Armenian Genocide, Fact Checking

Armenian Genocide Guest: Richard Hovannisian, PhD, Founder of the Armenian Studies program at UCLA A week ago, the German Parliament voted to officially condemn the massacres and deportation of over 1 million Armenians in 1915 as “genocide.” The move by the German parliament has angered the Turkish government and could test diplomatic relations between the two countries.  The genocide was carried out by Ottoman forces in modern-day Turkey. 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. Fact Checking Guest: Jane Elizabeth, Senior Research Project Manager at the American Press Institute The rise of fact-checking journalism has made it harder for political candidates to get away with the half-truths and spin that are bread and butter for campaigns. That doesn’t mean politicians have stopped stretching the truth – or that their supporters are necessarily concerned about it. Protein and Cancer Guest: Valter Longo, PhD, Professor in Gerontology and Biological Science at the University of Southern California, Director of the USC Longevity Institute Atkins, Paleo, and the South Beach diets all recommend a cut in carbohydrates in favor of a high-protein diet. These diets are popular because they work well in the short-term, but research from the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute shows that eating lots of animal proteins can lead to a long-term increased risk of cancer. Poetry 180 Guest: Robert Casper, Head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress When was the last time you read a poem – or heard one recited? If it’s been awhile, we can remedy that right now, with the help of Robert Casper, Head of Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress. Alaska Shipwreck Guest: Timothy Dilliplane, Retired Colonel in the US Army Reserve, Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Co-principal Investigator of the Neva Project Hollywood might want to take note of this next story: It has all the makings of a great adventure film. In January of 1813, a Russian ship called the Neva wrecked off the coast near Sitka, Alaska. More than a dozen of the ship’s crew had already died in the difficult journey from Siberia. Another 32 died when the ship broke apart on the rocks. But 28 men made it to shore alive. And then what? It was mid-winter in Alaska. They had nothing but what they could forage on land and scavenge from the wreckage.  Remarkably, 26 of the men were still alive when they were finally rescued a month later.  The story of how they survived has remained a mystery, until last year. Researchers from the US and Russia – funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation – found what they believed to be the campsite of the shipwreck survivors.