S5 Ep5: Emperor of the United States: A Man with Huge... Audacity

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

True Crime, Society & Culture, Science

4.1 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the mid-1800s, a Jewish immigrant from South Africa made his way to San Francisco, where he declared himself Emperor of the United States. Despite this audacious claim and his very obvious eccentricities, Emperor Joshua Norton was beloved by his subjects.

"Strange and Unexplained" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab & Three Goose Entertainment and is a journey into the uncomfortable and the unknowable that will leave you both laughing and sleeping with the lights on. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What did you want to be when you grew up?
0:08.6	Did you have a path set out for you, certain expectations to live up to?
0:13.6	Did you ever have a sense that you were meant for something different, something greater?
0:18.6	Or did you ever just want to say the heck with it all and drop out of the rat race altogether and start something new?
0:29.0	Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan.
0:32.5	I've had my fair share of fantasies in which I am in charge, the ruler of some imaginary land. In truth, I don't
0:39.6	want to be in charge of much more than my own bodily autonomy and choice. I don't even want to
0:44.4	be in charge of figuring out what's for dinner. It's too much responsibility, too much pressure.
0:50.1	But the subject of today's episode felt different. An immigrant from South Africa who amassed a fortune, fancied himself a leader, and fashioned himself a title to go with it.
1:01.6	And no, I'm not talking about Elon Musk. Joshua Abraham was born in England in 1818 to John Norton and Sarah Norton. His parents took him and his older
1:30.2	brother Philip and relocated to South Africa as part of the 1820 Settlers Program. The program encouraged
1:37.6	between 4,000 and 5,000 British citizens from the Commonwealth to colonize South Africa in an effort
1:43.6	to combat rampant unemployment
1:45.5	in the U.K. while also extending the reach of the crown by adding to the number of white
1:50.7	English-speaking people in South Africa. Of the British colonists who moved to South Africa,
1:56.8	18 were Jewish, including the Norton's. Joshua's mother was pregnant at the time of their departure
2:02.2	from England and gave birth on voyage to another son, Joshua's younger brother, Lewis. John and Sarah
2:09.3	arrived in South Africa with their three boys and continued to build their sizable family in their new home,
2:15.4	having nine more children by 1832.
2:19.2	Sarah deserves some kind of medal for bearing 12 children over 15 years.
2:23.9	That's almost a kid a year, which means the woman was almost never not pregnant.
2:29.0	One pregnancy was enough for me.
	...

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