A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org democracy seemed like it was doing so well there for a while.
On the move, spreading hope around the world.
But now, of course, more and more countries are moving in the other direction.
There's strongman leaders doing great in Poland, Turkey, Serbia, Brazil, lots of other places.
Even in our own country, democracy is feeling shakier.
What is it?
A third of all Americans think the results of the last election were invalid.
Hungary had an election last week.
Hungary used to be a functioning democracy, but it's gotten less and less so once again.
This time around, Viktor Orban was named prime minister.
He's been prime minister there for the last 12 years.
Now he gets four more.
No term limits over there.
And to give you a sense of just how stacked the dick was in his favor, like how extreme it was during the entire election, the amount of time Orban's opponents got on state television to make their case to voters was exactly five minutes.
I mean like for the whole election.
You with me here?
Tons of coverage for Orban, all of it positive speeches, interviews, analysis for months.
For his opponents, just five minutes.