Military history, badly led and sharply told.
Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast is military history told through battlefield disasters, political violence, and leaders making terrible choices. The tone is loose and joke-heavy, but the episodes still build real context around wars, massacres, and strange technical schemes.
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Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast is military history with the polish scraped off. It focuses on failed campaigns, disastrous leadership, strange weapons, political violence, and the moments when official history starts to look absurd. The show is conversational rather than lecture-clean. Banter comes first, often with pop culture detours, then the episode locks into the actual history. Recent subjects range from the Anglo-Satsuma War to the Fenian Ram, the Battle of Ramree Island, Fort Eben Emael, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Siege of Kars, and the Texas Revolution. That range matters. The show is not just collecting battlefield trivia; it is interested in the politics, terrain, institutions, and personal ambition that make violence happen. A story about travelers ignoring warnings on a Japanese road becomes a lesson in status, foreign entitlement, and samurai authority. A story about a submarine inventor becomes a route into Irish republican organizing in America. Ramree Island becomes less a legend than a brutal study in geography and mangrove swamp survival. Sand Creek lands harder, with political careerism and genocidal racism treated as central facts rather than background. The comedy can be sharp and chaotic. It can also be a pressure valve. The panel often jokes until the point becomes clearer, not softer. Joe appears as the anchoring voice in the recent material, with Tom and Nate appearing as conversation partners, and the group dynamic gives the show its interruptions, pile-ons, corrections, and sudden pivots. Preview episodes also show the feed stretching into side-series material, including an FLCL discussion with Lucy Valentine. Those installments keep the same habit of treating culture as something worth overthinking loudly. The result is history that feels researched but not domesticated. It is blunt, referential, and allergic to solemn pageantry. The show works best for listeners who can handle grim subjects presented with irreverent comic friction.
Made for: For listeners who want military history with jokes, anger, context, and a panel that refuses to treat military failure as noble pageantry. Best for people comfortable with dark historical material and rapid conversational detours.
What sets it apart: Its edge comes from the collision of real historical structure with chaotic group riffing. The show can move from anime jokes or soldier-barracks absurdity into massacres, politics, or battlefield logistics without losing the thread.
The Lions Led By Donkeys podcast is a military history podcast for laughing at the worst military failures, inept commanders, and crazy stories from throughout the history of human conflict.Our podcast will always be free, but if you think what we do is worth a buck you can throw us one here:https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Joe, Tom, and Nate turn command failures, political ambition, logistics, and battlefield confusion into sharp, highly conversational military history.
Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast follows military failure through the decisions, ambitions, and logistical problems that make catastrophe possible. Joe carries the narrative while Tom and Nate interrupt with jokes, impressions, and pop-culture detours.
Cannon-fired Marco Polo is your cue to expect military history with the jokes left in.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A roadside encounter opens onto samurai honor, class, and legalized violence.
The episode turns a roadside encounter into a study of status, duty, and violence. It moves from a lord's procession toward Yokohama to a warning that arrives too late, then to the meeting with Shimizu Sabaro, the prince regent of Satsuma for his underage son, as he travels…
A submarine story tied to Irish nationalism, with a banter-heavy opening that settles into a sharp, scrappy rhythm.
This episode turns the Fenian Ram into a submarine story with Irish nationalist stakes, with the Fenian Brotherhood cast as an American counterpart to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and part of a support network tied to Irish independence.
A Ramree Island episode that mixes live-show housekeeping with a grim coastal advance through mangrove swamp.
The episode begins with a long stretch of London live-show and The Highlands Burn promotion before it reaches Ramree Island. Once Yanbak Chong and the mangrove swamps come into view, the focus sharpens into a grim account of the British moving along the coast, where the sea…
Colorado politics, military vanity, and violence against Native peoples collide in a blunt episode.
The episode uses Colorado statehood politics and Civil War opportunism to trace Evans and Chivington as they move toward violence against Native peoples.
Fog, barbecue, and cannon fire turn naval logistics into comic chaos.
This episode moves through a run of vivid, grounded touches: King Kamehameha III, lilikoi liquor, a blind-drunk ship tour, a stop in Hawaii, and the plan to send ships up and down the Californian coast under the British flag.
Outnumbered units, remembered under fire.
Battle maps, war films, and patient context.
War news, tested against military reality.
Antique European history, read aloud.
In 1602, traveling entertainers in Geneva encounter unexpected chaos while awaiting a late-night meal, hinting at a historical incident.
The Lions Led By Donkeys podcast covers the Siege of Petropavlovsk, a minor Crimean War battle in the Russian Far East.
This episode features Dr.
This episode explores the historical Battle of Lepanto through a narrative framing where the hosts are captured rowers plotting rebellion.
Lucy Valentine and the host discuss episodes four through six of FLCL, analyzing its unique production.
The episode drops into a roadside collision that should have been simple.
This episode discusses the production of FLCL, focusing on how the music by the pillows was used to create the storyboard and the unique animation styles across different episodes.
The conversation opens on the submarine story.
This episode previews the surprising details of the Nazi glider assault on Fort Eben Emael in 1940, highlighting the low German casualties, the humorous story of a soldier who filled his canteen with alcohol, and the aftermath of the battle.
Joe, Tom, and Nate open with London live-show logistics and The Highlands Burn before the Ramri Island material takes over.
Joe and Tom open with Patreon.
The West Side Boys organized child soldiers as a drug-fueled, Tupac-inspired meritocracy resembling a football team.
This episode discusses the historical Siege of Kars, a military conflict during the Crimean War era involving the Ottoman and Russian Empires.
This episode introduces a comedic historical discussion on the Texas Revolution, including announcements about a sold-out live show and Patreon support.