Zhao Yun: The Blood-Soaked Ride Through Changban
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...
24 Sep 1h 12min
James Madison: Small Man, Massive Constitution (w/ special guest Greg Jackson)
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 proble...
16 Sep 1h 13min
Catherine de’ Medici: A Throne Full of Knives
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, an...
3 Sep 1h 28min
Hideaki Akaiwa: Honey, I Swam Through a Tsunami
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 Ak...
26 Aug 42min
Karl von Müller: The Captain Who Humiliated an Empire
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 W...
19 Aug 1h 21min
Brian Chontosh: The Marine Who Ran Out of Guns
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 ordere...
13 Aug 1h 13min
Semiramis: Queen of War, Mother of Legends
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 neighb...
6 Aug 1h 20min
