Richmond Honey, History & Hydrogen Bombs (wild bees, civil war, and submarines in RVA) — Unscripted #061

The Richmond Rotary Blue Crab Festival is this Saturday, September 12th, 12–3 p.m. at the Overlook at ChildSavers in Church Hill: https://www.rvarotary.com/  — all-you-can-eat Eastern Shore blue crabs, live music, beer and wine, and a silent auction you can bid on even if you can't make it. Hosted by the Rotary Club of Richmond, with proceeds going back into local charities. Silent Auction found here: https://rotaryclubrichmond.betterworld.org/auctions/blue-crab-festival-silent-auction-2026 In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we discuss a range of Richmond topics including a bucket of bees in Scott's Addition, a man who bricked ninety windshields downtown, the Battle of New Market Heights and the fourteen Medals of Honor we never hear about, the Blue Crab Festival, and the forgotten Richmond submarine that guarded a hydrogen bomb. Vera Creative Club Merchandise: https://verahouse.co We start with the brick. A man walked through downtown smashing car windshields — somewhere around ninety of them — and the conversation that follows isn't really about him. It's about the word "unhoused," what a cracked windshield actually costs now, why nobody on that street stopped him, and the people we walk past in Carytown every week without knowing anything about them. Later in the episode we go out to Henrico, to a battlefield most Richmonders have never heard of. The Battle of New Market Heights, September 29th, 1864: the United States Colored Troops led an assault that cost roughly eight hundred casualties in a little over an hour, broke the Confederate line, and produced something this city has never properly claimed — fourteen Medals of Honor out of only sixteen awarded to Black soldiers in the entire Civil War. We read every name. The second half starts with Saturday's Blue Crab Festival and an honest explanation of what a Rotary Club actually does. Then the story that gives this episode its name: Aluminaut and Alvin, the two best friends who happened to be submarines. Reynolds Metals built Aluminaut right here in 1964 — 51 feet of aluminum, a publicity stunt to sell foil and beer cans — and two years later it was the only thing on earth that could find a lost hydrogen bomb off the coast of Spain. Then it went back down 5,000 feet to rescue Alvin from the bottom of the Atlantic. Aluminaut is parked outside the Science Museum of Virginia on Broad Street right now, and most people who drive past it have no idea. We close with a bucket of honey nobody can explain. Topics include Scott's Addition, honeybees, wild bees, Richmond windshields, downtown Richmond, Carytown, homelessness in Richmond, the Battle of New Market Heights, Henrico County, the United States Colored Troops, Powhatan Beaty, the Medal of Honor, Civil War Richmond, the Blue Crab Festival, the Rotary Club of Richmond, Church Hill, the Overlook at ChildSavers, Reynolds Metals, Aluminaut, Alvin, the Science Museum of Virginia, deep-sea submarines, and Richmond history. Quick interjection to invite you to Vera House Studios. If you are a local Richmond business, entrepreneur, brand owner, or service provider—and you know you need to create better content to get your products and services in front of the right people—we can help. Support the show Get more info about our studio here. This podcast is produced by Vera House — a creative club and premium media studio based in Richmond, Virginia. Our studio exists to champion local brands, creative expression, rva culture, and produce high-impact content for founders, makers, and modern businesses. Follow the movement: instagram.com/verahouse.co youtube.com/@verahousepod verahouse.co Hosted by Myke Metzger & Perri Young: instagram.com/mykemetzger instagram.com/planetperri