Podcast
Badass of the Week
Hosted by Badass History - High Five Content & Seven Bucks Productions · EN
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.
44episodes
Episodes
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Liver-Eating Johnson: The Mountain Man Boogeyman
Mar 2500:53:36Tap to summarizeHistory 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 murder of his family. It’s a story of myth vs. reality, frontier violence, and one man’s transformation into something closer to folklore than human. Because when your nickname is Liver-Eating, you’re already way past the point of reasonable behavior. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Ishtar: Seduction, Slaughter, and the Underworld Heist
Mar 1801:04:15Tap to summarizeHistory’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, and then descend into the underworld on what might be the most ill-advised power move in mythological history. She’s been worshipped, feared, blamed for plagues, and credited with victory in battle -- all depending on what kind of mood she woke up in. From divine romances that ended in disaster to her infamous showdown with the Queen of the Dead, Ishtar’s story is a wild ride through ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest myths and a reminder that when you’re the most powerful being in the universe, consequences are more of a suggestion than a rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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El Cid: The Baddest Knight in Spain
Mar 1101:10:26Tap to summarizeMedieval 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 whoever would hire him and defeating just about everyone who stood in his way. His campaigns reshaped the balance of power in Iberia, culminating in the stunning conquest of the great city of Valencia, where he ruled as a warlord-king. In this episode Ben Thompson and Dr. Patricia Larash explore the life of one of the most legendary knights of the Middle Ages—a warrior whose story includes exile, epic sieges, brutal battlefield victories, and one final act so wild that even death couldn’t stop him from leading his army to victory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Kondo Isami: Last Samurai Standing
Mar 400:53:27Tap to summarizeThe 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 rebels, and enforcing order with cold steel in the streets. But when civil war erupted and the emperor’s modern army marched forward with rifles and artillery, Kondo faced an impossible choice: adapt… or die defending a dying world. He chose the sword. This is loyalty pushed to its breaking point. An era ending in blood. And a man who stood firm while history moved past him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Josephine Baker: The Most Dangerous Woman in Paris
Feb 2400:48:24Tap to summarizeIn the 1920s, she scandalized Europe in a banana skirt and became the most famous entertainer in the world. But when war came, Josephine Baker traded applause for espionage—smuggling secrets for the French Resistance, hiding messages in sheet music, and risking execution by the Nazis In today's episode, Host Ben Thompson is joined by historian Taylor Cassidy to break down the astonishing life of a woman who refused to be boxed in - by racism, by borders, or by history itself. From the stages of Paris to the front lines of World War II and the steps of the March on Washington, this is the story of a performer who turned celebrity into a weapon. Feathers. Freedom. Fire. This is Josephine Baker at full volume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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George Washington: Ice-Cold and Unkillable
Feb 1601:12:59Tap to summarizeWooden teeth? No. Cherry tree? Probably not. Absolute unit of a leader? Undeniably. Ben Thompson welcomes EpicLLOYD from Epic Rap Battles of History for a Presidents’ Day breakdown George Washington — the six-foot-two surveyor who became the most dangerous man in the British Empire. Outnumbered. Undersupplied. Outgunned. Washington lost more battles than he won, but he never lost the war. From the frozen gamble at Trenton to resigning his commission when he didn’t have to, he pulled off something rarer than victory: he gave power back. If monarchy was the expectation, Washington was the plot twist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Fridtjof Nansen: North of Insanity
Feb 1100:53:25Tap to summarizeIce. Starvation. Total darkness. And somewhere out there — a polar bear that would very much like to eat you. On this episode, Ben Thompson is joined by producer Andrew Jacobs to break down the life of Fridtjof Nansen — Arctic explorer, record-setting skier, neuroscientist, diplomat, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the only man in history to drift across the polar ice cap on purpose. Nansen didn’t just explore the Arctic — he weaponized it. He froze his own ship into the pack ice to prove a scientific theory. He skied farther north than any human had ever gone. And when he was done conquering the planet’s most hostile environment, he turned around and saved hundreds of thousands of refugees. This one has frostbite, philosophy, and a man who genuinely believed the only way out… was further in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Olympias: Snakes, Curses, and the Birth of an Empire
Feb 401:03:17Tap to summarizeEmpires don’t begin with heroes — they begin with mothers who refuse to lose. Olympias ruled from the shadows using fear, religion, and assassination, making sure history remembered her son as a god and forgot anyone who stood in his way. If Alexander conquered the world with a sword, Olympias conquered history with snakes, curses, and a body count. Hosted by Ben Thompson, with co-host Dr. Patricia Larash, this episode unpacks how power really worked in ancient Macedonia — and why Olympias may have been the most dangerous person in the room. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Marguerite de la Rocque: Alone on the Island of Demons
Jan 2800:58:28Tap to summarizeIn 1542, a teenage French noblewoman is marooned on a frozen island off the coast of Newfoundland - deliberately abandoned by her own family, left with a failing matchlock gun, a handful of supplies, and no hope of rescue. Over the next two years, Marguerite de la Rocque watches everyone she loves die, survives brutal winters, hunts seals, and kills polar bears with a weapon that takes minutes to reload - knowing one mistake means death. This week on Badass of the Week, Ben Thompson is joined by New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman, whose novel Isola resurrects one of the most insane survival stories in history: a woman written off as dead who endured the Island of Demons - and came back changed forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Gilgamesh: Immortal Power, Very Mortal Consequences
Jan 2101:04:34Tap to summarizeFive thousand years before Batman brooded, before Achilles sulked, before Hercules punched a god in the mouth, there was Epic of Gilgamesh - the original badass origin story. Gilgamesh starts as a tyrant king with godlike strength, a legendary temper, and absolutely zero chill, until the gods drop another unstoppable force into his life: Enkidu. What follows is a saga of monster-slaying, divine beef, catastrophic hubris, and one of the earliest -and most brutal - lessons ever recorded about friendship, loss, and mortality. Host Ben Thompson is joined by mythologist and storyteller Dr. John Bucher, Executive Director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, to break down how Gilgamesh isn’t just the first epic hero - but the blueprint for every action movie, superhero arc, and hero’s journey that followed. It’s a story about conquering everything… except death - and why that realization still hits just as hard 5,000 years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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