When the Dance Took Over: The Dancing Plague and Britain’s Strange Mass Panics

This episode traces the eerie dancing plague that swept Strasbourg in 1518 and explores similar mass‑panic episodes across Britain, from London’s post‑fire dance fever to 19th‑century invasion rumours and 20th‑century labour unrest. Drawing on contemporary chroniclers, modern medical theory, and social‑historical analysis, we examine how economic hardship, religious belief, rumor and collective emotion can spark widespread hysteria and why later myths grew around these events. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices