dylan also points out a fad that I think

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Speaker 2: you and I and Max all remember where there were

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Speaker 2: like gummies and various sweety snack kind of things that

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Speaker 2: would like dye your tongue and teeth certain colors. And

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Speaker 2: speaking from experience, they also had the potential to dye

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Speaker 2: your your poop.

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Speaker 1: And then in nineteen fourteen we have the again we

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Speaker 1: have a water based thing, the Great Radium Spring Water Company,

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Speaker 1: which was originally Fred m Ostia's company. They they come

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Speaker 1: directly from another bit of quackery, the concept of restorative waters,

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Speaker 1: which is very popular here in the United States, and

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Speaker 1: is indeed the reason that one of our streets in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta is named Ponce de Leon. This is a true story.

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Speaker 1: The Ponce City Market, where our office was based for

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Speaker 1: a number of years, contains one of the seven sacred

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Speaker 1: springs of Indigenous Native culture. It's a fun fact if

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Speaker 1: you ever get the chance to visit. There is a

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Speaker 1: water tower that still collects water from that spring. So

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Speaker 1: people were very into restorative waters or curative waters.

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Speaker 2: Fountain of youths. I'm right, yeah, for sure. And this

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Speaker 2: also I think I'm pretty synchronous with the work of

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Speaker 2: John Harvey Kellogg, who was a huge fan of enemas

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Speaker 2: and also things like restorative waters and sort of like

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Speaker 2: med health spa kind of treatments, and of course the

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Speaker 2: inventure of corn flakes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so our pal fred In Oistier. He originally

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Speaker 1: names his water company Pittfield's Pine Crest Spring and then

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Speaker 1: changes the name because he's like, ah, we got to

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Speaker 1: get around with this radium. All the kids love this

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Speaker 1: radium stuff. We're gonna call our company a Great Radium

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Speaker 1: Spring water company.

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Speaker 2: Doing jazz hands what he's saying. And they made some

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Speaker 2: pretty bold claims that we're not necessarily you know, accurate,

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Speaker 2: always creating lore. Yeah, for sure. They claimed that the

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Speaker 2: water was from the titular Great Radium Spring wherever the

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Speaker 2: hell that was supposed to be, but later went on

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Speaker 2: to pivot, you know, uh and sell ginger ale instead, right,

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Speaker 2: And they maybe they had to pivot because there were

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Speaker 2: so many other radium beverage groups getting in the mix.

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Speaker 2: I think it was nineteen twenties.

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Speaker 1: We got Bailey Radium Laboratories, who made Ratathor.

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Speaker 2: Radathor, my favorite pokemon in his final form, Radathor Energy drinks.

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Speaker 1: Radathor. Bailey Radium and Ratathor therefore are founded created by

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Speaker 1: William J. Bailey and their advertisement. So if you see

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Speaker 1: them in the grocery store, their advertisement is triple distilled

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Speaker 1: water that is guaranteed to contain at least one micro

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Speaker 1: curi each of radium two twenty six and radium to

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Speaker 1: twenty eight.

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Speaker 2: It's a feature, not a bug, you know, yes, yes,

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Speaker 2: just just look at the little radium for a treat.

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Speaker 2: He actually went so far as to try to back

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Speaker 2: up this claim with something of a reward for anyone

293
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Speaker 2: who could prove he's proved me wrong, has proved that

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Speaker 2: it contained any less than the advertised amounts of one

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Speaker 2: microcuity each of those two substances. He also offered a

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Speaker 2: guarantee that Ratathor is harmless. Oh good, and every respects great.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is weird because they were positioning

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Speaker 1: themselves to be the red Bull or the monster Energy

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Speaker 1: or the Celsius of their day. And this again, it

300
00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:30,600
Speaker 1: shows us how how much more blurry the line was

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Speaker 1: between medicine and a treat because Ratathor is getting prescribed

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Speaker 1: by actual facts. Shout out to you, Lauren, actual facts,

303
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Speaker 1: doctors to cure injuries. You can pour it right on there,

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Speaker 1: you know, yeah exactly, just you know, slug half of

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Speaker 1: this and then pour the rest of it on the gunshot.

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Speaker 2: You'll be fine. And a real wolverine situation, you know, right,

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Speaker 2: bite down and pour the ra out of thor on

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Speaker 2: the wound. So, uh, we know that there's there's war ahead.

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Speaker 1: While we're on the subject of food and bev, I

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Speaker 1: think we should talk about German radium chocolate.

