Midday

Today, another installment of Tube Talk, our ultra-occasional discussion of what’s hot and what’s not on TV. We had some product placement on Game of Thrones that a few folks happened to notice. We had the displacement of a local TV anchor that has engendered all sorts of reaction about gender, and race. And a few fan-favorite shows are on extended hiatus, driving more than a few fans nuts. Tom is...

It's Thursday, and time for another of Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck's weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. This week, she spotlights the regional premier of playwright Ariel Zetina's Pink Milk, staged by Single Carrot Theatre as the last production in its Remington home. (Single Carrot's founding Artistic Director Genevieve de Mahy and interim Managing Director Alix Fenhagen will be Tom'...

Today, analysis of the seismic shifts taking place in MD politics, as Adrienne Jones becomes the first African American, first woman Speaker of the House; a seasoned political veteran becomes Baltimore’s Mayor; and a young, ambitious councilman becomes President of the City Council. With award winning investigative journalist Jayne Miller of WBAL Television; and Andy Green, the Editorial Page Edit...

It’s Midday Culture Connections with Dr. Sheri Parks of the MD Inst Coll of Art. Today, we are joined by Donna Brazile, a political strategist, and the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. She’s the co-author of a book that chronicles the rise of her and three other African American women to the highest levels of the Democratic Party. It’s called For Colored Girls Who Have Co...

On today's show, it’s Back to the Garden, the Spring Planting Edition, in which we spend the hour answering your questions about gardening, and considering the horticultural challenges of Maryland's unsually warm, wet spring. Worldwide, 90% of people spend 22 hours a day inside, but at least there’s more natural life inside with them. According to Garden Reasearch.com, 30% of American households p...

Yesterday afternoon, in a one paragraph letter addressed to now Mayor Jack Young, former Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned from office. Her lawyer read a brief statement and took no questions in a press conference that lasted less than two minutes. The investigation into Catherine Pugh’s possible malfeasance in office has reportedly been going on for a while, and it is likely to last for the foreseeab...

It's Thursday and time for our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, to join us for another of her weekly reviews of the regional stage. Today, she describes the new production of playwright Noel Coward's classic comedy, Blithe Spirit: An Improbable Farce in Three Acts, on stage at Baltimore's Vagabond Players. First produced in London's West End Theatre in 1941, Blithe Spirit tells the story of myster...

[Host Tom Hall opens the show today with updates on the Mayor Pugh scandal and Baltimore County Del. Adrienne Jones's election Wednesday as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, the first woman and first African American to hold the office.]#It's Midday at the Movies: the Maryland Flm Festival Edition. The 21st Maryland Film Festival kicks off next week. More than 40 feature-length films and...

Today, reflections on an unparalleled genius: Leonardo da Vinci who died 500 years ago tomorrow. Leonardo was the original “Renaissance Man” -- a great artist, inventor, scientist and writer, a genius whose imagination and curiosity knew no bounds. It’s hard to imagine, in our present age of hyper specialization, someone whose scope was as broad, and whose mastery was as acute. Tom’s guest today i...

Tom’s Newsmaker guest today is Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Junior. A Democrat, he was elected to office last November, and sworn in on December 3rd. He’s a former Maryland state delegate, a lifelong resident of Dundalk, and a former high school teacher who made education and the quality of the county’s schools a major part of his campaign for county executive -- and of his first b...

According the Live Baltimore, the organization that, as its name suggests, promotes city living, there are 278 neighborhoods in Baltimore. Today, we begin a new series that shines a light on each of them. From time to time, we’ll sit down with people who are actively involved in their neighborhoods, to learn about the kinds of communities, rich and poor, black and white, well-known and off the rad...

The classical guitar virtuoso Xavier Jara joined Tom in Studio A.Three years ago, at the age of 22, he won First Prize in the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition, and he’s won several other international guitar competitions as well. A native of Minnesota, he studied there, and in Paris, and he’s in town to play a concert tomorrow night at 8 pm at Towson Universi...

