Episodi

  • Gene Yu: No Orders. No Backup. One Rescue.

    Gene Yu: No Orders. No Backup. One Rescue.
    Oct 16 2026
    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 an island resort, Gene Yu had a personal reason to act: Evelyn was a friend of his mother’s. The West Point graduate and former Special Forces officer put his own money on the line, called on trusted comrades, and headed back toward the jungles of the southern Philippines without orders or military backup. Gene joins Badass of the Week to tell the story of the rescue, the decisions that could have gone disastrously wrong, and how the mission gave him a second shot at finding his place after the Army. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 ora e 51 min
  • Quanah Parker: The Last War Chief of the Comancheria

    Quanah Parker: The Last War Chief of the Comancheria
    Oct 9 2026
    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 fighting an industrial war machine with speed, terrain, and sheer nerve. When military victory became impossible, Quanah launched an equally audacious second act: statesman, cattle baron, political power broker, defender of religious freedom, and tireless advocate for his people. Ben Thompson is joined by Pushcart Prize–winning writer and professor Daniel Peña, author of How to Look Away: On American Cruelty and the Refusal to Disappear, to explore Quanah’s extraordinary life, the tragedy of his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, and the complicated legacy of a warrior who refused to let his people disappear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 min
  • Rogers’ Rangers: America’s First Commandos

    Rogers’ Rangers: America’s First Commandos
    Oct 2 2026
    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 turn wilderness survival into a weapon. Then bestselling author Scott Sigler joins the show to discuss Beasts Beyond the River, his historical-horror novel that throws hardened colonial Rangers into a supernatural nightmare of mud, blood, gunpowder, and monsters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 ora e 2 min
  • Zhao Yun: The Blood-Soaked Ride Through Changban

    Zhao Yun: The Blood-Soaked Ride Through Changban
    Sep 24 2026
    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 for his courage, loyalty, and unbreakable code of honor. This week, longtime producer Ian Jacobs steps out from behind the soundboard to explore the history and legend of Zhao Yun—the White Dragon of the Three Kingdoms and perhaps the closest ancient China ever came to the perfect soldier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 ora e 12 min
  • James Madison: Small Man, Massive Constitution (w/ special guest Greg Jackson)

    James Madison: Small Man, Massive Constitution (w/ special guest Greg Jackson)
    Sep 16 2026
    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 back Dr. Greg Jackson of History That Doesn’t Suck to meet the unlikely heavyweight who helped write America’s rulebook, and then fought like hell over how to use it. From the pressure cooker of the Constitutional Convention to vicious newspaper wars, a spectacular falling-out with Alexander Hamilton, and a presidency that included the British setting his damn house on fire, Madison’s career was anything but a quiet life behind a desk. Madison helped design the Constitution, fought to get it ratified, championed the Bill of Rights, and plunged into the partisan battles that would test the government he helped create. Drawing on Greg’s book, Been There, Done That: How Our History Shows What We Can Overcome, Ben and Greg explore the political grudges, constitutional showdowns, and sheer stubbornness behind the American experiment. Turns out, arguing over the Constitution is a tradition as old as the Constitution itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 ora e 14 min
  • Britt Redman: Back From Hell and Into the End Zone

    Britt Redman: Back From Hell and Into the End Zone
    Sep 11 2026
    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 gave way to chemotherapy, operating rooms, and the brutal work of getting through another day. After everything his body endured, returning to the field would have been remarkable. Britt made it all the way back to the end zone. This week, Ben sits down with Britt and his father, former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl champion Chris Redman, for a comeback story with considerably more at stake than a scoreboard. They explore the terror of the diagnosis, the faith and family that helped carry them through treatment, and what happens when a dad who has faced NFL defenses encounters something he can’t beat with a better play call. Along the way, Ben connects Britt’s story to medieval warrior king Baldwin IV, and the Redmans discuss Grit Like Britt, the foundation bringing gaming consoles—and some much-needed escape—to kids facing cancer. Bring your game face. Possibly also tissues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    53 min
  • Catherine de’ Medici: A Throne Full of Knives

    Catherine de’ Medici: A Throne Full of Knives
    Sep 3 2026
    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 baby, married off at fourteen, and dropped into a French royal court that treated her like a foreign spare part, Catherine survived humiliation, dynastic disaster, and one spectacularly fatal jousting accident. Then she did what every sidelined queen mother dreams of doing: she took control. With three of her sons wearing the crown in succession, France exploding into religious war, nobles plotting coups, and assassins lurking around every palace corner, Catherine fought to keep her family on the throne and the kingdom from tearing itself apart. Ben and Pat wade into the legends of poison, prophecy, political murder, and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre to ask the real question: Was Catherine de’ Medici a murderous monster, a master political survivor—or simply the only person in the royal family who knew what the hell she was doing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 ora e 28 min
  • Hideaki Akaiwa: Honey, I Swam Through a Tsunami

    Hideaki Akaiwa: Honey, I Swam Through a Tsunami
    Aug 26 2026
    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 and went straight in. He fought his way through flooded streets to rescue his trapped wife, went back out to find his missing mother, and then kept searching for neighbors and survivors. This week, Ben and Andrew tell the incredible true story of a regular guy who responded to an apocalyptic natural disaster with courage, stubbornness, and the kind of action-movie heroics that would make Hollywood say, “Okay, maybe dial it back a little.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 min