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Speaker 2: Can we can we please? Radium man? Yes? From buck

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Speaker 2: on brown, not brown b r o w n brown

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Speaker 2: b r a u n perhaps pronounced brawn. Likely this

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Speaker 2: did not make it into the US, sort of like

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Speaker 2: today you can't find a proper kinder egg anymore. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: because they think we're too stupid and we're gonna choke

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Speaker 2: on you know, the little tiny toy inside, which you

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Speaker 2: know to be fair. Maybe is true, but it is

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Speaker 2: refreshing to be in Europe where you can get a

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Speaker 2: proper kinder egg.

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Speaker 1: That's one of the first things I buy in town. Also,

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Speaker 1: I don't like the I don't like the pseudo kinder eggs.

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Speaker 1: There's different halves.

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Speaker 2: It's a little for the thing. It's like a little

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Speaker 2: almost like a nutella biscuit thing, like it's got like

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Speaker 2: a little pocket of dunk A use type icing that

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Speaker 2: you put on this other thing. Not far events, but yes.

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Speaker 2: Radium chocolade was likely not sold in the States because

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Speaker 2: at this point the awareness of the dangerous surrounding radium.

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Speaker 2: By nineteen thirty one was much more widely known. It

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Speaker 2: was advertised as an energy bar type food with the

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Speaker 2: tagline eat this and feel great. Got it. I'm gonna

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00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:22,879
Speaker 2: do a quick translate. I kind of know roughly what

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00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,760
Speaker 2: it is, but it's curly fun. Yeah, and German it

335
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 2: would be sn z dasfu linzy zich gross ahtim. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: there you go, and it goes.

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Speaker 1: We see this craze going through other products as well,

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00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:44,439
Speaker 1: like makeup and skincare. There was a ton of stuff

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00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,400
Speaker 1: released in Europe and in the United States that said

340
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,640
Speaker 1: if you put radium on your skin, that glow will

341
00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:57,680
Speaker 1: that lumin essence will do something curative for your epidermis.

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00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 2: There were recurative right there we go.

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00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:06,080
Speaker 1: We're talking creams, salts, suppositories.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, you know what, I can't help but think

345
00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 2: about And I'm sure you're on the same page, and

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00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 2: I'm sure Max is too. At least it's crossed your

347
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,920
Speaker 2: mind with all of this stuff, especially the glowing aspect

348
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,840
Speaker 2: of it and the sort of nineteen twenties trendiness of it.

349
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Speaker 2: All the Fallout games, there's so many, you know, the

350
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 2: glowing one, all of these ghouls that have clearly been

351
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,680
Speaker 2: so irradiated that they're actually putting out like a ghoulish

352
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:32,120
Speaker 2: green glow. It's just such a cool franchise and I'm

353
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,920
Speaker 2: so stoked about the next season of the series coming

354
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 2: out soon. And to jump in here, think about what

355
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 2: is the best Nuca Cola at least in terms of

356
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,879
Speaker 2: like is the Niccola radium. It's the quantum quantum which radiates.

357
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,440
Speaker 1: There you go, yeah, yeah, I mean we see this

358
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 1: all the time in the intersection of capitalism and scientific innovation. Also,

359
00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: there's something Look, we're adults here, folks, I'm going to

360
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:00,880
Speaker 1: keep it pg.

361
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 2: Thirteen.

362
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,400
Speaker 1: But there's something that's always baffled me about humanity ever

363
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 1: since the early days. The suppository idea humanity runs into

364
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: every new discovery, and some member of the species says, also,

365
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: we should see if we could put it in our butts.

366
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 2: What if we put it on our butts? For everything?

367
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,400
Speaker 2: You know, what can harm fire? For the wheel for rockets,

368
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,520
Speaker 2: radium is no different. Who was putting fire in their butt.

369
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:28,080
Speaker 2: It seems like you learn your lesson from that one

370
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 2: real quick. Yeah, I just don't know why this is

371
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 2: a continual thing that humans do. So in Radium, the advertisers,

372
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 2: some of whom were grifters and some of whom were

373
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Speaker 2: just misled.

374
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: Yes, they were seeing this panacea, right, this cure all

375
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: for everything from acne to wartz, A lot of stuff

376
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: that could be a more vague general condition like having

377
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 1: a bad headache, or a very general condition like having

378
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: what is called insanity.

379
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 2: Ye did also stuff like blind this, yeah, or just

380
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,720
Speaker 2: general malaise, you know, for pep Spoon your way to

381
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 2: health with Vita Meta Radium.

382
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,680
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, And I love the nomenclature for the specific

383
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: names in this era of fake medicine. Also, all right,

384
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: so these are like the new kids on the block

385
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,240
Speaker 1: when it comes to snake oil salesman, right, They're basically

386
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: the Wall Street version of this.

