CLASSIC: When Vikings Loot The Wrong Town

CLASSIC: When Vikings Loot The Wrong Town

Author: iHeartPodcasts October 16, 2025 Duration: 39:01

Ben here: we're out on the high seas this week -- true story! While we're away, we're sharing some of our favorite Classic episode. Here's one we absolutely loved, and travel-related: "Like many Viking leaders, Halfdan and Bjorn wanted to be known for their fearlessness in battle and their ability to locate the finest spoils -- they wanted the community to tell stories of their valor for generations to come. Their father Ragnar built a name for himself raiding Paris, so they wanted to kick things up a notch and raid an even more prominent city: Rome. However, there was one small problem with their plan."

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


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
The Ridiculous Truth About Pirates, Chapter One: The Caribbean [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:04
Fellow Ridiculous Historians, Ben, Noel and Max are back on their pirate obsession. In this special two-part series live from the legendary Baha Mar, the guys welcome returning guest Matt Frederick for a fascinating expl…
Eurovision, Chapter Two: Pop Music as Problematic Diplomacy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:26
Now, we know this is going to sound weird, but... it turns out one of the world's most popular pop music contests is also one of the world's best examples of 'soft diplomacy'. So what happens when countries that hate eac…
CLASSIC: Prohibition, Prescriptions and the Rise of 'Medicinal' Booze [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:42
From 1920 to 1933, the United States was, technically speaking, a dry country. The National Prohibition Act made the manufacture, transport and sale of alcohol illegal for the vast majority of the population. However, th…
Fort Sauerkraut: North Dakota’s Strange, Ill-Planned Origin Story [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:02
As the gang gets ever closer to finally completing their mission to do an episode on every state in the United States, they arrive at North Dakota. While North Dakota remains one of the nation's least populated states, i…
The Bizarre Tale of the 1909 Catnip Riot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:52
Here's one for the cat lovers: Does your feline friend absolutely love catnip? If you have a cat with the right sensitivities, this stuff completely rocks their world. They'll go nuts for it, rolling around in the stuff,…
CLASSIC: Did Robert E. Lee hate Confederate Memorials? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:48
In this week's Classic episode, the guys return to a strange, oft-overlooked aspect of the Civil War. From 1861 to 1865, the United States of America was a country divided. More than a century later, it remains America's…
IQ Tests are (Kind of) Dumb [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:13
Have you ever taken an IQ test? Originally envisioned as a way to determine which French children should be locked in asylums, Alfred Binet's attempt to quantify human intelligence took the modern world by storm. Yet, as…