Midday

President Joe Biden gave his second State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and the nation last night.

His 72-minute address, his first since Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, was met with an abundance of partisan heckling, and even a couple of moments of bipartisan approval. Many consider the speech to be Biden’s opening gambit in a bid for re-election to a second term as president.

Joining Tom today is the author and journalist Farai Chideya. She’s the host of Our Body Politic, which you can hear on WYPR Tuesday nights at 9:00, although last night it was pre-empted by our coverage of the State of the Union Address. But fear not, you can catch the podcast anytime.

Farai Chideya joins us on Zoom from Brooklyn, New York.

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

As soon as he was overwhelmingly elected to a second term as Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis wasted no time re-planting a flag in the national culture war. It is widely assumed that DeSantis will be a candidate for President in 2024. It remains to be seen whether or not his attempts to alter the curriculum for the teaching of Black History will prove to be a winning strategy in the Republican primary or in a general election.

But that curriculum has certainly been altered. The College Board — the non-profit educational organization which produces the Advanced Placement, or AP, course material at issue in Florida — contends it did not revise the curriculum because of political pressure. David Coleman, the CEO of the College Board, insisted in his interview last week with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that the revisions were made well before the Florida governor's criticisms.

But those revisions were announced just a couple of days after Florida Gov. DeSantis blasted the original draft of the course as contributing to a leftist political agenda. Florida's Commissioner of Education described it as “woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”

When the College Board first announced the Advanced Placement course in African American history last August, it garnered praise from scholars on the left. The revised version, released last week, deletes some of the most well-known contemporary voices in the African American canon, and delegates topics like Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory to a list of possible research topics, rather than as part of the course itself.

The issue of what to teach and what to suppress in telling the story of our country’s racial history became a cause celebre on the right. Gov. DeSantis has now expanded his attacks to encompass not just the high school AP course, but college and university curricula as well.

Florida isn’t the only state to have challenged the dimensions of what Black History should include. Nearly half of all states have passed legislation against Critical Race Theory, which before it became a hot topic, had only been taught in law schools.Today on Midday: Conversations with teachers who teach Black Studies in Baltimore high school classrooms. Plus, the perspective of the African American Studies scholar who coined the hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter.

We begin with Patrice Frasier. She is the chair of the Social Sciences Department at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a city public school where she teaches American Government and African American Studies. Poly is one of 60 schools across the country selected to test the pilot AP African Studies course, and Ms. Frasier is one of the teachers who'll be teaching that course next year.

Patrice Frasier joins us on Zoom…

Then, Tom speaks with Damian Ford, a student support specialist who teaches Black literature at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Damian Ford joins us on Zoom…

Tom's final guest today is Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter. He’s the chair of the African American Studies Department at UCLA.

Dr. Hunter joins us on Zoom from Los Angeles.

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

This past weekend was the city's first Promise of Peace weekend; three days of peace-elevating events organized by the Baltimore Peace Movement.

Two of the founders of this community-based, non-profit organization (which last November changed its name from Baltimore Ceasefire 365) join us to reflect on the weekend events and their group's new mission focus.

Erricka Bridgeford and Letrice Gant are also Executive Director and Deputy Director, respectively, of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center. That’s a non-profit volunteer organization that since 1995 has been providing free conflict resolution services to communities across the city.

Erricka Bridgeford and Letrice Gant join us on Zoom.

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

It’s the Midday Healthwatch, with Dr. Leana Wen.

Much of life has returned to pre-COVID normal. In several of her recent essays in the Washingon Post, Dr. Wen has written about new research into the vexing problem of Long COVID, the decision by the Biden administration to end the COVID state-of-emergency, how to help the immunocompromised, and how to more accurately account for the actual number of hospitalizations and fatalities that have been caused by COVID.

We’ll talk about these topics today with Dr. Wen, who is one of America’s most trusted and knowledgeable public health experts. She is an emergency physician and a former health commissioner of Baltimore. She teaches at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. In addition to writing a health column for the Washington Post, she’s a medical analyst for CNN, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health.

