Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

This episode examines the history of dogs and their relationship to propagating the rabies virus throughout the Indian subcontinent. I explore this through tracing the domestication of dogs in early civilizations and how they came to India, contributing to the population of free-roaming street dogs that exists today. I also examine the history of the rabies virus, the development of the rabies vaccine, and the intentions behind its introduction to India. This story dives into the country’s deeply rooted history with British colonialism and how colonial ideas have contributed to the persistence of rabies in modern India. I also examine how the current political landscape has responded to the crisis and why existing prevention efforts have not fully halted it. The podcast incorporates perspectives from the general public on dogs, as well as a firsthand account from my uncle, a veterinarian practicing in India. Ultimately, I explore the question of why the rabies crisis still exists in India and arrive at the conclusion that there may not be a clear answer. 

Suggested Readings

Srinivasan, K., Kurz, T., Kuttuva, P., & Pearson, C. (2019). Reorienting rabies research and practice: Lessons from India. Palgrave Communications, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0358-y

Venkatesan, V. (2025). Stray dog “menace”: Making sense of the Supreme Court’s intervention - Supreme Court Observer.  https://www.scobserver.in/journal/stray-dogs-menace-making-sense-of-the-supreme-courts-intervention/

Radhakrishnan, S., Vanak, A. T., Nouvellet, P., & Donnelly, C. A. (2020). Rabies as a Public Health Concern in India-A Historical Perspective. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed5040162

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

In today's episode, Sympathy for the Weevil, we take a closer look at an insect that most people have never heard of, but one that changed the trajectory of American history: the cotton boll weevil.
Inspired by the Rolling Stones' hit song Sympathy for the Devil, a song that pushes listeners to reconsider who we label as the source of evil and why, this episode explores the legacy of a tiny insect that is often blamed for one of the largest agricultural disasters in United States history. The boll weevil, an insect the size of a fingernail, devastated cotton crops and disrupted economies across the American South. But there’s more to the boll weevil’s story beyond simply being a destructive pest.
From the Blues songs of Black farmers to later compositions that showed a return to racist agricultural practices, we use archival and modern-day music to examine how different communities understood, represented, and valued the boll weevil. Over the course of this episode, we explore how the boll weevil infestation, lasting from 1892-2011, reshaped the migration patterns, education, and family dynamics within Black populations.
After being presented with the scientific and historical facts, we challenge listeners to see the boll weevil not solely as a pest that caused widespread economic devastation, but to see this insect as a catalyst for change, uncovering oppressive labor dynamics that persist today.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Cohen, Z. P., Bredeson, J. V., Haro, J. G., Benavides, C. E., Dotray, P. A., Raszick, T. J., Roe, R. M., & Campbell, M. S. (2023). Insight into weevil biology from a reference quality genome of the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 13(2), jkac309. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkac309

Gilliland, F. R., & McCoy, C. E. (1969). The behavior of newly emerged boll weevils. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 62(3), 602–605. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/62.3.602 

Fligstein, N. (1983). The transformation of southern agriculture and the migration of Blacks and Whites, 1930–1940. International Migration Review, 17(2), 268–290. https://doi.org/10.2307/2545978

U.S. Congress, House. (1974). Review of the boll weevil eradication program (93rd Cong.). U.S. Government Publishing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93hhrg26355/pdf/CHRG-93hhrg26355.pdf

Shipman, M. (2017, May 17). The boll weevil war, or how farmers and scientists saved cotton in the South. NC State News. https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/05/boll-weevil-war-2017/

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

California’s kelp forests are among the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems, providing habitat, food, and protection for countless marine species. In recent years, however, many of these underwater forests have disappeared. At the center of this transformation remains an unlikely culprit: the purple sea urchin. In this podcast episode, we examine how ecological disturbances including disease outbreaks among sea stars, marine heatwaves, and climate change, have contributed to explosive growth in purple sea urchin populations. We also discuss ongoing restoration efforts and what the future may hold for California’s marine environments. Join us as we uncover the complex ecological story behind one of the Pacific Coast’s most significant environmental challenges.

Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Dr. Craig for sharing his expertise on marine ecology and kelp forest ecosystems. His insights and perspectives greatly enriched our understanding of the ecological dynamics surrounding purple sea urchins and their impact on California’s coastal environments. We are grateful for his time and contribution to this project.

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

In this podcast episode, three UCLA students explore the complex relationship between humans and one of the world's most familiar birds: the house sparrow. What begins as a simple question, are sparrows pests, unfolds into a discussion of ecology, history, politics, and human behavior. The episode examines two major historical case studies involving sparrows. First, the hosts discuss China's Four Pests Campaign during the Great Leap Forward, where millions of sparrows were exterminated after being blamed for crop losses, contributing to devastating ecological consequences. The conversation then shifts to 19th-century America, where house sparrows were intentionally introduced from Europe and initially celebrated before later being labeled invasive pests. Drawing from scientific literature and interviews with avian researchers, the hosts explain the biological traits that have made house sparrows so successful, including their adaptability, reproductive flexibility, and close association with human environments. The episode also explores the ecological, agricultural, and social impacts of sparrows while examining how language surrounding invasive species can reflect broader ideas about belonging and exclusion. By combining science, history, and ethics, the episode encourages listeners to reconsider what it means for a species to be labeled a "pest." Special thanks to Dr. Michelle Rensel (UCLA) and Dr. Andrea Liebl (University of South Dakota) for taking time to sit down with us and share their expertise on house sparrows.

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

The zebra mussel is an aquatic mollusk species native to the Ural basin of western Europe. First discovered in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, they have since been causing immense havoc in native ecosystems, recreational water areas, and municipal water infrastructure in North American fresh waterways, despite being no larger than the size of a thumbnail. They caught the public by surprise by quickly invading multiple bodies across the world. Due to their unique reproductive biology that allows them to reproduce quickly and their role as filter feeders allowing them to outcompete other species, they can be thought of as a prolific, possibly unstoppable pest. Our podcast explores zebra mussel physiology, ecological impacts, and community management methods in the face of a seemingly unstoppable pest.

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

When Rats Fly: Why Did We Abandon the Pigeon? is an eye-opening historical and scientific podcast that challenges everything you think you know about America’s cities' most misunderstood residents. Hosted by Fairen, Joey, and Sanjana, the show tracks the dramatic, thousands-of-years-long trajectory of human-pigeon relations. Through engaging storytelling, expert interviews, and a healthy dose of wit and personality, the three hosts reveal that pigeons weren’t always viewed as "rats with wings." In fact, they were once revered as symbols of fertility, treated as luxury status symbols, and fiercely celebrated as decorated wartime messengers. The podcast dives deep into the mind-blowing biology of these birds—exploring how they navigate using a sophisticated "multisensory toolkit" composed of magnetic fields, polarized light, infrasound, and olfactory maps. Joined by expert and behavioral neuroscientist Dr. Aaron Blaisdell, the team examines the complex psychological capabilities of pigeons, alongside historic oddities like B.F. Skinner’s secret World War II project to create pigeon-guided missiles. Ultimately, When Rats Fly serves as a poignant cultural critique, unpacking how 20th-century urban design, aesthetic biases, and a misguided desire to separate cities from nature completely flipped the narrative on these fiercely intelligent creatures. It is a must-listen for anyone curious about animal cognition, forgotten history, or the hidden complexities of the urban ecosystem–and the perfect place for all pigeon enthusiasts!

Suggested Further Reading

Jerolmack, C. (2014). How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem Animals. Social ProblemsRetrieved April 28, 2026, from https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2008.55.1.72

Hung, C.-M., Shaner, P.-J. L., Zink, R. M., Liu, W.-C., Chu, T.-C., Huang, W.-S., & Li, S.-H. (2014). Drastic population fluctuations explain the rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(29), 10636–10641. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1401526111

