What began as a baffling public spectacle — bodies moving without permission, collapsing in exhaustion — would echo through centuries of history under a single unsettling name: St. Vitus’ Dance.
In this episode of Messy Minded, Jess traces how a medieval dancing plague became a medical diagnosis… and how that same name resurfaced generations later in her own family, attached to a childhood illness, a period of restraint, and a very unexpected form of therapy.
This is a story about what happens when bodies refuse to behave — and how, when language fails, we reach for meaning wherever we can find it.
https://open.spotify.com/show/3htrTJx4ORepBRYxJ7ZGPv?si=6e5942d7bf1746bd
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/messy-minded-podcast/id1819603605
@MessyMindedPod
Music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for \"Spark Groove\", Nikita Kondrashev for \"Cosy, Quirky, Comedy\", Vibehorn \"French France Music (See their website at vibehorn.com)
St. Vitus’ Dance
Dancing Plague of 1518
Strasbourg dancing plague
Medieval mass hysteria
Mass psychogenic illness
Chorea
Sydenham’s chorea
Medical history
History of medicine
Medieval Europe
Saints and superstition
Saint Vitus
John the Baptist
Religious belief and illness
Mind–body connection
Autoimmune disorders
Pre-antibiotic medicine
Childhood illness history
Unexplained historical phenomena
True history podcast
Weird history
Medical mysteries
Psychology and culture
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