Do Go On - 571 - The Radium Girls

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

The Radium Girls were female factory workers who suffered severe radiation poisoning in the 1910s and 1920s after painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. Their plight led to the a better understanding of the effects of radium, and also better safety standards across multiple industries. Content Warning : Graphic descriptions of radiation poisoning. This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 11:14 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).For all our important links: https://linktr.ee/dogoonpodCheck out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Jess Writes A Rom-Com: https://shows.acast.com/jess-writes-a-rom-comOur awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.britannica.com/story/radium-girls-the-women-who-fought-for-their-lives-in-a-killer-workplacehttps://www.buzzfeed.com/authorkatemoore/the-light-that-does-not-liehttps://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/19/style/radium-girls-radioactive-painthttps://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/radium-girls-kate-moore/515685/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S74H4SzOoQM&t=67shttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girlshttps://www.damninteresting.com/undark-and-the-radium-girls/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, our Canada tour is officially over, but don't worry, there are still plenty of opportunities to see us live. October's going to be huge in the year 26, this year, because we've got a bunch of things happening. I'm in Brisbane at Goodchalk Comedy Club on the 1st and a 3rd of October doing a stand-up show with Surin and a Who New It podcast. Also, doing a stand-up show at the Bendigo Comedy Festival on the 14th of October. before we're all reuniting once more in Melbourne town, Dave. What the frick is going on there? It's the best time of you. It's the cheerful, earful podcast festival.

It's taking place again at Humdinger Studios, loads of pods, and we're doing many of them. Yes. This is October 24. That's the Saturday afternoon and October 25. We're doing do go on and who knew it on the Saturday. Then we're doing do go on and book cheat on the Sunday. And then I believe Matt, also on the Sunday, you're doing a live primates.

There's a bonus primates. Yeah, finally going to finish the April run of shows. Ooh. I was meant to be counting down on the top five topics, and that's gotten away from me. So we're going to finish it in October. Perfect. And these tickets are available to see us live in person in the studio

or streamed anywhere in the world, live or on catch-up. So have you going to be in bed because you live somewhere on the other side of the world? Say Saskatoon, for example. Which I learned recently is the same place as Saskatchewan or vice versa. That's right. You can watch it live or on catch-up. to do-goonpod.com for tickets to all of these shows. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On.

My name is Dave Warnocky and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart. Hey Dave, so good to be here, as it always is. And it's even better than usual because we welcome back at the time of recording. You may have heard some episodes with it, but we haven't seen her in ages. It's Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess. Just do it. Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Woo-hoo!

Wow, we have been telling everyone you're fine, but can you confirm that you have been fine? I'm fine. Okay, thank goodness. Yeah, we will. I'm fine now, and I was fine the whole time. The whole time, and can I just say, you're looking refreshed. Thank you so much.

I did a Euro summer like everybody on Instagram, and it was a delight. Had a wonderful time. Great, I'm on Instagram. I did mine, Matt. I did not realize it was a name. Everyone on Instagram. I was having a Euro summer.

Maybe it's my algorithm. It's hard to know. I did an Ozo winter. Oh, that's an interesting choice. And it was quite pleasant, which is, yeah. Really? Because I was told, God, you've missed some shock and weather. Oh, yeah.

Well, you know how people love to complain? I was about to be specifically about Melbourneians. I'm like, I think it's just. There's people, but Melbourneians. When I travel around, I realize that everyone likes complaining about where they live. Yep. Not me. I live in the greatest city of the world.

And that's what he is? Well, I mean, I'm living afar from New York. But spiritually, you live in New York. You know the New York thing about like gatekeeper bit about you're not a real New Yorker? You're not born here and stuff? I did a, where was I did a gig recently in Ballarat. And so this next act, he's a local, I was hosting, he's a local fellow. He's been here for five years.

He's not a local. Jesus Christ. You're not a local unless as a child, the swans at the Wendery Lake chased you. They said that, yeah, they said, I said, how long do you have to live here to be a local? And there was a range of it numbers. But someone's at 50 years. And it turned out that, I'm like, so you're over 50? They said, no.

I'm like, well, that's. So you're not a, you're not a, you're not a, you're not a baleration until you're 50. I feel like the subtext there is, I've never left and I'm really sad about it. Anyway, Jesso, you got to Europe, I got to Ballarat. So we're talking more about Ballarat. Then you've been, what, Switzerland, Italy? Switzerland, Italy. Was that a highlight?

I mean, many. It was a great trip. Got to see the Swiss Alps. Beautiful. My homeland in a lot of ways. Yes, and Italy. Did you get to Gudo? I didn't get to Gudo.

Oh, well, you've never been to you. If you haven't been to Gudo. We were in a chairlift going up a mountain in the Swiss Alps. in Grindelwald and there was an American family in the same little gondola. And I just said out loud to Aden, I said, I think Australia is ugly. I think I'm now realizing Australia's really ugly. And I told that family, I was like, I don't know if Australia's on a bucket list for you, but maybe you don't.

Give it a skin. Yeah, I was like, oh, not soon, you know, compared to. This is what I'm talking about. People love to whinge about where they're from. Yeah. I was like, don't worry about coming to my shithole country. Australia is so big, Jess. There's pretty spots.

I saw a nice mountain and I'll never come back to this shit whole country again. Well, you should see the Australian Alps. I'd tell you what. They are. They are mounds. They are little hills. Well, I think they're majestic. Usually when we send, well, Aussies go overseas, they make people not want to come to Australia through their behaviour.

Yes. But you have taken it even a step further. You're just telling people, don't come. Don't come. Don't bother. Yeah. Well, you know, if they're anything like you, Jess, they're. They've booked a ticket.

They're booked a ticket. You don't tell me what to do. They're moving here. Oh yeah, fuck you. Random Australian woman. B.S. I had a wonderful time. I missed you dearly.

We missed you. There was sometimes I would like make a joke and it would get a laugh and I was like, ah, boys would have made that funnier. Do you just turn to a corner and start writing it to the group music? Hey, I just said this, what would you have done? And I said, ha ha ha ha ha. That's correct. See that?

Yeah. He's laughing. How hard is that? So great to have you back. Jess. I just want to test you a little bit here. Do you remember how this. show works. What a fantastic question. No. So that could you explain? Yeah. We had a few

guests we got to explain and they did it way more succinctly than we ever do. But basically, I believe, one of the three of us is assigned the job of report writer that week. We get a topic, choose a topic, unbeknownst to the other two. And it's often suggested by a listener, often voted on by the patrons. We go away, learn. as much as we can about that topic, write up a bit of a report, maybe watch a few docos, read a book maybe, certainly read some articles. And then we bring that knowledge back in the form of an oral presentation,

maybe if you think in high school level, our episode a few weeks ago I was thinking about it with Greg Jenner was maybe university level. Uh-huh, uh-huh, yes. I just want to just, in my own defence, I am jet-lagged. Yes. So this one might be more of a year nine. Yeah, well, year nine, I think.

That's the sweet spot for us. And yeah, Greg was using a lot of words. I was like, what is he saying? Yeah. I was nodding. We were Googling at the same time. He said archaeology. I had to Google that.

What is that? Okay, Indiana Jones lover. And then, yeah, bring that information back, do the report. And this week, Jess is doing the report. And unlike Greg, Jess never forgets to write a question. Because unlike Greg, Jess is a host of the show. That's right. We appreciate his time so much.

Just your time? Whatever. Oh yeah. So Jess, do you have a question to get us on a topic this week? Well, I do actually. And part of submitting a topic, we've added, Matt added a little while ago, the option to also submit a potential question. Oh, yes.

I forget that's in there. Well, have I written a question? No, I have copy and pasted a question. That counts. Even better. Suggested by one of our suggestors. And you won't credit them. I was, for some reason, I held back just then, because I'll say her name when I'm reading

the people who suggested it, but I can just tell you, it was Ariane from Ireland. Oh, clue there. Ariane. It is not a helpful one. Okay. Unless you're going for the answer of name one person who suggested this topic. Which is not the question. So my question is.

Can I say, Ariane, her dad, Andy, is the guy I gave my Saints hat to. Yes. And if you ever in the Facebook patron group, he gives updates, he wears the hat around Ireland. Yeah, he was playing golf recently wearing it. Yeah, yeah, some fancy golf course. It's very sweet. It's so good. I love seeing it.

Yeah, it's a real highlight when I see that around the world. It's so nice. The Brotherhood of the Travelling Hat. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. You should write that down. Okay. That's really good.

Okay. So my question, or Ariane's question, is what was the second element discovered by Mari and Pierre Curie? So we know penicillin was the first. Penicillin number one. Was it Maricurium? There's a few that are named. There is a curiam, but I don't think that they were arrogant enough to do that. Was there one that was like named after where she's from?

Yeah, there's polonium. Is that one? Yep. Pavlovian response? The big one. Radium. Radium is correct, yes. And that's number two.

Well, maybe Ariane was being cute and giving penicillin number one. Okay, great, go, great. Because I don't remember the Marikuri report, even though, no, I didn't do it, thank God. Because the whole time I was like, I don't think this is right. I know that wasn't me, but it feels like 15 years ago. Yes, absolutely. I'm like, maybe it is. No, it couldn't be.

But it's pushing it. Yeah, but it's close. So radium. Radium. So this is, the topic this week is the radium girls. Oh, yeah, you see that in the had a bit, but I've never. It's on the block vote. Is it?

Oh, maybe that's why I've thought about it recently, but I've never looked into what that means. No, neither. And luckily, it's not currently in the top ten. Oh, thank God.

It has been suggested by a lot of people, including Christopher Johnson from Lancaster, Texas, Becca Buck from Kingston in Queensland, Daniel Shamim from Blacktown City. That's an amazing name. And Daniel's D-A-N-Y-A-L. Yeah.

Oh, that's good. That family loves Michael Jackson too much. Shamim! That got him. Yeah, we changed an ode to the Michael Jackson Sound. Shamim! It's not quite right, actually. Yeah, we couldn't spell Shamol.

Yeah. How would you spell it? It's also been suggested by Charlotte Stevenson from Liverpool in the UK. Dave Loring from Rosetta in Tasmania. Tim Randall from Brisbane. Laura Nicol from Brisbane. Ariane from Ireland. And Yasmin Litherland from St. Helens in the UK.

Liverland Litherland All of that Those names are fantastic And so many people For one topic, amazing Yeah And this one

Because do you remember I mean it feels like a lifetime ago But one of the last topics I put up for the vote Which was Prince Alfred Yes This was a like super close second Like lost by a vote or two

And I asked the patrons Like this one was so so close It was insane Like the graph of that vote was almost like a perfectly courted. It was crazy. And they said, do the second one. So I have looked into this report. You were like, well, okay.

I was like, Jesus Christ, guys, chill out. Would it please hurt? What's the magic word? Okay. Do the second one. Like, yeah, I understand this podcast doesn't exist without you. But hey, also it doesn't exist without me, tuts. Yeah.

So let's have a little respect for the big dog. Wharf, wuff. I don't know. The last month did prove that it existed without you, but not without them. So I think maybe they're coming from a pretty strong. Well, it exists with you, just slightly worse. Yes. You were so close to saying better.

I heard the hesitation. You were so... I had to make sure. Sometimes you don't know. I said the one I meant. You've got to ease back into the roasting of friends, you know? Because you've got to be confident that it's going to be received in there. with the intention.

Yeah. And I've had a month away from you. I've just been with the person who loves me unconditionally. So I don't get bullied that much. Is that true? Nah. Because I do the bully. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm the big dog. Anyway, so for a little bit of background, so it really has nothing much to do with the Curies, unfortunately. They come up a little bit, but not enough. That's fine. In my opinion. We've done them. Yeah, yeah.

But for the Radium Girl, so the background for this, is from 1917 till around 1926, the United States Radium Corporation, or USRC, extracted and purified radium to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the brand name, Um, Dark. Now, this is back when you could name it anything. Yeah. They're luminous paints. Right light.

Yep, that's pretty good. Oh, that's good. Undar. Undar. I thought it was um dark. Un dark, I love. because it's like, what, what isn't it? That's what I want to know.

Don't tell me what it is. It's the opposite of dark. It's undark. Un dark. Because it's light. It's light, light, light, related name since we talked about Spider-Man, turn off the dark. Oh, yeah.

That was also pretty bad. That's pretty bad. Turn off the day, though, isn't it? What you're saying is turn on the light. Yeah, turn on the light. Let's be positive. Can we turn off the dark in here? Yeah, what we're doing.

Wasn't it like Bono's kid or something said it? There was something like that. Someone's kids said and they're like, that's fantastic. And a bomb horribly. It's a really cute thing for a toddler to say. Adorable. Yeah, but don't even share it with your friends. Enjoy that in the moment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you don't have to post a bit. Yeah, that could be like a little family. Let alone. Yeah. Take it to Broadway. Let it be a little like family in joke thing that now like within the household you sometimes say, oh, can you turn off the dark in here?

