Midday

It's another edition of Midday Culture Connections,  with Dr. Sheri Parks, the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Today, our focus is on summer camp, and the significant role camp plays in the lives of so many young Americans. Is there a certain mythology about summer camp, and our notions of what an American summer is all about?  What were your experiences as a child, and what experiences do you seek out for your children? 

For many poor kids, the opportunities and promise of summer are often out of reach. But one group of Baltimore City youth will have the opportunity to learn and explore way beyond the borders of the city. Joining Tom and Dr. Parks in the third segment of the show is Sharayna Christmas.  She is the executive director of Muse 360 Arts and New Generation Scholars, a program that provides Baltimore City youth the opportunity to travel abroad and study the history and culture of the African diaspora. 

This program was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page, and you can see the video here.

Today on Midday, an update on what’s going on in Israeli politics, and the status of the stalled Middle East peace process. 

For analysis and context, Tom is joined today by four guests with decades of experience with the protracted pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian accord, and a deep appreciation for the complexity of this seemingly intractable conflict. 

Today, a conversation about the state of women’s reproductive rights in America. Since the beginning of this year, nine states have passed laws that seek to ban access to abortions.  Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Utah.  Are these laws designed to challenge Roe v. Wade? 

Tom speaks with Diana Philip, the Executive Director of NARAL, Pro Choice MD; Steven H.  Aden, the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Americans United for Life; and University of Baltimore professor of law, Kim Wehle.  

Today, the world marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day -- the massive Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France that began on this day in 1944.  Early this morning, eastern time, Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron of France, and President Donald Trump spoke at a ceremony marking the anniversary, which included more than 60 World War Two veterans, and a large crowd in Normandy, France, near the graves of more than 9,300 Americans killed in the epic battle.  Over the course of three months, a million Allied soldiers joined the battle to turn the tide of the Second World War.  Nazi Germany surrendered less than a year later.

The existential threat to liberal democracies was a preoccupation not only of the political and military leaders of the day, but also of scores of filmmakers – then, and ever since.  Today, we’re going to talk about the movies about and inspired by World War Two; films that were made during and soon after the conflict, and in the decades that followed. 

Joining Tom are Midday's go-to movie mavens: Jed Dietz is the founding director of the Maryland Film Festival;  Ann Hornaday is the film critic for the Washington Post and the author of the book TALKING PICTURES: HOW TO WATCH MOVIES…

It's Thursday, and Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck join us for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland regional stage.  Today, she tells us about the new touring production of The Play That Goes Wrong, on stage now at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre.

The popular British farce -- likened in its program to an illegitimate offspring of Sherlock Holmes and Monty Python -- was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields. Originally produced in 2012 by Mischief Theatre at London's Old Red Lion Theatre, it premiered on Broadway in 2017. It's been performed and licensed for production in more than 20 countries.

This touring production of The Play That Goes Wrong is directed by Matt DiCarlo, based on the Broadway direction by Mark Bell. Among the featured players are Peyton Crim, Brandon J. Ellis, Jamie Ann Romero, Evan Alexander Smith and Yaegel T. Welch.  The show continues at the Hippodrome until Sunday, June 9.  For more information, click here.

As the Baltimore Orioles continue the long slog that is “rebuilding,” empty seats abound at Camden Yards. But nothing compares to the attendance figure on Wednesday, April 29, 2015: Zero.

What has come to be known as “The Uprising” had crippled Baltimore two days earlier. And the Orioles and Major League Baseball decided that the game between the Os and the Chicago White Sox would be played that day with no fans seated in the ballpark. It was the only Major League Baseball game ever played without fans.

Kevin Cowherd was a Baltimore Sun sports columnist and features writer for 32 years. His latest book tells the story of that surreal game. It’s called "When the Crowd Didn't Roar: How Baseball's Strangest Game Ever Gave a Broken City Hope.” Cowherd will be reading from the book on June 30 at 2 p.m. at the Rosedale Branch of the Baltimore County Library. Click here for more information about that event. 

