Unusual White House Pets

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: "Unusual White House Pets"

Release Date: December 8, 2025
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy V. Wilson
Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Holly and Tracy take listeners on a journey through some of the strangest and most intriguing animals ever kept as pets (or almost-pets) at the White House. Instead of the usual canine or feline residents, this discussion focuses on wild and unusual creatures—from raccoons and alligators to parrots and turkeys—shedding light on presidential personalities, the quirks of history, and a fair bit of myth-busting along the way.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Criteria and Scope of the Episode

[03:55] Holly Fry:

• No dogs or cats discussed; no mention of Teddy Roosevelt’s extensive menagerie.
  • "There are no dogs or cats on this list...none of the Teddy Roosevelt menagerie is on here...Wild animals are not supposed to be pets."
• Emphasizes that listeners should not emulate these historical pet choices.

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2. The John Quincy Adams Alligator Myth

[04:53–08:39]

• Widely believed (even mentioned on a Snapple lid and the White House website) that Adams kept a live alligator in the East Room bathroom.
• Holly and Tracy debunk the story:
  • Rooted in an 1888 account by Harriet Taylor Upton, who describes Lafayette bringing “some live alligators” as curiosities during his White House visit.
  • Misreading of the story led to the myth that the alligators belonged to Adams.
  • Even official displays (2002 White House Christmas decor) repeated this error.
  • No primary evidence in Adams’s own meticulous notes or diaries.

Tracy: "There is literally nothing to back up this story. Adams is well known for keeping detailed notes and diaries, and there's no mention of an alligator." (05:01)

Holly: "A lot of people have tried to hunt down the origin... includes this mention of a visit from French General Lafayette... some live alligators being among them....it sounds like those live alligators were gifts to Lafayette, not from him to President Adams." (05:58)

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3. Tad Lincoln and the Pardoned Turkey “Jack”

[09:19–14:51]

• Lincoln’s rambunctious son Tad is a focus, notorious for mischief.
  • Charged visitors to see his father, wore military uniforms, and was generally “precocious.”
• In 1863, a turkey gifted to the Lincolns for Christmas dinner became Tad’s beloved pet “Jack.”
• Tad begged his father to spare Jack; Lincoln issued a handwritten pardon.
  • Jack followed Tad like a pet and reportedly lived another year.
  • Today commemorated by a statue in Hartford, CT.

Tracy: “He cried and he said to his father, ‘I can't help it, he's a good turkey and I don't want him killed.’ And in line with how often the President gave in to his youngest son, Lincoln wrote this turkey a pardon.” (13:06)

Holly: “This bird basically followed this kid everywhere. He was like his little avian shadow.” (12:44)

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4. Andrew Jackson’s Profane Parrot “Pol”

[18:26–23:20]

• In 1827, Jackson bought an African gray parrot, “Pol,” for his wife Rachel.
• Pol stayed at their home, The Hermitage, but Jackson was reportedly very fond, frequently asking about the bird in letters home.
• A single (much later) account claims during Jackson’s 1845 funeral, Pol became excited and began swearing so loudly and for so long as to disturb proceedings—had to be removed!
  • The main source for this story is a reminiscence published 75+ years after the funeral, by someone who attended as a teenager.
  • Possible confusion over whether this was the officiating minister; was actually another attendee.

Tracy: “A wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.” (20:24)

Holly: “I want to be cremated, but part of me wants a headstone that just says fat and saucy as ever.” (19:57)

• The story’s questionable reliability is discussed, but it fits Jackson’s well-known colorful language.

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5. Rebecca Raccoon: Calvin Coolidge’s Unintended Pet

[23:20–39:24]

• Rebecca the raccoon was sent to the Coolidges in 1926 from Mississippi, intended as Thanksgiving dinner (then a delicacy in some regions).
  • The Coolidges, never having eaten raccoon, instead adopted her as a pet.
• Rebecca had a custom enclosure, enjoyed baths, and roamed the house (sometimes on a leash for events).
• Regular subject of lighthearted newspaper coverage—riding in limousines, “escaping” into trees, and featured in political cartoons.
• Rebecca was briefly exiled to the National Zoo after apparently biting President Coolidge (who appeared in public with a bandaged hand), but was soon allowed back.
  • She was a highlight of the 1927 White House Easter Egg Roll.

