Audio only
Length7h 37m
About this audiobook
The fascinating, curious, and sometimes macabre history of radium as seen in its uses in everyday life
Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the nineteenth century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal.
Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item—a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume—to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday twentieth-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element, and enthusiastic customers welcomed their radioactive wares into their homes.
Lucy Jane Santos—herself the proud owner of a formidable collection of radium beauty treatments—delves into the stories of these products and details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold, and eventually came to fear the once-fetishized substance.
Half Lives is a new history of radium as part of a unique examination of the interplay between science and popular culture.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (610)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreScience and Nature
Length7 hrs 37 mins
Narrated byDeirdra Whelan
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 4, 2021
LanguageEnglish
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Story of BirdsSteve Brusatte11h 49m4.6 (401)$29 · $0.00
Black Earth WisdomLeah Penniman11h 54m4.6 (577)$8 · $0.00
Total Cat MojoJackson Galaxy10h 13m4.5 (8.4K)$23 · $0.00
My Life Among the UnderdogsTia Torres5h 51m4.5 (4K)$24 · $0.00
What It Takes to Save a LifeKwane Stewart6h4.6 (556)$24 · $0.00
Pastoral SongJames Rebanks8h 35m4.5 (12K)$26 · $0.00
How Stella Learned to TalkChristina Hunger7h4.5 (10.9K)$24 · $0.00
Craig & FredCraig Grossi8h 6m4.5 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Celebrating BirdsNatalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez6h 47m4.6 (330)$24 · $0.00
Saving JemimaJulie Zickefoose4h 59m4.5 (749)$20 · $0.00
Will's Red CoatTom Ryan8h 23m4.5 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Of Time and TurtlesSy Montgomery10h 34m4.5 (5K)$29 · $0.00
THE WOLF TRILOGY: Call of the Wild, White Fang & The Son of the WolfJack London17h 31m4.5 (2.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Zen and the Art of Saving the PlanetThich Nhat Hanh9h 20m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
BLACK BEAUTY (With Original Illustrations)Anna Sewell7h 31m4.5 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
IngrainedCallum Robinson8h 10m4.5 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
The Lion Tracker's Guide To LifeBoyd Varty3h 1m4.4 (4.8K)$18 · $0.00
Born for LoveBruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz11h 42m4.4 (4K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
How to Sing [Meine Gesangskunst]Lilli Lehmann4h 19m4.1 (351)$2 · $0.00
The Logic of HegelGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel13h 29m4.2 (1.8K)$1 · $0.00
The Myth of the Rational Market Revised EditionJustin Fox13h 26m4.0 (5.4K)$29 · $0.00
Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of PicturesHenry Rankin Poore7h 12m4.1 (267)$2 · $0.00
Sell It Today, Sell It NowTom Hopkins, Pat Leiby4h 38m4.1 (385)$75
Appearance and Reality from the Problems of PhilosophyBertrand Russell19m4.1 (25.9K)$1 · $0.00
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of ThinkingWilliam James6h 56m4.0 (5.6K)$1 · $0.00
The CategoriesAristotle2h 41m4.0 (2.2K)$1 · $0.00
American NotesCharles Dickens9h 52m3.6 (7.5K)$12 · $0.00
Take More VacationsScott Keyes8h 12m4.0 (1.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Hot HandBenjamin Cohen8h 39m3.9 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
It's ElementalKate Biberdorf9h 12m3.8 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
Ohio RBT Certification Exam Prep 2026/2027Mireille Oyelaran16h 5m$22
The Greatest Works of Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant84h 15m4.4 (120)$1 · $0.00
WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON Ultimate Collection – 58 Books in One VolumeWilliam Walker Atkinson319h 5m4.6 (15)$3 · $0.00
Selected Mathematical Works: Symbolic Logic + The Game of Logic + Feeding the Mind: by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, alias Lewis Carroll (Annotated)Lewis Carroll8h 35m$2 · $0.00
LSAT LOGIC GAMES MASTERY GUIDE 2026/2027Adrian Hartwell12h 18m$10
Advertising OnlineNola D. Fenwright2h 39m$2.30 · $0.00
Tennessee DMV Permit Test Study Guide 2026/2027Lydia Pembrook10h 56m$19
The Investor's HandbookXavier I. Kingsley4h 50m$4.10 · $0.00