Which just means, would you mind turning a light on? That's a bit of fun. You don't have to take it to the stand up stage for a, My kids said the darnest thing. Dave, just a quite quiet hint there. All right, well, I'm scrapping my new hour. 60 minutes of darned as things, my kid is. And then by watching TV and the screen goes dark and she goes,

more. That is funny. That is cute. But I only brought it up in context of the Muppas Treasure Island, Patreon Movie Club episode we did. Anyway, so they've got this paint. Sorry, Dave, I didn't mean to be shouting you out there. That wasn't meant to be a direct call out.

Yeah. I feel bad about it. That's fine. I don't think I have done that. much stand up since she was really born, so I haven't done any darnness material. You've been collecting. You should see the note section. Note page full.

Absolutely overflowing. So they make luminous paints called Undark. And the USRC was a major supplier of radioluminescent watches to the military during World War I. So they're like painting not just watches, but often watch faces or other sort of small equipment so that it'll kind of glow in the dark, easier to use during war. Their plant in Orange, New Jersey, employed as many as 300 workers, mainly women,

to paint radium-lit watch faces and instruments. There were two additional plants that were used for this work as well, one in Ottawa, Illinois, and one in Waterbury, Connecticut. How's this for a name? So one of the articles that I refer to a fair bit, it was, on CNN, it's written by Jacopo Prisco. Oh, my God.

Jakopo. Jacopo Prisco. We have been to Italy recently. Yeah, that's true. So I'm confident in your pronunciation. That's true. And like, obviously I did it, obviously. But I, for people who don't know, I did Italian all through primary school and high school.

So, uh, parla a umpola Italian. And I would see, I would walk into a cafe. And I would say, bonjournal. And they would say, hi, how can I help you? And I'd go, fuck. Damn, come on. How could I have done that better? I never even got to order in Italian.

And I was ready. Prachetta I said I'm Well, Vábeene Vobene Wrabene, va bene

Gozzy What I did find myself doing Is it started As soon as we got to Italy And then it kind of continued And I want to bring it back And just use it all the time

But any time I went to say Okay Like Aiden would say I think we should go down this way I'd go okay Okay Okay And I loved it

It actually made me feel powerful Yeah, yeah. Hey, I'm thinking I could go for some lunch. You want some lunch? Okay. I loved it. Do you think maybe we should start sort of uno reversing people who throw English at us when we're travelling? And you go, oh, that English, it's not so good.

I better speak in Italian. Someone starts speaking English to you and you go, I have no idea what you're saying. What? I'm sorry. No. A point. Anyway, so Jacobo Priscoe, right. It's great.

Radium was discovered by a Nobel laureate, Maricuri, and her husband Pierre. I love that, not Pierre. Cop that in a good way. Do you think? People who want to learn more about her, are they Mari curious? No, it doesn't matter. God, it's good to be back. God, it's good to be back.

Marie Curious, or are they people who were just interested in the biscuits? So it was discovered in 1898. It was quickly put to use as a cancer treatment. Because it was successful, it somehow became an all-powerful health tonic, taken in the same way as we take vitamins today. People were fascinated with its power, said Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls. Kate Moore gets quoted a lot as well, not just from her book, but she's written a few articles that are almost like abridged versions of her book.

So she'll come up a lot. Not knowing anything about the Radium girls, in my head still, I'm assuming they're going to be a roller derby team. Oh my God. I was thinking roller derby too. I don't know why. Why were you both thinking roller derby? They're going to come together, get out on that, that rink or whatever you would call that. Oh my God.

I'm so sorry, it's not going to be anywhere near as fun as that. Not enough violence? No, no. It's pretty grim. Okay. Is there like a famous team? called the radium girls or something? I don't know why.

Why are we thinking that? Why are we both thinking it? That's awesome. They're glowing in the dark and they're just taking people out. Fuck yeah. Oh yeah, glow in the dark, roller derby is awesome. Very dangerous. Yeah.

Even more than roller derby. Because you would just have like the wheels lit up, like maybe like your elbow and wrist guards. And the helmet. So you sort of zoom in up. You can't see faces. Yeah. Mouthguard. Mouthguard glows in the dark.

That would be sick. Yeah. That would be pretty cool. So if it's not already team, that is the Rating girls. And people can do that. Oh, okay. Do you want to listen to the rest of it? Or should we just...

Should we just go get some rolls, gets on? Should we just brainstorm some more cool shit the Rating Bills can do? No, I'm keen. Go on. You've put the effort in. Go on. No, you know. I'm keen. I'll sit through it. I'm really keen.

But just know that I'm thinking about Derby this whole time. I know. This is, this Kate continues. use this. It was a proper craze. Radium became an additive in a number of everyday products, from toothpaste to cosmetics and even food and drinks. One such preparation

called Radathor was simply distilled water with tiny amounts of the substance dissolved in it. Boldly advertised as a cure for the living dead and perpetual sunshine, it promised to tackle various ailments from arthritis to gout. Were these living

dead that needed cure? A cure for the living dead. Yeah, they're saying it fix, what, zombies? What are living dead? Is that vampires? I think it's just like if you're someone who's a little bit sleepy more often than not, you know what I mean? Where can I get it? Yeah, I think you need some distilled water with radium in it. I'm nervous that we're currently consuming products that have this sort of like real harmful stuff. Well, there's a bit of a craze like on Marcher at the moment that I'm really into. Is that going to be bad? Yeah, I worry about the LED lights that I have to put my hands under for getting my nails done. Oh, yeah. I'm like,

Oh, that can't be good. It's going to be phones, isn't it? Oh, 100%. But it'll be other things too, if that makes you feel any better. Yeah, great. Everything's awful. Oh, yeah, it's all fucked. The microplastics.

Oh, yeah, that's bad. It feels like a lot of them we're sort of aware of. Were they aware at all that this is... Poor, what a fantastic question. And one that we will answer. Yeah, it feels like often of these things, it's like the people making the money are not telling people. Yeah, the asbestos industry.

Yeah. They were a bit of... What suppress that? Cigarettes. Yeah, tobacco as well, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think it's different with radium. That's good.

That's good news. Because the good thing about capitalism and the big corporations, their number one priority is the shareholders. That's right. And then, you know, the health of their consumers, probably close second. And then the health of their underpaid workers. Third.

Third. Yeah. The top three. Bronze isn't bad. Top three. So, yeah. But as long as the shareholders are making more and more money all the time and fuck everyone else. Yeah.

Then that's, yeah. We just lost a few listeners. Big business. Lost a few shareholders. Sorry. Sorry, Elon. I'm going to tell a few truths today. Completely slides out of frame.

Slides further and further. So Radithor, that drink that we reckon Matt should probably get. Yeah, I'm in. Maybe Dave's already on it. Perpetual. Perpetual. Perpetual. Perpetual. Yeah.

Perpetual. Yeah. Like perpetually. Yeah. Look, I know the word, but my brain is breaking. I think you need some radathor. I think so, too. But I think you're already on it for perpetual sunshine.

Oh, great. Because we always talk about how Dave is just like, Dave's just one level always. Yeah. And it's always good. I know. Like three hours sleep. He's good. I'm so jealous.

So jealous. We're very up and down. But when we're, they're both up, it's unstoppable. That's insufferable. Yes. Luckily, at least one of us is usually down. Yeah, we're on either end of a C-SER, aren't we?

Yeah, and that's a beautiful balance. Yeah. Dave's in the middle. He's going, ho, ooh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. So, Radathor, it was a very interesting rabbit hole to go down. It's most commonly associated with a guy called Ebb, Ebenezer, Buyers. He was a wealthy American socialite, athlete and industrialist. In 1927, he was a big three.

He injured his arm, apparently falling from a railway sleeping birth, so he fell off a bunk bed. For the persistent pain, a doctor suggested he take Radathor, which at the time was a medicine patented and manufactured by a guy called William J.A. Bailey. Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and had become rich from the sale of Radithor. a solution of radium in water which he claimed stimulated the endocrine system, and he offered physicians a one-sixth kickback on each dose prescribed. That's good. That's a great system. Yes. So buyers began taking several doses of Radithor per day,

believing it gave him a toned-up feeling, but he stopped a few years later in October of 1930 after taking approximately 1,400 doses. And each bit is, well, a little bit of radiation? Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. So the effects kind of fizzled out a little bit, so he stopped taking it. He'd lost weight and had headaches, and his teeth began to fall out.

In 1931, the Federal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel. Any negative side effects, though? Who needs teeth? He's got Radithor. So the commission sent a lawyer to take his statement at his home. The lawyer reported that buyers, and this is a bit graphic, and I'm sorry, whole upper jaw accepting two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed and that all remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating

and holes were actually forming in his skull. Oh my God. So the doctor said, your arm's a bit sore, no problem. Have this radathor, which I get a kick back on, and he drank 1,400 doses of it and his body fell apart. Can we ask about the arm though? Oh, yeah, way better. Once it fell off, you're not feeling that anymore.

Oh, my, that is. I can't even imagine what you're looking at when you don't have an upper jaw or like the lower jaw. I can see how that would sort of maybe hinge it off a bit. But what is the left of your face? That's awful. It's horrific. Were there any tests done that showed any positive results at all? Or are they just like it glows?

It's got to be good for you. Well, I think I talk about this later, but it kind of initially, gives a bit of the illusion of health because it stimulates red blood cells. So usually people's like complexion looks good. You feel pretty good. You probably feel really good. Like great actually. But yeah, like even a small dose of it is very bad for you.

And like we were saying, we know now, of course, the dangers of radium. Like there wasn't really an opportunity for me to do a nice big fun reveal during this one because of like, and it turns out it was radium and that's bad. Like we all, we know because of past topics and just in general, radiation, not good. But at the time were they aware. So Alan Bellows writes, for damn interesting, the owners and scientists at US radium, familiar with the real hazards of radioactivity, naturally took extensive precautions to protect themselves.

They knew that Undark's key ingredient was approximately one million times more active than uranium. So company chemists often used lead screens, masks and tongs when working with the paint. US radium had even determined. distributed literature to the medical community describing the injurious effects of radium. But inside the factory where nearly every surface sparkled with radio luminescence, these dangers were unknown. Oh, so they're using all the protective equipment but then sending it out. But then in the factory where like, you know, low paid women were being used during the war.

No, no protective equipment. That's, I'm going to say it messed up. Whoa. Sorry, sorry. It's gone a bit early. Some people are listening with their kids, all right? Sorry. This is so grim.

Yeah. Do you want to talk about Roller Derby? Yeah, let's get to the Roller Derby. The last I remember was my fantastic idea of a glow-in-the-dark mouthguard. What else would you? Maybe like we could cover the stadium in like glow-in-the-dark light. Yeah, but we've got to talk about that. That would look great.

We've got to talk about, though, like, is there any modern technology where you can get stuff to glow-on-the-dark without radiation? or all those stars on my wall and roof as a kid. How do they blow? What is that? What is that? My glowworm toy? My glow in the dark condoms? Yeah.

Is that radiation? Don't eat those. Oh, okay. Why do they make them stroppy flavoured? Covering all bases. We reckon, you know, like, gridiron players were wear that sort of like nugget or whatever, black polish under their eyes. eyes to stop the shine. Maybe the roller derby people could put undark.

What is that? Why do they do that? It's the shine into their eyes. Oh, like the glare of lights? Is that what it that's for? I actually never knew. But if you put it glow in the dark and you're in the dark, I think that all reverses to make sense again.

You can see even better. Yeah. Because there's a bright glowing light right underneath your eyes. Yeah. Very handy. How else would you turn off the dark? Correct. Yeah.

So there you go. Anytime we feel a bit grim, let's just bring it back to Rolterby. That was good. Maybe we can come up with some other teams to play against the Radium girls. Yeah, yeah. That can be fun. So Kate Moore, the one who wrote the book on this topic, she writes,

With war declared hundreds of working class women flocked to the studio, the factories, where they were employed to paint watches and military dials with the new element radium, which had been discovered by Maricuri a little less than 20 years before. Hmm, I'm a little Mari curious about this. Go on. You're not getting a second high-five.

No, but I'm giving him like an approving look, you know, like I'm stoked for him, but I'm not leaning over again, you're right. Yeah, no, I didn't like how the first time it came out a bit wet, you know what I mean? Yeah, okay, yeah. It didn't feel good. Did that feel drier that time? That felt a little drier. I reckon I could dial it down a little drier again because it's not fun if it just

sounds like I'm proud of a stupid thing, you know what I mean? Right. So I got to throw it away a bit more. But can we be proud of you for it? Yeah, of course. That's the dream. isn't it? Yeah.

I want to see you two beaming. You throw something out really, really like nonchalantly and other people go, yes, that's what you want. And inside you're like, done it again. Inside you're like, can't wait to tell my spouse about this when I get home. How's your day? Well, I said this. Can't wait to write my diary about this.

How about you? You be them and I'll tell you what I said. Hang on, I'll just pull up the video from the episode and you can see it for yourself. Are you a nightmare? Do you have to ask? No, yeah, good point. To be fair, you've been with me longer than he has. It's true.

So you know that to be true. I remember when you two were courting. And you said, I'm not sure about this point. I'm not sure about him. He's from the wrong side of the Murray. We're still not sure. I know. He's bad news.

