Beginning in 2016, diplomats at the US Embassy in Havana started reporting strange concussion-like symptoms, even though they hadn’t taken a blow to the head. Some claimed they’d been the victim of a mysterious “sonic weapon”, aimed at them from somewhere outside and accompanied by a loud, high-pitched noise. Several scientific papers followed that appeared to confirm they’d been attacked.

In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart tell the whole story of Havana Syndrome, and dare to touch on the highly controversial theory that the symptoms might’ve been the result of mass hysteria (or as it’s now known, “mass psychogenic illness”).

The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. Their Substack is full of shorter articles that highlight apects of science and technology you might never have considered. This week: the surprising story of “The Prophet of Parking”. You can find that any all of their shorter items at worksinprogress.news.

Show notes

* The most recent (January 2025) development in the story of Havana Syndrome

* Stuart’s New Statesman article on Havana Syndrome from 2021

* Long and detailed ProPublica article from 2018

* Wikipedia articles on the LRAD and the Active Denial System

* NY Times article from around the time, about the Trump administration’s reaction to the “attacks”

* US Senate hearings on the “attacks” led by Marco Rubio

* Initial 2018 JAMA article with cognitive and other tests

* Response letters 1, 2, and 3 (“cognitive impairments everybody has”)

* 2019 JAMA article on brain imaging results

* Stuart’s 2015 study on brain imaging in ageing

* Entomologists report on the similarity of the recorded sound to that of a cricket

* Declassified US report that agrees

* A history of mass psychogenic illness

* BBC article on “The Bristol Hum”

* Guardian article on the bizarre phenomenon of Morgellon’s Syndrome

* Article arguing that critics of the “mass psychogenic illness” theory have misunderstood the condition

* 2020 National Academy of Sciences report

* Putin bragging about high-tech Russian weapons

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.