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What if your entire town was built on something that wasn’t real?

Claremore, Oklahoma once rebranded itself as “Radium Town.” Hotels. Parades. Bathhouses. Souvenir jugs. Steam rooms packed with believers.

One problem.

The water didn’t contain radium.

It smelled like sulfur. It burned your nose. And it sold like a miracle.

This episode dives into the radium craze that swept America after the Curies made the element famous. We talk about the Radium Girls, radioactive tonics, glowing promises, and how one Oklahoma town rode that wave hard enough to turn prairie into profit.

There were publicity stunts. Legal fights. City officials declaring the wells a nuisance. And yes — a promoter who was reportedly dead… until he wasn’t.

Then medicine catches up. The glow fades. The wells get capped.

But the town survives.

We break down how Claremore pivoted when the miracle stopped working — and why the story still matters today, because radium wasn’t the last cure people bought without asking questions.

It just glowed louder than most.

If you like odd Americana, marketing gone wild, and history that smells like rotten eggs, this one’s for you.

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