The Viking Who Invented Dublin and the Saint Who Invented Petty Violence
This week, Ben and Pat are heading to Ireland for a double dose of destruction, divinity, and a surprisingly violent debate over a book. First up: Turgesius the Devil, a Viking warlord who didn’t just raid Ireland—he built cities, crowned himself king, and let his witch queen turn cathedrals into goat-sacrificing prophecy hubs. Then it’s Saint Colum Cille, the one-man holy army who got so mad about copyright law and a dead hurling player that he started an actual war and maybe (definitely) punched the Loch Ness Monster in the face. It’s the saint and the devil, two chaotic legends, and a whole lot of very Irish badassery.
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REPLAY -- Milo of Croton: All Muscle, No Chill.
To follow up our episode with The Smashing Machine, Mark Kerr - we're diving into the archive to replay our deeper dive into the story of Milo of Croton.
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Step into the arena with Milo of Croton, the ancient Greek strongman whose feats of strength turned him into a living legend. In this episode, Ben and Pat explore how Milo went from an Olympic champion to a battlefield hero, carrying entire armies on his back—literally. From wrestling lions to tearing trees apart with his bare hands, Milo’s life was a nonstop display of raw power and unmatched swagger. Join us as we uncover the epic tale of history’s ultimate flex and the man who redefined what it meant to be strong.
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Mark Kerr: The Smashing Machine (with special guest Mark Kerr)
In the savage early days of MMA, before the bright lights and billion-dollar paydays, there was one man who fought like a force of nature. Mark Kerr wasn’t just a wrestler — he was a six-foot-one, 250-pound experiment in human willpower. A world champion who walked into underground Brazilian cage fights, broke his hand mid-match, and kept fighting with his head. They called him The Smashing Machine. In today's episode, Ben and Mark go blow-by-blow through the glory, the pain, and the redemption of one of combat sports’ most feared and fascinating pioneers.
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Xenophon: The March Through Madness
Xenophon was a philosophy student, a Socratic thinker, and a pampered Athenian aristocrat who signed up for a mercenary road trip into Persia and accidentally became one of the greatest battlefield leaders in Greek history. When his army’s generals were betrayed and slaughtered, Xenophon—who had never commanded a single soldier—rallied 10,000 stranded warriors and led them on a 4,000-mile retreat through enemy territory, across deserts, mountains, and hostile kingdoms, surviving ambushes, starvation, and snowblindness. This is the story of how a student of Socrates marched his way into legend—and inspired everyone from Alexander the Great to the creators of cult classic movie The Warriors. Can you dig it?!
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Paddy Mayne: When in doubt, just strap a machine gun to it!
Before he was smashing Nazi airfields and punching his way through the deserts of North Africa, Lieutenant Colonel Blair “Paddy” Mayne was an amateur boxing champion, a rugby international, and the kind of guy who could drink you under the table, flip the table, and then win the bar fight that followed. This week, Ben and Andrew dive into the myth and madness of one of the founding members of the Special Air Service—an Irish warrior-poet with a short fuse and a long list of enemies. From brawling with commanding officers to rewriting the playbook on guerrilla warfare, Mayne was chaos incarnate… and one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II.
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.
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