Midday

On any given day, an average of 1,000 workers are on more than 300 construction sites on Maryland’s roadways. What can be done to keep them, and motorists, safe? Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller joins Midday today. A civil engineer, she came to office with experience in transportation, including formulating policy to protect roadway workers. Miller is the first woman of color and the first immigrant...

Disinformation and misinformation in politics and the public square are not a new feature of American political discourse. But recently, the dissemination of falsehoods are reaching a wider, mainstream audience. Lee McIntyre , a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University, joins the show today. His books include How to Talk to a Science Denier. His late...

It is time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland, D.C. and Virginia regional stage. We discuss “Lyra and the Ferocious Beast,” produced by Truepenny Projects . The production continues at The Voxel through August 27. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Irena Stein joins Midday to introduce her beautiful new book devoted to the Venezuelan arepa, and talks about how she uses food to bridge cultural divides and build community. Stein is a restauranteur, activist, artist and author. She is the founder and curator of Alma Cocina Latina , a terrific Venezuelan restaurant in Station North here in Baltimore. Her new book, Arepa, celebrates one of the gr...

Today is another edition of Midday with the Mayor. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins Tom today on Zoom from Ocean City, where he is attending the Maryland Association of Counties Conference, MACo.   We discuss the city’s agenda is at the annual conference. Plus, we hear the Mayor’s take on how the community is responding to Richard Worley, his nominee to be the next Police Chief. Email us at mid...

In 2012, the Maryland legislature established the Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling to address the issue of problem gambling. The center's budget averages nearly $5 million per year, and funds treatment services and a 24-hour hotline. They also conduct studies to determine how many Maryland residents are struggling with gambling addiction. Last month, in its most recent report, the Office o...

On Monday morning, former President Donald Trump faced 78 counts in three indictments. But by the end of the day, Fani Willis, the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, added 13 more counts to the list of charges facing the 2024 presidential hopeful. 18 other former lawyers and aides are included as coconspirators in the indictment. Our guest is legal scholar Jose Anderson , who is on the f...

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater joins Midday to discuss her growing constituency. She was elected last November in a tight race with State Sen. Michael Hough. Frederick faces challenges different than in Baltimore City. While the Baltimore’s population is shrinking, Frederick is booming. According to analysis of census data by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the ci...

Why are so few new houses being built in the Baltimore metropolitan region, and what does the slow-down in permitting and construction mean for housing prices and availability? Lori Graf is the CEO of the Maryland Building Industry Association. We discuss housing prices, housing inventory, and housing issues. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, on Midday : what to do about the nation's student debt crisis. Forty-five million Americans are carrying debts from their or their children's education, totaling more than $1.7 trillion . Women borrow more than men. (They also complete their degrees more often.) African Americans borrow the most, and most frequently. In 2022, then-WYPR education reporter Zshekinah Collier reported that the...

School starts for kids in Baltimore and beyond in just a couple of weeks, and when it does, more than 500 school food service workers will tend to the nutritional needs of those kids. School food encompasses much, much more than just lunch. Many kids rely on schools not just for lunch, but for breakfast, supper, and snacks as well. The National School Lunch Program, begun in the 1940s, is the larg...

Joining Tom now is the Baltimore-based hip hop virtuoso, recording artist and activist Anthony Parker, better known as Wordsmith , the founder of the youth advocacy organization, Rise with a Purpose… Also with us in studio are Tajae Holloway and Dayana Punnett , two of the performers in The Purple Tape , a new musical written and produced by Wordsmith in collaboration with the Baltimore Rock Opera...

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. Today, she tells us about the new  Arena Stage  production of playwright  Lauren Yee 's  Cambodian Rock Band , a mesmerizing, music-infused drama about how war and political oppression in the 1960s and 70s ravaged the southeast Asian n...

Tom's next guests today are two members of the Writers Guild of America , the consolidated union that represents the people who develop the stories and write the scripts for television shows and movies. The union's 11,000 members have been on strike for 100 days. The strike was joined last month by the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild ( which is affiliated with the American Federation of...

Tom's first guest today is Shamiah T. Kerney , the Chief Recovery Officer in the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs , an office set up by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott  to oversee the distribution of the $641 million dollars of funds allocated for the city from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). President Biden signed the ARPA measure into law in March of 2021, with the aim of helping comm...

It’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch ,  our monthly conversations about public health with Dr. Leana Wen. We'll be talking Dr. Wen today about the public health challenges caused by this summer's intense heat ; the continued under-use of Paxlovid as a medication that can reduce the severity of COVID infections; and her assessment of the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and...

Tom Hall's guest today is Tom Hanks . You know who he is, of course, because he’s a movie star. You know his work over a performing career that has spanned 46 years. You know that he has made dozens of iconic films, and that he has won a gazillion awards . And today, we’re not going to talk about any of that. We’re going to talk instead about his first novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Pic...

It's time for another visit with Midday  theater critic   J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of the mid-Atlantic regional stage. Today, she tells us about the new production of The Prom , a rollicking musical homage to musical comedies, now on stage at the Cockpit in Court Summer Theater at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County. A 2018 Broadway hit wi...

It's Midday at the Movies , our monthly look at films and filmmaking. One of Tom's guests today is Jed Dietz , the founder and retired director of the Maryland Film Festival. The MFF's current directors late last year announced they were putting the popular annual film event on hiatus until 2024 , while the board conducts what it calls "a planning process to re-envision its role as an arts and cul...

It’s Midday on Personal Finance. The economy continues to surge and confound. Unemployment and inflation are down, the stock market and wages are up. But spending power is a different story for a lot of Americans, and saving for the future remains a challenge. Nearly 60% of Americans have less than $5,000 in their piggy banks. Tom's guests today are two financial advisors who are ready to take you...

On Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith unsealed a four-count indictment against Donald Trump — the former US president and current front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — for crimes he is alleged to have committed during his failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — an election which he lost. Mr. Smith described the criminal charges briefly during y...

Tom's Newsmaker guest for the first half of the hour today is Baltimore County Executive John A. Olszewski, Jr.. Topics for today's conversation include: Community responses to Tuesday's National Night Out . Deploying Shot Spotter technology. Crime Data Transparency. Security Square Mall. Housing issues. Political plans... Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. joins Tom on Zoom to discu...

Tom's guest for the hour today is Craig Swagler , the new president and general manager of the Your Public Radio Corporation , the parent company of WYPR and our sibling station, WTMD . Swagler was appointed by Your Public Radio's board of directors after a national search. He brings to the job more than 20 years of experience as a producer and senior executive at CBS News Radio and Audio in New Y...

Tom's guests today are two authors who have new books — and a special bond. Ann Patchett is the best-selling author of nine novels, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of the National Humanities Medal. Her new book, which will be released tomorrow, is called Tom Lake . Her protagonist is an actress who ultimately lands in a different line of work. It’s a tender, warm, and wise, medit...

Another edition of Smart Nutrition with the Nutrition Diva, Monica Reinagel . Monica is a licensed nutritionist, author and speaker. She is also the host of the the podcasts “ Nutrition Diva ” and “ Change Academy ," which focuses on the art and science of behavior change. Today's discussion is focused on obesity, and the medications that are now being employed to treat it. Also Joining Tom is Ted...