Heroes | Welcome to Season Six of 15-Minute History!

“Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.”

-          Will Rodgers 

“The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: a single candle can hold it back.”

-          Matthew Stover

Welcome to season six of 15-Minute History! We are pleased and excited to officially begin our newest season with you, our amazing audience. Over the summer we, for the first time, released a series of interviews with authors of history, and hope you found those as informative and rewarding as we did. Please let us know if that is something you would like us to continue.  

Towards the end of our last season, Jon and I began discussing the theme for this one. With every theme comes the tone and topics that shape it, and as we talked more about what you, our audience, would find interesting, we landed on a central idea.

Looking at the world around us can sometimes cause anxiety. Stress and uncertainty have become a product of modern media, with politics taking a center stage at almost every facet of life. Even here, it can creep into the conversations outside of the historical context which should govern our discussions. In addition to the constant grinding of the news cycle, there are very real concerns economically, domestically, and internationally. Amidst all of this, it is easy to lose sight of the common grace and good that exists around us.  

To combat this reality, the 15-Minute History team wants to give you a weekly reminder of both. This season is about the people, places, and events in history that have contributed to the good we see in our world today. It is about showing the progression of the lives of those who came before and gaining insight into their motivations for taking action for the good of us all. It is about those who became a light in the dark, those who felt fear but still acted, and those who pushed past the confines of the moment to do that which we can take strength from today. It is about the person who might seem particularly ordinary, who, put into a situation where conviction trumps convenience, decides that action takes priority over words. 

This season is about heroes.

The Voice on the Phone

Over 30 years ago, a young girl named Beth went to school for the first time. The week started off normally, with her making friends and coming home each night with stories of her new classroom. Then, during that same week, her mother received a call from the school. Beth had a seizure and was being rushed to the hospital. She had another seizure a few days later, and then another. Soon, she was having over 100 seizures a day. Doctors were baffled as to the cause, even after extensive testing. Beth’s parents took her from one specialist to another, desperately looking for the cause of the seizures but no one could help them. Finally, a doctor discovered that Beth had a rare inflammatory neurologic disease that only affects one hemisphere of the brain. After the discovery, the doctors recommended a dangerous procedure. Remove that hemisphere entirely. With that part of her brain slowly dying and the lack of any other alternative, her parent’s consent.

During this time, there was one thing that seemed to calm Beth. Any time she watched Mr. Rodgers's Neighborhood, the seizures stopped. “I found his voice comforting. I felt like he was talking to me and nobody else,” said Beth. Because of this, the show became a pillar in their home. Near the time of the surgery, Beth’s mother contacted the Mister Rodgers  Neighborhood studio, talked with a secretary, explained what was happening to her daughter, and asked for a signed copy of Mr. Rodger’s picture for Beth.

In under an hour, Beth’s mom received a phone call. “‘Will you be home this evening at 7? Fred would like to call and speak with Beth,’” the secretary told Beth’s mom. “He called, and I said to Beth, ‘Beth… there’s a friend on the phone for you.’”

Beth took the call in her kitchen while her parents listened and cried from a nearby hallway. “I told him things I hadn’t told my mom or dad. I told him about the surgery and how I thought I might die,” said Beth. “It was like talking to an old friend. Before I hung up the phone, I said, I love you Mr. Rodgers.” She spent over an hour on the phone with him as he cycled through many of his popular characters and gave them a chance to speak with and encourage Beth. The call ended with Daniel Tiger, telling her that he loved her and that everything was going to be okay.

Right before the day of the surgery, Beth received a box of Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood swag and cassettes, the latter of which calmed her on the way to the hospital.

On February 4, 1987, Beth underwent a 12-hour procedure to remove the left hemisphere of her brain, and while she was initially fine post-op, she slowly slipped into a coma. Days turned into weeks and Mr. Rodgers called the hospital every day to check on Beth’s status. Finally, after there was little improvement, he said he would make a trip. He had only one request. That the visit would between he and Beth and there would be no press.

Once by her side, Mr. Rodgers put on a show for Beth with all of his famous puppets, all of which he left by her side that night so she would not be alone. Not long after, Beth began to improve and regained consciousness. When her mother called Mr. Rodgers to tell him, he said, “Praise God.”

Heroes come in many forms. Too easily we look for the big events in which they emerge.  No one save for Beth, her family, and Fred Rodgers knew about this interaction before his passing in 2003. Mr. Rodgers is beloved by millions, spoke to many generations of children, and for one little girl, was a hero.  

Real Resistance

Witold Pilecki joined the Polish Army in 1918 and became a cavalry officer. During his career, he was Deputy Commander, Organizer of the Secret Polish Army against the Nazi and an intelligence officer against the Soviet Union. Among a lifetime of achievements that defy imagination, one stands out.

In 1940, Pilecki was one of 2,000 individuals who were rounded up by the Nazis for transport to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The difference between himself and the other people in the group was that he systematically placed himself there to be captured…on purpose. As wild as that sounds, there was a method to his madness. Pilecki had heard rumors of the horrors taking place at the camp. He knew that if the stories were true then there had a be a first-hand report for the allies (Polish resistance included) to take it out, or at least bomb the tracks of the trains that lead thousands of people to their deaths. To get a first-hand account of the camp, he needed to go there and escape. So that’s what he did.

