captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight: did exxon lie to the public about its climate change research? new york's attorney general lays out details of his new investigation, and an exxon vice president responds. >> ifill: also ahead this tuesday, in the footsteps of our ancestors: journalist paul salopek walks around the world to uncover human's prehistoric journey. >> the walk has opened up the vista to me in both space and time where i can see the connections between all of these stories and i see how history informs everything that's happening today. >> woodruff: and "breaking bad" actor bryan cranston talks about playing a black-listed screenwriter in the height of

the red scare, in the 1960's. >> a lot of people will look back and see him as a hero. there are other people who would say he was no hero, that he was a dirty, red commie or whatever. i suppose the point of the movie is that all opinions are welcome. >> ifill: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> ifill: republicans prepared today for their fourth presidential debate, this time in milwaukee. the top eight polling candidates, a smaller field than before, will face-off on economic issues on fox business network, at 9:00 eastern time. lower-polling candidates meet earlier. >> woodruff: the obama administration will ask the u.s. supreme court to let it protect five million immigrants from deportation. that's after a federal appeals court panel ruled against the president's executive orders to do just that. monday's ruling upheld an injunction issued by a federal judge in texas. today, white house spokesman josh earnest said the administration is determined to continue the fight. >> we're quite disappointed in the decision that was rendered by the fifth circuit, but it does not in any way diminish the confidence we have in the power of our legal argument. and we're looking forward to

having an opportunity to making that argument again before the supreme court. >> woodruff: in all, 26 states have challenged the president's executive actions, saying they illegally circumvent congress. >> ifill: the senate overwhelmingly passed a defense bill today that includes a ban on moving guantanamo bay detainees to the united states. it's the latest obstacle to president obama's pledge to close the detention facility before he leaves office. still, the white house said he will sign the $600 billion measure because of other important provisions. >> woodruff: the worst el nino weather pattern in decades could threaten 11 million children in africa with hunger, disease and drought. the united nations children's fund, unicef, issued that warning today. in a statement, it said: the weather pattern has already

caused severe drought in ethiopia and flooding in somalia. >> ifill: in myanmar, official results from sunday's elections kept trickling in today, as the opposition claimed a landslide win. the country's constitution bars opposition leader aung san suu kyi from becoming president. but she told singapore's "channel news asia" she expects to be the de facto leader. >> in any democratic country, it's the leader of the winning party who becomes the leader of the government, and if this constitution doesn't allow it, then we'll have to make arrangements so that we can proceed along usual democratic lines. >> ifill: myanmar's military gave way to an elected regime in 2011, but it retains control of key parts of the government. >> woodruff: russia now says its ban on flights to egypt will last at least the next several months, over security concerns. a russian airliner crashed in the sinai peninsula, on october 31st, after taking off from sharm el-sheikh.

all 224 people on board were killed. u.s. and british officials say it's likely a bomb destroyed the plane. >> ifill: russian sports officials are denying accusations of widespread doping among track and field athletes. the world anti-doping agency said yesterday that moscow has allowed a state-sponsored drug culture. today, the head of the country's athletics federation dismissed the report and said it should not block russian athletes from next year's olympics. >> ( translated ): i am sorry, i want to ask once again what are these athletes guilty of? they have never had any record of doping violations. why should they be deprived of this opportunity because of the corruption you've mentioned and which had taken place several years ago? in any case currently it does not exist. >> ifill: president vladimir putin will meet with the head of the russian track federation tomorrow. today, putin's spokesman said the accusations appear to be "rather unfounded".

>> woodruff: federal prosecutors in new york have charged three people in a huge theft of consumer data from the nation's biggest bank. an indictment unsealed today says two israelis and an american stole information on more than 80 million households and small business customers at j.p. morgan chase. the crimes were carried out between 2012 and this past summer. >> ifill: this was a sluggish day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 27 points, to close near 17,760. the nasdaq lost 12 points, and the s&p 500 added 3. >> woodruff: there's word this evening former president jimmy carter is responding well to cancer treatment. a spokeswoman says doctors have found no sign of new tumors. mr. carter is 91. he announced last august he'd been diagnosed with cancer that spread to his brain. >> ifill: we also mark two passings of note: former west german chancellor helmut schmidt died at his home

in hamburg. schmidt led west germany from 1974 to 1982, through economic turbulence and cold war tensions. he also backed the u.s. boycott of the moscow olympics in 1980, but said later that nothing was gained from it. helmut schmidt was 96 years old. >> woodruff: and legendary new orleans musician allen toussaint died in spain today after a heart attack. he was a pianist and performer who wrote and produced a long line of hits for himself and others, including "working in a coal mine" and "lady marmalade". here he is recording "who's gonna help brother get further?" for a 2006 album with elvis costello, as seen in a b.b.c. documentary. >> ♪ we may seem happy...

