DAN RODRICKS

Senator Ben Cardin, Maryland (D), is our special guest this hour for Midday Politics to talk about the latest showdown in Congress and the politics of passing year-end legislation. With WYPR senior news analyst C. Fraser Smith.

Dan talks with Nassir Ghaemi, professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, about the surprisingly deep correlation between mental illness and successful leadership, as seen through some of history's greatest politicians, generals, and business leaders. Ghaemi, a specialist in bipolar disorder, is the author of A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.

Anthony Brandon, president and general manager of WYPR, answers questions about the station’s operations, its expansion into HD radio and its relationship with NPR.

Time again for Midday on the Law, our look at legal affairs in the news with Baltimore attorneys -- and husband and wife -- Julie Rubin and Jim Astrachan. On today’s docket: Liars and the law. Stephen Glass, the discredited journalist who fabricated articles for The New Republic in the 1990s, wants to practice law in California and the Supreme Court in that state has agreed to review his application. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to consider a challenge to Arizona's controversial immigration law; we’ll talk about that today.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has a lot to say about Republicans in Congress -- specifically because of their filibuster of President Obama’s nominee for the nation’s top consumer cop. He sees the effort to derail the nomination as an attempt by Senators to protect Wall Street and major banks from additional oversight. Doug Gansler is our guest this hour. Plus, Scott Dance of the Baltimore Business Journal on the O’Malley administration’s settlement with Exelon Corp. in its proposed buyout of Constellation Energy.

Midday Eats with Hong & Shields: Henry Hong, food writer for the City Paper and Baltimore Magazine, and John Shields, chef and owner of Gertrude's Restaurant, are back to share some of their favorite recipes of the holiday season.

What does it take to make a good app?  And what are your favorites?  A look at making them, selling them, and finding the best ones.  With Mario Armstrong of The Digital Cafe and technology contributor for NPR & NBC's Today Show , Gus Sentementes, Baltimore Sun tech journalist & blogger, and Shawn Grimes, apps developer and senior security architect for Legg Mason.

Midday producer Michael Himowitz, Glennor Shirley, retired head librarian for the Maryland prisons, and Roswell Encina of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and our listeners talk about the best books of the past year, fiction and non-fiction.

Out of the thousands of letters that President Obama receives each day, he chooses ten to read. Our guest this hour, Washington Post staff writer Eli Saslow, takes a look at some of these letters and 10 to which the President personally responded.  A quest to understand the everyday citizens who author letters to the most powerful person in the U.S. Saslow is the author of Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President.

It's Oscar season! The films and actors expected to receive nominations and what an Academy Award campaign looks like. With Linda DeLibero, associate director of film studies at Johns Hopkins University.