MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. On this new series from master storyteller MrBallen, we’re sharing medical horror stories and diagnostic mysteries that are surgically calibrated to make your blood run cold.From bizarre, unheard-of diseases and miraculous recoveries to strange medical mishaps and unexplainable deaths — you’ll never hear the phrase “heart-stopping” in the same way again. MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between MrBallen and Wondery, the award-winning company behind Dr. Death.Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music, the Wondery App or wherever yo...
Episodes
Fan Favorite | Village of Death
Following the epic crossover between MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries and Redacted: Declassified Mysteries, hosted by Luke Lamana, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes where the line between medical mystery and dark conspiracy becomes…
Fan Favorite | Death from Above
Following the epic crossover between MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries and Redacted: Declassified Mysteries, hosted by Luke Lamana, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes where the line between medical mystery and dark conspiracy becomes…
Ep. 96 | A Redacted Medical Mystery: Red Menace/Weather Warriors
In this special MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries and Redacted crossover episode, MrBallen and Luke Lamana join forces to bring you two shocking stories of the military testing bizarre, deadly weapons of war in secret. In “Red Menace,” a 75-year…
Ep. 95 | Two Hearts Beat As One
After sitting down for a nice meal with her husband, a woman becomes violently ill and has to be hospitalized. But the problem isn’t her stomach – it’s her heart. Making things even stranger, her husband ends up in the ER too. And if their …
Listen Now: Lawless Planet
It’s not that hard to kill a planet. All it takes is a little drilling, some mining, a generous helping of pollution and voila! Earth over. When you take stock of what’s left, it starts to look like a crime scene: decapitated mountains, poi…
Ep. 94 | The Leftovers
After giving birth, an ambitious lawyer struggles through an avalanche of health issues that won’t go away. As the years go by, she manages to power through it. But eventually, it becomes too much to bear – and if she can’t get the problem …
Ep. 93 | Gut Check/Sleeping Beauty
“Gut Check”: When a 16-year-old girl starts experiencing constant and severe stomach pain, her first concern is the effect it’ll have on her social life. But when she discovers how bad the problem really is, she realizes that her social sta…
Listen Now: Flesh and Code
Travis never thought he’d meet someone like Lily Rose. She was kind, passionate, beautiful. The woman of his dreams. There was just one small detail: she wasn’t human.Lily Rose is an AI companion. A digital soulmate designed to be everythin…
Ep. 92 | Trigger Point
After an uneventful flight, a college professor suddenly experiences severe pain in his cheek. The excruciating spasms come on with no warning, and no explanation. No matter what his doctors suggest, the agony is unyielding – and the only p…
Ep. 91 | The Mad Gasser
During World War 2, the small town of Mattoon, Illinois erupts into a panic. Some of its residents are falling prey to what seem like random gas attacks from an unidentified assailant. But who is the man known as “the Mad Gasser”? And why i…
Ep. 90 | Walk Like the Birds
One day at the park, a mother notices her young son is walking strangely – almost like Frankenstein. At first, she writes it off as an oddity. But soon, her son’s legs stop working altogether… and the rest of his body starts shutting down w…
Ep. 89 | Half a Face
A teenage girl panics when clumps of hair start to fall off the right side of her head. From there, the problem gets even worse - the entire right side of her face starts to crumple in. But the problem isn’t just cosmetic. It’s extremely pa…
Ep. 88 | 15,000 Coughs/The Putrid Smell
“15,000 Coughs”: When an 11-year-old girl develops a worrisome cough, her workaholic mom drops everything to get her help. But nothing seems to work. Soon, her daughter is coughing almost constantly – 15,000 times a day – and doctors have n…
Ep. 87 | 99th Percentile
After a difficult pregnancy, a woman is delighted to give birth to a baby girl. Her new child is perfect – though she has an unusually large head. Although the problem seems to be benign, the baby soon develops other problems. Desperate to …
Ep. 86 | Out of This World/A Good Scrub Down
“Out of This World”: In 2003, a treasure hunter in Chile makes a shocking discovery: a tiny, 6-inch skeleton of what appears to be a human. But parts of its anatomy just don’t make sense. It’s too well-formed to be a fetal skeleton, and its…
Ep. 85 | Maximum Volume
After a successful overseas tour, an American rock guitarist comes home with a troubling affliction. All of a sudden, his hearing is extremely sensitive – like everything is turned up to 11. When it doesn’t go away, he’s forced to give up e…
Ep. 84 | The Sick Snowbird/A Spoonful of Sugar
“The Sick Snowbird”: After a lovely winter in Southern California, an older woman is excited to enjoy the spring in her native New Jersey. But when she starts experiencing inexplicable nausea and headaches, she ends up in the hospital. With…
Ep. 83 | The Disappearing Girl
When a vivacious preteen girl with Down syndrome suddenly becomes shy and withdrawn, her mother worries her precious daughter is getting depressed. But soon, it becomes clear that something else is wrong. With every passing day, the girl wi…
Ep. 82 | Running on Empty
A young, active mother is dismayed when she starts feeling weak and exhausted – with small children and a business to run, she can’t afford to get sick. But none of her doctors can offer an explanation. And when she finally does get an answ…