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

What happens when a fish becomes a symbol? In this episode, we follow invasive carp through the Illinois River, tracing a story that starts with federal fish commissions in the 1800s and leads to the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a billion-dollar barrier system designed to keep carp out of the Great Lakes. The United States imported these fish on purpose. They spread through waterways humans engineered. And somewhere along the way, they acquired a name that carried far more weight than biology. Drawing from scientific studies, government reports, media coverage, and community perspectives, we examine how invasive carp became one of the most recognizable environmental controversies in the United States. We explore how the label "Asian carp" flattened ecological complexity into a single threatening category, how viral images of jumping silver carp transformed an environmental issue into a public spectacle, and how invasion rhetoric began intersecting with larger conversations about borders, belonging, and national identity. Perspectives from scientists, anglers, and Indigenous scholars complicate familiar narratives about invasive species and environmental management while revealing competing visions of how rivers, species, and movement should be understood. This is a story about fish, but it was never only about fish. It is also a story about language, power, and the ways societies decide what does and does not belong.

Suggestions for Further Reading 

Huber, P. (1995). A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of a Southern White Masculine Identity. Southern Cultures, 1(2), 145–166. https://doi.org/10.1353/scu.1995.0074 

Rasmussen, B. (2024). Angling in the Anthropocene: Carp and the Making of Race on the Los Angeles River. Rewilding the Urban Frontier: River Conservation in the Anthropocene, 287–315. 

U.S. Geological Survey. (2018). “Asian carp” is societally and scientifically problematic. Let’s replace it. 

Wehi, P. M., Kamelamela, K. L., Whyte, K., Watene, K., & Reo, N. (2023). Contribution of Indigenous Peoples' understandings and relational frameworks to invasive alien species management. People and Nature, 5, 1403–1414. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10508

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

In this episode of Enemies Underground, we’ll explore the long and complicated history between Californians and the California Ground Squirrel. Long before California was settled by Europeans, these squirrels inhabited the landscape and played an important role in local ecosystems. However, as human populations expanded, their relationship with ground squirrels shifted dramatically. Once hunted as a food source, the animals later became targets of widespread eradication campaigns when they were associated with the spread of bubonic plague and viewed as a growing threat to agriculture. Since the early 1900s, Californians have waged an ongoing war against the California Ground Squirrel through trapping, poisoning, gassing, and even fertility control programs, yet their populations have proven remarkably resilient. In this podcast, we’ll examine the century-long conflict between humans and ground squirrels, uncover the motivations behind these control efforts, and explore why the war against the California Ground Squirrel has never truly been won.

Recommended Readings For Listeners: 

For the best listening experience, we recommend you immerse yourselves in relevant reading material.

Barry, S. (n.d.). A brief history of ground squirrel control efforts in California. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2018-08/288938.pdf. 
This source provides a useful brief historical background of the ground squirrel story! We recommend taking a quick read to familiarize your self with the key players in the war on squirrels. 

Marsh, R. E. (1998). Historical review of ground squirrel crop damage in California. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, 42(2-3), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0964-8305(98)00014-6
This source provides a more comprehensive background for those interested in the details of this tale. 

Center. (2024, September 26). California OKs Strongest Rat Poison Restrictions in Nation. Center for Biological Diversity. https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/california-oks-strongest-rat-poison-restrictions-in-nation-2024-09-25/
On the other hand, this source gives recent insight on the latest developments of the management of California Ground Squirrels. 

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

Mosquitoes kill more humans than any other animal on Earth. They carry malaria, dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and more. And despite decades of scientific effort and billions of dollars spent, we are still losing. In this episode, Ee Mahmud and Hayley Torres trace the history of humanity's attempts to fight back. They follow DDT and the ecological disaster it left behind, genetically modified mosquitoes released over communities without their consent, Wolbachia bacteria introduced into mosquito populations with results scientists still cannot fully explain, and a drug discovered in 2025 that makes human blood itself lethal to the mosquito.
But science is only part of the story. This episode asks who gets to make these decisions, who carries the burden when things go wrong, and who never gets asked at all. The mosquito did not create these inequalities. It exposed them.
Featuring an interview with USC researcher Dr. Luisa Reis-Castro, this episode moves from the history of DDT to the cutting edge of genetic science, and ends with a centuries-old Indigenous story that asks a question Western science is still trying to answer: what if the mosquito was never something we could beat?

