Badass of the Week

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 Ro...

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....

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 dy...

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 div...

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. Learn more about your ad choices....

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 me...

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...

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 B...

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 sha...

They cut off his nose, exiled him to the edge of the empire, and left him for dead. But Justinian II didn’t stay gone. This is the story of a Byzantine emperor who clawed his way back to the throne with a mutilated face and a murderous grudge. A tale of gold noses, broken alliances, double-crosses, and the bloodiest comeback in imperial history—when Justinian returned, it wasn’t just to rule. It w...

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 hop...

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 tim...

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 h...

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 En...

The tuberculosis-stricken dentist is about to become a legend. In Part 2 of our Doc Holliday saga, Ben and Andrew ride into Tombstone—where Doc teams up with the Earp brothers, drinks like a dying man, and walks into the most famous 30 seconds in the history of the Wild West. We’ll break down the myth and the mayhem of the O.K. Corral, trace Doc’s final years on the run, and separate fact from fro...

Before he was the sharp-tongued, quick-drawing legend of Tombstone, John Henry “Doc” Holliday was a Southern aristocrat, a brilliant dentist, and a man marked by tragedy. In today's episode Ben and Producer Andrew trace the surprising early life of the West’s most infamous gambler-gunslinger—from his genteel Georgia upbringing to a tuberculosis diagnosis that sent him spiraling into saloons, showd...

The surface of Venus is a nightmare: 900 degrees Fahrenheit, 90 times Earth’s atmospheric pressure, and rain made of acid. It’s the most hostile place in the solar system—and the Soviet Union was insane enough to send probes there. Again. And again. And again. In this episode, Ben and guest Erik Slader (Epik Fails of History) dive into the Soviet Venera Program: a two-decade war against a planet t...

As Europe increasingly freaks out about the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, a ragtag crew of guys who ordinarily hate each other band together for common cause and GUESS WHAT -- it goes cartoonishly wrong. In the second part of this two-part series, Ben hangs with the Ridiculous History guys and  breaks down the most ridiculous friendly-fire incident in all of human history. (Also, side note: Ben...

It's April Fools day which means we want to talk about one of the dumbest battles in World History...  War has always been a chaotic, messy endeavor -- and, sometimes, it's downright ridiculous. In this week's special two-part series Ben joins the badass dudes from Ridiculous History to talk about the bizarre turn of events that led to the Battle of Karánsebes. In part one, Ben introduces the gang...

Some soldiers fight wars. Leo Major won them—single-handedly—while rocking a Canadian flag. This one-eyed, French-Canadian unstoppable force of nature took on the Nazis solo, liberated an entire Dutch city by himself, and casually shrugged off wounds that would’ve ended lesser men. Whether it was sneaking through occupied territory like a moose in stealth mode, capturing dozens of enemy soldiers a...

100 episodes. Hundreds of badass stories. Countless questionable pronunciation attempts. This week, we’re celebrating 100 episodes of Badass of the Week with a look back at the wildest, craziest, and most ridiculous moments from our journey so far. From legendary warriors to historical madmen, unsung heroes to absolute lunatics, we’ve covered it all—and we’re not stopping anytime soon. Join us for...

You know Mickey Rooney as a Hollywood legend, but did you know he also served in World War II? At the height of his fame, Rooney traded red carpets for the Army, entertaining the troops and boosting morale across war zones. While he wasn’t storming beaches, he was on the front lines of entertainment, giving performances to soldiers who needed a reason to laugh in the middle of chaos. In this episo...

Step into the smoke-filled temple of Apollo and meet the Oracle of Delphi, the most mysterious and feared fortune-teller in the ancient world. Kings, generals, and philosophers all climbed Mount Parnassus to hear her cryptic prophecies—some of which shaped the course of history. But was the Oracle really channeling the gods, or just really high on volcanic fumes? In today's episode Ben and Pat unr...

Robert Smalls wasn’t just a man—he was a one-man revolution. Smalls was slave who stole a Confederate warship, sailed his way to freedom, and then went back to kick the Confederacy’s ass. Born into slavery, Smalls pulled off one of the greatest heists in American history, disguising himself as a Confederate captain and delivering a stolen ship to the Union. But he didn’t stop there—he went on to b...

Before the Vikings had maps, they had Erik the Red—a hot-tempered, ax-swinging explorer who turned exile into empire. In this episode, Ben and Pat follow the fiery outlaw who got kicked out of Norway, then Iceland, and instead of learning his lesson, discovered Greenland and made it his own. With a reputation for both brutality and brilliance, Erik carved his way into history as the ultimate Vikin...