Today we’re talking about the Radium Girls and the Unsolved Death of Karen Silkwood. Normally, we’d never start any story reflecting on the dead with “she lit up a room,” but the radium girls aren’t really a story as much as they are a lesson, and when we say they lit up a room we mean it in a literal sense. Not only did radium girls make three times more money than the average factory worker but when they left the studio where they painted watch dials all day, they actually glowed. Radium was safe, everyone knew that. Not only safe but kind of sexy, kind of glamorous. With radium spas and facial potions, you couldn’t open up a paper without seeing the benefits of radium. And they believed in these benefits, until you know, their bones started falling out. How did the Radium Girls find justice? We will also tell you the story of Karen Silkwood, a worker at Kerr-Mcgee Platinum factory in the 1970s, who became a whistleblower and safety activist after witnessing her coworkers fall ill due to plutonium exposure. After joining the Union, and speaking out about her concerns, Karen becomes exposed herself. A week later she dies. We will unpack the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, and the Academy Award nominated film, starring Meryl Steep, Kurt Russell, and Cher, inspired by her life.


Sources: The Genius of Marie Curie, Tedx
Radium City, Documentary, 2011
These Women Were Poisoned by their Job for Years, Bailey Sarian, YouTube
The Radium Girls, Kate Moore, 2016
Radium Girls, Film, 2018

The Nuclear Safety Activist Whose Mysterious Death Inspired A Movie, Jennifer Latson, 2014, Time.

A substantially Accurate Drama About Karen Silkwood, The New York Times, 1984.

Silkwood, MIke Nichols, ABC Motion Pictures, 1983.

When Nora Met Alice, John Blades, Chicago Tribune, 1990.

Nora Ephron Biography, Biography.com, 2014.

Silkwood, Roger Ebert, Rogerebert.com, 1983.

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