Midday

Tom speaks with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On the Midday News Wrap: Disaster strikes Puerto Rico and Mexico. President Trump threatens to “totally destroy” North Korea. And Senate Republicans try Repeal and Replace, one more time. John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies and Kamau High of the Afro-American newspaper join host Tom Hall. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Everyman Theater founder and Artistic Director, Vincent Lancisi and Everyman Ensemble actor Bruce Randolph Nelson are in Studio A with Tom to talk about the production, Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews The Christians At Baltimore Center Stage Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It’s Midday on Sports. In the NFL, TV ratings are down and a new survey suggests that boycotts over Colin Kaepernick’s absence in the league may be a factor. The Ravens’ are off to a promising start as they head off to London for their next game, and the Orioles’ are having a tough time getting in the win column. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

The acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes novels, inspires feminists and pitches beauty products. She’s been sampled by Beyonce, and her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, is this year’s MD Humanities One MD, One Book selection. She’s going to be at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

In the 1960s, most Americans held an unfavorable attitude towards the civil rights movement . Where does Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence stand today? I’m Tom Hall. On the next Midday: the respectability politics of protest. Do we have unrealistic expectations for civil disobedience in cities like St. Louis and Baltimore? Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-6...

Amy Davis has compiled a history not only of the theaters, but of Baltimore itself. The book is called Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Len Lazarick, editor and publisher of the website of MarylandReporter.com and resident of Columbia for over 40 years, joins us in studio to talk about his latest book Columbia at 50: A Memoir of a City. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Living Questions, our monthly series on religion in the public sphere. How do shows like Showtime’s Homeland or OWN’s Greenleaf inform our perceptions about religion and spirituality? Martin Schuster from Goucher College and Christopher Llewellyn Reed from Stevenson University join Midday host Tom. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

M. Butterfly is at The Everyman Theatre through October 8th. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

“Health at Every Size.” Is it possible to be both fit and fat? Even if we’re carrying a few extra pounds, can we still be metabolically healthy, and is there a medical bias against people who are obese? I’m TH. We’ll get the skinny on all of it on the next Midday. Join us for Smart Nutrition with the Nutrition Diva, Monica Reinagel. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at...

Some call it Charm City, some call it Bodymore Murderland. I’m Tom Hall. On the next Midday: A political history of Baltimore, with veteran political scientist Matthew Crenson. Before the civil war, our city housed America’s largest concentration of free black people. How has that history informed the racial politics of the last 150 years? Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or cal...

What Ending DACA Means For Local Recipients and Business Leaders Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Francis Scott Key is heralded not for his bravery on the battlefield, but rather for his poetic prowess. There is a lot, however, that most people don't know about the attorney and wordsmith, but a new docudrama abut this enigmatic figure aims to reconcile that. ----F.S. Key: After the Song---- will air on Maryland Public Television and nationwide in three parts, beginning tomorrow night. Email us...

Singer and guitarist Andrea Carlson stops by with a preview performance ahead of her appearance at Germano’s Piattini tonight Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On the Midday Newswrap, a newsmaker interview with Sen. Ben Cardin. He’s the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We’ll talk about North Korea, the DACA decision, the apparent agreement to raise the debt ceiling, tax reform and some of the other issues on a very full legislative plate Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's Thursday, and that means our theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio with her weekly report on the region's thespian landscape. This week, Judy looks ahead to the 2017-2018 season and spotlights some of the local and touring productions slated to grace the region's stages in the coming months, including two notable musicals coming to the Hippodrome: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's se...

It's “Midday at the Movies,” our monthly conversation about new flicks in the theaters and trends in the film industry. Tom's guests today are Maryland Film Festival founder and director Jed Dietz, and Baltimore Magazine's managing editor and film critic Max Weiss, who also writes about culture at Vulture.com, the entertainment website of New York Magazine. The last four months of the year are typ...

It's back-to-school time for many of our nation's children and today we are taking a look at the status of children in our state and across the country. The 2017 Kids Count Data Book, a new report from the Annie E Casey Foundation, ranks all 50 states by measures of Health, Education, Economic Well-Being and more. As more than 16 million American children currently live in poverty, our panel consi...

In this month's installment of Midday Culture Connections ,Tom and Dr. Sheri Parks – Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland speak with Yale Law School professor James Forman Jr., about his latest book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

(This program was originally broadcast on September 21, 2016)Mike Rowe joins Midday host Tom Hall to talk about rolling up his sleeves and getting down to work in some of the hardest professions on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs and later Somebody’s Gotta Do It which aired on CNN from 2014 until May 2016.These days Mike has turned his focus to closing the skills gap by providing scholarships throu...

(This program was originally aired on June 5, 2017) With more than 6,000 hours of shows logged during an influential career that spanned more than 30 years, David Letterman’s impact on the landscape of late-night is unquestioned. On today's Midday, a closer look at the life and work of the trend-setting funny man, through the eyes of a writer-journalist who's spent the past three years sizing up t...

If diversity is a concept prized by journalists, why aren’t news organizations hiring and retaining journalists of color at higher rates? Three experts on the issue join Tom with some answers: Keith Woods is Vice President for Training and Diversity for NPR. Richard Prince is a veteran journalist who writes “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms,” a news column on diversity issues in the media. It appears...

How are perceptions about the habits of those belonging to different generational groups influencing the ways we interact with one another? Where are we getting it wrong? And how can we better understand each other, and work better together? Joining Tom to address these questions are two guests who've spent a lot of time exploring generational differences:Crystal Kadakia is the author of The Mille...