♪ ♪ ... but it's a real thing. ♪ >> ifill: toussaint joined the rock and roll hall of fame in 1998 and was awarded the national humanities medal in 2013. at his death, he was 77 years old. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, accused of a cover up, exxon's own research on climate change; the largest strike yet for a $15 minimum wage; the man who's walking across the world, and much more. >> woodruff: first, a new tack in the battle over climate change: going after energy companies for alleged financial fraud. new york state attorney general eric schneiderman recently subpoened oil giant exxon-mobil,

apparently seeking documents that might show the company had down-played the risks to profits-- and therefore to investors-- of stronger regulations on burning fossil fuels. exxon's history has been the subject of recent reporting by "inside climate news," the los angeles times and others. the reporting has alleged the company misled the public about what its own scientists found about the risks of climate change and greenhouse gases. here is a clip of a video produced by pbs's frontline in collaboration with inside climate news. this is a not-for-profit organization that covers energy and the environment. >> the global warming theory says that higher levels of greenhouse gases are causing world temperatures to rise and that burning fossil fuels is the reason. but scientific evidence remains inconclusive as to whether human

activities affect the global climate. >> we found a trail of comes that go back to 1977. exxon knew carbon dioxide was increasing in the atmosphere, that combustion of fossil fuels was driving it, and that this posed a threat to exxon. at that time exxon understood very quickly that governments would probably take action to reduce fossil fuel consumption. they're smart people, great scientist, and they saw the writing on the wall. >> woodruff: that's a from theline excerpt. i spoke earlier this evening with new york state attorney general eric schneiderman. welcome, attorney general eric schneiderman. let me just begin by asking, what is it that exxon-mobil has done in your view that caused you to launch this

investigation? >> we've been looking at the energy sector generally for a number of years, and we have had several investigations that relate to the phenomenon of global warming, climate change, and the human contribution to it. so we have subpoenaed, issued a broad subpoena to exxon because of public statements they have made and how they have really shifted their point of view on this in terms of their public presentation and public reporting over the last few decades. in the 1980s they were putting out some very good studies about climate change. they were compared to bell labs as being at the leadership of doing good scientific work. and then they changed tactics for some reason, and their numerous statements over the last 20 years or so that question climate change, whether it's happening, that claim that there is no competent model for climate change. so we're very interested in

seeing what science exxon has been using for its own purposes because they're tremendously active in off-shore oil drilling in the arctic, for example, where global warming is happening at a much more rapid rate than in more temperate disoangs. were they using the best science and the most competent models for their own purposes but then telling the public, the regulateors and share hold irgs that no competent models existed? things like that. we're interested what n what they were using intirnly and what they were telling the world. >> woodruff: and what law would be violated by doing this? >> well, in new york we have laws against defrauding the public, defrauding consumers, defrauding shareholders. we're at the beginning of the investigation. we have to see what documents are in there, but certainly all of the claims would lie in some form of fraud. >> woodruff: i'm sure you're not surprised to know exxon is pthe c.e.o. rex tillerson said this week nothing could be further from the truth.

in the company's written statement they start out by saying for many years they've included all the information they have about the risks of climate change in their public files, in their reports to shareholders. >> we know they've been issuing public statements that are at odds with that, and they've within funding organizations that are even more aggressive climate change deniers, and they've made numerous statement, both exxon officials and in exxon reports, but also through these organizations they fund like the american enterprise institute, alex, the american legislative exchange council, through their activities with the american petroleum institute, so directory and through other organization, exxon has said a lot of things that conflict with the statement that they've always been forthcoming about the realities of climate change. >> woodruff: let me read you, attorney general schneiderman, something else exxon is saying. they react to the reporting. they say these are allegations based on what they call

