Wondery subscribers can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad free. Join wondery in the wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Wondery previously on Hysterical.

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.

So by then, everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, like, I think that's bullshit. Like you're just gonna withhold all this information from us, like, what is actually going on? There's clearly something going on that you're covering up. Let's start the day with a little role play. You are a parent of a high school girl, and lately she and a bunch of her classmates have been exhibiting some very wild symptoms. And they scare you and they make you scared for her. And then at this big town meeting, you're told that what your kid has is this very rare, almost unbelievable illness, a phenomenon, really that, to you sounds a lot like it's all in our head. And then they ask you to just, you know, keep it all in the down low and to please, please stay away from the media. All the attention would just make it worse. What would you do?

From NBC News, this is Today.

That is what I would do to. Also ahead, imagine if your child suddenly began to suffer from unexplained tics and verbal outbursts. Hey, look, everyone, it's Matt Lauer on the Today show, on CNN. The usual suspects, several parents go public rejecting mass hysteria and questioning the school's secrecy. Why? They weren't making available any of the testing for toxins they had supposedly done. Here's one of the moms live in the studio. Where's the proof?

Where's the data? Where's the testing? When has this been done?

You've not been shown any data?

No, no, nothing.

Her daughter is sitting next to her on the couch.

I was always so, I was always so active, but I don't feel like myself anymore. We hope that some doctor watching this now can help you and these other girls. And so that's the message.

Meanwhile, at the school, once the story breaks nationally, I've been sitting in my tech class. This is Rose, 8th grade.

Someone was like, dude, there's a news van outside. I took off so fast, I went to go see. I was like, what?

Cause, like, you know, I'm nosy.

Whatever.

I had just gotten a new car around that time. So it was like a big thing for me to like, finally be driving. Cause I was riding the bus for a little bit. Here's Jessica, a senior. I remember exactly where I parked. Getting out and just standing there staring at the cameras, like, holy shit. What the hell is going on? And it was the entire bus loop just filled with these giant satellites and cameras and just people. They weren't allowed to get out because the school wouldn't let them. But they were in their trucks videotaping us. It was nuts. It was nuts. Camera crews lined up on main street. Mister Mihalik, the band teacher. It was an absolute zoo in a little town, which only drove the fear more. What makes you say that? Well, people knew something serious was happening then. Like, is there really something bigger than we think going on here? Some people, you know, would go as far to say there's a cover up. By now, many kids at the school have stopped drinking the water from the water fountains. This weekend, at least five basketball games scheduled in Leroy have been canceled.

Parents of those players not willing to risk their children's health and safety for sport students take to Facebook tracking who's come down with symptoms. Soon, a video surfaces of a strange looking crop duster dumping unknown chemicals onto a field adjacent to the school on Main street. At the pentecostal church, the letters on the letter board sign out front have been rearranged. Now they say, we are praying for our Leroy high school girls. The emphasis, of course, is on the girls part right up till this point. One big indicator that it at least might be mass psychogenic illness is that all the cases are confined to that one broad social group. In this case, teen girls at Leroy Junior Senior High School. The illness seems to be passing between the other female students at the school. But it's not jumping lanes to parents, to siblings, to neighbors or to strangers.

You don't piece it all together as it's happening.

Then someone new comes forward.

Things like exploded. And then I was trying to decide which pieces am I picking up?

Someone who lives in Leroy, but shes not on the soccer team. She doesnt play in the marching band. She doesnt go to Leroy High School or high school, period. When did you start piecing it together that other people were having similar symptoms?

I only knew what was on the news and people were thinking that it was like, contagious.

Did it start to occur to you.

That maybe it was no, because it was all teenagers and I was far from a teenager.

I'm Dan Tabirsky from Wondery and Pineapple street studios. This is hysterical. Episode three. We have another one.

