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

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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