"deliberately cherry picked statements attributed to various exxon-mobil employees to wrongly suggest that conclusions were reached decades ago by researchers." he said they were statements taken completely out of context and ignored other available statements at the same time. >> well, then they should welcome this investigation, because unlike journalist, my staff is going to get to read all of the documents in context, and they'll have an opportunity to explain the context of this statements and whether there are contradictions or not. we're at the very beginning stages. we don't want to prejudge what we're going to find, but the public record is troubling enough that we brought... that we decided we had to bring this investigation. another area where they have been active and we're concerned about is overestimating the costs of switching to renewable energy. they have issued reports, one as recently as last year in response to shareholder requests and public requests, estimating

that switching over to renewables by the end of this century would raise energy costs to the point they would cost... that it would be 44% of the median income of an american family. we want to see how they arrived at that conclusion,ing which we believe to be vastly overstated. >> woodruff: how do you draw a line between exxon-mobil doing research and talking openly about the debate out there about what is known about climate change, and on the other hand advocating for policies that they think are going to be better for their own bottom line? >> well, there's nothing wrong with advocating for your own company. what you're not allowed to do is commit fraud. you're not allowed to have the best climate change science that you're using to build... planning of into account rising sea levels, you're using that internally but

what you're putting out to the world is completely in conflict with that, that's not okay. >> woodruff: new york state attorney general eric schneiderman, we thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and joining me now is kenneth cohen. he is vice president for public and government affairs with exxon-mobil corporation. kenneth cohen, welcome. let me just begin by asking flat out: has exxon in any way misled or been dishonest with the public about what it knows about climate change? >> well, judy, first, thank you for the invitation to come on tonight's program. and i also appreciate opening with that question, because the answer is a simple no. and what the facts will show is that the company has been engaged for many decades in a two-pronged activity here. first, we take the risks of climate change seriously. and we also have been working to understand the science of

climate change. that activity started in the late '70s and has continued up to the present time. our scientists have produced over 150 papers, 50 of which have been part of peer-reviewed publications. our science participate in the u.n.'s climate body. we've been participating in the u.n. activities beginning in 1988, running through the present time. at the same time, we've also been engaged in discussions on policy. and in the discussions on policy, for example, in the late '90s, we were part of a large business coalition that opposed adoption in the u.s. of the kyoto protocol. now, why did we do that? we opposed the kyoto protocol because it would have exempted from its application over two-thirds of the world's emitters. think about that. that was in 1997. going forward if that policy were in effect today, it would

have excluded almost 80% of the world's emissions. so that was not a good policy approach. >> woodruff: well, let me ask you about one of the points that the attorney general made. he said exxon over the last few decades, in his words, has shifted tactics, from taking climate change seriously and engaging in serious research to, he said, much more recently questioning whether it's happening at all. is that an accurate, a fair description of the shift that's taken place? >> no, it's not. and the facts are as follows: we have endeavored to understand the science of this very complex subject. as i mentioned, we began in the '70s and running to the present time. this is a very complex area. this is a very complex system. climate. what we discovered, what our scientists discovered working in conjunction with the u.s. government, with the department of energy, working in conjunction with some of the leading research institutions

around the world in the '70s and the '80s was that the tools available the science to get handle on the risk, these tools needed to develop, and we, for example, were part of developing working with others some of the complex modeling that is used today. today that work continues. now, on the policy side, we have to remember that exxon-mobil is a large energy provider, one of the world's largest energy companies. we have a two-pronged challenge in front of us. we produce energy that the modern world runs on. and what we strive to do is produce that energy while at the same time reducing the environmental footprint associated with our operations and most importantly with consumers' use of the energy. >> woodruff: and i think people understand that, but i think what is striking the attorney general's comment... what he's concerned about and

wants to know is whether exxon was using one set of scientific mod tolls do its work in the arctic, for example, where exxon has been engaged in drilling, and on the other hand telling the public, telling its shareholders a very different set of facts about the state of climate change. >> well, the facts will show that the company has been engaged with, not only on our own, but in congress junction with some of the leading researchers. our view of this very complex subject over the years, over the decades, has mirrored that of the broader scientific community. that is to say the discussions that have taken place inside our company, among our scientists, mirror the discussions that have been taking place and the work that's been taking place by the broader scientific community. that's what the facts will show. >> woodruff: final question, he made a point of saying that exxon has funded a number of organizations, and he said they

are openly climate change denies. he mentioned the mesh enterprise institute. he mentioned the american petroleum institute and the american legislative exchange. has exxon been funding these organizations? >> well, the answer is yes, and i'll let those organizations respond for themselves, but i will tell you that what we have been engaged in, both... we've been focused on understanding the science, participating with the broader scientific community and developing the science, while at the same time participating in understanding what would be and working with policy-makers on what will be appropriate policy responses to this evolving body of science. that's why we were involved with large business coalitions challenging the adoption of the kyoto protocol in the united states and we then proved to oppose, for example, the adoption of cap-and-trade approaches in the u.s. one of term approaches in the