I'm very sorry. It's gotten you in a rugby union? What the heck? Yeah, but now I'm handy at trivia. That is really good. niche topic. Yep. And both times I've needed you, you weren't there.

I've messaged you later being like, would you have known this? And both times you would have. Damn it. God damn it. Kate continues. Dial painting was the elite job for the poor working girls. It paid more than three times the average factory job, and those lucky enough to land a position ranked in the top 5% of female workers nationally,

giving the women financial freedom in a time of burgeoning female empowerment. Many of them were teenagers with small hands perfect for the artistic. work and they spread the message of their new jobs appeal through their friends and family networks. Often whole sets of siblings worked alongside each other in the studio. So the rate of pay was about a penny and a half per dial equivalent to 30 cents in 2025, earning the women $3.75 for painting $250 per shift. So they'd make about $94 a shift. Okay.

Which back then, like they said, that's like top 5%. They're making way more money than other women who are outworking during the war. I got two words for you. Yeah. Cha-ching. Yeah. I got two words for you. Yes.

Tiny hands. Oh, sign me up. Would you accept if we started just, if we started paying you $94 a week. Do you use my tiny hands? A shift, which is one a week. Yeah, I'd be in the top 5% of women from 19. In the 90s. That's pretty good.

At USRC, each of the painters mixed her own paint in a small crucible, like a little bowl, and then used camel hair brushes to apply the glowing paint onto dials. The brushes would lose shape after a few strokes. So the supervisors encourage their workers to shape the brushes point with their lips. Oh, no, no! Sort of like, I had an image of when my mum would be trying to thread a needle, a thread, yeah, put a thread through a needle and she'd like lick the tip of it

to get it through the eye. Yeah, okay. But that didn't have radium on it. It was just like cotton. Oh. She was doing it for free though. She was doing it for free. She was not getting paid for that.

Fix my school uniform. One of the women, May Cubberley later said, the first thing we asked was, does this stuff hurt you? Naturally, you don't want to put anything in your mouth that's going to hurt you. Mr. Savoy, who's the manager, said it wasn't dangerous and that we didn't need to be afraid. Kate Moore again writes, but that wasn't true.

Ever since the glowing element had been discovered, it had been known to cause harm. Marikuri herself had suffered radiation burns from handling it. People had died of radium poisoning before the first dial painter ever picked up her brush. That was why the men at the radium companies wore lead aprons in their labs and handled the radium with ivory-tipped tongs. Yet the dial painters were not afforded such protection

or even warned it might be necessary. That was because at the time a small amount of radium, such as the girls were handling, was believed to be beneficial to health. Like we said before, they drank it as a tonic. It was in cosmetics. It was in butter, milk, toothpaste.

Newspapers reported its use would add years to our lives. Okay. If you count years to our lives as years that we were not alive. I think it's a confusingly phrased thing. But I think what that meant was you'll be, you'll be, you know, alive in a way. Yes. but in memory form for longer.

Kind of that, would you say it's like when people say I'm here for a good time, not a long time? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like you're going to feel really good, short term, then truly horrific. Yeah. And then you're dead. And then you're dead. And you don't feel anything.

But you're dead a long time. So what you mean? You're dead for ages. You'll be dead for a little, you'll be dead for longer than you would have otherwise. Which is great. You go, oh, even longer, great. Yeah, I've got way more time in death. In death.

I'll be at peace even longer. Oh, that's nice. And, you know, if you believe in an afterlife, you'll get longer in eternity. Yeah. So that's actually quite nice. Race to the pearly gates, beat the rush. Yeah. Kill yourself now avoid the rush.

That's a Tism song. Mm. So that's nice. So that's nice. That's nice when you think about it that way. I didn't realize, but that song might be about radium. We can only assume, yes. And if only we knew someone at Tism, who could.

could confirm or deny, but tragically. They're very secretive. So because the true nature of the radium had been kept from them, the radium girls also painted their nails, teeth and faces for fun. With the... With the radium paint. Well, that's company property. All right, I have the pain for that.

Yeah, that's coming out of your pay. Penny and a half. Per nail? Per nail. Just shocked. Don't look at me like that. Dave, the company man. Yeah, you're just showing your capitalist...

At least pay cost price. Dave, you capo. And do it at the end of the shift, because otherwise, you know, time is money. Yeah. 50% of our listeners are capo dogs. Capos. Yes. So Dave's speaking for that.

That's right. The other half, obviously, Red's under the bed. Yeah. You're one or the other. Pick us on. Yeah. Does that mean the three of us are one or the other? No, we live in a beautiful spot in between.

West Switzerland. We're neither here nor there. Are we in purgatory? We're ethereal. Oh. In a way. I like that. Yeah.

Okay. Like the race horse. The Melbourne Cup winner are ethereal. Huh. We're like that. We're three legs of a horse in a way. Where's the other one? The listeners.

The listeners. The listeners. AJ's the tail. AJ's the tail for direction. Yeah. Is that how tails? And keeping the flies out of the asshole. Out of the asshole.

Matt's the asshole. Wait, hang on. Hang on. Now we're short another leg. Oh, God. Meso. Meso's the other leg. Mesa's the other leg.

Comes in once a year and he's a full leg. That's how good he is. Oh, that is grim stuff. They're painting teeth, males. They thought it was fun. And Kate Morrill writes, Radium's luminosity was part of its allure, and their dial painter soon became known as the ghost girls,

because by the time they finished their shifts, they themselves would glow in the door. Glow in the dark. Glow in the dark. This was because the shimmering radioactive dust would fill the air when the paints were mixed, and it would end up in their hair and their clothes. And so they would sort of,

they would make the most of it, wearing their good dresses to the plant, so they'd shine in the dance halls at night. That's good, but imagine going to the cinema, you'd be like, come from seeing the screen. This woman is glowing. Turn her down. Turn her off.

That's, uh, if you're believing this is a miracle cure for stuff, you'd be like, this job I get paid extra. Yeah. And I get to breathe in miracle all the day. Yeah. I mean, you get to have a job, which is only happening because all the boys are off at war. And then you're getting paid pretty well for like, you know, it's factory work. Like, but it seemed like.

it wasn't the most hard labour work that a lot of women did. You're getting paid well. You get to glitter. You get to sparkle. Women love to sparkle. And I guess it also would become like a status symbol. Like you'd be at the dance hall. You know why I'm glowing because I've got this good job that everyone wants.

That's right. Yep. From CNN, the Radium girls actually believed they were getting healthier by working with the new Wonder drug. The most expensive substance in the world at the time, costing the equivalent of 2.4. $0.2 million per gram in today's money. And they're getting paid 30 cents a dial. You could set up a shop afterwards, you know, just a little stall and charge, you know, a dollar a scrape. You know, you can just scrape your nails over my skin.

Whatever you keep is yours. That's your. Whatever you keep is yours. You scrape it, you got it. Would you charge more for a lick? Yeah, licks are extra. How much would you charge someone to lick you? In this specific context, I'm not inviting people to lick you.

But in that time or in this time? In this report's time. Okay. I don't have to be a bit. So you said a dollar for a scrape. Would you go like two bucks for a lick or more? Yeah, probably more, 10 bucks a lick. I'd want to be, you know, in some ways it would feel a bit degrading.

That's a couple of days of shift work for you. you. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be looking to retire young. And you would. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest retirement of all. Dying painfully. The ultimate retirement. And it wasn't, like I was saying before, it wasn't crazy that they believed they were getting healthier. Radium stimulated the red blood cells. It kind of gave this illusion of good health. So they probably did feel like they were looking better. They probably felt a bit more energetic. Like, in the short term or initially, It seemed like it really did make people feel really good.

So they're like, this job rules, having such a great time. So in 1922, one of the workers, Molly Maggia had been sick for a while and she was getting worse. Kate Moore writes, her trouble had started with an aching tooth. Her dentist pulled it, but then the next tooth started hurting and also had to be extracted. In the place of the missing teeth, agonizing ulcers sprouted as dark flowers, blooming red and yellow with blood and pus. What an interesting way of putting that. Bloomed, yeah.

Sorry, I did mean to give a bit of a... I think it's beautiful. I think Dave threw up a little bit in his mouth. Imagine that you go like, this is a miracle. My teeth are going and flowers are coming up instead. My teeth are... Anyone else's teeth like something really sore? Yeah, yeah.

I hate teeth stuff. Teeth and fingernail stuff I don't like. Anyway, then she suffered aching pains in her limbs that was so agonizing they eventually left her unable to walk. The doctor thought it was rheumatism, and he sent her home with aspirin. Rheumatism? What is that? What a fantastic question that I hoped you wouldn't ask. Well, no, don't worry about it then. I was just thinking, is this a fact or is this a factotism or is this just a rheumatism?

It's good. Okay, it's worse when you ask for the high five. Yeah, hasn't he leaned in. Well, I was just trying to pat while you look for it. Rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis, is that something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's an old general term that people used to describe pain, stiffness and swelling on the joints.

Right. Okay. It's not a diagnosis today. Those flowers where your teeth should be, don't worry. That's just joint pain. Just joint pain. Have some aspirin. Sorry, what?

Off you go, Toots. How about it look at my mouth? How are you paying it for that? I don't know what to tell you. Open a florist. You got cash in them gums. Life gives you lemon, babe. Yeah.

Life gives you one lemon. Yeah. And you know, squeeze it. Squeeze it. Squeeze it. Squeeze the jukees. By May, Molly was desperate. At that point, she'd lost most of her teeth

and the mysterious infection had spread her entire lower jaw, the roof of her mouth, and even some of the bones of her ears were said to be one large abscess. But worse was to come. When her dentist prodded, oh, this is bad. Dave, block the ears.

Yeah. When her dentist prodded delicately at her jawbone in her mouth, to his horror and shock, it broke against his finger. So the bones are just... Like chalk. They're falling apart. I'll skip something. Wouldn't you be like, fucking hell, Doc?

It's... What do you have all? What are you doing? And it ended up that her jaw was removed and not with like big complicated surgeries. It just kind of like pop straight out. It's awful. So she was literally falling apart and she wasn't the only one.

By now, Grace Fryer too was having trouble with her jaw and suffering pains in her feet and so were the other radium girls. The illness continued to spread. Can I be hard to rollerblode? It is going to be hard. Without feet. Yeah, true. No impossible.

It's true. Okay. It will be more. More difficult won't be impossible. That's right. Where there's a will, there's a way. Yeah. Just have to get special ones designed.

Yeah. I think that's great. I think that's awesome. Yeah, I think it's really cool. The illness continued to spread for Molly, infecting the tissue in her throat, and then eating its way through her jugular vein. Oh.

And she died at the age of 24. Some other sources say 22, but it was mostly quite young women working in these factories. So she was in her early 20s. And they've been working there for like a couple of years, kind of, is that sort of the time line of it? Yeah, I think at this point, if I'm thinking of the right person, I believe by that point Molly was working as like a bank teller,

like she wasn't in the factory anymore. But damage done. Yes. And for plenty of them, it was like, it took a couple of years or it took quite some time before the effects really started to show. And I imagine the higher-ups at the Radium factory are going, let's not jump to any conclusions here.

Hey, I've heard of coincidence. as before and I think this is just one of them. They all worked here? Yeah, that's coincidence. That's coincidence. That's got to be coincidence. Where they're not working here now, maybe what they, maybe the reason is that they left. If anything, maybe they should come back.

Maybe they should come back to it. Get that dead woman to come back to work. Yeah, because this will live on the undead. That's true. That's what we've promised. Obviously, we don't have to pay full rate while they're still dead. What are you going to pay a zombie? Yeah.

As much as a living woman. Yeah. Come on. That's crazy. That's ridiculous. You're speaking crazy. There's a living wage, which will pay to the living. We're not paying that to these deados.

We're doing them a favour. Yeah. I mean, the payment is them coming back to life. They get paid dead wage. Yeah. Okay? And they'd be grateful. Yeah.

And they better pay death tax. I'm going to do it. So with her doctors flummoxed as to her cause of death, her death certificate, erroneously said she died of syphilis. something her former company would later use against her. So that'll come back. That's truly awful. Yeah.

And sadly, Molly was the first and not the only woman to die after working in the factory. And after her death, a string of others quickly followed. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reported that dentists were among the first to see numerous problems among dial painters, including dental pain, loose teeth, lesions, ulcers. and if a tooth was taken out, like it wouldn't heal very well. Many of the women developed anemia, bone fractures and necrosis of the jaw, a condition now known as radium jaw. They also experienced sterility and suppression of their periods.

