Midday

Midday welcomes internationally acclaimed classical guitarist from Poland, Lukasz Kuropaczewsk for a Midday Mini-Concert . He has performed around the world, with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, and in solo recitals. In addition to performing around the world, he is currently a faculty member at Kunst University in Austria and the Academy of Music in Poland. Tomorrow he will perfo...

Today is  Midday at the Movies,   our monthly focus on new films and film-industry trends with movie aficionados  Jed Dietz,  founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, and  Max Weiss , film critic and Editor-in-Chief of  Baltimore Magazine . As the weather cools down, the movie theaters are heating up with new releases such as  Conclave,  a thriller/drama directed by Edward Berger and  Satu...

Theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck  joins  Midday  to share another weekly review of a local theatrical production. This week, she reviews  Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains  at  Everyman Theatre through November 17 . Deidre Staples stars in many roles in the final chapter of the award-winning  Queens Girl  trilogy. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-878...

Two weeks ago, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott  announced that the city would terminate its contract  with the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, the quasi-governmental agency serving as a local arts council, and as a producer of large city events like Artscape and the Baltimore Book Festival. Financial problems have beset the agency ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to cancel many...

Baltimore is home to several world-class sports facilities. Oriole Park at Camden Yards was recently voted the best Major League Ballpark in the USA Today Readers’ Choice travel award contest, and M&T Bank stadium is full for many of their home game. Pimlico Racetrack, which has certainly seen better days, is an iconic location, home to the second leg of the Triple Crown. Now, the state is pre...

Through a complex, interwoven, interstate system, transmission cables carry electricity to businesses and homes everywhere, connecting the United States in a latticework of metal and rubber from one coast to another coast. With soaring energy needs and aging infrastructure, utility companies say new power lines are needed. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, a 70-mile transmission line that...

State Senator Clarence Lam who represents Maryland's District 12 in the General Assembly joins Midday to discuss a recent murder by a youth offender in Howard County. On October 9, a man was shot to death in a parking lot at a Columbia office building. Howard County police arrested a 17-year-old student at Howard High School, and a 14-year-old from Severn in connection with the murder. When the 17...

Maryland's Secretary of Juvenile Services (DJS), Vincent Schiraldi joins Midday to discuss several high-profile crimes involving juveniles. While not suggesting Schiraldi should resign, the Mayor of Baltimore and the Baltimore Police Commissioner have voiced concern that arresting some juvenile offenders and then remanding them to the custody of their guardians is not always in the best interest o...

More than 1,800 people took advantage of same day registration to register and vote yesterday. Early voting centers are open today, through next Thursday, including on Saturday and Sunday, from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM. In her race against former Gov. Larry Hogan for the open U.S. Senate seat here in Maryland, Angela Alsobrooks presented control of the Senate as a central issue to voters. Her campaig...

Yesterday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and the new head of the city's Department of Public Works, Khalil Zaied, released a report from an independent law firm commissioned to evaluate DPW's policies and procedures . This follows the death of Ronald Silver, a DPW worker who died of heat related problems he encountered last summer. WYPR's Emily Hofstaedter was the first to report the story back in...

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday  to share another weekly review of a local theatrical production. This week, Rousuck reviews Pride & Prejudice , at Baltimore Center Stage through November 10 . The production is being billed as as a rom-com. Is that an accurate description?   Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

The Chesapeake Bay is at a crossroads. A decade ago, state and federal partners along the country’s largest estuary entered into a binding agreement to restore the bay’s sprawling ecosystems. Now, the agreement is up for renewal in 2025. Gov. Wes Moore is set to chair the first meeting to consider the plan's future in early December. Have efforts to clean up the Bay during the ten years the agreem...

In 2009, Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for her wonderful novel about a famously cantankerous and compelling character, Olive Kitteridge. Since then, in books like The Burgess Boys and My Name is Lucy Barton , Strout introduced readers to more of her engaging, vivacious characters. And with her latest book, published last month, Strout brings all of these characters together. Tell Me Ever...

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott joins host Tom Hall for Midday with the Mayor , an ongoing interview series with the chief executive of Charm City. We ask him about the latest on financial trouble at the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts , and Baltimore voters deciding the future of the Inner Harbor .   Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On another installment of our series of Conversations with the Candidates ,  Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks joins Midday . She is the Democratic nominee running to succeed Ben Cardin in the U.S. Senate. With a thin majority for Democrats in the Senate, Democrats are facing an uphill battle to retain a majority. Tight races in Ohio, Montana and other states elevate Maryland to p...

Baltimore City voters are set to have a say on the future of Harborplace by voting "yes" or "no" on Question F, which asks voters if they want to make amends to the city charter regarding the public park area at the Inner Harbor. Specifically, Question F asks if voters would allow multi-family housing and off-street parking in the space. Additionally, it asks if they would expand the area for deve...

Today, reflections on the war in the Middle East from an American physician who spent a month at a hospital in Gaza, and a Marylander who grew up in Ramallah, on the West Bank. Dr. Victoria Aveson is a surgeon from New York, who went to Gaza under the auspices of Humanity Auxilium, a nonprofit that sends volunteers to help in areas ravaged by wars and natural disasters. She worked at the Shuhada A...

Today we have our weekly review from Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck. This week she explores Babbitt starring two-time Tony award winner Matthew Broderick.  The play is a stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s politically satirical critique of the American dream. Babbitt runs through November 3 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR...

Baltimore City's charter is a foundational document dictating how the city is run, similar to how the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution sets the responsibilities and limits of the federal government. And like the U.S. Constitution, the city charter is not easy to amend. Amendments need to be voted on and receive majority support at the polls to pass. This year, voters in Baltimore City are...

John Grisham 's name is a common sight on book store shelves and the annual lists of best-selling works. His gripping thrillers, including A Time for Mercy and The Runaway Jury , are known across the world. In 2006, Grisham published The Innocent Man , a nonfiction work chronicling the story of Ron Williamson, who wrongly convicted, sentenced to death row and eventually exonerated. Grisham’s lates...

Millions of people around the country have already cast a ballot in this year’s election. With competitive races for President and for U.S. Senate, Maryland voters are expected to turnout in high numbers. The 2020 election, which put President Joe Biden into office, saw 66% participation. Two years later, in the 2022 midterms, only 46% of eligible voters cast ballots. But besides low turnout, rece...

Kim Klacik speaks to Midday about her run for U.S. Congress in another edition of Conversations with the Candidates . She is the Republican candidate to represent the second congressional district in the House of Representatives. Her opponent in the race is Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. Klacik ran for Congress in 2020 in the seventh district, a seat held by Democratic congressma...

Dr. Mileah Kromer, pollster and Director of the UMBC Institute of Politics joins Midday to recap the debate between Angela Alsobrooks and Larry Hogan, who are vying to succeed Ben Cardin in the US Senate. The Institute of Politics recently released a poll to capture the thoughts of registered voters in the 2024 General Election. Kromer is also the author of Blue State Republican: How Larry Hogan W...

Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday  to share another weekly review of a local theatrical production. Rousuck reviews Joe Turner's Come and Gone , which runs at the Chesapeake Theatre Company through October 13. The production is the second show in The Baltimore August Wilson Celebration . Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

After four grueling months in the summer of 1787, most, but not all, of the framers of the US Constitution signed the document that has been the fundament of our government ever since. However, Midday's guest today has written a book that asserts the constitution itself poses a threat to our republic. No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States  is a new book by Er...