In this review, the journey of free radicals, from being shrewdly untamable until its emergence as a powerful tool in chemistry, has been tracked. A modern perspective on the generation of radicals has been offered through the lens of photoredox, metal mediation, redox-active scaffolds, and EDA complexes. Spotlight has been on the catalysis of radical reactions harboring unique strategies like smart initiation, electron and hole catalysis, and polarity reversal catalysis.