{"podcast":{"title":"Mysteries and Histories","slug":"mysteries-and-histories-1576928","podcast_index_feed_id":1576928,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/10f731918/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBTMJwtvyuP7XMgpofJWH5g/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/45441686/06037aa4e36546ef.png","author":"Georgia Marie","episode_count":329,"summary":"Join Georgia as each week she talks you through important pieces of history that more people should know about or true crime cases that require more public attention - awareness and education are key!","last_synced_at":"2026-09-26T02:17:59.270960+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mysteries-and-histories-1576928"},"episode":{"title":"The Laughing Sickness: Medicine’s Strangest Cold Case","slug":"the-laughing-sickness-medicine-s-strangest-cold-case","published_at":"2026-08-03T11:30:01+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mysteries-and-histories-1576928/the-laughing-sickness-medicine-s-strangest-cold-case","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mysteries-and-histories-1576928","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/georgiamariexo/episodes/The-Laughing-Sickness-Medicines-Strangest-Cold-Case-e3mt9nu","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1126678033.mp3","summary":"In the isolated highlands of Papua New Guinea, a strange and horrifying disease spread through entire villages, leaving women and children trembling, stumbling, and erupting into sudden fits of laughter before wasting away to death. For years, no one knew what was killing them, and the answer turned out to be far more disturbing than anyone expected: a fatal prion disease tied to one of the greatest human taboos.","meta_description":"In the isolated highlands of Papua New Guinea, a strange and horrifying disease spread through entire villages, leaving women and children trembling, stum…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1387,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mysteries-and-histories-1576928/episodes/the-laughing-sickness-medicine-s-strangest-cold-case/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/mysteries-and-histories-1576928/the-laughing-sickness-medicine-s-strangest-cold-case.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}