Why Does Everyone Hate Rats? (Update)
Episode
40 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Health & Wellness, Fundraising & VC, Leadership
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Rat control strategy: Sanitation is the primary lever for rat population management, not extermination. Rats require two things to thrive — food access and harborage. Removing garbage, containerizing trash, and eliminating overgrown brush eliminates the conditions rats need. NYC's Department of Sanitation reported a 20% year-over-year decline in rat sightings using this approach.
- ✓Black Death misattribution: A 2018 PNAS study by University of Oslo ecologist Niels Christian Stenseth analyzed plague death rates across London, Barcelona, and Florence from the 1300s–1700s. The data shows human ectoparasites — body lice and human fleas — spread the Black Death faster than the rat-flea transmission model allows, largely exonerating rats from Europe's most infamous pandemic.
- ✓Rat population measurement: No reliable census method exists for urban rat populations. Any specific figure cited — whether 3 million or 8 million for New York City — is an estimate without scientific validation. Policymakers and residents should treat published rat population numbers skeptically, as they function more as political talking points than measurable benchmarks.
- ✓Cultural relativity of pest status: Whether an animal is labeled a pest reflects human values, not biology. The Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke, India houses 25,000 sacred black rats fed fruit, vegetables, and whole wheat bread. Pigeons shifted from valued messengers and fertilizer sources to "rats with wings" only after technology made their utility obsolete — demonstrating that pest status is assigned, not inherent.
- ✓Disease risk calibration: Leptospirosis, the most cited rat-transmitted illness in NYC, produced only 24 confirmed human cases in 2023 across a population of over 8 million. Novel viruses found on rats in a Columbia University study represent a theoretical future risk, but current documented public health impact from rats in developed cities remains statistically minor compared to other urban health threats.
What It Covers
Freakonomics Radio examines why rats are universally despised, tracing their history from medieval plague carriers to modern urban pests. New York City's rat czar Kathy Curati, science journalist Bethany Brookshire, and Harvard economist Ed Glaser challenge assumptions about rats, disease, and human psychology behind pest hatred.
Key Questions Answered
- •Rat control strategy: Sanitation is the primary lever for rat population management, not extermination. Rats require two things to thrive — food access and harborage. Removing garbage, containerizing trash, and eliminating overgrown brush eliminates the conditions rats need. NYC's Department of Sanitation reported a 20% year-over-year decline in rat sightings using this approach.
- •Black Death misattribution: A 2018 PNAS study by University of Oslo ecologist Niels Christian Stenseth analyzed plague death rates across London, Barcelona, and Florence from the 1300s–1700s. The data shows human ectoparasites — body lice and human fleas — spread the Black Death faster than the rat-flea transmission model allows, largely exonerating rats from Europe's most infamous pandemic.
- •Rat population measurement: No reliable census method exists for urban rat populations. Any specific figure cited — whether 3 million or 8 million for New York City — is an estimate without scientific validation. Policymakers and residents should treat published rat population numbers skeptically, as they function more as political talking points than measurable benchmarks.
- •Cultural relativity of pest status: Whether an animal is labeled a pest reflects human values, not biology. The Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke, India houses 25,000 sacred black rats fed fruit, vegetables, and whole wheat bread. Pigeons shifted from valued messengers and fertilizer sources to "rats with wings" only after technology made their utility obsolete — demonstrating that pest status is assigned, not inherent.
- •Disease risk calibration: Leptospirosis, the most cited rat-transmitted illness in NYC, produced only 24 confirmed human cases in 2023 across a population of over 8 million. Novel viruses found on rats in a Columbia University study represent a theoretical future risk, but current documented public health impact from rats in developed cities remains statistically minor compared to other urban health threats.
Notable Moment
Economist Ed Glaser, after reviewing academic literature, concluded rats likely played no significant role in the Black Death — one of history's most consequential events — yet their association with it permanently destroyed their reputation, illustrating how a single misattributed catastrophe can define a species for centuries.
Episode Transcript
Freakonomics Radio sponsored by Progressive, where drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average. Plus, auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Get a quote now at progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average twelve month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Is there a right time to sell a stock? Are you taking the right risks with your portfolio? Financial decisions can be tricky, and often your own cognitive and emotional biases can lead you astray. Financial Decoder, an original podcast from Charles Schwab can help. Join host Mark Reapy as he offers practical solutions to help overcome the cognitive and emotional biases that may affect your investing decisions. Listen at schwab.com/financialdecoder. Hey there. It's Steven Dubner. And it is springtime in New York City, which means the trees are greening up, the sidewalk cafes are crowded, and the rats are coming out. So we figured this was the moment to bring you an update of an episode we first published last year, a very popular episode called Why Does Everyone Hate rats. We have updated facts and figures as needed. Thanks for listening. In the 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, who at the time was 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. Adams made a lot of headlines when he was in office, like an indictment on federal criminal charges, including bribery and wire fraud, although those were ultimately dismissed. Recently, Adams became a citizen of Albania. During his one term as mayor, Adams was fervently anti rat. 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 wanna read it to you 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 …
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by Niels Christian Stenseth, University of Oslo
“A 2018 PNAS study by University of Oslo ecologist Niels Christian Stenseth analyzed plague death rates across London, Barcelona, and Florence from the 1300s–1700s.”
by Columbia University
“Novel viruses found on rats in a Columbia University study represent a theoretical future risk, but current documented public health impact from rats in developed cities remains statistically minor.”
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