On The Record

Baltimore nonprofit Building Our Nation’s Daughters -- BOND -- carves out time for single moms and their daughters to improve communication skills, set goals, and have fun. Founder Atiera Griffin says her experience asa n educator inspired her to create the program. We hear from Griffin and her mother, Alisa Williams. Plus, Christina Jacobs and her daughter, Madison, describe how BOND helped them...

The Open Society Institute-Baltimore each year launches the work of ten fellows who have plans to combat inequity and injustice. This year two of the ten are working to elevate Baltimore’s spanish-speaking community. Dinorah Olmos helps parents navigate the ins and outs of the American school system with her program La Escuela, Los Hijos y Usted. Then, Kendra Summers connects Spanish-speaking immi...

The Maryland General Assembly convenes in two days with new leaders in both chambers and several committees. In the House, Del. Adrienne Jones is the first black speaker, and the first female. The Senate is set to elect Bill Ferguson its president. Both say their priorities are building new schools and re-shaping how teaching is done. WYPR statehouse reporter Rachel Baye and Maryland Matters polit...

Here’s a Stoop Story from Mimi Dietrich about her run-in with rock and roll. You can hear her story and many 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 P...

Mimi Dietrich finds it “magical” to make a quilt. Why? You can see Mimi's quilts at the Maryland Historical Society, where 40 of her works are on display through March 2020. Originial airdate: March 22, 2019. 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 Senio...

Neighborhood food pantries in Park Heights allow families to take what they need. A composting effort in south Baltimore turns food scraps into rich garden soil. Today, two Open Society Institute fellows share fresh ideas to improve city life. Mariah Pratt Bonkowski founded “Pantries of Peace” to remove obstacles that make typical food pantries hard to access. And Marvin Hayes, founder of the “Bal...

Do you remember the name of your childhood best friend? Turns out, it’s harder to initiate those solid bonds of friendship as we grow older. Dr. Andrea Bonior, clinical psychologist and advice columnist, explains why and says the feeling is universal. Plus, Carolyn Walton Lynch tells us about Mixolo, a service that helps individuals, regardless of their relationship status, step out on the town an...

To hear Mike Rowe tell it, the fame he’s built from years of producing “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel and lots of other smart-allecky shows, podcasts and books all grew out of the respect for work he learned from his grandfather in Baltimore County, and from his parents Peggy and John. Out of that upbringing also grew a foundation that gives scholarships to young people learning skills. The...

Some of the most powerful support comes from peers who have survived the same challenges. We meet two Open Society Institute fellows whose service grows from their personal experience. First, Janet Glover Kerkvliet tells us how she came to lead the ‘Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group.’ It offers emotional counseling and practical training to older job seekers. Then Damien Haussling describes his...

The rate of death during pregnancy and soon after childbirth in the U.S. is three times higher for African American women than for whites. Ana Rodney, an Open Society Institute Baltimore community fellow, intends to counter that staggering statistic with MomCares. MomCares offers postpartum support to low-income, single women of color whose babies need neonatal intensive care. Her project came fro...

Virginia Hall, daughter of an upscale Baltimore family, turned herself into one of the most daring spies of World War II. Biographer Sonia Purnell recounts Hall repeatedly eluding capture and death while helping the French resist Nazi occupation. Original airdate: November 5, 2019. Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising...

It seems so simple … but can so easily elude us: noticing the quiet, the surprising, the graceful--the moments of delight--that abound each day. Can we become more aware of delight, with practice? Poet Ross Gay gave himself a year-long task: … each day to fine-tune his ‘radar for delight,’ … to observe the small caretaking gestures that connect us, and to handwrite a short essay. He reads from the...

What do very old people know about being happy that most of us don’t? Can we put their approach into use in our own lives? New York Times journalist John Leland spent a year with six elders and put what he learned in his new book, Happiness Is a Choice You Make -- Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old. Original air date: 1/31/18 Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to...

Open Society Institute’s Baltimore field office works to improve city life by offering start-up funding to social entrepreneurs. We get a behind the scenes view of how OSI community fellows are selected with Pamela King, who oversees the program, and 2016 fellow Gianna Rodriguez, who heads Baltimore Youth Arts. Then, we kick off our profiles of this year’s fellows with Alphonso Mayo. He was workin...

Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hanukkah, the New Year … For many the holiday season evokes thoughts of peace, joy ... and ‘good will toward men’. What does it mean to ‘love your neighbor’ ... year round? We posed that question to some of our WYPR neighbors, here in Charles Village in Baltimore. Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervisi...

When migrant workers arrive in the U.S., they frequently face dangerous housing and work conditions. If they complain, they risk deportation. We ask an advocate fighting to protect migrant workers’ rights what options they have. 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.or...

Eighteen of Maryland’s 24 counties are considered rural. Doctors, dentists and mental-health services can be sparse, but there are some inventive, collaborative ways to provide close-by care. Lara Wilson, who heads a nonprofit that advocates for quality healthcare in rural Maryland, tells us about patients whose lives changed once they could get much-needed medical attention. And Mark Luckner, dir...

Imagine yourself walking among trees dappled with sun. A clear stream gurgles nearby. Maybe your shoulders relaxed a bit just picturing it. But for some African Americans walking in the woods is tied to a legacy of racial terror, and could trigger quite the opposite response. The national nonprofit Outdoor Afro is inspiring African Americans to reclaim the outdoors as a place to refresh the spirit...

Watching Fred Rogers’ warm smile as he came through the door, sang his cheerful greeting, and shed his professional jacket for a cardigan … most viewers didn’t pick up on how meticulously Mr. Rogers had planned his Neighborhood … and how intensely he worked to counter the values of many kids’ shows in the 1960s. Hopkins business professor Alexandra Klarén’s new book goes deep into Roger’s religiou...

400 years after enslaved Africans were first brought to North America, inequalities continue to impact the health and life expectancy of African Americans. One driver of disparate outcomes is quality of care. Doctors tend to talk more and listen less to minority patients. Undoing this, says Johns Hopkins internist and researcher Dr. Lisa Cooper, requires educating future physicians. And sociologis...

A recent report by the Justice Policy Institute finds that Maryland imprisons African Americans at twice the national rate. More than 7 out of 10 prisoners in Maryland are black, while the national average is 3 in 10. Ryan King, the report’s author, says disparate treatment occurs at every level, from arrest to prosecution to sentencing. Read the report here. And Gregory Carpenter, who spent two d...

Racially restrictive housing covenants were once common in Baltimore. Eventually, federal rules and regulations locked in even sharper barriers to mortgage loans and housing access. A traveling exhibit titled, “Undesign the Redline,” now at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, uses maps and stories to show how explicit racism became structural. Facilitator Trent Hall tells us about...

Struggling military veterans can get trapped in a vicious cycle of mental illness and substance abuse, and sometimes land behind bars. But there is a program they can turn to for help. The Veterans Treatment Court provides services and holds vets accountable so they can turn their lives around. Judge Halee Weinstein presides over the Veterans Treatment Court and describes how it works. Plus, we vi...

The first half of the title of C. Fraser Smith’s new book may sound reverent--a miracle! Every day! But along with the tales of eccentric characters in the newsrooms where Smith has worked, "The Daily Miracle" offers a hint of sarcasm, plus anguish about the challenges that threaten newspapers. When papers wither, Smith says the community loses a valuable ally. Do you have a question or comment ab...

Urgent alarms from the U.N. and the European Parliament call for intensified commitment to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, while the Trump Administration pursues pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement. As scientists warn that time is running out, young people are taking action. We speak to artist and activist Nadia Nazar of the youth-led organization Zero Hour. Plus, a mapping tool...