So just it fucked with everything. Jakopo Prisco for CNN writes, when ingested, radium is particularly dangerous. Chemically, it behaves very much like calcium, said Timothy Jorgensen, a radiation, expert at Georgetown University, and author of Strange Glow, The Story of Radiation. He goes on saying, since the body uses calcium to make bone, ingested radium is mistaken for calcium and gets incorporated into bone. So the major health risks of ingesting radium

is radiation-induced bone necrosis and bone cancers. How soon they develop depends on the dose, but at the very high dose that the radium girls were exposed to, it was just a few years before they'd start to have these issues. So again, like you've probably left that job. You've moved on with your life, they're still like young women, and then they're having all these health issues, but it's like you're not immediately making the connection because you haven't worked there for a couple of years. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, people have moved away, so you're not necessarily speaking to your colleagues anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it takes, it took a little while to connect to the dots. And it actually wasn't until two years after

Molly's death that the company that owned the factory, the USRC, took any action at all through an independent investigation commissioned mostly to investigate the declining business rather than the health of the workers. Shearholders number one, remember that. That's right. I did say the health of the customers and workers was two and three, but I forgot to say daylight was actually second. And we're looking for a way to monetize them.

So they denied any responsibility for the illnesses or deaths in that two-year period, and they'd even urged doctors to attribute the women's death to other causes. After suffering a downturn in business because of what they saw as gossip that wouldn't go away. Rheumatoid. It's just the rheumatoid, am I right? A rheumatoid male at work?

Oh yeah? In 1924, they finally commissioned an expert to look into the possible link between radium, which they knew was dangerous, and these pesky women who kept going and dying. So the USRC contacted Cecil Kenne. Dr. Dr. Dr. Drinker. And his wife, Catherine Roten Dr. Dr. Drinker. Oh my God. In Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. is my father.

I'm Professor Dr. Drinker. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Rinker. They were from the Harvard School of Public Health, and they came to examine the Orange, New Jersey factory to determine why several employees had fallen ill. They discovered an environment saturated with radium contaminated dust with no protection for workers from the radioactive material. Drinker was convinced that the employee's continuous exposure to radium was causing the health problems. The company president, Arthur Rhoda, disagreed and blamed the health problems on an infection outside of the factory. Yeah, of course. It's the outside. It's the bad air. Yeah. Outside the factory. No, it's not even the air. It's syphilis.

Oh, yeah, great, great, great. A sexually transmitted infection that was kind of notorious at the time. it was often cited in attempts to smear the reputations of the women. These women were promiscuous. I'm sorry. Hoarse! This is not something that I didn't even want to bring it up. Dave didn't like that. I thought he loved it.

It's funny. It's funny. It's funny if I do it. Probably not funny. I won't be partaking. It couldn't be this dangerous chemical. It's probably that they're having... Dangerous sex?

Yeah, premarital sex. Oh, dear. So they're going to help. Yep. And they go on there in a pretty full-on way. Yeah, they're going there quick. You give head. Through no fault of mine.

Oh, okay. They gave head and then they gave up their heads. That's good. That's good. I think that's really tasteful. It felt it. It felt it now, and I reckon it feels it for the listeners. But you see, those words weren't me.

They were in the mouth of that, that fuck it guy. You were channeling the fucking guy. It was satire. Yes. If I have to say it, then I, I mean, if he has to say you don't deserve it, the problem. That does not reflect well on you. So I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, but yeah. I'm sorry about the listeners. If you didn't get it listeners, then yeah, you're a bit too promiscuous. Get the cocks out of your ears. Get the cocks out of your ears. And listen to the man talking. Lean in and listen, ladies and gentlemen and everyone else. Anyone can have a cock in their ear.

Oh. But please remove it. Yes. While I'm talking. I mean, that's just basic decency. You know what? We've lost basic decency these days. There's no consideration.

Common manners aren't so common anymore. It's time to think that it might actually be a three-legged horse after all. This listener? They aren't no leg. They're not pulling their weight. Yeah. And the fifth leg's in their ear. Get it out.

Get it out. Stop it. It's a very big. left leg. So yeah, they're blaming syphilis. Or if a, if during the sort of investigation of, like going to a doctor and saying, hey, my teeth are falling out and I'm feeling terrible all the time and my jaws fallen apart, if they got an x-ray as part of that sort of investigation, and then the company was like, well, don't go get an x-ray, you idiot. Those things are really dangerous. That's really bad for you. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the x-ray was blamed. Even though

the amount of radiation absorbed would be inconsequential compared to the amount they were exposed to daily at radium dial factories. But they were like, well, you got a bloody x-ray. And you think it's because of the radium you ingested at work? Do you reckon? I really don't know how you live with yourself. I was going to ask, do you reckon they believe that? Or they're just so evil?

I think they just saw these women, these lowly factory workers as expendable. Like they were, yeah, they didn't matter. So it's evil. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Sorry, to answer your question, plainly, evil. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they didn't see fellow humans as human beings. Okay.

So, yes, evil. That's crazy. And, yeah, maybe they do convince themselves of certain things, but at the heart of it, it's going to be a little bit evil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You must know deep down. Yeah. Especially when, yeah, you bring in doctors.

to look into it and they go, oh, yeah, no, this is way too much. That would be why all these women are sick. And then you go, fuck you. I think this doctor's got syphilis. This doctor needs to get the dick out of his here. Dr. Dr. Drinker? Dr. Dr. Drinker, yeah. Is.

Dr. Drinker is like a barber surgeon. It's like, I've got two main things that I do. I drink, I'm a doctor. He's a barber surgeon? A barber surgeon? back in the olden days, they were like one, wasn't there like you'd go to the barber surgeon. Yeah.

I think Drinker's great. Like barber drinkers are more common now. They don't do surgery as much, but you'll often... Oh, you're going to be off at a beer. Or a cup of tea or whatever you like. Yeah. Maybe doctor's surgery should do something similar. Have a beer.

Have a drink cart. Maybe yeah. A little drink probably goes around. I have that in hospitals, which is fun. We were talking. I had a meeting with James from Bodriggy about cheerfully, beautiful and he's got this idea that he's like, you know, old school footy games, they'd have the pie, that little wearable pie trays.

Oh yeah. He made someone with beer walking around the audience during podcast going, beer any beers? Beer over here, can I get a beer over here? Can I get some nuts? Peanut? And I think that's a great idea. I think it's dangerous if you are on stage and he walks in with beers,

nice cold beers available. Yeah, he's a bit like that guy that followed home around. He just follows you around the festival. Yeah, yeah. You're putting his kids through college. Hot pies, cowboys. Oh, hot pies, okay. Okay.

What are they got for me? They're doing popcorn this year, apparently. For the lady. And for the lady, a popcorn. Well, we'll have to suggest Skittles, maybe. Oh, no. Just don't tell my mum. Anyway, so...

Skittles, that's going to be the modern. Oh, 100%. Like, some of those... It's like, no, no, no, no, these things are fine. Some of the food we eat, yeah, it's all killing us. The amount of microplastics in our stomachs, and it doesn't matter what you try to do to avoid it, you can't. It's everywhere.

We're all fucked. I think it's going to tend it to be really good. It's good for you. Coding in plastic, it's going to eventually they're going to be like, yeah, this is how we cure cancer. We just coat all your organs with plastic. Yeah. Cancer can't get to them. Can't get to them.

Cancer can't get through plastic. And plastic lasts forever. Yeah. Try and break that down. You can't. Your lungs are in Tupperware, basically. Nothing can get in there now.

They're protected. You're in a car accident. No, like, punctured lung or anything. This is when the X-Men sort of, you know, mutants and whatever. Yeah. And for some reason, I don't know why in the X-Men, everyone's got a different power, which I love. Evolution happens where one guy's a bird man.

Oh, yeah, yeah. There's another second guy turning up being like, I'm also a bird man. Piss off, I'm the bird man. Yeah, you're right. Go do something with your eyes. Yeah. Okay, X-ray or something. I think that is how evolution works.

Yeah. Everyone gets a brand new thing. Yeah. This is going to be really annoying some X-Men heads out there. You know, actually. And you know what? If that's you, if you're like really into it. Yeah, please write in, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was going to say, for sure. I wasn't going to be like, get a fucking life. I knew you weren't. That's why I finished your sentence. Jumped in. Thank you for saving me. So anyway, they were like, if you got an extra, that's on you. The company also claimed that they hired, this is incredible.

In part of their sort of defense, they said, well, we hired a great many people who were physically unfit to procure employment in other lines of industry. That's so good. We were good. Kindness. These women, they were weak and pathetic and gross beforehand. Did you see how small their hands were? I like it. We were very generous.

What was the phrasing? What did they, how did they describe them? They were, they hired a great many people who were physically unfit to procure employment. And what they meant there was women. You know, in fact, they're like, well, to put it simply, women. They were, we hired girls. They couldn't get jobs before, mostly because of, you know, systems we put in place. Do you do think they were sitting around in, like, a writer's room of, like, the most evil people, like, Adolf Hitler's there and Dr. Evil was there?

What are some ways? Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Rinker. that we can like sort of besmirch these women even more. And you don't get any really, really evil ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we could say that they've all got syphilis. I love it. Light it.

Whiteboard. Whiteboard. Whiteboard. No bad ideas. Syphilis, fantastic. Got it. Yeah. It just gets worse and worse and worse.

Let's just say that they were all pathetic and we hired them as a favour. Right there down. We're actually heroes for hiring these disgusting little freaks. Yeah. Sorry, women. They've circled and underlined a phrase, pathetic slots. We've got it.

All right. Everything comes off this. Yes, that's why everything comes off. This is our mission statement. Everything we do from here, you have to be able to justify how it comes back to this. So, okay, Jones, you said, you said syphilis, walk me back to the mission statement. Well, sir, it lends itself to sluts. Very good, Jones.

I see that. Thank you. I see that. So when Rhoda, who's the, the. company director, found out that Dr. Drinker planned on publishing his findings, Rota threatened to sue him, and Dr. Drinker backed down. Instead of accepting the findings, Rota paid for new studies that published the opposite conclusions. He also lied to the Department of Labor, which had begun investigating, about the verdict of the original report. Publicly, he denounced

the women as trying to palm off their illnesses on the firm and decreed their attempts to get some financial help for their mounting medical bills. Jesus. So it's not even just like burying your head in the sand. It's fully lying. Yeah, go on the offensive. Yes. And in the most offensive way.

I like how the Labor Department just took his word for it. Oh, okay. Can we see the report? You don't trust me? Oh, he just gave them a falsified report. Oh, okay. So they did their due diligence of reading the report. Are you accept a falsified report?

Of course we will. Yeah, of course, sir. For you, sir? Of course, sir. The crayon writing was very neat. Oh, very good. So you're So your lessons are coming along very nicely.

So Kate Moore writes again, with the report, hushed up, the women's biggest challenge was proving the link between their mysterious illnesses and the radium that they'd been ingesting

hundreds of times a day. Though they themselves discussed the fact that their work must be to blame, they were fighting against the widespread belief that radium was safe. In fact, it was only when the first male employee of the radium firm died that experts finally took up the charge.

That's interesting. So it is also, it affects the stronger sense. as well. Wait, one man died! We will not rest until we find out what happened

to that beautiful boy. I think these women have killed him. I think these pathetic sluts have gone together. Back to the mission statement. Just tapping the board.

Do I change my name in the group chat? No, no, no, no, no. It's not bad. It's not bad. Pathetic slut. Just imagining your phone sitting on the table and your wife saying a message come up for pathetic slush? I think it would be more like, my mum would be like, what is that?

Your wife would go, Jess is messaging you. Yeah, it's just... Oh, Jess has got you. And that would seem like that's the name you've put in. She doesn't know I call it. Mom, you should say the name I've given you. It's awful. In 1925, a doctor named Harrison Martland devised test that explained what was happening

inside the bodies of the women that had ingested radio. As early as 1901, it had been evident that radium could harm humans dramatically when applied externally. Pierre Curie once remarked that he would not want to be in a room with a kilo of pure radium because he believed it would burn all his skin off, destroy his eyesight and probably kill him. Martland discovered that when radium was used internally, even in tiny amounts, the damage was many thousands of times greater. So it's way worse inside. That ingested Radium was subsequently settled in the women's bodies and was now emitting constantly, and was now emitting constant destructive radiation that honeycombed their bones.

It was literally boring holes inside them while they were alive. I think it's so interesting how it explained before that it acts the same as calcium. So the body kind of goes, oh great, calcium and it just takes it all into the bones. Really Trojan horseing its way. Yeah. Go straight to the bone. Oh God. Crazy.

That same year in 1925, Grace Fryer, who I kind of mentioned before, she was one of the workers from the original New Jersey plant. She was the one who was now working as a bank teller. She'd been having several ongoing health issues. Alan Bellows writes, her teeth began to loosen and fall out for no discernible reason. Her troubles were compounded when her jaw became swollen and inflamed, so she sought the assistance of a doctor in diagnosing the inexplicable symptoms. Using a primitive x-ray machine, the physician discovered serious bone decay, the likes of

which he'd never seen. Her jaw bone was honeycombed with small holes in a random pattern reminiscent. of moth-eaten fabric. It took years before a doctor suggested that her jaw problems may have had something to do with her former job at US radium. As she began to explore the possibility, a specialist from Columbia University named Frederick Flynn asked to examine her. Flynn declared her to be in fine health.

It would be some time before anyone discovered that Flynn was not a doctor, nor was he licensed to practice medicine, rather he was a toxicologist on the US radium payroll. Oh, wow. He came out and said, oh, look at you. I'll look at you for free. They're just hiring actors. Yeah. All right, you're going to play the role of a doctor.

