Midday

The Baltimore 10 Miler is tomorrow. That’s a great race that will attract about 3,500 runners. Great course – a little hilly, but it goes through Druid Hill Park and around Lake Montebello, so it’s pretty, and it’s always got a great vibe.

Today on Midday, we are asking runners and people who do any kind of exercise, a simple question that we ask with all due respect, “What hurts, today?” Because, let’s face it: whether you're a runner or not, something hurts.

And happily, Tom's guest today is a wonderful doctor on the line ready to answer your questions about all things orthopedic.Dr. Miho Tanaka is an orthopedic surgeon, the Director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and an Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School. She is also the team physician for the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Ballet.

Dr. Tanaka joins us on our digital line from Boston...

And listeners, you're welcome to join us too…We’re inviting your calls, emails and tweets about whatever issue you might be having.

The Baltimore 10-Miler launches tomorrow morning from Druid Hill Park. If you’re running that race, or if you’re into cycling, or soccer or weightlifting or tennis or whatever, give us a call…

And this note about free fitness classes every Saturday this month in Patterson Park. Propel Fitness Water has assembled teams of trainers in cities around the country for the workouts. They start tomorrow; to check out the schedule, click here.

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

It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about the new production of The Fantasticks by Baltimore's Vagabond Players.

This perpetually popular musical romantic comedy, with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, premiered off-Broadway in 1960, and is renowned as the world's longest running musical. Its original off-Broadway production ran for 42 years (until 2002), logging 17,162 performances. It has long been a staple of regional, community and school productions, with some 250 new stagings each year.

The Fantasticks is directed at Vagabond Players by Jimi Kinstle, with a cast featuring Quentin Patrick as The Boy (Matt), Jeff Burch as The Girl's Father (Bellomy), B. Thomas Rinaldi as The Man Who Dies (Mortimer), Kathryn Falcone as The Narrator (El Gallo), Ana Lane as The Girl (Luisa), Ari Juno as The Mute, Jim Hart as The Boy's Father (Hucklebee) and John Sadowsky as The Old Actor (Henry).

The Fantasticks continues at Vagabond Players through June 19th. Follow the links for showtimes and ticketing info.

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

On Wednesday (June 1), in Tulsa, Oklahoma, another gunman. Another mass shooting. Four people shot to death. The shooter committed suicide. It was the 233rd mass shooting this year in the United States.

The funerals for the 21 victims murdered last week in Texas by an 18 year-old shooter wielding assault-style weapons continue today in the small, largely Latino community of Uvalde.

Questions about the police response at the scene remain, and questions as to whether or not Congress will respond with some form of federal gun regulation legislation are top of mind for Americans on both sides of the gun rights debate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled a willingness to get Republicans to agree to some sort of deal. He has authorized Sen. John Cornyn to work with Democrats on legislation. In the past, on many occasions, McConnell has indicated a willingness to strike a deal, but ultimately, he has blocked any attempts by Democrats to pass even the most broadly popular provisions of gun regulations.

Speaking yesterday in Kentucky, McConnell said he would support a deal that addressed mental health issues and had strong constitutional protections.

His focus on mental health takes a familiar page out of the Republican playbook. Ten years ago, after the massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, and again this week, in the aftermath of the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, NY, Republicans responded to attempts to pass red flag laws, background checks, or age limits for purchasing firearms by insisting that these tragedies are the product of a mental health crisis in America, not lax gun regulations.

That is the assertion we are going to examine today, here on Midday. Is it accurate to ascribe mental health issues as the sole or primary reason these shooters commit these atrocities?

Tom's guests today will help us shed some light on this question.

Michael Greenberger is the director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security. He joins us on Zoom from Washington, DC…

Dr. Joel Dvoskin is a clinical and a certified forensic psychologist. He joins us on Zoom from Tucson, Arizona.

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

Everyone over the age of 18 with income, property and other personal assets should consider preparing a legal document known as the last will and testament.

It's the only way to be sure those assets are properly distributed (and taxed) after one's death, according to Tom's next guest, Baltimore County's Register of Wills Alexis Burrell-Rohde.

Ms. Burrell-Rohde joins us on Zoom from her County Courthouse office in Towson with insights on the importance of estate planning and what resources are available to residents.

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

Tom's next guest today is Ryan Coleman, the president of the Randallstown Chapter (#7032) of the NAACP.

Mr. Coleman says his group is very concerned about the persistently high rates of violent crime in Baltimore City and elsewhere in the state. He talks about what he’s asking Governor Larry Hogan to do to make Maryland citizens safer.

