Worked at a lab researching toxoplasma as an undergraduate. Part of its life cycle takes place in prey animals and part in the digestive systems of predators; it causes mice, e.g., to lose their fear response to the scent of cat urine. Wild little bug.
In other words, these newly reported business career-promoting effects of infection are presumably the parasite trying its best to get you eaten by a large beast.
Another fun fact: Martin Shkreli generated his first round of public outrage (and put himself on the road to being swallowed by the carceral state) by jacking up the price of an obscure drug for managing toxoplasma infection. What if he was suffering from the parasite’s effects?
