Interview: The razor-thin line between contagion and connection w/ Dan Taberski | from TED Health

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Self-improvement, Chris Duffy, Self-help, Personal Growth, Interviews, Education, Emotional Awareness, Better Human

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After a mysterious wave of tics and twitches swept through a small-town high school in New York, documentary podcaster Dan Taberski set out to investigate what was really happening. Drawing on extensive research and intimate interviews with the people involved, he explores the roots of mass hysteria — and what it reveals about the line between illness and belonging. What happens when the very thing that makes us sick ... is also what connects us?

After the talk, Shoshana interviews Dan on how his research into the mysterious Havana Syndrome leads to his unearthing of a similar mass hysteria in Le Roy, New York. They also discuss how storytelling can reshape discourse surrounding medicine and what happens when the person experiencing an illness feels unheard and unsupported by the very medical professionals supposed to care for them?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, Chris Duffy here.
0:05.3	Today we are sharing an episode of a podcast that we think you are going to love.
0:09.7	This has been handpicked by the TED staff, and we think that as a how to be a better
0:13.6	human listener, you are going to come away with a fresh idea and a totally new perspective.
0:18.7	So enjoy this episode and head to the link in the
0:21.1	description afterwards to hear even more.
0:24.3	This is TED Health, a podcast from TED, and I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.
0:29.9	I've spent enough time in hospitals to know that not every mystery ends up with a diagnosis,
0:36.0	and not every symptom fits neatly into a chart. That's where
0:39.9	Dan Tiberski comes in. You might know him as the sharp, funny mind behind some of the most
0:45.0	unexpected podcasts out there, like Missing Richard Simmons and Running from Cops. His latest series,
0:52.2	hysterical, dives into one of the most perplexing medical stories in recent
0:56.7	history. In 2011, in Leroy, New York, a group of girls began showing concerning symptoms,
1:04.5	but no one could figure out why. What starts in a high school becomes a case study in stress, stigma, and the very real ways our bodies respond to the world around us.
1:16.6	In his 2025 TED talk, Dan draws on extensive research and intimate interviews with the people involved to explore the root of mass hysteria and what it reveals about the line between illness
1:30.0	and belonging. What happens when the very thing that makes us sick is also what connects us. Then
1:38.2	stick around after the talk for my conversation with Dan, where we explore what happens when medicine
1:43.6	runs up against emotion and why telling better stories about health might be one of the most powerful tools we have. But first, a quick break to hear from our sponsors.
1:59.5	And now, Dan Tibersky takes the TED stage.
2:02.6	I make audio documentaries,
2:04.6	and I recently spent some time in a town called Leroy, New York.
2:09.6	It's a town about 50 miles outside of Buffalo.
	...

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