Midday

The Baltimore Banner will hold  iMPACT Maryland  on October 10 to gather leaders in varying industries to discuss the ideas and innovation necessary to shape the future of Baltimore and Maryland. Tom starts with a conversation on the importance of violence intervention and data collection. Our guests are  Beth Blauer , the  Associate Vice Provost for Public Sector Innovation at Johns Hopkins Unive...

Today, The Baltimore Banner in conjunction with Goucher College,  released a new poll that took the temperature of the local electorate on a number of issues including beliefs about Baltimore's future and approval rates of elected city leadership. Joining Tom to discuss the poll results is Dr. Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College. Email us at midday...

Now, it is another edition of the Midday Healthwatch with  Dr. Leana Wen , one of the most respected public health experts in the country. She’s a former health commissioner of Baltimore. She’s a columnist on health matters for the Washington Post, a medical expert on CNN, and a scholar at George Washington University and the Brookings Institution. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYP...

The legal landscape changed in Maryland yesterday. A number of new laws took effect. We talked about one of them here on Midday last week: the Child Victims Act, which eliminated the statute of limitations on civil suits for victims of sexual abuse. We thought it would be helpful to ask our Statehouse reporter and News Director,  Matt Bush , to give us an overview of a few more of the bills that a...

Today on Midday, we’re going to talk about suicide with mental health professionals and advocates who are educating the public to help save lives. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 48,000 people died by suicide. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention estimates that around 1.7 million people atte...

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr joined Midday to discuss the latest updates on the regional water taskforce and youth crime concerns. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

My next guest is the iconic singer, actress and television star Freda Payne. She is appearing this weekend at Keystone Korner, the terrific jazz club in the Harbor East neighborhood of Baltimore. Freda Payne had her first gold record hit in 1970 with Band of Gold. She has appeared on stage, in films, and as a host on a TV show. And she has worked with a who’s who of performers including Duke Ellin...

It's time for another visit with Midday  theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland, DC and Virginia regional stage. “The Wiz” has returned to Baltimore and continues at the Hippodrome through Sunday . We spoke to the director, Schele Williams, and Ron Legler, president of the Hippodrome, about the show last week. Our theatre critic shares her thoughts...

Midday takes a few minutes to pay tribute to one of the greatest baseball players ever to play the game, and one of just a handful of players who epitomized the Oriole Way. Brooks Robinson passed away yesterday at the age of 86.   Joining Tom to reflect on this legendary player is  Jon Meoli ,  the Orioles Columnist for our news partner , the Baltimore  Banner.  Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet...

Today on Midday, a discussion about the  the Child Victims Act becomes law in Maryland . The law allows survivors of sexual assault in Maryland the right to sue the Archdiocese of Baltimore and others for civil damages, regardless of when the abuse they suffered took place. Prior to the law, survivors of sexual assault were ruled out of suing alleged abusers once they were past age 38. What will b...

Today on Midday, we talk about families. My guest today is Dr. Ashanti Woods , a pediatrician at Mercy Family Care Physicians in Baltimore. He is here with answers to your questions about your babies, your toddlers, your young kids and your teens. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It is Midday on the Law and Tom's guest  Kim Wehle . A professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, a legal analyst for ABC News, the host of Simple Politics on YouTube, and the author of several books, the latest of which is called How to Think Like a Lawyer, and Why. Kim will share her thoughts on President Trump's lawsuits and give a preview of the Supreme Court's 2023-2024 te...

On today's show, it is Midday on the Law. My first guest is  Ali Velshi , chief correspondent and the host of Velshi on MSNBC. He is also the author of an introduction to  a book that compiles all of the indictments against the former president in one volume . Placing all four indictments together makes a powerful statement about the gravity of the allegations against Mr. Trump, and Velshi makes a...

The Tony-Award winning musical "The Wiz" is returning to Broadway. The classic tale of Dorothy and her friends Lion, Tinman and Scarecrow easing down the road to meet the wizard is the first return to the stage in 40 years. This time, the yellow brick road starts in Baltimore with a pre-Broadway run at The Hippodrome Theare. Tom's guests to discuss the return of "The Wiz" are Ron Legler, the presi...

It's time for another visit with  Midday  theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland, DC and Virginia regional stage. “ Celebration: A Musical Revue ” celebrates Arena Players’ 70th anniversary, and continues at Arena Players through Oct. 1. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On today's show, it’s time for another installment in our series,  Midday in the Neighborhood.    Today, Tom turns his attention to south Baltimore and the communities near the Port of Baltimore. Due to the proximity, residents in the Port of Baltimore area are faced with environmental issues such as air and noise pollution. With planned expansions of business to the port, how can they partner wit...

Our guest today is  Vincent Schiraldi , the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Last week, the department released a report on juvenile crime. While the percentage of crimes committed by young people is drastically lower than crimes committed by adults, Maryland has seen an increase in juvenile crime over the last two years, although levels are down sharply over the last ten...

On this edition of Midday on Higher Education, I speak with Kent Deveraux, who was appointed the President of Goucher College in Towson in 2019. Over the summer, his contract was extended to 2027. Facing the same kind of enrollment challenges that many private colleges around the country face, Goucher is opening up its campus to senior citizens who want to continue their life long learning in tand...

About 13,000 auto workers  went on strike at four plants in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio last Friday morning . So far, only a fraction of the United Auto Workers' 146,000 members have been called to strike, but more plants could strike Friday if talks don’t produce progress. Does the strategy of striking on only certain auto plants increase the union’s leverage against the big three automakers, For...

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter  Scott Shane  joins Midday. He worked for 36 years with the  New York Times  and, before that, with the  Baltimore Sun.   Shane is the author of an award-winning book,  Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President and the Rise of the Drone.   He retired from the  Times  in 2019, and dove into a very different kind of project: a book that tells the story of the extraordi...

Today, a conversation about equity and AI . Tom's guest is Dr. Timnit Gebru , a computer scientist and tech expert who is working to reduce the negative effects of artificial intelligence. In 2021, Dr. Gebru founded the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR),  a non-profit she currently serves as executive director. Before that, she was employed at Google , where she co-led the Ethical Artificia...

After a long career as a journalist and foreign correspondent for the  Baltimore Sun,  Dan Fesperman  turned his attention to writing award-winning thrillers, often set in the foreign locales he covered for the newspaper. His latest novel is a terrific page-turner, set in Berlin, Germany around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is called  Winter Work .  Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet...

Today Tom speaks with one of the most original and compelling voices on the literary scene today.  Mohsin Hamid  has written five novels and a collection of essays. Two of his previous novels,  Exit West  and  The Reluctant Fundamentalist ,  were New York  Times  best sellers and finalists for the Booker Prize. His latest book explores the dynamics of race, and the notion of transformation. It is...

Midday  theater critic   J. Wynn Rousuck  joins us each week with her reviews of the mid-Atlantic regional stage. This week, we discuss " A Doll's House ." The play continues at Everyman Theatre through September 28, 2023. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Tom speaks with two local authors who took a path to publishing that many writers and aspiring writers are pursuing: the self-publishing path. Traditional publishers release almost one million books each year and in 2021 self-published authors accounted for nearly 2.3 million more, as reported by Publishers Weekly. Susan Dormady Eisenberg is an arts journalist who has recently published her second...