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PODCAST

Badass of the Week

High Five Content

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

65:04

Ted Williams: The Slugger Who Became a Fighter

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/29

It's World Series time! So let's talk some badass baseball. In today's episode, Ben is joined by TimeGhost historian and baseball enthusiast Indy Neidell to tell the story of Ted Williams. Williams wasn’t just one of the greatest hitters in baseball history — he was a fighter pilot, a war hero, and a man who could stare down both a fastball and enemy fire without blinking. He lost five prime years of his career to two wars, came back swinging like he never missed a pitch, and still finished with one

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62:13

Martha Gellhorn: Bylines and Bombshells

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/22

In today's episode Ben Thompson is joined by Shaina Steinberg to tell the story of Martha Gellhorn, the trailblazing war correspondent who smuggled herself into war zones, broke every rule that needed breaking, and filed some of the most powerful eyewitness accounts of the 20th century. From the Spanish Civil War to D-Day to the jungles of Vietnam, Gellhorn refused to stay home, refused to stay silent, and refused to be known for anything other than her own words. This is the story of the woman who

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53:22

The Viking Who Invented Dublin and the Saint Who...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/15

This week, Ben and Pat are heading to Ireland for a double dose of destruction, divinity, and a surprisingly violent debate over a book. First up: Turgesius the Devil, a Viking warlord who didn’t just raid Ireland—he built cities, crowned himself king, and let his witch queen turn cathedrals into goat-sacrificing prophecy hubs. Then it’s Saint Colum Cille, the one-man holy army who got so mad about copyright law and a dead hurling player that he started an actual war and maybe (definitely) punched

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67:58

REPLAY -- Milo of Croton: All Muscle, No Chill.

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/09

To follow up our episode with The Smashing Machine, Mark Kerr - we're diving into the archive to replay our deeper dive into the story of Milo of Croton.-- -- Step into the arena with Milo of Croton, the ancient Greek strongman whose feats of strength turned him into a living legend. In this episode, Ben and Pat explore how Milo went from an Olympic champion to a battlefield hero, carrying entire armies on his back—literally. From wrestling lions to tearing trees apart with his bare hands, Milo’s

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51:58

Mark Kerr: The Smashing Machine (with special guest...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/07

In the savage early days of MMA, before the bright lights and billion-dollar paydays, there was one man who fought like a force of nature. Mark Kerr wasn’t just a wrestler — he was a six-foot-one, 250-pound experiment in human willpower. A world champion who walked into underground Brazilian cage fights, broke his hand mid-match, and kept fighting with his head. They called him The Smashing Machine. In today's episode, Ben and Mark go blow-by-blow through the glory, the pain, and the redemption of

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63:33

Xenophon: The March Through Madness

Badass of the Week ·

2025/10/01

Xenophon was a philosophy student, a Socratic thinker, and a pampered Athenian aristocrat who signed up for a mercenary road trip into Persia and accidentally became one of the greatest battlefield leaders in Greek history. When his army’s generals were betrayed and slaughtered, Xenophon—who had never commanded a single soldier—rallied 10,000 stranded warriors and led them on a 4,000-mile retreat through enemy territory, across deserts, mountains, and hostile kingdoms, surviving ambushes,

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43:09

Paddy Mayne: When in doubt, just strap a machine gun...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/09/24

Before he was smashing Nazi airfields and punching his way through the deserts of North Africa, Lieutenant Colonel Blair “Paddy” Mayne was an amateur boxing champion, a rugby international, and the kind of guy who could drink you under the table, flip the table, and then win the bar fight that followed. This week, Ben and Andrew dive into the myth and madness of one of the founding members of the Special Air Service—an Irish warrior-poet with a short fuse and a long list of enemies. From brawling

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62:55

Baron Frederick von der Trenck: Get in Loser, We’re...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/09/17

In today's episode, Ben and Pat dive into the outrageous, swashbuckling life of Baron Frederick von der Trenck -- a Prussian nobleman, cavalry officer, prison escape artist, sword-fighting heartthrob, and the original “most interesting man in the world.” Born into military aristocracy, Trenck risked it all for love, dueled his way across Europe, got imprisoned (twice) by a furious Frederick the Great, and escaped in ways that feel ripped straight from a Dumas novel. From secret affairs with royalty

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68:27

Dr. Hawa Abdi: A Sanctuary in Hell

Badass of the Week ·

2025/09/10

In the middle of Somalia’s civil war, when the world was falling apart, Dr. Hawa Abdi started building. On her family’s land outside Mogadishu, she created a hospital, a school, a legal aid clinic, and eventually a sanctuary for tens of thousands of people fleeing violence and famine. Armed militias tried to take it. She told them to get off her front lawn. And they did. This is the story of a doctor who held the line when no one else could, and turned one patch of earth into a beacon of hope for an

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43:21

Potemkin: This Ship Runs on Rage, Not Borscht

Badass of the Week ·

2025/08/27

In 1905, a Russian battleship crew said “enough.” Starving, abused, and fed up with maggot-ridden meat and brutal officers, the sailors aboard the Potemkin launched one of the most famous mutinies in naval history—an act of defiance that sent shockwaves through the Russian Empire. What followed was a chaotic, bloody standoff that played out across the Black Sea and the port of Odessa, inspiring revolutionaries and terrifying the Tsar. In today's episode Ben and Andrew tell the story of how one

