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Ridiculous History

Ridiculous History

By: iHeartPodcasts
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Summary

History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • CLASSIC: How Big Bill Speakman Fought Off North Korea With Beer Bottles
    May 2 2026

    In this week's Classic episode: Bill Speakman, better known as the “Beer Bottle VC”, single-handedly took on a brigade of Chinese People’s Army Infantry in four hours of close-quarters combat. As he ran out of actual weapons, he began throwing beer bottles -- and, somehow, survived. Tune in to learn more about Big Bill Speakman, the Beer Bottle VC (and learn why he came to hate this nickname).

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    26 mins
  • A Ridiculous History of Potatoes, Part One: the Origin Story
    Apr 30 2026

    Potatoes are amazing. While these sturdy little tubers may not seem immediately impressive, they're one of agricultural's biggest success stories. So, how did they grow from a domestic crop in South America to an absolute global phenomenon? In the first part of this special two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max discover the origin of the potato -- and how a single French pharmacist launched a massive PR campaign to popularize spuds in Europe.

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    49 mins
  • CLASSIC: New Providence: That Time Pirates Had A Government
    Apr 25 2026

    Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we just returned from the beautiful Baha Mar resort, and we're going through a pirate phase. So, naturally, we have to share an hilarious Classic episode: the so-called Golden Age of Piracy was a time of lawless, terrifying, at-times amazing and objectively ridiculous history. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore a fascinating claim: Did some anti-authoritarian pirates really form their own government?

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    59 mins
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