Summary
Overview
This Freakonomics Radio episode investigates humanity's complicated relationship with rats, challenging common assumptions about these urban dwellers. Host Stephen Dubner explores New York City's aggressive rat mitigation efforts under former Mayor Eric Adams while examining scientific evidence that rats may not have caused the Black Death as commonly believed. The episode features insights from NYC's former 'Rat Czar' Kathy Karate, scientists who study plague transmission, economist Ed Glazer, and science journalist Bethany Brookshire, who argues that rats are unfairly vilified and reflect more about human attitudes than actual animal behavior.
New York's War on Rats and the Rise of the Rat Czar
Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams declared rats 'public enemy number one' and created a provocative job posting for a 'Rat Czar' seeking someone with a 'swashbuckling attitude' and taste for 'wholesale slaughter.' Kathy Karate was hired for this role, bringing expertise from her work on rat mitigation in NYC public schools. The position emerged as rat populations surged during COVID, creating increased urgency around urban rodent control in America's largest city.
- Eric Adams posted a dramatic job listing for a Rat Czar seeking someone 'highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty' willing to pursue 'wholesale slaughter'
- Kathy Karate was hired as NYC's first Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation after working on waste and rat issues in public schools
- Adams described rats as traumatizing and said fighting rats was as important as fighting crime and inequality
" Rats do something to traumatize you, and I hate rats. 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. "
Understanding Rat Biology and Urban Success
Rats are remarkably intelligent survivors who thrive in human environments because they are 'commensal' creatures that literally sit at our table. Kathy Karate explains that rats need only habitat and food, both abundantly provided by human cities. Their intelligence includes neophobia (fear of new objects), social learning, and even documented empathy and altruism. The brown rat has exploited urban spaces for centuries, arriving in New York in the 18th century on ships from Europe.
- Rats are 'commensal' animals, meaning they thrive specifically because of the resources humans provide in urban spaces
- Rats exhibit sophisticated survival behaviors including sending less dominant rats to test new food sources
- The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) dates back to the time of dinosaurs and arrived in New York in the 18th century
- Rats demonstrate intelligence through neophobia, social learning, empathy, and altruism
" In terms of adaptability to survive, there's few species greater. They will avoid new things in their environment because they're unsure if they're harmful or helpful. There are stories of less dominant rats being sent out to test a new food source and then being monitored to see if there's ill effects. "
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