387
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,160
Speaker 2: Which we have an episode on just this concept of multiples.

388
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 2: I'm sure if you go back, but I do seem

389
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 2: to recall a recent one where we talk a lot

390
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,479
Speaker 2: about the origin of the term snake oil and various

391
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 2: quack remedies.

392
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the one we mentioned there at

393
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 1: the top. We've got to find the name of that

394
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,119
Speaker 1: when Max. If you could look that up, you'll be

395
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: an absolute legend. Not that you aren't already a legendary

396
00:24:58,119 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: glowing ghoul.

397
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, not that you aren't.

398
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: Already good safe it. So we also know that radium

399
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: found its way into household goods. Every I think everybody

400
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: in the US has one of those mysterious under the

401
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 1: sink storage spots for clean cleaning and stuff. And sometimes

402
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: you just get it for one specific kind of cleaning

403
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 1: and it just lives in your house under the sink

404
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 1: for years afterwards.

405
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, until you know the one time where you actually

406
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 2: need to use it, perhaps if that ever even comes.

407
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:34,639
Speaker 2: But it's better to have than not to have, or

408
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 2: have even four of them because you forgot you bought

409
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 2: it already, and then the actual situation comes up where

410
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 2: you need it and you realize, man, this this happened before,

411
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 2: and I have too many bottles of sewer fly drain cleaner.

412
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 2: So companies were quick to jump on the radium train.

413
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 2: Household goods companies folks manufacturing things like paint, because they

414
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:59,120
Speaker 2: love the luminescent properties of radium and that also extended

415
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 2: to everything from life light switches, giving a glow in

416
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:03,920
Speaker 2: the dark quality to your switch so you could see

417
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 2: it in the dark. We now know how to do that,

418
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 2: I think without radium, thank god. So this would of

419
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 2: course make finding the switch in the dark a little

420
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 2: bit of an easier task. We even saw it in

421
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 2: children's toys. And we are of course segueing gently into

422
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 2: the true dark side of the knock on consequences of

423
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 2: this radium craze.

424
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, you knew what was going to happen, folks. A

425
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 1: lot of this goes back to maybe not specific toy manufacturers,

426
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: but more the manufacturers of components that were used in

427
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 1: finished products, most especially makers of radium luminescent paint. The

428
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: big one here is the United States Radium Corporation. They

429
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 1: had a claim to fame a paint called undark, which

430
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: I love.

431
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:57,199
Speaker 2: By the way, that's solid branding.

432
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, Undark is is luminescent because it contains radium. It's

433
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: invented by a guy whose name I love, doctor Sabin

434
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:13,200
Speaker 1: Arnold Vaughan Sochoki, and he cop notch name, doctor Vaughan Sochaki,

435
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: which does sound like something I would make up in

436
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:19,920
Speaker 1: an improv set h he says, look, yeah, it's well

437
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: and good that I've made this magic glowing paint for

438
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,640
Speaker 1: watchfaces and airplane instrumentation.

439
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:29,959
Speaker 2: But I see a future that's much bigger. We can

440
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 2: take un dark and we can paint entire rooms with it,

441
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 2: entire houses on dark. Slow. Your role on Shaki such

442
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 2: Skia and him coughing at the end is because of

443
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 2: the radium. He's losing it. He's also just so excited

444
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 2: he can't contain himself. The light thrown off by radium paint,

445
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:55,879
Speaker 2: he says, on the walls and ceilings would in color

446
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 2: be like soft, gentle moonlight, and it would also be

447
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 2: you know, killing you softly, you know, with its song.

448
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,919
Speaker 2: So we're getting to it here. It is the devastating

449
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 2: reality of radium use. We're going to jump into the

450
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 2: story of the Radium Girls, which we teased there at

451
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 2: the top of the episode, and then get into a

452
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 2: person named Evan Byers. So, although radium products continue to

453
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 2: exist in the US well into the early thirties, the

454
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 2: first signs as we mentioned, and the government kind of

455
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 2: starting to take notice of these horrific effects started to

456
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 2: become clear. Nearly a decade prior to that. You know,

457
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 2: the wheels of regulation do grind slowly, It would seem

458
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 2: the same as it ever was. Two of the most

459
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 2: prominent cases that brought some of these dangers to light

460
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 2: are the case of Grace Fryer and her fellow Radium Girls,

461
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 2: and then, of course, as we teased the case of

462
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 2: Eben Byers, why don't we start right up with Grace

463
00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 2: Fryer and the Radium Girls.

464
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and on our way to that, folks, one thing

465
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 1: we want to establish here is why radium poisoning in

466
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: particular is so terrible for you.