Grace Coolidge (via Holly): "She was a mischievous, inquisitive party, and we had to keep watch of her. When she was in the house, she enjoyed nothing better than being placed in a bathtub with a little water in it and given a cake of soap with which to play." (26:49)

• Later, efforts were made to introduce her to a companion, Reuben the raccoon, but he quickly escaped, and newspapers speculated about their failed “relationship.”
• Rebecca eventually went to live at the National Zoo; her ultimate fate is unknown.

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6. The Aftermath: Billy Possum and Unusual Presidential Pets

[39:24–40:07]

• After the Coolidges left, Herbert Hoover’s family adopted a possum found on White House grounds—Billy Possum—housed in Rebecca’s former enclosure.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tracy, debunking myths:
  "There is literally nothing to back up this story..." (05:01)

• Holly, on presidential wild pets:
  "Wild animals are not supposed to be pets. So while these stories in some cases involve wild animals that get adopted, that is a bad idea." (04:22)

• On Tad Lincoln’s pardoned turkey:
  "The kindest descriptions of him describe him as precocious. He does seem to have been kind hearted as well as rambunctious." (10:48)

• Holly, on Rebecca the raccoon’s popularity:
  "Basically, anything the raccoon did was a headline." (28:09)

• Grace Coolidge (as read by Holly):
  "Rebecca had lived alone and had her own way so long that I fear she was a little overbearing and dictatorial." (38:36)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [03:55] – Criteria and scope of pets discussed
• [04:53] – John Quincy Adams’s mythical alligator
• [09:19] – The story of Tad Lincoln and Jack the turkey
• [18:26] – Andrew Jackson’s swearing parrot, Pol
• [23:20] – Introduction and background on Rebecca Raccoon
• [29:00] – Rebecca’s wild behavior and mishaps
• [32:31] – Rebecca’s travel with the Coolidges and infamous escapes
• [36:29] – Introduction of Reuben, Rebecca’s would-be companion
• [39:24] – Hoover’s possum and fading out

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Episode Tone

The hosts maintain a friendly, conversational, and humorous tone, mixing careful myth-busting with fascinating anecdotes and lively storytelling. Warnings against keeping wild animals as pets are repeated, but so is genuine affection for the odd historical events and personalities highlighted.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a delightful and occasionally cautionary look at the unusual menagerie of animals connected to American presidents—dispelling myths, spotlighting peculiar presidential pets, and adding colorful context to “stuff you missed in history class.” The hosts’ warmth and inquisitiveness make for an engaging listen and a new appreciation for the quirkier side of White House history.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

So this episode was a gear change because I was working on something else that I was being frustrated with. And then I was having a conversation with friend of the show Brian Young while he and I were recording our Star wars podcast full of Sith, which I heart very kindly lets me record because it's not part of I heart. And then he mentioned Rebecca Raccoon because we also talk about history when we're not talking about Star Wars. And that got me thinking about the odd pets that lived in the White House and how that would be fun. So thanks, Brian, for that idea. Some of these pets that we're talking about today were mentioned very briefly in the second part of a 20102 parter that Sarah and Katie did on the show on interesting historical animals. But their stories didn't get a lot of attention. It was kind of just like their names and the fact that presidents kept them.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's kind of a. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

And like, in that particular moment, they're whipping through like a list. They're not even necessarily the animals they were talking about on the show, but some of these animals are really interesting in terms of how they arrived at the White House and became part of the first family. Two of them are related to holidays, so technically this is seasonal. We're also going to do a little myth busting on one of them. The information in that previous episode was incorrect, but we'll talk about why. A lot of people had that wrong. And another one is kind of shaky in terms of documentation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Heads up.

