Ocularium: Four True Tales of Eye Horror

Summary

🎃 Ocularium marks the debut of Outbreak After Dark with a Halloween episode that peers into one of medicine’s most unsettling frontiers: real parasites and pathogens that invade the human eye.

Around the campfire, Heather, Kate, and Sam share four true stories of ocular infection—equal parts fascinating, horrifying, and scientifically real—launching a series where infectious disease history meets gothic storytelling.

The science is accurate. The stories are true. And after this episode… you may never blink the same way again.

Listen here or scroll down to read the episode overview or download the full transcript.

Recipes for episode snacks and drinks are at the end of the post, under the signature.

👉Download Full Episode Transcript:

OAD Ocularium Transcript.pdf

Download PDF • 218KB

Episode Overview

Ocularium is the very first episode of Outbreak After Dark—a monthly extension of Infectious Dose where Heather welcomes her dear friends Kate and Sam as co-hosts to discuss real infectious disease stories in the glow of the campfire, with humor, snacks, and just enough unease to linger after the fire burns low.

This Halloween debut explores a deeply uncomfortable truth: sometimes the things we fear most aren’t superstition at all. They’re microscopic, well-documented, and alive.

Across four true case-driven stories, the episode examines pathogens and parasites capable of invading the human eye—organisms that crawl, scar, dissolve, or quietly inhabit the structures we rely on most to see the world.

The episode moves from tropical forests to fast-flowing rivers, household tap water, and even a modern goat yoga class, revealing how exposure, environment, and chance collisions between humans and microbes can lead to rare—but very real—ocular infections.

Each story blends clinical science with narrative storytelling:

• A wandering filarial worm that crosses the surface of the eye

• A parasite responsible for millions of cases of preventable blindness worldwide

• A free-living amoeba capable of destroying the cornea

• A bizarre but documented zoonotic eyeworm infection in the United States

Along the way, the hosts unpack transmission routes, symptoms, treatment options, and—critically—how most of these infections are preventable with basic public-health measures, hygiene, and awareness.

As the first Outbreak After Dark, Ocularium establishes the ritual that defines the series: true science, dark stories, respectful humor, and the reminder that the most unsettling tales are often the ones grounded in reality.

This isn’t horror for shock value. It’s biology—doing exactly what it’s evolved to do.

To end the episode, Heather, Kate, and Sam establish an Outbreak After Dark tradition with their closing recitation:

By the fire we meet…

With food, drink, and infectious creep…

This is Outbreak After Dark.

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Happy Halloween, everyone. And remember — Outbreak After Dark will be back once a month, with new stories waiting in the shadows. Until then… sleep tight. And don’t let the worms bite.

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