Midday

Tom's guest today is the New York Times best-selling author, Jess Walter.  He is the author of seven novels, a short story collection, and a nonfiction book.  His 2012 novel, Beautiful Ruins, was on the Times best-seller list for more than a year. Jess Walter's latest novel is called The Cold Millions.  It's an expansive and beautifully crafted chronicle of the nascent days of the l...

2020 comes to a close a week from tomorrow, and for many of us, it can’t end soon enough.  It has been a year of unprecedented calamity, with levels of disease and death that are incomprehensible.  Nearly 80 million people are infected with the Coronavirus around the globe; about 18 million are infected in the United States.  More than 10 million Americans are out of work. &nb...

Yesterday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. held a news conference with the city’s Inspector General, Isabel Mercedes Cumming, and the Baltimore County Inspector General, Kelly Madigan, to discuss the release of a joint report about serious problems with the city’s water billing system.  The two inspectors general estimate that the...

Need some podcast recommendations to freshen up your playlist? We asked a few of our colleagues at WYPR to drop by and share their current favorites. Podcast Recommendations Emily Sullivan ,  WYPR City Hall Reporter Floodlines , (The Atlantic) My Year in Mensa  (iHeartRadio) The Dream Maureen Harvie ,  Senior Producer at  On The Record Reply All  (Gimlet Media) You're Wron...

Yesterday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. held a press conference to announce the release of a joint report by the City and County Inspectors General that outlined egregious revenue losses in the water system that serves both jurisdictions.   The two inspectors general estimate that the city and county have lost millions of dollars in water...

As record numbers of new COVID-19 infections and deaths threaten the nation's beleaguered health system, 1.7 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in just the past two weeks.   Last night, Senator Chuck Schumer (D., NY) and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., KY) announced a deal for a $900 billion dollar stimulus bill.  The House and Senate are expected to vote o...

Helicon has been delighting their super-loyal fan base with a Winter Solstice Concert for 35 years. Despite the pandemic, they will continue this great Baltimore holiday tradition with a streamed performance tomorrow night at 7:30 PM EST.  In addition to Helicon, the show will feature  Charm City Junction , with  Brad Kolodne r,  Alex Lacquement ,  Patrick McAvinue,  ...

Tom is joined by the 52nd Mayor of the City of Baltimore, Brandon M. Scott. In the first ten days of his administration, Mayor Scott has made several appointments and at least one very controversial decision about indoor and outdoor dining restrictions in city restaurants.  Mayor Scott discusses how he plans to attack the city's problems and how the government itself will operate. Email us at...

It's another edition of  Midday at the Movies,  our monthly conversation about films and filmmaking.  Tom is once again joined by  Washington  Post  film critic  Ann  Hornaday ,  author of the bestselling film-lovers' guide,  Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies ,  and by  Maryland Film Festival  founder  Jed Dietz .  Toda...

Midday theater critic  J. Wynn Rousuck  joins Tom with reviews of several new productions on the pandemic-inspired virtual stage, including two one-woman shows. Judy starts off with  Everyman Theater' s virtual production of  Black Girl in the Green Mountains ,  the third and final installment in playwright  Caleen Sinette Jennings 's  "Queens Girl" Trilogy . Dir...

Today on  Midday,  a church's reckoning on race. In September, the  Maryland diocese of the Episcopal Church  committed to making  reparations for slavery by creating a fund to support initiatives in the African American community.  Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton , the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, joins Tom to discuss the role that a fund for reparations wi...

  Last week, the Henrietta Lacks Enhancing Cancer Research Act passed the House of Representatives.  The bill, which was first introduced by the late Elijah Cummingsm in 2019, aims to boost diversity in clinical trials and address racial health disparities. The bill is named for Henrietta Lacks, the 31-year-old woman from Turner's Station who died in 1951 and whose cells have been used i...

