Midday

On today's News Wrap: the President of the United States does a drive by in Baltimore. The President of the Baltimore City Council joins the race for Mayor. And Democratic Presidential Wanna Be’s vie for position at an HBCU in Houston. Tom and Charles Robinson, Maryland Public Television Political reporter, run down the latest political news. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or...

Tom is joined by filmmakers Bobby Marvin Holmes and Ras Tre Subira founders of Reflection of Kings, a new media program teaching young Baltimoreans how to harness the power of the media to tell their stories. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Midday is thrilled to be broadcasting from the beautifully renovated and restored Enoch Pratt Central Library in downtown Baltimore. The library looks great following a three-year, $115 million dollar face-lift. Today, from an impromptu stage in the Library's grand Central Hall, Midday host Tom Hall and his guests discuss what’s new about the 86-year-old building itself, and the range of programs...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us on this Wednesday afternoon (we're broadcasting live on Thursday from the Enoch Pratt Free Library) for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she spotlights the new production of Proof that opens the 2019-2020 season at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre. In playwright David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play, which o...

Today, Midday on Ethics. Prescriptions can be expensive, we know that. But what happens when a life-saving drug costs millions of dollars every year to keep one patient alive? Most patients can’t afford that, and neither can many employer and union-based insurance plans. Drug companies say the old economies of scale don’t apply with some of these new drugs that are meant to battle rare diseases; B...

On this month's edition of Midday Culture Connections, Tom is joined again by Dr. Sheri Parks, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art. As the NFL marks its 100th anniversary, controversy continues to surround the league. Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, remains unemployed three years after he began his kneeling protest against...

Today, it’s another edition of Midday in the Neighborhood, a series in which we’ve set out to spotlight the remarkable tapestry of communities that make up the city of Baltimore. According to the group Live Baltimore, there are 278 unique neighborhoods in our city, full of folks working to make their communities, and our city, better. The intention of this series is, over time, to hear from people...

We begin today's Midday on the Arts program with the legendary jazz impresario and NEA Jazz Master, Todd Barkan. With Chef Robert Weidmaier, he is the proprietor of the Keystone Korner nightclub in Harbor East, at the corner of Eden and Lancaster. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday: the great Vibraphone virtuoso Warren Wolf appears with the Wolfpack. And next weekend, Christian McBride, the host of NPR’...

Today's Midday on the Arts program continues with a conversation about a great festival in Baltimore that literally takes art to the streets. The 5th Annual Little Italy Baltimore Madonnari Arts Festival is underway as we speak. Artists from across the world are hard at work creating elaborate and amazing chalk art right on the streets of one of Baltimore’s most historic and vibrant neighborhoods....

Midday on the Arts concludes today with an internationally acclaimed classical guitarist, the Russian American virtuoso Piotr Pakhomkin. He has toured the world, and won several international guitar competitions. After finishing his studies with Manuel Barrueco at Peabody, Piotr became the First Prize winner of the 2012 Mexican International Guitar Competition in Culiacan and has taken top prizes...

It’s another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at what's new in films, and filmmaking. Ann Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post, joins us on the line from the Toronto International Film Festival as the industry's race to the Oscars and other awards begins its post-summer surge. Toronto is one of the biggest festivals in the world, and its audiences have an uncanny ability...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us today for her annual Preview of the new theater season. From the off-Broadway hit Miss You Like Hell that will be coming soon to both Baltimore Center Stage and Olney Theatre Center, to the touring productions of the multiple Tony and Grammy Award-winning Broadway musicals Dear Evan Hansen and The Band's Visit, which will be making stops at Baltimore'...

As the race for the White House lurches into high gear, Tom’s guest today is Tim Alberta. He’s the Chief Political Correspondent for POLITICO, and he has written a terrific book about the recent history of the Republican Party, and the many internecine ideological and strategic battles that have raged within the GOP ever since the Presidency of George W. Bush. The book is called American Carnage:...

Tom's guest is Dr. Ibram X. Kendi founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University; and author of the new book, ----How to Be an Antiracist.---- In this follow up to Stamped From the Beginning, his award-winning book about the origin of racist ideas, Dr. Kendi’s latest offering is a pragmatic and instructive guide to fighting the roots of racism. Email us at mi...

David Blight joins Tom to talk about his new book 'Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.' The Pulitzer Prize winning Historian's latest work chronicles the life of Frederick Douglass, tracing the abolitionist leader’s journey from bondage to international fame as a social reformer and advisor to President Lincoln. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

In this archive edition of Midday: When it was ratified in 1787, the US Constitution stood alone as a beacon of freedom from tyranny and an unparalleled attempt to create a republic governed by the people, with each branch serving as a check on the power of the other. Has the power of the Executive Branch grown too much as the country has grown and the apparatus of government has expanded? Did the...

Today, on this archive edition of Midday: In 1896, in the infamous “Plessy v Ferguson” case, the Supreme Court allowed “equal but separate” accommodations for blacks and whites, legalizing segregation for more than 60 years. In his latest book, Steve Luxenberg tells the back story of some of the people who were central to this historic case, tracing the pernicious roots of racism in American histo...

Today, Live in Studio A, Tom welcomes the talented Korean master percussionist Kim So Ra with her husband and band mate Hyung Seung Hun. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On the Midday Newswrap: the latest from Hong Kong with NPR’s Anthony Kuhn, reactions to Democrats at the Iowa State Fair with Iowa Public Radio’s Clay Master, fallout from a request to set up police surveillance at the Greater Baltimore Urban League with the Sun’s Andrea McDaniels. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today on this archive edition of Midday, a conversation with George Will and Thomas Frank about the state of the Conservatism in America. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, on this archive edition of Midday, Tom's guest is the New York Times best-selling author Irshad Manji. Her new book is called Don’t Label Me: An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

What does America owe those who are descended from enslaved people? Who would qualify, and what form might reparations take? Who would decide? Can America atone for the sin of slavery? Last June, we talked about it in front of an audience at the Lewis Museum with Director Jackie Copeland, Professor Ray Winbush, columnist ER Shipp and Attorney Adjoa A. Aiyetoro. What does America owe those who are...

(This program originally aired June 20, 2019) You know the voice of Tom's guest today from his superb reporting for NPR from Great Britain. Before his assignment in London, Frank Langfitt was NPR’s China correspondent for five years. In the late 90s and early aughts, Frank also covered China for the Baltimore Sun. If you listened to Frank’s dispatches from China from 2011-2016, you may recall his...

Dr. Khalilah Harris served as deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans in the Obama Administration; and co-authored an op-ed on behalf of African Americans who worked for President Obama - decrying Donald Trump’s racism. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

(This program originally aired on June 12, 2019) Tom's guest today is Adam Gopnik, who has been a staff writer for the New Yorker Magazine for the past 33 years. His new book is called A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. It is an homage to liberalism, in which he explores its roots in Montaigne and the Enlightenment, and traces its history through the present day. Gopnik...