It's March 2, 1933, and a U.S. Senator fresh off busting the Teapot Dome scandal—America's biggest political corruption case—is secretly honeymooning with a glamorous Cuban widow when his train suddenly stops between Wilson and Rocky Mount. He doesn't get back on. In this episode of JoCoYo, we ride the rails with Thomas J. Walsh from Montana mines to Havana romance, through poisoning rumors and political enemies, to his mysterious final stop just 40 miles from Benson—where a political titan met eternity and Johnston County entered the history books.

A Scottish orphan sails from the Highlands to New Bern in the 1780s, builds a waterfront empire, and watches Union soldiers occupy his elegant mansion during the Civil War.

Fast forward two centuries—what if one of his descendants became the voice that taught America to dream of Carolina? In this episode of JoCoYo, we trace a 250-year family journey from New Bern’s wharves to Chapel Hill’s piney woods, culminating in a shocking musical revelation that connects coastal commerce to Piedmont poetry—and North Carolina's red clay to an anthem we all know by heart.