Rob Sivak
Interim senior producer, MiddayRob Sivak is interim senior producer for Midday, with host Tom Hall. Recently retired after a seven-year stint as a Midday producer, Rob joined WYPR in 2015 as senior producer of Hall's previous show, Maryland Morning (which aired its final broadcast on September 16th, 2016). Before coming to the station, Rob enjoyed a 36-year career at the congressionally funded global broadcaster, Voice of America. At VOA, he honed his skills as a news and feature reporter, producer, editor and program host.
After reporting assignments at VOA's New York City, United Nations and Los Angeles bureaus, Rob spent two decades covering international food, farming and nutrition issues for VOA's 180-million worldwide listeners, and created and hosted several popular VOA science magazines. At Midday, he continued to pursue his passion for radio and his abiding interests in science, health, technology and politics.
Rob grew up as an ex-pat "oil brat" on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, and studied and traveled widely in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. He attended Hofstra University in New York and Boston University's School of Public Communications. Rob and his wife Caroline Barnes, a writer, live in Silver Spring, Maryland, where they've raised three daughters.
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In 'Willie Nelson: All the Albums,' author Geoffrey Himes shares the stories behind a trove of musicMusic writer Geoffrey Himes traces singer-songwriter Willie Nelson's 7-decade career in a richly detailed compendium of the country music legend's 150+ albums. -
Author Al Shipley conducted interviews with artists, club promoters and music producers over 18 years. -
Author Alex "Sandy" Pentland offers a compelling counter to popular foreboding about AI's impact on human civilization: using AI, he writes, we can build more dynamic, open societies. -
Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck spotlights 'Santa Claus is Comin': A Motown Christmas Revue' at Baltimore Center Stage through January 4. -
Sportswriter Jane Leavy's latest book is a fact-rich pitch for new rules in baseball to bring more fairness — and fun — back to "America's pastime." -
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Richard Worley was named the city's top cop in 2023, after many years working in the department. -
Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout's latest book engages characters both familiar and new, as the author explores human relationships and the value of unnoticed, 'unrecorded' lives. -
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis discuss their probe into Trump's decade-long efforts to subvert the DOJ, and the nation's rule of law. -
MD Hunger Solution director LaMonika Jones discusses efforts to reduce the disturbingly high rates of poverty and food insecurity in Maryland, one of the nation's wealthiest states. -
Each week here on Midday, it is our practice to read the names of the people who have lost their lives to violence in Baltimore City.