[Holly Fry]

There are no dogs or cats on this list. So if you were hoping to hear about Clinton's cat Socks or Nixon's dog Checkers, those will not be making an appearance. Also, none of the Teddy Roosevelt Menagerie is on here. Although part of me thinks that would be a fun future episode, its whole own thing. Because, I mean, aside from his daughter Alice's pet snake, Emily Spinach, there were a lot of other wild animals.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Running around that house in the grounds, but those are not the ones we're talking about today. Also, this goes without saying, but I will say it just the same. Wild animals are not supposed to be pets. So while these stories in some cases involve wild animals that get adopted, that is a bad idea. We are not telling you to go out and get a cockamamie animal that really belongs outside. And in one case, we'll talk about one that I'm really obsessed with that probably did bite a president. So maybe these should not be adopted as pets.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. If you're disappointed that there are no dogs in the episode. There are other dog episodes, specifically so many back in the archive, a number of them. So there's plenty of dog stuff, just not in this one. So first up, as Holly alluded to some myth busting, there have been so many online and in print mentions stating that John Quincy Adams had a live alligator in the White House. I think we may have even said that at some point in the long past, this factoid has appeared online and in books and even on a Snapple lid. And in a lot of cases, the details have been embellished to suggest that Adams would send people he did not like into the bathroom where he kept this reptile without telling them that it was in there. There is literally nothing to back up this story. Adams is well known for keeping detailed notes and diaries, and there's no mention of an alligator. So where did this pretty outlandish myth get its start?

[Holly Fry]

A lot of people have tried to hunt down the origin, and a number of them have traced this confusion and the first mention of the allig later back to One book from 1888, which was written by Harriet Taylor Upton. Her writing, the Household of John Quincy Adams, which was later republished in a collection of her other writing, to be a bigger book about multiple presidential households, includes this mention of a visit from French General Lafayette to the Adams White House. Quote, there was no conservatory then. The grounds were rough and uncultivated. The house was lighted with candles, and the East Room was bare and empty, save for the mahogany frames of some upholstered sofas and chairs. When General Lafayette made his visit there, this famous East Room was given to him to deposit the many curiosities sent to him, some live alligators being among them. So that mentions alligators, but the way it's worded, it sounds like those live alligators she mentions were gifts to Lafayette, not from him to President Adams. Lafayette stayed at the White House from August 1824 to September 1825, so that might have been part of this confusion. If he kept such an animal or animals in the residence for almost a year, people might have thought it belonged to Adams, or some mention of it may not have specified ownership and an assumption was made. But we also don't know if Lafayette, if he did receive alligators, hung onto them. So many question marks.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's still understandable, though, that people believed this story for so long, because at one point, even the White House website mentioned it as though it were a fact. In 2002, then first lady Laura Bush chose the theme All Creatures Great and Small for the White House Christmas decor, and that included all kinds of sculptures and representations of animals that had been part of the home's history. And there was an alligator sculpture accompanied by a placard that read Alligator President John Q. Adams. When a photo of the decoration was put on the White House website section that showcased the holiday decor, the caption of the image read, quote, the alligator given to President John Quincy Adams, by the Marquis de Lafayette, resided in a bathroom in the East Room for a time. President Adams served from 1825 to 1829. So. Whoops.

In any case, whether there ever were live alligators present in the White House, there is not evidence that Adams specifically had one.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

Moving on to turkeys. The practice of a turkey getting a presidential pardon each year is actually quite new. According to Smithsonian magazine, while a number of presidents have referenced the idea of pardon a turkey, it was not until President George H.W. bush that it became an official annual activity. That kind of broke my brain because I could have sworn that happened when I was a kid, but that would have been too late. But well before that, there was one particular bird's life that was spared, although it was not for Thanksgiving.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The death of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln's son Willie has come up a number of times on the show. I don't really think though that we've ever talked about Willie's younger brother, Tad. Thomas Lincoln, who went by Tad, was born in April of 1853 while his father was still a lawyer living in Springfield, Illinois. The nickname Tad is said to have come from his father, who described this little boy as, quote, wiggly as a tadpole.

