Midday

We begin today with another Midday on the Environment. The United Nations international climate conference known as COP30 was held earlier this month (Nov. 10-21). Politicians, diplomats, business leaders and climate activists from more than 190 countries met in Belem, Brazil, at the gateway to the Amazon rain forest, and at the end of another year of record heat and extreme weather that scientists say is being made worse by human-induced climate change.

For the first time in the 30- year history of the annual meeting, the United States did not send a delegation. A few days before the meeting concluded, President Donald Trump announced that he plans to open up new US coastal areas for oil and gas drilling.

There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is the leading contributor to climate change and the extreme weather that it triggers.  

The COP30 meeting ended with no new commitments to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and only modest progress on international efforts to curb global warming and to pay for the costs of adapting to a hotter planet. But there were hopeful signs of a broadening climate activism, as our next guest reported from the summit.

David Gelles covers climate for the New York Times. He leads the Times's Climate Forward newsletter and events series.  He’s also the author of a new book, Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away, the story of the founder and former CEO of the eco-friendly sportswear giant Patagonia.

Tom's next guest is the best-selling Indian-American novelist, Megha Majumdar.

Born in Kolkata, India, she moved to the U.S. for her education. She studied at Harvard, and received a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. Her first novel, A Burning, was published in 2020. It was nominated for the National Book Award, and several other prestigious awards, and it was chosen as a best book of the year by The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The Atlantic, Vogue, and TIME Magazine.

Her new book, like her debut novel, is attracting all sorts of attention and awards interest. It’s set in Kolkata, as the city deals with the ravages of climate change. It’s called A Guardian and a Thief.

Today on Midday, helping families get along at big holiday gatherings like Thanksgiving and throughout the year.

Tom's guest is Dr. Thomas Swisher. He’s an emeritus professor at Stevenson University, a counselor, an attorney, and a mediator who has written a book that explores the ways families operate, and offers tips on coping with conflicts.

It’s called Family Dynamics: Transforming the Hidden Patterns That Shape Us.

A man between the ages of 30 and 40 was found dead in Frederick County last week, according to news site Maryland Matters . He apparently died of weather-related causes, which marks the first reported cold-related death of the season.

Last year, 75 people died because of the cold. According to state data, that is the most in five years.

How can you prepare yourself and your loved ones for winter weather?

Joe Henderson the director of the Baltimore Office of Emergency Management joins us with advice. The Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management helps coordinate and prepare state agencies and residents for extreme weather.

It's time for another of Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck's weekly reviews of the Baltimore regional stage. Earlier this week, she joined Tom in the studio to spotlight the new production of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful, now on stage at Baltimore's Arena Players.

The play tells the story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman living alone in a cramped Houston apartment who nostalgically decides to return to her childhood home in Bountiful, Texas. Her journey, though opposed by her family, become an odyssey of self-discovery and a new understanding of the meaning of home.

Horton Foote's classic tale has had a long and successful journey on stage, film and television. It premiered in March 1953 as an NBC teleplay starring Lillian Gish, and later that year debuted on the Broadway stage with Gish again in the lead. Award-winning Broadway revivals were produced in 2005 and again in 2013, a production that earned Cicely Tyson a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 1985, playwright Foote reprised The Trip to Bountiful in his screenplay for an Oscar-winning Hollywood version starring Geraldine Page. The story was again adapted for TV in 2014 with Cicely Tyson reprising her lead role in an Emmy-nominated performance.

The new stage production of The Trip to Bountiful, helmed by Arena Players' veteran artistic director Donald Owens, and starring Sharon Carter Brown as Carrie Watts, continues through November 30. For showtimes and ticketing info, click here.

Founded in Baltimore in 1953, Arena Players, Inc. is the oldest continuously operating African-American community theater in the U.S. It's located at 801 McCulloh St, Baltimore, MD 21201.

Midday guest host and WYPR news director Matt Bush turns now turn to the world of Orioles baseball and a head-spinning player trade that occurred earlier this week.

Grayson Rodriguez, long considered the team's top pitching prospect, was traded away to the Los Angeles Angels, in return for Angels' outfielder Taylor Ward.

The reaction from fans pinged between confusion, disbelief, disappointment and anger.

Sports reporter Andy Kostka and Orioles columnist Jon Meoli of WYPR's news partner, The Baltimore Banner join us to help us break down the trade and the Orioles offseason so far.

Earlier this week, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board released a report with new details into the collapse of The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning hours of March 26th, 2024.

The tragedy claimed the lives of 6 construction workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge at the time.

The NTSB report takes us deep inside the container ship Dali, as the skyscraper-sized vessel lost power and struck the Key bridge’s supports—forever changing the region. WYPR Health Reporter Scott Maucione join Midday to discuss what he heard during the NTSB proceedings and what their investigation tells us about the events leading up to the tragedy.

Some of the most important examples of our city’s urban renewal were guided by Bob Embry’s imagination and skill.

The Inner Harbor, the Maryland Science Center, the National Aquarium, the subway system and the “dollar house” program that helped revitalize some of Baltimore’s most troubled neighborhoods, all bear the Embry stamp.

In 1987, he became the President of the Abell Foundation, which has grown to be one of the most significant philanthropic institutions in town, and a driving force behind hundreds of initiatives that have changed the landscape and improved the lives of countless Baltimoreans.

Now, at the age 87, Bob Embry will soon retire as the President of the Abell Foundation. He joins Midday to discuss what has worked and what still needs to be done help alleviate hardship in Baltimore.

Two leading advocates for behavioral health crisis response discuss efforts to improve Baltimore's civilian-led services for people experiencing mental health emergencies.

City Council President Zeke Cohen joins Midday to talk about the latest news from inside City Hall.

We ask him about new legislative efforts to curb the proliferation of smoke and vape shops in Baltimore City. Plus, an effort to study stubbornly high rates of chronic absenteeism among students.