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The Razor-Thin Line Between Contagion and Connection | Dan Taberski | TED

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…

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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? (Recorded at TED2025 on April 11, 2025)

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22 Comments

  1. @AvScuzza

    July 14, 2025 at 11:02 am

    Came from the will ne video

  2. @ABHIJITHC-kh8xm

    July 14, 2025 at 11:07 am

  3. @mjsalkathiri1421

    July 14, 2025 at 11:07 am

    سبحان الله وبحمده سبحان الله العظيم

  4. @harrypearle9781

    July 14, 2025 at 11:43 am

    TRUMP 2.0 ?
    Why do some many have to support everything about TRUMP ?
    (When will DEMOCRATS wake up to this, and find better MESSAGING?)
    =========================================================== TNX

    • @00jonesin

      July 14, 2025 at 12:01 pm

      Well, maybe if you left your echo chamber you’d know that theres 3 or 4 MAJOR issues MAGA and the broader right are not happy with Trump over.

      1. Bombing Iran….. that coulda got real bad 👎
      2. Big Beautiful Bill….. waaaay too much 💰
      3. Release Epstien files….. this is unacceptable

      These have been headlines, even in left media. It should be clear at this point that the opposite of what youre saying is true as its currently being demonstrates that our side thinks for itself and is capable of disagreeing.

      I think your post shoulda said…

      “When will Democrats wake up and realize its not the messaging….. Its the message”

      And this video was for you dear🫣.

    • @00jonesin

      July 14, 2025 at 1:15 pm

      Well, maybe if you left your echo chamber you’d know that theres 3 or 4 MAJOR issues MAGA and the broader right are not happy with Trump over.

      1. Bombing Iran….. that coulda got real bad 👎
      2. Big Beautiful Bill….. waaaay too much 💰
      3. Release Epstien files….. this is unacceptable

      These have been headlines, even in left media. It should be clear at this point that the opposite of what youre saying is true as its currently being demonstrates that our side thinks for itself and is capable of disagreeing.

      I think your post shoulda said…

      “When will Democrats wake up and realize its not the messaging….. Its the message”

      And this video was for you dear🫣

  5. @mbergamin16

    July 14, 2025 at 11:46 am

    Almost like the 300%+ increase of kids in school “identifying”

    🤦‍♂️

    • @Tarathiel123

      July 14, 2025 at 11:54 am

      Are you talking about neurodivergence or are you talking about LGBTQ+ people? In either cases 1 or 2 students who would have been obvious a decade ago would see 1 turn into 4, or 2 into 8 for people on the spectrum. This isn’t hard to understand if you learn about it.

  6. @00jonesin

    July 14, 2025 at 12:25 pm

    Something awfully familiar about weird, buggy, humid summer gatherings where the everyone is tick shopping amongst eachother and the whole crowd absolutely REVELLING in eachothers symptoms rooted in a social contagion and manifesting (mostly peacefully) in MASS hysteria🤔 😂🫏🫏🫏

  7. @ExistentialWolf

    July 14, 2025 at 1:28 pm

    tissue syndromes often are played with when blood related like septicemia and hypoxemia by black-out inebriation or candy cracking teeth leaving sepsis and other related disorders. This started with 90s rave culture when weed became demonized and kids used their grandparents forgotten pills … short answer is penicillin… long answer is a)learn to sit b)learn to paint c)learn to read d)learn to smelt 😀 Ok now for how its a mystery that the us is broke and overnights in the turd delta because of even less regard for human life. Exciting

  8. @ExistentialWolf

    July 14, 2025 at 1:31 pm

    score!🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🤳🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾🦾

  9. @ExistentialWolf

    July 14, 2025 at 1:34 pm

    oh sorry yellow boy hahahahahahahahahah t a m p o #

  10. @amardeepsaurabh4413

    July 14, 2025 at 1:45 pm

    Terrific!
    I remember, when I was very young- about 7 years old- one of my friends hurt his left eye with sunflower 🌻 spike and as a result he developed a habit of blinking his eyes quite fast and somehow unknowingly I too was doing that (of course, I wasn’t hurt at all).
    I got rid of the habit after a long drawn daily scolding of my mom.

    Suddenly, I i got reminded after watching this video.

  11. @shannonmcstormy5021

    July 14, 2025 at 2:22 pm

    Something to consider is that “Hysterical Blindness” actually makes the afflicted blind. You can do a test where you throw a soft nerf ball at their face and they, unlike someone who can see, won’t “flinch,” even when those flinches are recorded technologically where any “faking” would be revealed. So, these maladies are physiological/neurological. It is also natural to be cynical about this, even above what is normative for the person. The reason? These maladies suggest a lack of knowledge and understanding that can be very disturbing to someone’s world view.

  12. @Bestape

    July 14, 2025 at 5:54 pm

    I lost my wife to mental health germs. Therapists are superspreaders, those poor saints.

  13. @matthewjay660

    July 14, 2025 at 7:48 pm

    I was substitute teaching for a 2nd grade class. One girl said that one boy, in the classroom, “forgot me.” In 1 hour, I had FIVE GIRLS and ONE other BOY in tears sobbing all because this boy said he forgot this 1 girl. It was like somebody ran over their dog in front of them sobbing. 🤯 Yes, I’ve seen social contagion at school.

  14. @rangerjesse1659

    July 14, 2025 at 9:11 pm

    Talk about media contagion leading to the increase in school shootings

  15. @kenreed798

    July 14, 2025 at 10:39 pm

    Very interesting topic. Thanks!

  16. @DrDeepakRawal

    July 14, 2025 at 10:41 pm

    just like seeing ghost is mass hysteria

  17. @Bushman9

    July 15, 2025 at 12:09 am

    That was fascinating.

  18. @leekenneth-walsh3545

    July 15, 2025 at 9:43 am

    This is absolutely fascinating! That last anecdote reminds me of how I as an autistic person naturally mask my symptoms less when I’m around other autistic people

  19. @francesbernard2445

    July 16, 2025 at 12:18 pm

    Be careful what you call someone because next you or your whole community might get called the same thing. In Ukraine that unfortunate for Ukranians while Sergei Lavrov flapped at the mouth about the west having Hysteria meant according to him should be Russians in Ukraine carrying weapons while about to start driving tanks while thinking they could lose their temper frequently at their expense.

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