DAN RODRICKS

Disney princesses and the color pink are more popular than ever among young girls across America. Journalist Peggy Orenstein voices her concern about the significance of a retro trend towards the ultra-feminine, the role of the ubiquitous marketing machines that package and promote it and the implications of this change in the culture of girlhood. Orenstein is the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture.
Original broadcast: April 20, 2011

The key to finding true happiness and fulfillment lies in understanding our emotions and intuitions, says New York Times columnist David Brooks. Dan talks with him about his research for a book, The Social Animal, on the unconscious mind and how it shapes the way we love, live, and relate to other people.
Original broadcast: March 18, 2011

It’s The Midday Crab Show, with self-described Food Nerd Henry Hong, Baltimore City Paper contributor and chef at Suzi's Soba downtown, and John Shields, chef and owner of Gertrude’s Restaurant at the Baltimore Museum Art. Steamed crabs, crab cakes, crab dip, crab soup, crab fluff - we explore everything you can do with Maryland’s gift to gastronomy.

The Midday Weekly News Review of the region's most interesting stories with the reporters who covered them.

Seventy-five former players are suing the National Football League, claiming the league intentionally withheld knowledge of the damaging effects of concussions for 90 years. The plaintiffs claim that "the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects on a player's brain of concussions; however, until June of 2010 they concealed these facts from coaches, trainers, players and the public."

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch told British lawmakers Tuesday he was not responsible for a phone hacking scandal that has rocked his global empire. He said he was "shocked, appalled and ashamed" at the hacking of the phone of a murdered schoolgirl by his now-shuttered News of the World  tabloid. Meanwhile, two Democratic U.S. senators -- Barbara Boxer of California and John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia -- are pressing Dow Jones & Co. to investigate whether any executives played a role in or knew about the U.K. phone-hacking.

Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the movie, The Social Network, joins Dan in studio to talk about his new book Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History.

Continuing our discussions with Baltimore mayoral candidates, we welcome Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake back to the show to discuss her tenure since taking over for Sheila Dixon in 2010. Facing a challenge from an array of candidates in the September primary, Mayor Rawlings-Blake is running for election with the support of the state’s top Democratic officials and big edge in fundraising.

Construction on the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment project on the west side of Baltimore’s midtown was supposed to start last fall, but has been held up since a group of downtown property owners sued to block it and question its legality. City and state officials, including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Rep. Elijah Cummings and Gov. Martin O’Malley have cheered the project while the lawsuit’s plaintiffs claim the state violated public bidding requirements and that the project will hurt the central business district.

Have the negotiations over the nation's debt ceiling done anything to improve public confidence in Washington? Not according to a new poll from the Washington Post and the Pew Research Center. A third or fewer Americans express a any level of confidence in the five top congressional leaders at the center of negotiations – Republicans Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.