And even worse, sorry, but a colleague of his who was present during the examination and who also confirmed that she was very, very healthy, turned out to be one of the vice presidents of US Radio. Is there a conflict now? I don't think there's a conflict if you're the vice president. Only the president. Yeah, yeah. Vice president is still far enough away from the leadership. Yeah, that's one step away, which is enough steps away.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even then, I think like if you really go, I'm like, oh, it's a conflict of interest, like, it's a light one. You're just being cautious and ethical, which I think is important. And you can like obviously use your own judgment. You can be impartial. You can be honest. Absolutely right. Yes. Yes. If it's bad for the business, but it's the truth, that's fine. Yeah. He probably would have said I wear many hats. I've switched hats right now. Yeah, I'm a doctor now. I'm a doctor now. And yeah, it's like that old adage that Dave just referred to one step away is enough. steps away. That's it. Yes.

And I'll tap the board again. Yeah. How does this go back to pathetic slots? So she eventually decided to sue, but she would spend two years searching for a lawyer willing to help her. She finally filed her case in 1927 along with four fellow workers, Edna Husman, Catherine Shalb, Quinter MacDonald, and Albina Larice. And they were dubbed Leradium Girls. by the media, they made front-page news all around the world. And there was an altruistic motive to their battle.

After all, dial painters were still being employed all across the United States. It's not for myself. So they were still working, doing this job. Yeah, yeah. This job still existed. It's just most of these women had left, a lot of them because they became so sick and they didn't know why. Oh, my God.

Others had moved on to other jobs. So I forget this is in America. I've really been picturing Dickensie in London. Right. Chimney sweeps and stuff. Yeah. When is it again? The 20s and 30s?

It's not the last. Crazy. Crazy. No. Like it's your grandparents' parents kind of thing. Yeah. And so Grace said, it's not for myself, I care. I'm thinking more of the hundreds of girls to whom this may serve as an example.

Because by that time, more than 50 of the female factory workers had died from radium poisoning. 50 had died. Yeah. And Grace and most of these women that she was fighting with were like given less than a year to live. So they weren't necessarily fighting for themselves. They were like, this is wrong. We need to let people know. And you're killing people.

So as it had taken so long to get a lawyer on board, by the time of their first court appearance in January 1928, two women were bedridden, and none of them could raise their arm to take an oath. They were so weak and ill. USRC, of course, denied any wrongdoing, but the case was settled in the autumn of 1928 before the trial was deliberated by the jury.

So they settled out of court, basically. the settlement for each of the Radium girls was $10,000, equivalent to about 188 in today's money, and a $600 per year annuity, which was around $11,000. So they were paid $12 a week for all of their lives, and all medical and legal expenses incurred would also be paid by the company. Great, but they're not going to live very long. Well, that's it. I couldn't really tell if this is good or not. My gut instinct was like, not really.

So earlier I said they made $3.75 per shift, so that would be about $18 a week, assuming they did five shifts. So the lump, some settlement's great, but then they're being paid less per week than they were making while working in the factory. But making $12 a week was still pretty decent back then, and these women are so on well, they can't get other jobs.

So it's like, yeah, it's not bad. But it also means the business has no admission of fault. Correct. They're not held accountable. It doesn't go on the paper either because they settle. Yeah. So you don't get the new workers hearing, oh my God, I'm not going to work for them.

Yeah. That'll kill me. Yep. And sadly, the part where the payments were agreed upon for the rest of their lives really worked out in USRC's favour because all five of the women were dead by the 1930s. So they all died in the following years. Do you want to talk about roller derby for a bit? Yeah, so I was picturing roller blades, but it's usually roll of skates. It is skates, yeah.

Oh, actually, what about like glowing the dark wheels on the skates? That could be kind of cool. And like laces, like, maybe like a couple of stars, little moon shape on the skates. side. Like, could I, I'd love like a shooting star kind of thing on my skates. That'd be kind of fun. And, yeah, maybe, yeah, radium. What would their logo be?

Probably like a, like a toxic. Toxic waste symbol kind of thing. Or like an isotope or something. Yeah, I know what that looks like. Yeah, like a rod. That's kind of thing on the side. You know, the nuclear power plant, it's kind of looks a bit like. Oh, yeah.

That because it's the local team, isn't it? Yeah, they're there. Yeah, they are the isotopes, actually. That's what you're thinking of? That's good stuff. Eventually, one of Dr. Drinker's colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Alice Hamilton. I'm just saying you haven't said Harvard correctly once this episode.

Sorry. Learned that the United States Radium Corporation had submitted Drinker's report to the New Jersey Department of Labor with altered results. So she found out. So Dr. Dr. Drinker was like, oh, I'm going to publish these findings. They were like, you do that and we sue. And he was like, okay, they're a big corporation. I just won't publish.

then they find out that the company submitted his report but falsified it. They crossed out little bits. So now he's like, oh, this Arthur Rhoda has acted in bad faith. Dr. Dr. Drinker ignores the threat of the lawsuit and publish his unaltered report. Good for you, Dr. Drinker. So after receiving the full report from Drinker, the New Jersey Labor Commissioner declared that all the recommended safety measures be put in place, which prompted the factory to close. After the workers sued the company, major industry safety improvements were put in place

and radium-based paint was banned in the 1960s. Right, but I thought... 60s. Yeah. Oh, okay, that's a lot later. Yeah, like 30 years later, it took a couple. But yeah, the only way to make this safe is to not do it at all. And implementing some of those safety measures

prompted the factory to close. Yeah, we're not doing that. Shut it down. Or it was like, oh, that's too expensive or too hard. Yeah. It's like, but we just said before, that this radium was like the most expensive substance on earth at the time. So surely you've got money. Anyway. Was it was the the products they weren't dangerous? You know the watch faces

with a bit of radium paint on them? I think probably but I actually don't fully know because you know like then it would be under glass. I don't know if that protected you more and it was such a teeny tiny little amount. I'm not really sure but they don't use it anymore anyway. Or they're certainly not licking it either. You know, they're licking the brush. That's so awful. Like radium, to be in contact with it, like we were saying before, like Pierre talking about not wanting to be in a room with a kilo of it,

that'll kill you. It's so much worse when it's ingested, which is crazy. Did the people who have, like, the radium was becoming part of them, were they radioactive? Like, were they dangerous? Could they affect people they were around as well? I'm not actually sure if it affected people around you. There was, and I don't think I included it,

but one of the anecdotes I read was that, especially later as they were getting quite sick, their bones would glow. Like they would get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and see themselves in a mirror and be like, they'd be glowing. Holy crap. Isn't that insane?

But I'm not really sure if it then impacted others around you. Yeah, like imagine on top of everything else, you're like, you find that you've made your whole family sick. I guess would that kind of make sense? I don't know. No. I'm not really sure. I don't know.

I think the company would say, your whole family, I didn't know how pathetic and slutty they were. Oh, just a family of sluts. He runs in the family. Makes sense. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Slots in the family, I guess. Is that something? Yeah, yeah.

So that was just the New Jersey. Because remember there was like three different plants. That's a New Jersey one. In Illinois, employees of radium dial began asking for compensation for their medical and dental bills as early as 1927, but can you believe it, they were refused. Kate Moore writes, although the firm's medical tests proved that the Illinois women

were showing clear symptoms of radium poisoning, it lied about the results. It even placed a full page ad in the local paper. If we at any time had reason to believe that the conditions of the work endangered the health of our employees, we would at once have suspended operations. Obviously. Come on.

We're good people. Even though they have the report, that's just a blatant lie. That's not them being like the wolves over their eyes and they're like, oh, we would never hurt people. They fucking knew. I mean, this is the episode where you like, you wish that you hope that hell does exist for these fuckers. Yeah. Its actions to hush up the scandal went as far as interoper. interfering in the girls' autopsies where when the Illinois workers began to die,

company officials actually stole their radium riddled bones. What? Isn't that fucked up? I don't know what they would do with them. That's just a quote from Cape Moore, but that's insane. Again, like, how many people are in on how bad this? It's not just one, the president lying, or whatever. If your job, you're told, can you go steal her bones?

Yeah. Are you not like, what are we doing here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are we doing? No, you've got a boss. Demands for compensation continued into the 1930s before a suit was brought before the Illinois Industrial Commission, the IIC. In 1937, five women secured attorney Leonard Grossman, incredible name, who took the case pro bono because the women were unable to work and were severely impoverished. In fact, the case was handled at the home of Catherine Donahue, a woman who was involved but was too sick to travel.

She was basically giving evidence on her deathbed. The IIC ruled in favor of the women in the spring of 1938, so a win for them there. But by then, Radium Dial had closed and moved to New York, and the IIC refused to cross state boundaries for the women's payout. So I don't think many or any of them got the payout for it, but I think they still sort of saw it was much like the other case in New Jersey where they were like, oh, we're dying. I mean, Catherine's giving, nothing's going to save her now. No amount of settlement, but it's just about.

the justice to protect other people. But they're just moving to another state. It's a great system. And then the IOC goes, well, we can't. We couldn't possibly. That's over there. Yeah. Just insane.

So yeah, these sneaky companies also just pack up and leave and they're untouchable. So the Radium Girls case was one of the first in which an employer was made responsible for the health of the company's employees. The saga holds an important place in the history. of the fields of health physics, women's rights, and the Labor Rights Movement. The right of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labour abuse was established, and Labor's safety standards were created. There weren't safety standards before this. Industrial standards for safety improved as a result, and in 1949, Congress passed a bill

that decreed compensation for all workers suffering from occupational diseases. Alan Bellows writes, thanks to the Radium Girls and their success in bringing attention to the deplorable conditions in U.S. factories, industrial safety standards in the U.S. were significantly tightened over the following years and improvement which definitely spared countless others from similar fates, which is pretty wild. After the litigation, radium dial painters

were instructed in proper safety precautions and provided with protective gear. In particular, they no longer shaped paintbrushes by lip. Okay. Which I think is a good first step. Yeah. The next step is in the year. Twill it around a little bit.

Get them out of your ears. Listen. Yeah. What is it with you in ears? Radiom paint was still used in dials as late as the 1970s. The last factory manufacturing radium paint shut down in 78. Okay. Isn't that wild?

That's very late. Yeah. It's when Colchizzle released their first album. Really? Any correlation? K-San came out. Isn't that, that's wild. Yeah.

That feels recent. though obviously. That's your lifetime. Yeah. And all of this was your lifetime. That's right. It's my recent lifetime. Yeah, yeah.

I think of your life in stages. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm like Doctor Who. Yes. And let me say, this is my favorite version of Doctor Who. Yeah. Thank you so much. I haven't said any others.

I'm far too young, but I... We assume. We assume. And we'll probably be around for the next one. Yeah. And then we'll judge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it feels very late given what they

know, or they knew. This stage is not Doctor Who, it's Dr. Drinker. And he lives up to his name. Yeah, so the Radium paint manufacturing happening up until 78 feels late, but I don't know, maybe perhaps once proper precautions were taken, it was safer.

So, for example, one of the last surviving radium girls was Mabel Williams, who died in July of 2015 at the age of 104. Oh, wow. She was described as having no complications from working with radium, which she attributed to never tipping her paintbrush with her lips. She said she didn't think that was a good idea.

Good call, Mabel. Yeah. Good call. Sounds like she might have been built different. Yeah. Not pathetic. She wasn't a pathetic slut. I'll tell you that for free.

That's incredible that she, yeah. So just by not ingesting radium. Right. She lived and long and normal life. But she must have breathed it in a bit. Yeah. She must have just gotten a bit lucky. Like you're saying, like it will.

It was in the dust, in the air. Like, they were glitter. Yeah, she got really lucky. So the harrowing deaths of these women also had a large scientific impact. Robly, incredible, though. Robly. Robly. R-O-B-L-E-Y. Robly D-Evons.

Robly. Robly. Robly. Robly. Absolutely, Roblo. Roblo. Are you picturing a blobbly or a posh? Robloo.

Yeah, I think I'm still... Or like a, you know... I'm picturing a James Bond type. Yeah, Robloo. I think I was thinking about it. Like an old Winston Churchill saying, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, I guess I think that is how you bring the two together. He's like a blobby. Yeah, portly fellow. Hmm. Saying, you know, like someone brings him a bit of port or something. He swills it around. Is this right, sir? Absolutely.

Robly. Yeah, I think you absolutely nailed that. Robly D. Evans made the first measurement of exhaled radon and radium excretion from a former dial painter. I know that sounds insane. But this information was used in 1941 by the National Bureau of Standards to establish a tolerance level for radium, and that is measured at 0.1 microcuries.

You know, there's a measurement unit named after curie? Microcurries. Microcurries, just a little. Little, just a scoop. Little Rogan Josh. Little Papa Dump. How did I? Jacopo, Jacopo, Priscoe, from CNN.