As of last Wednesday, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was one of 17 American symphonies who hire their players for a full 52 weeks each year.  As of last Thursday, that is no longer the case. 

After 8 months of negotiations with the players, BSO management has abruptly shortened its season, cutting all of the events they’d announced for this summer. 

Does it matter if the BSO plays for 40 weeks each year instead of 52?  Does a world class orchestra have to be full-time?  How should the BSO balance the aspiration for excellence with the realities of the marketplace for classical music? 

What’s going on with the state’s largest arts organization? 

To find answers to those questions, Tom talks first with Baltimore Symphony Musicians' Players Committee co-chairs Brian Prechtl and Greg Mulligan, and a little later, with the Symphony's President and CEO Peter Kjome. Then, Nicholas Cohen, the Executive Director of Maryland Citizens for the Arts, joins Tom to discuss the BSO funding crisis, the prospects for continued public support for the arts, and plans for this week's first-ever Maryland Arts Summit.

This conversation was livestreamed on WYPR' Facebook page, and you can watch the video here.  You can view the segment with Brian Prechtl and  Greg Mulligan from the beginning to about 19:00 into the feed; Mr.  Kjome's conversation with Tom begins at 21:00 and continues until about 39:30; Mr. Cohen's segment runs from 41:00 until the feed ends at 51:30.

Rep. Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th District. He is a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee, which is chaired by another Maryland Congressman, Elijah Cummings. 

As President Trump meets with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, Rep. Raskin joins Tom on the line to explain the growing calls for the House to begin an inquiry into impeaching the President  -- calls he says are being fueled by the Special Counsel's report and the intensifying legal clashes between the Trump White House and Congressional Democrats.

Now, we turn to the future of Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes -- the race that is the second jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown. Pimlico opened its doors in 1870, making it the second oldest racetrack in the nation.  And it is now, by all accounts, badly deteriorated.

The Preakness has been run in Baltimore City since 1873.  The question now is: Will next year’s Preakness be its last in Baltimore?  The Stronach Group, which owns Pimlico, wants to move the Preakness to its more modern facility in Laurel.

Yitzy Schleifer represents the 5th District on the Baltimore City Council. 

Sen. Bill Ferguson represents Maryland’s 46th District in Baltimore City.  

Doug Donovan is an investigative reporter at the Baltimore Sun.

We livestreamed this conversation on the WYPR Facebook page.  Click here to watch the video. 

Last Saturday night, a large group of teenagers gathered together in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.   After a few tense hours, a handful of kids were arrested for charges ranging from assault to disturbing the peace.  The incident was at least the fourth such episode in the Baltimore area since last summer, including disturbances at the White Marsh Mall and Eastpoint Mall in Baltimore County. 

Our panel today: 

Chris Wilson is an artist, an activist and an entrepreneur.  He’s the author of The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose. Dr. Kimberly Moffitt is the Associate professor and chair of the Language Literacy and Culture PhD program at UMBC. And D. Watkins is an editor-at-large at Salon and a lecturer at the University of Baltimore’s Klein Family School of Communication Design.  

Our discussion was streamed live on the WYPR FB page. Click here  to watch!

On today's Midday Healthwatch, Tom's guest is Baltimore City’s new Health Commissioner, Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.  She was named to the position in February by then-Mayor Catherine Pugh.  She began serving in March and was officially sworn in on April 16.   She succeeds Dr. Leana Wen, who resigned last fall to become the president of Planned Parenthood. 

Dr. Dzirasa (pron. jih-RAH-zuh) is the first African American woman to be appointed as Baltimore’s Top Doc.  Baltimore has the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department, a high-profile city agency with an annual budget of 150 million dollars and more than 800 employees. Dr. Dzirasa is a pediatrician who trained at the John Hopkins Medical School.   She has worked in the private sector as the Health Innovation officer at Fearless Solutions, the Baltimore-based digital services company she co-founded with her husband Dilali. From 2013-2016, she was the director of school-based health services at Baltimore Medical System, a non-profit community health services organization.

