Midday

And now, another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Del. Brooke Lierman. She’s running in the Democratic primary for Maryland Comptroller.

Her opponent in that race is Bowie Mayor Tim Adams. 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.

Brooke Lierman was elected to the House of Delegates in 2014. She serves in a leadership role on the Environment and Transportation Committee, and on joint committees on Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays, the Committee to end homelessness, and the committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review. She has also served on the Appropriations Committee and the Joint Committee on Pensions.

After graduating from Dartmouth College, Del. Lierman worked as a grassroots organizer and on the political campaigns of several progressive candidates. She received a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and after a Federal District Court clerkship, she joined the law firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy, where she is “of counsel,” with a focus on civil rights and disability rights.Brooke Lierman is 43 years old. She and her husband live in Baltimore. They are the parents of two young children.

Brooke Lierman joins us on our digital line from Baltimore. You are welcome to join us as well! Call us: 4109.662.8780 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

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

On Monday night (May 2, 2022), Politico published what appears to be a draft of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which has allowed legal abortion for the past 50 years.

Joining Tom now to put this story in context for us is Kimberly Wehle. She is on the faculty of the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the author of several books, including her latest: How to Think Like a Lawyer and Why: A Commonsense Guide to Everyday Dilemmas…

Kim Wehle join us on Zoom from Chevy Chase, MD.

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

Welcome to this special Web-only installment of our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Jerome Segal, a socialist who founded the Bread and Roses Party in 2020, who is running as a Democrat in the primary for Governor.

Dr. Segal ran for the US Senate in 2018, and for President in 2020. He holds a PhD in Philosophy, he is the author of several books, and in addition to experience as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he has worked on Capitol Hill, and in the Executive Branch of the Federal government.

Dr. Segal holds a PhD. in Philosophy from the U of Michigan, a Master’s in Public Policy from the U of Minnesota and a BA from the City College of New York.

He is 78 years old. He’s married and the father of a son. He has chosen Justin Dispenza, a city councilman in Galena, Maryland, as his Lt. Governor running mate.

Jerome Segal spoke with Tom on Friday, April 29th, 2022.

Maryland's Primary Election Day is July 19th. Early voting begins on July 7th.

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

Today, it's another edition of the Midday Healthwatch, our monthly focus on the latest COVID news and other public health issues, with Dr. Leana Wen.

On the 11th of April, the testing positivity rate for COVID 19 in MD stood at 2.42%, nearly twice what it was three weeks earlier. It’s nearly doubled again in the last three weeks.

The BA.2 variant is highly transmissible. The CDC estimates that nearly 60% of Americans have already been infected. For children, the infection rate is even higher: closer to 75%. And now, two more variants, BA 4 and BA5 are causing big spikes in South Africa. What’s on the horizon for the US?

Of course, with the rise in infections, many fewer people are becoming seriously ill than in the past. But serious illness and death for immunocompromised patients is still a major concern.

Dr. Wen is with us for the hour to talk about all the latest COVID news. The former Baltimore City health commissioner is an emergency physician now serving as visiting professor at GW University's Milken Institute of Public Health. She's a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, a health columnist for The Washington Post, and a medical analyst for CNN. And she is the author of a compelling memoir, Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health (Metropolitan Books, 2021).

Dr. Leana Wen joins us on Zoom from Baltimore.

And we take your questions and comments as well: Call us: 410.662.8780. Email us: [email protected]. Or Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

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

Midday on the Arts concludes with a visit from our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of the regional stage. Today, she shares her take on William Shakespeare's Henry V, now getting a rousing new production at Baltimore's Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

With its themes of strident nationalism, war and "band of brothers" bravado, Henry V is one of the Bard's most muscular and popular history plays. This CSC production is directed with timely resonance by Alec Wild.

Henry V continues at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company through May 15. For showtimes and ticketing information, click here.

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

As Midday on the Arts continues, Tom's next guests are a brother and sister classical music duo who are part of a large family of talented musicians. Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who shot to fame when he was invited to play at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. His sister, Isata Kanneh-Mason is an award winning pianist, who, like her brother, plays concerts all over the world.

They are currently touring together, and they’ll be playing in Baltimore Sunday night. Here’s a sample of their beautiful artistry from their first CD as a duo, Muse, performing Samuel Barber's Sure on This Shining Night.

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason join Tom on Zoom from their tour venue in Kansas City, Missouri.

