Listen Now: Hysterical

British Scandal

Wondery

Scandal, Alice Levine, Great Britain, Society & Culture, Exhibit C, British, England, History, Matt Forde, Documentary

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hysterical investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of high school girls in upstate New York. What is causing their sudden, often violent symptoms? Is there something in the water or inside the school? Or is it “all in their head?” The series examines the outbreak in LeRoy, NY, believed by some to be the most severe case of mass hysteria since the Salem Witch Trials. In his search for answers, Dan Taberski (9/12, Missing Richard Simmons, Running from Cops) explores other seemingly inexplicable events of the last few years – CIA officers being crippled with nausea and vertigo; cops OD'ing from exposure to fentanyl – and discovers they’re far more connected than we realize.

From Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, this 7-part series forces us to grapple with the mysteries of our own minds, and reckon with a contagion that we thought was long dead, but may be the defining disorder of our time.

Follow Hysterical on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+ at wondery.fm/Hysterical_FD.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Dan Tibersky. In 2011, a group of girls at a high school in upstate New York
0:06.1	began exhibiting a bizarre mix of neurological symptoms, ticks, twitches, strange outbursts, all with no clear source.
0:14.8	It started with one girl and that had spread to another, and another, as desperate parents
0:19.6	and school administrators looked for an answer.
0:22.1	Was it mold in the school buildings, a
0:24.3	contaminated water source? Or was the cause not coming from their physical
0:29.1	environment at all? The newest podcast from Wunderery in Pineapple Street Studios is hysterical, where I dive
0:36.1	into one of the most confounding illness outbreaks in American history, a medical mystery
0:41.2	that had ripple effects well beyond the tight-knit community where it began.
0:45.0	And soon enough, the entire nation was trying to solve it, from Dr Drew to Aaron Brockovich.
0:50.0	Believed by some to be the most severe case of mass hysteria since the
0:55.0	Salem witch trials.
0:56.3	Hysterical is a podcast about the desire to be believed and what happens when
1:00.7	the world tells you it's all in your head? I'm about to play a
1:05.0	clip for you from hysterical. Follow hysterical on the Wondery app or
1:09.5	wherever you get your podcasts. In December of 2011, a young woman posted a video on YouTube.
1:17.0	Hi everyone.
1:19.0	My name's the shit and this is my first video.
1:23.0	She's got shiny red hair with side bangs,
1:25.5	and she's wearing a white graphic hoodie.
1:28.0	A poster for the metal band, Avenged Sevenfold,
1:30.8	is tacked to her bedroom while behind her.
	...

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