About this episode
This episode may also be viewed as a video here: 502 Conversations with Medical Sociologist Robert Bartholomew
Robert Bartholomew is co-author of Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria. In this conversation, he speaks about Havana Syndrome and its symptoms; mass psychogenic illness (MPI) and its symptoms; historical examples and documentation of MPI; causes; the purported weaponry suggested for Havana Syndrome; the FBI and CIA investigations; the journalistic embarrassment of Scott Pelley and 60 Minutes; and more.
Robert Bartholomew is medical sociologist, writer, journalist, and human rights advocate. Well-known for his books on social panics and outbreaks of mass hysteria throughout history, he has examined cases ranging from demonically possessed nuns during the Middle Ages to the Salem witch-hunts of 1692, to contemporary episodes involving twitching schoolgirls in LeRoy, New York, to the students at a Massachusetts school who hiccupped for a year. An Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, he has has written 17 books including: Hoaxes, Myths & Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking; Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior (with Hilary Evans), and Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria (with Professor Robert Baloh). He is the author of more than sixty scholarly publications; has been featured in a National Geographic series on modern myths; and has appeared on The History and Discovery Channels. A Fellow with the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York, he holds a Ph.D. in sociology from James Cook University in Australia, a Masters in American Sociology from the State University of New York at Albany, and a Masters in Australian Sociology from The Flinders University of South Australia.
