Memoir, or what some call "creative non-fiction," is a literary genre ripe for fraudulent claims, as we've seen recently with the potential debunking of parts of Greg Mortenson's best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea. That book chronicles Mortenson's quest to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson, who recently had surgery, has not yet given a full response to a recent '60 Minutes' and Jon Krakauer investigation of his book. The '60 Minutes' piece alleges that, among other things, Mortenson wasn't rescued by villagers after a failed ascent of the mountain K2 on the Pakistani border, which led to his desire to build them a school. The investigation also concludes that Mortenson wasn't ever taken captive by the Taliban, as he says he was.

Famously, Oprah Winfrey and others were taken in by James Frey's 2003 memoir, A Thousand Little Pieces, which describes Frey's descent into addiction. And both Winfrey and the New York Times recommended a book called Love and Consequences, by a woman who says she grew up half-Indian in foster homes and was involved in street gangs. In reality, her biological parents raised her and she went to private school.

In that instance, it should have been quite easy for a publisher to fact-check the story, because members of the author's family were still alive, and indeed it was her sister who tipped off the Times that the book was a fraud.

In general, though, memoirs are difficult to prove in their entirety, because many elements were witnessed only by the author, by people who are no longer alive, or by people who can't be found.

But sometimes you get a "feeling" when you read a memoir that something is not adding up. I had such a sense when I read Rory Stewart's account of crossing Afghanistan in the winter, The Places in Between. I couldn't put the book down, but it seemed absolutely unbelievable to me that he had survived his journey so easily. Only time will tell if the book is accurate.

I also had an odd feeling when I read Ishmael Beah's book, A Long Way Gone. I was scheduled to interview Beah, who was speaking at the Sun Valley Writers' conference. His compelling story of being a child soldier in Sierra Leone felt strangely incomplete to me, because he spent very little time in the book actually describing being a soldier, which he says he was forced to do for two years.

Most of the memoir is about him being on the run from rebels who destroyed his village, and then being 'rehabilitated.'

After doing a web search, I discovered that an Australian newspaper had done an investigation into his story, and that after talking to people still in Sierra Leone, its reporters felt strongly that Beah had been a child soldier for only a few months. I asked him about it in our interview: http://video.idahoptv.org/video/1678295342/

He discounted the allegations, saying that they were racist. He said hadn't spent much time describing the horrors of being a soldier because he didn't want to "glorify the violence."

"I didn't put myself into the war so I could write about it," he said. "War happened to me and then I wrote about it. I wasn't walking around with a book in my hand, writing down facts and taking down pictures and documenting it, so that I could present it."

"All I have is my memories of what happened." Beah said.

So now we come to my interview airing this week with journalist Jere Van Dyk. In 2010, Van Dyk published an account of being taken hostage by the Taliban for 45 days in 2008 called Captive. He came to Boise in November, 2010, to speak to the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations, and that group's leader asked if I wanted to interview him. It seemed like a compelling story, and I'm very interested in that part of the world, so I said yes. Our interview occurred on November 17, 2010.

Even before our conversation, Van Dyk became teary-eyed when he was in our production control room and saw some of the photos that his publisher had sent us to be used. Then, during the interview, he choked up describing having guns put to his head while he was recorded on videotape by his captors. It certainly felt as if he was still close to the experience, perhaps even somewhat emotionally damaged by it, which would be only natural.

I waited to air the program until now because I felt strongly that it would be better with photographs. So for four months, I corresponded with Van Dyk to obtain photos of himself in the 1970s and 1980s in Afghanistan. I think the photos do add to the program.

However, there are no photos of him in captivity. The only photo I was offered by his publisher from that time is a picture of him upon his release, supposedly taken by the FBI.

I say "supposedly" because recently it came to my attention that there is a community radio host in Portland who believes Van Dyk is lying about his captivity, and that his book is a fraud to push the Pentagon agenda of being in Afghanistan.

The host, Linda Olson-Osterlund, interviewed Van Dyk in July, 2010, on KBOO-FM. She reveals her biases right up front, saying that because Van Dyk once worked for an Afghan aid group started by the National Security Council that he can't be believed.

Her interview style, in my view, borders on rudeness and condescension, as she grills Van Dyk about various elements of his story. Some of her questions are silly, as when she asks him whether he can really be considered a journalist if he's not a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (many journalists are not, including me, but are members of their local press clubs.)

But Olson-Osterlund also asks some good questions about inconsistencies in his story, and whether the book was fact-checked, or just published by a friend. She also asks him why we never knew about his imprisonment while it was happening or when he was released. Despite his questioner's aggressive tone, Van Dyk is surprisingly passive, not arguing back with her.

On April 18, 2011, Van Dyk was asked by OPB radio host Emily Harris about Olson-Osterlund's allegations, because the KBOO host had written Harris to say that Van Dyk was a fraud.

