Tonight we'll share some rodent stories with you.

Tonight we'll free rat myth from rat true.

It's Curious City editor Alexandra Solomon, and you're listening to a song about rats.

So I can almost hear you thinking, what's that all about?

Well, a while back, we got a question from then 12-year-old Justin Carrasco.

How many rats are in Chicago and why?

Well, we dug around to answer Justin's question, and we also heard from a lot of other people who wanted to talk about rats.

So many, in fact, that we put together a live event at the hideout a while back to share

what we learned.

We had a great crowd, and as you just heard, there was a band

playing rat-related music. And some Chicagoans even shared their own rat tales.

The rat crawled out. It crawled out right towards me. I don't remember if I was chasing

the rat or if the rat was chasing me. But I do remember that both of us were screaming.

For whatever reason, the trans community has like a deep, like just love of rats.

Don't ask me why don't ask me how I got my way to loving rats so much.

So when we come back, we'll hand the mic to producer Jesse Dukes, who hosted the event.

He'll try to answer Justin's question via a trip to what was once described as Chicago's most rat-infested alley.

And we'll hear some of those rat encounters.

That's next.

So please welcome our first storyteller. Oh, it's me. with you.

So please welcome our first storyteller.

Oh, it's me.

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