The razor-thin line between contagion and connection | Dan Taberski (re-release)

Elise Hu (0:00)

Where I live, October means pumpkins on porches and fake cobwebs stretched across just about every bush. My family has been planning their Halloween costumes for weeks. It's a holiday with ancient roots, and plenty of cultures around the world have their own traditions for honoring the dead and the mysterious. But whether or not you celebrate, it's a fun time to lean in to the strange and the spooky. For October's TED Talks Daily playlist, we have gathered five haunting talks covering everything from grieving crows to zombie roaches. They might give you a few chills, but they're also full of weird, wonderful discoveries that remind us just how fascinating our world is. Happy listening.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hume. Today we start with a fascinating story about a group of high school girls in LaRoy, New York, who in 2011 all suddenly developed tics like those present with Tourette syndrome. In his talk, documentary podcaster Dan Taberski shares his findings after investigating this case for the award-winning podcast Hysterical, exploring what this disorder reveals about the power of stress and trauma and why the notion of mass hysteria isn't just for the history books. It still happens. Please note that this episode contains mature language. That's coming up, right after a short break.

And now, our TED Talk of the Day.

Dan Taberski (1:43)

I make audio documentaries. And I recently spent some time in a town called Leroy, New York. It's a town about 50 miles outside of Buffalo. It's a small town. It's claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Jell-O. There's a museum and everything.

Anyway, in 2011, at the beginning of the school year, something strange happened in Leroy.

A student at Leroy Junior Senior High School, a cheerleader, she wakes up from a nap with a stutter, like a severe stammer, trouble speaking. And pretty soon, that turns into head tics and facial twitches, and then blurting out sounds and words, symptoms that you would associate with something like Tourette syndrome. A couple weeks later, while she's dealing with that, another student at the school comes down with the same symptoms. Tics, spasms, barks, blurting out sounds and words. It happens from zero to 60 overnight, out of nowhere. Then it happens to another student. And then two more. This is Rose. Rose was in eighth grade at the time of the outbreak.

Rose (2:51)

At first, it was whispers. It was like, oh, it's this one girl. Like, we don't know what's going on. Like, blah, blah, blah. And the next thing I know, it's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

Dan Taberski (3:01)

Jessica was a senior at the time.

Jessica (3:03)

And I remember thinking, like, were they making it up? Like, what is going on?

Dan Taberski (3:07)

Like, people thought they were faking.

Jessica (3:09)

Yeah, everybody thought they might be faking it. And then my friend came to school the one day, and I was like at my locker, and she came up to me, and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, what are you doing? Like, stop fucking around. Like, why are you talking like that? And she's like, I can't. She's like twitching. She's like crying at that point, like just trying to get out her words. And I'm like, holy shit, this is real. Like, what happened?

Dan Taberski (3:31)

Within weeks, the case count hits double digits. All at the high school, all girls.

An investigation begins. They test for Lyme disease. They test for heavy metals in the blood. Back at the school, they test for the water safety. They test for the air quality. They test for mold. And the only thing spreading faster than the contagion are the theories about what's causing it.

Rose (3:53)

I remember hearing at some point, since it was all girls, it must be a bad batch of tampons.

Dan Taberski (4:02)

The tampon theory does not pan out. In fact, none of them do. After a month-long investigation, the state and the school board and the doctors involved, they come up with what they think is the answer. The outbreak ripping through the high school is a mass psychogenic illness, otherwise known as mass hysteria.

Emily was in 8th grade when she came down with the symptoms herself. This is what her doctor told her.

Emily (4:29)

She basically said, Oh, well, it's all in your head. You're fine.

How are you as a medical professional going to look your patient in the eye and be like, You're fine. Stop thinking about it. You're fine. You're fine.