Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

With an accessible blend of narrative history and science, Strange Glow describes mankind's extraordinary, thorny relationship with radiation, including the hard-won lessons of how radiation helps and hinders our health. Author Timothy Jorgensen explores how our knowledge of and experiences with radiation in the last century can lead us to smarter personal decisions about radiation exposures today.

Jorgensen introduces key figures in the story of radiation -- from Wilhelm Roentgen, the discoverer of x-rays, and pioneering radioactivity researchers Marie and Pierre Curie, to Thomas Edison and the victims of the recent Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. He explains exactly what radiation is, how it produces certain health consequences, and how we can protect ourselves from harm.

Timothy J. Jorgensen is associate professor of Radiation Medicine, and Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program, at Georgetown University. He is also an associate in the Epidemiology Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University.

Recorded On: Wednesday, April 13, 2016

National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the "real" James Brown -- and his surprising journey illuminates the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown's legacy.

Kill 'Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown's rough-and-tumble life, through McBride's lens, is an unsettling metaphor for American life: the tension between North and South, black and white, rich and poor.

McBride's travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown's never-before-revealed history. He seeks out the American expatriate in England who co-created the James Brown sound, visits the trusted right-hand manager who worked with Brown for 41  years, and sits at the feet of Brown's most influential nonmusical creation, his "adopted son," the Rev. Al Sharpton. He spent hours talking with Brown's first wife and recounts the Dickensian legal contest over James Brown's valuable estate, a fight that has destroyed careers, cheated children out of their educations, cost Brown's estate millions in legal fees, and left James Brown's body to lie for more than eight years in a gilded coffin on his daughter's front lawn in South Carolina.

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award winner, The Good Lord Bird, as well as the bestselling memoir, The Color of Water, and the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle of St. Anna. He is also a saxophonist and composer who teaches music to children in the Red Hook, Brooklyn, housing projects where he was born. He is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.

Recorded On: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The struggle to integrate the Baltimore Orioles mirrored the fight for civil rights. The Orioles debuted in 1954, the same year the Supreme Court struck down public school segregation. As Baltimore experienced demonstrations, white flight, and a 1968 riot, team integration came slowly. Black players, mostly outfielders, made cameo appearances as black fans stayed away in droves. The breakthrough came in 1968, with the arrival of a more enlightened owner and African American superstar Frank Robinson. As more black players filled the roster, the Orioles dominated the American League from 1969 into the early 1980s.

Attempts to integrate the team's executive suite were less successful. While black players generally did not participate in civil rights actions, several under Robinson's leadership pushed for front office jobs for former black players. Drawing on primary sources and interviews with former executives, players and sportswriters, Bob Luke tells the story of the integration of the Orioles.

Bob Luke is the author of four previous books about baseball and race in America. He lives in Garrett Park, Maryland.

Recorded On: Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The most famous long-distance hiking trail in North America, the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail -- the longest hiking-only footpath in the world -- runs along the Appalachian mountain range from Georgia to Maine. Every year about 2,000 individuals attempt to "thru-hike" the entire trail. In Walking on the Wild Side, sociologist Kristi M. Fondren traces the stories of 46 men and women who, for their own personal reasons, set out to conquer America's most well-known long-distance hiking trail.

Kristi M. Fondren is an associate professor of sociology at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Recorded On: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Baltimore Symphony's oboist Michael Lisicky chronicles the first 100 years of the orchestra from its humble beginning as the nation's only municipally-funded symphony to its present status as one of the country's greatest orchestras. The book features more than 200 photographs, interviews with past and present musical luminaries, and an introduction by pianist Leon Fleisher.

Michael Lisicky is the author of several bestselling books, including Hutzler's: Where Baltimore Shops; Remembering Moos Brothers; and Baltimore's Bygone Department Stores: Many Happy Returns.

Recorded On: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

In The Black Calhouns, Gail Lumet Buckley -- daughter of Lena Horne -- delves deep into her family history, detailing the experiences of an extraordinary African American family from Civil War to Civil Rights. Beginning with her great-great grandfather Moses Calhoun, a house slave who used the rare advantage of his education to become a successful businessman in postwar Atlanta, Buckley follows her family's two branches: one that stayed in the South, and the other that settled in Brooklyn.

Through the lens of her relatives' momentous lives, Buckley examines major events throughout American history. From Atlanta during Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow, from the two World Wars to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance and then the Civil Rights Movement, this ambitious, brilliant family witnessed and participated in the most crucial events of the 19th and 20th centuries. Combining personal and national history, The Black Calhouns is a vibrant portrait of six generations during dynamic times of struggle and triumph.

Gail Lumet Buckley is the author of American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm and The Hornes: An American Family, which became a PBS "American Masters" documentary.

The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.

Recorded On: Tuesday, March 8, 2016

In this family program, Cal Ripken, Jr. talks about his new book, The Closer, with Kevin Cowherd and John Maroon. In The Closer, the sixth book in Cal Ripken, Jr.'s All Stars series, Danny Connell, the Dulaney Orioles back-up pitcher, must step up to the plate and out of his brother's shadow to become the dependable closer his team needs.

Cal Ripken, Jr. was a shortstop and third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles for his entire career (1981-2001). Nicknamed "The Iron Man," Ripken is most remembered for playing a record 2,632 straight games over 17 seasons, shattering the record previously held by Lou Gehrig. He was a 19-time All Star and, in 2007, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mr. Ripken is CEO of Ripken Baseball, Inc. and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.

Recorded On: Monday, March 7, 2016

Reading and writing poems that make strong use of sounds to carry the meaning: luscious-, funny-, or ugly-sounding words; rhythms that tell the tale; echoes (rhyme, repetition).

The Instructor: Clarinda Harriss is a professor emerita of English at Towson University whose poems and short fiction are widely anthologized. Her most recent books are The White Rail, Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice.

Recorded On: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Raised in northern New Jersey, Cory Booker went to Stanford University on a football scholarship, accepted a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, then studied at Yale Law School. Graduating from Yale, his options were limitless. He chose public service.

Booker moved to a rough neighborhood in Newark where he worked as a tenants' rights lawyer before winning a seat on the City Council. In 2006, he was elected mayor, and for more than seven years he was the public face of an American city that had gone decades with too little positive national attention and investment. In 2013, Booker became the first African American elected to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.

In United, Cory Booker draws on personal experience to issue a stirring call to reorient our nation and our politics around the principles of compassion and solidarity. He speaks of rising above despair to engage with hope, pursuing our shared mission, and embracing our common destiny.

Recorded On: Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Experts at this free grants workshop discuss grant programs and application procedures for arts, humanities and heritage preservation organizations.

Invited presenters include the Maryland Humanities Council, Maryland State Arts Council, Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Heritage Areas, Preservation Maryland and the Baltimore National Heritage Area.

This event was sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council. 

Recorded On: Thursday, January 21, 2016