To my surprise, fully eight months after the KBOO interview, with presumably a lot of time to think about a response, Van Dyk doesn't defend himself vigorously. He wanders in his answer for almost five minutes, so much so that Harris has to ask him again.

"What can I say?" he says. "Go to the Tal-, talk to the US government, talk to the FBI, talk to the CIA, although I don't suppose they'll talk. The DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), the Pentagon. Talk to all the people who were involved in releasing me."

But then he wanders again for minutes. Finally, in a faint voice, the former track runner for the University of Oregon says, "You don't cheat in running. I didn't lie."

When I read Van Dyk's book, I found copy-editing errors, and also what I thought were inconsistencies in his political viewpoints regarding the Taliban. I asked him about the latter issue. But in the back of my head, I also wondered about his story. For instance, why he was only held for 45 days? Why he wasn't harmed?

Do I wish now that I had asked him point-blank how we can know his story is true, or whether he faked it to get a good tale and fulfill his book contract? Yes.

Do I wish I had asked to see the videotapes of him being held at gunpoint? Yes.

Do I wish I had asked him why none of us had heard about his captivity and release? Yes.

And looking back, does it seem a bit odd to me that two years after his captivity he would be so emotional about it, when asked a simple question? A bit.

In sum, it's a good lesson for me to trust my instincts and, as I did in the Ishmael Beah interview, push harder to ask non-fiction authors more questions about the veracity of their memoirs.

Ultimately, do I think Van Dyk made up his story of captivity? I don't know. Only he knows.

I do know from photographs that he was in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 80s. I do know that he seems like a modest, sincere man in person. I do know that he is critical of certain facets of American operations in Afghanistan. I do know that he has been interviewed by national journalists like New Yorker staff writer George Packer and NPR's Neal Conan, who have not questioned his story, nor did Washington Post book reviewer Ann Scott Tyson, who has covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As soon as I heard about the allegations on Monday, April 24, I wrote Mr. Van Dyk for a formal response. He wrote me on Thursday, April 28, saying he had drafted a response and wanted to "clear it" with some people before sending it. I have not received it yet. Stay tuned.

We here at Dialogue pride ourselves at providing a top quality platform on which can begin our discussions. That means we pay a lot of attention to the little things, like the set, the lighting, the audio, and so forth. We want nothing to distract viewers from what people are saying. That's why I am asking for your feedback about last night's show with Senator Mike Crapo. When we have interviewed one of our Congressional Delegation from Washington D.C. in the past, we have used a satellite feed to get the video from there to here. But because of budget cuts, we don't have the funds to do much anymore. Satellite rental time is fairly expensive. So, last night we used a video conferencing system to get the video from Washington D.C. to Boise. That doesn't cost us as much because we already have the equipment and Internet connection in house. From my point of view, however, there was a difference in the quality of the picture of the Senator. What did you think? Did it detract from what the Senator said? Was having not as good a quality of a picture better than not having the show at all? I really do want your opinion. Send me an email.

One of our Facebook friends chastised me for using the term "ObamaCare" during the show. He was absolutely right. I should not have used a political term promoted by one party or the other. Journalists always struggle with how and when to use terms that have become politically charged and this time I failed. I promise to do better. Thanks for reminding me and keep the comments, criticisms and compliments coming.

We on the Dialogue staff remain busy. For our next two shows, I am tracking events happening at the Statehouse regarding education reform and Marcia is staying on top of things happening in Egypt. Send in your questions and tune in for our next Dialogue!

Sometimes I interview a person and I'm honestly not sure if they sleep much. Not because they're falling asleep on set (although that happened once!), but because they're so prolific I'm not sure how they pack it all in.

This week's guest would fall into that category. Professor Douglas Brinkley of Rice University has either authored or edited upwards of 20 books. His latest, The Wilderness Warrior, is about President Theodore Roosevelt's passion for conservation. And Brinkley allows that he identifies with Roosevelt's rather manic tendencies to work night and day on projects about which he cared.

For instance, even as he was on a book tour for Wilderness Warrior, Brinkley was finishing up his next volume, a book about wilderness in Alaska, and starting in on a book about Walter Cronkite. He says he just loves to write and does fine with just five hours of sleep.

In the Dialogue program, we talk about why he chose Teddy Roosevelt as a subject, and Roosevelt's legacy in the conservation field, including in Idaho. Our state actually had a big effect on the larger-than-life president, and he honored that by designating nearly 20 national forests and several wildlife refuges here.

We also discuss the fact that Brinkley set everything aside while writing that book to pen The Great Deluge, about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. He was incensed at what he viewed at bureaucratic bungling that created a second devastation for a city he loves and lived in for many years.

I like interviewing people who love what they do, even if it is difficult to get a word in edgewise sometimes! Professor Brinkley, who used to take his students on a 'Majic Bus' across the country to make history come alive, is the kind of teacher I wish I had had when I was in college.

