Midday

Time now for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom in studio every week with her reviews of the Baltimore regional stage. This week, she spotlights the new Chesapeake Shakespeare Company production of Jane Austen's Persuasion. In Sarah Rose Kearns' new adaptation of Austen's classic 1817 novel, directed for CSC by Megan Behm, audiences follow Anne Elliot through a...

Tom's next guest is Jeff Kinney. The Maryland native and University of Maryland grad is the author and illustrator of the best-selling children’s book series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Expanding on his original online comic strip, Kinney launched the award-winning book series in 2007. He’s published a new installment nearly every year since, and the books, written for pre-teen readers, have now sold m...

Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen joins Midday to share his perspective on the pressing issues facing city legislators. Cohen talks about the relocation the Sisson Street Waste Facility, and pushback from neighborhood organizations and environmental groups. Plus, now the council will oversee the city’s response to the opioid crisis. Cohen wants better oversight of how the more than half...

Award-winning investigative reporter Jayne Miller, the host of The Maryland Capital Podcast, joins Midday to talk about Maryland's nascent gubernatorial race, the prospects for new Congressional districts and challenges to two sitting Congressmen.

Joining Tom in the studio now are two long-time Maryland educators and two of the state’s leading advocates for fostering improvements in student behavior and community-building through a social-science approach called “Restorative Practices.” David Hornbeck is the founding chair and executive director of the non-profit Voices for Restorative Schools. He served as Maryland’s Superintendent of Scho...

A new initiative seeks to jump-start one of Baltimore’s biggest and most controversial redevelopment projects. The 28-acre State Center site was the subject of development efforts and lawsuits that go back more than 20 years. Could a new plan, backed by Gov. Wes Moore, see wider use for the property? Maryland's Secretary of the Department of General Services Atif Chaudry joins Midday to share the...

Maryland is among the top 10 states with the largest spike in reports of online scams and fraud in recent years. According to an analysis of FTC data by the investment website BrokerChooser, Maryland saw a 53 percent increase in reports over the past 5 years. Shari Greene joins Midday to discuss the work of the Older and Disabled Persons Unit in the Economic Crimes Division at the Baltimore City S...

There are about 50 public charter schools in Maryland, educating roughly 24,000 students. 30 of these schools, over half of the total number, are in Baltimore. For some time, there has been a heated debate about funding formulas for public charter schools. Charter schools are independently operated under a contract, or charter, with individual public school systems. Last May, a group of charter sc...

Dr. Hahrie Han is a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University and the inaugural director of the SNF Agora Institute. Her research focuses on civic and political participation, organizing to social change. Last week, she was named to the 2025 class of MacArthur Foundation Fellows. She and 21 others were each awarded an $800,000, no-strings-attached grant, often called 'genius grants.'

The executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council reacts to Monday's release by Hamas of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, amid a fragile ceasefire agreement and uncertainty about an Israel-Palestine peace.

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom now for another of her weekly reviews of Baltimore regional theater. Today, she spotlights Hamlet/Black Parade, now on stage at The Mercury Theater, an artist-run performance space in the heart of Baltimore's Station North Arts District. Produced by the creative team of Motte & Bailey and adapted and directed by Hannah Fogler, Hamlet/Black Parade is...

Tom's first guest today is Shankar Vedantam, the creator and host of Hidden Brain, a weekly podcast and radio show heard every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 here on WYPR. Shankar is coming to the Lyric Theater in Baltimore Saturday night with his Hidden Brain Perceptions Tour, a live event that's traveling cross country to celebrate ten years of this award-winning program. The animating question since...

Carole King was a 19-year-old songwriter from Brooklyn when she wrote "Take Good Care of My Baby" for the pop singer Bobby Vee. In 1961, the song would become one of nineteen Top-Ten hits Carole King would go on to write for other artists over four decades. Ten years after that hit, King recorded an iconic album as a performer that garnered multiple hits for herself. Tapestry was an international...

Recent reporting shed light on a forgotten graveyard in Prince George’s County, part of a dark chapter in Maryland history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cemetery was the final resting place for young people held at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children—a detention center for Black youth. The property is now home to a number of state buildings, including th...

A proposal by the Trump administration to severely limit the number of legal refugees, people who have been vetted and who have followed the rules to enter the country properly, would be a huge setback for thousands of people hoping to escape difficult conditions in their home countries. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have continued their crackdowns on immigrants living in t...

Each year, Baltimore’s 14 largest nonprofit institutions, places like Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical Center, contribute an annual payment to the city referred to as PILOTs, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes. Because nonprofit entities are not subject to taxes, these nonprofits make voluntary payments which have, for the last several decades, been negotiated with the city every 10 y...

Katie Pumphrey became the first person to complete the 24-mile swim from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 2024. She previously swum around the Island of Manhattan and three times across the English Channel. Her love of the open water inspires her visual artistry. A new exhibit at the Creative Alliance through October 11 is called “Swimming Pool."

In a Midday exclusive, Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D., Md 02) discusses the government shutdown, and the bill he's introduced to help the state's federal workers weather the shutdown's financial storm.

On today's Midday Healthwatch, Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician and health columnist for the Washington Post, counters government claims of Tylenol-autism links, and discusses recent changes in federal vaccine policies.

Midday at the Movies is live at the 2025 New Next Film Festival here at the historic Charles Theatre in Baltimore. We take a look behind the scenes and behind the screens, talking with the creators of the New/Next Festival and some of the filmmakers whose work will be showcased over the weekend. Sam Sessa and Eric Hatch are the co-founders of the New/Next Film Festival. Sessa is a WTMD music host...

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins Midday to discuss a new agreement between the city and large educational and medical nonprofits to make payments in lieu of taxes. Does the deal satisfy advocates who say institutions like Johns Hopkins University are not paying their fair share? The agreement comes as members of the City Council attempted to assemble a task force to recommend what anchor instit...

Kim Wehle joins Midday to look ahead to the upcoming docket of the U.S. Supreme Court. Wehle is a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, the author of four books, an in-demand public speaker and commentator, and the host of a popular Substack she calls The Little Law School with Professor Kim Wehle, where she unpacks legal headlines and offers timely perspectives on politics and t...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom with another of her weekly reviews of the Baltimore regional stage. Today, she tells us about the new touring company production of Water for Elephants, the hit Broadway musical that's now onstage at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre. The 2024 musical, which was nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, tells the story of young Jacob Janko...

Reginald Moore, the Director of Baltimore City’s Recreation and Parks Department, joins Midday to discuss the wide array of facilities and resources he shepherds. Moore oversees an ever-evolving list of 51 recreation centers, 4 dog parks, 3 skate parks and more than 4,700 acres of parkland in 262 parks. That portfolio includes everything from the Greenmount Recreation Center’s AI youth computer la...

Baltimore City's largest institutions of learning and medicine, such as Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland Medical Center, make annual payments to the city. PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreements allows Baltimore to recoup costs from massive nonprofits exempt from property tax. According to reporting from WYPR news partner The Baltimore Banner, the 14 institutions with which...