CLASSIC: History's Weirdest Flexes, Part One

CLASSIC: History's Weirdest Flexes, Part One

Author: iHeartPodcasts May 28, 2026 Duration: 31:03

Do you know anyone who decided to show off in a weird way? While the phrase 'weird flex' may be relatively recent, it turns out that this phenomenon is as old as human civilization. Join the guys with special guests Miles and Jack from The Daily Zeitgeist as they explore some of the strangest (and most petty) flexes in human history.

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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.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Ridiculous History
Podcast Episodes
Was 536 Really the Worst Year in History? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:42
Welcome to the end of the year, fellow Ridiculous Historians! As Ben, Noel and Max look back on the events of 2025, they discovered historians do, in fact, have one year singled out as "the worst year in human history."…
CLASSIC: Clara, The World's Most Famous Rhinoceros [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:28
For centuries most people in Europe thought of rhinos as another form of mythical creature, like unicorns or griffins. However, this all changed when an enterprising sea captain brought a young, orphaned rhino named Clar…
Christmas Traditions Are So Incredibly Weird! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:55
What's the strangest Christmas tradition you practice? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max ring in the end of the year with an exploration of Christmas celebrations across the world -- and speculate on inventing a few…
The Grim Christmas Folklore of Johnny Ace, with Jake Brennan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:10
While the career of rhythm-and-blues vocalist Johnny Ace was short, he left a huge mark on the music world. Up until Christmas Day of 1954, Ace seemed set to reach genuine crossover success in pop music -- until, that is…
CLASSIC: How the Monopoly Board Game Became a World War II Escape Kit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:35
Ben, Noel and Max return with this week's Classic episode! Monopoly is a pretty divisive game, and people tend to either love it or hate it. However, for hundreds of Allied POWs captured during World War II, Monopoly bec…
The Deliciously Ridiculous History of Fruitcakes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:19
Let's be honest. If you live in the United States, you probably think fruitcake is ridiculous. It's like the MRE of Christmas, passed around from one family to the next. But what makes it so resilient? How, out of all th…
CLASSIC: Idiomatic For The People, Part I [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:05
Language is beautiful and, in many cases, continually evolving. As a result, we end up with hundreds of strange idioms and figures of speech that we use on a daily basis, with little to no understanding of what they orig…
Spontaneous Human Combustion: A Bizarre Controversy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:50
Can people really just, for no discernable reason, catch on fire? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore the centuries old folklore and investigations of a phenomenon known as "spontaneous human combustion" -- and…
IP, Part Three: A Copyright for Everyone! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:59
As Ben, Noel and Max close out another year of Ridiculous History, they return to the patently baffling world of intellectual property. In part three of this series, the guys finally tackle one of the weirdest concepts o…