[Holly Fry]

In the wake of Willie's death In February of 1862, Tad was the only Lincoln child remaining in the White House. He had actually also come down with typhoid fever when Willie had, but Tad survived it. His other surviving brother, Robert, was older and he was away at school. And perhaps because of his parents grief, Tad was given very little discipline. Additionally, he had a speech impediment and his parents tended to coddle him. He was also the baby of the family and so they were quite permissive of him based on accounts of their friends, even before the family tragedy of the loss of Willie. Truthfully, he sounds very precocious and even something of a terror at times. There are numerous accounts written by Abraham Lincoln's associates both before and after he became President that really indicate that Tad was a lot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We had an episode about Alice roosevelt back in 2015 and we talked about how she was rebellious and Tad did some similar things like bursting in on meetings. His behavior seemed less rebellious and more bent on mayhem and mischief. For example, at one point he started charging visitors to see his father. The plan was to give the money to charity, but he started this little endeavor all on his own. And the President didn't initially known that he was basically shaking down official visitors until he had been doing it for a while. He was Also known to drive away his tutors with his rambunctious behavior. He would dress in a custom made military uniform and order all of the ground staff around like he was a little dictator. There are a lot of photographs of young Tad in this uniform. He also tried to have a yard sale on the White House lawn and at one point turned a hose on visiting dignitaries. The kindest descriptions of him describe him as precocious. He does seem to have been kind hearted as well as rambunctious. And he did raise money for charities. Even as a little boy, he influenced his father to try to help anyone he met who seemed to need that help.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, sometimes when random people would come to the White House that maybe did not have an appointment, but were just general people that felt hopeless and were looking for something, Tad would talk to them and then would be like, dad, this woman really needs help. So a good heart, but woo.

He seemed to really test the patience of the adults in the Lincoln Circle. In 1863, the President was given the gift of a turkey that was intended to be the entree for the family's Christmas dinner. This, interestingly, was the same year that Lincoln had determined that Thanksgiving would be a national holiday.

It didn't get celebrated that year. There were some years before that all happened. But this bird was not for Thanksgiving, it was for Christmas. But Tad took a liking to this bird and named him Jack and started treating him like a pet. And Jack seemed to reciprocate Tad's affection. And this bird basically followed this kid everywhere. He was like his little avian shadow.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

On Christmas Eve, Jack was scheduled to be killed for the family dinner. But Tad realized this plan and begged for the bird to be given a reprieve. He cried and he said to his father, quote, I can't help it, he's a good turkey and I don't want him killed. And in line with how often the President gave in to his youngest son, Lincoln wrote this turkey a pardon. The card it was written on was given to Tad and Jack was officially his pet at that point. Tad showed the handwritten pardon to the White House chef so that he would know that Jack was not ever to be turned into a meal.

[Holly Fry]

It is unclear what happened to Jack in the long term. We know that Tad had him for another year. And there is a cute story about Lincoln seeing his son with the bird in 1864 on election day. And according to that tale, when the President asked Tad if Jack was going to vote, Tad told his father that the turkey was not old enough to vote.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It seems the turkey was already gone by the time President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Tad was at a different theater for children when that shot was fired. He was watching a production of Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. It was at that production that Tad learned that his father had been attacked.

[Holly Fry]

And while Jack the turkey was gone from the picture by that point, he is memorialized today in a statue at Riverside park in Hartford, Connecticut. That statue was part of a project funded by the Lincoln Financial Group in 2005, and Jack's stylized likeness was created by Philip Grousman, and it has a plaque detailing the story of his pardon.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Coming up, we'll talk about a foul mouthed foul. But first we will pause for a sponsor break.

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[Cal Penn]

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[IBM Representative]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Wow.

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[Holly Fry]

Okay, this one comes with a caveat that we don't know with certainty if it is true, although it has certainly been repeated a lot. We'll talk about where it came from, but it is also a case where the story sort of hits that confirmation bias sweet spot because it 100% sounds plausible given the president that it involves.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

On June 5, 1827, Andrew Jackson purchased an African gray parrot for his wife, Rachel. This parrot, named Paul, was beloved. That's Paul P O L L, not P A U L, which is what it sounded like when it came out of my mouth. So Rachel died a year later, but Jackson adopted the bird. Paul lived at Jackson's Tennessee home, the Hermitage, for the rest of Jackson's life. When he became president in 1829, the bird stayed in Tennessee, but Jackson frequently asked after her in his letters home. He said things like, quote, I intend to foster the bird and prolong its life as long as I live for the fondness my dear wife had for her. His nephew, William Donaldson, was tasked with looking after Paul in Jackson's absence and was the recipient of these queries. He responded back at one point, that Paul, quote, is doing well. She is as fat and saucy as ever from her continued good health. I think she will live to be an old bird. African gray parrots can live a very long time.

