Midday

Today, Tom examines the connection between hate speech and hate crimes. On Saturday, 11 people were killed in a shooting at a Pennsylvania synagogue by a man who later told police that he was seeking to kill Jews. The first funerals for the victims will be held today, and the hashtag #ShowUpForShabbat, calling for solidarity with the Jewish community, is trending on Twitter. The Southern Poverty L...

On this edition of Midday on Sports, Tom explores the controversies surrounding the University of Maryland football program, including the death of 19-year-old Jordan McNair, and the future of the Preakness Stakes. Joining Tom to discuss football are Jeff Barker and Mark Hyman. Jeff Barker is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun who covers sports business, among other issues. Mark Hyman is a professor...

It's the Midday Newswrap. This week, after reports of explosive devices mailed to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump put the nation on edge, Mr. Trump called for national unity. But his call was short-lived. Just after 3:00 this morning, he tweeted more barbs at the media. Meanwhile, Saudi officials were giving shifting explanations for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in th...

Live in Studio A today: the Brazilian classical guitarist Fabio Zanon. Mr. Zanon will be in the Baltimore area this weekend to perform at the Kaplan Concert Hall on the campus of Towson Univerity Saturday night from 8-10 pm. His performance opens the annual concert series presented by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society. Fabio Zanon will also be teaching a free master class for guitarists, open...

Today, Tom’s guest is award-winning young-adult author, poet and educator Kwame Alexander. He has written 28 books, including Booked, which was nominated for a National Book Award, and The Crossover, winner of the Newberry Medal for middle grades novel. Swing, his latest novel co-written with Mary Rand Hess, is a follow-up to The Crossover. He is the winner of many awards, including the Coretta Sc...

Today, another edition of Midday on Ethics with Dr. Jeffrey Kahn of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. On this installment, we’ll explore some ethical questions drawn from the documentary film Three Identical Strangers and the novel Frankenstein. In the film, a set of triplets were adopted at six months old by separate families in the New York City area. The children were part of a s...

Today, we go behind the scenes of the the latest offering from Baltimore's Everyman Theatre: Sweat by playwright Lynn Nottage. The play follows working-class individuals in Reading, Pennsylvania, as they struggle with layoffs, de-industrialization and economic inequality. Nottage spent over two years conducting field research and interviews in Reading in order to ground herself in the community an...

Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. That’s the consensus of a long list of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the FBI. Now, the Director of National Intelligence is warning of foreign interference in this year’s election. Adding to the possible risk is aging equipment, the lack of a paper trail in some states, and human error. Is the election safe across the country...

Today, we continue our series of Conversations with the Candidates with John Olszewski, Jr. and Al Redmer, Jr. who are running to be the next Baltimore County Executive. Redmer, a Republican, is a former delegate and the current Maryland Insurance Commissioner. Olszewski, a Democrat, is also a former delegate who taught in Baltimore County Schools. He’s currently working in the private sector. Som...

This Saturday as an estimated 23,000 runners from all 50 states and 17 countries will take over Charm City for the 18th annual Baltimore Running Festival. 5,000 entrants are slated to run the 5k; 10,000 will take on the half marathon; and 4,000 runners have set their ambitions on conquering the 26.2 mile full marathon. Dr. Miho Tanaka joins Tom today in Studio A to answer your fitness questions an...

Today, another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates. Republican Congressman Andy Harris joins Tom Hall in the Midday studio for an hour of discussion about the issues in his bid for re-election. Harris has represented Maryland’s 1st Congressional District since 2011. His winning re-election margins ever since have been substantial. In June, he handily won his party's primary to run f...

Today, four guests join Tom for a conversation about voter mobilization efforts in Maryland. Nykidra Robinson is the founder of Black Girls Vote, an organization based here in Baltimore that encourages women of color to vote. Sam Novey is a co-founder of #BaltimoreVotes, which works with community groups to increase voter turnout. Catalina Byrd is a Baltimore-based media and political consultant....