Hello. This is Alice Levine, host of the chart topping Wondry podcast, the Price of Paradise, the true story of an island dream that turned into a living nightmare. And we have a brand new episode for you, which is out now, because since we released the series, we've had so many people asking questions, wanting us to pull back the curtain on the show, wanting to know the lowdown on Teodoro's affair, the kidnapping, and how on earth there were two Phil Gaskins. In this episode, we answer all of those and more with two people who experienced the story unfolding firsthand. Listen to the price of paradise exposed, and if you haven't yet listened to the full series, you can find all seven episodes on Wondry plus or wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you ever find yourself in Paris in 1882 with some time on your hands just looking for something to do, head on over to the mental hospital. Because the biggest attraction in Belle Epoque Paris, it could be argued, isn't the Louver or the opera house. It's a place called Salpetriere. The hulking structure on the left bank of the Seine was once a gunpowder factory. And over the years, it had morphed into a hospice for poor women, then a prison for poor women, and finally a women's mental hospital. And it was around this time that something very strange started happening there. The beds in Salpetriere began to fill up with patients, all experiencing truly bizarre symptoms that no one could explain.

Tics, paralysis, loss of consciousness.

Doctor Jamison Webster is a clinical psychologist and a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Loss of language, abilities to speak languages they didn't know they could speak. Different multiple personalities, emotional fits of all different, whether it be crying, whether it be giggling, whether it be smiling uncontrollably.

All behaviors that to every doctor who examined them, appeared to have no physiological cause. As far as they could tell, there was nothing physically wrong. They were symptoms that didn't make any sense, that shouldn't be happening at all. But there they were. Similar outbreaks were happening among women not it. I know it's not.And that it seems to me, became the unspoken assumption for all the girls who went public. If this is conversion disorder, and conversion disorder is very often associated with stress and trauma, then what's going on over there? And if you're the girl's parents or her teachers or the small town around her, conversion disorder can start to feel less like a diagnosis and more like an accusation.So what did the doctors tell any?What is happening to you?Uh, mostly that it's stress induced. Um, when? No.Here's how one of the girls addressed it on the Today show.When these started, I was fine. I was perfectly fine. I. I felt good about everything. I was on unroll. There was nothing going wrong.You can answer this question any way you want to. But, but I. But I do. I want to ask it. I'm talking with Emily. She was in 8th grade when her symptoms began. Part of having conversion disorder, if it was conversion disorder, is that it comes from stress or trauma. How were you having any extreme stress or trauma that people didn't know about or that you were having a hard time talking about at the time that may have contributed to something, not anything that would have made it into something like this. You know what I mean? Like typical normal 8th grade drama and stuff between friends, but like, nothing wild. You know what I mean? Here's Emily's mom, Kathy. Nothing outside of typical teenage middle school. I mean, she was a middle schooler. She was 8th grade. She was 13. You know, I wasn't like. Gives me the shivers. That is still such a terrible year, right? There's no subtext here, by the way. There's no suggestion that anyone is hiding something or in denial about what's really going on. For a lot of the girls and the parents in Leroy, it just didn't feel true.Was it shocking to hear conversion disorder or.I mean, I didn't even really understand. I knew it's a psychological disorder.In fact, one of the only people who seemed willing at first to even entertain the idea of conversion disorder, that this was all a mass psychogenic illness. Marge, the 36 year old mom.And I was like, okay, I can deal with mental illness, so I take some psych meds. People do it all the time. If Valium's gonna do it, give me the Valium. Well, Valium didn't do it. Give me the Xanax.She doesn't shut it down completely. To her, it just doesn't seem impossible. One of her doctors uses a metaphor.They described me as a volcano. I have never been able to deal with stress, ever. I dealt with a lot of abuse when I was younger, so I just buried feelings. I didn't deal with feelings. Nobody wanted to be around somebody who was crying all the time. So I didn't deal with the abuses and stuff. I didn't deal with the aftermaths of all that. So everything that I had been pushing down and not wanting to deal with.Started bubbling up into the physical symptoms that were erupting. A volcano. March has good reason to give conversion disorder a chance. Because to her, it's a lot less scary than the alternatives. Cause Marge isn't just looking for the right answer. She needs it to be an answer she can actually live with.My gosh, I could live with conversion disorder. I could not live with. The environment did it to me.Yeah. As mass psychogenic illness proponents were lining up, so too were those who believed that that wasn't it at all. They believed it was a chemical in the ground or something in the water or a toxin in the air that was to blame.I mean, I couldn't work with that. I couldn't work with that because when it's an environmental thing, it's like it's a cancer. Because I'm like, again, thinking I have a three year old. So I was like, no. The environmental to me was terminal.But the state said everything was okay on that front, right? They did all those tests at the school. They checked the old water records. It all seemed fine. But let's say you don't trust the state. And at this point in Leroy, a lot of people don't. Let's say you think it's some sort of toxin and someone's covering something up. Where do you even begin to look? Find that smoking gun that you suspect is out there. What you'd need is a fresh clue pointing you in the right direction. You'd need, say, someone to walk up to the home of one of the affected families and anonymously slip some documents and a note under a door or drop it in a mailbox or place it under the doormat, as I've also heard this story told. But wherever it's found that document and that note, that'd be the thing. That'd be the thing that turns a lot of people's suspicions into full blown panic. And that is next time on hysterical. You are not doing your job. You are not doing your job at all. When the medical mystery in Leroy has its top blown off. Our big story this morning.Nationally known environmentalist Aaron Brockovich sent a team to Leroy yesterday to dig for answers about a mysterious medical condition. There I mean, everybody knew what cyanide was. Nobody knew what trichlorothane was. Oh, shit. Having those natural gas wells on my football field is not a really fucking smart thing to do, now, is it? Follow hysterical on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself a short survey@wondery.com. survey and if you have a tip about a story that you think we should investigate, please write to us@wondery.com. tips Hysterical is a production of wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Our lead producer is Henry Milovsky. Our associate producer is Marie Alexa Kavanaugh, producer Sophie Bridges, managing producer Erin Kelly. Senior producer Lena Masitzis. Additional production by Zandra Ellen Diane Hansen is our editor. Our executive editor is Joel Lovell. Fact checking by Natsume Ajisaka mixing by Hannah Brown our head of sound and engineering is Raj Makhija. Original music composed and performed by Dina McAdy, legal services for Pineapple street from Crystal Tupia for Wondery.Our our senior producers are Lizzie Bassett and Claire Chambers. Coordinating producer Mariah Gossett. Senior managing producer Callum plews. Hysterical is written and executive produced by me. I'm Dan Taberski. Our executive producers for Pineapple street are Max Linsky, Henry Milovsky, Asha Saluja, and Jenna Weiss Berman. Executive producers for Wondery are Morgan Jones, Marshall Louie, and Jen Sargent. Thanks for listening.In January 1692, several young girls living in Salem Village, Massachusetts, started behaving strangely. They screamed, barked, and writhed in pain. Their elders concluded that witchcraft was to blame, and the girls began accusing local women of bewitching them. Soon, witchcraft hysteria swept through their small puritan community. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonderys podcast, american history Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we explore the history of the Salem witch trials, the most lethal witch hunt in american history. Follow american history tellers on the wondery app or wherever you catch your podcasts. You can binge this season early and ad free right now on Wonderye.

