In the mid-1940s, a teenage June Bacon-Bercey saw the image of a nuclear explosion on the cover of Time magazine and immediately had questions. How would the particles in the mushroom cloud move through the air? What effect would this have on our atmosphere? To find the answers, she set out to study atmospheric science, just as the field of meteorology was coming of age.

Her career would take her to places few Black women had gone before: the Atomic Energy Commission as a senior researcher; a TV news station in Buffalo, New York, as an on-air meteorologist; and even a TV game show. As a Black woman entering a STEM career at the height of the Civil Rights movement, June’s goal was always to be a role model for women and people of color. And she marched through life to the tune of her favourite composer, John Philip Sousa, who just happened to help her answer the $64,000 question.

In this episode from the Cautionary Tales podcast, Harford teams up with actor Helena Bonham Carter, a distant relative of Florence Nightingale, to tell the story of how the ‘“Lady with the Lamp” revolutionized public health with a pie chart. Nightingale was a statistician as well as a nurse, and it was her use of data graphics that led hospitals to introduce hygiene measures that we now take for granted. Her charts convinced the establishment that deaths due to filth and poor sanitation could be averted, saving countless lives. But did Nightingale also open Pandora’s Box by showing that graphs persuade, whether or not they depict reality?

Air-Borne: the Hidden History of the Air We Breathe by Carl Zimmer charts the history of the field of aerobiology:  the science dealing with airborne microorganisms.  In this episode, we discover the story of two lost pioneers of the 1930s, physician and self-taught epidemiologist Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband sanitary engineer William Firth Wells, who proved that infectious diseases could be spread long distances through the air. But the pair had a reputation as outsiders and they failed to convince the scientific establishment, who ignored their findings for decades. What the pair figured out could have saved many lives from tuberculosis, SARS, COVID, and other airborne diseases. Mildred and her husband’s contributions have been all but erased from history — until now.

Today, we take it for granted that you can buy a home pregnancy test at the pharmacy. Before the end of the 1970s, this was not the case. Then along came Margaret Crane, a young designer working for a pharmaceutical company. Looking at the rows of pregnancy tests in the lab one day in 1965, she thought, “Well, women could do that at home!” But Crane faced an uphill battle to convince the pharmaceutical companies, the medical community, and conservative social leaders that at-home pregnancy testing was safe and necessary.

This podcast first aired in 2014, when Margaret Crane’s role in the development of the home pregnancy test was eventually recognized. Almost 10 years later, Crane’s experience remains relevant as women continue to fight for their reproductive rights. Making Contact is a radio show and podcast from Frequencies of Change Media. 

For a full list of the episode credits, go to: Buried History: The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test.

In The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science Dava Sobel celebrates the many women who came to Paris to work with Marie Curie after she won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Many of these women went on to become experts in radioactivity, creating their own networks to support female scientists. 

Among others, we meet Norwegian Ellen Gleditsch, who was the first person to introduce the science of radioactivity to Norway and Canadian Harriet Brooks, who eventually gave up her stellar scientific career to marry. In retelling the story of Marie Curie, Sobel also shows how the women she mentored contributed to completing the periodic table in the early 20th century.

After Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo died in 1947, the Trujillo regime did its best to erase her legacy, while at the same time appropriating her ideas. Yet those who had known and loved Evangelina in San Pedro de Macorís, where she spent most of her life, kept her memory alive, sharing stories of her kindness and her work. After the assassination of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in 1961, Dominicans across the country started to recover her story. Laura Gómez follows in Evangelina’s footsteps across Santo Domingo, the city where Evangelina studied medicine, and visits the memorials that are testament to Evangelina’s role in the fight for women's health and reproductive rights, a struggle that continues in the Dominican Republic to this day.

Tras la muerte de Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo en 1947, el régimen de Trujillo hizo todo lo posible no solo por borrar su legado, sino también por apropiarse de sus ideas. Sin embargo, quienes conocieron y quisieron a Evangelina en San Pedro de Macorís mantuvieron su memoria viva, compartiendo historias sobre su bondad y su trabajo. Tras el asesinato de Rafael Leónidas Trujillo en 1961, los dominicanos de todo el país empezaron a recuperar su historia. Laura Gómez sigue los pasos de Evangelina por Santo Domingo, la ciudad donde estudió medicina, y visita los monumentos que son testigo de su papel en la lucha por la salud y los derechos reproductivos de las mujeres, una lucha que continúa en los derechos reproductivos hasta el día de hoy.

En 1930, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo toma el poder en la República Dominicana e instaura un reino de terror. El controvertido trabajo de Evangelina la puso en conflicto con el nuevo régimen. Sus ideas radicales sobre la sanidad y los derechos de la mujer, junto con su negativa a doblegarse ante Trujillo, la dejaron cada vez más aislada. Cada vez más gente se distanciaba de ella. Con los años, su salud mental se deterioró y perdió todo lo que apreciaba.

In 1930, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo seized power in the Dominican Republic and introduced a reign of terror. Evangelina’s controversial work brought her into conflict with the new regime. Her radical ideas about healthcare and women's rights, along with her refusal to kowtow to Trujillo, left her increasingly isolated. More and more people distanced themselves from her. Over the years, her mental health deteriorated, and she lost everything she held dear.

Evangelina recibió una calurosa bienvenida de regreso a su país, y se pone a trabajar de inmediato, introduciendo sus nuevas ideas sobre la atención en salud a mujeres y niños. Montó su propio consultorio médico, y convenció a algunos campesinos para que distribuyesen leche gratis a niños pobres. Pero su proselitismo alrededor de los métodos anticonceptivos y su trabajo con prostitutas incomodaron hasta a sus amigas. Sus ideas eran muy avanzadas para la época, y aquellos que la rodeaban no supieron valorarlas.