467
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 2: This is it.

468
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: Basically, we've been dancing around this, but to give it

469
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: to you playing the human body treats radium like calcium,

470
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: so it deposits the radium deep within your bones. And

471
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: once the radium infiltrates your bones, it can just chill there.

472
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: It can be dormant, in the state of torpor for

473
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: years and years, years before you get the first sign

474
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: of radium poisoning.

475
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: That's why it took so long.

476
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: It's just sort of irreversible damage. That's why it was

477
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: such a stealth killer, and.

478
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 2: It took them some time to start to see these results.

479
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 2: Playing out. It's a nopes. I guess we might have

480
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 2: should have done our homework a little more thirty years

481
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,680
Speaker 2: ago or so, when right when people like Grace Friars

482
00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 2: start realizing something's wrong. Now she is. She is one

483
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 2: of those.

484
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: People we mentioned earlier, a dial painter. So if you

485
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: have a wristwatch or if you have an airplane, two things.

486
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody has.

487
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 2: The dream a wristwatch and an airplane, and every household the.

488
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: Backing on your watch face has to be made by someone.

489
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 2: And isn't that funny? Ben the trend of this. Obviously

490
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 2: they figured out better ways to do it, but like

491
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 2: the indiglow watches, you know, obviously it's safer alternative to radium,

492
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 2: but something that kind of carried forward because of this

493
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 2: sort of precedent here with the glowing watch faces. It

494
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 2: wasn't theory a good idea, And again, like the glow

495
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 2: in the dark everything, I'm glad they figured out a

496
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 2: way to do it because it is a cool effect

497
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 2: and quite useful in a watch.

498
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: Oh, this is going to lead to a weird tangential

499
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: story at the end, by the way, folks, So stay tuned,

500
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 1: all right, Grease Fryar has painted loads and loads of

501
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 1: dials with this on dark paint.

502
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 2: It's her job.

503
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,120
Speaker 1: She checks into the factory. She's about that life. She

504
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: does this every day. It is like so many other

505
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:09,239
Speaker 1: factory jobs, repetitive, tedious, and demands precision because she has

506
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: to apply paint to the tiny numbers on the dial d.

507
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 2: T B T twelve one two three, and that's her

508
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 2: whole day.

509
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: So when you're doing this, you have to continuously move

510
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: the brush and pointing it in different directions, and you

511
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: can't mess up the dial. You can't paint too far

512
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: over the boundaries. So the thing that Grace and a

513
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 1: lot of the Radium girls start doing is dragging the

514
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: bristles of the brush between their lips, redding it with

515
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: their tongue. It's kind of like how people, some people,

516
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: often older readers, have the habit of licking their finger

517
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 1: when they turn the page.

518
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 2: Mm hm yeah, but Radium or no, probably not the

519
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:02,120
Speaker 2: best practice. Don't lick paint. Just gotta be a better

520
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 2: way to do that. So, yeah, she was doing this

521
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 2: day in and day out, painting hundreds and hundreds of

522
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 2: these dials. Grace is quoted saying this about her experience

523
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,719
Speaker 2: working in the factory or on the line. Our instructors

524
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 2: told us to point them with our lips. I think

525
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 2: I pointed mine about six times to every Watchtyal. It

526
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 2: didn't have any taste, and I didn't know it was harmful.

527
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly this, And this makes sense for anybody who's

528
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: a painter or an artist hanging out with us today.

529
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: We've all done that thing at some point where you

530
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,920
Speaker 1: try to you just improvise some way totally to get

531
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: a finer tip on the brush.

532
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 2: So this makes sense.

533
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: They're following like, they're not dummies, they're good employees. They're

534
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: doing what their bosses told them to do. And the

535
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: Radium Core management has what a lot of therapists call

536
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: toxic positivity. Yeah, they just keep saying everything is great,

537
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: this is gonna be fine. Yeah, lick the tip of

538
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: that radiated brush. And also, hey, you're not just factory workers.

539
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,959
Speaker 1: This is a radioactive olive garden. When you're here, your family,

540
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: your brand ambassador. So ladies, go rep the product. Put

541
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: on dark on your nails, put it on your face,

542
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: put on your teeth, you know, just inject it right

543
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: into your neck. Why do we add makeup for teeth,

544
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,959
Speaker 1: radium core. That's a great idea, Ben, I think you're

545
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: onto something.

