Midday

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom for her weekly review of one of the region's thespian offerings. Today, she spotlights Fallout , the play by Laura King that's being staged by Baltimore's Vagabond Players as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival . It's directed by Audra Mains Mullen , and stars Gareth Kelly as David and Ryan Gunning as Anna, two strangers with issues, who seek...

Eighteen years ago, the state of Maryland deregulated its electricity market with the idea that a free market would give consumers cheaper rates. This has since led to the proliferation of retail electricity suppliers competing for the attention and affection of consumers. With renewable energy production currently on the rise, these suppliers have also been touting what they call “green electrici...

Today, a conversation about criminal profiling and how it came to be standard procedure in police investigations. Today, we take it for granted that when crimes occur, particularly serial crimes think Ted Kaczyinski or David Berkowitz or Jeffrey Dahmer that police will consult with experts who are able to provide a likely profile of these perpetrators so police can figure out who and where they ar...

It’s another edition of Healthwatch , our monthly conversations with Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen . She and Tom discuss a wide range of public health issues, from the weekend’s dangerous heat to the hot drama on Capitol Hill as Senate Republicans continue their struggle to repeal Obamacare . They also talk about White House plans to cut essential public health budgets, and abou...

It's the Midday News Wrap , with guest host Nathan Sterner sitting in for Tom Hall. Among the stories Nathan spotlights in this week's review: the drama of competing healthcare bills, the wrangling and chaos within the Republican Party, and the still-unfolding puzzle of possible Russian ties to President Trump's inner circle. Early in the week, Senate Republicans lacked the votes for their latest...

Roughly a fifth of the US population -- and a third of the under-30 crowd -- say they have become disaffected with traditional religious institutions and they're telling pollsters that they don't identify with any particular church or religious faith. They're called ----nones---- -- as in ----none of the above,---- but most say they still believe in God. So why are growing numbers of Americans tur...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Senior Producer Rob Sivak in the studio today with her review of the musical Spring Awakening , produced by the Spotlighters Theatre . It tells the story of a group of 19th century German teenagers trying to discover more about one another and themselves, under the intense scrutiny and repressive control of the adults in their lives. Email us at midday@w...

We have seen the videos from cell phones, surveillance footage and police cameras. In the moments before and sometimes after police shootings of black people, it sounds like the police and the black people are speaking from completely different social realities. The shootings are the horrific tip of an iceberg. According to a GenForward survey done by the Black Youth Project at the University of C...

Cal Ripken and Lou Gehrig are forever linked in history as the two great ----iron men---- of baseball. For decades, Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games-played seemed an insurmountable mark until Cal Ripken met it, and surpassed it by more than 500 games. By the time Ripken retired in 2001 the age of 40, he and Gehrig were the only two of 17,000 players in the major leagues who had played mo...

Roughly a fifth of the US population, and a third of the under-30 crowd, say they have become disaffected with traditional religious institutions and they're telling pollsters that they don't identify with any particular church or religious faith. They're called ----nones---- -- as in ----none of the above,---- but most say they still believe in God. So why are growing numbers of Americans turning...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Senior Producer Rob Sivak in the studio today with her review of the musical Spring Awakening , produced by the Spotlighters Theatre . It tells the story of a group of 19th century German teenagers trying to discover more about one another and themselves, under the intense scrutiny and repressive control of the adults in their lives. Email us at midday@w...

The Emmy nominations are in. Saturday Night Live and HBO's Westworld racked up 22 nominations a piece, while other popular newcomers like HBO's Insecure were left off the list. With so many high quality options for viewers on television and on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, are we entering a golden age of television? The Emmy awards will air in September, today Bridget Armstrong , sitti...

Today, we examine the realities of being an immigrant in Baltimore in the Trump Era. President Trump has called for the immediate deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, commonly known as illegal aliens. Mr. Trump and his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, have made immigration enforcement a priority. Plans continue for a wall of unprecedented scale all along the U.S.-Mexico border. And...

On this Fete Nationale in France, President Trump has completed a quick trip to Paris where he visited Napoleon?s tomb, dined at the Eiffel Tower, viewed a military parade on the Champs Elysees , and got to know his younger French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, a little better. He made inappropriate remarks about the body of the first lady of France, but gone were disparaging remarks about how no o...

This is a special edition of Midday as NPR prepares to air live coverage of the news conference in Paris with President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump is sure to face questions about Russia and its meddling in the 2016 Presidential election. He has been largely out of the public eye since the release of his eldest son's now famous emails. The scope of Russia investigation...

Cities from Tallahassee to Spokane have implemented comprehensive networks of protected bike lanes on major city streets. Baltimore City has been steadily following suit, though not without controversy. Baltimore City recently installed semi-protected bike lanes on several major roads throughout the city, most recently on Maryland Avenue, Roland Avenue, and Potomac Street. Immediately after the co...

----Do Black Lives Matter to the Courts?---- It's a question raised time and time again when unarmed black men are killed by police and the officers are either not indicted, or not convicted. It's a question raised by NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill in a new collection of essays called Policing the Black Man: Arrest Prosecution and Imprisonment . Professor Angela J. Davis is the...

Cal Ripken and Lou Gehrig are forever linked in history as the two great ----iron men---- of baseball. For decades, Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games-played seemed an insurmountable mark until Cal Ripken met it, and surpassed it by more than 500 games. By the time Ripken retired in 2001 the age of 40, he and Gehrig were the only two of 17,000 players in the major leagues who had played mo...

Today, all eyes are on Hamburg Germany, the site of the G-20 summit, where about three hours ago, Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin for the first time as President. The meeting takes place as North Korea continues its sword rattling, the Syrian conflict continues to displace and kill thousands, big policy differences between the US and other G-20 members in areas like climate change are once again l...

On today's edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly conversation with Jed Dietz, founding director of of the Maryland Film Festival, and Ann Hornaday , film critic for the Washington Post , Tom and our movie mavens will be talking about Ann's new book: Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies . In this veteran film reviewer's guide, Hornaday suggests that the best movies let us grapple with tough...

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio each Thursday with her weekly reviews of the region's thespian offerings. This week, she critiques the new production of The Tempest from the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company . Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, we're talking sports. In May, the Baltimore Orioles had the best record in baseball. In June, they broke a record by allowing 5 or more runs in 16 consecutive games. They lost last night in Milwaukee. They will send only one player to the All Star game next week, second baseman Jonathan Schoop. As concerns grow about the catastrophic and often fatal consequences of concussive brain injuries...

This program originally aired on May 2, 2017. Today another installment of Culture Connections with Dr. Sheri Parks of the University of Maryland. Author D. Watkins joins as we continue to reflect on the 2015 Uprising sparked by the death of Freddie Gray. D. co-hosts Undisclosed, a podcast that re-examines Freddie Gray's death. Have any new details emerged? How did the Uprising change the way we t...

This program was originally broadcast May 9, 2017. Today, a discussion about what we might call the privacy paradox. We say one thing when it comes to online privacy, but many of us act in decidedly un-private ways when we're on the internet. What do we mean by that? We often say that we don't want to be spied on -- by big government or by big data, the companies that collect and sell information...

When Senate Republicans unveiled their health care bill a little more than a week ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it would be voted on this week -- before Congress' July 4 recess. But, on Tuesday of this week, McConnell, realizing he didn't have the 50 votes needed to pass the bill, pulled the plug on the vote. What's next for the bill that, according to the Congressional Budget O...