Armenian Genocide, Military Suicide, Political Cartoons

100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (1:07) Guest: Richard Hovannisian, leading expert on the Armenian Genocide and founder of the Armenian Studies program at UCLA. He’s also an advisor to the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation on its Armenian Genocide testimony collection This last week marked the 100th anniversary of the start of systematic killing by Ottoman forces in modern-day Turkey that took the lives of over 1 million Armenians. It’s sometimes called the Armenian Holocaust and it bears similarities to the better-known Jewish Holocaust. Here too, people were chased from their homes, forced on death marches, herded onto trains and torn from their families because their religion and ethnicity were seen as a threat.  While many historians and world leaders agree the actions amounted to a campaign to exterminate the Armenian people, the Turkish government does not call it a genocide or acknowledge the scope of the events. Listen to stories from the Armenian Genocide survivors Military Suicide (24:56) Guest: Craig Bryan, psychology professor and director of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah Rates of suicide among veterans and active-duty military personnel have been a major concern of federal officials for some years. In 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon said more soldiers died of suicide than from war-related activities.  But surely suicide among military personnel is related to war? Exactly how, is the focus of research conducted by University of Utah psychologist Craig Bryan and appearing this month in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. Analysis of the Supreme Court Gay Marriage Hearing (40:13) Guest: James Phillips, Supreme Court legal scholar and visiting professor at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School The U.S. Supreme Court spent nearly two and a half hours yesterday hearing arguments in a landmark case that will decide if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry and whether states can be required to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. It will be a few months before the nine justices issue a ruling on the case, but a number of them seemed fairly clear about their views yesterday. American Heritage: Reconstruction (51:55) Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History professor Now we turn to our weekly segment focusing on “Our American Heritage.” We get insights from BYU history professor Grant Madsen, who is currently teaching an introductory American History course. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of our nation’s founding and significant insights into our American history. Pulitzer Prize Editorial Cartooning (1:19:07) Guest: Adam Zyglis, editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo Times in New York and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize When Adam Zyglis got the job as editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo News in 2004, his boss said something along the lines of “Welcome aboard. Now go win us a Pulitzer.” Zyglis was in his early twenties—right out of college and replacing a legend who had won a Pulitzer. No pressure. And now he’s done it. Zyglis is the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for Editorial Cartooning. The Pulitzer committee commended him for using “strong images to connect with readers while conveying layers of meaning in a few words.”