Midday

It's Thursday, and theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she tells us about the new production of Constellations by Baltimore's Vagabond Players. First produced on Broadway in 2014, Constellations is a mind-bending multi-dimensional romance by British playwright Nick Payne. Starring Ryan Gunning and Christian Smith, the play is dir...

On today's edition of Midday at the Movies, two of our favorite film aficionados -- Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz -- join Tom for a discussion of the widening impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entertainment industry. Late Wednesday, we learned that actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, have tested positive for the virus. Amid a stead...

We begin today with an update on the status of efforts to contain the new coronavirus that's causing COVID-19, a highly contagious - and potentially lethal -respiratory infection. As of Thursday noon, there are 12 reported cases in Maryland. At least one patient is being treated for COVID-19 at a Baltimore hospital. There have been several cases reported in Montgomery County and Prince Georges Cou...

Tom's guest is writer and musician James McBride. Last week, McBride published his new novel set in a Brooklyn housing project in the 1960s. It is an expansive, insightful masterpiece filled with fascinating characters and trenchant observations. The book is called Deacon King Kong. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, a conversation about US immigration policy and its human and economic impacts. President Donald Trump’s consistently anti-immigrant rhetoric and his efforts to fund and build a massive wall on the southern US border have raised the temperature in the national debate over immigration. The president has imposed steep reductions in the numbers of immigrants admitted to apply for citizenship, a...

As the fortunes of black quarterbacks in the NFL continue to rise, minority head coaches in the league are seeing their numbers decline. 70 percent of NFL players are minorities, but only three teams will be led by Black coaches at the start of next season. Mike Fletcher of ESPN’s The Undefeated, and sports journalist Patrick Hruby join Tom Hall for a conversation about football’s diversity proble...

Tom speaks with infectious disease specialist Dr. Wilbur Chen of University of Maryland Medical Systems about the status of testing, and the prospects for a coronavirus vaccine. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Tom's guest for today's Newsmaker interview is the senior U.S. Senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin. First elected to the Senate in 2006, he’s the Ranking Member of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. He is a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Environment & Public Works committees. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee. Senator Cardin joins us to d...

It's Thursday, and time for theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck to join us with another of her weekly reviews of the region's thespian offerings. Today, she tells us about the musical play The Moment Was Now, a production of the Cultural Worker Ensemble that debuted in Baltimore last September and that is getting a reprise production at the Emmanual Episcopal Church through Sunday, March 8. A political...

Today, another edition of Midday on Business. In the city of Baltimore, the overall unemployment rate has been steadily declining over the past decade. It’s currently at 4.2 percent, down from a high of 11.8 percent in 2010 at the height of the financial crisis. By that measure, the city lags only slightly behind the Maryland and national average of 3.5%, but when viewed through the prism of racia...

We begin today with a look at the results of a new poll released this morning by WYPR, the Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore on the race for Baltimore City Council President. This new voter survey comes on the heels of another WYPR/Sun/UB poll released yesterday that is giving us one of our first insights into the status of the race for Baltimore mayor. Tom is joined in the studio by W...

Joan M. Pratt has served as Baltimore's comptroller since 1995. Bill Henry has represented District 4, in North Baltimore, on the Baltimore City Council since 2007. They are running for city comptroller -- one of only three positions elected citywide. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

One of the big "X factors" in the Super Tuesday primaries -- which are underway today from coast to coast, and even among Democrats living abroad -- is former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He’s been a familiar name for decades, first as a highly successful businessman who created the Bloomberg Media empire, then as a billionaire philanthropist whose largess has been felt across a wide swath of...

Sandra Magsamen is an artist and a best-selling author. She has sold more than 5 million books for both children and adults, and her greeting cards, clothing and gifts are available on line and in major stores all over the world. The Baltimore native is the keynote speaker at the Harford County Public Library's Third Annual Women's Summit. The theme this year is "Living Artfully: Creating the Life...

Joining Tom in the studio is a wonderful classical guitarist named Gabriel Rodriguez. He’s performed in his native Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States. He lives here in Baltimore now, where he teaches in the Guitars for Change program, an initiative of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society. To remind us what a beautiful instrument the classical guitar is, Gabriel plays a piece by Spanish co...

Lisa Fischer (heard in our segment open performing one of her iconic Gimme Shelter duets with Mick Jagger in a live Rolling Stones show in 1995) is one of the musicians featured in the Academy Award-winning movie 20 Feet from Stardom, for which Ms. Fischer won her second Grammy Award. In addition to her celebrated career as a backup singer for the Stones - touring with the band from 1989 to 2015 -...

Former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh walked out of a federal courtroom yesterday with a three-year sentence -- after more than seven years of defrauding entities with business before the city and the state while she was a Senator and the Mayor, and evading the taxes she owed from the profits of that fraud. She was also ordered to pay nearly $700,000 in restitution and forfeitures. US District Jud...

It's Thursday, and time for another of theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck's weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she talks with Tom about Purlie, the 1970 Broadway musical hit that's getting a spirited revival at Arena Players, the oldest continually performing and historically African-American theater community in Baltimore. Set in the segregated, Jim Crow-era American South, Purlie tells the...

In 1999, Tracy Walder was a 20-year-old junior at the University of Southern California and a member of USC’s Delta Gamma sorority. She was also a history buff and an avowed news junkie who planned to be a teacher. Those plans were upended when she met a CIA recruiter at a job fair. After graduating from USC, she joined the CIA's global anti-terrorism operations. The story of Walder’s five-year se...

Race takes center stage in the race for President. As Democrats court African Americans in South Carolina, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist E.R. Shipp, Reverend Kevin Slayton, and University of Maryland Law Professor, Larry Gibson discuss why black votes matter Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

And now, it’s Midday on Ethics. The coronavirus doesn’t only pose epidemiological challenges. It poses ethical dilemmas as well, particularly as governments grapple with containing the epidemic. Whenever science and health news raises potential ethical concerns, we turn to Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, who joins me now in Studio A. Dr. Kahn is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. H...

It’s the Midday Healthwatch, with Dr. Leana Wen. Today, we’re focusing on the politicization of healthcare on the campaign trail, and on the coronavirus, which has now spread to more than 30 countries. Dr. Wen was Baltimore City Health Commissioner from 2015 to 2018 and then chief executive of Planned Parenthood. She is now a visiting professor of health policy and management at the Milken Institu...

Our series of Conversations with the Candidates continues with State Sen. Mary Washington. After a decade in Annapolis and winning a Senate seat in an upset victory in 2018, now, she’s running for Mayor of Baltimore. Senator Mary Washington makes her case for Charm City’s top job. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Lawrence Brownlee is one of the most exciting and in-demand opera singers on the scene today. The internationally acclaimed tenor— hailed by The Guardian as "one of the world's leading bel canto stars."—will make his Baltimore debut this Sunday at Shriver Hall on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. Brownlee and pianist Myra Huang will present a new classical song cycle inspired by the Black Li...

Paula Reid of CBS News on Roger Stone, whose future may include a Presidential Pardon, William Barr, whose future as Attorney General has been called into question and new Russian meddling fears. Julie Bykowicz of the Wall Street Journal, and Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post discuss the future of Democratic Presidential hopefuls after the vitriol in Vegas Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us:...