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Badass of the Week

by Badass History - High Five Content & Seven Bucks Productions

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Latest episodes

Darius the Great: King of Kings, Master of Spin

October 30, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

How do you go from carrying the king’s spear to running the biggest empire on Earth? A palace coup, a suspiciously well-timed horse, and some truly monumental self-promotion. Ben Thompson and Dr. Pat Larash follow Darius the Great’s bloody…
Gene Yu: No Orders. No Backup. One Rescue.

October 16, 2026 · 1 hr 51 min

A woman is kidnapped by terrorists. The official rescue effort stalls. And the person who knows the territory is a former Green Beret who thought his missions were behind him. When Abu Sayyaf abducted Evelyn Chang during a deadly raid on…
Quanah Parker: The Last War Chief of the Comancheria

October 9, 2026 · 56 min

Quanah Parker was born between worlds—and became a master of both. As the last great war chief of the Quahadi Comanche, he led one of the final armed resistances on the Southern Plains, charging into the gunfire at Adobe Walls and…
Rogers’ Rangers: America’s First Commandos

October 2, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

Before the Green Berets or Navy SEALs, there were Rogers’ Rangers. During the French and Indian War, Major Robert Rogers forged an unconventional fighting force that could snowshoe through blizzards, operate deep behind enemy lines, and…
Zhao Yun: The Blood-Soaked Ride Through Changban

September 24, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

At the Battle of Changban, Zhao Yun turned his horse around and rode back into the teeth of Cao Cao’s advancing army to rescue Liu Bei’s infant son. It was the defining act of a warrior celebrated not merely for his skill with a spear, but…

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James Madison: Small Man, Massive Constitution (w/ special guest Greg Jackson)

September 16, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

Five-foot-four, barely a hundred pounds, and armed with enough intellectual firepower to reshape a nation, James Madison brought a pen to a political knife fight... and made it everybody else’s problem. For Constitution Day, Ben welcomes…
Britt Redman: Back From Hell and Into the End Zone

September 11, 2026 · 53 min

Six surgeries. Nearly eighty pounds lost. And a touchdown that deserves its own damn movie. Britt Redman was a high school wide receiver in the middle of a playoff run when advanced testicular cancer turned his world upside down. Football…
Catherine de’ Medici: A Throne Full of Knives

September 3, 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

History remembers Catherine de’ Medici as the black-clad poison queen of Renaissance France—an Italian schemer who kept a vial in one hand and a dagger in the other. The truth is messier, bloodier, and way more interesting. Orphaned as a…
Hideaki Akaiwa: Honey, I Swam Through a Tsunami

August 26, 2026 · 43 min

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami turned the Japanese city of Ishinomaki into a freezing, debris-choked nightmare. Most people would take one look at that and head for the hills. Hideaki Akaiwa grabbed a wetsuit and diving gear…
Karl von Müller: The Captain Who Humiliated an Empire

August 19, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min

On today’s episode, Ben is joined by special guest Paul Jacobs to tell the story of Karl von Müller and the SMS Emden, the German warship that unleashed absolute chaos across the Indian Ocean during World War I. Outnumbered, outgunned…
Brian Chontosh: The Marine Who Ran Out of Guns

August 13, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, First Lieutenant Brian Chontosh and his Marines were caught in a coordinated ambush on Route 1. With the road blocked and fire closing in around them, Chontosh ordered his Humvee toward the attack, broke…
Semiramis: Queen of War, Mother of Legends

August 6, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

Semiramis did not come to the ancient world to sit quietly on a throne and wave at peasants. She came to rule. With an army at her back, a crown on her head, and the kind of ambition that makes neighboring kingdoms extremely nervous, this…

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About the show

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.