Midday

Tom's guest for the hour 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 Inequal...

MK Asante is the author of the critically acclaimed 2014 memoir 'Buck,' which traces his rise from North Philly hustler to distinguished professor. Six years on, he remains on the cutting edge of how people are telling the story of the Black experience in America. In his latest endeavor as the host and executive producer of two Snapchat original series: While Black and Free Tuition, Asante harness...

There are 49 days to go until the November 3rd elections. Among the many contests voters will be deciding will be the race for Baltimore mayor. In addition to Brandon Scott, the Democratic nominee, and Shannon Wright, the Republican, voters will also have a Working Class Party candidate, David Harding, and a former Republican who is running as an independent, Baltimore businessman Bob Wallace. The...

Economic assistance to Black-owned businesses has lagged far behind the help given to White firms. The Baltimore Business Journal reports that 600 businesses in predominantly Black areas of Baltimore received forgivable loans in the Payroll Protection Program. But only 45 were minority owned. Tom speaks with Diane Bell-McKoy, President and CEO of Associated Black Charities; and Andre Perry, a Broo...

Tom’s guest is the best-selling author, Sue Miller. She’s written a dozen novels and a memoir which have been translated and published in more than 20 countries around the world. Her latest novel Monogamy is a portrait of a decades-long marriage, a marriage full of passion, and problems. It’s a trenchant take on the complications that attend all relationships, the fragility of family, the complexi...

Today on Midday, a conversation about efforts to re-direct youth who are entangled in the criminal justice system and efforts to provide alternative pathways for Baltimore’s high-risk youth. Sam Abed is the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Eric Ford is the director of UMBC’s Choice Program, which works to prevent the disproportionate incarceration of minority youth throug...

Excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, have raised harrowing questions about President Donald Trump’s prevarication to the public about the lethality of the COVID-19 virus, and his lack of action to control the pandemic. As the book reveals in great detail, Mr. Trump knew as early as late January just how serious and how transmissible the virus is, even as he downplayed the virus' threat in...

It's another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at films and filmmaking. Tom is joined today on Zoom by our movie maven regulars: Ann Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post and author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies; and Jed Dietz, founding director of the Maryland Film Festival and a leading player in the restoration of the historic Parkway theater on North Avenue....

It’s the Midday Healthwatch with Dr. Leana Wen. Yesterday, representatives of nine major drug companies signed a pledge promising not to file for federal approval of a Coronavirus vaccine without subjecting their drugs to long accepted scientific and ethical standards and clinical trials. Usually, we put our trust in institutions like the CDC and the FDA to oversee the safety and efficacy in medic...

Today on Midday, it's another Reporters' Notebook edition, as Tom surveys some of the top local and regional news developments with two of the best journalists on the scene. WYPR State House report Rachel Baye joins Tom first to discuss Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's plans to move the state to so-called "Phase 3" reopening; how the governor's thinking on COVID-19 has evolved since the pandemic's...

Now, another installment of Midday on Higher Education, our occasional series of conversations with the leadership of the region's colleges and universities. Tom's guest today is Dr. Darryll J. Pines. He was appointed earlier this year to be the 34th President of the University of Maryland, an office he assumed on July 1st. President Pines holds three degree in engineering, including a doctorate f...

(This program first aired August 11, 2020) Today, we revisit a conversation Tom had in August with the woman who heads a group of African American psychologists whose approach to counseling and therapy is centered in the traditions of Africa and the African diaspora. How do the mental health needs of African Americans differ from those of Whites and other ethnicities? What approaches to treatment...

(This program originally aired August 4, 2020) When the novelist, journalist, playwright and activist James Baldwin died in 1987, his place in the panoply of great American writers was assured. He is remembered as one of the most eloquent observers of the Black experience, and an insightful and compelling critic of racial inequality. He was prolific and provocative, and one of the most important a...

(The original version of this program aired on April 24, 2020) Some call it “The Uprising.” Some call it “the riots.” Whatever your point of view, the paroxysm of destruction that followed the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, in late April, 2015, exposed old wounds, and created a host of new ones for our city. Today, we revisit a conversation Tom had earlier this year with Wes Moore and Er...

(This program was originally broadcast live on July 22, 2020) In his provocative new book, The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism, Thomas Frank contends that most of our notions about populism are wrong. Today, “populism” is a term most often used to describe the racist and illiberal philosophies of Donald Trump and far right extremists in America and Europe. Thomas Frank is the author o...

(This program originally broadcast live on September 3, 2019) Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, joins Tom to discuss his latest book, How to Be an Antiracist. In this follow up to, Stamped From the Beginning, his award-winning 2016 book about the origin of racist ideas, Dr. Kendi’s latest offering is a pragmatic and instr...

(This program was originally broadcast live on July 16, 2020) Asian Americans have infection rates that are slightly higher than whites, but for the Asian community, the deleterious effects of the Coronavirus pandemic also include an increase in xenophobia and anti-Asian racism. Dr. Charissa Cheah, and a group of professors at University of Maryland, Baltimore County have studied the prevalence of...

(This program was originally broadcast live on July 28, 2020) Tom's guest is Adam Gopnik, a staff writer for The New Yorker Magazine for the past 34 years. The author of numerous books, including eclectic essay collections and children's novels, Gopnik's latest is an homage to liberalism. The book explores liberalism's roots with the French Renaissance philosopher, Michel de Montaigne, and the so-...

Last night, in a 70-minute speech to nearly 2000 loyalists seated tightly on the South Lawn of the White House, Donald Trump accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to seek re-election as President. It is a party he has changed dramatically, and some fear, irrevocably. Joining Tom with analysis of Mr. Trump’s speech and a recap of the four-day Republican National Convention is conservative...

Tom's next guest today is the founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, Robert P. Jones. In 2016, Dr. Jones published a critically acclaimed book called The End of White Christian America. He’s followed that up with a timely and thoughtful peroration on racism in American Christianity. From splits in American Protestantism over slavery, to the unshakable support of Evangelicals fo...

On Night Three of the 2020 Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence used Fort McHenry here in Baltimore as the back drop for his re-nomination acceptance speech, in which he seemed to suggest that the country is being overrun with anarchy and violence. President Trump attended the address, and greeted the invited crowd afterwards. The President is slated to speak tonight, from the...

Today on Midday, an update on Coronavirus mitigation efforts including, what to know about getting your flu shot, and how a change to CDC testing guidelines could impact the fight against the virus. Dr. Lisa Maragakis is the Executive Director of the Hopkins Biocontainment Unit and the senior director of Infection Prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us...

The lives of a group of African American girls from Baltimore are the focus a new documentary set to premier next week at the 2020 Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival. The film is called ‘Anatomy of Wings’ and it profiles 10 Dunbar Middle School students as they participate in a mentorship program called ‘Finding Your Wings.' Over the course of the film, we watch the teens grow into womanhood, mee...

The intersection of race, politics and media is a sticky and complicated place to be, and that’s precisely where Tiffany Cross plants herself in her terrific new book, 'Say it Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives and Saving Our Democracy'. Tiffany Cross has been a ubiquitous presence on cable news for many years as a political analyst. She joins Tom for a conversation about race, politics and th...

Earlier this month, Baltimore City Public Schools presented their plan for remote learning. The plan lays out the district's virtual learning model, and offers a look at future hybrid learning models that blend online and in-person instruction. Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, talks about how the district will try to keep kids on track with their education, while keeping...