Midday

More people called Baltimore home in 2024 than in the previous year. For the first time in a decade, more people moved into Baltimore City than moved out. The increase was small with only about 800 additional residents, but after years of steady decline a little growth is a sign of hope. Meghan McCorkell, the Executive Director of Live Baltimore, joins Midday to discuss attracting and retaining mo...

Late Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB, to end its funding of NPR and PBS. It is not clear that the president has the authority to make such orders to CPB under the law, according to NPR's reporting. President Trump has long criticized public media, accusing the news organizations with political bias. PBS President and...

The 40th Annual Fallen Heroes Day ceremony will take place at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Baltimore County tomorrow. This event honors Maryland's first responders who have died in the line of duty. Mike Dunn, a retired Senior Officer with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police and Tom Kimbel, former Baltimore County Fire Department Battalion Chief, join Midday to express the significa...

A local reporter for the Baltimore Sun covered the fall of Saigon, now named Ho Chi Min City, 50 years ago. Skip Isaacs joins Midday to reflect on that day, and the lessons learned from the Vietnam War. Isaacs wrote about his reflections in the final days of the war, where he witnessed the United State military's chaotic withdrawal from the South Vietnamese capital.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins Tom to talk about issues in the city. We ask about federal cuts which may impact the mayor's anti-violence initiatives, and new parking rules in the popular Fells Point neighborhood. An during his State of the City address, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the launch of the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture, and Entertainment (MOACE.) The office is tasked with org...

Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement tells the moving story of the civil rights activists who offered “citizenship classes” to African Americans throughout the South from 1955-1970. Author Elaine Weiss joins Midday to discuss the work, her third of narrative history. Weiss wrote about the Woman’s Land Army of World War I in Fruits of Victory and the women's s...

Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises joins Midday on Education. Santelises discusses the latest statistics on academic performance, including increased graduation rates among city public school students. Plus, the effects of federal budget cuts on school tutoring and a recent cyber attack against the school system as students and teachers enter the final weeks of classes.

Baltimore is the birthplace of one of America’s largest and most popular public programs. The Social Security Administration issued its first Social Security numbers in the 1930s from the Candler Building in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The main office of Social Security is in Woodlawn, in Baltimore County. Reporting suggests growing chaos there with new policy and staffing changes rolled out by the...

Ambitious climate goals set by state officials mean Maryland needs to find new, carbon-neutral sources of energy. The state generated more solar energy in 2023 alone than all solar generation in the state before 2017, combined. If Maryland wants to meet its environmental deadlines, and power a more sustainable society, it’ll need to consider new sources of energy. Timothy Fox is managing director...

Ten years ago, 25-year-old Sandtown resident Freddie Gray died in police custody. In the aftermath of his funeral, West Baltimore erupted in protests and riots. Today, Midday takes a look back at the 2015 uprising in Baltimore and analyzes the progress the city has made on policing, racial equity and community investment. A 2017 federal consent decree between the Baltimore Police Department and U....

This weekend the Baltimore Choral Arts Society will host a community Come-And-Sing of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Singers from far and wide will practice and then conduct a masterclass performance at the Peabody Institute. Anthony Blake Clark, the Music Director of the organization, joins Midday to discuss their latest slate of performances and events.

Midday Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio every Thursday to review one of our region's current theater productions. This week, Rousuck reviews Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at ArtsCentric. The production runs through April 27. Also in this week's review, a look ahead to Iron Crow Theatre's How to Transcend a Happy Marriage.

The Dream Big Contest was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s, I Have A Dream Speech, and aims to create hope among the younger generation by encouraging them to believe in a world made of love, justice, and equity. What is one thing you would change to make the world a better place? Student between 5th to 12th grade from Baltimore City and Baltimore County answer the question in a form of es...

Pope Francis, a constant advocate for the poor and marginalized who worked to make the church more accessible to the public, passed away at the age of 88 on Monday. The pontiff was the first Pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit in the role. As Pope, he chastised world leaders for not doing enough about climate change and the migration crisis. On Midday, we speak to Catholic officials and p...

Gov. Wes Moore is on his way back to Maryland after leading a trade and investment trip abroad to Japan and South Korea. Fagan Harris, a longtime friend and colleague of Wes Moore joins Midday to discuss the trip, the state's newly printed budget and more. In 2012, a decade before being elected governor, Moore and Harris founded Baltimore Corps, a non-profit organization focused on employment. Whe...

Three acclaimed musicians who are part of the Old Time Music Festival join Midday. The festival launches tonight and continues through tomorrow at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Nelson Williams is an acclaimed bassist from New Orleans, who is part of a movement of African American musicians reclaiming the legacy of Black players of old time and Bluegrass music. Jamie Fox is a member of the indi...

Midday Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio every Thursday to review one of our region's current theater productions. On today's review, a look at 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' at Everyman Theatre. The production is on stage through April 20.

Today on Midday, an inter-religious dialogue about Jesus Christ, a Jewish Rabbi and teacher who is revered as a prophet in Islam, and who is the central figure in Christianity. Islam, Judaism and Christianity are known as the three Abrahamic religions, because they recognize Abraham as a central figure in the development of each of these three, monotheistic traditions. Midday guests today devoted...

On today’s Midday, a roundtable on the future of public media in Maryland. The forecast is not pretty for PBS, NPR and its many, many local stations across the country. Shifting consumer habits have led to a decline in listenership and viewership. Economic uncertainty affects public broadcasting like it affects all businesses. Meanwhile, the Trump administration wants to eliminate funding for the...

Baltimore’s population was decline for 70 years. Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau released data indicating that Baltimore’s population inched up, by fewer than 800 people in 2024. Is that a trend that can be sustained? Charlie Duff is an architectural historian and developer in Baltimore who is the retired chair of Jubilee Baltimore, a non-profit organization that builds affordable and market-ra...

Rep. Sarah Elfreth passed the 100-day mark in her first term representing Maryland's 3rd Congressional District. Much of her attention is focused on the plight of Maryland's federal workforce, which has seen rapid reduction under the Trump administration. In March, Elfreth introduced legislation called the “Protect Our Probationary Employees Act.” She has also held town halls and listed resources...

Midday's Town Hall with Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. He speaks with us on the latest issues affecting the county including supporting the federal workforce, reduced funds for education and closing a budget gap.

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday to share another weekly review of a local theatrical production. Akeelah and the Bee continues at Baltimore Center Stage through April 13.

Last Monday, legislators in Annapolis celebrated Sine Die, the last day of the General Assembly session. A $3.3 billion-dollar budget deficit loomed large over the Session this year, with unknown federal funding cuts a complicating factor as the legislature debated ways to balance the budget. Pamela Wood, politics and government reporter for The Baltimore Banner, joins Midday to discuss how lawmak...

The Department of Public Works is Baltimore's largest agency, with more than 2,300 employees who are responsible for water and wastewater, solid waste, infrastructure, and other areas, like graffiti removal and boarding up vacant properties. The director of the agency, Khalil Zaied, joins Midday to discuss worker conditions, internal culture and ongoing public projects. The latest in a series of r...