Suggested Further Reading

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962). Penguin Books.
Carson exposed what DDT was doing to ecosystems before anyone wanted to hear it.

Wienhues, Anna (2021) ‘The Innocent Mosquito? The Environmental Ethics of Mosquito Eradication’ [book chapter] in Mosquitopia? The Place of Pests in a Healthy World edited by Marcus Hall and Dan Tamir. London: Routledge.
A short piece that asks whether humans are actually justified in trying to wipe out an entire species. It reframes the mosquito as a victim of circumstance rather than an enemy.

Reis-Castro, L. (2026). View of Can the Mosquito Bite? the Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio De Janeiro. Engaging Science Technology and Society  https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/1555/939 
The article by the researcher interviewed in this episode. It follows Wolbachia mosquito programs in Rio de Janeiro and looks at what it means to turn a disease carrier into a public health tool.

Haines, L. R., et.al. (2025). Anopheles mosquito survival and pharmacokinetic modeling show the mosquitocidal activity of nitisinone. Science Translational Medicine, 17(791). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adr4827 
The study that found people taking nitisinone for a rare metabolic disorder were accidentally killing the mosquitoes that bit them. The science behind one of the most surprising findings in the episode.

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...

Join us as we uncover the secrets of the MedFly through an examination of how California has historically managed its medfly infestations. As we move through decades of federal lawmaking, state policy decisions, and scientific research, we will expose how a decades-long disagreement between scientists and extreme pesticide spraying has shaped the villainous portrayal of the MedFly.
Longer Description:
The Mediterranean Fly has made a name for itself as one of the most notorious fruit fly species around the world. Although the MedFly has had devastating economic impacts in numerous regions, our podcast centers around MedFly tensions in California specifically. From the first MedFly invasions of California to those as recent as last year, the MedFly continues to pose a threat to California’s status as a golden agricultural state. In response to the threat of the MedFly, California has utilized man-made interventions like aerial pesticide sprays to eradicate the fruit fly, while imposing strict quarantine guidelines. Over time, California’s defenses against the MedFly have evolved from strictly chemical interventions to incorporating new scientific techniques like the sterile insect technique.
However, the tension between the MedFly and California is only one aspect of the story. Our podcast investigates how the “MedFly problem” has changed from a “man vs. insect” scenario into various “man vs. man” scenarios. The government’s response to the MedFly has increased tension between the public and the government, a result of public pushback and growing public distrust in the government and fear surrounding pesticides. The government has shown that their priority is to protect California’s reputation and agricultural econonmy, even if that means rushing to lift quarantine restrictions or enforcing pesticide sprays. While this may benefit agricultural companies, the average person has now been exposed to dangerous chemicals that could give rise to health problems. All of these social tensions were not directly caused by the MedFly, but rather our own actions in one-sided fight against the MedFly. Our podcast examines how these tensions have evolved over time using a holistic analysis through a scientific lens, an economic lens, and a social lens.

Suggested Further Reading

Five sources we recommend for listeners who want to go deeper.

1. Scott, T. (Director). (2025). Why the government drops flies on California. [Film]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/tomscott/videos/why-the-government-drops-flies-on-california/3288278304683543/

2. Subramaniam, B. (2001). The aliens have landed! — Accessible analysis of how 'invasive species' language mirrors xenophobic rhetoric around immigration. JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338794

3. Carey, J. R. (1991). Establishment of the Mediterranean fruit fly in California. Science,253(5026). — The landmark paper arguing medflies are California residents, not perpetual invaders. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1896848

4. Rolls, D. A., et al. (2025). Estimating the realised economic value of a historic Mediterranean fruit fly eradication. Scientific Reports, 15(1). — Rigorous economic analysis showing biosecurity benefits can materialize decades later. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-28594-2

5. Schwartz, N. A., et al. (2015). 'Where they (live, work and) spray.' Health & Place, 32, 83–92. — Ethnographic study giving voice to farmworker communities most harmed by pesticide exposure. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.12.016

Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...