Badass of the Week

Badass of the Week

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 specific goal in life - and they didn’t let anything stand between themselves and their mission. They refused to back down even when the odds seemed hopelessly stacked against them, they came back from the brink of failure to achieve ultimate success, and they beat the fucking hell out of anyone stupid enough to have stood in their way. Badass of the Week is a weekly (duh) podcast, that dives into new stories of badasses every week.

Episodes

Hector: The Blood-Soaked Shield of Troy

July 16, 2026 • 64 mins
Getting ready to watch The Odyssey? Well here's the prequel... When Paris steals Helen and brings the armies of Greece crashing down on Troy, it falls to his older brother Hector to clean up the mess. Hector is Troy’s greatest warrior, its future king, and its last line of defense—a devoted husband and father who knows the gods have already written his ending. This week, Ben is joined by Dr. Pat Larash to enter the I...
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Henry Knox: The Cannon King Who Won America’s Independence

July 9, 2026 • 59 mins
This Fourth of July, we’re telling the story of one of the greatest American heroes almost nobody remembers. Before he became George Washington’s trusted general and America’s first Secretary of War, Henry Knox was an overweight Boston bookseller with no formal military training—and a completely insane idea. In the dead of winter, Knox volunteered to haul 60 tons of captured cannons more than 300 miles thro...
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The Death Match: The Soccer Game That Defied the Nazis

July 1, 2026 • 52 mins
A soccer game so legendary it inspired a Hollywood blockbuster… but did it really happen the way we’ve all heard? During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, a ragtag team of former professional footballers took the field against a series of German military teams, culminating in a match that would become known as “The Death Match.” According to legend, they were ordered to lose. They refused. And they paid with...
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Vassili Paleokostas: History’s Wildest Prison Break Artist

June 23, 2026 • 60 mins
History is full of master thieves, daring outlaws, and legendary escape artists... but few ever combined all three quite like Vassili Paleokostas. A small-town Greek electrician turned folk hero, Paleokostas spent decades robbing banks, kidnapping wealthy industrialists, humiliating police, and giving away portions of his loot to struggling families. To some, he was a dangerous criminal. To others, he was a modern-day Robin Hood s...
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William Bligh: The Man the Pacific Couldn’t Kill

June 17, 2026 • 86 mins
When most people hear the name William Bligh, they think of a tyrant. Thanks to generations of books and movies, the captain of the HMS Bounty has gone down in history as the cruel, power-mad villain whose crew finally rose up and mutinied. The real story is far more complicated—and far more impressive. Long before the mutiny, Bligh had established himself as one of the finest navigators in the British Navy. And after being...
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Muhammad Ali: Fighting the Whole World

June 10, 2026 • 78 mins
Few athletes have ever transcended their sport the way Muhammad Ali did. This week, Ben Thompson is joined by Dr. Patricia Larash and Mike Primavera to dive into the life of the heavyweight champion who didn’t just dominate boxing—he changed history. From winning Olympic gold and shocking the world by defeating Sonny Liston to refusing the draft at the height of the Vietnam War, Ali turned every fight into something bi...
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Canute the Great: England’s Viking Nightmare

June 3, 2026 • 61 mins
Most people know Canute the Great from the famous story of him ordering the tide to stop. The problem? That’s not what actually happened. This week, Ben Thompson and Dr. Patricia Larash dive into the life of the Viking warrior who conquered England, forged a vast North Sea empire stretching from England to Denmark and Norway, and became one of the most powerful rulers in medieval Europe. Through battlefield victories, politi...
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Max Hardberger: The Repo Man of the High Seas

May 27, 2026 • 46 mins
Most repo men tow away Hondas in the middle of the night. Max Hardberger stole back multi-million dollar cargo ships from dictators, corrupt governments, and the Russian mafia. This week, Ben Thompson and producer Andrew Jacobs dive into the unbelievable true story of the maritime lawyer, poet, and sea captain who turned international ship repossession into an art form—using fake sinkings, voodoo priests, tropical storms, and...
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The 442nd: The Purple Heart Battalion

