Podbit · Morbid

Episode Revisit: The Radium Girls

Explore episode Jun 18, 2026

History

The Glamour of the Studio: How U.S. Radium Recruited Young Women

Episode Revisit: The Radium Girls · Jun 18, 2026 History

U.S. Radium didn't call their factories factories — they called them 'studios,' recruiting talented young women with steady hands for glamorous work with a wonder element selling for $120,000 a gram. The girls earned three times what a normal factory worker made and left each shift literally glowing, unaware the luminescence coating their skin and hair was slowly destroying them.

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