Of Rats and Men

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And during the pandemic, they've been out in full force: fewer humans outdoors means more space for rats. And it turns out, they're a lot like us: They've colonized the whole planet; they're incredibly adaptable; they go wherever the resources are. And, they share one-fourth of our genome—so when you're looking in the mirror, you're kinda seeing a rat staring back at you. So for this episode, we dove into the history of our rodent doppelgängers. What we found was a story that spans thousands of years and nearly every continent on Earth, from the fields of ancient Mongolia to the palaces of Victorian England to the laboratories of 20th century Maryland... and probably to a burrow near you.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get to our episode this week, I know a lot of you are probably following what's happening in Ukraine right now.
0:05.6	And we just wanted to let you know that we're hard at work on an episode to help you make sense of everything.
0:10.7	Look out for it and your feeds next week.
0:13.3	For now, we present you with rats.
0:18.3	Alright, okay, so you ready for this?
0:20.3	Yes.
0:21.3	Alright, so we're walking.
0:23.3	It's a nice day today.
0:24.8	Very sunny.
0:26.1	Surprisingly, no rats yet.
0:29.1	Yeah, inside.
0:30.1	Because there's street sweet being apparently.
0:32.1	Yeah, but I'm sure that's going to change once we meet up with Bobby.
0:36.1	Bobby Corrigan.
0:38.1	Yeah, Rodenthal just.
0:40.1	Rodenthal just.
0:41.1	Yeah, yeah, all things.
0:43.1	Rodent.
0:44.1	A few weeks back, I convinced producer Lawrence Wu, who's been with us since the very beginning of through line.
0:49.1	To go with me on a rat safari through New York City.
0:53.1	He used to live here too, but before the rats chased him out to New Jersey.
0:57.1	See the left look to the right and he rats know.
	...

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