Ep. 81 | Unraveling Bolero/Crossing Over
“Unraveling Bolero”: When a middle-aged scientist experiences unexpected success as an artist, it seems like little more than a surprising career change. But then, she becomes obsessed with interpreting a repetitive orchestral piece called …
Ep. 80 | Stigmata
When a little girl in Vietnam starts mysteriously bleeding from her scalp and hands, her doctors wonder if she’s faking it for attention – to make it seem like she’s experiencing stigmata, the wounds experienced by Jesus Christ in Christian…
Ep. 79 | The Shining
In the early 1900s, a young woman gets a coveted job at a clock factory. But her work is interrupted when she feels terrible pain in her mouth. Soon, her whole jaw is rotting away. It’s up to her dentist to try and stop it. But his misguide…
Ep. 78 | The Unbearable Itch
A recovering heroin addict wakes up one morning with an odd sensation on one side of her head: a nagging, constant itch. No matter what she tries, it won’t go away. And eventually it gets so bad… she literally starts to lose her mind.See Pr…
Ep. 77 | The Sliver/Killer Style
“The Sliver”: After a man survives a terrible car accident with only a cracked vertebra, he feels grateful to have emerged relatively unscathed. But after undergoing surgery to fix the problem, his pain only grows worse – and soon, he’s on …
Ep. 76 | Stage Fright
When a high-achieving teenager suddenly starts to freeze up in social situations and her grades plummet, her mother tries to get her help. But doctors can’t explain why the girl is suddenly struggling to do ordinary things like talk. Before…
Ep. 75 | Death from Above
In the town of Oakville, Washington, chaos erupts when mysterious blobs start falling from the sky – and anyone who touches them ends up in the hospital. As scientists struggle to understand what the blobs are, Oakville’s terrified resident…
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
When an elderly man in New Brunswick, Canada, dies from what seems to be rapid-onset dementia, his doctor believes he had a rare condition called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. But then, dozens of people around the area start experiencing the s…
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
In the 1940s, the people of Donora, Pennsylvania fall prey to a deadly epidemic that destroys their lungs. Doctors suspect it has something to do with the fog that is constantly blanketing their town… but why now? They need to find an answe…
Ep. 72 | 17 Doctors
During the COVID pandemic, a boy starts experiencing sudden, inexplicable bursts of pain. At first, his symptoms seem psychological – but then doctors say he may need brain surgery to fix the problem. That’s when the boy’s mother turns to a…
Ep. 71 | A Clean Break/Look, Don’t Touch
“A Clean Break” When a night out in Nepal leaves a tourist weak and hungover, he figures he’ll feel better after some rest and rehydration. But his stomach pain becomes unbearable, and he heads to the hospital. That’s when a doctor discover…
Ep. 70 | It Comes Back
For his entire adult life, a successful businessman deals with a bizarre problem: whenever he bends over, he throws up. On top of that, he struggles with asthma-like symptoms. But no matter what techniques he tries or medicine he takes, the…
Ep. 69 | Too Much of a Good Thing
When a recovering alcoholic nearly dies after falling down his basement stairs, it seems like the tragic result of alcohol withdrawal symptoms. But when he starts seeing people who are not there at his bedside, doctors realize the man has e…
Ep. 68 | Just Like the Movies/Headache from Hell
“Just Like the Movies”A popcorn factory worker comes down with a painful, frightening rash on his arms – and then, he struggles to breathe. He and his wife are convinced something at his job is triggering these seemingly unconnected symptom…
Ep. 67 | The Endless Cry
The parents and grandmother of an infant boy are beside themselves when the baby starts crying, and won’t stop for hours on end. They know something has to be wrong, and they’re skeptical when the doctor says it’s just gas. As the boy weake…
Ep. 66 | The Nest
Following the birth of her second child, a woman comes down with what appears to be a serious case of the flu. Though she gets better, the illness comes back every six months or so, like clockwork. The symptoms get worse over the years, but…
Ep. 65 | Brain Freeze
A heroin user wakes up one morning, feeling strangely stiff. At first, his symptoms are mistaken for drug intoxication. But within days, the man is completely unable to move – and completely terrified. His doctors realize they’re dealing wi…
Ep. 64 | No Reservations/The Bitter End
No Reservations:A Spanish marathon runner develops a mysterious obsession with gourmet food. But what seems like an innocent new passion may be more dangerous than he thinks.The Game:After going through her normal morning routine, an otherw…
Ep. 63 | The Broken Sequence
A couple’s young sons both experience sudden reversals in their physical development, leaving doctors scratching their heads. Nobody understands what’s wrong, because on the surface, the boys seem perfectly fine. But to find the answer, the…
Ep. 62 | Watch Out for the Worms
A mother is terrified when her five-year-old daughter suddenly develops obsessive compulsive disorder, that leaves her completely unable to eat. Desperate to save her child, the mother embarks on a heart-pounding quest to find an answer bef…
Ep. 61 | The Speckled Monster
In the late 1700s, a doctor in the English countryside battles to save his village from the devastation of smallpox. Then, almost by accident, he stumbles upon a perplexing mystery that helps him revolutionize medicine forever.Follow MrBall…