DANCING PLAGUE OF 1518: WHO IS TO BLAME?

The Alarmist

Comedy, History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who’s to blame for the Dancing Plague of 1518?

This week, The Alarmist (Rebecca Delgado Smith) is searching for the cause of the Dancing Plague of 1518 in the city of Strasbourg. What possessed a woman named Frau Troffea to start dancing unstopped for 6 six days straight? And why did hundreds of others join in, some dancing themselves to literal death? Did “laughing veins” have something to do with it? Perhaps economic struggles during mystical times were the cause. Or maybe this had something to do with the Patron Saint Vitus. Fact Checker Chris Smith and Producer Clayton Early joins the conversation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Alarmy, check out Alarmist on Patreon for ad-free episodes and bonus content.
0:07.9	Here's what I'll say.
0:09.1	I do think that cuddling during a concert is annoying to those around.
0:17.2	Yeah.
0:18.1	And it can also get you in trouble now.
0:21.8	Especially if you're cuddling not your, you know, you're, you know, your,
0:25.8	you're, you're, on the books, should we call her?
0:30.0	You're on the books lover.
0:31.0	Yeah.
0:31.3	Yeah.
0:31.8	Who is on the books?
0:34.2	That's a good one.
0:35.6	Your lover who is on the... What does that mean?
0:38.0	Yeah.
0:38.4	I think he means marriage.
0:40.4	The person you're married to.
0:42.5	The person you're married to.
0:44.0	Because they're on the books.
0:45.9	Yeah.
0:46.4	You've got a license or a certificate, a marriage certificate.
0:51.0	Yeah.
0:52.1	The person of your license to cuddle with.
	...

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