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PODCAST

Badass of the Week

Badass History - High Five Content & Seven Bucks Productions

Throughout the course of human civilization certain individuals have stood out as being completely f***ing awesome. From ninjas and gunfighters to pirates and Vikings, to explorers, scientists and great leaders, these people - true badasses - completely obliterated anything that stood in their path, routinely overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and ultimately altered the course of history through their actions. Be it glory, conquest, or survival, these hardcore men and women all had one

history

All Episodes

53:36

Liver-Eating Johnson: The Mountain Man Boogeyman

Badass of the Week ·

2026/03/25

History is full of revenge stories - but almost none of them spiral into full-blown, years-long war against an entire nation. This week, host Ben Thompson is joined by producer Andrew Jacobs to dive into the blood-soaked legend of Jeremiah “Liver-Eating” Johnson -a mountain man who survived brutal winters, outlaws, and ambushes… and then allegedly spent years hunting down members of the Crow Nation after the murder of his family.It’s a story of myth vs. reality, frontier violence, and one man’s

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61:00

Ishtar: Seduction, Slaughter, and the Underworld Heist

Badass of the Week ·

2026/03/18

History’s earliest civilizations didn’t just invent writing, cities, and law, they also gave us one of the most unpredictable, volatile, and straight-up terrifying deities ever worshipped. Meet Ishtar: the Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, sex, power, and absolutely zero chill.Hosted by Ben Thompson with guest Dr. Patricia Larash, this episode dives into the legend of a goddess who could seduce kings, destroy armies, and then descend into the underworld on what might be the most ill-advised power

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67:11

El Cid: The Baddest Knight in Spain

Badass of the Week ·

2026/03/11

Medieval Spain was a chaotic battlefield of rival Christian kingdoms, powerful Muslim emirs, shifting alliances, and nonstop war - and in the middle of it all rode Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the legendary warrior history remembers as El Cid.Exiled by his own king, El Cid didn’t disappear quietly into the margins of history. Instead, he built an unstoppable reputation as a battlefield genius and mercenary commander, fighting for whoever would hire him and defeating just about everyone who stood in his

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50:12

Kondo Isami: Last Samurai Standing

Badass of the Week ·

2026/03/04

The samurai weren’t supposed to go quietly. This week, host Ben Thompson is joined by guest Mike Primavera to tell the story of Kondo Isami the peasant-born swordsman who rose to command the most feared killers in Kyoto: the Shinsengumi. As Japan cracked open under pressure from Western powers and internal rebellion, Kondo and his men became the iron fist of the collapsing shogunate — hunting assassins, cutting down rebels, and enforcing order with cold steel in the streets. But when civil war

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46:09

Josephine Baker: The Most Dangerous Woman in Paris

Badass of the Week ·

2026/02/24

In the 1920s, she scandalized Europe in a banana skirt and became the most famous entertainer in the world. But when war came, Josephine Baker traded applause for espionage—smuggling secrets for the French Resistance, hiding messages in sheet music, and risking execution by the NazisIn today's episode, Host Ben Thompson is joined by historian Taylor Cassidy to break down the astonishing life of a woman who refused to be boxed in - by racism, by borders, or by history itself. From the stages of

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69:44

George Washington: Ice-Cold and Unkillable

Badass of the Week ·

2026/02/16

Wooden teeth? No. Cherry tree? Probably not. Absolute unit of a leader? Undeniably.Ben Thompson welcomes EpicLLOYD from Epic Rap Battles of History for a Presidents’ Day breakdown George Washington — the six-foot-two surveyor who became the most dangerous man in the British Empire. Outnumbered. Undersupplied. Outgunned. Washington lost more battles than he won, but he never lost the war. From the frozen gamble at Trenton to resigning his commission when he didn’t have to, he pulled off something

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50:10

Fridtjof Nansen: North of Insanity

Badass of the Week ·

2026/02/11

Ice. Starvation. Total darkness. And somewhere out there — a polar bear that would very much like to eat you.On this episode, Ben Thompson is joined by producer Andrew Jacobs to break down the life of Fridtjof Nansen — Arctic explorer, record-setting skier, neuroscientist, diplomat, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the only man in history to drift across the polar ice cap on purpose. Nansen didn’t just explore the Arctic — he weaponized it. He froze his own ship into the pack ice to prove a scientific

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60:02

Olympias: Snakes, Curses, and the Birth of an Empire

Badass of the Week ·

2026/02/04

Empires don’t begin with heroes — they begin with mothers who refuse to lose.Olympias ruled from the shadows using fear, religion, and assassination, making sure history remembered her son as a god and forgot anyone who stood in his way. If Alexander conquered the world with a sword, Olympias conquered history with snakes, curses, and a body count. Hosted by Ben Thompson, with co-host Dr. Patricia Larash, this episode unpacks how power really worked in ancient Macedonia — and why Olympias may have

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55:13

Marguerite de la Rocque: Alone on the Island of Demons

Badass of the Week ·

2026/01/28

In 1542, a teenage French noblewoman is marooned on a frozen island off the coast of Newfoundland - deliberately abandoned by her own family, left with a failing matchlock gun, a handful of supplies, and no hope of rescue. Over the next two years, Marguerite de la Rocque watches everyone she loves die, survives brutal winters, hunts seals, and kills polar bears with a weapon that takes minutes to reload - knowing one mistake means death.This week on Badass of the Week, Ben Thompson is joined by New

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63:19

Gilgamesh: Immortal Power, Very Mortal Consequences

Badass of the Week ·

2026/01/21

Five thousand years before Batman brooded, before Achilles sulked, before Hercules punched a god in the mouth, there was Epic of Gilgamesh - the original badass origin story. Gilgamesh starts as a tyrant king with godlike strength, a legendary temper, and absolutely zero chill, until the gods drop another unstoppable force into his life: Enkidu. What follows is a saga of monster-slaying, divine beef, catastrophic hubris, and one of the earliest -and most brutal - lessons ever recorded about

