The War on Rats (1977)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s September 26th. This day in 1977, a Chicago alderman offered a $1 bounty to every one of his constituents who presented him with a severed rat tail.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how bad the rat problem got in Chicago in other cities throughout the 1970s, and how rodent infestations reflect larger questions of local government and services. Plus: everyone shares their most traumatizing rat stories.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody African.
0:11.0	This day, September 26th, 1977, Chicago Alderman Frank D. Stemberg offers a serious escalation in the
0:20.6	war on rats.
0:22.1	Look, any city has to face its rodent problem
0:25.0	and any good local politician will at some point
0:28.0	have to deal with these kinds of quality of life issues,
0:30.0	but what did Frank Stembroke do?
0:32.0	He took it to another level. He offered a $1 bounty for each
0:36.8	rat tail delivered to him. Each rat killed in the city of Chicago. Basically, vigilante justice, man versus rat.
0:44.8	May the odds be ever in your favor.
0:48.4	So here to discuss the war on rats.
0:50.6	This moment, as always are Nicole Hem Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
0:55.6	Hello, there.
0:56.6	Hello, Jody.
0:57.6	Were you hoping that the odds were in the favor of the humans?
0:59.8	Well, I will disclose where I stand over the course this episode.
1:07.0	Oh gosh. Can I just say this is my least favorite episode?
1:11.0	Great.
1:12.0	Just from the start. Yeah, We're great. Just from the start.
1:14.0	Yeah, we're going to really indulge it here.
1:16.5	So Kelly, let me ask you the first question.
	...

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