Rainy Day Rabbit Holes: History Unhinged

What happens when a city decides kindness is better than cruelty?
In this special crossover episode of Rainy Day Rabbit Holes, we’re joined by the incredible gals from PNW Haunts & Homicides to explore one of the strangest—and most unexpectedly heartwarming—stories in American history: Joshua Abraham Norton, the self‑declared Emperor of the United States.
Born into loss, fortune, ruin, and obscurity, Norton reemerged in 1859 with a bold declaration that could have ended very badly… except San Francisco leaned in. What followed was a twenty‑year “reign” filled with proclamations, public appearances, political commentary, and a city that collectively decided to play along.
Along the way, we explore:
A Gold Rush city bursting with chaos, ambition, and opportunity
A man who issued decrees abolishing Congress and the Supreme Court
A public arrest that backfired spectacularly
An Emperor who defended immigrants, challenged racist violence, and promoted civil rights long before it was fashionable
A city that fed him, clothed him, saluted him… and mourned him
Was Emperor Norton mad? Satirical? Visionary? Or something else entirely?
And why did San Francisco—of all places—embrace him instead of locking him away?
You’ll have to fall down the rabbit hole with us to find out.
👻 Crossover Love
Huge thanks to PNW Haunts & Homicides, where ghosts, murder, and Pacific Northwest weirdness all hang out together.
👉 Follow and listen at: https://www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com/
🌧️ More Rabbit Holes
Find sources, photos, episode notes, and more at our website:
👉 https://www.rainydayrabbitholes.com/
🎟️ LIVE EVENT ALERT
Love strange history in person?
Join us June 3rd in Tacoma, WA for a live event at McMenamins Spanish Ballroom at the Elks Temple:
History Pub: Tacoma’s UFO Story — The Maury Island Incident
Presented by Steve Edmiston, Shea Drury, and Chris Staudinger
🎫 Tickets here:
👉 https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/41193663/history-pubtacomas-ufo-story-the-maury-island-incident-presented-by-steve-edmistonshea-druryand-chris-staudinger-tacoma-mcmenamins-spanish-ballroom-elks-temple
Sometimes the strangest stories are the most human.
Stay curious—and we’ll see you down the rabbit hole.
🐇👑

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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]

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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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