Midday

The anti-nuclear activist Elizabeth McAlister, a founder of Baltimore's Jonah House, talks about her conviction in a federal court as one of the activists known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

In Baltimore County, landlords are now required to accept housing vouchers. WYPR reporter John Lee, realtor Ben Frederick and County Council member Julian Jones join Tom Hall to explain what that means for landlords and tenants alike. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Tom's guest today is the City Solicitor of Baltimore, Andre M. Davis. Mr. Davis served for more than 30 years as a judge -- on the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the US District Court, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and the State District Court. The City Solicitor -- a member of the Mayor's Cabinet and the head of the City Law Department -- oversees a staff of more than 100 lawyers, a...

For the second time in 10 years, and for the second time in the history of the city, a Baltimore mayor has pleaded guilty to criminal behavior while in office. Welcome to this special edition of Midday. Tom Hall spends the hour talking with reporters and legal experts about the guilty plea of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. Yesterday, she was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy...

Today, it's another episode of Midday on Higher Education, our occasional series of conversations with the presidents of colleges and universities in our region and across Maryland. Joining Tom for the hour in Studio A is the president of Morgan State University, Dr. David Wilson. He is Morgan’s 10th president and has led the university since 2010.Morgan is the largest of Maryland’s four Historica...

(Because of special programming, our theater review this week could not be broadcast live, so we are posting it today to Midday's Webpage and podcast.)Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us with another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she spotlights the world premiere production by Rep Stage of E2, playwright Bob Bartlett's contemporary re-telling of Christopher Marlowe...

Tom's News Maker guest today is the Commissioner of the Baltimore City Police Department, Michael Harrison. He was sworn into office in March, after a successful tenure as commissioner in New Orleans. That tenure continues to be credited with the sharp decline in murders and robberies in NOLA over the past three years. A decline in murders here in Baltimore continues to be aspirational. Just this...

Disney has jumped into the crowded field of streaming with Disney Plus. ABC and NBC are on the defensive about their handling of #Metoo stories, and how will Facebook’s ongoing legal battles influence the role of social media in the 2020 election? Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Last August, the New York Times began a groundbreaking series, The 1619 Project, a series of podcasts and an entire edition of the Times Magazine dedicated to the often untold history of the slave trade. The scars of slavery were central to the founding of our Republic, and the impact of slavery’s legacy has extended to all areas of the American experiment, from economic inequality to mass incarce...

Next, Tom welcomes two guests: First, the stage director Dr. Shirley Basfield Dunlap. She is directing a special multi-media performance tonight at Morgan State University – a performance that takes its cue from The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. The show is called Since We’ve Been Here: Commemorating 400 Years of African Presence in America. Dr. Dunlap is an Associate Professor and the C...

Tom’s guest today is the comedian Lewis Black. Since the mid-1990s, his “Back in Black” rants have been a popular fixture on The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Black is also an author, a playwright and an actor with credits that include movies and television. He’s appearing next Tuesday night, Nov. 12, at the Modell Lyric Theater here in Baltimore in a show that will benefit two causes that have lo...

The great jazz singer Tierney Sutton joined Tom today. She has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album eight times – that’s a Grammy nomination for every CD she has released in the last 10 years. She’s been touring and recording with her band for the past 20 years. Her latest CD, Screenplay, is a collection of great songs from movies. Tierney Sutton will be appearing this Saturday an...

It’s another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at what's new in films, and filmmaking. Our movie mavens, Ann Hornaday, film critic for The Washington Post, and Jed Dietz, the founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, joined Tom in Studio A with tips on what to see this weekend in local theaters. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's Thursday, which means theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in with her weekly review of the Maryland stage. Today, she discusses Radio Golf, by August Wilson – the final installment in his ten-part Century Cycle. Directed by Carl Cofield, Radio Golf is the story of an African-American real estate developer running for mayor of Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s who struggles with his role in gen...

Baltimore Mayor “Jack” Young joins me to talk about reducing stubborn levels of violence, rising water bills, making Kirwan recommendations a reality, and other front burner issues affecting our city. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today on Midday Culture Connections: a conversation about an effort to engage Squeegee Kids by helping a few of them form a new company that produces and markets bottled water. It’s called Korner Boyz Enterprises, and it’s being launched by young people with the assistance and guidance of people at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the University of Maryland Law School, the Annie E. Ca...

Tom is joined in the studio now by Erricka Bridgeford, the co-founder of Baltimore Ceasefire 365, and Letrice Gant, the group's co-organizer. The group’s mission: the cessation of murder in Baltimore City for one weekend, four times a year. The first Baltimore Ceasefire weekend was held in August, 2017. The latest Ceasefire was this past weekend, Nov 1st to 3rd. At this writing, Baltimore police h...

In 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, two former Capitol Hill staffers created a Google Doc, mostly for their family and friends, that outlined ways to oppose the Trump agenda. They called it the Indivisible Guide. Not too long after that Google Doc went viral, the Indivisible movement was born. The document was a how-to manual for getting the attention of legislators, and organizing ef...

Today, we welcome back to Studio A the singer/songwriter SONiA disappear fear. A Baltimore-based, cause-driven artist, her songs explore the human spirit and address global humanitarian issues. She travels frequently to perform in cities around the world. Over the past 30 years, SONiA has shared the stage with many popular music icons, from Pete Seeger and Joan Baez to superstars such as Bruce Spr...

Tom's next guest today is the author of a fascinating new biography of Harriet Tubman, the famed 19th century anti-slavery activist, whose remarkable life story is also the subject of Harriet, the new film by director Kasi Lemmons that's hitting US screens today. Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a professor of history at Rutgers University. Her fascinating new Tubman biography is called She Came to Slay,...

Yesterday, with only two Democrats voting against it, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution setting out the process for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. This clears the way for public hearings to begin, which may lead to articles of impeachment that the House would vote on at some point, possibly in the near future, just as the presidential pri...

Following Parliament’s rejection of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit proposal this week, the EU has once again deferred Britain’s deadline to leave, granting a 90-day extension until January 31.At the center of the Brexit turmoil is the island of Ireland. The sovereign Republic of Ireland is of course a member of the EU, and Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom. Twenty-one year...

Now, on this Halloween edition of Midday, a conversation about a trope that has long been part of movies and pop culture. We’re talking about the scary psychiatric asylum. Tom is joined by Dr. Troy Rondinone, who has researched and written about what that trope has meant for the stigmatization of mental illness. Rondinone is a historian and a professor of history at Southern Connecticut State Univ...

It's Thursday and our theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio us for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she tells us about Thoughts of a Colored Man, the powerful new work by playwright Keenan Scott II that's getting its world premiere at Baltimore Center Stage (in a co-production with central New York's Syracuse Stage).Set on a single day in the Bedford-Stu...

Tom's guest today is Ophira Eisenberg, the host of NPR’s nationally syndicated comedy trivia show Ask Me Another, which we all listen to Saturday mornings here on WYPR. That show is just one facet of Ophira Eisenberg’s multi-faceted career. She’s a frequent host and contributor to The Moth Radio Hour, and she’s a frequent headliner in comedy venues across the United States, Canada, and Europe. She...