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60:15

Butch Cassidy: The West’s Smoothest Criminal

Badass of the Week ·

2026/01/14

Outlaws don’t usually get remembered for being smart—but Butch Cassidy was something different. He robbed banks and trains with minimal bloodshed, outwitted the Pinkertons for years, and built a criminal crew that operated more like a well-run business than a gang of desperados.This week on Badass of the Week, we’re joined by Todd Weiser, co-host of the Heist Club podcast, to break down what made Cassidy’s robberies so effective, why charm was his most dangerous weapon, and how one outlaw managed

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64:46

Daniel Morgan: 499 Problems, the Crown Ain’t One

Badass of the Week ·

2026/01/08

Powdered wigs didn’t win the American Revolution... scarred knuckles did.Host Ben Thompson is joined by David Schmidt, director of The American Revolution with Ken Burns, to tell the story of Daniel Morgan - a frontier brawler who survived 500 lashes, took a musket ball through the face, and learned to fight the British in ways they couldn’t understand or stop. Morgan didn’t look like a Founding Father and he didn’t fight like a gentleman. He hunted officers from the treeline, turned militia panic

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48:20

Petty Officer Robert J Thomas: The Last Bullet Is His.

Badass of the Week ·

2025/12/31

During a brutal Vietnam firefight that spiraled into a forty-five-minute running battle, Robert J. Thomas was shot, shredded by shrapnel, and left barely able to stand. Instead of evacuating, he crawled forward, emptied his pistol into enemy positions, then climbed onto the door gun of a helicopter that had already been hit more than a hundred times.On this episode, host Ben Thompson is joined by Matt Fratus of Late Night History to break down Thomas’s stand - a fight that saved multiple wounded

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61:30

St. Moses the Black: From Outlaw to Saint

Badass of the Week ·

2025/12/23

History doesn’t usually leave room for men like St. Moses the Black - a violent outlaw, gang leader, and feared killer who somehow became one of the most respected monks of the early Christian world. His life wasn’t a gentle conversion story. It was brutal, uncomfortable, and earned the hard way through discipline, humility, and blood-soaked consequences.Joining the show is Matti Leshem, co-creator of Fox Nation's The Saints, to break down why Moses’s transformation still matters and why this might

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49:17

The Trưng Sisters: When Sisters Ruled an Empire

Badass of the Week ·

2025/12/17

History doesn’t usually begin with two sisters on war elephants — but this one does. In 40 AD, the Trưng Sisters ignited a violent break from Han Dynasty rule, led armies commanded by women, seized more than sixty citadels, and ruled Vietnam as queens for three hard-fought years.In today's episode Ben is joined by Dr. Pat Larish to chart the rise, rule, and last stand of the women who turned occupation into identity — and became the blueprint for two thousand years of Vietnamese resistance.

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75:36

The Taiping Rebellion: The Cult Leader Who Nearly...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/12/11

A failed civil-service exam. A month-long fever dream. And a man who woke up convinced he was Jesus Christ’s Chinese younger brother... This week, Ben teams up with historian and History on Fire host Daniele Bolelli to tell one of the wildest, bloodiest, most unbelievable stories in human history: the Taiping Rebellion, the second-deadliest war the world has ever seen.What begins as one man’s psychotic break spirals into a doomsday-level holy war that engulfs 17 provinces, kills tens of millions,

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53:15

Pearl Harbor: The Cook, the Drunks, and the...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/12/03

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was hit with fire, chaos, and a surprise attack that should have shattered the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Instead, it produced some of the wildest, most unlikely heroes in American history. In this episode, Ben Thompson is joined by Navy veteran and comedian Rob Mayfield to break down the stories of the men who refused to fold - from mess attendant Doris “Dorie” Miller dropping enemy planes with a .50-cal he’d never been trained to fire, to two hungover fighter pilots

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55:04

Alan Shepard: The Original Space Cowboy

Badass of the Week ·

2025/11/26

America’s first astronaut wasn’t just a spaceman — he was a fighter pilot, a rule-breaker, and a straight-up menace to anyone who underestimated him. This week, Ben is joined by space historian Brandon Fibbs to dig into the wild life of Alan Shepard, the hotshot naval aviator who went from strafing enemy ships in WWII to strapping himself into a tin can perched on top of a barely-tested rocket. Together they unpack how Shepard muscled his way into the Mercury 7, stared down NASA bureaucracy, battled

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69:46

Majorian: The Roman Emperor Who Said “Not on My Watch”

Badass of the Week ·

2025/11/19

History remembers the fall of Rome as inevitable... but buried in the chaos is one man who almost flipped the script. In today's episode, Ben is joined by Matthew and Matteo of the Lost Roman Heroes Podcast to talk about Majorian. He wasn’t a pampered emperor; he was a frontline warrior who carved his way through enemies and politics alike, determined to rebuild an empire everyone else had already written off. He reformed corrupt systems, rallied shattered armies, and launched one of the boldest

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44:41

Drew Dennis Dix: Welcome to Hell, I’ll Be Your Tour...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/11/11

In honor of Veterans Day, Ben Thompson and Producer Andrew Jacobs tell the story of Drew Dennis Dix. History is full of stories about impossible odds—but few come close to what Dix pulled off in Vietnam. In the middle of the massive Viet Cong Tet offensive, Dix—an enlisted Green Beret—went in alone to rescue civilians trapped in a city under siege. Over two harrowing days, he led a one-man mission through enemy territory, dodging sniper fire, clearing buildings, saving dozens of hostages, and

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159 results

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