That's Peculiar
A podcast about anything peculiar! We'll cover history, science, true crime, and anything in between. We hope to keep your returning every episode for your peculiar fix!
That's Peculiar
The Dancing Plague?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of "That's Peculiar," hosts Nathan and Andra delve into two fascinating historical events: the mysterious Wow signal received by NASA in 1977 and the bizarre dancing plague that struck Strasbourg in 1518. Andra introduces the Wow signal, a powerful radio transmission from space that lasted 72 seconds and has never been explained, sparking intrigue about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The conversation then shifts to the dancing plague, where a woman named Frau Trofea began dancing uncontrollably, leading to hundreds of others joining her in a frenzied dance that resulted in exhaustion and even death. The hosts explore the social and historical context of the event, discussing theories ranging from mass psychogenic illness to ergot poisoning as potential explanations for the phenomenon.