Dr. Dzirasa is 37 years old.  She lives in Baltimore with her husband, their 2 year-old son and her 17 year-old stepson.

This conversation was live-streamed  on WYPR’s Facebook page; you can see the video here.

It's Thursday, and time once again for theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of the regional stage. Today, she spotlights the new production of the hit 1960 musical, Oliver!  by the Annapolis Shakespeare Company.

A beloved turn on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Oliver Twist, this Tony Award-winning musical (1963, for Best Original Score in the 1962 Broadway production) follows the adventures of a homeless orphan (Oliver) in Victorian London, who falls in with a gang of street-urchin pickpockets, led by Artful Dodger and the criminal Fagin. 

With Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart, Oliver! is directed for Annapolis Shakespeare Company by Sally Boyett and Donald Hicken. Ms. Boyett, the company's founding artistic director, also choreographed the production. Marc Irwin is Music Director.

Oliver! continues at Annapolis Shakespeare Company's Main Stage Theatre at 1804 West Street in Annapolis through Sunday, June 9.  For more information about performances and tickets, click here.

Today, a conversation about the origins of the ransomware virus that has incapacitated the computer system in Baltimore City.   Many City agencies and officials were unable to send or receive emails, or voice mails.  Web sites remained functional, but city employees have only gradually been able to restore ways in which the public can communicate with them. 

The fix for this malicious malware will take a long time, and cost a lot of money.  City Council President Brandon Scott has asked Governor Larry Hogan to request an emergency declaration from the federal government to assist in the slow process of restoring the system so bills can be paid, data bases accessed, documents can be produced, and the city’s business can be accomplished. 

So, what does the attack mean for the city and other public entities, private corporations, and individuals.  Tom is joined by Scott Shane of the New York Times;  and Johns Hopkins University Professor of Computer Science and cyber-security expert Avi Rubin.  

Tom’s guest today is U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), who has represented Maryland on Capitol Hill since 1987: first in the House of Representatives, where he represented Maryland’s Third Congressional District. He was elected to the Senate in 2007 and re-elected to a third term last November. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for two decades.

Sen. Cardin is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the ranking member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. He is also a member of the Environment & Public Works and Finance committees. 

We livestreamed this conversation on WYPR's Facebook page.  Click here to see the video. 

(This program was originally broadcast on April 17, 2019)

Last month alone, Americans were bothered by more than 5 billion robocalls -- those unwelcome, computer-automated telemarketing or scam calls that are jangling our phones -- and our nerves -- with growing frequency. Is there any way to win the war on robocalls? And what can Congress do to rein in the scammers? Joining us on this archive edition of Midday are Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler, University of Maryland computer science professor Raymond Tu and Consumer Reports policy analyst Maureen Mahoney.

(This program was originally broadcast on January 2, 2019)

Today, on this archive edition of Midday, Tom's guest is journalist and attorney Steven Brill.    He’s the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, and he teaches journalism at Yale University, where he founded the Yale Journalism Initiative.

His latest book is a stunning and disconcerting compendium of some of the central problems facing America: the financialization of what had been a manufacturing based economy; rampant obsession with short term profits in American business, crippling political polarity, and marginalization of the middle class.  He offers a trenchant analysis of why these problems exist, and he shines a light on those people and organizations who are working to address these difficult challenges. 

The book is a New York Times Best-seller called “Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty Year Fall -- and those Fighting to Reverse It.”  

In 2012, Lawrence Lanahan led a team here at WYPR that explored racial inequity in the Baltimore region in a year-long radio and multi-media series called The Lines Between Us.  Lanahan has just published a book in which he continues his examination of the effects of racial bias in housing, education, and economic opportunity by chronicling the journeys of an African American family who moves from the city to Howard County, and a white family who moves from the suburbs to West Baltimore.  It’s called The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide (published by The New Press).

