Hysterical investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of high school girls in upstate New York. What is causing their sudden, often violent symptoms? Is there something in the water or inside the school? Or is it “all in their head?” The series examines the outbreak in LeRoy, NY, believed by some to be the most severe case of mass hysteria since the Salem Witch Trials. In his search for answers, Dan Taberski (9/12, Missing Richard Simmons, Running from Cops) explores other seemingly inexplicable events of the last few years – CIA officers being crippled with nausea and vertigo; cops OD'ing from exposure to fentanyl – and discovers they’re far more connected than we realize.

From Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, this 7-part series forces us to grapple with the mysteries of our own minds, and reckon with a contagion that we thought was long dead, but may be the defining disorder of our time.

Follow Hysterical on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+ at Wondery.fm/Hysterical_PSS.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every summer for the past seven decades, 50 high school seniors—one from every state—descend on Mobile, Alabama to take part in one of the country’s most lucrative scholarship competitions for teen girls. 

The Competition takes you behind the scenes of the Distinguished Young Women (DYW) program, and follows seven girls as they experience the highs and lows of competing for two weeks, away from home and under the most high-stress circumstances. Some girls enter for the money, some for prestige. All of them are used to being the best and the brightest. But only one will walk away with the top prize.

Host Shima Oliaee (Dolly Parton’s America, Pink Card) was Nevada’s contestant in 2001. More than 20 years later, she returns to Alabama as a judge. What can two weeks with 50 of the country’s most ambitious teens tell us about girlhood in America?

Listen to The Competition on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial by visiting Wondery.fm/TheCompetition_11 now.  

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A final note from our producers.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a little island sandwiched between Miami Beach and mainland Florida sits an old pink apartment complex called The Lido. It’s unlike anything around it; a remnant of an old Miami. One of the tenants, Paula Barros, guides us through this colorful building and the colorful people who live there. There’s Eddie, the exhausted HOA Board President, a stickler for rules and a sucker for his cat. Evan, an aspiring travel influencer trying to work through hundreds of bucket list goals. Ragnar, an amateur taxidermist. Payami, who only calls himself that because it rhymes with Miami. At The Lido, Paula learns what it means to show up for people, and how to let them show up for her.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two stories of people writing letters but never sending them. A grown brother and sister discover a stack of notebooks left behind by their late father, filled with letters written to them when they were children. And a woman writes letters for a year to process an incredible and devastating loss.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's been 11 months of The 11th, so we're taking a little break. But! We've got some previews of shows our colleagues here at Pineapple Street Studios are making — shows that are perfect for a long road trip, a walk in the woods, or an afternoon cooking out.

Shows featured include:

Persona

Love Thy Neighbor

Project Unabom

Borderline Salty

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month, The 11th presents: His Saturn Return. Creator, writer, and performer Sai Sion lets us peek into his expansive imagination with this cosmic audio drama that will transport you across the galaxy.

We travel through time and space to meet Duran Durag on the brink of his Saturn Return. He’s cocky and charming, smooth and clumsy. If it weren’t for his fancy durag and his family name, Duran wouldn’t be given the time of day. And it’s high time for him to learn some important life lessons. The all-knowing DJ Saturn is not playing when he sends this young space alien on a series of challenges that reveal what it is to live in a universe that doesn’t orbit around ego. Will the missions he’s sent on ground him, or will his swagger get in the way of growing up?

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month, a collaboration with McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and Radiotopia. Several writers, producers, and artists were asked to take on the concept of an audio tour, but instead of guiding us through a city or a museum, they guide us through our own homes. These tours are interactive, and intimate. They are a trip not just through the physical space of your home, but the memories and feelings associated with that space.

These pieces are part of McSweeney's Audio Issue. The Audio Issue comes packaged as a physical box where all audio pieces have an accompanying physical component. You can purchase the entire issue here: https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/mcsweeneys64

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When she was a kid, Lina Misitzis heard a line in a movie that really stuck. She’d repeat it to friends and family, drop it in texts and conversations mindlessly. But then, twenty years later, she realized: The line doesn’t make any sense.

This month, not a bedtime story exactly, but a story about bedtime. About saying goodnight.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charles Spearin is a long-time member of the band Broken Social Scene. In 2007, he was on paternity leave, spending time with his kids on the playground, talking with his neighbors. That’s when he started noticing the musical quality of the voices around him.

He asked his neighbors to come over to his house so he could interview them. And then he turned their voices into songs.

You can listen to The Happiness Project album here: https://charlesspearin.bandcamp.com/album/the-happiness-project 

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month on The 11th, a story about love. Writers Resham Mantri and Carvell Wallace let us in on the most intimate details of their long distance relationship as they figure out how they want to love and be loved. Through a collage of essays, audio diaries, and interviews the two share their approach to practicing love: deliberately. No promises of forever, no promises of monogamy, but an openness to discover new ways to love, new ways to connect. Inspired by bell hook's teachings and reflections about love, the episode meditates on the question: how do you practice love?

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices