In light of the unfolding situation and unrest across America—and the debate about the use and effectiveness of non-violent and violent means of protest—we thought it would be a good time to re-run a prior season of The Thread that touched on this very issue and how it has played out previously in history.

The Transformation of Leo Tolstoy

Just before his death in 1910, the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy struck up a correspondence with a young lawyer in South Africa named Mohandas Gandhi, one that would change the young Indian’s life. Today Tolstoy is best known for penning War and Peace and Anna Karenina. But the Russian writer’s biggest legacy — and gift to the world — might be his ideas on nonviolent resistance, which emerged after he had a profound spiritual crisis in midlife.