In 1918, a strange sleeping sickness baffled doctors as patients lay trapped between sleep and waking.
The episode opens with a description of the 1918 encephalitis lethargica outbreak, a disease affecting 1-5 million people with symptoms like sleepwalking and Parkinson's-like effects. Neurologist Konstantin von Economo identified inflammation in the basal ganglia through autopsies, naming the disease. Decades later, Oliver Sacks observed similar patients at Beth Abraham Hospital and hypothesized a dopamine deficiency. He administered Levodopa, causing patients to wake from catatonia, which he documented in the book 'Awakenings,' later adapted into a film. The second story shifts to the Barkley Marathons, an ultramarathon created by Gary Cantrell. Runners receive a 'Letter of Condolence' with coordinates to find the start in the Appalachian wilderness. The race's origin stems from Cantrell mocking James Earl Ray's 8-mile escape after assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., leading Cantrell to claim he could run 100 miles in the same time. The course consists of five 20-mile loops through rugged terrain, with a 60-hour cutoff and no GPS allowed. Runners must collect page numbers from hidden books to prove completion, and most years have no finishers. In 2024, a record five people finished, including Cantrell himself and the first woman, Jasmine Parris. The episode concludes with credits and promotion for the show's book and ad-free Patreon.