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge across the nation, with the mounting US death toll surpassing 300 thousand on Monday, even as the first COVID vaccinations were finally being administered to Americans. But getting the vaccine into hundreds of millions of arms will be a slow process, and the dark cloud of COVID is certain to hang over the United States, and countries around the world, for m...

Today on Midday, we begin with a look at new revelations that the founder and namesake of Johns Hopkins University, long described as a passionate abolitionist, was in fact a slave-owner.   Then, we consider the question: Is America finally having a reckoning about race? Since the nationwide protests against inequity and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd, racial justice is...

The coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen across the United States, as total confirmed COVID cases surpassed 15 million, and as a record 3000-plus single-day deaths and more than 230,000 daily new infections were reported for the first time since the pandemic began. Against that increasingly grim backdrop, the first of several potentially effective vaccines neared final approval for distributio...

An FDA advisory committee has endorsed emergency use authorization for the COVID 19 vaccine developed by Pfizer. Moderna’s drug is expected to be approved for use next week. On today's  Healthwatch,  Dr. Leana Wen joins Tom to discuss the latest on the COVID-19 vaccines.  How will scientists decide they are safe and effective?  What are the side effects, and how will peop...

Today on  Midday :  Remembering  Senator Paul Sarbanes , who died Sunday night at the age of 87.  The son of Greek immigrants, Paul Sarbanes rose to become one of the most respected and effective legislators in the United States Senate, where he represented Maryland for 30 years. Tom is joined today by the late senator's son, Maryland's 3rd District Congressman   John Sarb...

In the Presidential Election, there was no shortage of polls, and no shortage of outrage after the election from both sides of the political spectrum when much of the data appeared to have been unreliable.  Many polls had Joe Biden cruising to a crushing victory, with the Democrats riding a blue wave to a Senate majority and an even bigger margin in the House. Today on  Midday , a conver...

Tom's next guest is D. Watkins, an editor-at-large for Salon and a lecturer at the University of Baltimore’s Klein Family School of Communication Design. D. is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America, and The Cookup: A Crack Memoir. His latest book is called We Speak for Ourselves: How Woke Culture Prohibits Progress, which has been nam...

One of the most disturbing but necessary measures of Baltimore's status -- as a place to live and work -- is its annual homicide count, which this year is on track to nearly match 2019’s record 348 killings. Most of the homicide victims in Baltimore are young Black men, and most are shot to death. The city’s persistently high body count reflects one obvious fact of crime in Baltimore: the seemingl...

Today on Midday, remembering former Maryland Senator Paul Spyros Sarbanes, who passed away last night at the age of 87. A long-time friend and colleague of Paul Sarbanes, former Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski -- now a professor of public policy at The Johns Hopkins University -- joins us with a personal reflection. Born in Salisbury, Maryland on February 3, 1933, Paul Sarbanes was a graduate of...

(Originally broadcast November 12, 2020) On this archive edition of Midday, Tom talks with Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker, about his latest book, Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now. Tom spoke with Mr. Osnos about a week and a half after the election, on the day that several media sources had added Arizona to the win column for President-elect Joe Biden. Later that da...

Tom's guest today is Robert B. Reich. He’s a busy and distinguished guy. He served in three administrations, including as Labor Secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency. He’s a professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, a columnist for Newsweek and The Guardian, an award-winning filmmaker, the founder of the non-profit educational enterprise called Inequality Media, an...

(Originally broadcast Oct. 1, 2020) Today, we revisit a conversation Tom had in October with Brian Stelter, the chief media correspondent for CNN, about his latest book, which explores the unholy alliance between President Donald Trump and Fox News. It’s called Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth. That alliance has frayed after the election. Tom's conversation with...

(Originally aired 10/22/20) For the thousands of inmates released from prison every year, the transition out of jail and into society is often a transition to homelessness and unemployment. Ex-offender status presents perpetual obstacles for returning citizens, who often lack access to critical resources and opportunities. A new organization called Return Home Baltimore is trying to make it all ea...