The Ridiculous Truth About Pirates, Chapter Two: History's Most Successful Pirate Was A Woman
Ridiculous History
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show. |
| 0:27.7 | Fellow Ridiculous historians. |
| 0:29.1 | Thank you, as always, so much for tuning in. |
| 0:31.9 | That's our super producer, Mr. Max Afray-Train Williams. |
| 0:34.5 | Hello, I'm still in the same room as you. |
| 0:36.5 | Yes, they call me Ben Bowlin for tax purposes here in Baja. |
| 0:40.6 | Did you hear tax? |
| 0:41.9 | Oh, is this illegal inquiry? |
| 0:44.1 | The joke that never gets old. |
| 0:45.3 | Yes, it is. |
| 0:46.0 | That is Mr. Noel Brown. |
| 0:47.9 | We are joined again with our special returning guest, one of our closest friends, |
| 0:53.5 | brother in podcast arms, the one and only |
| 0:55.7 | Mr. Matt Two Hands, Frederick. |
| 0:58.3 | Matt, the taxman, Frederick. |
| 1:00.2 | My ex accidentally claimed my son as a dependent this year. |
| 1:05.8 | She's not supposed to this year, this past year. |
| 1:08.1 | So I tried to send in my taxes, and guess what? They got sent back. |
| 1:12.3 | Oh, no. Currently in extension period, boys. Okay. Had to pay my taxes already because that's what they |
| 1:18.8 | make you do. My estimated amount, but now I've got to send in all my paperwork. I've always let the |
| 1:23.9 | ex claim the kid. That's just that. I don't know. I guess I'm just nice like that. |
| 1:26.9 | Well, it's also, it's so weird to think about how the IRS works in the United States, where they know how much money you're supposed to pay, but you have to do, it's like you're in a toxic relationship where they're like, you should guess why. You should guess what it is. Can you guess why I'm angry? And if you do it wrong, it's not like to correct you. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you gave us too much money. |
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