I forgot how I decided to say that name. It's hard to calculate how many women suffered health problems due to the ingestion of radium, but they certainly number in the thousands, according to Kate Moore. Some of the effects would only be felt much later in life through various forms of cancer. With a half-life of 1,600 years, once the radium was inside the women's body,

it was there for good. The legacy of the radium girls lives on through the ripples that their deaths created in labour laws and our scientific understanding of the effects of radioactivity. In the 1950s during the Cold War, many agreed voluntarily to be studied by scientists, even with intrusive examinations because they'd been exposed for prolonged periods of time. Almost everything we know about radiation inside the human body, we owe to them. Really?

Gosh. Which is kind of crazy. On a slightly lighter note to kind of end on as well, in pop culture, the radium girls have been referenced and their story told across many forms of media. There was a fictionalised version of the story, um, uh, was made into a short story in 1937 by James H.

Street called Letter to the Editor, which was adapted into a film, which was called Nothing Sacred. And then a 1953 Broadway musical. So wild. Radium Girls, there's a film in 2020. Catherine Donoghue's story was dramatized in a 2010 play called

These Shining Live. The song Radium Girls by Tom Morello was released in 2021. And as of 2026, there's a stage musical titled Radium Girls that's aiming for a Broadway run. And Australian punk rock group Radium Dolls took their name in reference to this incident. So there you go. A grim but like kind of wild story. You can understand why so many people suggested it because the impact that their legacy had is far reaching,

but it is a very sad, awful story. It's awful, isn't it? Yeah. And I remember once for bookcheat came up, someone had a thing called Fossy Jaw, which people got from phosphorus when making matches. Also, I think a lot of young women, and it would also, yeah, get rid of the Anola Holmes

movies was about that. Oh, was it? Yeah. And I think they had a thing where, if I remember this right, there was two types of phosphorus, one that is bad for you and the one that isn't. But the one that isn't is more expensive, so they didn't use it for a long, long time. Sure. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

That makes sense. Fucking awful stuff. I think that's why these stories are important to remember, because the same forces are still going in business where they don't give a fuck about people. Yeah. It's all that cash. Yeah, yeah. Certain people are expendable.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So grim. And just to see if, like, what we were thinking about, if there is a Radium Roller Derby, I did a Google in the Radium Roller's. It says,

here are our local short track roller derby team in Ottawa, Illinois. Okay. Which is, yeah, you mentioned. That's local to that area, right? Radium Rollers, which is a great name. That's where, um, one of the plants was. Yeah.

So that's kind of wild. Yeah, but there's no chance that I've actually come across her before. So I don't know. We just have the same sort of image for some reason. Yeah. Yeah, something about it just felt. Right. Hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah, fascinating, awful story. But as Matt's saying, yeah, something to remember in this capitalist world we live in. That's right. Great report, Jess. Thank you so much. Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we, thanks for a great Patreon supporters.

Dave, what is this all about? What are we doing? Well, we would not be able to be doing this show for almost 11 years now without missing a single week without the support of people on Patreon who help keep the lights on. And in exchange for their generous pledges to us, we give them a range of rewards, depending on what level you sign up on. You can be part of the Facebook group. Everyone can be part of that. You get to vote on topics, you get to get bonus episodes.

There's four a month, so we're up to over 300 in the back catalog that you also can instantly go back and binge if you've suddenly caught up all the main feed episodes. You hear about live shows before anyone else. You get discount codes. And yeah, you just get to be part of the do-go-on community, which we really appreciate. Also, I should say ad-free listening and video, for example, right now on the Patreon, you get to watch the full videos of the episodes. We're waving.

So the first thing we like to do is a section of the show We call the fact quote or question section Which actually has a jingle Go to something like this Fact quote or question He always remembers the dinghs show I always remembers the sing. So good to have Jess singing that again

Who's singing last time? I've been singing it Although we did on a recent episode Maybe four weeks back Dave and I harmonised it Oh I of course went high I understand. Now, in this part of the show, if you're on the Sydney-Shaunberg level

of our Patreon or above, you have to give us a factor, quite a question, or a brag or a suggestion, or really, whatever you like. And you also get to give yourself a nickname. I'm going to read out three this week. First one comes from Kevin West, aka Louis Lanolin, an out-of-his-depth intimacy coach at an all-inclusive Throples resort in Turks and Caicos, all similar. Being out of your depth is so far. Okay. As an intimacy coach. Are you feeling like, okay?

Oh my God. Oh, do you like that? I'm also into it. Is this a reference of something that you are familiar with or are you just loving? I think that's a very funny concept. Yeah, a concept love a sketch of an intimacy coach well out of their depth. And the Turks and Caicos, that's what's in the Caribbean, beautiful, warm, tropical place where people are at the Kardashians holiday. And Kevin is asking a question.

Question writing, what was your favorite book as a child? And we always encourage the question askers to question answer as well. And Kevin does so. Writing, mine was Small Pig by Arnold Lobel of Frog and Toad Fame. The story of a little guy who likes nothing more than chilling in mud on his farm until one day the farmer's wife decides to clean everything. The furious small pig sets off on a journey to find a. a new mud patch, eventually arriving in a big city where he settles into some freshly poured cement and gets stuck.

Arnold Lobel's illustrations are timeless, and if you have a child to read too in your life, this is still a pleaser. Arnold Lobel. And what's the title of the book? Small pig. Small pig. I love it. Love it.

You can check that out. Yeah, I remember Frog and Toad. Oh, have you looked up Arnold Lobel? That guy has a mustache you could set your watch too. Oh my good. The garly, just going to show this one. Oh, also to the people at home. Oh, that's a flanders kind of mode.

Yeah, really big time. That's thick and bushy. Do you remember the frog and toe books? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, love it. Yeah, now I'm looking at the illustrations too. It's sort of jogging some memories here. I'm not sure how far we want to go back with this

But my favourite picture book growing up But it's a child, go back to then But you know like sometimes Like at like There's a big difference between what you're reading when you're five And like 12 You're like, you know, del tora quest or something Yeah

I think I was thinking Kids like Okay well 12 Yeah you're like What are you there? You're still a child I suppose What are you there? Yeah my favourite at 12 was what war in peace

12 what are you there? You know, why A You're a Y A at that point. Yeah. I'm reading picture books as a Y A. Come on. It's time to big, some big words. That's when I'm reading Rowan of Wren.

I think that's a book I remember reading about that age. That's Emily Rutter, same as Doctor of Quest. Emily Rota, yes. I loved this picture book called Panda Climes. What does Panda doing that? It's a baby panda, yes. And they were there, Mother Panda. Yes.

while the mum has a little sleep, the panda rolls away, but then an evil snow leopard appears. Snow leopids, they love to eat pandas. So then the panda climbs up a tree to escape. And then eventually the snow leopard goes away. The panda actually tumbles back down and then finds its mother who's looking for it and they get reunited. Oh, that's nice. And I liked it. My mom was a children's librarian and it was from the library and she borrowed it so much that she eventually had, like, just withdrew it.

So I got to keep the book. Yeah, that's right. Nepo, baby. The librarian. And I've got a free book one time. Woo! And I've, she kept it and now I've read it to my daughter.

And she was, thankfully, I was like, if she hates this, I'm going to be crushed. But she liked it. Oh, that's good. She was interesting. Well, she tolerated these seven pages. Okay. That's pretty good.

Pretty good for a kid. I was a big Richard scared. Scary or scari. Is it scary? I always said scary. And there were two main books at our school library and they were hard to get a hold of. And I don't even know if I can remember. One of them was like a world map.

Sort of thing. Every page had different place in the world. Absolutely loved that. And there were two. I can't remember. The big books as well, hard-covered. But I'm just looking at his bibliography and he wrote a lot of books. Yeah.

So I thought in my mind he only had a couple of classics, but I'm not sure I would even figure out which books that I was reading. But what about you, Bopper? The first ones that came to mind for me, I think Wind and the Willows. Oh, yeah, great. Is that what I'm thinking of? I'm double-checking now. Yes, yeah, Wind in the Willows, I think I had a tape. Like I had a couple of like tapes where I had the book as well

And I think that's one I read a lot But the first one that came to mind for me Was Goodnight Mr Tom And I've looked it up Oh yeah we've read that in my primary school I think my grade five teacher or something You read three pages a day for like three terms Or something you got through it

And I'm looking at it I think I found it and read it again as an adult And I was like this is a grim book It's really grim isn't it? It's very sad It's during World War II And like when the when the Kids were evacuated out of London and this nine-year-old goes to live with an old man called Tom.

And it's, yeah, it's grimmer than I remembered. Yeah, Lucky's mother's like fully abusive. Yes, yeah. And Tom's had a hard life too. And then they, yeah, but they have a nice bond. But obviously it made an impact on my childhood self that as an adult. I was like, I'm going to, because I read a lot as a kid, but that one stuck out. So there you go.

Good night, Mr. Tom. I don't recommend it. It's sad. A wind in the willows. Which is... That's nice. Is that nice? Yeah.

I think. What's that about? That's like, isn't that, that's an allegory for something or other, isn't it? Probably. I'm sure it was well over my head. It tells the story of mole, ratty and badger as they try to help Mr. Toad after he becomes obsessed with motor cars and gets into trouble. That's right.

Mr. Toad's like super rich, is he? He lives in like a mansion or something. Toad Hall. Yes, that's right. Mr. Toad, what are you up to? Richard Scarry's busy, busy world. Yes, yes. Remember that cover.

That was a cartoon as well at some point. Was it? Yeah. And I just loved that it had like this map with all the different around the word. Yeah. Yeah, I had a few of those books too. You had the books. I tell you what.

That's F1A stuff coming. Yeah. Dad, Dave had a mom who was a librarian. I had an auntie who was a librarian. Yeah, we all, we'd still have books. No, she would just, she didn't have children of her own, so every Christmas and birthday you'd just get a whole of really sick books. That's awesome.

It was awesome. That's badass. I'm just looking at Panda Climes. Derek Hall, illustrations by John Butler, which made me laugh. Different John Butler, but it's only got a 3.67 on Goodreads from 12 ratings. What is wrong with people? Don't you get it? Oh my goodness.

Shut up. run over their head. So the number one review. For being 18 pages and for babies, this is surprisingly well plotted. Okay. That's nice. Thank you for that review, MIR, MIR.

That's a good question. Nice to go down memory lane. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, but be specific about ages. They've got to be confused by that. Well, Jess was talking about the similar age that I was thinking of. That's what I'm saying, Kevin. Be more specific.

Yeah, but you were. like when you're a child, you're not a child at 12. I don't know. I thought I was on a little riffy there. Hey, I forgive you. I don't. Sometimes, you know, there's only like three or four podcast jokes. One of them is pretending to care about someone that doesn't matter.

I don't pretend. I care deeply. Yeah, about most things that don't matter. Thank you so much, Kevin. Next one comes from Tamara Pots. Okay. Potsy. Oh, no, that works.

Because it was insert name here. Oh, Pottsy. Pottsy. Speaking of books. Pottsy's kind of already taken by another Patreon, David Potts. They can be two Pottsies. And also, having been outdrinking with him, we changed his name to Pintsy because... That's good.

David Pints. Anyway, Tamara Potsy Potts has a fact writing, there is a real person who exists in this world called Sherry Turkle. Sherry Turkle. Incredible. How we spellings? Sherry. S-H-E-R-Y.

Classic. And Turkle. Turkle, as you'd expect. Ooh. What's that? Like Turtle with a K. Q or a K. Okay, yeah.

American sociologist. Terry, Sherry, Turkle. She is the Abby Rockefeller Maw-Zo professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That all made sense to me. Yeah. Every word of that went into my brain. And my brain said, yep.

Yeah. No follow up questions. Got it locked in. You should submit that as a who knew it. Yeah, that's good. Sherry Turkle. What is the name of the Abby Rockefeller Moore Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Existency of Technology? It's a great question.

It's itself. Sherry Turkle. People were not, people are like, I think people go, well, that one, I'm ruling that one out. That's ridiculous. That's silly. I'll go for a big knob head. Thank you so much for bringing Turkle to our attention, Tamara. It's a good D&D name, Sherry Turkle.

When's this episode coming out? In the September. I think Tamara's book's already launched, which... Yes. So go out and get it. You might see a couple of film, nearly names thanked inside the cover. Oh my goodness, Sherry.

Sherry, Sherry, Terkel. Thanks to Sherry Turkle for existing. And finally on the fact quotes of questions this week, we've got one from Nicholas Guy Hall, aka junior senior presidential prime minister's sergeant of the interior to the postmaster's dogs food bowl. An important role. And Nicholas is asking a question writing,

greetings, you bloody legends. Come early October. Is that when you said this was? I think 30th of September. This is late September. So we couldn't be much close. closer to early October unless we were in it. Come early October, I'll be visiting Europe.

I don't know where they're from, but Nicholas Guy Hall sounds like he might be a bit posh. Come early October, I'll be visiting Europe. Not sure this question will reach you all in time, but I wanted to ask you if you had any recommendations for obscure or unorthodox spots to visit in London, Paris, Belgium, open bracket, Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, etc., close bracket, Cologne or Amsterdam.

