Host Dan Taberski introduces Hysterical, a co-production from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. The podcast centers on a 2011 incident at a high school in upstate New York, where a cluster of teenage girls began displaying identical neurological symptoms: tics, twitches, involuntary vocalizations, and sudden head movements. The first case emerges publicly when a 16-year-old posts a YouTube video in December 2011 describing passing out at a concert and homecoming dance, followed by worsening tics. She asks online if anyone else is experiencing the same. She soon discovers that at least a dozen other girls at her school have the same symptoms. Investigations into possible causes include mold in school buildings, contaminated water, and environmental toxins. Famous environmentalist Erin Brockovich joins the investigation. At the same time, some in the community accuse the girls of faking their symptoms for attention. Taberski frames the mystery as touching on broader questions about rare disease, mass illness, the desire to be believed, and what happens when medical authorities and communities dismiss symptoms as psychological. The episode is a brief promo, not a full episode — it ends with a call to follow Hysterical on Wondery Plus.
