Ill-Equipped History

illequippedhistory

Two non-historians with a passion for history tell stories of the past in a way that will make you laugh.

  1. 4d ago

    The Radium Girls

    Episode 177. We're starting spooky season off with a true horror story. In the early 1900s, dialpainters working for radium corporations found themselves facing a number of serious health issues years after leaving their jobs, including teeth falling out, broken bones, cancer, and death. Today's episode covers the fight a small group of women went through while dying in order to make their previous employers take accountability and provide compensation for the harm they experienced.    Follow us on Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/illequippedhistory/   Join our Facebook group!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/illequippedhistory   Email us!  illequippedhistory@gmail.com   Check us out on TikTok!  https://www.tiktok.com/@illequipped.histo   Find us on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/@Ill-EquippedHistory    Donate to our Patreon!  https://www.patreon.com/illequippedhistory   Sources    “Control of Hazards in the Luminous Dial Painting Industry” by J.C. Jones and M.J. Day (Oct 1945), British Journal of Industrial Medicine, Vol 2 No. 4, pp. 202-208 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27720547   “Mae Keane, One Of The Last ‘Radium Girls,’ Dies At 107” by Rebecca Hersher (Dec 28 2014) https://www.npr.org/2014/12/28/373510029/saved-by-a-bad-taste-one-of-the-last-radium-girls-dies-at-107   “Deadly occupation, forged report” by Amy Roeder (Oct 24 2013) https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/centennial-radium-forged-report/   “The radium girls and the press” by Bill Kovarik and Mark Neuzil (1996) https://revolutionsincommunication.com/radiumgirls/   “The Radium Girls at the National Archives” by Zachary Dabbs (Jan 4 2018) https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2018/01/04/the-radium-girls-at-the-national-archives/   “The Radium Girls” by Shelton Simmons (Mar 6 2021) https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c2fe2df2c5d44d878d6b05559fa386b8   “Radium Poisoning Revealed: A Case Study in the History of Industrial Health Reform*” by Claudia Clark (1993). Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, Vol 19:1 pp 73-116 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23262526    “Meet the Radium Girls…”  https://www.theradiumgirls.com/the-girls   “Grace Fryer” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Fryer   “Katherine Schaub” by Nicolleta Perna (Oct 2024) https://njwomenshistory.org/biographies/katherine-schaub/   “Edna Bolz Hussman” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/206407113/edna-hussman   “Albina ‘Bena’ Maggia Larice” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187122198/albina-larice   “The Radium Girls” by Talha Khan Burki (Feb 2017), Cancer and Society Vol 18 Issue 2 p. 178 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(17)30036-0/abstract    “Quinta Maggia McDonald” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/153926380/quinta-mcdonald    Sound Credits Music by Nadia Cripps from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/music/solo-piano-melancholy-in-winter-182627/

  2. Sep 18

    The Creation of the FDA

    Episode 175. The Food and Drug Administration is the result of decades of advocacy and legal battles for the regulation of food and medicine in the United States. Before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, thousands of people every year died from adulterated food, including but not limited to lead in cheese, borax in milk, and clay or wax beads being passed for coffee beans. Today's episode explores the evolution of this government agency and how, once again, regulations are written in blood.    Follow us on Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/illequippedhistory/   Join our Facebook group!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/illequippedhistory   Email us!  illequippedhistory@gmail.com    Check us out on TikTok!  https://www.tiktok.com/@illequipped.histo   Find us on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/@Ill-EquippedHistory    Donate to our Patreon!  https://www.patreon.com/illequippedhistory   Sources “Where Did the FDA Come From, And What Does It Do?” by Ben Panko (Feb 8 2017) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/origins-FDA-what-does-it-do-180962054/   “Background: Research Tools on FDA History” (Jan 31 2018) https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-history-research-tools/background-research-tools-fda-history   “U.S. Food and Drug Administration Is Established” by Jennifer Davis (2021)  https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/us-food-and-drug-administration-established   “Food and Drug Administration”  https://theamericanleader.org/timeline-event/food-and-drug-administration/   “Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome” (June 26 2017) https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/eosinophilia-myalgia-syndrome/   “The Jungle” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle   “What was food like before the FDA?” by Lauren Leffer (May 1 2025) https://www.popsci.com/health/food-safety-before-fda/   “Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts”  https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts   Sound Credits: Music by Gregor Quendel from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/music/classical-string-quartet-ragtime-lucky-lou-1906-frank-c-keithley-arranged-for-strings-293032/

  3. Sep 6

    The Krakatoa Eruption of 1883

    One fateful day in August of 1883, the world experienced a worldwide calamity like no other. The volcanic island Krakatau, or Krakatoa, erupted. The resulting shockwave, tsunamis, and debris caused uncalculable damage around the planet.    Sources “Krakatoa 1883: The Loudest Sound in Recorded History” https://volcanodb.com/krakatoa-eruption   “Krakatoa” by history.com editors (May 9 2018, updated Jun 30 2025) https://www.history.com/articles/krakatoa   “On This Day: Historic Krakatau Eruption of 1883” (Aug 26 2017, updated Aug 16 2023) https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/day-historic-krakatau-eruption-1883   “The 1883 Krakatau eruption: A year of blue Moons” by Tammana Begum https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-1883-krakatau-eruption-a-year-of-blue-moons.html   “When Krakatoa Blew: How the 1883 Eruption Changed the World” by Patrick J. Kiger (Mar 7 2024) https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/krakatoa.htm   “The 1883 Cataclysm: Anatomy of an Apocalypse”  https://www.krakatau.net/articles/cataclysm-1883/   https://www.krakatau.net/articles/global-consequences/    “Navigating the Sunda Strait: Colonial History and Maritime Charts”  https://www.mygeoquest.com/navigating-the-sunda-strait-colonial-history-and-maritime-charts/   “The Passage Between Giants”  https://qualla.com/sunda-strait/#list/qqgn/sunda-strait-wp   “The Straits Settlements and British Malaya” by Sir J. Frederick Dickson, K.C.M.G (1889-1890) from The English Illustrated Magazine, 7, pp. 283-292.  https://victorianweb.org/periodicals/englishillustrated/11.html   “A Re-examination of Raffles’s Statistics on the Population of Java in the Early Nineteenth Century” by Yoshihiro Tsubouchi, Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 28 No. 4 (March 1991).  https://kyoto-seas.org/pdf/28/4/280404.pdf   “Inside Out: The colonial displacement of Sumatra’s population” by Antonly Reid, Paper Landscapes: Essays in the Environmental History of Indonesia, pp. 61-89. (May 1998) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333079464_Inside_Out_the_Colonial_Displacement_of_Sumatra's_Population   Sound Credits:  Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay   https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/household-oldfashioned-typewriter-20367/   Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/technology-old-school-projector-97973/   Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/household-old-style-door-bell-101191/   Sound Effect by u_qlymcu2vle from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/telegraph/

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Two non-historians with a passion for history tell stories of the past in a way that will make you laugh.

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