Even with a new rat czar, an arsenal of poisons, and a fleet of new garbage trucks, it won’t be easy — because, at root, the enemy is us. (Part two of a three-part series, “Sympathy for the Rat.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Kathy Corradi, director of rodent mitigation for New York City.
  • Robert Corrigan, urban rodentologist and pest consultant for New York City.
  • Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University.
  • Robert Sullivan, author of Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitant.
  • Jessica Tisch, New York City police commissioner.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population," by Jonathan Richardson, Elizabeth McCoy, Nicholas Parlavecchio, Ryan Szykowny, Eli Beech-Brown, Jan Buijs, Jacqueline Buckley, Robert Corrigan, Federico Costa, Ray Delaney, Rachel Denny, Leah Helms, Wade Lee, Maureen Murray, Claudia Riegel, Fabio Souza, John Ulrich, Adena Why, and Yasushi Kiyokawa (Science Advances, 2025).
  • "The Next Frontier in New York's War on Rats: Birth Control," by Emma Fitzsimmons (New York Times, 2024).
  • "The Absurd Problem of New York City Trash," by Emily Badger and Larry Buchanan (New York Times, 2024).
  • "Mourning Flaco, the Owl Who Escaped," by Naaman Zhou (The New Yorker, 2024).
  • Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, by Robert Sullivan (2005).

• EXTRAS:
  • "The Downside of Disgust," by Freakonomics Radio (2021)

A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business.

• RESOURCES:
  • Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, documentary (2021)
  • Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947, by Norman Lebrecht (2019)
  • The War Room, documentary (1993)

• EXTRAS:
  • “Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)” by Freakonomics Radio (2025)
  • “Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent,” by Freakonomics Radio (2023)

New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. So is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? (Part one of a three-part series.)

• SOURCES:
  • Bethany Brookshire, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains.
  • Kathy Corradi, director of rodent mitigation for New York City.
  • Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University.
  • Nils Stenseth, professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Oslo.

• RESOURCES:
  • "On Patrol With the Rat Czar," by Mark Chiusano (Intelligencer, 2024).
  • "How Rats Took Over North America," by Allison Parshall (Scientific American, 2024).
  • "Where Are the Rats in New York City," by Matt Yan (New York Times, 2024).
  • "Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" by Bethany Brookshire (2023).
  • "Human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic," by Nils Stenseth, Katharine Dean, Fabienne Krauer, Lars Walløe, Ole Christian Lingjærde, Barbara Bramanti, and Boris Schmid (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Freakonomics Radio Live: 'Jesus Could Have Been a Pigeon.'" by Freakonomics Radio (2018).