Hi, I'm Allison Barringer host of KCRW's Bodies Podcast.

It's a documentary show about medical mysteries. Each episode follows one person's health

journey and we uncover the societal forces that shape our health. Over the next hour we'll

be airing two episodes from our latest season.

The first is about a woman named Crystal Kim and a cosmetic product she used for over 40 years.

In the United States federal cosmetic regulations haven't been

updated since 1938 and these lax regulations have opened the door for

dangerous and harmful beauty products.

We're going to be talking a lot about the types of products

marketed to women in this episode.

And we just want to say that we understand that not all people

with vaginas are women and that not all women have vaginas.

But since we're talking a lot about how these products were advertised,

in this episode you'll hear the language that advertisers and researchers use

and they usually just say women when they mean sis women.

Okay, here's our first story, the cost of silky soft. Crystal Kim was 10 years old when she joined her town's baseball team.

It was the 1970s and it was a big deal because it was the first year that they were allowing girls to play.

Before her first practice, her mom had a talk with Crystal.

She just sat me down and she was like, okay, you will be becoming a young lady

and there's certain things that you need to take care of

as far as hygiene and smelling good and you know women have certain

odors that we don't want coming out so there's things that you can do to take care

...