Midday

(This conversation was first broadcast on April 14, 2023.)

Welcome to an encore presentation of Midday.

Tom's guest is Bonnie Garmus. Her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, is a huge, breakout hit. It has been on the New York Times best seller list for almost a year, and it’s been parked in the number one spot on that list for 14 weeks. It has sold more than 2 million copies, it has become a favorite book club selection across the country, and it’s been named by The New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, and Newsweek as a best book of the year.

It’s an international hit, too, with translations published in 40 languages. The actor and director Brie Larsen will bring it to the screen in a series on Apple +.

Lessons in Chemistry is a feminist manifesto, a wickedly funny social critique, a poignant story of love and loss, and a charming peroration on the meaning and might of families.

The protagonist in this compelling novel is Elizabeth Zott, a gifted chemist who navigates the patriarchal universe of the 1950s and 60s with courage, compassion and unwavering aplomb. She is one of several extraordinary characters — including her beloved canine, Six-Thirty — in a comic, touching and moving story told with delicious mastery.

Author Bonnie Garmus joined Tom on Zoom from her home in London…

Bonnie Garmus will be speaking about "Lessons in Chemistry" and signing the book on May 10, at 7pm, at “Sixth and I” in Washington, DC. You can attend in person or on-line. Click the link to register for the ticketed event.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland-DC regional stage.

Today, Judy joins guest host Emily Sullivan to tell us about Nevermore, a 2006 musical inspired by the works of the master of the macabre, 19th century writer-poet Edgar Allan Poe.

The production, which is getting its regional premiere at Baltimore's Stillpointe Theatre, features music by Matt Conner, book by Grace Barnes, and orchestrations by Jonathan Tunik, with source material from Mr. Poe.

The story of love, personal demons and self-discovery is propelled by its musical numbers and explores the mind of Edgar Allan Poe as a "ghostly dreamscape" of disturbing yet compelling themes of madness and melancholy.

The musical is directed by Ryan Haase, with choreography by Amanda J. Rife, and musical direction by Ben Shaver.

Nevermore continues at The Stillpoint Theatre through May 6. Click the theater link for more information.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today on Midday, guest host Emily Sullivan, a city government reporter for The Baltimore Banner, takes a deep dive into the Baltimore City budget – which is taking shape a little differently this year.

For more than a century, the Baltimore City Council has had very limited power over the budget. The mayor would write it…and pass along a draft version to the council to officially vote through.The council members could make cuts to the budget, but could not reallocate the money.

For example, when then-City Council President Brandon Scott led the council in cutting 22-million dollars from the Baltimore Police budget in summer 2020, he and his peers didn’t have a say in where the money actually went.

This budget season, that changes.

Thanks to a charter amendment that voters overwhelmingly passed in November 2020, the council now has the power to move money around in Mayor Brandon Scott’s $4.4 billion draft budget.

Emily's first guest today is Adam Willis – a reporter at The Baltimore Banner who covers the intersection of money and politics at City Hall. Last night, he attended Taxpayer’s Night…the annuual forum where Baltimoreans are invited to City Hall to express their feelings about the budget proposal directly to the city’s spending board.

Adam Willis joins Emily in Studio A.

Later in the program, we get another perspective on last night's public forum, on the city's 2023-24 budget priorities and how they could shape the coming political season, from Sophia Silbergeld, a veteran political and business analyst and a managing partner at Adeo Advocacy, the communications and political consulting firm.

Sophia Silbergeld joins Emily in Studio A.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Now, Midday guest host Jayne Miller takes a look at the current state of redevelopment in downtown Baltimore.

There’s a new Lexington Market and concerts at the CFG Bank Arena. But foot traffic is dwindling, some restaurants are closing and big businesses are moving out.  And Harbor Place, long slated for a major redevelopment, continues to languish.

When and how can downtown bounce back?

Jayne talks with Sophie Kasakove and Hallie Miller, both reporters at WYPR's news partner, The Baltimore Banner, which recently published their extensive report on the troubled state of downtown Baltimore.

Sophie Kasakove and Hallie Miller join us in Studio A.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Welcome to Midday. Sitting in for Tom Hall once again is guest host Jayne Miller, the former WBAL-TV reporter and now an independent investigative journalist.

Today, Jayne will be looking at the future of Baltimore from two angles: later in the program, the focus will be on the progress of downtown development efforts. She'll be joined by two Baltimore Banner reporters who recently wrote a sobering assessment of the current state of the heart of the city.

But before we discuss commercial development, we consider what's happening with residential properties in the city. Last week in his State of the City speech, Mayor Brandon Scott spotlighted the latest initiatives of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and other agencies to increase Black homeownership in Baltimore. He calls this effort the Middle Neighborhoods Strategy. Here is some of what the mayor said:

“Through (the Department of) Housing, Live Baltimore, and the Department of Planning, we're investing $9.7 million toward grant programs to finance home repairs for legacy homeowners and create pathways to homeownership for families with school-aged children...This includes providing 270 grants through our Buy Back the Block initiative to help renters move towards homeownership by offering them $10,000 to buy—or $20,000 to buy and renovate—a home where they currently rent.”

                                                      — Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott.

Can programs like these increase Black homeownership and narrow the gap?

Jayne also examines more broadly why the rate of homeownership in Maryland among Black residents is still lagging behind White residents. According to a recent report on race and home buying, Black homeownership for Marylanders in 2021 was 52% while White homeownership in the state was 78%.

What factors are contributing to the gap and how are real estate professionals addressing the issue?

