Episode Details

I make audio documentaries, and I recently spent some time in a town called Le Roy, New York. It's a town about 50 miles outside of Buffalo. It's a small town. Its claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Jell-O.

我制作音频纪录片，最近在纽约州一个叫勒罗伊的小镇待了一段时间。这个镇位于布法罗市外约50英里，是个小地方，最出名的是它是果冻（Jell-O）的诞生地。

There's a museum and everything.

那里甚至有个博物馆，应有尽有。

Anyway, in 2011, at the beginning of the school year, something strange happened in Le Roy. A student at Le Roy Junior-Senior High School, a cheerleader, she wakes up from a nap with a stutter, like a severe stammer, trouble speaking. And pretty soon, that turns into head tics and facial twitches, and then blurting out sounds and words. Symptoms that you'd associate with something like Tourette's syndrome.

2011年开学季，勒罗伊发生了一件怪事。当地初高中联合学校的一名啦啦队员午睡醒来后突然严重口吃，说话困难。很快，症状演变成头部抽动、面部痉挛，并开始不受控制地发出怪声和词语——类似妥瑞氏症的症状。

A couple of weeks later, while she's dealing with that, another student at the school comes down with the same symptoms: tics, spasms, barks, blurting out sounds and words. And it happens from 0 to 60 overnight, out of nowhere. And then it happens to another student. And then two more.

几周后，就在她还在应对这些症状时，另一名学生也出现了同样的抽搐、痉挛、怪叫和言语失控。症状一夜之间突然爆发，毫无预兆。接着是第三个、第四个……

This is Rose. Rose was in eighth grade at the time of the outbreak. At first it was whispers. It was like, "Oh, it's this one girl. We don't know what's going on, blah blah blah." And the next thing I know, it's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

这是罗斯，疫情爆发时她正读八年级。起初只是窃窃私语，比如"噢，就是这个女孩，我们也不知道怎么回事"之类的。但很快，患者数量成倍增加，而且全是女生。

Jessica was a senior at the time. And I remember thinking, were they making it up? What is going on?

杰西卡当时是高三学生。我记得我在想：她们是不是装的？到底发生了什么？

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