His love not only of history, but of popular figures who are creating history as we speak, has led him to interview some pretty cool people, including Bob Dylan, Kurt Vonnegut and Ken Kesey, for magazines like Rolling Stone. In a special web extra, he explains his delight in talking to these creative history-makers. I'd encourage you to watch that.

This interview marks the end of a month of conversations with authors. In January, we start up again with public affairs topics, beginning with a look at the upcoming legislative session with some of the best statehouse reporters in Idaho. Have a great New Year!

This week marks the beginning of our fifth Sun Valley Writers' Conference series on Dialogue. Since 2005 (with a break in 2007 when the conference was on hiatus for the construction of the Sun Valley Pavilion), I've been interviewing authors at the summer gathering, considered one of the premier literary events in the country.

Picking the authors is one of the most difficult tasks I have; there are so many wonderful ones at the conference. I try to keep in mind our viewers' interests in history and current affairs when I request interviewees, and I also like to also include authors from other countries. On that note, this year will be my third year interviewing an Indian-American author at the conference.

This is the first year that I didn't interview a female author, something I regret. I had wanted to interview Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat, but she cancelled her appearance at the conference at the last moment.

Researching the writers and their works is another challenge; I often don't know who I'm interviewing until about a week before the event. Then it's a mad scramble to find their books in the library, at bookstores, from friends, or this year, on my Kindle! Then I read, read, read, until my eyes are blurry.

Trying to come up only 30 minutes worth of questions for these brilliant writers is also difficult; I could talk with them all day.

The series begins on December 2 on a serious note with an interview with former child soldier Ishmael Beah. Beah, who fought for the government-backed army in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, talks with me about why he wanted to relive the experience in his book, A Long Way Gone.

Beah finally made it to America, and he discusses some of the difficulties he had trying to fit into our culture.

That sense of being an outsider is what drove our author Pico Iyer to write. He's the subject of our December 9 program. Born of Indian parents, Iyer was raised in California, schooled in England and now lives in Japan. His love for observing foreign cultures had led him all over the world, and he shares some of his travel tips, along with talking about his most recent book, The Open Road, about the Dalai Lama.

One fun side note: Iyer graded my first exam in college as a graduate student assigned to a large survey course I took. I never met him, but I remember his very formal handwriting, his thoughtful comments and his unique name on my exam, and was startled years later to see his name on a Time magazine article, where he was a reporter. So I followed his career a bit as he became a travel writer. Interestingly, he said an author he met recently had also had an exam graded by him!

Former journalist and diplomat Strobe Talbott is also worldly, having covered Russia for Time magazine and then worked as Deputy Secretary of State for President Bill Clinton. His interview airs December 16. Now the president of the Brookings Institution, Talbott's passion is writing and speaking about global climate change. We talk about that issue, as well as fears that many Americans have of global governance. (Talbott sits on the Trilateral Commission, often at the center of conspiracy theories about "one world government.")

Historian David Kennedy's interests are closer to home; the Stanford professor emeritus won a Pulitzer Prize for his book about the Great Depression, Freedom from Fear, and was nominated for another Pulitzer for a work on World War 1. But he, too, is interested in global concerns, specifically the gap he sees between our civilian and military societies. Our conversation airs on December 23.

I'd like to thank the authors for their time, the organizers of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference for helping me arrange the interviews, and the staff members of Idaho Public Television who work on this project. It's not a small job getting equipment up to Sun Valley and back, and then editing the programs. I hope you enjoy the final product; I always learn so much talking with the writers. Please feel free to let me know what you think, and what authors you'd like to see on Dialogue in the future.

U.S.-China relations are in the news this week with the G-20 summit meeting. China is the world's second largest economy and, forgive the paraphrase, when China catches cold, the U.S. sneezes. Even though our economies are so intertwined, most Americans really know very little about China. That's why this show was so well timed. Robert Oxnam is one of our country's most influential China and Asian experts. Oxnam was in town for the Frank Church Conference at BSU and we were lucky enough to snag him for an interview. It is an interesting interview and he is a fascinating man. He is also a man who has suffered a great deal in his life. He suffers from multiple personality disorder. While we didn't talk about that aspect of his life in the broadcast show, we did touch on it in our Dialogue Web Extra. I encourage you to watch it. It is a compelling story. Mr. Oxnam is returning to Boise in the spring and I will try to book him for another show to talk more about this disorder.

 

A note for our You Tube fans, I apologize that this week's show won't be up on our You Tube channel until Sunday. I am attending the Capitolbeat conference Thursday-Sunday so I won't be able to upload it until Sunday night.

Capitolbeat is an association of statehouse reporters and editors. The annual conference is a great opportunity to learn more about the issues facing state government. Hopefully, I will be able to do a better job covering state issues with a little insight from leading experts and my colleagues around the country.

I plan to use some of that training for next week's show. We will be discussing the FY2012 state budget with key legislators. Governor Otter has already said the next session will be one of the toughest ever because they will either have to raise taxes or make even more cuts. I hope you all will call in during the show with your questions or send me an email beforehand.