Rainy Day Rabbit Holes: History Unhinged

Today’s episode is a special feature from Dark History: Where the Darkness Sees the Light, a podcast that’s part of our Umbrella Podcast Collective.
Hosted by Rob Bradley, Dark History explores the uncomfortable, often unsettling stories we like to believe are safely buried in the past—and then shows how they still shape the world we live in.
In this episode, Rob takes a deep dive into the history of snake oil: the miracle cures, the confident sales pitches, and the long tradition of selling certainty to people who are scared, sick, or searching for answers. What begins in the 19th century quickly becomes something much more familiar, as the same patterns of deception reappear in modern forms—polished, optimized, and online.
This is one of our favorite episodes Rob has done. Not just because of the history, but because of how clearly it reveals a hard truth: the scams didn’t disappear. They adapted.
Listen closely. The bottles may be gone, but the promises remain.
🔗 Listen to Dark History
🎙️ Dark History: Where the Darkness Sees the Light
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s5-e4-snake-oil-never-died-it-just-went-online/id1603599807?i=1000751583276
☔ Rainy Day Rabbit Holes
🌧️ Explore more episodes and rabbit holes at:
👉 https://www.rainydayrabbitholes.com
☔ Umbrella Podcast Collective
Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is proud to be part of the Umbrella Podcast Collective, a group of independent podcasts exploring strange history, dark stories, and the things that refuse to stay buried.
🌐 Learn more about the collective:
👉 https://www.rainydayrabbitholes.com/umbrella-collective

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In this collaborative episode, Rainy Day Rabbit Holes joins forces with Caitlyn and Cassie from PNW Haunts and Homicides to explore one of the strangest modern treasure hunts in history: Forrest Fenn’s hidden chest.
Presented by Caitlyn, the story follows art dealer and Vietnam veteran Forrest Fenn, who in 2010 announced that he had hidden a bronze treasure chest somewhere in the Rocky Mountains—worth millions—and released a cryptic poem meant to lead seekers to it. What began as a whimsical riddle quickly spiraled into a decade-long obsession involving online sleuths, wilderness expeditions, lawsuits, environmental damage, and tragic deaths.
Along the way, we unpack the poem’s clues, popular interpretations (including the infamous “home of Brown”), the massive online communities that formed around the hunt, and the ethical questions raised when adventure turns dangerous. The episode closes with a tarot reading that eerily mirrors the story’s ultimate lesson: knowing when to walk away.
Equal parts mystery, cautionary tale, and cultural phenomenon, this episode asks: when does the thrill of the chase stop being worth the cost?

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https://www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com/

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This week on 5 Minute Friday, we’re still joined by Caitlyn and Cassie from PNW Haunts and Homicides, but this time the chaos is airborne.
Shea reads a truly unbelievable—but very real—news story out of China, where a farmer attempted to transport a pig using a drone… and accidentally knocked out power to an entire village. The pig became tangled in high‑voltage power lines, leaving it suspended midair and thousands of residents without electricity for roughly 10 hours.
We break down how the incident happened, why drone use has become common in mountainous rural regions, and how a headline that sounds like a metaphor (“when pigs fly”) briefly became an infrastructure problem. It’s absurd, it’s oddly fascinating, and it’s a perfect reminder that technology doesn’t care how good your idea sounded at 5 a.m.
Short, strange, and straight from the “you can’t make this up” file.
Source Article
Ashley Fike, “A Flying Pig Knocked Out Power to an Entire Village in China,” VICE, February 15, 2026
https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-flying-pig-knocked-out-power-to-an-entire-village-in-china/ [vice.com]

Check out PNW Haunts and Homicides! https://www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com/

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Claudette Colvin: The Teenager Who Refused to Move
Before Rosa Parks became a household name, a 15‑year‑old girl in Montgomery, Alabama, made a decision that helped crack the foundation of Jim Crow segregation.
In this episode, Jody dives into the story of Claudette Colvin, a courageous teenager who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in March of 1955—nine months before Rosa Parks’ more widely recognized protest. Colvin’s arrest, trial, and testimony became a crucial part of the legal battle that ultimately ended bus segregation in the United States.
We explore why Colvin’s story was sidelined for decades, how age, respectability politics, and racism shaped whose stories were told, and why her role in Browder v. Gayle was so vital to the Civil Rights Movement. This episode is about bravery, memory, and the uncomfortable truth that history doesn’t always spotlight the people who deserve it most.
In This Episode:
Who Claudette Colvin was and why her protest mattered
What happened on that Montgomery bus in 1955
Why civil rights leaders chose not to center her story at the time
How her testimony helped bring down segregation laws
The long road to recognition—and justice—for Claudette Colvin
Support the Show
If you enjoy going down historical rabbit holes with us, consider supporting Rainy Day Rabbit Holes on Patreon. You’ll find bonus content, behind‑the‑scenes extras, and more ways to keep the show going.
👉 Visit www.rainydayrabbitholes.com to find our Patreon and explore the show.
A Special Thanks
Huge thanks to Letha Davis, who designed our website and helped bring Rainy Day Rabbit Holes to life online.
Check out her work at www.easybrzy.com.
As always, thank you for listening—and for remembering the stories history almost forgot.

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⚠️ Not Safe for Work / Adult Content Warning ⚠️
Sometimes history refuses to stay in the past. And sometimes… it shows up in an emergency room.
This Five Minute Friday dives into a truly unbelievable modern news story involving a World War I artillery shell, one very bad decision, and a French hospital that suddenly had to take explosive history very seriously. It’s a reminder that just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s safe—and that curiosity without common sense is how you end up evacuating a building.
We ask the important questions:
How does something like this even happen?
Why are WWI explosives still turning up?
And what life choices lead to this particular outcome?
Spoiler: History is wild, humans are weirder, and museums exist for a reason.
What We Talk About
A real Vice news story involving a live WWI artillery shell and a hospital evacuation
Why unexploded ordnance from World War I is still being discovered today
The difference between “historical artifact” and “active explosive”
How history occasionally re-enters the present in the most unhinged way possible
Read the Article
Vice: A Man Turned Up at Hospital With a Live WWI Artillery Shell in His Butt
https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-man-turned-up-at-hospital-with-a-live-wwi-artillery-shell-in-his-butt/ [vice.com]
About the Show
Rainy Day Rabbit Holes explores strange history, baffling decisions, forgotten stories, and the moments when the past collides violently—or hilariously—with the present.
New episodes and show info at:
👉www.rainydayrabbitholes.com

⚠️ Not Safe for Work / Adult Content Warning ⚠️
This episode discusses an explicit real‑world news story involving adult bodily injury, medical emergency, and crude subject matter. Listener discretion is strongly advised. Do not listen at work, around children, or polite society.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/history-unhinged-rainy-day-rabbit-holes/exclusive-content

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