Toxic Work Throwback: The Radium Girls

Send us Fan MailThis episode of Bad Boss Detox honors the legacy of the Radium Girls—young women hired in the 1910s to paint luminous watch dials with radioactive paint, told it was safe, even healthy, to ingest. What followed was a devastating trail of illness, corporate denial, and one of the most heartbreaking workplace cover-ups in history.We’ll explore how these women, many still in their teens, were gaslit by employers who prioritized profit over human life. This isn’t just a history lesson. It’s a warning. Because the same patterns of denial, dismissal, and dehumanization still echo in toxic workplaces today.TRIGGER WARNINGS: Misogyny, sexual shaming, workplace abuse, radioactive poisoning, dental trauma, cancer, deathSound effects provided by Uppbeat. Music provided by the Library of Congress.Thanks for traveling back in time to check out the early episodes of the Podcast Formerly Known as Bad Boss Detox! Since Ivy and Katie fully detoxed from our toxic work experiences, and moved on, we changed the name and the general format a little bit, but the sass remains.  Thanks for checking out the Podcast Formerly Known as Bad Boss Detox. If you'd like to get in touch with us nowadays, email us at [email protected], or give us a shout on Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit at Toxic Waste of Time!