On The Record

Here's a Stoop Story from Amanda Eby about having persistence in the world of public education. Links: Stoop Storytelling Series - including upcoming live events and the Stoop podcast. 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...

Women poured into the labor force during World War Two. They were an essential part of America’s war efforts -- performing tasks that before had been assigned only to men. The classic images of Rosie the Riveter are white women. But Professor Gregory Cooke , creator of the documentary Invisible Warriors, has unearthed the lesser known stories that represent six hundred thousand Black women w...

Maryland got an “F” grade from a national nonprofit for its efforts to protect children from being trafficked for sex. Amanda Rodriguez, of the state’s Human Trafficking Task Force, says what’s missing is state law that treats trafficked kids as victims, not criminals. Then we ask Jeanne Allert, who founded ‘The Samaritan Women’ to support trafficked women with...

A week into the war, as Russia escalates its bombing of Ukrainian cities, and a million Ukrainians are fleeing for safety, we ask history scholar Hal Brands what the West should learn from the 20th-century Cold War and how the pain of this war is likely to spread. Read Brands' recent Bloomberg opinion columns on the Ukrainian crisis here . Then we hear from John Wojtowycz , a trustee of St. Michae...

The United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis among children, and the pandemic only made the situation worse. Sharon Hoover co-directs the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. We ask her about Maryland’s shortage of school psychologists and social workers. Check out America's School Mental Health Report Card . Shantay McKini...

Two women, driven to defend France from the Nazis - one, a young British spy and the other, an American collaborating with the underground resistance. Erika Robuck’s latest novel “Sisters of Night and Fog,” weaves the true stories of these World War II heroines together until they meet in one of the darkest places of the war. She has several local book launch events this month. N...

During the decades many school systems disdained Black students, African-American parents found creative ways to line up education. In Harford County, parents scraped together resources for a tiny primary school, then decades later worked with civic leaders and lawmakers to expand it into a high school. Retired Army Col. Patricia Smith leads the effort to restore the Havre de Grace Colored School...

The universal language of music allows audiences to be swept away -- many times into different cultures, all from the comfort of their seats.  The Trio Griot, performing at An die musik this Sunday, brings together for the first time the talents of saxophonist TK Blue , pianist Janelle Gill and Amadou Kouyate. Kouyate, who performs traditional music from Senegal and Mali, draws on a long fami...

Here is a Stoop Story from Bob Hemler about finding love and holding fast to it! You 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 Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Produce...

Today we Pass the Mic to host Sharayna Ashanti Christmas . She talks with photographer Solomon Ade and writer and archivist Bilphena Yahwon about the ‘New Generation Scholars Intergenerational Institute,’ and why sharing knowledge across diverse age groups is critical for Black history … and Black future: “The Black elders are not able to speak to what the current wor...

WYPR is celebrating its 20th anniversary! The festival includes a new podcast - Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey - with interviews reflecting the diverse landscape of local public media. WYPR Digital Content Director Jamyla Krempel traces YPR’s roots as a student-run station at Johns Hopkins and tales collected from current and former radio staffers. Listen to the first episode h...

Will the General Assembly finally tackle the issue of recreational marijuana this session? We look at the House of Delegates’ approach with Baltimore City Delegate Luke Clippinger. He’s the sponsor of two bills designed to legalize recreational cannabis through a referendum, expunge past convictions for possession, and create a fund to support women and minority business owners. Then,...

How many times did you rely on clean water this morning? Did you take a shower or wash your face? Maybe you made coffee or tea … then brushed your teeth. Perhaps you downed big gulps of H-2-O during an early morning workout. Each time we turn on a faucet, we trust that our drinking water is pure and safe, as we’ve come to expect. But do we really know what’s in our water &hellip...

For more than one hundred years, thousands of Native American children were taken from their homes and sent to residential Indian schools in the United States and Canada, to forcibly assimilate them into white culture. Indigenous advocate Jennifer Night Bird Miller describes cruelties they endured ... and what she hopes for as the U.S. moves toward understanding this painful past. “The US ci...

Here is a Stoop Story from Andy Parsley about his path to healing. The next live Stoop event is Wednesday, March 9th, on the theme, “ Bridging the Gap: Stories about reconciliation, connection, and balance. ” Tickets are free. Registration is required. 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...

If a student has an asthma flare at school, they need treatment right away. But, while schools carry epi-pens and overdose reversal medication, they do not stock inhalers. Pediatric pulmonologist  Dr. Christy Sadreameli  fills us in on a  bill  to require schools to have rescue inhalers on hand for emergencies. Former school nurse  Mikki Fritz  tells of a pupil who ha...

Tax season is here, and the CASH Campaign of Maryland can offer free tax prep for filers. CEO Robin McKinney tells us who qualifies and how the nonprofit helps filers take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Client Carleigh Steele talks about gaining the financial skills to plan for her daughter’s future. Click here for Baltimore tax prep locations. Click here for locations across the...

Food historian Toni Tipton-Martin has unearthed a trove of contributions from Black cooks and food entrepreneurs. It’s laid out in her book: “The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks. In her follow-up book, Jubilee, Tipton-Martin draws from the accumulated treasures and the inventive chefs behind them. She wants cooks to personalize the recipes,--with a witness to t...

A favored adage of people in the freight industry is: “If you bought it, a truck brought it.”  Now … facing a record shortage of drivers, what is the industry doing to keep cargo moving and shelves stocked Louis Campion , head of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, talks about easing driver age requirements and other initiatives. And Charlton Paul, a driver with nearly th...

You are what you eat, so when you eat healthy, you become healthy. That’s the message from a new program called FoodRx at Medstar Health. We talk with Angela Roberson, a registered dietician for the Collaborative Care Program at Good Samaritan Hospital, and the lead dietician for FoodRx. Giving patients access to nutrition education,as well as full meals has made a marked difference in her w...

Here is a Stoop Story from Betsey Kahn about her wedding-night worries. She and her husband, Philip, were married for 51 years. Learn more about the Stoop Storytelling Series - including upcoming live events and the Stoop podcast - here . 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 mharv...

Rev. Nnontombi Naomi Tutu , daughter of the late Anglican archbishop who resisted and helped end South Africa’s apartheid, has led Truth and Reconciliation workshops for groups dealing with conflict. As an adult--raising three children, working as an ordained priest--she has lived in both South Africa and the U.S., and concluded the U.S. is not dealing with its racial past, "Attempting to hi...

Our skin is our biggest organ; its proper care can be lifesaving. What if healthcare providers don’t have evidence to draw on for treatment?  Dr. Chesahna  Kindred , a Howard University dermatology professor, and owner of  Kindred Hair & Skin Center in Columbia, talks of life-threatening situations that show up because Black skin is rarely included in dermatological resear...

After the deadly shooting of a West Baltimore 9th grader in 1983, police and prosecutors coerced the testimony of witnesses. Three innocent young men - known as the Harlem Park Three - were sentenced to life in prison for felony murder. Then, in 2019, they were released. Jennifer Gonnerman  writes about this case for  The New Yorker,  in a piece titled, “ When a Witness Recant...

Six months ago, doctors told 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, "I'm simultaneously furious with the universe and also deeply grateful." Linden has researched the brain...