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The Hero with a Thousand Holds

by Ruadhán MacFadden

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Latest episodes

Episode 7: Great Giants of the Middle World: Sakha Khapsagai

May 20, 2022 · 2 hr 16 min

The Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, is the coldest place on Earth outside of Antarctica. A 3-million-km2 expanse of unforgiving taiga and tundra, where winter temperatures can plunge to lethal lows of -67°C, over the ages it has…
White Rhino Speaks

November 25, 2020 · 1 hr 36 min

The two primary martial arts of Burma are Lethwei (a form of bare-knuckle kickboxing featuring headbutts) and Naban, a grappling style that allows palm strikes, and with a focus on ferocious pressure and unforgivingly applied submissions…
Episode 1.5: Irish Collar and Elbow Remastered

November 14, 2020 · 2 hr 15 min

As the modern revival of the Irish national wrestling style continues, it's time to lay old myths to rest. To mark the 2-year anniversary of The Hero with a Thousand Holds, I've re-written and re-recorded the very first episode, on the…
A Phone Call to the Inner Mongolian Steppe

September 1, 2020 · 1 hr 22 min

Lavell Marshall is a world champion and 5-time US national champion in Shuai Jiao, a form of Chinese jacket wrestling. For the past year, he's been living in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, training and competing with the…
Episode 6: The Roar of the Rain: Ritualized Jaguar Combat in Guerrero, Mexico

August 17, 2020 · 1 hr 53 min

The region of the world stretching from Mexico to Costa Rica – traditionally referred to as "Mesoamerica" – was, in its pre-Columbian heyday, home to empires that mapped time, carved words out of mid-air, and raised some of the most…

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Episode 5: By Law Shall Land Be Built: Icelandic Glíma

January 26, 2020 · 2 hr 17 min

One of the last major landmasses to be settled by human beings, Iceland is nowadays a thriving modern nation that boasts a highly educated populace and one of the highest standards of living on Earth. The world of the earliest Icelandic…
Episode 4: "O Sword, Forged in Khevsureti": Georgian Chidaoba

September 25, 2019 · 1 hr 54 min

The Caucasus mountains, a 750-mile-long chain of rock and ice stretching between the Black and Caspian seas, have traditionally been regarded as one of the great cultural boundaries between Europe and Asia. Nestled among its towering peaks…
The Kimura Traps of Angkor

May 10, 2019 · 42 min

The traditional wrestling of Cambodia, Bok Cham Bab, has a history stretching back to the days when the Khmer Empire was the undisputed lord and master of the Southeast Asian mainland. At the height of the empire's power, wrestling…
Episode 3: Killing Sharks in the Open Sea: Vietnamese Đấu Vật

April 10, 2019 · 1 hr 18 min

In the western world, our conceptions of Vietnam are often limited to the Vietnam War – that prolonged and devastating conflict in the mid-20th century that resulted in the deaths of anywhere up to 4.2 million people. As undeniably ruinous…
Chipewyan Wrestling - A Grappling Isolate?

February 7, 2019 · 23 min

The Chipewyan (Dënesųłı̨né), a First Nations people of northern Canada, historically had a deeply ingrained – and in many ways highly unique – wrestling tradition that was remarked upon by almost all of the early European settlers that…
Episode 2: Beyond the End of the World: Yaghan and Selk'Nam Wrestling of Tierra del Fuego

January 5, 2019 · 1 hr 35 min

The Yaghan and the Selk'nam are – were – the southernmost peoples in the world; a scattered group of nomadic hunters living on the sub-antarctic inlets and islands of Tierra del Fuego. Yet despite being so isolated from the vast majority…

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About the show

Exploring our common grappling heritage by diving into the history, culture, roots, and ultimate fate of various folk-wrestling styles around the world – everywhere from the storm-scarred shores of Tierra del Fuego to the steppes of Mongolia to the jagged peaks of the Caucasus mountains.