Midday

Midday  theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck  joins Tom Hall again today with her reviews of two new virtual productions now streaming for ticketed audiences.  The first is  The Catastrophist ,  a COVID-19-inspired drama by  Lauren Gunderson  that's based on the life and work of esteemed virologist  Nathan Wolfe , who is also the playwright's real-life husba...

On our program today, another update from Annapolis and the  2021 General Assembly .   We’re going to concentrate on tax policy.  Last week, the legislature overrode  Governor Larry Hogan ’s veto of legislation that passed last year to impose a tax on Digital Ads.   A well-funded coalition of business owners called  Marylanders for Tax Fairness &...

Last summer, many people pointed to  California  as a model for how states handled the spread of the Coronavirus.  But by the beginning of the new year, California had become the  epicenter of the pandemic  in the United States.  We turn now to  Dr. Jen Chang , an HIV primary care physician working in the Department of Infectious Diseases at  Kaiser Permanen...

Our topic today is in-laws, and how the relationship between children who are married, and the families of their spouses, are affected and informed by a number of different factors.  Parents of the person you hold dear matter while you’re dating, they matter while you’re married, they matter when you have kids yourself, and they matter when those parents are of the age when they n...

Going into the final stage of the US Senate's second Trump impeachment trial on Saturday morning, most observers expected closing arguments from both sides, and a vote to acquit that would surprise no one.  There was about an hour or so of drama when that script wasn’t followed, and House Managers introduced the possibility of calling witnesses, but that was sorted out fairly quickly, a...

Today on  Midday  on the Arts,   we’re going to talk about the impact of the pandemic on one part of the creative economy: classical music.  The Brookings Institution estimates that 2.7 million jobs and $74 billion dollars in wages have been lost in the fine arts overall.  More than $150 billion dollars in sales have vanished into the ether since the onset of the cor...

Former president Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, on charges of incitement to insurrection, is set to begin in the U.S. Senate tomorrow (February 9). For a preview, we turn to an esteemed constitutional scholar and presidential historian whose work has been cited in Supreme Court opinions more often any other active legal scholar's.   Akhil Reed Amar  is Sterling Profes...

Letrice Gant  joins us once again.  She is a co-organizer of  Baltimore Ceasefire 365 .   Four times a year, the community-led organization holds a Ceasefire Weekend, to honor those who have died of violence, and to reach out to those who perpetuate the violence, acknowledging the troubles they often face that lead them to harm or kill others.     The latest...

Tom's guest today is  Celeste Headlee .  She is an award-winning journalist, a consultant on diversity and inclusion, and the author of two books, including  We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter .   Her  Tedx Talk  has been viewed more than 23 million times, and she is heard frequently as a host on NPR and American Public Media.   Cele...

It’s  Midday with the Mayor .  Tom's guest for the hour today is the  Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott. On Tuesday,  Mayor Scott  sent a letter to  Maryland Governor Larry Hogan  expressing his great impatience with the pace of vaccinations so far, complaining that the state’s vaccine rollout has been, in Scott’s words, “uncoordinated to...

Now, a conversation with  Dr. Niloofar Haeri,  a linguist and a professor of anthropology at  Johns   Hopkins University  and the author of six books on language and culture.  Her latest is a fascinating study of the prayer practices of women in the Islamist state of Iran, and the inextricable relationship between prayer and poetry in Iranian culture.  The book,&...

Our  Newsmaker  guest today is  Cheryl Bost , a former Baltimore County Teacher of the Year (2003) who serves as the president of the Maryland State Education Association , a 75,000 member union (affiliated with the  National Education Association ) that represents teachers and other education employees across the state.  Ms. Bost joins Tom to explain the  MSEA 's per...

Today's  Newsmaker  guest is  Dr. Sonja Santelises , the CEO of  Baltimore City Public Schools .   She joins Tom for the hour to discuss one of the key questions facing school communities across the nation: as the COVID-19 pandemic continues,  how and when can we safely reopen our schools?    Dr. Santelises  will also talk about getting teachers an...

It’s the  Midday Healthwatch,  another of our occasional conversations with  Dr. Leana Wen,  an emergency physician and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner.  Dr. Wen teaches at the  George Washington University School of Public Health . She’s also a  columnist for the Washington  Post  and  a medical analyst for CNN. Tod...

When the Baltimore City Council passed the  Elijah Cummings Healing City Act  last February, it made attention to the trauma of violence not just an aspiration, but a matter of law in Baltimore City.  Next week, the city will hold the 2nd annual  Healing City Summit , and members of the  Baltimore City Council  and  Mayor Brandon Scott ’s cabinet will be&nb...

Now, we turn our attention to a topic that for generations has been a source of lurid fascination:  gangsters .  Ever since the Prohibition Era of the early 20th century, when organized crime came into its own in the United States, the mafia has been of great interest to Americans, attested to by the preponderance of movies and books and music about gangsters, many of whom achieve legend...

Today, Tom's  Newsmaker  guest is  Baltimore County Executive John "Johnny O" Olszewski, Jr .   He is beginning his 3rd year in office, and like leaders of local governments across the country, he has responsibility for the level of government that is the first stop for people who need services large and small, from trash removal to receiving life-saving vaccinations against CO...

Today on  Midday ,  an update on the 2021 General Assembly Session in Annapolis, now in its second week.  Given the pandemic and the constitutional requirement that lawmakers be physically present in the State House for their deliberations, it’s been an unusual legislative session so far.  In some ways, it is progressing at an unusually rapid pace .   A focus on...

Two weeks ago,  Governor Larry Hogan  announced that the state would move into  Phase 1B  of the COVID-19 vaccination plan last week, and as of  yesterday, Phase 1C , which includes people age 65 or older.  But shortages of the vaccines have made getting an appointment for a shot complicated for many.  For a status report on when, where, and how the vaccines are...

We often talk about how we think of the WYPR community of listeners as a family, and if we are indeed a family, we need to have family meetings from time to time.  That’s why every six months or so here on  Midday,  we invite WYPR's President and General Manager,  LaFontaine Oliver,  to join us to talk about how our station is doing, and the state of public media in...

Today, it’s another edition of  Midday on Higher Education , our occasional series of conversations with the leaders of Maryland’s colleges and universities.  Tom's guest is  Dr. Theresa B. Felder ,  who began her tenure as president of  Harford Community College  in Bel Air, Maryland, just three weeks ago.  Like many other community colleges acr...

Anger  is an emotion that's been much in evidence in our national life during these difficult times. When it comes to things like closing businesses, keeping kids out of classrooms, and even the wearing of masks during the pandemic, debate is often heated.  Tempers flare.  And particularly over the last four years, with a brutish U.S. president who relied on insults and personal att...

Tom's guest now is  Midday  theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck ,. She's been joining us regularly throughout this pandemic, while the region's many stages remain dark, to tell us how theater companies are keeping their audiences engaged with a mix of outdoor and virtual streaming productions. Today, she spotlights two local theater companies who've come up with unusual ways to create a...

Last Sunday, our city was shocked when  Dante Barksdale , an outreach coordinator for  Safe Streets , was killed near the Douglas Homes in East Baltimore.  Safe Streets is a city-funded violence interruption program.  Dante Barksdale worked in the program for nearly 10 years, urging people who were considering violence to reconsider, and to choose alternative means to settle di...

Yesterday, after  Donald Trump  improv’d his way off the national stage,  Joe Biden  and  Kamala Harris  made history.   Inauguration Day  was unusual and elegant.  In an  Inaugural Address  that focused on unifying a beleaguered country, President Biden urged common purpose in what he called this “winter of peril and signific...