622. Why Does Everyone Hate Rats?
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What are the milestones for Freakonomics Radio?
Hey there, Steven Dubner. This year will mark a pair of anniversaries for us. And even though I ignore most anniversaries, these two have got their hooks in me. It has been 20 years since Steve Levitt and I published Freakonomics. And it's been 15 years since I started Freakonomics Radio. So we are thinking about making some kind of anniversary episode. And I want to know if you have anything to share. Maybe it's a story about how you were influenced or inspired by something from Freakonomics. Maybe it's some kind of memory or coincidence that you'd like to tell us about. Whatever it is, send us an email or a voice memo, whichever you prefer. Our address is radio at Freakonomics.com. Thanks in advance for that.
And as always, thanks for listening. In the fall of 2022, a new job listing was posted on a New York City government website. The ideal candidate, the listing read, is highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty, determined to look at all solutions from various angles, including data collection, technology innovation and wholesale slaughter. And what kind of government job requires wholesale slaughter? Here is the man responsible for this listing.
Rats do something to traumatize you, and I hate rats. That is Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City. If you walk down the block and a rat runs across your foot, you never forget it. Every time you walk down that block, you relive that.
As you may have heard, Adams was indicted last year on five federal criminal charges, including bribery and wire fraud. Although in a remarkable departure from legal precedent, the Trump administration Justice Department just ordered those charges dismissed. Through it all, the mayor's anti-rat fervor has been undiminished.
Fighting crime, fighting inequality, fighting rats. Public enemy number one, many of you don't know, are rats. If you're not scared of rats, you are really my hero.
And that job that was posted on NYC.gov, that was Eric Adams searching for his hero, who turned out to be this person.
I was certainly taken aback. I mean, the job posting itself got a lot of fanfare.
I just want to read it to verbatim. The job posting called for someone with a, quote, swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and a general aura of badassery.
Yeah.
Is that you?
I guess. Those are not words I'd necessarily include in my 150 characters.
But come on, it sounds like you fit pretty well.
Yeah, thank you.
And that swashbuckling badass is... Kathy Karate.
I'm the citywide director of verdant mitigation for the city of New York, also known as the Rat Czar.
And how do you like that title, the Rat Czar?
Yeah, it's good. My take is the more people are talking about this topic, the better it is for the work we're doing.
New York and many other cities have seen a rise in their rat populations, especially during COVID. And now they are fighting back. But is wholesale slaughter really the way to go? That is one of the many rat questions that I am eager to answer over the next few episodes. The brown rat, also known as Rattus norvegicus, is one of the most reviled animals in the world.
We really hate them. We hate their success because their success feels like our failure.
We will hear the details of New York's rat mitigation plan.
There's a whole 99-page report about how we're going to do that. But we will also hear from rat lovers. Eventually, because you're feeding it, because it's a little bit lovely, you end up feeling some warmth towards it. And what you might call rat exonerators.
Blaming the rat is pretty much, you know, game over in terms of the rat's global reputation.
And let's not forget the rat as cultural icon. This is a story about a rat who wants to become a chef. Everyone laughs. Everyone gets it. You're sold. Are you sold?
I'm going to take that as a yes. Our three-part series on rats begins now.
This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything with your host, Stephen Dubner.
Rat mitigation is complicated. It's looking at the forest and the trees at the same time. That, again, is New York City's rat czar, Kathy Karate. Really, when it comes down to rats, what we're talking about is an animal that lives in such close proximity to humans. And that's why we have such a focus on them.
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