WYPR

Adventures for a Maryland winter, indoors and out. Maryland’s Hometown Tourist Susan Allenback will be back with us to share her tips on where to go when the weather outside is frightful—or just lovely.  All just a short drive away.

The Maryland financier who has made the Port of Baltimore a thriving and expanding hub is trying to sell Congress on a $250 billion plan to modernize the nation's crumbling infrastructure and create millions of jobs. Christopher H. Lee, of Highstar Capital and Ports America, is our guest during the Midday Weekly Review,

David Silverman’s got a collection of almost 900 pinball machines, and he’s about to open the National Pinball Museum right here in downtown Charm City.  We drop in at the museum for a crash course in pinball history.

Arthur Magida talks about his book, “The Nazi Séance:  The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler’s Circle.”  The book tells the tale of Erik Jan Hanussen, a celebrated clairvoyant who let his own ambition blind him to the terrible realities of life in Berlin during the 1930’s.

Virtual monopolies have come to rule our communications technologies over the last century. Could the Internet be ruled by one corporate giant that controls the flow of information across the country and around the world? That is the big question we'll discuss with Tim Wu, the professor at Columbia Law School who came up with the term “net neutrality” in a research paper 10 years ago.

Sheri Parks, Midday's American culture commentator, takes a look at how luxury and style are embraced by two groups: black women and gay men. Despite a lackluster economy, members of the black community  -- its middle-class women, in particular -- aspire to own furs and expensive jewelry. Gay men are often recognized for their meticulous, dapper and eye-catching apparel. Sheri Parks has some keen observations to share about conspicuous consumption and flamboyant style, both used to communicate very different messages.

How opera, classical music and the theater in Baltimore have fared through turbulent economic times and what lies ahead for the arts in Charm City. With Tim Smith, classical music critic and Clef Notes blogger for the Baltimore Sun; John Lewis, arts and culture editor for Baltimore Magazine; Randi Vega, cultural affairs director for the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts; and Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director for Center Stage.

Just as she prepares to announce her candidacy for Congress, Maryland Sen. Nancy Jacobs joins us on the show this hour to discuss the results of the Iowa caucuses and the start of the Republican presidential nominating process. Also joining us: Center Maryland columnist Josh Kurtz, the editor of the Capitol Hill publication Environment & Energy Daily.

If you’ve enjoyed an outing in New York’s Central Park, thrilled to the majesty of Yellowstone, or walked the stunning campus of Stanford University, you’ve had a glimpse into the soul of Frederick Law Olmsted. He was America’s foremost landscape architect and a man who left his imprint on more than a hundred parks and urban spaces, from coast to coast, and including Maryland.

Richard Striner, professor of history at Washington College, visits this hour to discuss his cover essay in the winter edition of The American Scholar: "How to shock the U.S. economy back to life without raising taxes, without adding to the national debt and without causing inflation."