546
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 2: Let's put that. Let's put a pin in that one. Yeah,

547
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 2: And some of these little tricks evolved organically as ways

548
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 2: of kind of passing the time at work, trying all

549
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 2: these different methods of using the paint in some of

550
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 2: these fun ways. And to your point, Ben, it then

551
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 2: became this sort of brand ambassador quality of parading the

552
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 2: stuff and evangelizing the wonders of radium and radium paint.

553
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 2: So Grace didn't really notice any effects for years until

554
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 2: one day she was working at a bank, well after

555
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 2: her career as a radium girl had come to an end,

556
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,720
Speaker 2: and she blew her nose into a handkerchief and it glowed.

557
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:19,040
Speaker 2: I don't love hearing that. Also, Also, we do have

558
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 2: knowing bad guys in this story. Of course they knew,

559
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 2: they knew what they knew. Yeah, just to emphasize, right,

560
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 2: everybody who was involved with the actual chemistry and production

561
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 2: of un Dark, and all the C suite guys they

562
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 2: wouldn't touch this stuff. They knew what was up.

563
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,839
Speaker 1: So how inhuman is it for them to watch these

564
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: poor workers throwing this odd everywhere? So Grace has the

565
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:54,919
Speaker 1: glowing stop booger moment, and then she realizes maybe upper

566
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,280
Speaker 1: management hasn't been telling her the entirety of the truth.

567
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 1: Now her condition progresses. By nineteen twenty two, she starts

568
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: to lose teeth. She gets severe acute pain in her jaw,

569
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: so she goes in for an X ray, right, and

570
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: X ray technology has been involving in step with this

571
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,799
Speaker 1: as well, And the doctors look at the X rays

572
00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:18,240
Speaker 1: and say, holy crap, you have severe bone decay.

573
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 2: What happened?

574
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,839
Speaker 1: It's as though the calcium that should be in your

575
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: bones was replace something else.

576
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the reason we know about Grace is because

577
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 2: she was the one who stood up and spoke up

578
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 2: and became sort of a figurehead for all of the voiceless,

579
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,919
Speaker 2: you know, workers and folks that had been consumers. Likely

580
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 2: we don't know all those stories, but we know Grace's story.

581
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 2: This set her on a mission to get justice for

582
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:52,280
Speaker 2: herself and those in her same position who were knowingly

583
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 2: exposed to the stuff by some really bad actors. So

584
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,399
Speaker 2: specifically we're talking about the dial painters. They had, now

585
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:04,760
Speaker 2: for purposes of public perception, been dubbed the Radium Girls

586
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 2: and they were railing against the harmful conditions that they

587
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 2: were exposed to by US Radium Corporation.

588
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,440
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and in doing so, there's no two ways about it,

589
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,839
Speaker 1: they saved people's lives, people who otherwise would have been

590
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,400
Speaker 1: exposed to this stuff. But as in any underdog story,

591
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: this is a real speaking truth to power situation. The

592
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:32,800
Speaker 1: good guys are outnumbered and they are out financed, so

593
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 1: they have an uphill battle in the courts. Luckily, there

594
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 1: are good guy lawyers who come by to contribute their

595
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: efforts to the cause. In particular, I'm thinking of Raymond Barry,

596
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: the lawyer who, along with the Radium Girls, launched a

597
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:52,720
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the company US Radium Corps for two hundred

598
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars. Because of the horrible conditions that

599
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: each of these people were laboring under. They were living

600
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 1: on borrowed time, They literally physically probably would not survive

601
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: the full grind of a court case of this magnitude

602
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,279
Speaker 1: was something as well funded as this corporation, so they

603
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: made the decision. Well, they were forced to settle for

604
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:23,959
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars each and an annual payment of six

605
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 1: hundred bucks. Better than nothing, but to them I think

606
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,640
Speaker 1: more important than the cash was the recognition of what

607
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:32,320
Speaker 1: had happened.

608
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 2: It's exactly right, sadly as triumphant relatively speaking, an outcome

609
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 2: as this was, and a win for all of the

610
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 2: folks that did not have a voice who were exposed

611
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 2: to the stuff. Grace Fryar was, in her pursuit for justice,

612
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:52,800
Speaker 2: not able to outlive the harmful effects of the radium exposure,

613
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,840
Speaker 2: and passed away sadly on October twenty seventh of nineteen

614
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 2: thirty three at the age of thirty four.

615
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:04,880
Speaker 1: We can't overemphasize that, folks thirty four years old. We

616
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: have one other story one to wrap up with here

617
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: about the radium era. This is a name we mentioned

618
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: that might be familiar to some of us in the

619
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: audience today, Eben.

