What’s behind the strange phenomenon of Havana syndrome? — podcast review

You know how it is. You wait ages for a podcast on Havana syndrome, the mysterious phenomenon that left scores of US diplomats in Cuba with neurological problems, and then two come along at once.

First up is an eight-parter from Project Brazen and PRX called The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome, in which the British journalist Nicky Woolf investigates the aural and visual disturbances first experienced by officials working at Cuba’s US embassy in 2016. Sufferers reported hearing a high-pitched buzzing noise and feelings of intense pressure in the head. Then came longer-term symptoms including nausea, vertigo, blurred vision, insomnia, hearing and memory loss. Scans showed evidence of damage to the brain, though there were no entry or exit wounds. Doctors called it “the immaculate concussion”, though as the story went public, and the FBI and CIA began to investigate, it was anointed Havana syndrome.

But is it real and, if so, who or what is behind it? Could it be a mass psychosis, and that loud buzzing sound just some really noisy cicadas? These are some of the questions plaguing Woolf, whom many will know from the excellent Finding Q podcast, in which he searched for the architect of the online movement QAnon. Here he has alighted on a similarly knotty story, one that is a mystery, a conspiracy theory and a tale of espionage and geopolitical strife rolled into one.

He hears from neurologists, political analysts and sound experts, and talks to Havana syndrome patients — or, rather he interviews their partners since many of those afflicted still find it difficult to talk. The series goes heavy on the drama, deploying chilling sound effects imitating the experiences of victims and opening with choirs singing “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”, as Woolf recounts the Old Testament tale of God commanding the Israelites to besiege Jericho with the sound of massed trumpets. The writing is also terrific. Reflecting on the destructive properties of sound, Woolf observes: “A powerful enough soundwave is a shockwave, a powerful enough shockwave destroys everything in its path. That’s the duality of sound. It can create beauty or pandemonium.”

Havana Syndrome, a new podcast from Vice, similarly ponders how and why this mysterious illness took hold. It is the work of journalists Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous, who began their investigations in an article in The New Yorker, published in 2018. Here, they open with the case of Tina Onufer, a Foreign Service officer who was struck by an intense pain while washing the dishes in her Havana home, after which they dig deep into the political backdrop, specifically the thawing of relations between Cuba and the US during the Obama years. While their series doesn’t have the lyricism and stylishness of Woolf’s, it is no less gripping and authoritative.

‘The Sound’: podcasts.apple.com

‘Havana Syndrome’: podcasts.apple.com