May 20, 2026 • 75 mins
This week, Ben Thompson and special guest Shana Steinberg dive into the unbelievable true story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — the Japanese American soldiers who became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history while their own families sat behind barbed wire in internment camps back home. From brutal mountain warfare in Italy to the legendary rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in France, these men charg...
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Hughie Jennings: The Last Baseball Lunatic

May 13, 2026 • 55 mins
Before baseball had billion-dollar contracts, concussion protocols, or even outfield walls… it had Hughie Jennings. This week, Ben Thompson is joined by baseball historian and comedian Jon Franklin to tell the unbelievable story of the coal miner-turned-Hall-of-Famer who survived skull fractures, car crashes, empty swimming pools, and 287 hit-by-pitches—all while becoming one of the greatest shortstops of the Dead Ball...
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Babur: The Gunpowder King

May 6, 2026 • 66 mins
This week, Ben Thompson and Dr. Patricia Larash tell the story of Babur — the warrior poet who went from homeless teenage fugitive sleeping in the mountains under a shared cloak… to the founder of one of the greatest empires in history. Descended from both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, Babur spent decades losing kingdoms, rebuilding armies, writing poetry, and searching for a place to belong before gambling everything on...
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Roald Amundsen: The Ice-Cold Genius Who Outsmarted Antarctica

April 28, 2026 • 76 mins
Before anyone had ever stood at the bottom of the world, one man decided he wasn’t going to discover the South Pole - he was going to win it. This week, Ben Thompson and guest Erik Slader of Epic Fails of History, dive into the ruthless, ice-cold brilliance of Roald Amundsen —the explorer who turned preparation into a weapon and left better-funded rivals frozen in his wake. From secretly pivoting his expedition plans ...
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The Lancaster: Fire, Steel, and Survival at 20,000 Feet

April 22, 2026 • 90 mins
High above Nazi-occupied Europe, hundreds of Avro Lancasters tear through the darkness. No lights, no margin for error, and no guarantee of coming home. In this episode, Ben Thompson is joined by filmmaker David Fairhead to break down the brutal reality of flying Britain’s most feared bomber in World War II. From its origins as a flawed aircraft to becoming the backbone of the RAF’s bombing campaign, the Lancaster wasn...
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Isabella of France: The She-Wolf Who Toppled a King

April 15, 2026 • 72 mins
They called her the “She-Wolf” - and not as a compliment. This week, Ben Thompson and Dr. Pat tell the story of Isabella of France, a queen who got sidelined, shut out, and underestimated… and responded by invading her own kingdom. Married to the deeply unpopular Edward II of England, Isabella watched her influence disappear, until she decided to take it back with an army. What follows is betrayal, alliance, and...
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The AC-130: Death From Above (with Special guest Special Missions Aviator Anthony Dyer )

April 8, 2026 • 58 mins
This week, Ben Thompson sits down with Special Missions Aviator Anthony Dyer to go inside the most feared aircraft in modern warfare—and the man pulling the trigger. From unleashing devastation in Afghanistan to pulling wounded soldiers out of the fire, this is what happens during the mission… and what it costs when you come home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Vasa: Built to Dominate, Designed to Sink

April 1, 2026 • 74 mins
In 1628, Vasa warship set sail as the most powerful warship Sweden had ever built—a floating symbol of ambition, wealth, and absolute confidence. It had more cannons, more firepower, and more swagger than anything else in the Baltic. It also had a fatal flaw. On its maiden voyage, in front of a cheering crowd and the entire city of Stockholm, the Vasa made it about three-quarters of a mile… before a light gust of wind...
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Liver-Eating Johnson: The Mountain Man Boogeyman

March 25, 2026 • 53 mins
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 murd...
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Ishtar: Seduction, Slaughter, and the Underworld Heist

March 18, 2026 • 64 mins
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,...
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El Cid: The Baddest Knight in Spain

March 11, 2026 • 70 mins
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...
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Kondo Isami: Last Samurai Standing

March 3, 2026 • 53 mins
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 r...
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