Badass of the Week

This week, Ben Thompson and special guest Shana Steinberg dive into the unbelievable true story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — the Japanese American soldiers who became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history while their own families sat behind barbed wire in internment camps back home.

From brutal mountain warfare in Italy to the legendary rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in France, these men charged machine gun nests, scaled cliffs in the dead of night, and fought with a level of courage that stunned even their fellow soldiers. They battled Nazis overseas while confronting racism and suspicion from the very country they were risking everything to defend.

It’s one of the most heroic, complicated, and emotionally devastating stories of World War II — and a reminder that patriotism is sometimes proven by the people a nation treats the worst.
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Before baseball had billion-dollar contracts, concussion protocols, or even outfield walls… it had Hughie Jennings. This week, Ben Thompson is joined by baseball historian and comedian Jon Franklin to tell the unbelievable story of the coal miner-turned-Hall-of-Famer who survived skull fractures, car crashes, empty swimming pools, and 287 hit-by-pitches—all while becoming one of the greatest shortstops of the Dead Ball Era. 

From the lawless chaos of 1890s baseball to managing the only team crazy enough to tolerate Ty Cobb, Hughie Jennings lived like a cartoon character with a death wish. He helped change the game forever, invented new ways to get on base, and somehow kept getting back up no matter how hard life knocked him down. This is the story of baseball’s toughest lunatic—and one of the strangest legends the sport has ever produced.  
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This week, Ben Thompson and Dr. Patricia Larash tell the story of Babur — the warrior poet who went from homeless teenage fugitive sleeping in the mountains under a shared cloak… to the founder of one of the greatest empires in history. Descended from both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, Babur spent decades losing kingdoms, rebuilding armies, writing poetry, and searching for a place to belong before gambling everything on an invasion of India with just 12,000 men, a handful of cannons, and absolutely insane confidence.

What followed was one of the most important military revolutions in history: cannon fire against war elephants, mounted archers against armies ten times his size, and the birth of the Mughal Empire. It’s a story of survival, innovation, stubbornness, melons, and one of the greatest comeback stories ever told.
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Before anyone had ever stood at the bottom of the world, one man decided he wasn’t going to discover the South Pole - he was going to win it. This week, Ben Thompson and guest Erik Slader of Epic Fails of History, dive into the ruthless, ice-cold brilliance of Roald Amundsen —the explorer who turned preparation into a weapon and left better-funded rivals frozen in his wake.

From secretly pivoting his expedition plans to racing across Antarctica with dogs, skis, and terrifying efficiency, Amundsen didn’t just survive the harshest environment on Earth—he dominated it. This is a story of precision, deception, and the kind of calculated risk that either makes you a legend… or leaves you buried under a mile of ice.
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High above Nazi-occupied Europe, hundreds of Avro Lancasters tear through the darkness. No lights, no margin for error, and no guarantee of coming home. In this episode, Ben Thompson is joined by filmmaker David Fairhead to break down the brutal reality of flying Britain’s most feared bomber in World War II.

From its origins as a flawed aircraft to becoming the backbone of the RAF’s bombing campaign, the Lancaster wasn’t built for comfort, it was built to carry destruction. Seven-man crews packed into a freezing metal tube faced flak, night fighters, and a nearly 50% casualty rate, all while navigating pitch-black skies in tight formation. 

But this isn’t just a story about a machine - it’s about the men inside it. The young crews who flew mission after mission knowing each one could be their last. The daring raids - from the Dam Busters to the destruction of the Tirpitz - that pushed the limits of what was possible. And the haunting reality of a war fought from 20,000 feet, where survival often came down to luck.

It’s a story of fear, firepower, and endurance - of the aircraft that became the RAF’s sledgehammer, and the crews who swung it.
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