Alaina Urquhart

So Georgetown radiation expert Timothy Jorgensen said people knew that radioactivity released energy and they didn't see how adding some energy to their bodies could possibly be harmful.

They just weren't.

And they just weren't told that, like, this isn't the kind of energy you want to be adding to your body.

Right, like there's good energy and bad energy.

In fact, despite the price of products containing radium, enthusiasm for the products seemed to be never-ending.

I mean, it had, like, boundless potential to be everything.

For example, advertisements for Radithor, a health tonic, sold the elixir as a cure for the living dead and perpetual sunshine.

Wow.

And it promised to cure everything from arthritis to gout.

Wow.

Yeah.

So it was like the thing.

And the public's understanding or probably better labeled, and Dave said this, which is very true, public misunderstanding.

It was a catastrophic misunderstanding by the public because of the people on top.

Right.

The people on top were causing this misunderstanding.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

The public's misunderstanding of radium seems probably like we're looking at this today in 2024 goggles being like, oh, my God.

Why are you not understanding that radioactivity is bad?