[Holly Fry]

Yes, they can. I also kind of.

I want to be cremated, but part of me wants a headstone that just says fat and Saucy as ever.

It's pretty great. When Jackson's time as president ended in 1837, he returned to the hermitage. And at that point he lived alongside Paul until He died on June 8th of 1845. His funeral drew a massive crowd of an estimated 3,000 people. And that was Paul's time to shine.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There is one single account that mentions this bird as part of what happened at the funeral. That account was written by the Reverend W.M. norman. This has been the cause of some confusion and debate about whether what Norman relayed actually happened. So here is his account. Quote. When hearing that he was dead, I, with others, decided to attend the burial. The funeral was preached by a Presbyterian pastor from Nashville, standing on the front porch to a great concourse of people. His body was then taken by a military company and borne to the garden and placed beside his wife in a vault that he had prepared. A military salute was then fired and we left him there to rest in peace, to await the great resurrection morn before the sermon. And while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house. And thus the man of nerve that won battles and guided the ship of state through stormy scenes had finished his work.

[Holly Fry]

Clearly, this person was very fond of Andrew Jackson. Mixed reviews. Not everyone would speak so kindly of him. But this account was written on February 18, 1921, at the request of a writer who wished to have a first person reminiscence of the day that Andrew Jackson was buried. That means that it happened more than 75 years after the funeral took place. Further, Norman, who wrote this account, was born in 1829. So he was a teenager around 16 years old when he attended this funeral. So it is possible that his account wasn't accurate. You know, we've said many times, like memory shifts things. Although it does seem like something that would leave an impression if he felt compelled to include this bird detail. The other thing that has led to issues with this account being taken seriously is when people talk about it and they only include that segment about the bird's profanity having nothing to do with the writer. Modern accounts often report this as having come from the minister who presided over the funeral, which it obviously did not. Even if you did not have the information about Normant being so young at the time, it's very apparent when the entire passage is included that he was not the minister, because Norman mentions the other minister.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But Andrew Jackson did have a reputation for having a potty mouth. So it would make sense that a parrot that had lived with him for years would have picked up some choice words. After Jackson's death. It's believed that Paul lived out the rest of her life with his relatives, who hopefully did not mind the swearing if that was indeed happening.

[Holly Fry]

I have a really good bird swearing at an inopportune moment. Story for behind the scenes on Friday. But now we get to the real star of this episode, which is Rebecca Raccoon. President Calvin Coolidge was known to love animals, and during his presidency, he was actually given a lot of animals as gifts. I read one newspaper account that said that basically, like, when people would hit hard times and be like, we can't afford to feed this animal anymore, we'll just give it to the President, which I think happened with some frequency. Coolidge later wrote in his autobiography, quote, a great many presents come to the White House, which are all cherished not so much for their intrinsic value as because they are tokens of esteem and affection. Almost everything that can be eaten comes. We always know what to do with that. But some of the pets that are offered us are more of a problem. I have a beautiful black haired bear that was brought all the way from Mexico in a truck. And a pair of live lion cubs now grown up, and a small species of hippopotamus which came from South Africa. These and other animals and birds have been placed in the zoological quarters in Rock Creek Park. Just in case you don't know, Rock Creek park is part of the National Zoo.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But one animal that was not mentioned there was intended to be eaten, but instead became a cherished pet, and that was Rebecca the raccoon. In late November 1926, several newspapers ran the story. Live Raccoon gives Coolidge big problem. A man named Vinnie Joyce of Nittiguma, Mississippi, had sent this live animal to the White House as a gift to the President, quote, with the intention that the raccoon should share the honors of White House Thanksgiving dinner with Governor Baker's prize turkey. So the raccoon was intended to be served as part of the holiday meal.

