Ever had a little mouse in the house? They can be cute! Some folks I know have actually named them. But rats are not quite so endearing, especially when they’re cat-sized. My college roommates and I faced a full-blown rat infestation in our first NYC apartment in 1999. Twenty-five years later, I was catching up with fellow rat-trauma survivor and old friend Ned Rauch when we started swapping war fugues. But before we went any further, I had an idea: what if we each recorded our versions separately? My memory seemed crystal clear and I assumed his did too. So I listened back and stitched our stories together to see where they aligned and where they diverged. The result is a fun experiment in the Rashomon effect - how two people can experience the same event differently. Seeing the variation made me wonder if we can ever truly see the world as it actually is. All this over some (slightly) oversized rats on West 109th Street.
Ever had a little mouse in the house? They can be cute! Some folks I know have actually named them. But rats are not quite so endearing, especially when they’re cat-sized. My college roommates and I faced a full-blown rat infestation in our first NYC apartment in 1999.
Twenty-five years later, I was catching up with fellow rat-trauma survivor and old friend Ned Rauch when we started swapping war fugues. But before we went any further, I had an idea: what if we each recorded our versions separately? My memory seemed crystal clear and I assumed his did too.
So I listened back and stitched our stories together to see where they aligned and where they diverged. The result is a fun experiment in the Rashomon effect - how two people can experience the same event differently. Seeing the variation made me wonder if we can ever truly see the world as it actually is.
All this over some (slightly) oversized rats on West 109th Street.
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Written, hosted, and produced by Gabriel Berezin with special guest Ned Rauch.
Music and sound design by Grant Zubritsky.
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Learn More
The Roshomon effect is actually derived from a Japanese movie called Roshomon. Learn about it in this 8-min pod episode.
Learn about confabulation (and the Mandela Effect).