There's often a really interesting story behind a retraction. That's what Ivan Oransky told us. He's a doctor and journalist and founder, along with Adam Marcus, of a blog called Retraction Watch. They monitor scientific journals and investigate why articles were retracted. They uncovered serious ethical breaches at a variety of journals. Oransky tells Brooke about some of the stories he's covered this year.

Quantic - Una Tarde en Mariquita

When a paper released by a scientific journal turns out to be wrong, either due to human error or intentional fraud , the journal’s editors often will issue a retraction advising scientists to disregard the research. A Wall Street Journal study has found the number of such retractions to be soaring. New Yorker science writer Jonah Lehrer tells Brooke what he thinks is going on.

Slate writer Daniel Engber set out to debunk the idea of the 5-second rule -- the myth that if you drop food on the floor and pick it up quickly, it’s still clean enough to eat. Engber's quest led him onto a bigger story, about a wellspring of scientific misinformation that's flowing into American papers from Britain. 

Chinese censorship is nothing new. But recently the relationship between censor and dissident has grown more complicated as the government comes to accept that social media is no longer something it can simply take away from Chinese citizens. Brooke speaks with Slate's Jacob Weisberg, who recently traveled to China and spoke with some tech-savvy new dissidents.

Lit - My Own Worst Enemy

In a Washington Post op-ed last month, Senator Joseph Lieberman spoke of “horrific human rights abuses perpetrated daily, including the widespread and deliberate use of rape and other sexual violence as weapons of war.” Lauren Wolfe, director of the Women Under Siege Project, which has curated a map plotting instances of sexual violence in Syria, talks with Brooke about trying to check the senator's claim and the difficulty of verifying claims of rape in a war-zone.

The Chieftains - The Stone

According to an article in The New York Times last week, the Obama administration treats “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants”. Brooke talks to Chris Woods, reporter for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who has been working with reporters on the ground to confirm and put names to civilian casualties of drone strikes, about the discrepancies between his reporting and the reports of the US government.

The world of shows produced expressly for consumption on the web seems to be expanding rapidly, attracting not only amateurs with cameras, but seasoned Hollywood veterans. Brooke talks to Thinkprogress.org culture reporter Alyssa Rosenberg, and the co-creators of the web series Husbands, Brad Bell and Jane Espenson,

On a Sunday evening in the late 1980's, two or more unknown men hijacked the signal for two Chicago area TV stations. They broadcast a spooky, subversive, disturbing message -- twice. Brooke talks to Bohus Blahut, a Chicago broadcaster, who saw the broadcast and was unable to forget it. 

Doctor Who Theme - Delia Derbyshire/Ron Grainer

There are a lot of ways to watch TV -- free streaming online, via a traditional cable or satellite package, paying for services like Hulu Plus, etc. But the TV industry makes vastly different amounts of money depending on how you choose to watch. We invited Peter Kafka, media reporter for the website All Things Digital to play the part of a mustache-twirling cable baron and explain which of our staffers have viewing habits he can support and why.

Earle Hagen and Herbert W. Spencer - The Fishin' Hole

Red Foley - Television

People who watch TV when it actually airs and blab about it online can ruin it for those of us who watch shows at our leisure. Their excited Twitter chatter about the great twist in last night’s Mad Men is frustrating if you haven’t yet watched last night’s Mad Men. New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum is a prolific tweeter who began grappling with this problem after Twitter users complained about a phenomenon they called Nussbombing. She talks to Brooke about her evolving system of spoiler etiquette.

Big Joe Turner - TV Mama

One of the great maxims in defense of the 1^st Amendment is the insistence by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that we must defend 'even the thought we hate'. But law professor Jeremy Waldron asks, when it comes to the most egregious hate speech, why?  He explains to Brooke that words can and do hurt us and that there should be limitations on the most hateful expression.

Beastie Boys - Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament

The text message turns two decades old this year, and numerous studies have shown a sharp decline in actual phone use in favor of texting and email. Brooke talks to writer Tom Vanderbilt, who says the phone call’s day may be passing.

JD Samson and MEN - Life's Half Price

Leaders in Ethiopia and Rwanda were once hailed as political reformers. But according to Mohamed Keita, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Western priorities have led African democracies to narrow their free speech commitments. Mohamed speaks to Brooke about the frightening consequences when press freedoms drop off the agenda. 

This week, Comcast, the largest provider of cable and internet in the country, started charging for broadband using a tiered data plan - much like wireless carriers currently do. This move is not likely to affect many people right now, but as The New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter tells Brooke, Comcast might be preparing its subscribers for the future of internet pricing.

When Liberian journalist Mae Azango wrote an article about the taboo topic of female genital mutilation, she and her nine year-old daughter became the targets of multiple threats. Brooke talks to Mae about her reporting that forced the Liberian government to finally take a public position on the practice.

The Kronos Quartet - Tilliboyo

In 1947, a rug importer named Eugene LaBar came to Manhattan on a bus from Mexico. A few days later, he checked into a hospital where he learned he had smallpox and that he'd spread it throughout the city. Over the next two weeks, the NYC health commissioner convinced 5 million people to get vaccinated. Historian Jean Ashton helped curate an exhibit at the New York Historical Society about the scare. She talks to Brooke about why the campaign worked and what's changed today.

Daniel Rossen - Up On High

Scientists have firmly established that childhood vaccines do not cause autism, but many people still choose not to vaccinate their kids. Writer Seth Mnookin talks to Brooke about why vaccinations are still down, two years after an investigation that completely discredited the anti-vaccine movement's strongest study. 

Barack Obama made history this week as the first sitting president to support gay marriage and the Republican response to the unprecedented announcement has been relatively quiet. Brooke speaks to NewYorker.com writer Alex Koppelman, who says republicans are playing a game of wait-and-see before deciding how to react.

Nick Drake - Cello Song

Last week, the cybersecurity bill CISPA passed the House of Representatives. Brooke talks to Congressman Adam Schiff about why he was initially for the bill and why he decided that in its current form it did not offer enough privacy protections to American citizens.

In January, we covered a proposal to put the 'public files' of television stations online and the broadcaster's objections to the move. A public file, which stations are legally required to keep, contains information about what organizations are buying political ads and how much they've paid for each ad. Brooke speaks with Justin Elliott, reporter at ProPublica about a recent FCC ruling that will require some stations to put the files online.

Billy Bragg and Wilco - Union Prayer