last decade would have exempted, for example, coal from its operation. so we favor the adoption... policy-makers should consider policy and should adopt policy. we have disclosed the risks of climate change to our investors beginning in the middle part of the last decade and extending to the present time. >> woodruff: kenneth cohen, vice president for exxon-mobil, we appreciate having your point of view as we do the new york attorney general. thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: as new york governor andrew cuomo moved to raise that state's minimum wage to $15 an hour today, a national battle over pay played out from coast to coast, as fast food and other low-wage workers took their protests to the streets. >> ifill: thousands of workers were expected to walk off the

job in as many as 270 cities today, with protests in more than 200 others, all in the push for a $15 an hour wage. >> maybe i wouldn't have to work two jobs and maybe i wouldn't have to work seven days a week, you know? or even sometimes we work on holidays just to make a little holiday pay extra. >> ifill: organizers said they believe today's actions will be the largest strike ever by employees of the fast food industry. the federal minimum wage has been set at $7.25 per hour since 2009. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders backed the push. some leaders in the party say they support a hike to $12 an hour for now at the federal level.

a senate bill would raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. hillary clinton supports it, as does president obama. many businesses say raising the wage that high would cost jobs. nearly all of the republican candidates support keeping the minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. continuing our coverage of this ongoing debate, we turn tonight to a prominent labor economist who believes wages should be raised, but not so fast and not so high. alan krueger is the former chairman of president obama's council of economic advisors, and now professor of economics and public affairs at princeton university. welcome, professor kruger. you have written that the $15 raise -- you've written that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is a risk not worth taking. why is it not? >> well, first of all, gwen, i would dry draw a distinction between the worker activism that you highlighted at the beginning and the federal minimum wage. i think it's wonderful to see workers get more engaged.

we have a long tradition in this country of promoting worker voice, worker activism to support their own pay, and i think there are certainly some seconders that can handle a $15 an hour minimum, but at national level, i think that's a different story. and just to give you an example, the research i did two decades ago with david card of berkeley, we looked at what happened when the minimum wage in new jersey went from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 an hour, which is the equivalent today of going from $7.25 to $8.60 an hour. that's very far from $15. what we found is an increase at this more moderate level did not have an adverse effect on employment. other studies have reached a similar conclusion. >> ifill: pardon me. so you're suggesting the difference between $12 and $15 an hour is what? >> no. the point i'm making is an

increase to $12 at a national level is a considerable increase. it would put the minimum wage above where it's been in the history of the united states. and if you move it up to $15 an hour nationwide, i'm concerned that that is well beyond what we've seen in past research and if i were advising the president today, i would say i think that's a risky level. >> ifill: why is it even necessary for there to be a federal floor when some of these states and cities are stepping in? that's what a lot of republicans are saying. >> well, most of the republican candidates favored keeping the minimum wage where it is or getting rid of it, from what i've heard in the earlier debates. i hope they get asked about that tonight. we have in some sense a nationwide labor market. the minimum wage is a standard of fairness. we also use the minimum wage to help redress the imbalance in bargaining power between employers and firms. and i think if we abolish the federal minimum wage, which is what you asked about, you would

have some states that didn't have a minimum wage at all or a very low one, and that would be unfair to other states that have a higher minimum wage. so we have a long history in the u.s. of having a federal floor, and raising it from time to time. it's stalled considerably after adjusting for inflation in the 1980s. i think it's fair to put it back where it was previously or a bit above it. >> ifill: risk is in the eye of the beholder. you said your research has shown there will not be job loss as a result of raising the minimum wage even to $12. how do you support that argument? because it seems to make sense that if you have to pay more, that you're going to have to employ fewer people. >> well, a couple things. one, you look around the world, and countries that have raised their minimum wage to around that level have not seen job losses. the best work most recently has been done looking at the u.k., which has a low pay commission,

bipartisan commission, employers, labor group, academics which repeatedly finds no adverse effects from raising the paige but a big help for low-wage workers. at a theoretical level, labor markets not as competitive as we often teach in our first spro duck try levels. there are a lot of frictions in the job market, and what many employers find is that with a higher minimum wage, they have lower turnover. they get more job applicants. they can fill vacancies that they have. morale is higher. productivity is higher, and that enables them to afford the higher minimum wage. i think that's the case up to a certain level. and then the minimum wage exceeds a certain level, then i think you start to find undesirable effects. >> ifill: all right. alan krueger, thank you very much. >> my pleasure.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour, a ban on soccer headers, amid fears of concussions, and actor bryan cranston on his new film about hollywood and communism. but first, journalist paul salopek spent his career covering the news overseas and jetting around the globe, until he realized that walking around the world might just give him the deeper insights he was searching for. hari sreenivasan met up with salopek, for a stroll. >> there is something not in your brain but almost in your backbone about the rhythm of walking - this "a, b, a, b" - it's the pace of a heartbeat. >> sreenivasan: on a high- country, cool morning, paul salopek is out for a walk. but his walk is unlike any you or i might take. on this morning, he is nearing mile 4,000 of a trek that began in january 2013 in ethiopia's great rift valley, the wellspring of ancient humankind.

