Midday

It's the 7th anniversary edition of the universally beloved What Ya Got Cookin'? Pre-Thanksgiving Special here on Midday. Thursday will mark the third Thanksgiving with COVID hovering over the table. COVID infections and infections from other viruses are on the rise. The Maryland Department of Health reports 18 deaths from COVID related disease in the last 24 hours. Twenty-three people were hospit...

Donald Trump has announced his third candidacy for the US presidency, amid growing calls from some Republicans to move past Trump and on to a new generation of leaders. If that happens, and we do move into a post-Trump era, will Maryland Governor Larry Hogan impress Republicans as a model for how the GOP can attract a diverse coalition of support? Tom's guest today explores that hypothesis in her...

The Maryland State Board of Elections will meet this afternoon to certify the results of the state's November 8 midterm elections, so the results should be official by about 3:00. Tom's guest for the hour today is Sen. Chris Van Hollen . The Democrat from Montgomery County won a resounding victory on November 8, being re-elected to a second term and besting his Republican challenger, Chris Chaffee...

Now, we turn to a grammarian who has written a terrific book that recounts her experience at the Grammar Table , a pop-up resource about grammar questions she set up at a card table in the park near her Manhattan apartment in 2018, and which she has since carried to all 50 states. The book is called Rebel With a Clause:  Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian.  We're delighted that the book's aut...

Yesterday, a judge blocked the plea deal that had been reached between the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys for the teenage squeegee worker charged in the murder of Timothy Reynolds on July 7th. We begin the hour today with David Jaros , a law professor and faculty director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law . Dave Jaros...

It's time again for a visit with Midday 's peripatetic theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about the North American touring company production of Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Katori Hall ' s 2019 Broadway hit, Tina: the Tina Turner Musical , currently in the middle of a 6-day run at Baltimore's Hippodrome...

With Thanksgiving just a week away, we thought it was a good time to touch base with Monica Reinagel , the Nutrition Diva . She can set us straight about some myths concerning weight gain and weight loss, and she can offer some tips for not inflicting too much damage to the waistline at Thanksgiving and throughout the holidays. Monica Reinagel is a licensed nutritionist and the author of six books...

Tom's guest today is an artist who defies categorization and whose creative outlets span an array of genres. Dessa is a Minneapolis-born rapper, composer, poet, writer, and the host of Deeply Human , a podcast about science. She has given TED talks and speeches about entrepreneurship and art. She’s the author of a memoir in essays called My Own Devices .  Her latest book is a collection of poetry...

Yesterday, the Baltimore Banner reported that the teenager currently charged as an adult with first degree murder in the killing of Timothy Reynolds would be offered a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter, and have his case transferred to juvenile court. A judge must approve the deal. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Mr. Reynolds was wielding a bat during an interaction with some squeegee work...

Tom's next guest is a young singer from Los Angeles who is taking the jazz world by storm. Her name is Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, who performs as Tawanda. Tawanda is the co-winner of the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition . She’s singing a set here in Baltimore at Keystone Korner on Wednesday night, and she joins us here on Midday today on Zoom, from Los Angeles … Tawanda's n...

And now, a segment we call Midday in the Neighborhood .  Before the COVID pandemic, we took the time, now and then, to introduce listeners to various neighborhoods throughout the city of Baltimore. There are 278 named communities in our city, and many of them are not well known to folks city-wide. Our series went on hiatus after COVID struck, and we're leased to revive it today with the help of ou...

We begin the hour with Midday on Politics. The US Senate will stay in Democratic hands, following the victory of incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. She beat a Trump-endorsed and heavily financed Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt. Attention has turned to the House, where control hinges on several races in California that are yet to be decided. And, any time attention turns away from Do...

It’s Midday on Politics .  Tom's first guest today is Heather Mizeur. She is a former delegate from Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. For the past several years, she and her wife have lived on a farm near Chestertown. In 2014, she ran for governor, losing to Anthony Brown in the Democratic primary. And this year, she ran for the US Congress in the first district, against the incu...