In 1940 he entered the camp under the name of a deceased man, quickly organized a military organization union, found ways to distribute extra food and clothing, and provide support to those around him. He also provided the inmates of the camp with updates on the war at the time of his entrance, and through the organization of the union, planned to take over the camp in the event of an allied attack. In addition to the organization work, he and his band stole specific parts from various radios in the camp and constructed their own radio from which they broadcasted intel like train schedules, deaths, and guard rotations. He survived pneumonia, torture, and starvation during that first year as he worked as a laborer during the day and an organizer by night. This provided vital information to the allies about the camp, and as result, Pilecki hoped arms, troops, or other supplies would be dropped in for the inmates to use.

As time went by, the camp Gestapo began learning of the underground group and cracked down on them, killing many of the members. Pilecki saw the worst was coming, and using one of his predefined plans, escaped the camp with other members after overpowering a guard and cutting the alarm. For the next few days, they were on the run, finding food and shelter wherever they could. During this journey and believing he was about to be killed, Pilecki drafted a report on Auschwitz for the Home army to find while he hid in a barn. Upon its completion, he buried it and marked the place so he could return or inform others where to find it.

Thankfully, he was not killed, and he went on to continue supporting resistance movements against the Nazis and Communist Russia until his death in 1948. His surprisingly detailed report on Auschwitz was found after his death and is remembered as a quantifiable act of defiance against Nazi Germany.

Sometimes, a hero is not known until they are gone. They do not act for any other reason than it is the right thing to do. It is impossible to know many lives Pilecki saved due to his destabilization efforts, his success in giving hope to the hopeless, and his relentless fight against the tyranny that he saw in the world around him. For Witold Pilecki, being a hero was not the result of a single action, but a way of life.

The Shootout

At 9:16 am on February 28, 1997, two heavily armed men walked into a Bank of America in North Hollywood. The men were covered in homemade body armor, brandished automatic weapons, and began demanding that the tellers empty the cash drawers into the bags the two men had brought. Both men, Larry Phillips Jr., and Emil Mătăsăreanu, were confronted by the LAPD as they left the bank. What ensued was the largest recorded shootout in law enforcement history.

Officers opened fire on the two men as the robbers fired their weapons on the officers and their vehicles. After a few moments of exchanging fire, the two men attempted to flee the scene. Officers found out almost immediately that their Beretta 9 mm handguns and pump-action shotguns would not penetrate the body armor of the two robbers. They continued to fire to slow them down as they attempted to flee, hoping the SWAT team would arrive soon. Officers started taking hits from the thousands of rounds being fired at them, and as more units arrived to provide support, more rounds were expelled by the two robbers as they attempted their getaway. Realizing their weapons were useless, many officers raided a nearby gun store and confiscated AR-15s to gain an advantage.

After 18 minutes of the gunmen and police exchanging fire, the SWAT team arrived with high-powered rifles and body armor. Phillips attempted to flee the scene on foot after his primary rifle was shot out of his hands. He continued firing at officers with another rifle until it jammed. He then pulled a sidearm from his belt, but his hand was shot in the process. He retrieved the pistol from the ground, put the barrel under his chin, and pulled the trigger to end his life. 

Mătăsăreanu took heavy fire and after trying to use his vehicle to escape, attempted to flee on foot before working to hijack a car. Officers finally penetrated the now spent armor, striking Mătăsăreanu multiple times in the back, arms, and legs. After a final stand, he capitulated to the officer’s demands of surrender and laid down his arms. He died in the street as he waited for an ambulance.

In total, the two robbers fired more than 1,100 rounds at officers who fired over 650 rounds in return. Phillips was shot 11 times, and Mătăsăreanu was shot 29 times. Following the shootout, police gear and firearms were evaluated and ruled insufficient. As a result, upgraded body armor and standard rifles began to be distributed to the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

 None of the officers who were first on-scene were able to stop the threat. Their rounds were useless against the body armor and firepower wielded by the gunman. Despite this, the officers kept firing. They kept the attention of the violent men on themselves and off the innocent bystanders. They fell back, regrouped, pushed forward, and took advantage of strategic positions, doing what it took to stop the threat no matter what. Despite being in a losing position for most of the fight, the officers involved kept fighting.

Heroes don’t always win. They act at the right time, to do the right thing, regardless of the outcome. For the men and women of the LAPD who confronted the gunman, heroism wasn’t a concept or an ideal, it was a decision.

Season Six

These three stories are samples of what we will discuss this season.

Even when talking about heroes and heroines in history, we understand that no one is perfect. We have said this countless times on our podcast, but it begs repeating. All characters in history, like us, are flawed. There may be individuals we cover this season that some of you may not consider heroic or even admirable. We understand. The goal of this podcast is to teach history, encourage additional learning about history, and give you, our outstanding audience, lessons from history that you can apply in the here and now.

This season we will attempt to show you events that helped people see light in the darkness, places that brought comfort in the cold, and acts that inspired millions of individuals throughout the centuries. We will tell you the stories of the people, places, and events that brought positive change to the world we see today.

We hope that in this presentation you will, like us, be better equipped to remember the bravery of those who came before, be reminded that heroism is not reserved for the famous for well-funded and that a hero can be anyone who in the face of conviction and challenge, decides that might is not always right.   

Welcome to Season Six of 15-Minute History. We are so glad you are here.