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54:24

Buried Alive: The 33 Who Refused to Die

Badass of the Week ·

2025/08/20

August 2010. Deep beneath the Atacama Desert, thirty-three Chilean miners are buried alive under thousands of tons of rock—half a mile underground. With only two days of food, no light, and no way out, their survival seems impossible. On the surface, desperate families build a city of hope, engineers and drillers from around the world converge, and NASA lends a hand. In today's episode Ben and Pat tell a story of leadership, faith, and pure badass perseverance, as the world unites to pull off one of

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01:20:52

Nikephoros Phokas: Pale Death of the Saracens

Badass of the Week ·

2025/08/13

In today's episode Ben and Pat are joined by Robin Pierson, host of The History of Byzantium to discuss Nikephoros Phokas was a man who didn’t look like he belonged on a battlefield—balding, pale, with a face better suited to an icon in a monastery. But when he put on his armor, he became the Byzantine Empire’s ultimate nightmare machine. Known as the “Pale Death of the Saracens,” he crushed enemy armies, reclaimed lost lands, and rode his warhorse straight into the history books. Along the way, he

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01:10:10

Bare-Handed Beastmaster: The Wild Life of Carl Akeley

Badass of the Week ·

2025/08/06

Carl Akeley was an artist, scientist, inventor, conservationist, and the godfather of modern taxidermy—but don’t let the job title fool you. This dude once fist-fought a full-grown leopard with one hand, got body-slammed by an elephant and survived, invented a concrete-blasting cannon, and crossed a crocodile-infested river using a dead crocodile as a raft. All in the name of conservation. Alongside guest Michael Alm, Ben Thompson dives into the insane, inspiring, and occasionally insane-again life

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01:03:58

Jack Johnson: The Galveston Giant

Badass of the Week ·

2025/07/29

In today's episode Mike Primavera talk about legendary boxer Jack Johnson.In the early 1900s, Jack Johnson became the first Black heavyweight boxing champion of the world—then spent the next decade daring America to do something about it. He fought with style, laughed in the ring, knocked out legends, and lived large in gold suits and bright yellow hot rods. While the press raged, the cops threatened, and politicians tried to shut him down, Johnson just kept winning. He taunted the so-called “Great

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35:04

Rome Vs The Etruscans Part II: Ride or Die

Badass of the Week ·

2025/07/23

In this episode Ben and Pat continue the story of Rome versus the Etruscans.... The siege is over—but the danger is just getting started. With Rome teetering between freedom and destruction, a group of young hostages is handed over to an enemy king as part of a fragile truce. But when one of them—Chloelia—leads a daring escape across the Tiber River, all hell breaks loose.This is the story of Rome’s fiercest teenage heroine, a hostage ambush, a horse that may or may not swim, and the moment when a

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01:07:40

Rome VS The Etruscans Part 1: Before the Republic,...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/07/16

Rome is cornered. The monarchy has fallen, the Republic is barely standing, and an Etruscan warlord is marching toward the gates with an army at his back and a puppet king in his pocket. The Romans are outnumbered, outmatched, and running out of time. So they do what Romans do best: they get dangerous.In this episode, Ben and Pat tell the stories of Rome and two unlikely heroes step into history. One makes a last stand on a crumbling wooden bridge. The other slips behind enemy lines with a blade, a

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01:04:19

Abd al-Rahman: Prince of Blood, Lord of the South

Badass of the Week ·

2025/07/09

Abd al-Rahman was supposed to die with the rest of his family. When the Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads in a brutal coup, they made sure to slaughter every last male heir—except one. Abd al-Rahman, barely twenty, escaped across the Middle East and North Africa with assassins hot on his trail. He swam rivers, crossed deserts, and vanished into legend. And just when the world thought his dynasty was gone, he returned—on horseback, sword in hand, to conquer a new kingdom at the edge of the

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56:58

Banastre Tarleton: The Butcherous British Bastard of...

Badass of the Week ·

2025/07/02

They called him The Butcher. A young, cocky British officer with a flair for showmanship and a taste for brutality, Banastre Tarleton tore through the American South on horseback, leading a feared legion of dragoons who left fire and blood in their wake. He was ruthless, relentless, and exactly the kind of guy you build a revolution against. In this special 4th of July episode - Ben and Andrew dive into the chaotic rise of Tarleton: from aristocratic brat to the most hated man in the colonies—and

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01:21:36

Nuno Álvares Pereira: Portugal’s Holy Hammer

Badass of the Week ·

2025/06/25

He was the undefeated general who saved Portugal from foreign conquest, crushed armies five times his size, and changed the course of European warfare—then gave it all up to become a barefoot monk. This week Ben and Pat tell the story of Nuno Álvares Pereira: battlefield genius, national hero, and the only medieval warlord to end up canonized as a Catholic saint.

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01:07:13

Crowned & Dangerous: The Legend of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Badass of the Week ·

2025/06/18

She was the most eligible bachelorette in Europe, the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, and the queen of not one but two different countries. In today's episode, Ben and special guest author Shaina Steinberg tell the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine who outmaneuvered kings, went on Crusade, survived imprisonment, and spent decades pulling the strings of empires and rebellions alike. She was a medieval power broker, royal schemer, and all-around badass centuries ahead of her time — and she did it

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138 results

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