A team of reporters with VICE World News tries to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding a bizarre illness.

Fernando Arruda
Sound Designer, Engineer and Composer
Fernando Arruda is a sound designer, engineer and composer for Reveal. As a multi-instrumentalist, he contributes to the original music, editing and mixing of the weekly public radio show and podcast. He has held four O-1 visas for individuals with extraordinary abilities. His work has been recognized with Peabody, duPont-Columbia, Edward R. Murrow, Gerald Loeb, Third Coast and Association of Music Producers awards, as well as Emmy and Pulitzer nominations. Prior to joining Reveal, Arruda toured as an international DJ and taught music technology at Dubspot and ESRA International Film School. He worked at Antfood, a creative audio studio for media and TV ads, and co-founded a film-scoring boutique called the Manhattan Composers Collective. He worked with clients such as Marvel, MasterClass and Samsung and ad agencies such as Framestore, Trollbäck+Company, BUCK and Vice. Arruda releases experimental music under the alias FJAZZ and has performed with many jazz, classical and pop ensembles, such as SFJAZZ Monday Night Band, Art&Sax quartet, Krychek, Dark Inc. and the New York Arabic Orchestra. His credits in the podcast and radio world include NPR’s “51 Percent,” WNYC’s “Bad Feminist Happy Hour” and its live broadcast of Orson Welles’ “The Hitchhiker,” Wondery’s “Detective Trapp,” MSNBC’s “Why Is This Happening?” and NBC’s “Born to Rule,” to name a few. Arruda also has a wide catalog of composed music for theatrical, orchestral and chamber music formats, some of which has premiered worldwide. He holds a master’s degree in film scoring and composition from NYU Steinhardt. The original music he makes with Jim Briggs for Reveal can be found on Bandcamp.
Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires
Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist system known as convict leasing.
In Bondage to the Law
Toforest Johnson has been on Alabama’s death row for 25 years. Now, his conviction is being called into question.
We Regret to Inform You
When police kill someone, they have to notify the family. Some officers are using that moment for something else.
The Welfare-to-Work Industrial Complex
How “work requirements” spawned a lucrative industry profiting off people in need.
America Goes Psychedelic, Again
For 50 years, the idea of making psychedelic drugs legal again was unthinkable. Now, even conservative lawmakers are supporting efforts to approve psychedelics as a treatment for veterans with PTSD.
Cashing in on Troubled Teens
How the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.
From Victim to Suspect
A young mom with a daughter to support puts up with her boss’s crude behavior, until one night she says he goes too far. She goes to the police – but that doesn’t solve her problem. It creates a new one.
How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
Many schools teach reading using an approach that can actually make it harder for kids to learn. Kids are taught to use strategies like “look at the picture” and “think of a word that makes sense.” This episode is a partnership with American Public Media’s Sold a Story podcast.
Alphabet Boys Revealed
Secret undercover recordings reveal an FBI operation to infiltrate Denver’s racial justice protests in 2020. Reveal partners with the podcast Alphabet Boys to take listeners inside that investigation.