This American Life: When The Beast Come Marching In
Stories of what happens when animals drop into the world that we humans have constructed for ourselves.
Prologue.
Ira visits an 83-year-old man named Dick Paterniti who’s been waging a long and lonely war against a woodpecker.
ACT ONE: Beaching and Moaning
(James Spring)
Even when an animal is not a pest, not chewing up homes or spreading disease or biting average citizens, even when it is universally loved, it can still wreak havoc when it arrives in our world. James Spring has this example from a community of harbor seals in La Jolla, Califorina, near San Diego. [Song: “Crazy,” Seal]
ACT TWO: Hungry like a USDA Contract Employee.
(Michael Chernus)
Back in the day, generally when a wild animal showed up, we’d just kill it. Take this press release the federal government put out nearly a hundred years ago. They hired a trapper to take out the most successful animal outlaw that the range country ever knew. Read by actor Michael Chernus. [Song: “Big Science”, Laurie Anderson]
ACT THREE: Weeknight at Bernie’s.
(Jon Mooallem)
In Anchorage, many people take pride in being able to co-exist side-by-side with wild animals. Jon Mooallem has the story of one animal that became a resident of the city in a way that few non-humans ever do. Jon is author of the book “Wild Ones.”
[Song: “Animal – Mark Ronson Remix,” Miike Snow]
[Song: “Talk to The Animals” ,Wayne Brady]
