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A famous documentary maker has inspired more than a hundred young people to take part in an oral history project to collect peasants' stories of the Great Famine in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An estimated 36 million people died during the famine, which the Chinese government blamed on natural disasters.

As a stream of falsehoods and half-truths fell during the 2012 campaign, a swarm of fact checkers hustled to catch them. Fact checking hasn't stopped deception, but could it be more effective in interrupting politicians' narratives?

Among the difficult decisions facing President Obama in his second term is whether to give the go-ahead for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. Environmentalists want it blocked, while advocates of the project say it will create thousands of jobs and make the country more energy independent.

A second term means some new Cabinet appointments for President Obama, including at Treasury. After four pretty grueling years, Secretary Timothy Geithner has made it clear he will be leaving Washington, but who will replace him? Erskine Bowles and Jack Lew are two names that are mentioned.

For the most part in American culture, intellectual struggle in school children is seen as an indicator of weakness, while in Eastern cultures it is not only tolerated, it is often used to measure emotional strength.

With the election settled, Washington and Wall Street are focused on whether Congress and a re-elected president can avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff." Renee Montagne talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the automatic budget cuts and tax hikes that would happen if an agreement can't be reached by early in the new year.

As the nation honors its veterans, the time is right to reread a poem that helps mark their sacrifices. Written in 1915 by a Canadian military doctor, it inspired the use of poppies as a symbol of respect for those who have served.

An anonymous buyer paid $480,000 for Dorothy's dress at an auction in Beverly Hills. It's still not the "over the rainbow" price paid last year for Marilyn Monroe's billowy white "subway dress" which went for $4.5 million.

The man who is about to become China's new leader, Xi Jinping, is well-traveled. In his current role as vice president, he's been to 41 countries, more than any other Chinese leader-to-be. In all his globetrotting, he's kept a soft spot for Muscatine, a small town in Iowa.

The 2012 election was the first since the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United and the most expensive in U.S. history. But not much changed. Host Michel Martin discusses the impact of unlimited cash with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.