The Ridiculous Truth About Pirates, Chapter Two: History's Most Successful Pirate Was A Woman

The Ridiculous Truth About Pirates, Chapter Two: History's Most Successful Pirate Was A Woman

Author: iHeartPodcasts April 23, 2026 Duration: 43:33

Live from the beautiful Baha Mar resort, Ben, Noel, Max and returning guest Matt dive into popular misconceptions about pirates. First, piracy was by no means restricted to the Caribbean. Second, not all successful pirates were dudes. In fact, as the guys discover in the second-part of this two-part series, history's wealthiest pirate was a Chinese woman named Zheng Yi Sao, or Chin Shih. As they arrive closer to the modern day, the guys discover another notorious Chinese pirate smack-dab in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war: a double, triple, maybe even quadruple maritime bandit known as Huang “Two Guns” Bamei.

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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.
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