Today at 4:00 PM EST, Brooke will host a one hour live chat about the recent This American Life retraction of their episode "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory." Brooke appeared on The Brian Lehrer Show this morning with Marketplace's Rob Schmitz to talk about the line between journalist, creative nonfiction and theater (audio is embedded below).

This week, the Mexican Senate approved a constitutional amendment that would give the federal government jurisdiction over murders of journalists, taking over that responsibility from local officials who are often either ineffective, corrupt, or both. Brooke speaks with Eugenio Herrera, the General Counsel for Groupo Reforma, the largest newspaper publisher in Mexico about the amendment. 

In 2010, after another staff journalist had been killed by the drug cartels, the Ciudad Juarez newspaper El Diario published a front page editorial – it’s title was ‘What Do You Want From Us?”  Brooke spoke with El Diario editor Gerardo Rodriguez about his plaintive, angry and very public question for the cartels.

Oddisee - All Along the River

It’s incredibly dangerous to be a journalist in Russia – hundreds of reporters have been killed in just the last 15 years. Oleg Kashin knows that all too well, he’s a special correspondent for the Russian newspaper Kommersant and in 2010 he was viciously beaten into a coma by attackers outside his home. Kashin explains to Brooke the price of journalism in Russia and why he continues to pay it.

Oren Ambarchi - Salt

Professor Timothy Messer-Kruse has devoted the last ten years of his life to one topic -- the 1886 Haymarket Riot. But when Messer-Kruse tried to correct a wrong fact about the event, he ran afoul of Wikipedia's thorny editing culture. Brooke talks to Messer-Kruse about his editing travails, and Phoebe Ayers, Wikimedia Foundation member, about Messer-Kruse's experience from Wikipedia's side.

tUnE-yArDs - Killa

While television stations are legally required to run ads purchased by election campaigns, they are allowed to refuse advertising from Super PACs. The Annenberg Public Policy Center has begun a campaign called "Stand By Your Ad," encouraging stations to refuse to run ads that contain distortions or untruths. Brooke talks to Annenberg's Kathleen Hall Jamieson about the project.

Oddisee - All Along The River

Last month a team of researchers released a paper which demonstrated that it’s possible to identify anonymous authors on the internet simply by analyzing their writing style and comparing it to known instances of their writing. Brooke talks to Arvind Narayanan, one of the authors of the paper, about what it means for the future of online anonymity.

Most of us have been lucky enough to never witness someone's innards being spliced out of their body. Or someone's head being smashed into a wall. But in an action or horror film, we often believe that that's what actual violence sounds like. Deep in the Hollywood studios, sound editors have to create these sounds. How do they know what gruesome violence really sounds like? Brooke talks with Slate senior editor Daniel Engber who wrote about the battle between the real and created sound of violence.

James Murdoch stepped down this week as chief of News International's British newspapers. James' departure followed revelations by British police that the company had bribed multiple public officials and not just at The News of the World but at The Sun tabloid, too. This has renewed speculation over here that the Murdochs may have run afoul of U.S. law, specifically the Watergate-era Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ProPublica’s Jake Bernstein reminds us what the act is, and explains how the Murdochs could potentially wind up in U.S. courts. 

Tom Waits - Jockey Full of Bourbon

Brooke appeared on the CBC show George Stromboulopoulos Tonight yesterday to talk about her comic The Influencing Machine. Check out the full interview below.

Originally released in 1978, Faces of Death became a cult sensation with gruesome depictions of actual deaths, and sensational staged scenes where real footage couldn't be found. Brooke Gladstone talks to Faces of Death creator John Alan Schwartz about the movie's lasting effect and how "real" a film can be when nearly half of it was faked.

In 2005, The Believer Magazine paired a contributing writer with a fact checker.  Seven years later some version of their epic, contentious back and forth; first about facts, then about the genre of non-fiction and finally about the nature of truth itself – is a book.  Essayist John D’Agata and erstwhile fact-checker Jim Fingal speak with Brooke about The Lifespan of a Fact.

Linsanity is spreading like wildfire, fueled in part by the media's fascination with New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin's Cinderella story.  Brooke speaks to NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca, who says that despite his over saturation, Lin's story of overlooked bench-warmer turned NBA superstar has all the elements of a great sports story.

Mega Ran - Jeremy Lin Rap

4 years ago we spoke with The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes who was fresh off the presidential campaign trail.  He was tired, somewhat dispirited and he vowed never again to get so caught up in the minutiae of campaign coverage.  Hayes now hosts Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and so Brooke checks in with him to see how that vow is working out.

It’s easy to forget that Facebook has only been around for eight years. In that time, Facebook’s grown from a college dorm room project to a multi-billion dollar company, and made its 27 year-old founder the 4th richest person in the United States. But Facebook’s life represents an eternity in internet years, where sites live, dominate and die at historic speeds. Surely, then, Facebook must one day die, right? According to Clay Shirky, no one ought to hold their breath waiting for Facebook's demise.

Bangs - Meet Me On Facebook

Not long ago, writer Emily McCombs received a friend request from a man who had raped her in her adolescence. She talks to Brooke about how you handle that particular social networking quandary, and about how the interaction was ultimately a surprisingly positive one for her.

Sigur Rós - Flugufrelsarinn (performed by Kronos Quartet)

As popular as Facebook is, it has its share of detractors, especially among public intellectuals. Novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke for many when he said that platforms like Facebook are “great allies and enablers of narcissism" and that "to friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.” Where’s this frustration coming from? Is it fair? Writer Paul Ford talks to Brooke about an essay he wrote last year that sought to answer that question.

This article was originally posted on the blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, www.impatientoptimists.org

We’ve all heard the old saw that “one death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.” It’s the guiding principle of public relations for those engaged in building support for humanitarian causes. In fact, it’s more than a principle; it’s an inescapable truth.

On this week's show we ran a story about the Chinese toy maker In Icons and its plans to release a Steve Jobs action figure. Perhaps good news for the legions of Apple fans, the news was less warmly embraced by Apple itself, who threatened legal action against the toy manufacturer.

But as PC World reported yesterday, In Icons has stopped production on the controversial doll. Tandy Cheung, the Hong Kong businessman behind the doll said in a statement that "though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family."

A Chinese toy maker is set to release a Steve Jobs action figure next month, but Apple is hoping to halt the sales of the doll by threatening legal action against the manufacturer.  Apple successfully stopped a similar doll from being sold back in 2010, but the rules this time around might be different.  Brooke speaks to paidcontent.org legal writer Jeff Roberts, who says the rules protecting personality rights don't carry on after death in most places.