Lawrence Lanahan joins Tom in Studio A, along with Mark Carter, the Executive Director of the New Song Community Learning Center in Sandtown Winchester. 

It's Thursday, and time for theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us in the studio each week with her reviews of the Maryland regional stage.  Today, she spotlights not one, but two plays now in repertory at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre: Queens Girl in the World and Queens Girl in Africa, playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings' semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tales, each featuring one-woman performances by Dawn Ursula and Erika Rose, respectively, as African American "Queens girl" Jacqueline Marie Butler.

Directed by resident company member Paige Hernandez, the Queens Girl plays continue in repertory at Everyman Theatre through Sunday, June 23.  For showtimes and ticket information, click here. 

Tom’s guest for the hour is Andre M. Davis, the Baltimore City Solicitor. 

Davis was appointed as the city's top lawyer by then-Mayor Catherine Pugh in September 2017. He brings to the office 30 years of experience as a judge on local, state and federal courts -- including eight years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  As city solicitor, he directs the city’s legal department, which includes about 100 lawyers and support personnel.  He is also one of five members of the city’s Board of Estimates, which formulates and executes the city's fiscal policies. 

We livestreamed this conversation on the WYPR Facebook page.  Click here to watch the video. 

Today, Tom's guest is John Urschel, whose resumé includes great skill and high achievement in two areas that are not often, in fact, hardly ever, associated: football and mathematics.  He is a former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens who retired from the NFL at the age of 26 to pursue a career in math. 

The book is called Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football.  He co-wrote it with his wife, Louisa Thomas.   They’ll be speaking about the book tonight at the Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore.  

This conversation was streamed live on WYPR's Facebook page.  You can watch the video here. 

James Cabezas was chief investigator for the Office of the State Prosecutor here in Maryland and, before that, he was a Baltimore City cop. His new memoir is called “Eyes of Justice: A Career Crime Fighter Battles Corruption… and Blindness.”

Joan Jacobson is co-author of the book. She was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun and The Evening Sun for 28 years. They’ll be talking about the book tonight at 6:30 at the Maryland State Library for the Blind in Baltimore.  It’s on Park Avenue, directly behind the Enoch Pratt Central Library.

Today, it’s another edition of Midday in the Neighborhood, an occasional series in which we’ve set out to spotlight the remarkable tapestry of communities that make up the city of Baltimore.  Tom is joined in Studio A by representatives of three Baltimore neighborhoods:  Reservoir Hill, located just south of Druid Hill Park, near the city’s geographic center;  Overlea, located in the far northeast corner of the city, on the Baltimore County line;  and Federal Hill-South, on the southwestern bank of the Inner Harbor in South Baltimore.   Joyce Richardson is co-chair of the Board of Directors for the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council.  Caitlin Ceryes is president of the Overlea Community Association.  Mark Jaskulski is president of the Federal Hill-South Neighborhood Association.

Today, it’s Midday on the Arts.

We begin with a conversation about the profound influence of one artist on another.  The acclaimed MacArthur Award-winning artist Joyce Scott is featured in a new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art that juxtaposes her work with the work of her late mother, Elizabeth Talford Scott, who was also an artist. They lived and worked together in Baltimore for more than 60 years.

The exhibition is called HITCHING THEIR DREAMS TO UNTAMED STARS. It opened at the BMA yesterday, and continues through December 1st.

Midday on the Arts continues with a conversation about the future of the Single Carrot Theater.  Last January, the 12 year-old Baltimore company announced that next month, it will leave the theater it’s called home since 2014.  The final performances in their Remington space take place this weekend.  The closing show is called Pink Milk, by the trans woman playwright Ariel Zetina. It’s based on the life of the mathematician Alan Turing.  (Midday’s theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviewed the play on our show last week.)

Pink Milk is pretty typical of the kind of offering we’ve come to expect from Single Carrot Theatre:  a regional premiere of an experimental play that one would be unlikely to encounter anywhere else.  It is also the only play the company has produced this year. 

