Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery

Karen Silkwood worked for Kerr-McGee, an oil and gas behemoth that was expanding into the nuclear power industry. Escalating production quotas lead to more accidents at the plant, and Karen quietly travels to Washington DC to report concerns about worker safety to her union and to regulators. Before leaving, she volunteers for a risky assignment. 

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Who was Karen Silkwood and why was her death so captivating that it spawned a Hollywood movie? We’ll meet two Oklahoma reporters determined to run down the facts. An investigator’s tapes rediscovered in a dusty storage vault raise the voices of the dead.

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Karen Silkwood’s death 50 years ago this November continues to haunt Oklahoma and the nation. The 28-year-old plutonium plant worker died in a fatal crash while driving to meet a reporter with The New York Times allegedly to deliver evidence documenting unsafe conditions at the plant. Two reporters who covered the Silkwood story in 1974 have spent years trying to piece together what many in Oklahoma speculate: Karen Silkwood may have died for what she knew. Fifty years later, hear newly-discovered investigative tapes, deathbed conversations and long-awaited interviews reexamining what happened that night.

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