Ryan Coleman joins us on Zoom from Randallstown, MD.

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

Today on Midday: a focus on Baltimore County. Tom's Newsmaker guest is County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr..

They’ll talk about the COVID uptick and plans for new public schools, and his support for County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt, despite a no confidence vote by members of the County Police Union. There have been fewer homicides in the County compared to last year, but there’s been an increase in car jackings, in the county and around the country. What is the County Executive’s strategy for public safety? And what is the status of the County Executive's long-touted Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethics and Accountability?

Those issues and more, as Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. joins us from his office in Towson.

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

Today, it’s another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Bowie Mayor Tim Adams. He’s running in the Democratic primary for Maryland Comptroller.

His opponent in that race is Del. Brooke Lierman, who represents Baltimore in the General Assembly. Barry Glassman, the Harford County Executive, is running unopposed in the Republican Comptroller primary.

The Maryland Comptroller is an office that doesn’t change hands very frequently. Louis Goldstein had the job for nearly 40 years. The current Comptroller, Peter Franchot, was first elected to that office in 2007. He is running in the Democratic primary for Governor.

Tim Adams was elected Mayor of Bowie in November, 2019, the first African American to hold that position in the city’s history. He also serves as President and CEO of Systems Application & Technologies, Inc., or SATECH, a firm he founded in 1989. It serves the national security sector. It’s headquartered in Upper Marlborough.

Mr. Adams holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Xavier University, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of New Orleans, and an honorary Doctorate from Bowie State University. He is also a lifetime member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. If elected Comptroller, Mr. Adams would be the first Black comptroller and the first paraplegic to hold statewide office in Maryland.

Tim Adams is 62 years old. He lives in Bowie, Maryland. He is married to the Honorable Sheila R. Tillerson Adams. They are the parents of twins, Timothy and Kayla. An older daughter, Tiara, passed away in 2020. They have a young grandson, Nehemiyah.

Tim Adams joins us on our digital line from Bowie.

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on January 7, 2022)

We begin with the familiar opening bars of Yesterday, the song that Rolling Stone Magazine called “the best song of the 20th century.” It’s been covered and recorded by thousands of artists, and it is universally loved.

Paul McCartney wrote it in 1965, when he was 23 and in the middle of his stint with The Beatles. Sir Paul turns 80 on June 18th, and he’s still writing, recording and performing. (His current concert tour brings him to Camden Yards in Baltimore on June 12th.) In a writing career that began in 1956, McCartney has written or co-written more than 400 songs. The lyrics to 154 of them, from Beatles-era classics to songs he’s written in the decades since, are included in The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, a two-volume set of books published last summer in which McCartney offers context and back stories for each of the songs.

Welcome to Midday. Today on this encore presentation of our show, Tom's guest is the wonderful poet Paul Muldoon, who was tapped by Paul McCartney to help him with the book. Muldoon wrote an introduction, and edited conversations with McCartney into the essays that accompany each song.

Paul Muldoon is perfectly positioned to curate such a collection. He is a song lyricist himself, and a member of a band called Rogue Oliphant. He even teaches a course in songwriting at Princeton University, where he’s been on the faculty for 35 years.

He is also the author of 14 poetry collections and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. His latest collection is called Howdie-Skelp. He and Tom talk about that book as well, later in the program.

Paul Muldoon joined us on Zoom from New York…

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on April 26, 2022)

Good afternoon and welcome to an encore edition of Midday.

Tom's guest today is Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of four books, including Killing the Black Body, about systemic abuse of African American women, and Fatal Invention, which explores the relationship between race, science and politics.

Her new book argues that the nation's foster care system, putatively designed to protect children, instead deprives Black parents of fundamental rights and leads to traumatic consequences for Black children. The child welfare system, she argues, is “more accurately described as the family policing system,” and she calls for it to be dismantled.

The book is called Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.

Dorothy Roberts joined us on Zoom from Philadelphia.

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

It's time for another visit with theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights The Joy That Carries You, now getting a world premiere production at Olney Theater Center.

Co-written by two local playwrights, Awa Sal Secka and Dani Stoller, the uplifting drama combines sharp comic dialogue with sparkling spoken-word poetry to tell a resonant tale of love and family.

The play is directed by Jason Loewith and Kevin McAllister, and its cast includes playwright Dani Stoller with Billie Krishawn, Lolita Marie, Susan Rome, Michael Russotto, Bru Ajueyitsi and James J. Johnson.

The Joy That Carries You continues at The Olney Theatre Center through June 12. Follow the links above for showtimes and ticket info.

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