World Model · podcast knowledge graph

The Radium Girls Fight Back

2026-08-31 · 35 min · 6 entities

episode page audio

Asserted relationships

Entities found in this episode

companys 2

concepts 2

  • mentioned Society & Culture concept
    0.50
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: Society & Culture
  • discusses Society & Culture concept
    0.40
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: Society & Culture

websites 2

  • mentioned History website
    0.50
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: History
  • discusses History website
    0.40
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: History
Episode description as stored
September 12, 1922. Twenty-four-year-old Mollie Maggia has a toothache. In less than a year, this otherwise healthy young woman will be dead. Others like her will soon follow. They’d all shared what seemed to be a dream job: applying glow-in-the-dark paint to clock faces. The paint glowed because it was saturated with radium, the wonder element of its day. And now that radium has burrowed inside the bones and lungs of the women. How did a supposed wonder element and cure-all come to be seen for what it was – a deadly poison? And how did a group of courageous young women, racing the clock of their own mortality, expose this truth? Special thanks to Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women . Also, a huge thank you to Art Fryer, nephew of Grace Fryer, one of the “Radium Girls.” **This episode originally aired September 12, 2022. To stay updated on all things HISTORY This Week, sign up at historythisweekpodcast.com . Have thoughts or questions? Email us at historythisweek@history.com . Sign up for ad-free listening and bonus episodes at htwpod.com .