620
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 2: Bayer's slight trigger warning for this one. It's a little

621
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 2: grizzlier than the last one. Inst in real body horror stuff,

622
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:27,719
Speaker 2: So Eben Byers. We'll get into it with humor. He

623
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 2: is called a US amateur golf champion, and the phrase

624
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 2: amateur golf champion feels paragole. Yeah right, I'm a professional amateur. Anyway.

625
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: I love that he's an elderly Orphan. He's the president

626
00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:50,440
Speaker 1: of am Buyers Company out there in Pittsburgh, and in

627
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:54,760
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty seven, he's got a pretty gnarly arm injury

628
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: because the guy's always going golfing, right, and his doctor C. C.

629
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:03,400
Speaker 1: Moya says, all right, Evan, here's what you gotta do.

630
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 1: Your arm's not feeling one hundred percent. You gotta drink

631
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:12,879
Speaker 1: this new thing I just learned about. It's called Ratathor. Yeah,

632
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: pound half of it and dump the rest right on

633
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:15,319
Speaker 1: the arm.

634
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 2: Yes, what can I just say that CC moyar sounds

635
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 2: like the kind of thing that would be emblazoned on

636
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,320
Speaker 2: the side of one of those quack snake oil salesman wagons.

637
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 2: Just I'm sorry, No, no offense to anyone with his name,

638
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 2: But something about a doctor named C. C. Moyar just

639
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 2: seems a little bit suss. So at the time of

640
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,320
Speaker 2: this prescription, he was fifty years old, and over the

641
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 2: next three years until in nineteen thirty, he consumed a

642
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 2: lot of this stuff.

643
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, three bottles of Ratathor per day on average. And

644
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 1: remember boy, he said about Radathor earlier, folks, this is

645
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 1: the one that was guaranteed yes to have at least

646
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: one micro cury each of radium two twenty six and

647
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: two twenty eight.

648
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 2: Two flavors, yeah, at the same time. And if it

649
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 2: didn't have that, the company would give you one thousand

650
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 2: dollars if you could prove it didn't have all that radium.

651
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 1: So this is this is one of the ones that

652
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 1: definitely is going to poison you.

653
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 2: And uh oh yeah.

654
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 1: As as as he goes through, you know, chasing that

655
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:24,880
Speaker 1: radium dragon, his teeth begin to fall.

656
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 2: Out because as we mentioned, this stuff hits you right

657
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 2: in the bone density. It replaces that calcium that gives

658
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,359
Speaker 2: us healthy bones, and his teeth begin to fall out,

659
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 2: as you said. And an FTC employee, Robert Wynn, in

660
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 2: the course of the case surrounding this gentleman and his condition,

661
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 2: had this to say, and this is the grisly bit.

662
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:51,879
Speaker 2: His whole upper jaw except two front teeth and most

663
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 2: of his lower jaw had been removed. All the remaining

664
00:40:56,080 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 2: bone tissue of his body was slowly disintegrating and were

665
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:05,120
Speaker 2: actually forming in his skull. A more gruesome experience in

666
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,560
Speaker 2: a more gorgeous setting would be hard to imagine. What

667
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 2: is the gorgeous setting He's referring to I wonder Pittsburgh unclear.

668
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:18,960
Speaker 2: We do know this.

669
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,480
Speaker 1: This is a terrible way to go, folks. As far

670
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,720
Speaker 1: as death and illness, we do know this was happening

671
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:32,480
Speaker 1: to other people. Again, Ratathor was something was an energy drink.

672
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 1: People were drinking it like you would drink an energy

673
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: drink today. So Buyers is not the only person who

674
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:44,800
Speaker 1: suffers these terrifying consequences. But because he is of the

675
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,760
Speaker 1: patrician class, because he is a businessman, a professional, amateur

676
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 1: golf champion professional, Yeah, yep, no, yeah, that's technically true.

677
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: Because of his place in society, more people are paying

678
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:03,960
Speaker 1: attention to what happens to him, and this leads to

679
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:06,640
Speaker 1: a higher public awareness of radium in general.

680
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 2: In that goes two ways, Ben, Because of that position

681
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 2: that he occupied in the upper echelons of society there

682
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 2: in Pittsburgh, he was something of an influencer. He was

683
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 2: an evangelist of this stuff, and he was telling all

684
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 2: his friends about it, and yeah, I bet he, you know,

685
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,720
Speaker 2: offered it to his golfing buddies, not to mention, feeding

686
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 2: it to his race horses, and gifting cases of it

687
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 2: to his business colleagues and there's an incredible article that

688
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,319
Speaker 2: Dylan linked us to from o r AU dot org

689
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,279
Speaker 2: that has a bunch of great details about this case.