[Holly Fry]

So it is not a common practice today, but in the 1920s, plenty of people ate raccoon. The Evening star of Washington, D.C. ran an article that made it sound like plenty of people thought it was odd that the President had not eaten raccoon himself, stating, quote, Mr. Coolidge need not be hesitant according to the testimony of those who, his gustatorial pleasure have munched toothsome mouthfuls of this small nocturnal animal. It is strange that during his New England boyhood he never tasted it, for among the granite hills it is of a surprising delicacy, especially when young and tender. This article goes on for some time about the various ways that raccoon has been cooked in various cultures and regions, before concluding by saying, quote, without wishing to suggest too freely to the Presidential Minaj, it is hereby recommended that the recent Thanksgiving Day gift be killed dressed and properly roasted. If it gets by the first table, there are plenty of people below stairs who know a good thing when they see it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But though a lot of people seemed to enjoy raccoon as food, Coolidge, as that article mentioned, had never had it before and was just not in any kind of hurry to try it now with a live raccoon on the property. News stories reported that, quote, the problem has now arisen whether to hand the raccoon over to the chef or present it to the zoo. Neither of those things happened because the Coolidges opted for a third choice, which was making the raccoon a pet. By December 1, the announcement had been made and papers are running the story. Raccoon sent to Coolidge to be White.

[Holly Fry]

House Peter the Coolidges tried to set Rebecca up with proper lodgings, according to First Lady Grace Coolidge's writings, quote, we had a house made for her in one of the larger trees with a wire fence built around it for protection. We kept her chained when out of doors, but in the house she had her liberty. She was a mischievous, inquisitive party, and we had to keep watch of her. When she was in the house. She enjoyed nothing better than being placed in a bathtub with a little water in it and given a cake of soap with which to play. In this fashion, she would amuse herself for an hour or more.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The Cincinnati Enquirer and other papers ran a piece titled Meet Rebecca on Christmas Day in 1926. The write up read, quote, the latest White House pet today received a noteworthy Christmas gift, a name. It will be known to the world as Rebecca Raccoon. The President and the pet have become pals. It strolls over the White House grounds with the President and jumps into his lap. A bright red bow ribbon was placed upon Rebecca's neck Today by Mrs. Coolidge. The President gave the pet a collar with a metal plate upon which its name will be inscribed. White House attaches by direction of the President have built a wooden box in the branches of a tree in which Rebecca nestles at night.

[Holly Fry]

Rebecca clearly made a lot of journalists happy because they almost always had a go to on a slow news day. While there was a pet raccoon in the White House, there were reports about how she rode in cars with President Coolidge, how the President fed her from his hand. Basically, anything the raccoon did was a headline. Additionally, she offered up new material for political cartoonists. She was drawn in cartoons skewering the President for his advocacy for high tariffs. And a later cartoon made use of the President's attachment to the raccoon to associate the creature with tax reduction, which he also believed was important.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

A raccoon again, is a wild animal, which means that sometimes it's going to be unpredictable or get into mischief. That, of course, can also happen with domesticated animals.

But with wild animals, it's a little different. We will talk about some of Rebecca's antics after we take another sponsor break.

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[Cal Penn]

Hello. Hello, I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast smart talks with IBM. I recently sat down with IBM's chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, and I asked him, how can companies use AI to its fullest potential to create smarter business?

[IBM Representative]

My one advice to them Pick areas you can scale. Don't pick the shiny little toys on the side. For example, if anybody has more than 10% of what they had for customer service 10 years ago, they're already five years behind. If anybody is not using AI to make their developers who write software 30% more productive today with the the goal of being 70% more productive.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Wow.

[IBM Representative]

So we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it. We say you can leverage what we did. We are happy to bring out all our learnings, including what needs to change in the process. Because the biggest change is not technology. It's getting people to accept that there's a different way to do things.

[Cal Penn]

To listen to the full conversation, visit IBM.com smart talks.

[Ed Helms]

Hey everyone, Ed Helms here.

[Cal Penn]

And hi, I'm Kal Penn and we're the hosts of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.

[Ed Helms]

This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Jenny Garth, host of the iHeart podcast I choose me to discuss the new Audible adaptation of the timeless Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice. This is not a trick question. There's no wrong answer. What role would I play?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You know what?

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I can see you as Mr. Darcy.

[Apple Card Announcer]

You got a little Colin Firth.

[Ed Helms]

Okay, that's really sweet. I appreciate that. But are you sure I'm not the dad? I'm not Mr. Bennett.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Here.

