Midday

As political pundits continue to size up last week's virtual Democratic National Convention, with its formal nominations of former Vice President Joe Biden for President and California Senator Kamala Harris for his vice-presidential running mate, the Republican National Convention kicked off today in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a virtual delegate roll call that underscored the strong support P...

Joe Biden accepted his party’s nomination to be their standard bearer in November on the fourth and final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. With less than 90 days left in the campaign, recent polls have Biden leading the President by a substantial margin. Will that lead hold, and will Republicans, who get their chance to make their case next week, be able to parry the Democrats’ at...

Today, we'll hear first about one of the ways Baltimore’s Everyman Theater has adapted to the new normal: they’ve attached themselves to a city-sponsored film festival. The Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights is hosting the Fair Housing Film Festival from August 24 to 28, and Everyman’s entry is a live theater event, The House That Holds Us, a virtual evening of theatrical readings, s...

In Night Three of the Democratic National Convention, Sen. Kamala Harris made history, Barack Obama sounded an alarm about the future of democracy, and a diverse array of women gave testimonials about gun control, immigration, child care, climate change and domestic violence. Political scientist Dr. Christina Greer of Fordham University and The Grio joins Tom with analysis. Christina Greer is an A...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on the local and national economy. Maryland’s unemployment rate stands at about 8%, much better than much of the rest of the country, but still, more than a quarter of a million Marylanders are out of work. Some businesses, like airlines, restaurants, and entertainment venues, have suffered badly in the COVID 19 economy. But other businesses are t...

Tom's guest for the hour today is the celebrated Baltimore-based artist, John Waters. He’s the director of 16 films, the author of nine books, a visual artist with museum shows to his credit, a spoken word artist, an actor, and most recently, a pitchman for haute couture. His latest book, published last year and now out in paperback, is called Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder...

Today on Midday, a conversation about the U.S. Postal Service, which is embroiled in a political and fiscal crisis unlike any in the service’s 228-year history. Shortly after our broadcast Tuesday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy released a statement announcing that he is halting his controversial cost-cutting initiatives at the US Postal Service until after the November election. The statement say...

School districts in and around Baltimore will be opening virtually for the first term. President Trump continues to state falsehoods about children and COVID-19 – and to urge schools to open for in-person learning. Testing, with results delivered accurately and quickly, remains the key to responding to super spreader events in schools and elsewhere. And for children and adults who need to be teste...

Today on Midday, a conversation about how school children and teenagers are taught the history of Black people, in America, and before they were enslaved here. Tom is joined by three scholars who are helping to change the way we teach African American history and contextualize the experience of Black Americans. Guests: Dr. Daina Ramey Berry is the Rabkey Regents Professor of history at the Univers...

Today, conversations with musicians across musical genres, to see how they are faring in an online-only world. Later in the show, Tom speaks with three pianists with local roots whose work has taken them to venues around the world: Classical pianist Lura Johnson; composer, producer and pianist Wendel Patrick; and virtuoso jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut. We begin with a look at Maryland’s largest arts...

The long running dispute between Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and just about the rest of the known universe concerning how to conduct the November elections appears to have been resolved. Election officials from across the state had urged the Governor to conduct the election the same way we voted back in June: a mostly mail-in election, with a handful of polling places open for a limited number o...

Last January, Senator Kamala Harris announced her campaign for President in front of a large, energized crowd in Oakland, CA. Yesterday, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President, announced her as his choice for a running mate, in a text message. This afternoon, Sen. Harris and Mr. Biden will appear for the first time as a team in Wilmington, DE. Wha...

Does the conventional wisdom of the white dominated field of psychology make the wrong assumptions about the weight of racism and its impact on the psychological well-being of African Americans? Tom speaks with Dr. Theopia Jackson, president of The Association of Black Psychologists. Dr. Jackson explains how African and Black centered psychology embraces Afrikan traditions, and draws on the streng...

More than 400 people in Baltimore City have died of illness related to Coronavirus. More than 200 others have been victims of homicide. Ninety percent of those homicides are committed with guns. While there have been slightly fewer non-fatal shootings this year than last, nearly 400 people have been shot so far this year. Today, we’re going to talk with five people who’ve made it their life’s work...

The Coronavirus has slowed down or shuttered businesses large and small, but one city department has been as busy as ever rooting out malfeasance by Baltimore elected officials and employees. Baltimoreans, sadly, know public corruption all too well. In the past decade, two of our mayors, Sheila Dixon and Catherine Pugh, have resigned amid corruption scandals. Ms. Pugh, a former police commissioner...

My next guest is not only one of the most talented musicians of his generation, but one of the most thoughtful people I know when it comes to defining and re-defining the role that artists can and should play in shaping the conversation about society in good times and in bad times. Darin Atwater is a gifted composer, conductor, pianist and producer who has worked in film, recording, radio and tele...

On today's edition of Midday at the Movies, two of our favorite movie mavens, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and the Maryland Film Festival's founding director, Jed Dietz, join Tom for another of our monthly conversations about films and filmmaking. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep the nation's movie theaters shuttered, struggling film production studios and streaming services...

On today's edition of the News Wrap, reporter Tamara Keith, NPR's White House correspondent and host of its Politics Podcast, joins Tom with her perspectives on a busy news week in Washington, with fewer than 100 days remaining before the November 3rd general election... President Trump’s approval rating has taken a hit in recent polls. In recent days he has made several controversial statements a...

In his latest book Eddie Glaude draws on his imaginative reading of James Baldwin and his own trenchant observations about the current American moment. The book is called Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lesson for Our Own. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

In their new book, I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad, Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg chronicle the story of the Gun Trace Task Force, their victims, and the lasting reverberations their crimes continue to have on Baltimore's criminal justice system. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

"The world lost one of its greatest musical minds and hearts on Sunday when the legendary pianist, conductor and teacher Leon Fleisher died of cancer at the age of 92. I was proud to be one of the many people around the world privileged to call Leon a friend. When I was working as a musician, I had the great honor of working with him at the Baltimore Opera Company and on several other projects. I...

(Tom opens the show today with a salute to the legendary concert pianist Leon Fleisher, who died Sunday at the age of 92.) Today, on Midday with Tish the Commish, an update from Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa on the troubling rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 in Baltimore, throughout Maryland, and the country. Yesterday, Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the federal re...

Last year, Baltimore had the unwelcome distinction of having the highest homicide rate of any US city of more than 500 thousand people – at 58 per 100 thousand residents. Most of those homicides were committed with guns. Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was on Midday last week, and he pointed to a strategy of “focused deterrence” as the centerpiece of the BPD’s efforts to stop t...

Today, a conversation about how the coronavirus pandemic is creating not only hotspots for the virus, but new epicenters of hunger in countries all around the world. Millions of people, already suffering because of armed conflict, climate change, poverty and broken food supply systems, are now at greater risk for starvation. The United Nations reports that there are nearly 60 million more people w...

We are joined now by the acclaimed filmmaker and cinematographer, Louie Schwartzberg. He is the creator of what critics have described as a “mind-blowing,” and “consciousness-shifting” film called Fantastic Fungi. Produced by Schwartzberg's innovative Moving Art production company, the documentary explores the surprisingly key role that fungi -- a.k.a. mushrooms -- have played in the earth’s evolu...