690
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 2: And this man seemed like an interesting fellow. He apparently

691
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,920
Speaker 2: was quite the ladies man, and he earned at Yale

692
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 2: as a young man the nickname Foxy Grandpa.

693
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:56,279
Speaker 1: Foxy Grandpa. All right, uh, well, well, we love a

694
00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:01,440
Speaker 1: foxy Grandpa. We also know that we also know that

695
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 1: despite the grizzly ends that Grace Fryer, the Radium Girls,

696
00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 1: and Evan Bayer's met, their suffering did lead to positive change,

697
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 1: Challenging something as powerful as a corporation at a time

698
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:21,920
Speaker 1: when women's rights were still considered a controversial thing. That's huge,

699
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: and the fact that the Radium Girls won their case

700
00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:30,120
Speaker 1: in any form, shape or fashion is monumental. That Evan

701
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 1: Bayer's tragedy makes another comparable, lasting impact in the progression

702
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 1: of things that we enjoy today but don't really recognize

703
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:46,759
Speaker 1: until they're gone. Stuff like government regulations like hey, freedom, Yeah,

704
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 1: let's not put fingers in the chili. That used to

705
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,839
Speaker 1: be a hot take, and companies used to say, don't

706
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:56,400
Speaker 1: tread on me, man. We can't we can't afford to

707
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,719
Speaker 1: not have a few fingers go into chili. You're gonna

708
00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 1: mess are business? Well, you know that's where the flavor

709
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,760
Speaker 1: comes from. And Ben to your point earlier about regulation

710
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:08,320
Speaker 1: in terms of what we now have, you know, for

711
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,800
Speaker 1: better or worse, at times, an agency, the FDA that

712
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:15,800
Speaker 1: is responsible for overseeing and regulating and making sure that

713
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 1: things that consumers consume do not contain poison at the

714
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:20,799
Speaker 1: very least.

715
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,800
Speaker 2: But again results may vary. But the case against Bailey

716
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 2: Radium Laboratories was actually filed by the Federal Trade Commission.

717
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,200
Speaker 2: It's almost like when you you know, it's like you

718
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 2: get somebody that's done one really horrible crime on another

719
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 2: technicality like racketeering or whatever it might be, because you

720
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 2: can't get them for the other thing. And they didn't

721
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 2: have the mechanisms at this time to necessarily pursue them

722
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 2: for putting out poison and not saying that's what it was.

723
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 2: So they had to get them almost on like I

724
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 2: don't know, fraud, yes, claims that's exactly thank you. And

725
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 2: the doctor, by the way, doctor C. C.

726
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 1: Moyer is lying his keyster off, oh yeah all the time,

727
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: and he's saying, look, I drink the same stuff I

728
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:14,360
Speaker 1: recommended to my guy. I'm fifty one years old, I'm active, I'm.

729
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:15,880
Speaker 2: Healthy, healthy racecourse.

730
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:21,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, so people are still not until these consequences occur.

731
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:28,240
Speaker 1: People still don't understand what's happening when they take radium.

732
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 2: But they are.

733
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:33,880
Speaker 1: But the companies have a spidery sense. They know this

734
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:36,320
Speaker 1: is not entirely on the up and up. They definitely

735
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:39,240
Speaker 1: know it doesn't fix stuff that they claim it fixes.

736
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:41,840
Speaker 1: They definitely know they can sell a lot of it

737
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:42,840
Speaker 1: and become wealthy.

738
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:45,920
Speaker 2: Well, you know what the markup was, ben right, I

739
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 2: think crazy Town dude, and that guy Bailey was made

740
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,279
Speaker 2: a very very wealthy man. But this case from the

741
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,479
Speaker 2: FTC did finally put an end to his radium reign.

742
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 1: Good, I mean, Jesus eight. This ultimately leads to OSHA.

743
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: This leads to workers' rights.

744
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 2: OSHA being the Occupational safety and basically an organization that

745
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 2: makes sure that work conditions are not detrimental. Yes workers, Yes, yes, exactly.

746
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that sounds boring to a

747
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: lot of people here in the United States. Pretty often,

748
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 1: when you get your very first job somewhere in the

749
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 1: employee area, there's going to be usually an elderly laminated

750
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: side yep, from OSHA.

751
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:38,760
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. And you know you hear people gripe

752
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:43,080
Speaker 2: in about OSHA inspections and things like that, OSHA violations,

753
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,320
Speaker 2: like it's some sort of you know, gripe basically, but

754
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 2: the alternative is far far gripe here. Yes, yeah, and

755
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:51,640
Speaker 2: I like that turn of phrase. There.

