Role of Debate Moderators, Colombian Peace, Flu Shots

To Fact Check or Not To Fact Check: The Debate Moderator's Dilemma Guest: David Mindich, PhD, Professor of Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts Saint Michael's College It’s worth saying right up front that it’s easy to criticize the moderator, but it’s a tough job. A thankless one many wouldn’t not volunteer for. This year’s election seems particularly dangerous territory for well-meaning moderators.   That said, what is the ideal role for a moderator to play in a high-profile, televised debate? Should they fact-check candidates’ lies or not? Should they play referee so neither candidate dominates the time?  Why Did Colombians Say No to the Peace Deal? Guest: Kirk Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Latin American Politics at BYU The government of Colombia and FARC rebels who’ve been engaged in civil war for more than 50 years were able to negotiate a remarkable peace deal between themselves. It was hailed as a model of how to end intractable conflicts. Then, on Sunday, Colombians went to the polls to ratify the agreement, and they said, “No.” Smoking Changes Your DNA Guest: Roby Joehanes, PhD, Professor at Harvard Medical School Smoking is bad for your lungs, your mouth, your skin, your hair. But it also affects you on the molecular level – smoking causes a kind of scarring on DNA that can lead to cancer and other diseases. It may also explain why someone who quit decades ago can still be at risk for smoking-related diseases. Flu Shot Myths Guest: Michael Huckabee, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center It’s flu shot season again. Last year, only about half of Americans got one. Does the vaccine really help all that much? We all know someone who got the shot and also came down with the flu, right? The Environmental Toll of Our Gadgets Guest: David Abraham, Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Head of the Technology, Rare and Electronic Materials Center, Author of “The Elements of Power” A remote landscape in Congo holds the crucial ingredient to Silicon Valley’s success: cheap cobalt, a mineral essential to manufacture rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops, and electric cars.  While there has been a lot of praise for the environmental benefits of going digital and driving electric cars, The Washington Post just last week reported on the human cost of our skyrocketing demand for the precious metals needed to power modern technology. The conditions of African miners who extract these metals worsens as our demand increases. Some of these miners are children, and many of them suffer lung disease and are paid poorly for their work. Not to mention, in the long run, all this mining may be hurting the environment rather than helping it. Social Media Shapes Modern Warfare Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff, PhD, Professor at American University Since its inception, media has been used to show the face of war. In the Civil War, newspapers and the telegraph enabled political parties to report details from the battle front to their sympathizers in record time. The Gulf War in 1990 is considered the first to play out on live TV, when cable news broadcast actual footage from both sides of the conflict as it happened. That feels almost antiquated today when YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have become the first places people turn for instant coverage of global conflicts.  How does that kind of immediacy shape the way conflicts play out? Does massive support for one side of the fight on Twitter, for example, translate into more success on the battlefield?