Midday

It’s the Midday Healthwatch , with Dr. Leana Wen . Much of life has returned to pre-COVID normal. In several of her recent essays in the Washingon Post , Dr. Wen has written about new research into the vexing problem of Long COVID , the decision by the Biden administration to end the COVID state-of-emergency , how to help the immunocompromised , and how to more accurately account for the actual nu...

It'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. Today, she tells us about Jump, the 2019 play by Charly Evon Simpson about family, loss, spiritual journeys and fundamental connections, now on stage at Baltimore's Everyman Theater. Directed at Everyman by Summer L. Williams , the powerful drama stars Morg...

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 ; and Jed Dietz , the founder and former director (retired) of the Maryland Film Festival and Parkway...

Tom's Newsmaker guest today is Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. In November, he was elected for a second term to lead Maryland’s sixth largest county. Funding for Howard County Schools is a front-burner issue, as is the project to mitigate or prevent future flooding in Ellicott City . Calvin Ball joins Tom today in Studio A to discuss these and other issues he's working on in his second term....

As Tom mentioned at the top of yesterday's show — on the first day of Black History Month — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore made history by becoming the first African American to deliver a State of the State address to lawmakers and invited guests at the Statehouse in Annapolis. He said “service will save us” as he outlined his plan to get young people involved in public service as they enter adulthood, a...

Baltimore and surrounding jurisdictions face many challenges that are best addressed from a regional, rather than a local perspective. Yesterday, for example, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski held a press conference with members of the Maryland General Assembly to announce the creation of a task force to study how to modernize the governance of the wate...

Today on Midday. ... equity and the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel . President Joe Biden and Gov. Wes Moore were in Baltimore on Monday to proclaim that the plan for a new Frederick Douglass tunnel is good for jobs and economic growth . But some local residents think that the burden of the 10-year project will fall disproportionately on communities of color. Today, we explore the pros and cons of th...

And now, the problem with plastics. Most of the plastics we encounter in our consuming lives cannot be recycled, and the pollution from plastics is causing great environmental harm, from the petrochemicals it takes to make it, to toxic exposure while using it, and the waste it creates when it is dumped in underdeveloped countries. We speak with two environmental activists who are working to confro...

The murder of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Memphis policemen is yet another example of violence against Black citizens that can traumatize Black communities throughout the country. We begin today with Dr. Donell Barnett, the president of the Association of Black Psychologists . He is the Deputy Director for Mental Health Clinical Operations at the Illinois Department of Human Services . Donel...

Tom's guest today is Pico Iyer , who for more than 50 years has been acclaimed as a compelling, insightful and thoughtful writer. He has published widely as a journalist, and he’s written novels, but he is perhaps best known as a travel writer . He has journeyed to the far corners of the globe, and written with a deep sense of wonder, compassion, sensitivity and radiant kindness. Since 1992, Iyer...

It's time for another visit with Midday 's theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about the new Spotlighters Theater production of [title of show] . The small-scale musical about two guys writing a musical was written, in fact, by those two guys: Jeff Bowen (music and lyrics) and Hunter Bell (book) . Their self-re...

The Baltimore County Public School System has had four different superintendents in the last ten years. And sometime later this year, they’ll have another one. Dr. Darryl Williams , who's been on the job since May, 2019, and who has been facing increasing pressures from the County Council and several community groups, announced Monday that he will not pursue a renewal of his contract. He will leav...

Today, a conversation about classified documents and how they keep turning up in places they don’t belong — such as the Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate of former President Donald Trump. The latest revelation in this regard came on Tuesday (January 24), when it was revealed that lawyers for Mike Pence discovered what they described as “a small number” of documents in Pence’s Indiana home. Last Friday,...

Today, we’re going to talk about transgender rights . We are having this conversation in the context of dozens of states passing laws that not only limit or prohibit trans women from competing in women’s sports, but also impose legal limits in areas like health care, school policy, and public accommodations. The ACLU is currently tracking 185 anti-LGBTQ bills that are under consideration in state...

Now, a look at the first few days of the Moore-Miller administration in Annapolis. Governor Wes Moore wasted no time after his historic inauguration last Wednesday, issuing executive orders, assembling his cabinet for a pep-talk and releasing his first budget . Joining Tom to talk about what’s been a busy few days in the state’s capital — and to help us unpack the numbers in Gov. Moore's budget pr...

It’s déjà vu all over again. There’s a showdown in Congress about raising the debt ceiling . Republicans in the House want to use the debt ceiling as leverage to pass cuts in search of a balanced budget. Some Republicans have suggested abolishing the IRS and no longer collecting taxes. Instead, they propose funding the government with a national sales tax of up to 30%. And, will they actually say...

Joining Tom now are three excellent reporters who have collaborated on a documentary  that explores the consequences of tax breaks that the city of Baltimore offers to developers. The intention of these tax breaks is to spur economic growth, but as the film points out, assessing the impact of these muti-million dollar financial incentives is often difficult to do. Stephen Janis and Taya Graham are...

Justin Fenton from our partner news organization, The Baltimore Banner, reported late yesterday that former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ’s defense team has asked to withdraw from her case . In their motion to withdraw, the attorneys say that Ms. Mosby has consented to having the federal public defender’s office take over her defense. Mosby is charged with two counts of perjury and two...

It's time for another visit with Midday 's theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights Broadway Bound , the late, great Neil Simon 's Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1986 comedy, getting a new production now at Baltimore's Vagabond Players theater. Simon's semi-autobiographical comedy-drama — the last...

We begin today with a conversation about the role of city government in the arts. The quasi-public city agency known as BOPA, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts , came under fire a couple of weeks ago when it announced it was canceling the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade , an event that had been canceled for the last two years because of COVID. When BOPA issued a press releas...

On today's Special Edition of Midday , Tom hall hosts WYPR 's live coverage of the historic Inaugural Ceremonies at the State House in Annapolis, as Governor-elect Wes Moore and Lt. Governor-elect Aruna Miller are sworn in, and deliver their inaugural addresses. We get live reports and background during the event from WYPR News reporters Matt Bush and Rachel Baye in Annapolis. We also get analysis...

Our focus today on Black youth continues now as Tom welcomes Kristin Henning to the program. She’s an attorney and professor at Georgetown University Law School who directs its Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative. She has represented youth in Washington DC for more than 25 years. Her new book is called The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. She joins us on Zoom… __________...

Today on Midday, a focus on Black youth. A little later in the show, Tom speaks with Kristin Henning , a lawyer with the Juvenile Justice Center at the Georgetown law school about her book, The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. But Tom begins with Faith Leach, Baltimore City Deputy Mayor of Equity, Health and Human Services . She oversees the program that went into effect la...

On this special edition of Midday honoring the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service , we’ll meet three people for whom every day is a day of service, and whose animating force and deep-seated passions are centered, as Dr. King said, in the broader concerns of humanity. Tom's first guest is is Sharayna Christmas , an artist, teacher and activist who is the founder of MUSE 360 , an organiza...

We open this segment of Midda y with music by Antonin Dvorak, from his Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World") performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra . Joining Tom now is Mark Hanson . Last spring, he was appointed the President and CEO of the BSO , and job number one for him was hiring a new music director. In July, the BSO announced it has signed a five year contract with Jonathon Heyward ,...