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us each week with a review of one of the region's many thespian offerings. Today, she spotlights Dirty Pictures, a new work from Rapid Lemon Productions, getting its world premiere this month at the Baltimore Theater Project . The final production in Rapid Lemon's 2018 season, Dirty Pictures is a bawdy comedy about four people whose lives are transformed by the...

Author Jabari Asim joins Tom in the studio today. Asim is a former editor and columnist for The Washington Post and the Editor-in-Chief of The Crisis, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His 2007 book, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why was acclaimed for its important and trenchant observations about race in America. Asim’s latest book, ti...

Today on Midday, we continue our series of Conversations with the Candidates. Tom's guest for the hour is Tony Campbell, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate. He is an adjunct professor of political science at Towson University and is one of four candidates running for the seat currently held by Democrat Ben Cardin. Dr. Campbell won a crowded primary that included 11 candidates. L...

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us today with a review of the new production of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, by the Annapolis Shakespeare Company. In this fast-paced farce, which many consider one of Shakespeare's funniest plays, two sets of identical twins separated at birth are reunited after a succession of mistaken identities, situational shenanigans, and a steady stream of...

It's the Midday Newswrap: Seven Baltimore Police Department officers have been implicated as part of an internal investigation into the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. As of October 4, the department has suspended 20 officers who could face criminal charges following the investigation. Polls show Gov. Larry Hogan maintaining a comfortable lead over his Democratic challenger, Ben Jealous. Some State...

T.J. Smith resigned on Wednesday after serving nearly four years as the Baltimore Police Department’s Chief Spokesperson. He cited political turmoil and discord in the department that is still without a permanent commissioner. T.J. Smith joins Tom on the line to discuss the future of the beleaguered BCPD. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, another in our series of “Conversations with the Candidates.”Jesse Colvin is running for Congress in Maryland’s sprawling 1st Congressional District. In a crowded primary field last summer, he beat five other Democrats. Now, in the November 6 General Election, he faces the incumbent -- Andy Harris -- in the only Maryland congressional district that leans Republican. Harris, a Republican, is...

The NFL is one of the most successful sports businesses in history. With annual revenues hovering between $13 and $14 billion dollars, it is in many ways an unparalleled juggernaut. But when the NFL’s first game was played in Akron, Ohio, in 1920, it wasn’t nearly as popular as college football, and there were plenty of people who thought the five owners who formed the league were destined for fai...

The new documentary film Charm City paints an intimate portrait of life in Baltimore's Madison - East End neighborhood, one of the city's most distressed areas. The film offers a candid look at the neighborhood's residents, their relationship with the police and how they tackle day-to-day challenges. Filmed over a three-year period including the lead up to and aftermath of Freddie Gray's death and...

We begin today with a conversation about the rise of nationalism as a political movement. Brazil is holding a run-off election at the end of the month following the near victory of Jair Bolsonaro, an admirer of some of Brazil’s past dictators. Several countries in Europe have seen a far-right brand of nationalism ascendant in recent years, and of course, Donald Trump’s doctrine of “America First”...

Dr. Leana Wen has been selected as the new president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She assumes her new role on November 12. For the first time in nearly 50 years, a physican will lead the century-old reproductive health services and education organization. As a patient advocate and an emergency physician, Dr. Wen has led the Baltimore City Health Department since January 2015. S...

In his new book, the activist and organizer DeRay Mckesson writes that “Faith is the belief that certain outcomes will happen; and hope the belief that certain outcomes can happen. He writes compellingly about faith, hope, and the work of social justice in this new era of civil rights activism, shaped by the Black Lives Matter Movement, and operating in a social media environment that has dramatic...

My guest for the hour is John Waters. He’s a filmmaker, actor, and writer -- not necessarily in that order. Early in his career, Waters established himself as an enfant terrible who was affectionately dubbed the ----King of Sleaze.---- His filmography spans 40 years and 16 films, some of which are cult classics, while others, like Hairspray, are revered as popular icons. John Waters is also the au...