Badass of the Week

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 ter...

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 lead...

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 lo...

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,...

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...

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 fi...

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 ma...

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 re...

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 ri...

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, ...

Ferdinand Magellan was a glory-hungry Portuguese explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, out to prove he could circle the globe, convert entire civilizations, and maybe pick up a few spice islands along the way. But after months of storms, mutinies, and bad decisions, Magellan washed up in the Philippines thinking he could win a war with fifty guys, a translator, and the power of God. What he got instead was Lapu Lap...

It was fast. It was beautiful. And when the fate of the world was hanging by a thread, it helped save civilization. The Supermarine Spitfire wasn’t just a plane — it was a symbol of defiance, precision engineering, and sheer guts. In the skies over Britain, outnumbered RAF pilots climbed into these sleek warbirds and took on the full might of Hitler’s Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Join Ben and special guest ...

After clawing his way back to the Byzantine throne, Justinian II ruled like a man possessed—merciless, paranoid, and hell-bent on vengeance. But his enemies weren’t done with him yet. In the western city of Ravenna, a revolt brews that will bring down the emperor once and for all. This is the story of how the man who came back from the dead was finally taken out—by priests, rebels, and his own shattered empire. No one...

When Japan invaded Korea in 1592, one man stood defiantly against impossible odds: Admiral Yi Sun-sin. Outnumbered, betrayed by jealous rivals, and stripped of command, Yi clawed his way back from ruin, inventing the legendary “Turtle Ships” to wreak havoc on enemy fleets. Using unmatched tactics and sheer audacity, Yi crushed Japan’s armada again and again, earning victory even when it seemed hopeless. Join Ben and A...

He broke the sound barrier with two broken ribs and a broom handle jammed into the cockpit of an experimental jet. Chuck Yeager wasn’t just the first man to fly faster than Mach 1—he was the embodiment of American grit, guts, and go-for-broke test pilot bravado. In today's episode, Ben and guest Brandon Fibbs dive into the wild life of a World War II ace who dogfought Nazis, cheated death more times than he could coun...

Continuing the epic story of Handsome Mingyan, the loyal warrior of King Jengar as he’s tasked with the impossible: Capture the King of the Western lands, Mighty Kerman Kahn . Mingyan must travel vast distances, face three crazy trials, and somehow, someway, sneak into King Kerman’s castle, avoiding 16,000 soldiers, and a bear and leopard duo ready to throw him down into the depths of hell. With his trusted and brilliant steed Gold...

When the English army came knocking at the gates of Dunbar Castle in 1338, they expected an easy victory. What they got instead was Black Agnes — a Scottish noblewoman with a sharp tongue, a fearless spirit, and absolutely zero patience for invaders. With a handful of loyal soldiers, Agnes of Dunbar held off siege engines, taunted her enemies, and turned one of the most embarrassing failures in English military histor...