Burnt Truths

Step into the glowing blue booths of the 2000s. From mall salons to reality TV, we explore the founding story of tanning beds, how they became a pop culture phenomenon, and why the glow was never just skin deep. Plus, hear firsthand from an ex–tanning bed user about how these habits form and how hard they can be to break. Featuring insights from Leah Adams (@theleahalexis), a melanoma survivor, skin cancer educator, and marathon runner. This is Burnt Truths: Uncovering the shady side of getting sun-kissed.Sources & Further ReadingRefinery29 — These 2007 Beauty Trends Are Back & Better Than BeforeNIH — Lifetime History of Indoor Tanning in Young PeopleIMDb — Laguna Beach: The Real Orange CountyCosmedico — Sunbed Inventor Friedrich Wolff DeceasedWolff System — HistoryYouTube — Official Throwback Clip | Jersey Shore | MTVTropical Sunsations Tanning — What is High-Pressure Tanning

Before there was the “Hot Girl Summer,” there was Coco Chanel's accidental tan that changed beauty forever.In this first episode of Burnt Truths: Uncovering the Shady Side of Getting Sun-Kissed, we trace the cultural evolution of tanning, from a symbol of labor and lower status to the ultimate marker of leisure, wealth, and desirability.Featuring insights from Nana Regueiro, author of “A Short Cultural History of the Tan Line,” we explore how beauty standards flipped and why they stuck.This is Burnt Truths: Uncovering the shady side of getting sun-kissed.Sources & Further ReadingNIH —  Timeline of the Development of Skin-Lightening Active Ingredients in JapanScienceDirect — CerussiteRefinery29 — The Sexist History Behind Our Obsession With TanningBritannica — Victorian eraL’Oréal — Garnier Ambre SolaireVogue — A Short Cultural History of the Tan LineRefinery29 — Tanned Skin & Beauty StandardsScience Museum — The Story of Sun CreamSmithsonian Channel — Sunbathing CrazeThe New York Times — Skin Deep History

Welcome to Burnt Truths — a spin-off series of The Ultraviolet Tide podcast, presented by Low Ultraviolet. I’m Erica Feggeler, and for the next 7 episodes, we’re uncovering the shady side of getting sun-kissed. Coming June 1st, 2026.Our most listened-to episode of the Ultraviolet Tide podcast ever, The History of Tanning (ep.13), sparked thousands of listeners to ask the same question: Why do we still do this?Why, in 2025, do tanning beds still exist?Why is “looking tan” still such a beauty standard, even when we know the risks?That curiosity turned into this, Burnt Truths, a pop-culture-meets-public-health dive into how tanning became an obsession, an identity, and, for some, an addiction.In this limited series, we’ll peel back a different layer of the glow.Join us as we unpack seven decades of beauty culture, bad advice, and billion-dollar marketing, and uncover the truth hiding beneath the tan lines.This is Burnt Truths: Uncovering the shady side of getting sun-kissed.