not it. I know it's not.

And that it seems to me, became the unspoken assumption for all the girls who went public. If this is conversion disorder, and conversion disorder is very often associated with stress and trauma, then what's going on over there? And if you're the girl's parents or her teachers or the small town around her, conversion disorder can start to feel less like a diagnosis and more like an accusation.

So what did the doctors tell any?

What is happening to you?

Uh, mostly that it's stress induced. Um, when? No.

Here's how one of the girls addressed it on the Today show.

When these started, I was fine. I was perfectly fine. I. I felt good about everything. I was on unroll. There was nothing going wrong.

You can answer this question any way you want to. But, but I. But I do. I want to ask it. I'm talking with Emily. She was in 8th grade when her symptoms began. Part of having conversion disorder, if it was conversion disorder, is that it comes from stress or trauma. How were you having any extreme stress or trauma that people didn't know about or that you were having a hard time talking about at the time that may have contributed to something, not anything that would have made it into something like this. You know what I mean? Like typical normal 8th grade drama and stuff between friends, but like, nothing wild. You know what I mean? Here's Emily's mom, Kathy. Nothing outside of typical teenage middle school. I mean, she was a middle schooler. She was 8th grade. She was 13. You know, I wasn't like. Gives me the shivers. That is still such a terrible year, right? There's no subtext here, by the way. There's no suggestion that anyone is hiding something or in denial about what's really going on. For a lot of the girls and the parents in Leroy, it just didn't feel true.

Was it shocking to hear conversion disorder or.

I mean, I didn't even really understand. I knew it's a psychological disorder.