Ever since the story of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's lucrative self-dealing book sales first broke in the Sun March 13th, the city has been on a political roller coaster ride, with an embattled Mayor sidelined by pneumonia and taking an indefinite leave of absence, while the city council president assumed her duties amid a growing chorus of calls for Mayor Pugh's resignation. The latest turn c...

In his latest collection of essays, local writer D. Watkins explores the experiences of Black people in low income neighborhoods who are often discussed, but never heard from directly. He calls the assumptions and depictions of poor Black people in much of the media the product of a “drone-like” perspective, and he endeavors to dispel some of those assumptions, and bring voices from the hood, to t...

On Thursdays here on Midday, our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, reviews all things theatrical throughout the region. Today, instead of a review, we bring you an interview Judy conducted earlier this month with Canadian playwrights David Hein and Irene Sankoff, the married co-creators of the award-winning show, Come From Away. The couple spoke with Judy by phone from New York City. Their show was...

Whether you bike or hike, run or climb, swim or paddle, or however you stay in shape, join us for the Spring Training edition of What Hurts Today? , our seasonal focus on fitness and exercise with Dr. Miho Tanaka. The acclaimed orthopedic surgeon and sport-fitness expert is the founder and former director of the Women's Sports Medicine Program at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Now, she is movin...

As Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh’s indefinite leave of absence stretches into a fourth week, ex officio Mayor Jack Young has described himself as a “stabilizing force” for the city. What is the path forward in the wake of the ‘Healthy Holly’ scandal, and increasing calls for Catherine Pugh to resign? Jack Young joins us in studio for a conversation about the future of Baltimore. Email us at midda...

Today, another in our occasional series, Midday on Higher Education, in which Tom sits down with the presidents of the region’s colleges and universities to talk about the challenges that each of their institutions face, and how those institutions are connected to the fabric of the communities in which they are located. Tom's guest is Kurt Schmoke, who served as the Mayor of Baltimore from 1987-19...

On today's News Wrap: Attorney General William Barr released the Mueller Report after sharing it with the White House to decide questions of Executive Privilege. Did Mr. Trump's efforts to shut down the investigation amount to obstruction of justice? We'll talk about what Mueller concluded and what it means. Tom's guests are Ronald Weich, Dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, politica...

Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. He's on the faculty of the Peabody Institute, and tours the world playing concerts and recitals. His recording of the Bach Cello Suites is on CTM Classics. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Monday, April 22, is Earth Day, an annual day of demonstrations, actions, and workshops to raise public awareness about the environment, first observed in 1970. Have nearly 50 years of Earth Days helped move the needle when it comes to public concern about the environment? The existential crisis posed by climate change -- the warming of the earth's atmosphere caused by the world's addiction to fos...

It's Thursday, and Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck is back with another of her weekly reviews of the regional stage. Today, she spotlights the late Sam Shepard's 1978 play, Curse of the Starving Class, and the new production by Maryland Ensemble Theatre in Frederick. Shepard's dark comedy about the elusiveness of the American dream is set in a farmhouse in the American West. The Tate family...

Last month alone, Americans were bothered by more than 5 billion robocalls -- computer-automated, unsolicited marketing or scam calls that are jangling our phones -- and our tempers -- with growing frequency. What can we do to win the war on robocalls? And what can Congress do to rein in the scammers? Joining us to explore these questions are Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler, Univers...

A warning to listeners who may be tuning in with young children: we will be talking about mature topics today on this edition of Midday Culture Connections. On today's Midday Culture Connections with Dr. Sheri Parks: pulling back the curtain on the insidious, hidden world of sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the United States. In leafy suburbs, seedy ci...

For most of the past half-century, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been on the front line of a campaign to improve food safety and nutrition in the United States. In 1990, the non-profit Center helped push Congress to pass the landmark legislation requiring standardized nutrition information labels on all food packages. It helped win passage of laws requiring calorie information...