Dr. Leana Wen joins us on Zoom…

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 Maryland's regional stage.

Today, she tells us about Jump, the 2019 play by Charly Evon Simpson about family, loss, spiritual journeys and fundamental connections, now on stage at Baltimore's Everyman Theater.

Directed at Everyman by Summer L. Williams, the powerful drama stars Morgan Danielle Day as Judy;Billie Krishawn as Fay; Tony Nam as Hopkins; andJefferson A. Russell as Dad.

Jump continues at Everyman Theatre through February 19. Click the show link for more info.

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

It's another episode of Midday at the Movies, our monthly conversation about films and filmmaking.

Joining Tom in Studio A are our two movie-maven regulars: Ann Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post and author of the best-selling moviegoers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies; and Jed Dietz, the founder and former director (retired) of the Maryland Film Festival and Parkway Theater. 

Today, Ann and Jed review some of the best films to showcase at last month's Sundance Film Festival; and they talk about a few surprising (and in one case, controversial) nominees for this year's Oscars. (The Academy Awards by the way, will be presented on Sunday March 12 at 8pm ET. The Oscars telecast will air live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.)

Ann and Jed also spotlight some of the best films screening locally. Plus, Ann shares her (and her Post colleagues') picks for the worst films of 2022 — so you can avoid them (or check them out!)

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

Tom's Newsmaker guest today is Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.

In November, he was elected for a second term to lead Maryland’s sixth largest county.

Funding for Howard County Schools is a front-burner issue, as is the project to mitigate or prevent future flooding in Ellicott City.

Calvin Ball joins Tom today in Studio A to discuss these and other issues he's working on in his second term.

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

As Tom mentioned at the top of yesterday's show — on the first day of Black History Month —Maryland Gov. Wes Moore made history by becoming the first African American to deliver a State of the State address to lawmakers and invited guests at the Statehouse in Annapolis.

He said “service will save us” as he outlined his plan to get young people involved in public service as they enter adulthood, and he asserted that ending child poverty is an attainable goal.

WYPR News Director Matt Bush was there, and he stops by today to briefly unpack what Maryland's new governor urged lawmakers to help him deliver.

Matt Bush joins Tom in Studio A.

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

Baltimore and surrounding jurisdictions face many challenges that are best addressed from a regional, rather than a local perspective.

Yesterday, for example, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski held a press conference with members of the Maryland General Assembly to announce the creation of a task force to study how to modernize the governance of the water and wastewater facilities, which serve both jurisdictions.

Scott and Olszewski, along with other elected officials from the Baltimore metro area, are part of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, an organization that encourages cooperation between jurisdictions to promote economic vitality and quality of life for the region.

Transportation is one of those issues that cries out for regional coordination and cooperation. The BMC has just released a report that studied how best to organize the governance and funding for regional transit. Maryland Del. Tony Bridges, who represents District 41 in Baltimore City, chaired the workgroup that developed five recommendations for transit that we’re going to talk about today.

Tom spoke with Del. Bridges on Tuesday about those recommendations, and we begin today with their recorded conversation.

Joining Tom in Studio A is the executive director of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Mike Kelly…

Also with us in studio is Mark Anthony Thomas, the president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee…

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

Today on Midday.... equity and the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.

President Joe Biden and Gov. Wes Moore were in Baltimore on Monday to proclaim that the plan for a new Frederick Douglass tunnel is good for jobs and economic growth. But some local residents think that the burden of the 10-year project will fall disproportionately on communities of color.

Today, we explore the pros and cons of the new tunnel project with Baltimore Banner reporter Callan Tansill-Suddath, who joins us on our digital line.

Later, Tom speaks with Laura Amlie, a Reservoir Hill resident and president of the local activist group, Residents Against the Tunnel.

Laura Amlie joins Tom in Studio A.

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