Midday

(This conversation originally aired on May 23, 2022) Welcome to an encore presentation of Midday . Today, a conversation about aging . We are, as a general rule, living longer. The average life expectancy of Americans in 1960 was just over 69 years. In 2022, it’s 79 years. A team of physicians and researchers at Johns Hopkins have formed a group called the Johns Hopkins Human Aging Project , that...

(This conversation originally aired on June 9, 2022) “Let me be very clear to all of you, and I've been very clear to the president. He bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no ifs, ands or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and he needs to...

It's time for another 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 Captain Hook: My Story, or How I Clawed My Way to the Top , playwright Peter Boyer's modern re-imagining of the classic villain in J.M. Barrie's beloved Peter Pan. Directed at Baltimore's Spotlighters Theatre by Miriam Bazensky, t...

In a ruling that surprised and angered Justice Department officials, yesterday, a federal judge in Florida instructed the DOJ to suggest redactions as a first step in a possible release of the affidavit related to the search warrant for the search of Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home. That search resulted in the removal of more than a dozen boxes of documents, some of which were highly classified. Ju...

Last May, the US Department of Justice sued a company called Envigo RMS, the owner of a dog breeding facility in Cumberland, VA, for multiple violations and acts of animal cruelty. Some 4,000 beagles were put in the custody of the Humane Society of the United States , which has been working to find homes for the dogs ever since. Tom's first guest today is Lindsay Hamrick, the director of the organ...

Harriet Hageman , a Trump-endorsed candidate, handily beat Liz Cheney in the Wyoming Republican Congressional primary, and Sarah Palin will likely advance in the process in Alaska. So, Trump’s electoral influence continues to be formidable. Election deniers have won Republican nominations for state offices around the country, including here in Maryland. The former President and his circle face con...

Now, we turn to the author and educator Britt Hawthorne . She is an anti-bias and antiracist facilitator who has written a book with Natasha Yglesias called Raising Anti-Racist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide   (Simon and Schuster). Britt Hawthorne joins us from Houston.  Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Most Maryland students and teachers will return to their classrooms in the next couple of weeks. Most jurisdictions across the state and around the country are experiencing a teacher shortage that is unprecedented in American education. Nationwide, it’s estimated that 300,000 teachers have left the classroom. In Maryland alone, more than 5,500 teachers have left the profession this year. This shor...

It’s the Midday Healthwatch , with Dr. Leana Wen. The start of school is just around the corner, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia has issued new guidelines for the new school year. Monkeypox testing is more widely available than it’s been, but vaccines are still hard to come by. President Biden had what appears to be a rebound case of COVID after taking the an...

Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed for the first time the court-approved search that was conducted at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Monday. He spoke for two minutes and did not take any questions from reporters. The Attorney General announced that he had personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. The New York Times reports that according to thr...

It's time for another 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 the Folger Theatre' s new production of William Shakespeare's magical comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream , now on stage at The Playhouse, the custom-built theater within the majestic Great Hall of the National Building Museum . The...

Tom's next guest is Dr. Nancy Proctor , the chief strategy officer and founding executive director of The Peale Museum here in Baltimore. The Peale is the oldest museum building in the United States. It’s gone through many changes since it opened in 1814, and on Saturday, it will celebrate another historic change when it opens for the first time after a five-year, five and-a-half million-dollar re...

It’s Midday on the Arts.  A little later, Tom speaks with the founding executive director of the Peale Museum, which is re-opening to the public on Saturday after a major renovation. And J Wynn Rousuck will have a theater review. But we’ll begin today with two local film makers who are the creators of a web series called Turf Valley.   It chronicles the lives of some stay at home dads, in episodes...

Now, we're happy to welcome back to the show Shelonda Stokes , the president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore , to talk about the BOOST Program for African American retailers… She joins us on Zoom along with two entrepreneurs who are benefiting from the BOOST program: Bryan Robinson is the arts studio proprietor of The Black Genius Art Show . LaTonya Turnage is the founding owner of Elite...

Today on Midday, conversations about promoting African American entrepreneurship and building Black business. A little later in the show, Tom speaks with Shelonda Stokes , the president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore about the BOOST Program, which promotes Black retailers in downtown Baltimore. We'll meet a couple of those business owners, as well. But Tom's first guest is Dr. Gina Merri...

The WNBA superstar basketball player, Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia for the past six months, and last week, she was sentenced to nine years in prison for bringing a cannabis product into the country. Former Marine Paul Whelan has been in prison in Russia for more than three and a half years, accused by Russia of espionage, a charge he vehemently denies. Secretary of State Antony Blin...

Today, it's Midday on the Law . Tom's guest for the hour is David Jaros , associate professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and Faculty Director of the School's Center for Criminal Justice Reform . Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby did not prevail in the primary election held last month, so she will not return to office for a third term in January. She will, howe...

It's time for another 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 American Prophet : Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, the powerful new biographical musical drama now playing at Washington's Arena Stage. The world premiere production is directed and co-written by   Charles Randolph-Wright ....

Welcome to another edition of Midday at the Movies,  our monthly look at films and filmmaking. Today, Tom is joined by Ann Hornaday , a movie critic with the Washington Post , and author of the bestselling filmgoers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies . Today we'll take a closer look at director Jordan Peele's new sci-fi horror flick, Nope, and try to sort through some of the new crop of...

Tom's next guest is Baltimore businessman Lenzie Johnson. He's the Chief Operating Officer at L&J Waste and Recycling , a local company that hires young people from the Roca program. Roca is a non-profit violence interruption program that's focused on helping young African American men, young mothers, and Central American youth who are fleeing violence, to cope with the trauma of urban violenc...

Welcome to another edition of Midday with the Mayor, host Tom Hall's monthly conversations with Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott about key issues facing the citizens of Baltimore. Today, Tom asks the mayor about the annual Public Safety Report summarizing progress on the mayor's Multi-Year Violence Prevention Plan; an update on the squeegee workers collaborative; a new city-wide count of the hom...

Today on Midday , another edition of our election-year series, Conversations with the Candidates, 2022 . In the race for Governor, Democrats nominated Wes Moore , a popular author and non-profit executive, making his first run for public office. Republicans voted for Dan Cox , an election denier and acolyte of Donald Trump. Mr. Moore is heavily favored to win, but at a unity rally in Silver Spring...

In the 2022 US elections across the country, more than 160 Republican primary candidates for offices up and down the ballot are election deniers who have embraced Donald Trump’s malicious fiction about the 2020 Presidential contest. On Monday (Aug 1), the Brennan Center for Justice in New York reported that 12 election denier candidates in swing states with secretary of state races this year have...

Last Monday, we talked here on Midday about a proposal by a coalition called Renew Baltimore to have voters approve two charter amendments that would dictate a dramatic reduction in the property tax rate in Baltimore city. The proposal would reduce the rate by 44% over a period of six years, from 2.248% to 1.25% per $100,000 of value. The property tax rate in the city of Baltimore is roughly twice...

It's time again for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights the new production of the hit 1966 Broadway hit musical, Sweet Charity, on stage now at the Cockpit -in-Court Theater , on the Essex campus of Community College of Baltimore County. Directed at CCBC by Eric Potter, using the ori...