On The Record

Here’s a Stoop Story from Brittany Gardner, who found confidence in her voice during the pandemic. Get to know the Stoop Storytelling Series here . The next live show is May 11th at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The theme is " Hitched: True Personal Tales About Weddings. " Also, the St. Francis Neighborhood Center’s “ Spring in Paris ” fundraiser is this evening, 7 to 1...

More than 80 million Americans have contracted COVID, and as many as one-third were left with lingering symptoms. Maybe brain fog, or unremitting fatigue.  Epidemiologist Priya Duggal leads the Johns Hopkins long COVID study . Every new COVID infection could turn into long COVID, Duggal warns, and researchers don’t yet know why, "For severe COVID, we had a very clear profile of who may...

As Maryland’s comptroller for the past decade and a half, Peter Franchot has wielded one of just three votes--along with the governor and state treasurer--on the powerful Board of Public Works. As Franchot sees it, his know-how as comptroller prepares  him to be governor, so he’s running for the Democratic nomination. Franchot rejects the idea that his pattern of cooperating with...

The nonprofit ‘Kenya Connect’ mobilizes volunteers in Maryland and people in Kenya to raise the learning level and health of poor pupils whose schools were pummeled by the pandemic. Intern Rael Mutunge, in Kenya talks about the challenge that entices students to boost their reading power. Catherine Streator , a sophomore at Garrison Forest School, tells how getting sanitary pads to gir...

Civil rights lawyer and former Maryland and U.S. secretary of labor  Tom Perez   is running for the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor.  We ask the Montgomery County resident how he plans to address the rising cost of housing and to expand access to health insurance.  Plus, Perez says jobs are a priority. He says fully implementing the Blueprint for Education and...

Last year, doctors told Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and author David Linden that he has eighteen months or less to live. Linden has terminal cancer, found during a routine medical test. As he faces the end of life, he’s thinking deeply about how our brains react to such news. Linden has researched the brain for decades, from its evolution and plasticity to sensory perception and memory form...

Media and pop culture … like HBO’s current series, “We Own this City,” or from two decades ago, “The Wire” … help perpetuate a violent narrative about Baltimore.  But Jamye Wooten intends to reframe the city’s reputation. The  nonprofit he created, called: Cllctivly, works to create and fund a network of people doing good, which tells a d...

Here is a Stoop Story from television writer, playwright and author R. Eric Thomas about softball, gay swings and other beautiful things! Hear his story and others at Stoopstorytelling.com. Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa...

What are the internal and external forces that shape identity? To explore that we Pass the Mic to Filipino American actor and educator Cori Dioquino .  She and psychologist Natalie Hung dig into the complexities of Asian American identity. Then Johns Hopkins Professor Yumi Kim lays out the decades of history and policies that fueled anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S.: “Not only is Anti-As...

Nonprofit CEO, author, and combat veteran Wes Moore is seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor. In the wake of the pandemic, Moore says economic issues are a priority: helping families get back to work, at higher wages, and closing the racial wealth gap--as is public safety. In his view, reducing and preventing violence requires investment in community-based work aimed at inte...

Nurses have been on the pandemic’s frontline, caring for patients during a shocking crisis. Hopkins professor of nursing and bioethics Cynda Rushton describes the moral scars nurses carry in COVID’s wake, "When we feel as if what we are doing is either causing harm, directly or indirectly, not being able to provide the things we normally would for a patient or their family begins to er...

Author  Jen Michalski  centered her third novel, "You’ll Be Fine," on a magazine writer in her 30’s who’s still carrying baggage from a couple failed love affairs, as she tries to find common ground with her feckless younger brother and deals with a lot of unresolved conflicts with her bohemian mother. And then her mother dies. Still, Michalski says, she and her editor...

One out of 44 children in the US is affected by autism. The diagnosis can be scary for parents, but the growing array of resources and support has changed the landscape for those living with autism, and for their families.  Taya Dunn Johnson , vice president of the board of The Autism Society of Baltimore Chesapeake, talks about how raising a son with autism has opened her eyes to honor diffe...

Here's a Stoop Story from Debbie Page about the special gift of her son, Gabe, who has autism. April is Autism Awareness month. Hear her story and others at Stoopstorytelling.com . Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she...

Earth Day is a clarion call to care for the planet. Where can that attention be focused in Baltimore? We talk to Andrew Heyes, who teaches at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, about how heavy metals make their way into the Chesapeake Bay and break down in the salty water - poisoning wildlife. Watch his recent presentation on metals in urban estuaries .  Then, we hea...

Former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler , a Democrat, is running for governor.  Along with expanding mass transit and supporting tech entrepreneurs, at the top of his priorities is fighting crime. Gansler plans to hire a thousand more police and to place resource officers in schools.  He also wants to keep more people out of jail by creating more alternative court dockets for drug...

Lawrence Jackson grew up in West Baltimore. Returning to the city as a “distinguished professor” at Johns Hopkins after building his career elsewhere … called him to navigate the city’s streets and neighborhoods with a discerning eye, calculating what works for his sons and for him, finding answers in the distant as well as recent past, digging into the patrimony he’...

In her new collection of short stories, Baltimore writer  Rosalia Scalia  connects us to people we might never get to know by ourselves. Maybe they’re a lot older or younger than we -- or from a different ethnic group, and without Scalia at our side we wouldn’t realize that their families struggle like ours. Or maybe they’re just nasty, like the crotchety guy in the tit...

Here's a Stoop Story from Kate Lupin about the magic that occurred on her Easter holiday in Rome. You can hear her story and others at Stoopstorytelling.com .   Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr...

Former Obama administration official Ashwani Jain is seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor. At 32 years old, he would be the youngest governor in the country if elected.  We talk about Jain’s plans to make public transit free, create a massive public-jobs program, and lead the recovery from the pandemic.  Another priority: doing away with the state income tax...

Roca, the violence intervention program that fixates on young men in Baltimore, is grounded on cognitive behavioral change. That’s why, explains Roca’s community partnership director JT Timpson, its model is to relentlessly pursue young men at risk and build relationships with them -- which takes years. Roca is in it for the long haul:   “Most of these young people, they suf...

Black women’s risk of dying from infections, high blood pressure, blood clots and other treatable conditions during and after pregnancy is more than twice the risk of white women. Dr. Latey Bradford  of the University of Maryland’s Family Medicine Clinic says pregnant Black women also confront more health dangers that don’t kill them, but can leave lasting damage. Education...

The suspense that typically suffuses the last day of the General Assembly session is missing: Democrats sent important bills to Gov. Hogan a week earlier than normal, so he was under a deadline to deal with them. One he let become law without his signature mandates deep cuts in carbon emissions. Democrat Paul Pinsky, chair of the Senate environment committee, told his colleagues, "Today, I want to...

The Asia North Festival promises to be a celebration across Asian cultures … and a time for healing and creating community.  Artist WeiAnne Reidy invites the public to express their dreams at the “Growing Our Gardens Living Altar,” and then plant them. … And Nerissa Paglinauan  festival organizer and program manager at the Asian Arts and Culture Center at Towson...

Here's a Stoop Story from Martha Weiman  about her family’s escape from Nazi Germany. Don’t miss the next opportunity to hear LIVE stoop stories … this coming Monday, April 11. The theme is ‘ Never Have I Ever: Seven storytellers share tales about a wacky, wild, and weird thing they’ve done .’ It all starts at 7 pm at Baltimore Center Stage with live...