If nothing comes to mind, tell me something you're, excited for in the near future or don't i'm not your mom cheers and keep up the good work pip pip i added the pip bit uh now just this is uh very well timed yeah did you get to any of those places uh london yes i think that was the only one on that list any recommendations yes so there's something that it's a real you got to know kind of if you know you know kind of recommendation but it's actually quite central so they've got this like really big ferris wheel Really? Yeah, it's like huge.

You had me in that first half. Did I? Because I was giggling. Well, you still got me. It's a big Ferris wheel. Huge Ferris wheel. Like right in the heart of the city. And you pay to go in it.

It takes like 30 minutes because it goes nice and slow. Okay, yeah. All the way around. And just gorgeous aerial views of the city. Gorgeous views. You know what? The only thing I would make that experience better was be if they took your photo and then you had a chance to buy a very expensive magnet at the end of the trip.

Would that be possible? Can I blow your mind? That is possible. Really? Yeah. Oh my goodness. I'll have to keep my eyes open for that next time I see it. Dave having a bit of fun there.

I did go to Churchill's war rooms and that was kind of cool. Oh, I want to go. Next time I'm in London I'm going to go. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Was it cool? Yeah, but I don't like war. So there's a lot of people. But you love rooms.

I love rooms and I love being underground. I love it. I really would like to see that. Yeah, no, it's cool. Now, I'm just, when I hear Belgium, of course, I think Hercules, Pireau. And it doesn't seem like there's a museum there, but if you're anywhere near, and potentially you're not, a town of Els-Elz, it's probably not pronounced that way.

That's probably, that sounded right to me. There is, this is the fictional birthplace of the fictional detective. I guess it's a real birthplace of the fictional detective, is it? Oh, right. But there's a commemorative plaque and a small statue. That's nice. An a birth certificate. Yeah.

So can you read the list again of where they're going? I can. Because Dave's probably been to some of them. Well, we've all been to... Wait, do we all go to Paris together? No. No. We've all been to Paris.

Well, in Paris, I would suggest you can go to the house where the writer Victor Hugo lived and his house is now. It's a beautiful old mansion on a lovely park. I think it's free to go as well. Oh, nice. Victor Hugo House. That's nice. Did he made the cartoon, Victor and Hugo?

Yeah, that's right. He's the Count of Monte Cristo and Les Mies. Ah, okay, pretty big ones. The cartoon came later. That's a good suggestion. So, yeah, that's really beautiful. Brussels has got to have some sort of Jean-Claude Van Damme Museum, you'd think. He's the muscles from Brussels, isn't he?

Yeah, I've got to have that. Cologne? Have you been to Brussels? I went to Cologne. Cologne? Which one's Cologne? That's in Germany. I went to the Dome there.

That's where I went to the Irish pub that started that stereotypical story. I almost missed my train because an Irishman was buying me Ponce of Guinness. And Celtic were playing in some sort of Champions League game. But Cologne, they did tiny beers. I love, because you went to Germany and I love how Germany is a pretty new country. It's only like 100. years old or something. And it's all these little empires that are totally different, you know, at a different time it would be, you're traveling around Germany, it's like traveling around

Europe, every area is a totally different place. And you can tell that because they've all got different beer sizes. Yes. Munich's got the huge ones. And we, we chatted to it, sorry, we chatted to a guy in Munich about the one-le-steins, and he was like, it's a bit of a, bit of like a rule here that you can drink after two Ledersteins. And we went really, he goes, not legally. But, you know, everyone in Munich would sort of say, I've only had two liters of beer.

Like it. But Cologne, from memory, was much smaller ones. Like, even smaller than pints. And the pub we had dinner at, like, they didn't have a great vegetarian menu. And I had ordered the only. thing, which was, it was like cold spaghetti with plain tomato paste on top. Perfect.

Yum. Delightful. So in my mind, you go to Cologne for the food. But my mate, my mate ordered a sausage that was so big. It was like, it was too long for the plate on either side, you know, a normal. That is so confronting to imagine. So, yeah, I think meat eaters is great. I mean, this was quite a while ago as well.

Amsterdam. is there's the museum from their big artist. It's a Rembrandt? Oh, Van Gogh. Van Gogh. He was one of the big guys. The big artist. And it's good.

I mean, that's a good one. Yeah, it's nice. I've been there too. And you know, go to a brownie cafe. Enjoy that. Quick correction for the people are yelling at home. Of course, Alexander Dumas, wrote the Candlemoni Cristo. I was thinking of the hunter-rack of Notre Dame's the other big.

Oh, I see. That was embarrassing. The other thing is speaking of Poirot, if you're in London, you can go to the beautiful art decarion. or apartments where they filmed, if you watch the TV show, they call it Whitehaven Mansions on the show, but it's actually a place called Florin Court, and it's right near a tube station. I think not far from St. Paul's Cathedral from memory.

And yeah, it's just nice to see. It's one of those ones where it's old, lovely buildings around a park. I don't think you can go into the park. You've got to have a key to get in. Yeah, one of those. Yeah, you can jump in the fans. There's also, yeah, you can go to the Sherlock Holmes house, kind of? Yeah.

At least out the front. We went and got a photo out the front, do we? Yeah. And then put the Baker Street song over the top of it. Absolutely. Culture vultures. God, we're funny. Apparently Victor and Hugo bungalers in crime was a cartoon.

It was like a spin-off of Camp Ducula. Oh. A few classics from childhood. Ducula, not Victor and Hugo. Victor and Hugo. And voicing Hugo, he always comes up. up in a show somehow, that actor David Jason. Can we always talk about David Jason from...

Oh, yes. There you go. I thought you're going to talk about... Who's Chalk? What's the voice actor? Someone Chalk? What's your alter ego's scientific man? Oh, Gary?

Gary Chalk. Yeah, that's my... The character I play on a Patreon. How character do you play? Sorry, a character I know. He's quite a character I know. That's a character I know. He can't let him be near ducks.

Gary Chalk. Yeah, that series ended because Dr. Stuart Matthews melted. He ended up as a puddle, so they might have finished up. We might get another one of those going. Anyway, what are we doing? Thank you so much to Nicholas. Hopefully, I mean, was any of that advice any good? I think there was some nuggets in there.

I think that's right. I think you've just changed your whole itinerary. But Nicholas, I'd put that question to the Facebook group as well because we got locals in at least maybe all of those places. Yeah, that's a good idea. We'll be able to give you some advice. Thank you so much, Nicholas, Tamara and Kevin. Next thing we like to do is shout out to a few of our other great supporters,

more recent supporters, just when we comes up with a game based on the topic at hand. How about instead of like ingesting radium and just dying an awful death? What if like they ingest something and it gives them a cool power? I know it's really good. Oh, cool. Okay. Cool. I'm in.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll read out the names and you two can rotate between the cool powers. Great. Okay. Great. All right.

First up from address unknown can only shoot from deep within the fortress of the moles. please and thank you for your support, Chris Timms. Chris Timms ingests spinach and gets really strong. Really. Where do you get your ideas? My goodness, I think up until recently that might have been a copyright infringement, but I believe that the Pope might be out in the public domain these two. Oh, my God, fantastic.

How do you know that? Well, he's been waiting. I've been waiting. Got my own version of Popeye coming out any day now. Broadway musical. What's Popeye? I just thought of Spitz is filled with eye. Pop-I as a character, I do.

Do you like my presentation? Ag, gag, gag, gag, gag. From Winnipeg in Canada, see you soon, maybe. Thank you so much. Andrew Gers-White. Andrew Gers-White has eaten so much garlic. Has no sense of smell. And now can do any disgusting job around the house.

No worries. That's so handy. That's so handy. Cleaning out the drains? Yep. Who cares? No problem. Baby, you got to change their napi?

Well, he hasn't done it for the last six weeks, but he's getting into it now. So it can still see and touch everything. Yeah, but you can't smell it. Yeah. Because that's often what makes you want to vomit. Yeah, that's true. It's the smell. I think everyone all...

Sometimes it's the temperature. Yeah. Like dog vomit, being a bit warm. That is awful. Yeah. But then really cold. Yeah. And everyone now is really hoping if they get red out,

Jess is the one giving them their power. Super strength and get to do more chores. But in an efficient way. Yeah. From Tatured here in Victoria, Australia. Thank you so much. Kathleen, Ingested three cockroaches and now cannot die. Really?

Indestructible. Gets crushed by a piano falling from a crane. Dust off. Kathleen says, off to work I go. That is a curse. Oh God Okay, yeah You give somebody else

Another fucking chore I will I will That's not a curse It's a superpower Come on To live forever Well no

She like a cockroach She probably could still Chop her head off to die Yeah Or like we'll die of old age At some point Yeah Oh okay

That's Thank goodness for that You know For it to mean Something You gotta have an end Oh I fully agree From

Mayfield In New South Wales In Australia Thank you so much Sophie Eleanor Sophie did the artwork for my, for JustRite's Romcom. Oh, that's so not. I was going to give a really boring one, but I won't do that now.

Yeah, save the boring one for someone else. Dave, they're all our great supporters. Don't give anyone a boring one. Yeah, but that would have been the joke, but, you know, but... Dave. Go on give Sophie a boring one. Don't joke around with our patrons like this. Okay, what about this?

Sophie? Yes. Has ingested a bag of feathers. Okay, that feels very Sophie. And now? It's the world's best badminton player Whoa World's best

We're talking Olympics Olympic gold gold gold gold gold gold gold gold gold gold Gold for Australia Wow She's back gold gold gold gold gold gold Oh don't Sophie Did I play bad mission at the Olympics? Yeah I think they're bringing in and out

Wow that's huge so congrats I think of the hokey pokey day Next up from address unknown Can I shoot from deep within the fortress of the bowls please and thank you for your support, Steven Wood. Stevin ingested the recommended amount of water every day for a year, and their skin's never looked better.

Oh, my good. Right now I've got a modelling contractor. Oh, beautiful skin. What four litres a day? That's too much. It's so much. It's too much. Obviously, Stephen can't do the catwalk to do the end of modelling

because he's just pissing all the time. Yes. He does a wet walk. What? Do you reckon? I've said Stephen, but it's probably just Stephen with the Y. I reckon Stephen. Sorry, Stephen.

Sorry, Stephen. As I said it, I'm like, cool name. But is that right? And Dave reckons probably not. I would say you could not possibly be the first person in their life that has said Stephen. And that's on your parents. What does that make my brain change to Steve?

It's because of where the Y is. Yeah. It is written like Steven. Right. Stevenwood, I love it. And I love Stephen Wood, too. I love you either way. And it's not just because you're beautiful now.

Because, God, you were ugly before. And now? You can't say that. Gorgeous. I can't if it's objectively true. Oh, yeah. From, for my, I'm not going to get this right. Snoqualmie in Washington in the United States.

Thank you so much for your support, Shannon Ellis. Shannon Ellis has eaten an entire lemon tree. Mm-hmm. Okay. Like stump and all. Well, not stump, but like the leaves as well. Okay. Because they heard that vitamin C was really good for you.

It is. But it turns out it's actually the leaves that are even better for you. Oh. And now Shannon will never get another cold. Whoa. Snoqualmie. Snukwami. Snokwame.

Snokwame. Snokwame. So there you go. No colds. No colds. No colds. What about flu? No flu?

Really? And no scurvy. No, scurvy, unfortunately. No. Skervy comes all the way back around. Yeah, exactly. Too much vitamin C. I've missed you.

I've missed you too. You're weird little freak. From Maylands in Western Australia. Thank you so much for your support. James H. Surname by looks of the email address James has ingested

just a huge amount of dairy milk, cheese yoghurt cream heaps of dairy cram fresh all of it you think of dairy

James has had it cammin bear cammin bears in the tub cheese stringer in the tum and now because of all that calcium unbreakable bones unbreakable

So he's got a new career as a stunt man. Oh, that's good. And he's doing great. James is a stunt man. Love that. Say how to Jason Statham for us. Do you think James might work for him? What does Statham do his own stunts?

Probably if he was diving, yes. Yeah. Being the Commonwealth Diver. The Commonwealth Diver. Really shitty superhero. It's the Commonwealth Diver. Watches he slowly, makes his way out to the edge of the platform.

Oh, here he comes. Oh, he's tripped. From Claremont. Oh, that was a bellywacker. Oh, shit. Wait, what's his power? Why is he still doing that? He's going to the meat.

He can do a belly wacker. No pain. Belly of steel. From Claremont in Western Australia. Thank you so much for your support, Lily Cook. Lily Cook has swallowed or eaten hole. It's a swallowed hole, a 128 gigabyte iPod. Whoa.

Full of music. Wow. And now is a human jukebox. Oh, that's sick. You can make a request. Lily will do a little sort of jiggling of the tummy. It's a good chance Lily's going to have it. The song will come here.

Yeah. 120 bigs a lot. Are you going to be my girl yet? Yeah, I've got that. No problem. No worries. But if you ask for a song. Or it just plays.