>> this whole project is about two things: it's about the past and the future and the past element is following our first ancestors who spread out of africa during the stone age. so, following the footsteps of some very old and intrepid pioneers. >> sreenivasan: he calls this project the "out of eden walk," and he will end it sometime in six or seven years at the very southern tip of south america, after logging 21,000 miles. that's about 30 million footsteps for those of you counting yours every day. the two-time pulitzer prize- winning foreign correspondent was used to dropping into war zones and driving his way out as fast as possible. but so far on this trip, he's walked through some of the conflict zones of the middle east. now on an assignment that is his lifetime. with support from the national geographic society, the nieman and knight foundations and others, he has walked across deserts and mountains. so why do this?

>> i think there has got to be a space to slow down, analyze and absorb more meaningful information. i don't think we need more information; i think we need more meaning. >> sreenivasan: what kind of context are you able to get when you are walking, versus when we get there in cars and planes and trains? >> walking has shown me that the boundaries between stories are permeable in that one story bleeds into another because human life bleeds into each other. and so walking between stories shows me connections that i didn't used to see when i would parachute in. >> sreenivasan: and what are we saying? what is humanity telling you? >> the same stories over and over again: it's the same classic stories of complaint, of joy, of aspiration, of hope, of hopes dashed. and i never get tired of them. >> sreenivasan: we caught up with him in southern georgia's caucasus mountains, near armenia, where the walk was stopped late last fall at this

destroyed soviet-era building. >> last november, we had just crossed the turkish border and it was very bad weather. it was snowing, it was sleeting, very cold both during the day and at night. we came down and with frozen feet had to break through a frozen river plunging in up to our thighs. and we were very afraid of hypothermia. >> sreenivasan: salopek and three walking partners found this spot, one man set his gloves alight to start a fire. >> on a november night, a year ago, this was heaven; this was better than a five-star hotel. >> sreenivasan: then he waited here in tbilisi, the capital of georgia, for a lot longer than he planned. he was stuck in what he called a geopolitically-induced storm, waiting for visas that would determine the rest of his route. 100,000 years ago, the problems were different here, in this land littered with volcanic boulders from ancient eruptions. >> when our ancestors-- the first people who walked out of africa-- passed through this region, their big obstacles were

glaciers and big animals that would eat them or droughts or famines. today, mine is these ethnic fault lines and these imaginary walls, these imaginary glaciers called borders, and they have knocked me sideways, way off my intended track. >> sreenivasan: months of back and forth talks with regional governments made it clear that his original plan to walk across iran and points east, would not work. finally, he set a route from georgia that will pass through azerbaijan, on to kazakhstan and beyond. >> it doesn't look like much, but this ruin on the high plateau of southern georgia is the beginning of phase two of the out of eden walk. this is the gateway to the orient for me. caucasus, going on the old silk roads to china. >> sreenivasan: so at mid- morning on october 20, salopek set out, with the world revealed before him one step after the other; on this day, up to a mountain pass at more than 9,000 feet.

down the other side, salopek and his walking partner spent the night in the small village of mamishlari -a village of ethnic azeris, from azerbaijan. they were taken in by the nasibov family. 72-year-old ziauddin nasibov, and his wife, 70-year-old wife azmat married as teenagers. it is a tough farm-life, on the edge, really, of civilization. >> we came around the corner of this mountain river and here was this village that we didn't even know existed. their first reaction was curiosity. when i finally told him "well, actually, i've hiked all the way from africa," that was the surprise moment and there was laughter around that table. and there was a lively exchange about "oh, you've got to be crazy!" >> ( translated ): i don't think he is crazy. i actually thought he was quite enlightened because they actually want to walk across the world and see what's out there! you might not notice a place, but when you walk by on foot you see it, and appreciate it for what it actually is. >> and ziad has really joined

the walk because he's shown us the way. >> sreenivasan: all along his route, salopek has been joined by walking partners, who function as guides, translators and companions; in georgia that partner was dima bit-suleiman. what is the reaction of most of the people you bump into when you tell them what he's doing? >> they go "yeah, yeah, yeah coming from africa...on walk? what do you mean?!" they kind of don't believe it: "why is he doing it? what is he trying to find out?" >> sreenivasan: what about when they find out he is trying to walk to the end of the world? >> and then, it's even worse! and then they really ask "what is he searching for? like, why is he doing that?" i don't think there is an easy answer. >> sreenivasan: after passing through boggy lowlands where horseman emerged from fairytale fogs, salopek arrived at a village: ipnari, largely abandoned since stalin's time. it revealed a much deeper history. nearby, a bronze age wine store.

