Aw, Rats

For years, Jonah roamed the moors of the internet in search of a particular kind ...

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For years, Jonah roamed the moors of the internet in search of a particular kind of expert to host on the Remnant, but his efforts seemed in vain. At last, however, his sacrifices to Baal have been answered. Today, Dr. Michael H. Parsons, an expert on rodentology at Fordham University, joins the program to discuss everything you could possibly want to know about rats, their behavior, and why controlling them in urban areas is so difficult. What does rat culture look like? How do rats really feel about people? Why are certain cities plagued by them while others seem untainted? And should you be concerned by Jonah’s exceptionally good mood?

Show Notes:

– Dr. Parsons: “Better rat control in cities starts by changing human behavior”

– Dr. Parsons: “Revealing the secret lives of urban rats”

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  1. DocHeartless

    Fantastic!! I love these breaks from the rankest of punditry. It keeps us and you fresh, and how many times in a row can we really hear about culture war stuff. This was fantastic! Feel free to increase the frequency imo!!

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  2. Amber

    I found this incredibly interesting. It has also further added fuel to my pent-up rage about refuse/food waste management in NYC, littering, and those that don't pick up their dog's poop. I can't wait to add "rat population control" to my normal mutterings under my breath when I see such offenses on the street.

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    LeighAnnNC

    An amazingly great pod…. I started with zero interest… and then got sucked in….

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    Marian Cates

    I really enjoyed this episode.

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    Peregrinus

    Love the idea of the pod conceptually, but I found the expert guest underwhelming. He too often spoke like a politician. I understand not wanting to state something that hasn’t been proven scientifically as a fact, but at least go out on the limb and give us a hypothesis or an educated guess. There were just too many “ I don’t knows” throughout. The last straw was not being able to pinpoint the number of rats in the city narrower than 50,000 to 32,000,000. Gotta do better than that.

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  6. DG Price

    Like a disease carried in the gut of a rodent, your enthusiasm for rats somehow infected me with excitement for 70 minutes of rat-talk.

    #omegaenergy

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  7. Philebus

    If you're interested, check out Tupperware parties and sales in third world countries - something you may not have considered - keeps the rats of your food.

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  8. Mike Darnell

    Very entertaining. I don’t believe it was covered but I would like to know if there is a model that indicates just how many wild rats are ideal to coexist with humankind. My assumption is that our present number is far greater than ideal. The treated water that sterilizes rats sounds interesting but is the active ingredient specific to rats or is there collateral outcomes but should I even care?

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  9. John McGowan

    In 1972 during the Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe in Germany outside a US Kaserne in Frankfurt AM I was an MP assigned to control a closed back gate that was adjacent to a main road out of Frankfurt AM to cornfields adjacent to the Kaserne fence-line. In the early grey dawn hours rats would troop from the roadway drainage ditches along the fence-line into the corn fields. I always wondered were these urban rats or country rats. They definitely were commuters.

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    Daniel Standage

    Great episode! But...

    Huge whiff for Jonah and Dr. Parsons on Alberta. I have relatives and friends from Alberta, and the eradication of rats from their province is a point of pride. https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx

    And since Jonah mentioned Ratatouille, I'll note that the Disney BluRay has an entertaining segment on Alberta in the extra features.

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    1. Clark Monson

      Totally! I was practically shouting "Calgary and Edmonton!" when he asked if there were any cities with no rats. We're not talking Fargo or Juneau here (no disrespect intended for either of those fine cities): each of those cities has more than a million people. And no rats. I hope Dr. Parsons after the episode was thinking, "darn it, I forgot about Alberta!" because that's a big miss for a guy whose specialty is rats.

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