North Carolina Rabbit Hole

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The Only Carolina Panther To Get a Madden Cover Is A Guy You've Never Heard Of Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

Cary Brabham never played in a regular season game for the Panthers. So how did he end up gracing the front of a legendary video game franchise?

Host: Jeremy Markovich

Photos via Wikimedia Commons

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Yes, there is a Honolulu, North Carolina for some reason. Jul 28, 2026

Show notes

You've heard of Honolulu, Hawaii (I hope). There's also a Honolulu, North Carolina. Here's the story of that place and its confounding founding. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/north-carolina-rabbit-hole/id1254488006 Listen to more episodes on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4wBaGxCXSNQmQ3wHpjZBm8 Sign up for the weekly North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/subscribe Already a fan? Support the Rabbit Hole here: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/upgrade

Stealing a dog is a felony in North Carolina. Stealing a cat is not. Why? Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Back in the day, pet crime was treated equally. That all changed in 1989, thanks to a spat between lawmakers that turned a seemingly harmless bill into a legislative dogfight. Music by Blue Dot Sessions Read the original story: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/stealing-a-dog-is-an-automatic-felony-in-north-carolina-stealing-a-cat-is-not-why Listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/north-carolina-rabbit-hole/id1254488006 Listen to more episodes on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4wBaGxCXSNQmQ3wHpjZBm8 Sign up for the weekly North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/subscribe Already a fan? Support the Rabbit Hole here: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/upgrade

How our Bill of Rights was stolen, and how the FBI got it back Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

Just after the Civil War, a soldier casually took North Carolina's copy of a priceless founding document. A century later, the feds set up a sting operation to recover it. Here's a true story involving a fake tech millionaire, the Antiques Roadshow, and vanilla milkshakes from Cook Out.

Music in this episode:

"Not Those Kind of People" by Bombadil
Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Special Thanks: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Joe Torsella and the Pennsylvania Treasurer's Office

2005 press conference audio provided by WRAL-TV

This episode was originally entitled "Stealing Bill," and was produced in 2018 as an episode of Our State magazine's "Away Message." Production help from James Miezckowski.

Additional Reading:

Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic, by David Howard
Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, by Robert K. Wittman and John Shiffman

Some Pig: The Story of Struttin' Stormy and the Stanley Cup Jun 20, 2026

Show notes

The Carolina Hurricanes just became NHL champions for the first time in 20 years, and during that run a lot of people noticed something unusual on their road uniforms: A cartoony, college-style pig on the shoulder. Today, we take a closer look at the long journey of a logo from the mind of an art teacher in South Dakota all the way to the Stanley Cup champions.

Special thanks to Ross Hettinger, Dan LaTorraca, and Doug Warf.

See the original sketches at https://ncrabbithole.com
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Music by Blue Dot Sessions used under a Creative Commons License.

Meet a man who built a barbecue smoker out of a file cabinet Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

Is it real? Does it work? Is it safe? Was it hard to make? Why would anyone build one? Why is he selling it and trying to get a broken chainsaw in return? And, is this a singular piece of American ingenuity or is there an underground community of file cabinet smokers that I had never heard of before now? The seller, and an expert, tell us everything.

Special thanks to Tyius McKinney and Dana Hanson.

See more pictures and videos of file cabinet smokers at https://ncrabbithole.com
Learn more about NC State's annual BBQ Camp here: https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/hot-ticket-nc-state-bbq-camp/
Sign up for the weekly North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/subscribe
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Music by Blue Dot Sessions used under a Creative Commons License.

The North Carolina Musician with a Billion Streams and No Fans May 22, 2026

Show notes

Mike Smith's journey took him from a string of medical clinics to the music industry and, then, to a federal crime. In this episode, Wired senior writer Kate Knibbs joins Jeremy Markovich to talk about how a man from suburban Charlotte was able to make millions of dollars from music streaming services, and how his collaborator figured out something was fishy.

Read Kate's original story at Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-bots-streaming-music/

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West Virginia's most legendary biscuit place was actually conceived in North Carolina May 19, 2026

Show notes

How did a long-dead pizza restaurant give birth to not one but two beloved breakfast chains? Here's the overlap between Biscuitville and Tudor's Biscuit World, with a possible connection to Mayberry.

Read the original story: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/west-virginias-most-legendary-biscuit-conceived-in-north-carolina-tudors-biscuitville

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How Christina Koch went from North Carolina to the Moon Apr 02, 2026

Show notes

Koch grew up in Jacksonville, went to high school in Durham, got three degrees from NC State, and is now going to be the first woman to orbit the moon. Here's the long road that led her there.

Produced by Jeremy Markovich & James Mieczkowski

Some audio provided by: Houston, We Have A Podcast.

Music in this episode:

Closing Song: Dream Big, by Beau James (Greensboro)

Special Thanks: NASA-TV

This episode was originally produced as an episode of Our State's Away Message podcast in July 2019.

That's Not How You Say It (w/ Ben McNeely) Jan 14, 2026

Show notes

Jeremy Markovich and journalist Ben McNeely investigate Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson's brutal mispronunciation of "Raleigh," and play a game in which we award points based on how badly people are butchering the names of places of North Carolina. Conetoe! Ahoskie! Cherryville! Do you know how to say them? Maybe?

Find this story (and more like it) by subscribing to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole Newsletter: ncrabbithole.com

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