Badass of the Week

Outlaws don’t usually get remembered for being smart—but Butch Cassidy was something different. He robbed banks and trains with minimal bloodshed, outwitted the Pinkertons for years, and built a criminal crew that operated more like a well-run business than a gang of desperados. This week on Badass of the Week, we’re joined by Todd Weiser, co-host of the Heist Club podcast, to break down what made Cassidy’s robberies so effective, why charm was his most dangerous weapon, and how one outlaw managed to turn crime into legend. And then there’s the ending—because depending on who you believe, Butch Cassidy either died in Bolivia… or pulled off the cleanest escape of his life. 

Powdered wigs didn’t win the American Revolution... scarred knuckles did. Host Ben Thompson is joined by David Schmidt, director of The American Revolution with Ken Burns, to tell the story of Daniel Morgan - a frontier brawler who survived 500 lashes, took a musket ball through the face, and learned to fight the British in ways they couldn’t understand or stop. Morgan didn’t look like a Founding Father and he didn’t fight like a gentleman. He hunted officers from the treeline, turned militia panic into strategy, and delivered one of the most decisive victories of the war at Cowpens. This episode strips the American Revolution down to its rawest form:  mud, blood, rifle smoke, and a man with 499 reasons to never surrender.

During a brutal Vietnam firefight that spiraled into a forty-five-minute running battle, Robert J. Thomas was shot, shredded by shrapnel, and left barely able to stand. Instead of evacuating, he crawled forward, emptied his pistol into enemy positions, then climbed onto the door gun of a helicopter that had already been hit more than a hundred times. On this episode, host Ben Thompson is joined by Matt Fratus of Late Night History to break down Thomas’s stand - a fight that saved multiple wounded teammates, kept the helicopter in the air, and only ended when the aircraft physically had to leave. Thomas later woke up in a medevac hospital with his face wired back together. Despite being nominated twice for the Medal of Honor, Thomas received the Navy Cross, returned to Vietnam to finish his tour, and went on to help create the Navy SEAL sniper program that shaped modern special operations. This is a story about refusing extraction, precision under fire, and a man who never stopped fighting when everyone else was already out. 

History doesn’t usually leave room for men like St. Moses the Black - a violent outlaw, gang leader, and feared killer who somehow became one of the most respected monks of the early Christian world. His life wasn’t a gentle conversion story. It was brutal, uncomfortable, and earned the hard way through discipline, humility, and blood-soaked consequences. Joining the show is Matti Leshem, co-creator of Fox Nation's The Saints, to break down why Moses’s transformation still matters and why this might be the most intense Christmas story you’ve never heard. This is a holiday episode about redemption that doesn’t come wrapped in a bow — it comes with scars.

History doesn’t usually begin with two sisters on war elephants — but this one does. In 40 AD, the Trưng Sisters ignited a violent break from Han Dynasty rule, led armies commanded by women, seized more than sixty citadels, and ruled Vietnam as queens for three hard-fought years. In today's episode Ben is joined by Dr. Pat Larish to chart the rise, rule, and last stand of the women who turned occupation into identity — and became the blueprint for two thousand years of Vietnamese resistance.