Joining Tom to discuss the big changes ahead for Single Carrot are Genevieve DeMahy, the  founding Artistic Director, and Alix Fenhagen, who is serving as the company’s Interim Managing Director. 

Today's Midday on the Arts concludes with our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, joining Tom with her review of Christina Anderson's new play, How to Catch Creation, now getting its regional premiere at Baltimore Center Stage.

In this latest work by Anderson, a winner of the prestigious Lorraine Hansberry Award, we meet a wrongly convicted man who is released from prison after 25 years.  As he sets about rebuilding his life, he begins a quest to become a father.  The play spans more than four decades as it explores intersecting lives, family, parenthood, and the power of new beginnings.

How to Catch Creation is directed at Center Stage by Nataki Garrett, and stars Tiffani Barbour as G.K. Marche, Shauna Miles as Natalie, Shayna Small as Riley, Lindsay Smiling as Griffin, Stephanie Weeks as Tami, and Jonathan Bangs as Stokes.

Content Advisory: The play includes some adult language and topics more appropriate for middle schoolers and older audiences.

How to Catch Creation continues at Baltimore Center Stage through Sunday, May 26.

Chris Wilson is a successful entrepreneur and activist whose story begins with trauma, despair, and a conviction for murder at the age of 18.  Incarcerated for life, estranged from his family, he was seemingly without hope.  But at the age of nineteen, he wrote a list of the things he hoped to accomplish in life, and with incredible grit and determination, he set about achieving many of those goals.

Released from prison after sixteen years behind bars, Chris Wilson has transformed his life and inspired countless others.  He’s written a book that chronicles his amazing story.  It’s called, The Master Plan:  My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose.

Chris Wilson is appearing at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Satururday.

But first, On today's show, Baltimore Sun City Hall reporter, Ian Duncan updates us on the ransomware attack that has hobbled Baltimore City government.  

In his new book, the political economist William Davies argues that the decline of trust in scientific expertise has led individuals and governments to rely increasingly on feelings rather than facts.  

William Davies is a political economist at Goldsmiths university of London.  He is the author of many books; his latest is called Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason.  Davies is also a contributor to publications including the Atlantic and the New York Times.  

Tom talks with Professor David Blight of Yale University.  He is the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for History for his expansive and acclaimed biography of Frederick Douglass. 

A highly respected Douglass scholar, David Blight is the annotator and editor of Douglass’ second autobiography.  This latest contribution to Douglass scholarship explores Douglass’ amazing journey from enslavement on the Eastern Shore of MD to become one of the world’s most transcendent and influential figures.  The book is called Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.   

Today, another in our occasional series, Midday on Higher Education. From time to time, Tom sits down with the presidents of Maryland colleges and universities to talk about the challenges that each of their institutions face, and how those institutions are connected to the fabric of the communities in which they are located. 

Today, Tom's guest is Dr. Dianna G. Phillips. In 2016, she became the 9th president of Harford Community College in Bel Air. HCC has more than 18,000 students enrolled in credit and non-credit degree and certificate programs. Before taking the reins at Harford Community College, Dr. Phillips was the CEO of the University of the District of Columbia Community College. 

We livestreamed this conversation on the WYPR Facebook page. Click here to watch.

Tom talks with Baltimore Ceasefire co-founders Erricka Bridgeford and Letrice Gant.  The group's mission: the cessation of murder in Baltimore City for one weekend every quarter.  This past weekend was a Ceasefire weekend.  Three people were shot on Friday night.  Two of those victims died.  There were no shootings on Saturday.  One non-fatal shooting took place yesterday. 

Since Freddie Gray’s death four years ago, 1,277 people have lost their lives to violence in Baltimore.  Since they organized the first ceasefire weekend in August, 2017, Erricka Bridgeford and Letrice Gant have acknowledged many of those victims, their families, and the people who made the decisions to kill them.