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason are performing Sunday night at Shriver Hall, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. The concert starts at 5:30. For program and ticketing information, click here.

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

It’s Midday on the Arts. Coming up later in the hour, we’ll hear from the young cellist who burst on the classical music scene when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister Isata, a wonderful pianist, will be performing in Baltimore this weekend, and they both join us. We’ll also check in with theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck who will give us her take on Henry V, the latest production at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

But we begin with David Simon, the journalist, author and filmmaker. He is the creative force behind The Wire, The Deuce, Show Me a Hero, Treme and many other acclaimed TV series and movies. We'll talk about his latest project: the HBO limited series We Own This City, based on the book by Justin Fenton, about the notorious criminal enterprise that was embedded in the Baltimore City Police Department called the Gun Trace Task Force.

The first episode is available on HBO Max. New episodes will stream over the next five weeks.

David Simon joins us on Zoom.

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

Today, it’s another installment in Midday's series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest for the hour is Peter Franchot. He was first elected to the General Assembly in 1986. He represented part of Montgomery County in the House of Delegates for 20 years. In 2006, he was elected Comptroller of MD. In 2018, he won the race for his fourth term in that office by the largest margin of any statewide candidate in MD history.

He has decided not to stand for election to a fifth term as Comptroller. Instead, he’s running in the Democratic primary for Governor.

Mr. Franchot has often been at odds with Democratic leaders during his 35 years in Annapolis. He opposed slot machines when legislation to legalize them was introduced in 2008. He joined Gov. Larry Hogan and then Treasurer Nancy Copp to end the contract to develop the State center complex in Baltimore. And in 2019, in a dispute with Democratic leaders, the legislature stripped the Comptroller’s office of some of its regulatory role over alcohol and tobacco.

Mr. Franchot is one of 10 contenders in Maryland's gubernatorial primary, and internal polls from his campaign and the campaign of Rushern Baker show him in the lead, with 71 days left until early voting begins.

Before entering elective politics, Mr. Franchot served in the Army during the Vietnam War, and later worked for Ralph Nader, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and as a staff director for then-Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

Peter Franchot is 74 years old. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a law degree from Northeastern University. He and his wife, Anne Maher, are the parents of two grown children, and three grandchildren. They are longtime residents of Takoma Park.

Mr. Franchot has chosen former Prince George's County Councilwoman Monique Anderson-Walker as his running mate for Lt. Governor.

Peter Franchot joins us today on Zoom from Takoma Park.

You are welcome to join us, as well. Call us: 410.662.8780. email us: [email protected]. Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

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

Tom's guest today is Dr. Terry Anne Scott, an associate professor of history, the chair of the History Department at Hood College, and a good friend of the Midday show.

Dr. Scott has written a book that is as difficult as it is important. It chronicles the evolution of mob violence in Texas at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The NAACP has documented more than 4,700 lynchings across America from the 1880s through the 1960s. Professor Scott has found evidence — in just the state of Texas — that 469 Black people, as well as 140 white people, 111 Mexicans and at least one Native American were victims of mob violence in roughly that same time period.

Dr. Scott’s book traces how these killings — once furtive, clandestine acts — eventually became popular public spectacles, and she examines what that means for our understanding of the legacy of racial violence and discrimination in America.

Her book is called Lynching and Leisure: Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas. It's published by University of Arkansas Press.

CONTENT ADVISORY: We talk today about a book that includes graphic descriptions of torture and murder. Understanding the depravity of these acts is fundamental to understanding what Black people faced and feared on a daily basis. It is difficult to comprehend the cruelty of the White mobs that inflicted these painful deaths on so many people. But Dr. Scott’s book is the result of important research that we think is very important to share.

Terry Anne Scott joins us on our digital line from Frederick, Maryland.

You're welcome to join us as well. Call us: 410.662.8780. email us: [email protected] Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

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

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 joins us on Zoom from Philadelphia.

You're welcome to join the conversation. Call: 410.662.8780. email: [email protected]. Tweet: @MiddayWYPR

A week from Thursday, on May 5th, Dorothy Roberts will be the keynote speaker at a conference sponsored by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and its Department of the History of Medicine, called Reckoning with Race and Racism in Academic Medicine — another subject on which Professor Roberts has written extensively. For more information on the in-person and virtual symposium and for a link to register, click here.

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