Apple picked Hysterical as the winner of the Apple Podcasts Award for 2024, which honors quality and innovation in podcasting.
It’s not a comedy. The seven-part series by Dan Taberski investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of high school girls in upstate New York, and looks for parallels with one that affects American diplomats.
Hysterical asks ‘What if your illness is all in your head?’
Taberski became inspired to make Hysterical when reading about “Havana syndrome” — a mysterious illness affecting thousands of diplomats and CIA agents around the world.
“A lot of people still think it was an attack from some sort of microwave weapon,” Taberski says of Havana syndrome. “The media was pontificating about it, and they were interviewing all these people who were suffering from it, but everybody was really afraid to say, ‘What if it’s all in your head?’”
Taberski found parallels between Havana syndrome and the story of a group of high school girls in Le Roy, New York, who were affected by a separate mysterious illness several years prior.
“I thought it would be interesting to pair that story in Le Roy with what was happening to these diplomats and CIA officers to show that it can happen to anybody,” said the podcast creator.
Listen now
Hysterical is a seven-part series from Wondery and Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios, and is available via the Podcasts application.
In the wake of winning the Apple Podcasts Award for 2024, Taberski took part in a special conversation available now on Apple Podcasts for Creators. He discusses how he knows when he has an intriguing story, the importance of questions that lead to more questions, and his team’s approach to uncovering new aspects of the mystery in each episode.
Apple recently shared its list of most popular offerings in its Podcasts app. It’s perhaps not a surprise that one of the entries in the Top New Shows won the annual Apple Podcasts Award.
