It's Raining Cats and Cats

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About this episode

Next week is Valentine’s Day, but instead of talking about falling in love, we’re going to talk about falling cats and barrels. First, writer David Quammen tells us about a strange observation: cats are falling out of buildings in New York City. When a cat falls from less than five stories or more than nine stories, it usually survives. But when it falls from between five and nine stories, it suffers serious injury. Why? Physics has the answer. Then we meet Annie Taylor, the first person who went over Niagara falls in a barrel. For more, check out Garret Soden’s “Falling: How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill.” Radiolab was created by Jad Abumrad and is edited by Soren Wheeler.…