Midday

Saturday is Earth Day, a day that's been observed annually since 1970 to draw attention to the problems facing the global environment.

Today on Midday, two environmental movements that are rapidly gaining interest and adherents: the green burial movement and sustainable fashion.

A little later we’ll talk about how the Johns Hopkins Women’s Board is giving new life to old clothes, and cutting down on the environmental impact of discarding textiles.

But we begin today with a conversation about green burials, which perhaps can be best described by listing what’s not involved rather than what is. No embalming, no concrete grave liners, no non-biodegradable caskets. Instead, bodies are returned to the earth naturally, with no deleterious effect on the environment.

Jennifer Downs is the founder and chair of the Green Burial Association of Maryland, or GBAM. She joins Tom in Studio A…

Lee Webster joins us as well. She’s a past president of the Green Burial Council. She’s served in leadership of the National Home Funeral Alliance, and she helped found the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and Conservation Burial Alliance. She’s also written several books about green burials.

Lee Webster joins us on Zoom from Holderness, New Hampshire.

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

Juanita Jackson Mitchell (January 2, 1913 – July 7, 1992) is one of Maryland's most revered civil rights icons. An activist whose imprint on the struggle for civil rights is immutable, she was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and the first African American woman to practice law in Maryland.

Her legacy will be honored when the building in Baltimore’s Marble Hill neighborhood she used as a law office during her storied career is to be renovated and preserved as a community legal center.

The Beloved Community Services Corporation, a non-profit community development group directed by Alvin Hathaway, purchased the property and is overseeing the renovation. The group recently received a $1.75 million US congressional grant to support the project.

Joining Tom now is one of Juanita Jackson Mitchell’s sons, former Maryland State Senator Michael Mitchell. He joins us on Zoom…

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

Recent surveys have shown that people looking for employment in this country are putting greater emphasis than previous generations on what's being called the "the work-life balance" — favoring jobs that more closely reflect their values and lifestyles, even if they offer lower salaries.

This morning, LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned business and employment-focused social media platform, released new data on what job seekers want from companies they are considering working for.

Joining Tom now to discuss the new findings is Andrew McCaskill. He is a career expert and global communications specialist at LinkedIn.

Andrew McCaskill joins us on Zoom from Atlanta, Georgia.

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

The recent revelations by investigative journalists from Pro Publica about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with the Republican megadonor Harlan Crow have rekindled the debate about the lack of a code of ethics for members of the nation’s highest court.

We begin today with our Newsmaker guest, Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Last November, he was overwhelmingly elected to a second term in the US Senate, after serving 7 terms in the House. He serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee, and he chairs the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. That’s the subcommittee that determines funding for, among others, the US Supreme Court…

Sen. Van Hollen discusses the Senate's response to the scandal in the High Court, the imbroglio over Sen. Diane Feinstein's role on the Judiciary Committee, and the looming deadline for a vote on raising the US debt limit.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen joins us on Zoom from his office on Capitol Hill.

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

Today, it’s Midday at the Museum.  Two museums, to be exact. The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Maryland Center for History and Culture have each named new directors within the last several months. Asma Naeem took the reins of the BMA in February. Katie Caljean assumed the top job at the Maryland Center last fall.They join us today on Midday to talk about their plans for their respective institutions, and to share their reflections on the changing roles of museums in Baltimore and beyond.

Asma Naeem was born in Pakistan. She moved to Baltimore as a two-year-old. She is the first person of color to lead the BMA in its 109-year history. Her career as an art historian and curator was preceded by a career as a lawyer, including a tenure as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York.

Asma Naeem joins us on Zoom from her office at the museum.

We are also joined by Asma’s BMA colleague, Gamynne Guillotte, the museum's Chief of Education and co-curator of a new exhibition at the BMA that celebrates Hip Hop, during this 50th anniversary of the influential genre.

Along with two colleagues from the St. Louis Art Museum, they are co-curating The Culture:  Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century.

This exhibition is a ticketed show, but there are a few days when admission to the exhibition is free. The next one is Sunday, May 21st. The exhibition closes July 16th.