Joining Jayne to discuss these questions is Ashley Thomas, a Los Angeles-based realtor and vice president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, an organization of African-American real estate professionals focused on democracy in housing.

Ashley Thomas joins us from Los Angeles on Zoom.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Welcome to Midday. Today, guest host Jayne Miller talks about challenges in Maryland health care services.

We begin with a look at the problems of first-responder burnout as a result of the pandemic and long waits in the emergency room.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finds that Maryland’s wait times in hospital emergency rooms are among the worst in the nation, at nearly four hours per visit.

In the most recent legislative session in Annapolis, lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted to create a taskforce to investigate Maryland’s emergency room wait times. Jayne's first guest is Senator Karen Lewis Young, a Democrat who represents District 3 (Frederick County). She was the sponsor of this legislation in the Senate.

Senator Young joins us via Zoom.

Later in the program, we turn to challenges facing nursing home facilities, long-term care and elder care.

A recent report finds that staffing levels in nursing homes are at their lowest level since 1994.Long-term care advocates have been sounding the alarm for years about the need for Maryland to invest in the future infrastructure and workforce of nursing homes.

Joe DeMattos is one of those advocates. He is president of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland. The organization represents and supports long-term care facilities across the state.

Joe DeMattos join us in Studio A.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today on Midday, Jayne Miller, the former WBAL reporter and now an independent investigative journalist, begins a three-day stint here guest hosting for Tom Hall.

The latest US Census data show Baltimore City continues to lose population. The total number of city residents is 569,930, according to the latest count — a staggering 40% decline since the 1950’s.

But inside those numbers are trends, stories and indicators that can help us better understand the profound changes happening in the city, and the region.

Jayne's guest today is Dr. Amanda Phillips de Lucas, the new director of the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance — Jacob France Institute. Each year, BNIA-JFI issues Baltimore's Vital Signs report, which tracks more than 150 indicators to take the pulse of neighborhood health and vitality.

The non-profit organization is housed at the University of Baltimore and for many years was led by Seema Iyer, who spearheaded BNIA's efforts to bring data science to bear on improving neighborhood governance in Baltimore. Last month, Dr. de Lucas was selected to take charge of the alliance's crucial mission of gathering and analyzing data to better understand the needs of the city’s diverse communities.

Amanda Phillips de Lucas joins Jayne in Studio A.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Tom's Midday Newsmaker guest today is Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.

He’s been on the job a little more than four years, overseeing the implementation of a federal consent decree, trying to change the culture of the department, and fix the fraught relationship between the police and the majority African American community in our city.

There might be a perception that crime in the city has not diminished this year, or in recent years. In 2022, the number of homicides did, indeed top 300 for the 8th straight year. Three hundred and thirty-two people lost their lives violently then. But the overall trend in the rate of homicides and nonfatal shootings is headed in the right direction.

Mayor Brandon Scott delivered his third State of the City address earlier this week, and in his speech, he discussed efforts to turn the tide of violence in our city.

Part of that tide, the mayor said, is caused by the sheer number of weapons that are available. And he pointed to signs that the city's Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which involves violence interruption organizations as well as police and other agencies, is working.

But like cities across the country, Baltimore has experienced a heartbreaking uptick in violence against children and teenagers.The CDC reports that gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children in the United States. In 2021, firearms were responsible for 19% of childhood deaths nationwide.Here in Baltimore, in the first four months of this year, 39 young people between the ages of 13 and 18 have been shot. Eleven have died.

Mayor Scott has promised to re-instate nighttime curfews for children and youth under the age of 17, starting this Memorial Day (May 29).

If police are tasked with enforcing curfews, how will that affect their efforts to reduce violent crime?

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison joins Tom in Studio A…

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland-DC regional stage.

Today, she spotlights The Awakening, a new production by the Endangered Species Theatre Project, on stage until Friday at New Spire Arts in Frederick, Maryland.

The Awakening was adapted from the Kate Chopin novel by playwright Rebecca Chase, with music by Myra Platt.

Chopin's novel, first published in 1899 as "A Solitary Soul," depicts a young mother's struggle to achieve sexual and personal emancipation in the oppressive environment of the postbellum American South.

This American literary classic was widely censored and condemned as immoral when it was first released. It was rediscovered in the 1950s and has since gained a following as an early and important feminist work.This latest stage adaptation is set to a score of blues, ragtime, soul, and opera and imbued with the lush decadence of the French Quarter.

Endangered Species Theatre Project’s production of The Awakening is directed by Christine Mosere.

It continues at New Spire Arts in Frederick through tomorrow (Friday, April 21).

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

If you’ve just joined us today, it’s Midday on the Environment. More than 6% of waste in the US comes from household textiles.The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, or SMART, a network of companies involved in fabric recycling, says that 95% of textiles can be reused or recycled. Old curtains, towels, sheets, shoes, stuffed animals and more can all be turned into new stuff.

And when it comes to clothes, what better way to recycle them than to have someone else wear them?

Forbes Magazine reports that in 2021, the global market value of secondhand clothes was $96 billion.

Joining Tom now are two volunteers with the Women’s Board of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which runs stores downtown and in Cockeysville that sell secondhand clothes to raise money for a range of patient-care services at the hospital.

Susan Flax Posner is a volunteer at RENEWAL Upscale Resale at the Hunt Valley Town Centre in Cockeysville.

Joan Quinn volunteers at the Carry On Shop on East Monument Street, on the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus in Baltimore…

Susan Posner and Joan Quinn join Tom in Studio A. 

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.