[Ed Helms]

Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Holly Fry]

In March of 1927, the White House was undergoing construction, and while initially Rebecca was to stay on the White House grounds while the family stayed elsewhere, that plan changed quickly. According to the News Journal of Mansfield, Ohio. Quote, when the Coolidges moved, Rebecca was left behind in the regular domicile which is being repaired. Her lord and master found he needed her to pet in the evening, so the presidential limousine took her to the temporary residence in Dupont Circle. Rebecca is a pet raccoon.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But it seems like something went down in the Dupont Circle residence because six days later a very different headline ran quote, rebecca Raccoon is Banished from Coolidge Domicile. The brief notice which appeared in the San Francisco examiner noted that the President and Rebecca had a parting of ways. It's a short piece that ends with quote, when the Coolidges move to Dupont Circle, Rebecca was taken along. That was the beginning of the end for Rebecca. She has been banished to the zoo. It is believed that Rebecca bit the President. He was appearing in public with a bandaged hand around the same time she was, as that suggests, removed to the National Zoo.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, he never gave an explanation for the bandaged hand, just didn't acknowledge it. But fear not, Rebecca was soon back in the good graces of the first family and back in the White House, although she did continue to make trouble from time to time. In spring 1927, Rebecca was the star of the White House egg roll for Easter. There are a number of photos of her wearing her collar and with her bow on being carried through the Party by the first lady. Rebecca had a leash on that day, and Grace Coolidge would sometimes set her down so that visiting children could pet her. Although she was carefully watched, since she had a penchant for escaping. And because she was a wild animal.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I think she would have wanted to eat some of those eggs, probably.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, raccoons love an egg.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In June of 1927, the Coolidges headed to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and they took a lot of their animals with them, including Rebecca. Papers described it as, quote, the largest menagerie that has ever been transported on a presidential special. So the Coolidges brought their two collies, Rob Roy and Prudence Brehm, two canaries, their cat, Blackie, and Rebecca, who was carried aboard the train in a basket.

[Holly Fry]

I have questions because not all animals like to travel anyway. No, Seems like a lot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I just keep thinking about how much destruction a raccoon can do when it gets into somewhere, like into the attic or under the deck or whatever.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, well, on that journey, Rebecca made headlines for making White House staffers really frustrated with her antics when they were in the Black Hills. She was able to get out of her enclosure and up a tree near the temporary White House. But as she was approached, she got really wily. One paper read, quote, the raccoon, a favorite with the President, seemed to take considerable delight in leading the searchers from tree to tree before she finally consented quite peacefully, to being returned to her house on top of a stump in the rear of the temporary White House.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

At the end of 1927, there were new articles about Rebecca's bad behavior, which is just normal behavior for a raccoon. One, headlined as Rebecca in Disgrace Again as she Flees White House Kennels to spend Night out, states that Rebecca managed to escape and wander about overnight before being recaptured in the morning when her absence was noted. That write up is definitely tongue in cheek, and it mentions things like Rebecca retaining, quote, a faraway look in her eyes after being recaptured.

[Holly Fry]

It does seem, though, that at least some people had started to believe that Rebecca's tendency to go on walkabout might be because she was seeking companionship. So several months after that disgrace article came out, newspapers were reporting that a plan had been hatched to find Rebecca a male raccoon friend. The Buffalo News reported in March 1928. Another chapter has been added to the history of the already interesting White House menagerie. It was begun when several White House attaches on a coon hunt in nearby Virginia cornered an unusually fine male of the species and brought him back to share the newly refurnished log cabin bungalow of Rebecca Raccoon, presidential pet and present occupant of the new home. What the next chapter will be no one knows.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The White House staff named this new raccoon Hector, but Coolidge did not like that name and changed it to Reuben. But from the get go, Reuben did not seem to love being captive. He started escaping immediately after being installed on the White House grounds. At one point, Reuben got off the Executive Mansion property and caused a halt to the traffic for half an hour when he wandered onto Pennsylvania Avenue. In any case, Rebecca and Reuben never really hit it off, so if anybody was hoping for a story about presidential raccoon kits, they were sorely disappointed. Reuben's fate is reported differently in different places. The White House Historical association says that, quote, Reuben's tenure at the Executive Mansion was short lived as he later escaped the grounds and was not found by the staff afterward. And indeed First Lady Grace Coolidge's own writing suggests that Rebecca drove Reuben away. Quote Rebecca had lived alone and had her own way so long that I fear she was a little overbearing and dictatorial, perhaps reminding her spouse that he was living on her bounty. She mentions that Rebecca was single again after one of Reuben's escapes, but there.

