S5 Ep43: The President's Silence: How Thousands Died Before Reagan Said 'AIDS'
Crimes of the Centuries
Amber Hunt and Audioboom
4.7 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In October 1982, journalist Lester Kinsolving asked the White House press secretary about a mysterious disease that had already killed hundreds of Americans. The response? Laughter. For years, as the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, President Ronald Reagan said nothing. His administration did less. This is the story of what happens when a government decides some lives don't matter—and the activists, doctors, and ordinary people who refused to let their community die in silence.
"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society, or even |
| 0:13.0 | earn the label, Crime of the Century. |
| 0:16.0 | But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily remembered today. |
| 0:22.3 | I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist, an author, and in each episode of this show, |
| 0:27.0 | I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened. |
| 0:33.8 | This is Crimes of the Centuries. |
| 0:46.0 | Thank you. This is Crimes at the Centuries. Lester Kinsolving was not the White House's favorite journalist. |
| 0:50.8 | He could have been. |
| 0:52.1 | The syndicated conservative columnist wrote about religion and was widely |
| 0:56.6 | read nationwide by the time he hit his stride in the 1970s. In the Reagan White House, though, |
| 1:03.3 | the former Episcopalian priest was like a dog with a bone when he wanted answers. |
| 1:08.8 | Kensselving could also be contrary to the point of irritation to Republican stalwarts. |
| 1:15.0 | He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma |
| 1:18.0 | and was famously anti-death penalty and pro-choice. |
| 1:22.6 | He once referred to gay activists as the sodomy lobby, |
| 1:26.7 | and he'd been defrocked after he came to believe that |
| 1:29.4 | liberalism had taken over society and episcopal doctrine. That ouster meant he now made |
| 1:36.6 | journalism his ministry. No one could stand in his way. And because his opinions were printed, |
| 1:42.9 | at one point in 250 newspapers, he could not |
| 1:47.3 | be avoided. No presidential press secretary he ever worked with wanted to call on him. But they did. |
| 1:55.3 | That's how democracy works, after all, when it's done right. So it was not exactly a surprise when, in October 1982, |
| 2:04.9 | Kinslevine raised his hand and asked Assistant Press Secretary Larry speaks a question |
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