Cat People
Bonus Episode!
It feels like everyone stuck at home with a Netflix account has seen Tiger King, a documentary about Joe Exotic, one of the nation’s most infamous tiger breeders. He is now in prison for, in part, conspiring to kill a woman named Carol Baskin, who runs a big cat sanctuary for animals that people bought as cubs, but gave away when they realized they had in fact purchased… a tiger.
Illustration by Zoë van Dijk
The show has been criticized as unethical, especially for its portrayal of Baskin.
"If you're looking for something that will educate you and not make you feel slimy afterwards, then Tiger King might not be the best option," said Rachel Nuwer, author of Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking.
Nuwer is the host of the podcast Cat People from Longreads, a four-episode series that touches on the story of Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin, but focuses more on the phenomenon of big cat ownership in the United States, and how the peculiar stew of American policy and circumstance have made it very easy for private citizens to own 500-pound wild animals.
A prize-winning Bengal named Prestige, a descendant of a cross between an Asian Leopard Cat and a common housecat
If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy Outside/In's "Loser Wolves: A Cat Fancy," an episode about a different version of owning a wild cat: the world of cat breeding, and the effort to create the look of a leopard, in the body of a house cat.
Credits
Rachel Nuwer a freelance journalist whose work can be found in The New York Times, National Geographic, and more. Her story, “The Strange and Dangerous World of America’s Big Cat People,” and accompanying podcast Cat People, was published by Longreads. It was produced by Peter Frick Wright and Audrey Quinn. Music and Sound design by Robbie Carver, editing by Mike Dang and Chris Outcalt, Art by Zoe Van Dijk and fact checking by Matt Giles.
Outside/In is produced by Sam Evans-Brown, Justine Paradis, and Taylor Quimby.
Erika Janik is our executive producer.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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