5,000-year old fermentation vats sunken in the ground. >> you're talking about the beginning of civilization, and georgians were already drinking! the walk has opened up the vista to me in both space and time where i can see the connections between all of these stories and i see how history informs everything that's happening today. time pools in certain valleys, and it runs like a river through certain canyon systems, certain plains and every step you take could be in a different era. so here we are coming up to another one and i think that the task now is to kind of go slowly. >> sreenivasan: but for now, his steps were taking him toward the village of boslebi, georgia. and as the evening gathered, salopek explained one mind- boggling facet of this grand experiment.

more often than not, when he sets out each morning, he has little idea where he will sleep that night. >> we're gonna draw attention, obviously, and just start greeting people and start striking up conversation. and every single village is different. >> sreenivasan: and it is this exact moment, first contact in a village, that salopek was hesitant to have us film up close. it's hard making a first impression with a camera crew in tow. this day, five minutes after this scene and after meeting two other people in town, he had a place to stay for the night. you don't plan out every step of the way? >> it's hard to explain to readers who think that i've got a team back in the states with a big map with blinking lights and computers plotting out my route. they would laugh if they saw how "seat of the pants" this is. this is truly sort of strolling across the world, and seeing how far i get before nightfall and then looking for shelter. the world is, by and large, a hospitable place. merab, this is my friend hari, from the united states.

>> sreenivasan: paul introduced me to his host for the night before i arrived; merab saaladze, a retired deputy governor of the local municipality. you just invited him into your home? he's a total stranger? >> ( translated ): i asked him who he was and he said he was from the u.s., so i immediately invited them in. >> sreenivasan: is it common to be this hospitable to take in a stranger? >> ( translated ): for me, it was the first time. >> sreenivasan: after tea and a bit more conversation, we set out for the next waypoint: the ancient village of dmanisi - which we'll tell you about in our next story - about six miles away. but as we soon found out, even the most-precise directions need updating, which we were given by a man with hands stained from a life time of gathering walnuts. and that, says salopek, is just

part of the plan. you've got g.p.s., you've got maps, you've got guides, you are still going the wrong way sometimes. >> being found is overrated. being a little lost is good because it keeps you alert, keeps you looking around. it keeps you scanning the horizons about to find your bearings and you are not sleepwalking through the world. >> sreenivasan: so how many pairs of shoes do you think you've gone through? >> this is the fourth. somebody brought me these from the states, so they're kind of special. >> sreenivasan: do you get tired by the end of an average day or has your body gotten used to this pace? >> i do. you know, it depends on my physical condition. you know the walk has kind of turned into my life, so it's a complicated question to answer. like, you have good weeks and bad weeks. i think i'm in pretty good

condition, but i get tired, and my job in quotes is to write, not just to walk. so at the end of the day it takes a special effort to sit down and write a story. >> sreenivasan: those stories - dispatches from this ambling eden - are being followed online by a growing group of digital companions. young people in particular, students, catch up with salopek along the way. the tools of the trade are the heaviest thing he carries in his backpack: a laptop, cameras, notebooks and not more than a single change of clothes. he stops every 100 miles to record a "milestone," a panoramic photo that includes an exhausted newshour crew and a wayward pig, in this case. then some video, and a brief interview with the nearest person. this one, number 29-- after 2,800 "air" miles traveled-- came outside a truck driver's house near a georgian mining town. and after a few questions and a handshake, salopek is again on

his way, the rhythm restored. >> sreenivasan: what makes a human want to go over the next ridge? >> ah, the eternal question. the one that probably doesn't have a rational answer through science. the walk is part of that exploration, the impulse, not even rational to know what's over the mountain. why, why paddle into the sea? we've set out again and again and nobody came back and yet, we set out. and once scientist geneticists said we're just crazy. and i think that magical wonderful craziness is part of the joy of this project, and i think it's something that also binds us together. >> sreenivasan: for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan, in southern georgia. >> woodruff: places we never get to see. you can talk to paul salopek yourself about his amazing journey. join us at 1:00 p.m. eastern on friday for a twitter chat. you can follow the chat using the twitter handles: "@newshour," and "@outofedenwalk."

