624. The Animal No One Loves, Until They Do
45:19 Share

To most people, the rat is vile and villainous. But not to everyone! We hear from a scientist who befriended rats and another who worked with them in the lab — and from the animator who made one the hero of a Pixar blockbuster. (Part three of a three-part series), “Sympathy for the Rat.”)

• SOURCES:

• Bethany Brookshire), author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

• Jan Pinkava,) creator and co-writer of "Ratatouille," and director of the Animation Institute at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg.

• Julia Zichello,) evolutionary biologist at Hunter College.

• RESOURCES:

• "Weekend Column: Rat’s End, or, How a Rat Dies,)" by Julia Zichello (West Side Rag, 2024).

• Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains)* *by Bethany Brookshire (2022).

• "Rats: the history of an incendiary cartoon trope,)" by Archie Bland (The Guardian, 2015).

• "Catching the Rat: Understanding Multiple and Contradictory Human-Rat Relations as Situated Practices,)" by Koen Beumer (Society & Animals, 2014).

• "Effects of Chronic Methylphenidate on Dopamine/Serotonin Interactions in the Mesolimbic DA System of the Mouse,)" by Bethany Brookshire (Wake Forest University, 2010).

• "A New Deal For Mice,)" by C.C. Little (Scientific American, 1935).