[Holly Fry]

Are also quite a few newspaper write ups mentioning Reuben as still being part of the Coolidge's animal collection at the end of the Presidency. In fact, when Coolidge's presidency ended in early 1929, there were a number of stories in the news about what would happen to all of the animals that the first family had been gifted in their time at the White House, and they all seemed to mention both raccoons going to the National Zoo. Whether that was simply a matter of assumption on the journalist parts is unclear, but Rebecca definitely was rehomed into the National Zoo in the hopes that the zoo could offer her a fulfilling life for the remainder of her years. News about Rebecca's life after she was turned over to the zoo seems to be non existent though, so it is unclear exactly how that worked out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There is a fun little coda to Rebecca's story, which is that her enclosure had a new tenant before long. During the tenure of Coolidge's successor, Herbert Hoover, a possum wandered onto the White House grounds and was adopted by the Dew first family and Billy Possum lived in Rebecca's former enclosure. Although it does not appear that this possum was a lap pet the way that Rebecca had been.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, possums can be very sweet. But he seemed to just be like an animal that was kept and cared for on the White House grounds, not one that was paraded around at children's parties.

And those are some of the weird animals that have lived in the White House.

I mean, Paul the parrot didn't live in the White House, but she was a presidential pet, right? I have, of course, pet Related Listener mail I've clearly been on a pet kick lately because this one is from our listener Sarah. About our episode Inventions for Pets, Sarah writes, I misread the episode title Inventions for Pets as Invention of Pets, and maybe there's an episode idea there. I'd love to learn more about the roles that animals play in human civilization beyond labor and livestock. When did we start adopting animals simply for companionship? I have good news, sort of. We have one about the domestication of the cat. Yep, it's quite old and depending on what podcast player you listen on, it may have cycled out. But it does exist. In her archive, Sarah attaches a picture, she says, of my beautiful dog Rumford for Tax. When we'd been trying to get pregnant for a year and were starting to pursue medical help, I realized we don't know if we'll ever have a kid, but we could just get a dog now and then. My husband and our good friend conspired to surprise me with a puppy that Christmas. Rumford is five now, and he's a wonderful big brother to our son, who is now five. Congratulations on successfully having a son. And also, Rumford is really cute.

He has these beautiful silky ears that are like a russet color, and I want to pet them and maybe put a bow on him. He might not like bows, but he's very beautiful and looks like the sweetest pup in the world. Sarah, thank you so much for this sweet email. I also.

When I started reading your email, I misread it initially, thinking you were gonna talk about somehow pets inventing things, and I was like, that would be a good episode. I'm sure there's a pet that's invented something. If I ever find one, you know I'm going to talk about it. If you would like to write to us and send us pictures of your pets or anything. Is there something crafty you've been doing? I want to see it. If there's just this beautiful landscape you love, I want to see that too. Whatever you want to talk about, send us an email. It doesn't even have to be about something we talked about. You can email us whenever you want. You could do that@history podcastheartradio.com you can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Cal Penn]

The Inc. Business Premier Card Chase for Business Make More what's yours? Real Business owner compensated for their participation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and.

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[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. The holiday season can be exhausting with all the parties and the end of year celebrations, but don't forget to take care of yourself. Stocking up on your favorite nutritional products now through December 30th. Shop in store and online and save on items like Cliff Snack Bars, Luna Bars, Boost Nutritional Energy Drinks, Premier Protein Shakes, Z Bar Variety Packs Open Nature Powder and Body Fortress Protein powder offers end December 30th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.

[Cal Penn]

Hey audiobook lovers, I'm Cal Penn.

[Ed Helms]

I'm Ed Helms.

[Cal Penn]

Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our new podcast, Earsay. The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.

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Each week we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks from Audible, Listen to hearsay.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.