details are on our homepage, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: a new initiative designed to make soccer safer for young players was just announced by the u.s. soccer federation. the new rule would set limits on how much players could use their heads to physically hit the ball. the hope is that would reduce the number of concussions and head injuries. william brangham has more on the changes, and the emerging science behind them. >> brangham: today, soccer is one of the leading causes of concussions for young athletes in the u.s. it's not as high as the concussion rate for football, but it's close. tens of thousands of kids get concussions playing soccer every year, and heading the ball is considered a main culprit. under u.s. soccer's new rules, kids under the age of ten won't be heading the ball at all. kids aged 11-13 will head the ball much less in practice. and there will be new rules on injury substitutions during

games. players 14 and up will continue heading as always. these new rules will resolve a lawsuit brought last year against u.s. soccer and others by a group of parents in california who argued the groups weren't doing enough to protect kids from head injuries. last year, we reported on the rising concern over concussions in soccer and the push to limit heading for young players. back then, i talked with one of the leading scientists in the field, dr. robert cantu. he's a neurosurgeon, and co- directs a brain study center at boston university. cantu acknowledged that the science connecting soccer and brain injury was limited. he's in fact called for much more research to be done. but even so, he's argued that it's better to be safe and not allow young kids to repeatedly head the ball. >> if you took heading out of soccer, it wouldn't be behind football in the incidence of concussion. it wouldn't even be in the high- risk group. it would be in a low-risk group. >> brangham: cantu told me that ground they often cause, are problematic for kids because,

unlike adult brains, kid's brains are still developing. >> the young brain is largely not myelinated. myelin is the coating of nerve fibers that connect nerve cells, similar to coating on a telephone wire, it helps transmission but it also gives strength. and so when you violently shake the young brain, you have a much greater chance to disrupt nerve fibers and their connections than you do an adult brain. >> brangham: cantu says a kids head also sits on a much less developed neck and torso than an adult's does, so the same blow might cause more shaking to a kid's head than it would to a grownup's. >> so you've got a bobble-head doll effect with our youngsters, so that the very minimal impact is now going to set their brain in much more motion than it would an adult brain with a strong neck. >> brangham: cantu says strengthening a kid's neck muscles can help, but those soccer helmets and headgear that you see on the market don't really offer much protection, so he says there's only one thing left to do.

>> take the most injurious activity for head injury out of it, but let the rest of the sport go on. and that's playing soccer without heading. >> brangham: you can watch the full report on our website, pbs.org/newshour. you can also read a longer interview with dr. cantu about concussions and youth sports. >> woodruff: now, the story of a screenwriter comes to the screen. his name was dalton trumbo, and his life and work were intertwined with a controversial period of film history. jeffrey brown has a look at "trumbo" for the newshour "at the movies". >> brown: dalton trumbo was one of the most successful hollywood screenwriters of his generation. he was also an activist in labor and other causes, who joined the communist party in the 1940s, at

the cold war consumed the nation, trumbo gained a new kind of fame, as a member of the so- called "hollywood ten." writers, actors & others who were brought before the congressional house on un- american activities, and blacklisted by the major studios. trumbo would spend almost a year in prison, worked in exile and then, for nearly a decade, could only work using a pseudonym. one screenplay during that time, written for the film "the brave ones" under the name "robert rich", for "the brave ones" even earned an oscar. only in 1960, with his scripts for the blockbuster films "spartacus" and "exodus," was trumbo able to work openly again. bryan cranston, who plays trumbo in the new film, is perhaps best known for playing walter white in the tv drama, "breaking bad." he and "trumbo" director jay roach joined me to speak about the film and the man it was based on. i asked cranston what attracted him to the script.

>> i wasn't used to being scrutinized like that in the film industry. the ripple effect the eventual blacklist had was profound. the character himself, dalton trumbo, was just bigger than life, dramatic, flamboyant. hi was a contrarian. he could be very irascible. he was a pretty hard drinker and a chain smoker. >> brown: constantly. >> constantly. >> brown: you have to take this individual and look into real history. >> yeah. >> brown: how much did you know and how much did you fill? >> it's more about extracting from this incredibly complex story, a 13-year story, and distill it down to something. it's our great screen writer who told the story of john

mcnamara. he had done a few things to make it more sort of relatable and manageable by doing a couple composite characters.lewis -- ly who represents a writer. there are a few choices like that that made it a story you can tell in two hours. >> brown: you have to dramatize it. you also have responsibility to the history. >> of course, but the main responsibility i think is to get to the essence of what mattered to these people and to the battle itself, who they are up again, how the obstacles relate and how they overcame them. you are always... there's never been a "historical film" that didn't have to vary from the beat-by-beat reality of it, but as long as you stay true to the essence of what the people are up to, i think it becomes very authentic, and we did a tremendous amount of research. we spoke to the daughters of trumbo. we spoke to kirk douglas. we read every possible book and saw every possible bit of film

