Lech Wałęsa

12/14/20 • 19 min

When Lech Wałęsa was elected the president of Poland in 1990, he instantly became one of the most crucial players in bringing about the end of the Cold War. He was endlessly lauded as a hero of workers' rights, as a fearless anti-communist warrior, and as a champion of Polish democracy. But that was thirty years ago, and Walesa (now aged 77) has since lost all semblance of relevancy he once had. How could one man fall from the heights of political popularity to the depths of national embarrassment in so short a time frame? In today's episode, we aim to find out.

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Previous Episode

Kathy Fiscus

Kathryn Anne Fiscus was only 3-years-old when she fell down a well in San Marino, CA, and though the rescue effort that followed her accident failed to save her life, the implications of it are profound and far-reaching. Today's episode aims to explore those effects, both on the community and on the future of media as we know it. The discourse surrounding little Kathy's historical impact may be relatively new, but one thing is already for certain: after the incident had reached its conclusion, the world would never again be the same.

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Next Episode

Leo Abse

The United Kingdom has a long history of oppressing people of LGBT+ identities. In particular, gay men were historically subject to laws that called for their imprisonment or even their death if they ever engaged in homosexual activities. But then in 1967, MP Leo Abse passed a bill that broadly decriminalized taking part in those acts, so long as it was done in private. Safe to say, the new law was not ideal, and Abse himself was far from the perfect advocate for gay Britons. But through an intense examination of the brutal battle for queer acceptance in the UK, our season finale episode argues that Abse should nonetheless be regarded as a key advocate for the cause of LGBT rights.

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