No, it plays out. Sort of bit muffled. He doesn't have a speaker in it She's a big Come on Pimo But if you asked for a song After 2008

Obviously she doesn't have that Pre 2008 She has so much She's got all of Jets albums Which Beatles album do you want Yeah To got them You want to hear Rocky Raccoon

No problem Whoa And no Nah that's a bit of fun And finally From Charleston In South Carolina In the United States

Thank you so much for your support. Pieces of Andrew. Pieces of Andrew. Actually eight, can you believe it? Some chocolate. Ah. Yeah, okay. Any benefits or side effects?

Oh yeah, the chocolate contained a radioactive spider. Oh my God. And now Pieces of Andrew has some interesting powers emerging. Okay. Powers that replicate the abilities of. of a bird. Okay. Really?

Pieces of Andrew. Yeah, he can regurg to take food and he can build a nest. Is this pieces of Andrew Garfield? No. Okay. You know, from Charleston, I was trying to think of how the Charleston sort of music goes, and all I could think of was, bum, ba-dum-bum-bum-bara-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-ma.

You're totally? You're totally going to do you. Batschaltern. A little about a monica in my life. I told you how, like. Like, if that played at a primary school disco, how smugly I would wait for Jessica. Oh, I thought it would be super annoying, but no, it was like being called out. I'd be dancing, like, being all coy.

Like, here it comes. A little bit of Jessica and everyone would point at me and I'd get one. Me. Here I am. Fucking Tina still steals the show. Piss off! Fuck you, Tina! Thank you so much to Andrew, Lily, James, Shannon, Stephen or Stephen or Stephen,

Sophie, Kathleen, Andrew and Chris. Next thing we'd like to do is welcome in some people into the TripTitch Club, and we'll get a few this week. Jess, do you remember how the Tributch Club works? Yes, it's an exclusive club for people who have supported the show for three consecutive years on the shoutout level or above. Once you're in, you cannot leave, but why would you want to? We have everything you need. Have the toilets still been working since I left?

Suspiciously, they haven't had a single problem since you left. Interesting, just my luck. And so we've got toilets, we've got air hockey, we've got pool tables, we've got a bar, we've got food. Yeah, there's a kitchen. I'm in there. so whatever you want, I'll whip it up for you. Thank you. Scrammed It eggs. No, Dave books a band.

Matt lifts a velvet rope to welcome you into the club. Everybody else gathers around, they cheer. It's a beautiful time. Yeah, take it away, Matt. What, did you have a drink, anything you want? And Dave, who's the band? You're never going to believe it. Oh, my goodness, because you actually referenced them before.

What? Without even knowing it. I've been trying to get these guys for such a long time. Tonight, hitting the stage, the club. We've got radium dolls. Oh, that's sick. Cannot believe it. Going to play some new hits off their 2026 album Wound Up.

Where location-wise, like geographically is the Trip Ditch Club? Is it in Australia? No, it's in the mind. In the mind, in the ether. What season is it in the mind? Well, it's in the mind of the beholder. Because I was kind of in the mood for like something warm and a bit cozy because it's cold here at the moment.

So I was thinking, yes, I was thinking tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh, lovely. Yeah, I think that's great. Do you have any questions about either of those dishes? No. Great. Good to have them. It's a grilled cheese.

Yeah. Some nice tomato soup. I hear those two things and all I think of is, you know, probably perfect temperature. And definitely don't have radium in them. Great. Perfect. Because it's bad to ingest. It's bad.

It's bad to adjust. It's really. really fucking hot soup. Okay, here we go. Good to have you back. It has been nice having a few weeks of eating pleasant, temperatured food. Ugh, whatever. Now, yeah, and cocktails without poison.

Now, there's a few people to read out here today. So I'm going to lift up the velvet rope. Read out your name. If you hear your name, head on in. Dave's up on the stage. He's MC in the show. He's pumping up the crowd. hyping him up, welcoming you in.

Thank goodness Jess is back to hype me up to you because this guy has just been a wet blanker. He's not good at it. He tries. But then he comes in with a little, like a little his own attempt to the main. Yeah, see, I don't give a shit about this, so I don't want to have a go. I care a deeply. Raise the roof, yeah.

He cares a lot. I'm just like, yeah. These people have been waiting three years to get in here and I just wanted to go well. I care about them. I don't care about the weak wordplay. A weak? What the hell? It's like, for me, it's also a reminder that we're nearly at the end.

so it's nearly lunchtime. So I'm always like, woo! You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Touched of soup. Just just cheering for a sandwich. Tost and soup for sure. Now, if you hear your name, come on in.

Dave will hop up the crowd. I do my best, okay? No, you do great. I try. I want you to know it at home. I'm not phoning this in. He's not phoned it in. He's doing hard work.

I think Alistair show that it's not as easy as it seems. That's right. Poor L, because he didn't get to look at the names at all. So he just had to really, like he had, he heard the name over Zoom and had to be like, oh, yeah. Nah, he did a great. We love him. Now, if we're ready to go, I'd love to welcome into the club from Williamstown here, Victoria, Colleen, Colleen, Duncan. I'd love to have a beer with Colleen.

I'd love to have a beer with Cole. Pretty good. From Santa Rosa in California, welcome in Tracy Schaft. Some people, when they're called, reach for a scarf, but I reach for Tracy. Keep me warm, baby. From Turku in Finland, welcome in Yusolein. No pain, no lane. Yusolein. Come on.

Oh, that's pretty good. Shoutouts about you. And it is Yusolein. From St. John's in Canada. Welcome into the club. Joanne H, based on the email address. I never know. Is there a reason you think they're not putting in their surname?

I reckon. Yeah. Usually, yeah. Witness protection, sir. Yeah, so Joanne, a world's biggest Joanne fan. Yeah, number one. Bumbo, bough, bough. From Weiss luck in Deutschland.

Whoa. Welcome into the club, Catherine. Catherine You are Phil Oh god Go Arena

You're same arena Oh yeah I go Go go Go go I'll go again Here we go From Weissnuck

In Deutschland Welcome into the club Katherina Selling out Rod Lever Katherina Oh That's Catherine

She's got a big crowd A lot of fans A lot of fans From Winn Malley Or Winn Milly Either of you Can help me out

With that In New South Wales Have heard of Win Malley Yeah Welcome into the Club, Ashley England. Cashly England.

Poo! Poo! Poo! I love governor! Two words. Chah. Chahing. Two words.

Two words, Ashley England. From Yuma, Arizona in the United States. Welcome, into the club. Giovanna read. Some people love to read, but I love to Giovanna. Yes. Staring to those eyes. I love snuggling up with a beautiful Giovanna.

Sorry, I made it win. Yes. That is not how I meant that Giovanna. Oh my goodness. From Lincoln in N.E. Nebraska. In the United States, welcome into the club. Drew Allen.

Well, I've just drawn a new card. A news come up. Alan. We need to bring Alston back. Draw four. Draw four. Draw four. Draw four.

Draw all. I think if I draw Alan. That's the best card there is. Trump card, Drew Allen. And finally, from Noble Park here in Melbourne. in Victoria. Welcome into the club, Jacinta. There's no more Noble than Jacinta.

Yes. Jacina from Noble. I went to school. There was a Noble Park bus. Kids would come from Noble Park for some reason specifically. Oh, right. Keys Bar and Noble Park. Beautiful neck of the woods, I assume.

Oh. I was going to say me too. No, I'm thinking of Wonga Park. Yeah, that's way different. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I just like to be included. You're literally never.

not included. It would be funny if every school had a noble park bus. It's amazing. It's looking up in different areas. It's the Longa Park Bus. Thank you so much. And welcome in to De Clube, Jacina, Drew, Giovanna, Ashley, Catherine, Johan, Johan, also Tracy and Colleen.

Wow. What a group. Great collection. A lot of different places covered. So thanks so much for supporting the show. And I mean, I'm pretty excited by this. And it has happened in part because we've moved a few episodes around. So this is a collating of two different episodes worth of Triple TripTrip Ditch Club members.

We're actually inducting four in this week. Oh my goodness. And you might be wondering at home, what is the Triple Tripditch Club? Well, it's a relatively new thing that we've developed here. The Matt's pioneered, the Triple Triptich Club. This is the people who have been supporting the show on the shadow level or above for not one, not two, not three. But nine consecutive years. unbelievably. So we basically induct them into the Hall of Fame within the Hall of Fame.

There's a little golden door. Little golden door. You go in there and we've still got Leonardo DiCaprio. As I was saying recently, Jess, we're not sure if he's on retainer or if we've kidnapped him at this point. But he seems happy to be painting your portrait. Yeah, we're up. And there's obviously like an exclusive. There's a different set of canopays that only you can eat in there. And I love canopays. Yeah. I know some people just want to get away.

Yeah, have a little rest. There's lots of massage chairs in there. It's a great party in the Triptage Club. Yeah. It's great party. And there is all sorts of stuff you want to do in there. But this is an extra little space if you need. Yeah, that's right. We've got like a little Japanese Zen garden that you can go and sort of chill out in.

So four inductees this week. Now, the way this works is I'll call you out, much like the Triptitch Club. Only Dave will give you some sort of affirmation, maybe a compliment. I don't think he really knows what those words mean. So we'll see what happens. He'll say some words to you. Yeah, and they'll sound nice. Yeah.

And then Jess, they'll sound nice, but this is a couple of the guy who thought giving you a superpower was taking away your sense of smell. Now, and then Jess will give you a kiss, blow you a kiss, and I will give you the keys to a classic episode so that you can become the official custodian of that episode. Okay, so I leave for four weeks and now you can suddenly remember the word custodian? I did have. Dave was jumping in while you were away. Oh, so you finally, it finally absorbs once a man tells you.

Yeah. Yeah. I was, really, it was quite exciting leading up to it. I'm like, it hasn't come to me yet. It hasn't come to yet. It only came right at the... All right, so we all go with this. Dave, you ready?

Absolutely. I also give a little salute while I'm giving the compliment. So I can see it on the video because they've obviously got access to the video feed. So this is for you. All right. So first up, please welcome into the Triple Tripititch Club from Gothenburg in Sweden. Welcome into the club, Marcus Brisbane.

Marcus Brisbane. Dream big. And may you never fail. Salute. That's beautiful. And Marcus, you are the custodian of episode 38, the video game crash of 1983. Wow.

That one that you're in charge of, that's also in the... the film and sound archive of Australia, remember? Yeah. Oh, that episode is. That's so interesting why they chose that episode. I love it. From Waremonga in the Australian Capital Territory, Dave.

Waramonga, dude. The Waramonga? Waramonga. Please welcome into the club. Matt Duncan. Matt Duncan. Every time I think of you, I smile. Salute.

And Matt, you have got the keys to episode number 39, Sir David Attenborough. Wow. The episode I called him a cunt, apparently. I don't remember that, but there was a write-up in a magazine soon after saying, that's why we listen. Yeah. We listen to hear Matt Stewart called David Attenborough account. And that's the background image of the Facebook group. Yeah, that's right.

Thank you so much, Matt. enjoy. Welcome. I assume that was that episode that I called him that. Could have been any episode. Yeah, it could be any. Could have been weekly. I don't know.

I was going to say, is this coincidental? But it's a different place. He was from Waramonga. This next person is from Wittangira. Also in the ACT, though, Australian Capital Territory. Welcome into the club, Olivia Barnett. Olivia, burn brighter than a thousand sons. Salute.

He's going really... Is he wishing that she... catches fire? I don't know. Burn brighter. Hang on, let me give the kiss. Let me give the kiss. And Olivia, you've got keys to the keyhole in the classic episode number 40, the three Monty's. We'll give you three keys to that episode. You're going to turn them all at the same time. Oh, yeah. Only one of them's real, though. Oh, okay. Well, that's a weird thing we've done. If I remember that episode, there were two fake Monty's. Oh, yes. No.

I just remember one of them out a mustache. Is that the one where I go out of sword? No, that was a different. No, that's a different world. Well, two, one. Okay. I apologize. And finally, from West Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada,

hopefully we'll be seeing you soon. Dars, or have we already seen you? I think we've already seen you. I think we've already seen you. Darcy. Darcy, nice to see you. To see you nice. Salute.

Thank you so much to Darcy, Olivia. Oh, and Darcy. I didn't give Darcy a kiss. Oh my God. Hang on. I'm falling apart. Let me give Darcy a kiss. Yeah.

And Darcy, you're getting custodianship of classic episode number 41. It was a triptych episode in itself. The Olympic Special, where we each did a mini report about an Olympian or Olympic story. And I talked about Stephen Bradbury, I believe. Yes. So thank you so much And welcome into the club Darcy Olivia

Matt and Marcus Make yourselves at home Welcome That brings to the end of the episode Is there anything else we need to tell people, Papa? That we love them and that I missed them And that you can suggest a topic There's a link in the show notes

It's also on our website Which is do it on pod.com You don't have to be a Patreon to suggest a topic So if you would like to go ahead Make her day That felt threatening Sorry I literally mean Please go ahead

Oh god I can't say it without sadistic You can find us on social media At do go on pod or do go on podcast on TikTok And Dave, boot this baby home Hey we'll be back next week with another episode But until then I will say thank you so much for listening And until then goodbye

Later Goodbye