or radio and listened to radio. >> brown: very complicated character. larger than life in many ways. big in many ways, committed, and yet loving life. >> he was a very idiosyncratic man. he was a member of the american communist party. he was very compassionate about workers' rights. he led a lot of strikes when he was young, especially for himself, in a bakery when he was very young. and he was very much a pro worker individual. but he also loved being a wealthy man. he was the highest-paid screenwriter in the '40s, and that is tantamount to saying the highest. >> i had writer in the world. he loved that idea. >> brown: as an actor, did you enjoy the contradiction of that? >> as an actor, it's juicy.

any time someone makes an emphatic statement and goes against it, it's quite fun to play both sides of those things. >> brown: i want the play one scene. this is you as dalton trumbo and louis c.k. who you just mentioned talking about this very thing. let's watch that. >> you, you know what it is, i don't trust you? >> well, i'd say go on, but i'm afraid you almost. >> i know what i am. i want this whole country to be different top to bottom. if i get what i want, nobody gets their own lake. >> well, that would be a very dull life, don't you think? >> yeah, for you, not for the guess who built this. if i'm wrong, tell me, but ever since i know you, you talk like a radical, but you live like a rich guy. >> that is true. >> well, i don't think you're willing to lose all of this just to do the right thing. >> well, i despise martyrdom, and i won't fight for a lost cause, so you're right, i'm not willing to lose it all, certainly not them, but i am

willing to risk it all. that's where the radical and the rich guy make a perfect combination. the radical may fight with the purity of jesus, but the rich guy wins with the cunning of satan. >> [groans] >> what? >> just please shut up. >> brown: this movie puts the wider culture under the microscope and also hollywood. it doesn't come off looking all this well for the most part. >> hollywood turned on itself in those days. there was a group of people who had... the head of walt walt disney, some other directors who felt these writers were polluting the minds of americans through mainstream hollywood movies, even though some of them like trumbo was war correspondent, had written "30 seconds over tokyo," and some pro-war films were suddenly

somehow seen as traitors because they just had different political views. that's all it turned into. >> brown: he went to prison. >> uh-huh. >> brown: he had to write under a pseudonym. in the end he got recognition. how do you end up seeing him years later? how do you see him? >> a lot of people will look back and say that he is a hero. other people say he was no hero. he was a dirty red commie or whatever. i suppose the point of the movie is that all opinions are welcome. all opinions should be heard. i don't think dalton trumbo would look at himself as a hero. i think he was practicing self-defense. he didn't want this fight. the fight came to him. he was subpoenaed to testify under the threat of incarceration. and forced to let his first amendment right goss by the wayside. and he thought that the questions themselves were unamerican. an he kept saying, have i

committed a crime? do you have any evidence that i've committed some crime? i would love to hear that. but that was not part of the agenda. >> i thought at least as a person who didn't succumb and who was victorious in that he kept writing until he embarrassed the studios, won two academy awards with "spartacus" and "exodus" and helped break the the blacklist, so to me there is something heroic about that. >> but along with that was a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, people who not only were not able to... were taken away their personal freedoms, sent to jail, or taken away their ability to pursue their own career, which means you cannot support your family. it put tremendous pressure on families. marriages broke up. families dissipated, loss of homes. there was some suicides. even when you think of the ripple effect and how far it goes, the bullying of the children going to school who don't understand what's going

on, but they know that something is wrong. >> brown: all right. the film is trumbo. bryan cranston and jay roach, thank you both very much. >> thanks. >> thank a lot. >> ifill: tune in later tonight for the pbs documentary "debt of honor." the film tells the history of america's war injured. beginning with stories from the men who served and were injured in the revolutionary war, and continuing with veterans of the current conflicts in afghanistan and iraq. check your local listings for the time. >> woodruff: on the newshour online: darrell jones spent the first twenty years of his career serving his country as a sergeant in the air force. now he's in the second stage, serving as a middle school history teacher in mississippi. in honor of veterans day tomorrow, we asked vets who teach to share their experiences in america's classrooms.

you can find those essays on our home page, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newsho

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation -- giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation -- pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and hong kong tourism board. >> i am to take you on a: harry journey to the consumer hotel. look at all of these reef dishes. i loved eating like this.