756
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 1: There's one story we're not going to have time to

757
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,320
Speaker 1: get to, but I want to shout out David Hahn,

758
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 1: the radioactive boy Scout.

759
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 2: You remember this guy, I know him by name, but

760
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:05,800
Speaker 2: I'd love just the tiniest bit of overview if that's.

761
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, of course, this is the kid who uh

762
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:13,399
Speaker 1: this classic boy Scout stuff is a Michigan kid who

763
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 1: built a homemade nuclear reactor who is seventeen.

764
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:19,800
Speaker 2: I want to go get her. You love to see it.

765
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:24,839
Speaker 2: He figured out that he could scrape radioactive material from

766
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,800
Speaker 2: household project products, including you know, watch faces. Yeah, and

767
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:31,800
Speaker 2: you know it's interesting. We didn't talk about this, but

768
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 2: Mercury occupied a similar oh yeah space in consumer products.

769
00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 2: Would they People were just crazy for the stuff, and

770
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 2: as we mentioned earlier, it does look really cool. And

771
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,400
Speaker 2: as we mentioned earlier, it was used to treat the

772
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,279
Speaker 2: felt in hats, and that's where the term matt as

773
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 2: a hatter came from. But I think mercury thermometers are

774
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 2: maybe a little less popular than they used to be,

775
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,279
Speaker 2: but you can still get them. Yeah, and you know,

776
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 2: kids would break them open and watch the little ball

777
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 2: roll around. And I and a few years ago went

778
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:04,000
Speaker 2: to Spain and went to the institute of this really

779
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:08,239
Speaker 2: cool artist, Joan Miro and he made a fountain, uh,

780
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 2: filled entirely with mercury, and it's encased in a glass

781
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,480
Speaker 2: thing because it's you know, but it wasn't for a

782
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 2: really long time. You can just walk right up to

783
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:17,720
Speaker 2: it and put your finger in it. And yeah. But anyway,

784
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 2: one of the coolest things I've ever seen. But yeah,

785
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 2: there's an interesting parallel between the radium craze and the

786
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:26,560
Speaker 2: mercury craze. I love mercury.

787
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:30,839
Speaker 1: Uh, it's just it's so interesting, it looks so cool. Yeah,

788
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 1: don't touch it, don't play with it, don't break the thermometer.

789
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,960
Speaker 1: What the thermometers that are really popular now And I

790
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:42,080
Speaker 1: see this anytime I'm in Japan. We actually picked one up.

791
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 2: I think. Yeah, they're in the States too. It's the

792
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:48,239
Speaker 2: thermometer that looks like a little gun. Way yeah, yeah,

793
00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:51,399
Speaker 2: it looks like a little gun with a flat abbreviated

794
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 2: so fun, and so you put it on someone and

795
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 2: then you just pull the trigger and it goes yeah.

796
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's one example that Max is holding up here.

797
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 1: There are other ones that can do it from further away,

798
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 1: which is uncomfortable because I've been in situations where I'm

799
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 1: walking in and the authority figure just holds the gut

800
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 1: up and shoots it at you to check your temperature

801
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 1: in the days of COVID. Anyway, story for another day, Folks,

802
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: we are back in the saddle.

803
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,000
Speaker 2: Thank you, as always so much for tuning in.

804
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:29,840
Speaker 1: Big thanks to our super producer, Max the Watchface Williams.

805
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 1: Big thanks to our composer Alex Williams who created this

806
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:37,359
Speaker 1: slap and bop you're hearing right now.

807
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:42,720
Speaker 2: Huge thanks to mega, mega wonderful addition to the Ridiculous

808
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,400
Speaker 2: History research team, Dylan Clark. This is what's such a

809
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 2: wonderful first entry for our buddy Dylan to the show.

810
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:52,799
Speaker 2: We're happy to have him. And huge thanks to Chris

811
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 2: Frasciotas and Eves Jeff Cuts, both here in spirit big,

812
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 2: big thanks to friend of the show, Lorden vogelbaumb big

813
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,960
Speaker 2: thanks rude dudes of ridiculous crime. If you dig us,

814
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 2: you'll love them. Reluctant, grudging, faint praise, very scant, performative,

815
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 2: insincere attempt at things. Wo to Jonathan, strictly Deka the

816
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 2: quiztarn oh Man, you really late it on. I'm with you,

817
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 2: uh no, I'll all jokes aside. We really love Jonathan

818
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:24,440
Speaker 2: and huge thanks to you, Bam. This is a lot

819
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 2: of fun and you know, disturbing fun, but also educational

820
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:30,760
Speaker 2: and of course ridiculous. Let's go get some energy drinks.

821
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

822
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

823
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.