Radium: A toxic love affair

NEW SERIES! The not-so-serious podcast unravelling fascinating and down-right bizarre historical events.

Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell celebrate the return of We Are History by plunging into the luminous but lethal history of Radium. They reveal how its discovery led to a craze for radio-active health and beauty treatments, which had the slight drawback of eventually killing you. 

Angela and John share our predecessors ill-advised fascination with radium; its myriad ‘miracle’ uses include a radium jock strap and the pair wonder whether to name their next pub-rock band Liquid Sunshine or The Radium Runners…

Get all episodes a week early – when you support We Are History on Patreon: https://patreon.com/WeAreHistory

“I should say, we’re not scientists.” – Angela Barnes

“To be fair we’re not historians either and that’s never stopped us.” – John O’Farrell

“When I was a kid it was completely normal to have your feet x-rayed in the shoe shop. That’s why my hair fell out.” – John O’Farrell

Reading List: Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium by Lucy Jane Santos

We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell. Audio production by Simon Williams and artwork by James Parrett. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production.

https://twitter.com/wearehistorypod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices