Midday

The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore has garnered international attention as a unique, national museum and education center dedicated to "intuitive, self-taught" artistry. It is the brainchild of Rebecca Hoffberger, its founder and director for the past 27 years.

Last summer, Rebecca announced that she would be retiring as the museum’s director and primary curator. Earlier this month, the Museum announced that Jenenne Whitfield, the president and CEO of the Heidelberg Project in Detroit, will become the museum’s director in September.

Rebecca Hoffberger joins us on Zoom from her home in Baltimore County…

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

The images from Ukraine are shocking and horrifying. Civilians bound and murdered, left on the streets of Bucha. A ghostly parade of bombing survivors in Mariupol, ash covered, reminiscent of people fleeing lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. A family gunned down on the street as they fled across a burned-out bridge over the Irpin River. Children, numb with fear after days on end hiding in dank and freezing basements.

A recent headline in the Economist stated, “The Invasion of Ukraine Is Not the First Social Media War, But It Is the Most Viral.” “Ukraine is the most wired country ever to be invaded,” the article observes.

As images and accounts from Ukraine generate millions of views, they comprise an instant e-history of this heart-breaking conflict.

Tom's guest today studies how Internet-based social media have changed our understanding of the distant and recent past, and how technology has upended how we learn and communicate our understanding of history.

Jason Steinhauer is a public historian, the founder of the History Communication Institute, a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

He’s also the founder and host of The History Club podcast on Clubhouse, which has more than 100,000 members, and he’s the author of History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past.

Jason Steinhauer joins us on Zoom from Washington, DC.

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

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who brings us her reviews of the regional stage each week, joins Tom today to spotlight The Folks at Home, a new comedy now getting its world premiere at Baltimore Center Stage.

Written by Baltimore's own R. Eric Thomas (whose other new play, Crying on Television, is premiering at Everyman Theatre next month), The Folks at Home is a TV sitcom-inspired romp about race, marriage and family ties that's directed by Obie Award-winner Stevie Walker-Webb. The cast includes Alexis Bronkovic, Brandon E. Burton, E. Faye Butler, Jane Kaczmarek, Eugene Lee, Christopher Sears and Roz White.

The Folks at Home continues on stage at Baltimore Center Stage through April 10. For showtimes and ticket info, click here. The play will also be livestreamed April 6-10. For livestream tickets, click here.

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

As Ukraine continues its war with Russian invaders, tensions in the Middle East are once again on the rise. Eleven people have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank during the past week-and-a-half. Several others were severely injured.

Today on Midday, a conversation with a Jewish progressive advocate for peace in the Middle East.Tom's guest is Daniel Sokatch. He’s the CEO of the New Israel Fund, an organization which advocates for equality in Israel for all citizens, recognizing and reinforcing pluralism and a tolerance for diversity and protecting the access of minorities to democratic channels and human rights. That is, to say the least, a tall order.

Mr. Sokatch has written a book that attempts to rise to that challenge, examining in an even-handed way the situation in Israel and the occupied territories, the complicated history of the region, and possible solutions to what has been an unsolvable problem for generations.

It’s called Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused and Conflicted.

Daniel Sokatch joins Tom on Zoom today from San Francisco…

Daniel Sokatch and Tom Hall will continue their conversation about the book and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an event at Beth Am Synagogue in Baltimore a week from Sunday, on April 10th at 4:00pm.

For more information and to register for the free event, click here.

And Ramadan Mubarak to all of our Muslim listeners. We wish you a peaceful and healthy Ramadan, as this evening marks the beginning of Islam's holiest month.

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

Today, it’s another installment in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Maryland Congressman Anthony Brown (D., Dist. 4) who has announced that he will not stand for re-election to the House of Representatives, but rather, run in the Democratic primary for Maryland Attorney General. The incumbent, Democrat Brian Frosh, will retire at the end of this term.

Anthony Brown served as the Lt. Governor in the administration of Gov. Martin O’Malley for two terms, from 2007-2015. Prior to that, he was in the General Assembly for eight years where he served as Vice Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Majority Whip in the House of Delegates. He was elected to Congress in 2016, representing Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties. In 2014, he ran for Governor, losing to Republican Larry Hogan.

Rep. Brown holds an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Harvard. A decorated military veteran, he is a retired Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, where he served for more than 25 years, including a tour in Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1994. He was a clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Anthony Brown is 60 years old. He and his wife Karmen live in Largo. They are the parents of three adult children.

Congressman Anthony Brown joins us on Zoom.
You are welcome to join us as well with your comments or questions.Call us: 410.662.8780. email: [email protected] or Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

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

Tom's next guest is a scholar of Urban Education who is the creator of the Hip Hop Ed social media movement, which explores the intersection of hip hop and education. Dr. Christopher Emdin is the author of several books, including the New York Times best-seller, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood and the Rest of Y’All Too, and STEM, STEAM, Make Dream.

Dr. Emdin is a Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, where he holds an endowed chair in Curriculum Theory, and he directs youth engagement and community partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center.

Dr. Christopher Emdin joins us on Zoom from Los Angeles, California.

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

Today, a conversation about racial inequality in the practice of medicine. A few months ago, a friend of Tom Hall, Ruby Hearn, put him in touch with a physician named Dr. Richard Reynolds. In the 1950s, as a young resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Reynolds and the Chief Resident, Dr. Wilbur Mattison, were the first to admit African Americans to the Whites-only ward at Johns Hopkins. Ruby thought Tom might be interested in Dr. Reynolds’ experience.

He was.

Dr. Reynolds and Tom first spoke last December. In his early 90s, the retired physician was spry and engaging. He had written an essay about his experience on that night, nearly 65 years ago, which has since been published in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Magazine. We made plans for him to be on Midday after the first of the year to discuss what happened, along with two medical historians, to understand what it took for Hopkins and other medical institutions around the country to desegregate their patient wards.

Unfortunately, those plans could not be realized. Dr. Reynolds had surgery in January. He was optimistic about recovering from that procedure, and we made plans to record an interview last week, but his health took a turn for the worse, and he entered hospice care. We are sad to report that Richard Reynolds passed away last Friday, at the age of 92.

Today on Midday, we'll continue the conversation that Dr. Reynolds began in his magazine essay, and we’ll talk about the Hard Histories at Hopkins project, in which the university examines its history of racial inequity and inequality.

Tom's guests are two medical historians who knew Dr. Reynolds.

Dr. Jeremy Greene is a physician at Johns Hopkins who is a professor of medicine and the history of medicine, and the Director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine…

Dr. Ezelle Sanford, III is an Assistant Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University and a Visiting Assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. He studies the intersection of African American, medical, and urban histories, with a particular interest in the histories of race, science, and medicine from the 19th century to the present…

Dr. Jeremy Greene and Dr. Ezelle Sanford join us on Zoom.

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

For those of you interested in further exploring today's topic, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will be sponsoring a conference called Reckoning with Race and Racism in Academic Medicine. It takes place on May 5 and 6, 2022. For more information and to register for the event, click here.

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

Primary elections in Maryland have been delayed until July 19. Last week, a judge in Anne Arundel County Circuit court rejected the lines for new Congressional districts drawn by Democrats in the MD General Assembly. This morning, Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson introduced a new map to a joint hearing of the Senate and House of Delegates. Judge Lynne Battaglia, whose ruling last week called the original map “an extreme partisan gerrymander,” has scheduled a hearing for Friday morning to consider the new district boundaries.

There is an assumption that whenever the primaries are held, and in the general election in November, turnout will be light. The turnout in midterm elections tend to hover around 41%, less than in Presidential contests, and this year, the effects of new voting laws may also serve to suppress turnout.

In response to Donald Trump’s fabrications about his not losing the 2020 election, 19 states have passed laws that make it harder to cast a ballot.

But what happens to the foundations of democracy when political leaders are elected by only a fraction of the citizens they serve?

Tom's guest today is E.J. Dionne. He has co-authored a persuasive and compelling book that makes the argument for mandatory participation in elections. It’s been the law for years in Australia and about two dozen other countries, and it’s an idea that has garnered support from many people, including President Barack Obama.

E.J. Dionne is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a professor at Georgetown University and the author of several books. He’s also been a wonderful friend of this show over the years. His co-author is Miles Rapaport, the Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. He’s also a former secretary of state of Connecticut.

Their book is called 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting.E.J. Dionne joins us on Zoom from Bethesda, Maryland.

You are welcome to join us as well…call us at 410.662.8780. email: [email protected]. Tweet us: @MiddayWYPR

Co-authors E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapoport will be appearing at an event sponsored by the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University this afternoon at 4:30pm, and again at an event at Greedy Reads in Remington tonight at 7:00pm. Click the "event" links for more information.

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

Before we begin the latest installment in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022, a word about the redistricting plan created by the Maryland General Assembly: it ain’t happening, at least for now.

On Friday, Judge Lynn A. Battaglia ruled in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that the map for new Congressional districts submitted by the Democratic-controlled legislature is unconstitutional and “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” She ordered the General Assembly to redraw maps by Wednesday. The legislature, which was represented by The Maryland Attorney General’s office, may appeal the ruling.

This is the first time a court has found a congressional map in violation of the state constitution. Minutes after the ruling was announced, Gov. Larry Hogan called on the General Assembly to pass the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission maps. That’s the commission the Governor appointed. WYPR’s Joel McCord is following this story, and he’ll keep us up to speed as it develops.

Tom's guest today doesn’t have to worry about congressional or state legislative district maps, at least for the time being, because she is running statewide. Laura Neuman joins us for the hour. A former Republican, she is one of 10 candidates in the Democratic primary for Maryland Governor.

In 2013, while serving as the CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, she was appointed Anne Arundel County Executive when John Leopold resigned after a misconduct scandal. She held that position for almost two years. She was unsuccessful in her bid for a full term.

Before she entered politics, Laura Neuman was a successful tech entrepreneur. She received an MBA from Loyola University Maryland. She was accepted into that program with a GED, and having never attended college. She is also a graduate of the Executive Program at Stanford Business School. She is a venture capitalist and an executive in residence at the University of MD College Park, an advisor to a management firm based in Pittsburgh, and she serves on several boards and commissions.

Laura Neuman is 57 years old. She is the mother of two teenage daughters. She lives in Baltimore.

We welcome your comments and questions for the candidate. Call us at 410.662.8780, email us at [email protected] or Tweet us @MiddayWYPR

Laura Newman joins us on Zoom from Annapolis.

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 the regional stage. Today, she spotlights two new community theater productions.

The first is A Doll's House, Part 2, playwright Lucas Hnath's modern-day, 2017 sequel to Henrik Ibsen's iconic 1879 play about a married woman's quest for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world, on stage at Fells Point Corner Theatre now through April 10. Steven Goldklang directs the production, which stars Holly Pasciullo and Tom Piccin as Nora and Torvald Helmer.

The second play is Sunset Baby, a 2013 work by the Tony Award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau, now in a new production at Baltimore's Arena Players, the oldest continuously operating African American theater in the nation. Morisseau's powerful play about an aging Black revolutionary and his wayward daughter is directed by Mari Andrea Travis, and stars Curtis McNeil and Jha’Neal Blue. Sunset Baby runs through April 3.

Follow the theater links above for more information and ticketing.

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