In fact, one of the only people who seemed willing at first to even entertain the idea of conversion disorder, that this was all a mass psychogenic illness. Marge, the 36 year old mom.

And I was like, okay, I can deal with mental illness, so I take some psych meds. People do it all the time. If Valium's gonna do it, give me the Valium. Well, Valium didn't do it. Give me the Xanax.

She doesn't shut it down completely. To her, it just doesn't seem impossible. One of her doctors uses a metaphor.

They described me as a volcano. I have never been able to deal with stress, ever. I dealt with a lot of abuse when I was younger, so I just buried feelings. I didn't deal with feelings. Nobody wanted to be around somebody who was crying all the time. So I didn't deal with the abuses and stuff. I didn't deal with the aftermaths of all that. So everything that I had been pushing down and not wanting to deal with.

Started bubbling up into the physical symptoms that were erupting. A volcano. March has good reason to give conversion disorder a chance. Because to her, it's a lot less scary than the alternatives. Cause Marge isn't just looking for the right answer. She needs it to be an answer she can actually live with.

My gosh, I could live with conversion disorder. I could not live with. The environment did it to me.

Yeah. As mass psychogenic illness proponents were lining up, so too were those who believed that that wasn't it at all. They believed it was a chemical in the ground or something in the water or a toxin in the air that was to blame.

I mean, I couldn't work with that. I couldn't work with that because when it's an environmental thing, it's like it's a cancer. Because I'm like, again, thinking I have a three year old. So I was like, no. The environmental to me was terminal.

But the state said everything was okay on that front, right? They did all those tests at the school. They checked the old water records. It all seemed fine. But let's say you don't trust the state. And at this point in Leroy, a lot of people don't. Let's say you think it's some sort of toxin and someone's covering something up. Where do you even begin to look? Find that smoking gun that you suspect is out there. What you'd need is a fresh clue pointing you in the right direction. You'd need, say, someone to walk up to the home of one of the affected families and anonymously slip some documents and a note under a door or drop it in a mailbox or place it under the doormat, as I've also heard this story told. But wherever it's found that document and that note, that'd be the thing. That'd be the thing that turns a lot of people's suspicions into full blown panic. And that is next time on hysterical. You are not doing your job. You are not doing your job at all. When the medical mystery in Leroy has its top blown off. Our big story this morning.

Nationally known environmentalist Aaron Brockovich sent a team to Leroy yesterday to dig for answers about a mysterious medical condition. There I mean, everybody knew what cyanide was. Nobody knew what trichlorothane was. Oh, shit. Having those natural gas wells on my football field is not a really fucking smart thing to do, now, is it? Follow hysterical on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself a short survey@wondery.com. survey and if you have a tip about a story that you think we should investigate, please write to us@wondery.com. tips Hysterical is a production of wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Our lead producer is Henry Milovsky. Our associate producer is Marie Alexa Kavanaugh, producer Sophie Bridges, managing producer Erin Kelly. Senior producer Lena Masitzis. Additional production by Zandra Ellen Diane Hansen is our editor. Our executive editor is Joel Lovell. Fact checking by Natsume Ajisaka mixing by Hannah Brown our head of sound and engineering is Raj Makhija. Original music composed and performed by Dina McAdy, legal services for Pineapple street from Crystal Tupia for Wondery.

Our our senior producers are Lizzie Bassett and Claire Chambers. Coordinating producer Mariah Gossett. Senior managing producer Callum plews. Hysterical is written and executive produced by me. I'm Dan Taberski. Our executive producers for Pineapple street are Max Linsky, Henry Milovsky, Asha Saluja, and Jenna Weiss Berman. Executive producers for Wondery are Morgan Jones, Marshall Louie, and Jen Sargent. Thanks for listening.

In January 1692, several young girls living in Salem Village, Massachusetts, started behaving strangely. They screamed, barked, and writhed in pain. Their elders concluded that witchcraft was to blame, and the girls began accusing local women of bewitching them. Soon, witchcraft hysteria swept through their small puritan community. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonderys podcast, american history Tellers. We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we explore the history of the Salem witch trials, the most lethal witch hunt in american history. Follow american history tellers on the wondery app or wherever you catch your podcasts. You can binge this season early and ad free right now on Wonderye.