This American Life - 801: Must Be Rats on the Brain

Duration: 1h 7m
Broadcast on: 09 Jun 2023
Audio Format: other

- I'm WBC Chicago, it's American Life. - Good morning, and it's a great morning for New Yorkers and a great morning to be in New York City. - We're at a press conference in a park in Harlem where New York's Mayor Adams in April. - There are two undisputed truths about the Adams administration. Mayor Eric Adams loves his mother. Mayor Eric Adams hates rats. - This event was to introduce New Yorkers to their brand new rat czar. This is the position the mayor created. And his job listing caught for candidates who were, quote, "highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty with a swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and general aura of bad assery." New York's mayor is not popular. He's got huge disapproval ratings on crime and homelessness fewer than half of all New Yorkers like the way he's doing his job. So when the mayor talks rats, it's with the joy of a dad whose kids don't want any of the dinneries cook them, who finally, a dessert, gets to hand them massive, hot fudge sundays. He's made it a big issue. - And I hear it all the time. I'm on the trains and walking the streets. People stop me and say, you know, we're with you, man. We hate those damn rats. And, you know, remember when I came out that rat device? You know, I had a rat device. We caught 96 rats around Brooklyn Borough Hall, 96 rats. And, you know, there were people that were yelling, you know, all you motor on, you motor on it, you know. - This is the kind of cutthroat swagger in a lot of the remarks this day. Thanks to the podium as a table with all kinds of gear for shooting, poisoning, and trapping rats. Soon, the new rats are, Kathy Grady takes the stage and a zinger is to kill rodents. Well, New York's in good hands. - You'll be seeing a lot of me and a lot less rats. (laughing) (clapping) (laughing) - There's a new sheriff in town. (laughing) And, with your help, we'll send those rats packing. (clapping)

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