It's time again for our visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights the new production of Jordan E Cooper 's Ain't No Mo,' now running at Baltimore Center Stage. The no-holds-barred satirical comedy — a collection of often outlandish sketches about being Black in America — is directed at Center Stage...

Today on Midday , it’s another installment in our occasional series, Midday on Ethics.  A computational biologist from Johns Hopkins named Steven Salzberg published a commentary last week on the Hub , a Johns Hopkins University news website, in which he warned of the dangers of creating “superbugs” in labs for purposes of research. Dr. Salzberg has long been a critic of so called “ gain of functio...

All four of the victors in statewide races here in Maryland made history last night. Governor-elect Wes Moore became only the third African American to be elected Governor in the United States, and the first Black man to lead our state. His running mate, Lt. Governor elect Aruna Miller, is the first immigrant to be elected statewide. Anthony Brown will be Maryland’s first African American Attorney...

It’s Election Day in America. If you are not registered to vote, you can register when you go to your polling place. Go to the Maryland Board of Elections website to confirm where your polling place is, and bring some form of ID that proves you live in the district you’re voting in. If you are using a mail-in ballot, you have until 8:00 tonight to drop your ballot in one of the drop boxes in your...

Baltimore Ceasefire 365 is a community-based organization that for the past five years has been working to end violence in Baltimore. On four weekends each year, they hold events to promote non-violence, and to help those who are in danger or in mourning. And on the Mondays following each Ceasefire Weekend, we have been checking in with Ceasefire 365’s co-organizers. This past weekend (November 4-...

The last day of voting in this contentious election season is tomorrow. Among the issues Maryland voters will decide is the future of recreational marijuana. What will the impact on youth be, if the referendum passes and cannabis is legalized? And, as winter approaches, a possible surge in COVID cases isn’t the only cause for concern. Pediatric wards in hospitals around the country are packed with...

The Baltimore Classical Guitar Society is presenting two acclaimed guitarists in concert tomorrow night. One of them is Tom's next guest, Grisha Goryachev . He’s a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, and he is considered a master of not just the classical guitar, but of the fiery and passionate style of Flamenco as well. Grisha Goryachev joins us here in Studio A, and we're happy to say he has broug...

Today, we begin the hour with another installment of Midday at the Movies ,  our monthly convo about films and filmmaking. We're pleased to have with us again movie mavens  Ann Hornaday , film critic for the Washington  Post , who joins us in Studio A, and Jed Dietz , the founder and former director (ret.) of the Maryland Film Festival and Parkway Theater.   Jed is with us on Zoom. Today, we spotl...

It's time for another visit from Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us every week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about Everyman Theatre 's new production of James Goldman 's 1966 play, The Lion in Winter, a classic but still-resonant tale of power, political ambition and treachery, told through the travails of the 12th-centuury English king, Henry...

Tom's next guest is Devin Allen , the self-trained Baltimore-born artist and photographer who has achieved international renown for his compelling images of social justice protests. Devin Allen 's photo of the 2015 Freddie Gray uprising, and his 2020 image of a Black Trans Lives Matter protest, were separately featured on the covers of Time Magazine , making him one of just a handful of amateur ph...

Today, we begin the hour with another installment of Midday with the Mayor , our live monthly conversations with Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott about important issues on his, and the city's, agenda. Today's topic list includes: departures of some of the mayor's senior staff; school-based violence intervention; upgrades to the city's procurement systems; and the city's new Cherry Hill Recreatio...

Historically, voter turnout in American elections is horrible, and turnout in midterm elections is particularly lousy. But the midterms in 2018 set records for turnout, and with six days left in this cycle, there are indications that turnout this year will rival the historic participation four years ago. For a long time, common wisdom held that high turnout favored Democrats. At least that’s what...