Midday

It’s been two weeks since the stunning announcement that one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk , has entered into a deal to purchase Twitter for roughly $44 billion dollars. The deal will take three to six months to close. If either side backs out, the other side gets a billion dollars as a breakup fee. Financial analysts have pointed to some potential problems with the way Musk is...

Today, it’s another installment in our election-year series, Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest is John B. King, Jr. . He is an educator who served as the U.S. Secretary of Education from 2015-2017, during the last couple of years of the Obama Administration. Following that, he was appointed President and CEO of the Education Trust , a national non-profit that advocates on...

Now it's time for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she spotlights the new touring company production of Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, lighting up the stage this week only, at Baltimore's historic Hippodrome Theatre. The smash-hit 2019 Broadway musical — nominated for 12...

Joining Tom now is the songwriter and spoken word artist Wordsmith . His music is heard on Netflix hits like Russian Doll and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt , and in performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra , where he is an artistic partner. He is performing a concert tomorrow night here in Baltimore that’s part of a multi-city tour that takes him coast to coast. He’ll be coll...

A report on the political news website Punchbowl yesterday examined how prominent the issue of abortion has been in the midterm primaries. The answer is, “Not so much.” In December 2021 and January and February of this year, when Gallup asked respondents what they thought the most important problem was facing the United States today, fewer than half of one percent answered “abort...

Time now for Midday on Personal Finance . Tom welcomes back the award-winning syndicated personal finance columnist for the Washington Post , Michelle Singletary . Her column is called The Color of Money. She is also the author of several books. Last year, we spoke about her latest, a hands-on, step by step guide to navigating out of financial problems when our money plans are upended by unexpecte...

Politico 's publication Monday night of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion in a Mississippi abortion rights case set off a firestorm of criticism from abortion-rights supporters, and paroxysms of joy from abortion rights opponents. In a 98-page draft of an opinion that was not supposed to made public until the Court majority signed off on a final version, Justice Samuel Alito stated bluntly...

And now, another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest is Del. Brooke Lierman . She’s running in the Democratic primary for Maryland Comptroller . Her opponent in that race is Bowie Mayor Tim Adams . Barry Glassman , the Harford County Executive, is running unopposed in the Republican Comptroller primary. The Maryland Comptroller is an office that doesn&rsquo...

On Monday night (May 2, 2022), Politico published what appears to be a draft of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which has allowed legal abortion for the past 50 years. Joining Tom now to put this story in context for us is Kimberly Wehle . She is on the faculty of the University of Baltimore School of Law , and the author of several books, including her latest...

Welcome to this special Web-only installment of our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Jerome Segal, a socialist who founded the Bread and Roses Party in 2020, who is running as a Democrat in the primary for Governor. Dr. Segal ran for the US Senate in 2018, and for President in 2020. He holds a PhD in Philosophy, he is the author of several books, and in addition to...

Today, it's another edition of the Midday Healthwatch , our monthly focus on the latest COVID news and other public health issues, with Dr. Leana Wen . On the 11th of April, the testing positivity rate for COVID 19 in MD stood at 2.42%, nearly twice what it was three weeks earlier. It’s nearly doubled again in the last three weeks. The BA.2 variant is highly transmissible. The CDC estimates...

Midday on the Arts concludes with a visit from our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of the regional stage. Today, she shares her take on William Shakespeare's Henry V , now getting a rousing new production at Baltimore's Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. With its themes of strident nationalism, war and "band of brothers" bravado, Henry V is one of the Bard's...

As Midday on the Arts continues, Tom's next guests are a brother and sister classical music duo who are part of a large family of talented musicians . Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who shot to fame when he was invited to play at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle , the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. His sister, Isata Kanneh-Mason is an award winning pianist, who, like her brother, plays c...

It’s Midday on the Arts.   Coming up later in the hour, we’ll hear from the young cellist who burst on the classical music scene when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister Isata , a wonderful pianist, will be performing in Baltimore this weekend, and they both join us. We’ll also check in with theater critic J. Wynn R...

Today, it’s another installment in Midday 's series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest for the hour is Peter Franchot. He was first elected to the General Assembly in 1986. He represented part of Montgomery County in the House of Delegates for 20 years. In 2006, he was elected Comptroller of MD . In 2018, he won the race for his fourth term in that office by the largest...

Tom's guest today is Dr. Terry Anne Scott , an associate professor of history, the chair of the History Department at Hood College , and a good friend of the Midday show. Dr. Scott has written a book that is as difficult as it is important. It chronicles the evolution of mob violence in Texas at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The NAACP has documented more than 4,700 lynch...

Tom's guest today is Dorothy Roberts , a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of four books, including Killing the Black Body, about systemic abuse of African American women, and Fatal Invention , which explores the relationship between race, science and politics. Her new book argues that the nation's foster care system, putatively designed to protect...

On Midday today, another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest is Harford County Executive Barry Glassman . He is a Republican who is running unopposed in the Republican primary for Maryland Comptroller, the agency executive elected to serve as steward of the state's tax and financial affairs. There are two Comptroller candidates in the Democratic primary: Del. Bro...

It's Midday at the Movies , our monthly look at films and filmmaking. Tom is joined again today by two of our favorite movie mavens: Ann Hornaday is film critic for the Washington Post and author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies , now available in paperback; she joins us on our digital line. And joining us on Zoom is Jed Dietz , the founder and retired director of the Maryland Film Festiva...

Today on Midday , we continue our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022 . Tom's guest is Thiru Vignarajah , who is running in the Democratic primary for Baltimore City State’s Attorney . This is his third try for public office. He ran for State’s Attorney in 2018, and he ran for Baltimore Mayor in 2020. His opponents in the 2018 race are the same people he is facing this ti...

Today on Midday:   strategies to help people who are homeless. Tom's first guest is Dr. Sam Tsemberis , a clinical psychologist and the founder of Pathways Housing First Institute . He is the creator of what’s come to be known as the “Housing First” model, which Tsemberis calls the “vaccine for homelessness.” Sam Tsemberis joins us on Zoom from Los Angeles, Calif...

It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck , who joins Tom each week with her reviews of the regional stage. Today, she spotlights a mostly faithful and lively new adaptation of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 adventure novel, Treasure Island , in a world-premiere production on stage at the Classic Theatre of Maryland (formerly Annapolis Shakespeare Compan...

Today on Midday, a conversation about public safety and strategies for ending the gun violence that plagues so many Baltimore neighborhoods. Tom's first guest is Maryland Delegate Chanel Branch . She is a Democrat. In 2020, she was appointed as one of three delegates to represent Baltimore City in District 45, replacing Cheryl Glenn, who went to jail when she was convicted on corruption charges. D...

Today, it’s another installment in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest for the hour is Judge Katie Curran O’Malley . In October, 2021, she retired after 20 years as a Baltimore District Court judge to run in the Democratic primary for Maryland Attorney General. The incumbent AG, Democrat Brian Frosh , will retire at the end of this term. Judge O’Mal...

Tom's Newsmaker guest today is Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III , who has served as the president of University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) for 30 years. He will retire from that position at the end of June. He will be succeeded by a scholar and Dean from Duke University, Dr. Valerie Sheares Ashby . Dr. Hrabowski is UMBC’ s fifth president, and by far, the most impactful. For years, he has...