Midday

Welcome to this Summer Solstice edition of Midday. Today is the longest day of the year, and the official beginning of summer, and for all that summer has to recommend it, it is also a time when crime typically spikes in cities throughout the United States. Like cities across the country, Baltimore continues to reel from brazen acts of violence in communities across our city. A 15 year-old from Ho...

Happy Juneteenth! It’s another edition of our monthly Midday Healthwatch , with Dr. Leana Wen . The latest surge in the COVID-19 variant known as omicron is beginning to show signs it is receding, but the highly transmissible BA.2 variant has led the CDC to estimate that nearly 60% of Americans have already been infected. For children, the infection rate is even higher: closer to 75%. And help for...

(This conversation was originally broadcast on June 18, 2021) Tom's guest on this archived edition of Midday is the author and historian Annette Gordon Reed . She is best-known for her study of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,   won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her latest book is a...

It's time for another visit with Midday 's award-winning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about Bakkhai , playwright and classicist Anne Carson 's new version of the classic Greek tragedy by Euripides , now in a live production at Baltimore Center Stage . Featuring original music by Diana Oh and choreography...

And now it's Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at films and filmmaking, with two of our favorite film aficianados: Ann Hornaday , a film critic with the Washington Post , and author of the bestselling filmgoers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies ; and Jed Dietz , the founder and former director of the Maryland Film Festival and Parkway Theatre . Ann and Jed discuss some of the newl...

We begin today with a friend and colleague from our partner news organization, The Baltimore Banner.   Emily Sullivan is an award-winning reporter who is a former member of the WYPR news team, and who’s now covering City Hall for the Banner. Emily Sullivan joins Tom on our digital line to discuss some of the key findings from the Baltimore Banner's new "Baltimore Now" poll, conducted fo...

Today on Midday, we take up an issue that has flummoxed Congress for about as long as gun regulation: that is, immigration, and what to do about the southern border. At the center of the debate is Title 42 , a 1940s-era law that allows federal health authorities to prohibit migration into the US to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. The CDC — the federal Centers for Disease Control a...

Today on Midday, we are going to switch gears - so to speak - from the news of the day, and talk about Cars . Tom's guest is John Davis , the creator, producer and host of MotorWeek , now in its 41st season. The weekly automotive magazine show is produced at Maryland Public Television (MPT) and syndicated on PBS stations across the country. Gas prices are brutal, and there’s no end to t...

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 spotlights Everyman Theatre' s world-premiere production of Crying on Television , the new play by Baltimore-based writer and humorist R. Eric Thomas . The Thomas rom-com about race, media culture and real friendship is directed by Reginald L. D...

We begin today with a conversation about an exciting development that will transform and enrich the media landscape in Baltimore. The Baltimore Banner will begin publishing soon. The Banner is a multi-platform news organization, launched under the aegis of the non-profit Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism , that has attracted top talent from Baltimore and around the country, and it may turn...

“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 acknowledge that.” —House M...

Today , it's Midday on Maryland Politics, with a little over a month to go before statewide primary elections. Tom's guests today are two of the most astute observers of the state and local political scenes... Steve Raabe is the founder and president of OpinionWorks , an independent research, strategy and opinion survey firm based in Annapolis, Maryland. Raabe discusses some of the key issues an c...

Today, another in Midday 's continuing series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest is Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Ms. Mosby is standing for re-election to a third term as Baltimore’s top prosecutor. She is one of three candidates in the July 19th Democratic primary, a race that pits her against the same two opponents she beat, handily, in 2018: Ivan Bat...

This coming Sunday, the Baltimore Chamber Jazz Society presents its inaugural vocal ensemble performance as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. The Grammy award-winning jazz quartet, New York Voices will make its Charm City debut in a 5pm concert at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Joining Tom now with a preview of NYV's June 12 performance, and a little more background on this acclaimed jazz vo...

Prospects for new gun legislation, battling US inflation and continuing to support Ukraine in its war with Russia are front-and-center issues on Capitol Hill. Tom's guest now is Senator Ben Cardin , who has served as Maryland's senior senator since 2007. Sen. Cardin joins us on Zoom. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

We begin Midday today with an update on the latest CDC data showing an uptick in COVID-19 infection and hospitalization in Baltimore City and surrounding counties in recent days. Joining us to explain what the numbers tell us about the state of the COVID pandemic in our region is Dr. Letitia Dzirasa . She is a Hopkins-trained pediatrician and since 2019, she has served as the Commissioner of Balti...

We open this segment of Midday with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach - from his Cello Suite in G Major, played by the great English ‘cellist, Steven Isserlis . Mr. Isserlis, who is also the author of the recently published authoritative musical guide, The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion , is appearing in recital in Baltimore this Sunday afternoon (June 5) with the pianist Jeremy Denk. Their...

The Baltimore 10 Miler is tomorrow. That’s a great race that will attract about 3,500 runners. Great course – a little hilly, but it goes through Druid Hill Park and around Lake Montebello, so it’s pretty, and it’s always got a great vibe. Today on Midday, we are asking runners and people who do any kind of exercise, a simple question that we ask with all due respect, &ldqu...

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 the new production of The Fantasticks by Baltimore's Vagabond Players. This perpetually popular musical romantic comedy, with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, premiered off-Broadway in 1960, and is renowned as the...

On Wednesday (June 1), in Tulsa, Oklahoma, another gunman. Another mass shooting. Four people shot to death. The shooter committed suicide. It was the 233rd mass shooting this year in the United States. The funerals for the 21 victims murdered last week in Texas by an 18 year-old shooter wielding assault-style weapons continue today in the small, largely Latino community of Uvalde. Questions about...

Everyone over the age of 18 with income, property and other personal assets should consider preparing a legal document known as the last will and testament . It's the only way to be sure those assets are properly distributed (and taxed) after one's death, according to Tom's next guest, Baltimore County's Register of Wills Alexis Burrell-Rohde . Ms. Burrell-Rohde joins us on Zoom from her County Co...

Tom's next guest today is Ryan Coleman , the president of the Randallstown Chapter (#7032) of the NAACP . Mr. Coleman says his group is very concerned about the persistently high rates of violent crime in Baltimore City and elsewhere in the state. He talks about what he’s asking Governor Larry Hogan to do to make Maryland citizens safer. Ryan Coleman joins us on Zoom from Randallstown, MD. E...

Today on Midday: a focus on Baltimore County. Tom's Newsmaker guest is County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. . They’ll talk about the COVID uptick and plans for new public schools, and his support for County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt , despite a no confidence vote by members of the County Police Union. There have been fewer homicides in the County compared to last year, but there’s b...

Today, it’s another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022.   Tom's guest is Bowie Mayor Tim Adams .  He’s running in the Democratic primary for Maryland Comptroller. His opponent in that race is Del. Brooke Lierman , who represents Baltimore in the General Assembly. Barry Glassman , the Harford County Executive, is running unopposed in the Republican Comptr...

(This conversation was originally broadcast on January 7, 2022) We begin with the familiar opening bars of Yesterday ,  the song that Rolling Stone Magazine called “the best song of the 20th century.” It’s been covered and recorded by thousands of artists, and it is universally loved. Paul McCartney  wrote it in 1965, when he was 23 and in the middle of his stint with T...