Midday

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 "Frozen" at The Hippodrome Theatre .  (Photo by Deen van Meer) Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

What do you look forward to cooking and baking at this time of year? Chef John Shields  is the author of several cookbooks, the latest of which is  The New Chesapeake Kitchen . He’s a chef and the proprietor of Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the host of two highly acclaimed PBS cooking shows: Chesapeake Bay Cooking and Coastal Cooking. John joins us in Studio A…...

Former President Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned in a federal court in Miami yesterday afternoon. Between the federal indictment yesterday and the New York state indictment from April, he is charged with more than 70 counts of criminal acts. The 37 count indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith is in addition to the 34 count indictment bought against him in April by Man...

The media seas are rocky for some of America’s largest legacy news organizations. NPR, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post have all announced layoffs and restructuring in recent days and weeks. And the outlook for many smaller organizations is cloudy as well. Last fall, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University reported that between late 2019 and the...

When Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. needed to replace Police Chief Melissa Hyatt last spring, he turned to a veteran of his county’s police department. The new police chief is  Robert McCullough , a 35-year veteran of the County police force. He was confirmed by the County Council in April and is the first African American to lead the country’s 21st largest police department in M...

It’s the Midday Newswrap. Jayne Miller, a former award-winning investigative reporter for WBAL-TV, joins Tom for a look behind the headlines, including the announcement yesterday that Baltimore Police Chief Michael Harrison has stepped down from his post. Also, reports from Donald Trump’s legal team reveal he has become the first former President to be indicted for a federal crime. (Photos, from t...

June is Pride Month. around the world, celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community are happening to celebrate sexual and gender minorities. This year, the celebrations come in the context of more than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ laws passing in state houses across the country, more than double the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that passed last year. For the first time in its 40 year history, t he Human Rights Campaign...

Change is, literally, in the air. And no,  we do not mean the smoke from the Canadian wildfires . As of next month, the laws around marijuana are set to change. In three weeks, if you are 21 years old or older, the possession and use of small amounts of recreational cannabis will be legal. Voters approved legalization last fall,  but it has fallen to legislators and regulators to figure out how th...

A discussion about education in Baltimore on Midday . But first, a note on this show. Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury accepted an invitation in advance to join for this show. His staff asked for questions and list of topics Tom wanted to discuss. We do not often send specific questions to guests prior to their appearances on our show. This policy has several of reasons,...

Last week,  when Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott appeared on our show , he touted a 17% decrease in violent crime in our city compared to last year. In fact, as of today, the 120 homicides recorded in Baltimore so far this year is 25 fewer than the 145 recorded at this time last year. That’s a 17% reduction. 21 fewer nonfatal shootings have occurred this year compared to last year, too. But as the M...

In April,  Dr. Leana Wen  published an essay in the Washington Post which bore the headline, “We Should Not Be Celebrating Marijuana Use .” The column engendered more than 5,000 responses, most of which disagreed with her about the dangers of marijuana. Today on the  Healthwatch,  let’s talk about marijuana. Even the term “marijuana” is considered in some quarters to be pejorative, with some folks...

Welcome to Midday at the Movies ,  our monthly look at films and filmmaking. We're pleased to have two movie mavens join us again. Ann Hornaday is film critic for the Washington  Post , Jed Dietz , the founder and former director of the Maryland Film Festival and Parkway Theater . We discuss the latest movies out in theatres, including You Hurt My Feelings, Master Gardener, Beau Is Afraid and Real...

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, we discuss "Exclusion," a story about an award-winning historian whose best-selling book about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 has the chance to become a mini-series by a greedy Hollywood producer. Exclusion is at Arena Stage in Washington,...

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins Tom to discuss his plans to keep Baltimore’s youth safe and occupied this summer and his efforts to fill vacancies in some key leadership positions in his administration, including in the Fire Department, the Health Department and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. The city is facing big challenges filling lower level positions, as well. T...

The therapeutic benefits of living with and tending plants are well known—they offer a connection to the natural world that nurtures our mental and physical health. In Living Wild How to Plant Style Your Home & Cultivate Happiness , Hilton Carter shows how to create a lush, stylish space with flourishing plants that bring life to your home and happiness to your life. The best-selling author, d...

Last fall, the American Library Association  compiled a list of books that have been targets of censorship , challenged for inclusion in the collections of school and public libraries. 1,269 books were challenged in 2022. Jolie McShane and Jeff McDonald are two of the activists seeking to ban books about sexuality and LGTBQ communities in Baltimore County school libraries. That’s almost double the...

Denise Kumani Gantt joined Tom on Zoom. She is the Director of Education  and a resident artist with  Lyric Baltimore , and one of the prime movers behind the "Dream Big" Contest. Eight visionaries were named as winners. Students appearing on the show are listed below: Joshua Adler, 6th Grade, Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School Aminah Ebron, 11th Grade, Baltimore School for the Arts Sha'Mi...

When former Del.  Brooke Lierman  was running for Maryland Comptroller, she promised to use the office as a platform for activism, to shake-up systems and to bring a different management perspective to running the state’s tax collection and finances. Since taking office in January, Comptroller Lierman has implemented a number of changes, and the legislature has given her new tools to work with to...

Now, the reimagining of Harborplace  has begun. Late last year, a local developer named P. David Bramble   purchased the property, and pledged to revive this centerpiece of downtown that was once a proud symbol of Baltimore’s Renaissance. Bramble is the managing partner at  MCB Real Estate. We return to this conversation from earlier this month with Bramble and Christopher Mfume , a son of Congres...

t's time for another visit with Midday theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. This week she reviews “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” which is showing at the Vagabond Players at 806 S. Broadway through June 11.  Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

On Midday today, we hear music from some members of the Peabody Consort, a group that specializes in music of the Renaissance. The consort is a smaller, select group of student musicians from the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, which Mark Cudek founded 25 years ago. The band includes Cudek, who plays guitar, cittern, percussion, Mira Fu-En Huang , a soprano, Sarah Shodja with recorders and Cameron W...

A new novel by  Celia Bell  explores the court of Louis XIV in 17th century France, where two noblewomen fall in love amongst dark magic and intrigue. From the most elite salons to the grittiest quartiers, the Bell weaves a tale that is complex and compelling. Bell joined Tom in studio to talk about The Disenchantment . Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780...

Earlier today, the Baltimore County Council passed the $4.9 billion dollar budget proposed by County Executive   Johnny Olszewski, Jr . The package includes raises for county employees, teachers and police, school construction, two new senior centers, and improvements to parks. County Executive Olszewski joins Tom to talk about the budget, and his priorities for the next couple of years. Email us...

Memorial Day weekend is often the time when gardeners get to work digging, pruning and planting. It’s a perfect time to head Back to the Garden here on Midday, where we have the answers to all of your gardening questions. Our guests are  Farmer Chippy ,  the creator of the Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm, and  Carrie Engel , the Greenhouse Manager at Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, MD. Email...

Associated Black Charities  was founded in 1985 to advocate on behalf of African Americans in the Baltimore metropolitan region. The organization has recently gone through a re-examination and re-tooling of its mission. To navigate the transition, ABC's board hired  Chrissy Thornton , a resident of Baltimore for three decades and a Morgan State University alumna. Thornton made a career in non-prof...