Midday

Joining Tom now is the author of a wonderful book, one that makes an important contribution to the literature of walking . From prophets to historians, the tradition of walkers writing about what they encountered on their journeys goes back centuries. Neil King, Jr . didn’t set out to write a book, necessarily, but in the spring of 2021, he left his home in Washington, DC, and headed for New York,...

Spring is in the air. Most folks in our listening area are enjoying plenty of sunshine today, and perhaps thinking ahead to what they’ll plant in their gardens. We thought today would be a good day to talk about issues in agriculture, as farmers begin planting their fields and urban gardeners start populating their pots. Tom's guest is Joe Bartenfelder, who has managed his family produce business...

Now, Tom is joined by 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 assisting communit...

Tom's first guest today is Del. Elizabeth Embry . Before she was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates last November, she served as Assistant MD Attorney General . She has spent the past four years investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore . A redacted version of her report was released last week. Click here to read it. Its findings are stunning. 156 prie...

The 445th session of the Maryland General Assembly came to a somewhat chaotic close at midnight Monday night. With minutes left until the stroke of midnight, former minority leader Del. Nic Kipke , a Republican from Anne Arundel County, engaged in a heated conversation with Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones. All 10 of the bills put forward by the state’s newly elected Governor Wes Moore , passed...

(This conversation was originally broadcast on March 15, 2023) Tom's guest on this archive edition of Midday is the award-winning author, Julie Otsuka . She has published three critically acclaimed novels. Her first, When the Emperor Was Divine was published in 2002, and over the past 20 years, it has been chosen by more than 60 colleges and universities as a “campus reads” book, in which everyone...

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 regional stage. Today, she spotlights The Jungle, writers Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's immersive theater piece about the refugee experience, now engaging audiences at Shakespeare Theatre Company 's Harman Hall in Washington, DC. The uniquely-staged play — convention...

It's another episode of   Midday at the Movies ,  our monthly conversation about films and filmmaking. Joining Tom in Studio A are our two movie-maven regulars: Ann Hornaday , film critic for the Washington  Post and author of the best-selling moviegoers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies . Ann joins us on Zoom from Iowa ... And Jed Dietz , the founder and former director (retired) of t...

Our focus on Midday today is the Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. A warning to our listeners: for the rest of the hour, we’re going to talk about child sexual abuse. Yesterday, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released the long-awaited Catholic clergy sexual abuse report. It chronicles more than 80 years of abuse by more than 150 Catholic cler...

Donald Trump has broken yet another norm, becoming the first US president in American history to be indicted on criminal charges . He surrendered to authorities Tuesday afternoon in lower Manhattan, and when he appeared before Judge Juan Manuel Marchan , he pleaded “not guilty” to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, in connection with a hush-money scheme ahead of the 2016 presidential...

Now, with the excitement of March Madness behind us, with opening day for the Orioles at Camden Yards just two days away, and with Lamar Jackson ’s future with the Ravens very much up in the air , it’s a good time to talk sports: Alejandro Danois covers sports for WYPR's news partner, The Baltimore Banner … Jerry Coleman is the co-host of the Adam Jones Podcast , produced by the Baltimore Banner …...

Today, we begin with a conversation about the violence interruption program Safe Streets . It’s a central fixture of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy that Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has implemented to reduce violence in our city. Safe Streets has operated in some areas for 15 years, providing credible counselors, known to their communities, who help diffuse tense situations and help people...

It’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch ,  our monthly conversations about public health with Dr. Leana Wen. We'll be talking today about how, after the US Department of Energy gave oxygen to the lab-leak theory about the origins of COVID, new evidence has emerged suggesting the pandemic began because of animal-to-human transmission in a Chinese live-animal market. And what are the guidelin...

It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland-DC's regional stage. Today she spotlights playwright Adam Rapp 's emotionally suspenseful 2018 drama, The Sound Inside , in a new production at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre . Directed by Everyman's Founding Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi , Rapp's Tony-nominated play e...

Now, Tom welcomes Angela Hewitt to the program. The British-Canadian artist is an extraordinary classical pianist who has been praised particularly for her interpretations of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach . Here’s Ms. Hewitt performing music from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier . Angela Hewitt joined us Thursday on Zoom from Ottowa. Because our conversation is recorded, we can't take any questio...

Today, it's Midday on the Arts. A little later in the hour, Tom will speak with the internationally acclaimed classical pianist, Angela Hewitt , who is appearing in Columbia tomorrow night. And our theater critic, J Wynn Rousuck , will review the new show at the Everyman Theater. But we begin with the spoken word artist Wordsmith . He has released eight albums, and contributed music to several net...

Now, it’s Midday on the Law.   Joining Tom is David Jaros . He’s a professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and the Faculty Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform . Professor Jaros discusses the case of Adnan Syed , who was convicted in 1999 of murdering his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, and sentenced to life in prison. His case was controversial, and became...

We begin today with the two leaders of the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP : the President, Rev. Kobi Little , and Branch Vice President, Joshua Harris . They join Tom to discuss what’s top of mind for the local chapter of NAACP. Two recent issues in which the civil rights organization has been vocal include the deal to turn over maintenance of the city’s conduit system to its largest user, BGE, an...

Today it’s Midday on Education, and Tom's Newsmaker guest is the president and CEO of the Baltimore City Public Schools , Dr. Sonja Santelises . As yet another horrible mass shooting of students and staff in a Nashville school on Monday reminds us, school safety is a challenge faced by schools nationwide. And, in the first post-COVID assessment of schools by the MD state department of education ,...

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 Artificial...

The 2023 MD General Assembly is in its final two weeks. Today on Midday on Politics , an update on how various bills are faring as they wind their way through the legislative session that concludes with Sine Die on April 10. We begin with Del. Jheanelle Wilkins , who represents District 20 (Montgomery County). She’s a Democrat and since last year has served as the chair of the Legislative Black Ca...

Midday on the Arts continues as Tom welcomes the internationally acclaimed classical guitarist, Xuefei Yang . The artist has performed in more than 50 countries around the world, and she's playing a concert here in Baltimore tomorrow night as part of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society series. We're delighted that she is here with us today in Studio A, and that she has brought her guitar to pla...

It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today she tells us about Tiny Beautiful Things , writer Cheryl Strayed 's bestselling digest of her "Dear Sugar" personal advice columns, retold in a compelling stage adaptation by "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" writer and actor Nia Vardalos , and in productio...

It's Midday on the Arts today, and we open the hour with the great jazz vocalist, Tierney Sutton , singing Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend from her ambitious 19-track CD, Screenplay, a 2019 collection of great songs written for movies. Sutton has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album 8 times, and a 9th time for arranging — that's one for every CD she has released over the last 10...

Next on Midday , we're going to take stock of the numerous criminal and civil investigations into former president Donald Trump ’s actions before, during and after his White House stint. The government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reports that as of late last year, Mr. Trump had been accused of committing at least 56 criminal offenses in the period between t...