Midday

Last Friday, Ari Shapiro signed-off as a host of NPR's All Things Considered for the final time, ending a ten-year run in the host chair and a 24-year career that he began as an intern for Nina Totenberg. Shapiro has appeared as a vocalist with the band Pink Martini for many years. He’ll be appearing with them Friday night at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall here in Baltimore. Shapiro joined Midday to...

Veteran Democratic congressman Steny Hoyer joins Midday. He has represented Maryland's 5th District in the House of Representatives since 1981. Congressman Hoyer discusses the likelihood of a shutdown of the federal government, the newly announced Trump proposal for an end to the Israel-Gaza war and the outlook for Russia's three-year-old war on Ukraine.

The Maryland state senator's candid new memoir describes how his work as a young apprentice electrician helped turn his life around.

The former Librarian of Congress and past head of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Library discusses her new but familiar role at the Mellon Foundation: advancing public knowledge through libraries and archives.

It’s the Midday Newswrap. It’s been quite a week. Yesterday, at the behest of the president, a federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey, alleging he lied to a Senate Committee in 2020. Comey posted a video on Instagram last night asserting his innocence. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show returned to the air on Tuesday after a week-long suspension by Disney, the parent...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom with another of her weekly reviews of the Baltimore regional stage. Today, she spotlights the new production of Suzan Lori-Parks' Pulitzer prize-winning play, "Topdog/Underdog," on stage at the Spotlighters Theatre. The play, which premiered in 2001 off-Broadway in New York City, examines the troubled lives of two Black brothers named Lincoln and Boo...

Baltimore artist Wordsmith is a hip-hop virtuoso, educator and activist known for crafting uplifting and thoughtful lyrics across genre-defying works. His two new albums showcase his unique technique and add something new for returning listeners. Music for Mankind and Masterpiece Theater approach themes of identity, social strife and truth with distinct style.

Three games into the Raven's season and some are already calling it a wash. They stand 1-2 with a game this weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs. Gabe Ortis joins Midday for a roundup of the Ravens. Ortis is a WYPR's afternoon host, a former political consultant and the station's resident sports guru.

It’s Midday on Education. One measure of the quality of a public-school education is how well it prepares students to succeed in the real world after they graduate. To that end, the Baltimore City Public School System has embraced a state-wide vocational training program called Career and Technical Education, or CTE. Basically, the program offers multiple pathways for high school students, grades...

Acclaimed author Ian McEwan's What We Can Know is an adventure into the future, into a tumultuous world shaken by climate disaster. The novel, like McEwan's Atonement, follows characters and events separated by many years. What We Can Know is suspenseful, complex, funny and more than a little frightening. It is a brilliant peroration about how history is often a distorted prism through which we vi...

On September 17, 1787, six years after fighting stopped in the war for independence, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the document that has endured as the most influential exemplar in the world of government by and for the people. The U.S. Constitution is an extraordinary document. A new book by the historian and journalist Jill Lepore is an insightful, sweeping ma...

At sundown tonight, Jewish people around the world will begin the observance of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Next week is Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The High Holidays are a time of connecting to Jewish heritage and traditions, and a time of reflection, self-examination and repentance. Today on Midday, we speak to the author of a new book that explores these ancient...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck is back with another of her weekly reviews of current offerings from Baltimore's regional stage. This week, she joins Tom to talk about Everyman Theater's new production of the late August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Piano Lesson. Presented as part of the Baltimore theater community’s continuing August Wilson Celebration, The Piano Lesson...

Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen joins Midday every month to gives us a look at the happenings inside City Hall. Today, will Baltimore receive funds to expand Maryland Transit administration bus service? City leaders urged state transportation officials to prioritize that funding in their plans for the next half decade. Cohen provides an update. Plus, a series of police shootings of Bal...

Joining Tom now in Studio A is Stefanie Mavronis, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, here in Baltimore. Her agency's mission is to implement the City’s public health approach to safety through Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. MONSE works with Baltimore residents, community-based groups, institutions, businesses, and o...

Tom's first guest today is Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, a Democrat elected in 2024 to represent Maryland's sprawling 6th district, which includes all of Garrett, Allegany, Frederick, and Washington counties as well as a portion of Montgomery County. In Congress, Rep. McClain Delaney serves on both the House Agriculture Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Rep. M...

Ivan Bates, the State’s Attorney for the city of Baltimore, joins Midday today. State’s Attorney Bates took office in 2023. Over the past two years, the city has seen a sharp drop in violent crimes. According to the State’s Attorney’s office, 2,600 violent repeat offenders have been incarcerated, and the office has won more than 270 homicide convictions. But being safe and feeling safe can often b...

Today on Midday, a discussion about a far-too-common injustice in this country – the wrongful imprisonment of men and women who are innocent of the crimes for which they’ve been convicted. Experts say between 6- and 15% of the people sentenced to prison time in the United States are wrongly convicted. With approximately 2.3 million people currently behind bars in America, that works out to between...

Baltimore city is taking steps to revise an agreement with its major nonprofit institutions over how much they pay annually to the budget. As nonprofits, these 14 institutions do not pay property taxes but instead have a PILOT or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes. Combined they pay $6M annually for city services like policing, snow removal, road maintenance and more. That agreement expires and comes up for...

Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming leads her office in investigations into waste, fraud and abuse in city government. Cumming joins Midday to discuss her office's work. In the past year, her office launched high-profile investigations into poor working conditions at the Department of Public Works, a cyber-theft of more than $1.5 million dollars, and cost overruns in the redes...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews the lively Scottish musical "Ceilidh" (pronounced KAY-lee) now playing at the M&T Bank Exchange performance space next to the Hippodrome Theater.

Vocalist Limmie Pulliam and pianist Mark Markham will perform a program of gospel songs and arias as part of the free "Community Concerts at 2nd" series at the Second Presbyterian Church Sunday September 14, 2025.

On today's NewsWrap, Tom surveys some of the week's top state and local developments with reporter Pamela Wood, who covers Maryland politics and government for the Baltimore Banner.

With the killing of the charismatic conservative activist and podcast host, Charlie Kirk, America has once again been rocked by what could be another act of political violence. There is, as of Thursday morning, no suspect in custody, and no motive for the shooting is known. At the age of 18, Charlie Kirk founded “Turning Point Action,” a conservative get-out-the-vote and fundraising organization....

After a lengthy legal process, a massive amount of settlement money is flowing into Baltimore City to combat the opioid epidemic.  Several opioid companies have settled with the city for more than half-a-billion dollars in a series of high-profile cases. How that money will be spent is the responsibility of Sara Whaley, the Executive Director of our city’s Overdose Response team. Mayor Brandon Sco...