Why Does Everyone Hate Rats? (Update)

New York City’s mayor called them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. In an updated episode from 2025, we ask: Is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? SOURCES: Bethany Brookshire , author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Kathy Corradi , senior vice president of resident services, partnerships, and initiatives at the New York City Housing Authority. 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 (2022). " 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). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to Why Does Everyone Hate Rats? (Update) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Why Does Everyone Hate Rats? (Update) is an episode from Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher.

This episode is 00:40:34 long.

This episode was published on Apr 22, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Freakonomics Radio when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.