In the final segment of the program today, Tom's guest is Katie Caljean, the president and CEO of the Maryland Center for History and Culture. She was appointed to the top job last fall, after serving at the Center for about 10 years, most recently as its senior vice president of education and strategic engagement.

Katie Caljean joins Tom in Studio A.

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited opens at the Maryland Center for History and Culture on Memorial Day weekend, on Friday, May 26. It will be at the Center until December.

[Posted image: Artist Joyce J. Scott. "Hip Hop Saint, Tupac" (2014.The Baltimore Museum of Art: Women's Committee Acquisitions Endowment for Contemporary Prints and Photographs, BMA 2020.61. © Joyce J. Scott and Goya Contemporary Gallery)]

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

On Easter Sunday night, a large crowd of young people gathered near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. A fight broke out, and according to police, while officers were breaking up that fight, less than 40 feet away, a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old were shot. One is listed in “critical but stable” condition and the other in stable condition, according to Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.

Over the weekend, several more young people were shot. Saturday night, a 12 year old boy was killed in the Westport Homes in South Baltimore. Last night, there was a triple shooting in the Jonestown neighborhood in which three teens were wounded, including a 17-year-old who was shot in the head. So far this year, one in three shooting victims in Baltimore have been under the age of 18.

Last week, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott announced that, quote, we are “going back to the old days” of enforcing curfews, beginning on Memorial Day Weekend.

Today on Midday: Are curfews an effective way to keep kids and the rest of us, safe? Can they be effectively enforced? Do curfews criminalize kids, especially children of color?

Tom's three guests today provide some unique perspectives on these questions.

We begin with Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway, who chairs the Public Safety Committee He joins Tom in Studio A...

Later in the program, Tom is joined by law professor Kristin Henning. She is the director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, and the author of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth.

Lakeidra Chavis joins us as well. She is a staff writer for the Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization reporting on criminal justice issues and advocating for systemic reforms. 

Both women join us on Zoom.

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

Tom's guest today 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.

We're delighted to welcome author Bonnie Garmus to our show. She joins us on Zoom from her home in London.

Bonnie Garmus will be speaking about "Lessons in Chemistry" and signing copies of her 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, she spotlights Hadestown, the 2019 musical that won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and that's now in a touring company production at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre.

Written by Anaïs Mitchell (book, music and lyrics) and co-developed with director Rachel Chavkin, the musical weaves two Greek myths — one, of young lovers Orpheus and Eurydice, and another, of King Hades and his wife Persephone — into a haunting and moving musical drama.

Hadestown continues at the Hippodrome Theatre through April 16.

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

Joining Tom now is the author of a wonderful book, one that makes an important contribution to the literature of walking. From prophets to historians, the tradition of walkers writing about what they encountered on their journeys goes back centuries.

Neil King, Jr. didn’t set out to write a book, necessarily, but in the spring of 2021, he left his home in Washington, DC, and headed for New York, with 17 lbs. of stuff in his backpack, and in the words of the poet John O’Donohue, “an open heart and a watchful reverence.”

King is a former national reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal.  His new book is called American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal.

Neil King, Jr. joins us on Zoom from Washington, DC.

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

Spring is in the air. Most folks in our listening area are enjoying plenty of sunshine today, and perhaps thinking ahead to what they’ll plant in their gardens. We thought today would be a good day to talk about issues in agriculture, as farmers begin planting their fields and urban gardeners start populating their pots.

Tom's guest is Joe Bartenfelder, who has managed his family produce business — Bartenfelder Farms — in Preston, Maryland, for 45 years. (Here in Baltimore, you can find fresh produce from Bartenfelder Farms at the Waverly and downtown farmer’s markets every weekend.)

Bartenfelder has also had a long career in politics. He served on the Baltimore County Council. He was a member of the House of Delegates, and from 2015-2023, during the administration of Gov. Larry Hogan, he served as Maryland's Secretary of Agriculture.

Joe Bartenfelder joins us on Zoom from his farm in Preston, in Caroline County…

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