It's time for another visit from Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom this week with her review of A Strange Loop, playwright Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2020 musical that's getting a new production at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C.

The first musical written (book, music and lyrics) by Jackson, a gay Black playwright, A Strange Loop tells the story of a gay Black playwright struggling to write his first musical... about a gay Black playwright struggling to write his first musical...

Music direction is by Rona Siddiqui, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly. Stephen Brackett directs the cast, featuring James Jackson Jr., Jason Veasey, John-Michael Lyles, Jaquel Spivey, L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison and Antwayn Hopper.

A Strange Loop is produced by Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in association with Playwrights Horizons and Page 73 Productions. The musical continues at Woolly Mammoth through January 9, 2022.

Please note: Tonight’s (Thursday's) performance has been cancelled due to COVID exposure in the company, and there are no performances tomorrow or Saturday due to the holiday. Performances are expected to resume Sunday. Check the theater’s website for updated information. For show schedule and ticket information, click here.

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

Today on the Midday Newswrap, Tom's guest is Luke Broadwater. As a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, he led the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for their breaking coverage of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and the scandal that landed her and two associates in jail. Luke now covers Congress as a correspondent for The New York Times.

Luke discusses COVID and the fast-moving omicron variant's impact on the congressional community; the Senate leadership's efforts to secure the votes for passage of President Biden's Build Back Better Act, the House Select Committee's ongoing probe of the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol, and other developments on Capitol Hill.

Luke Broadwater joins us on Zoom from Columbia, Maryland.

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

A week and a half ago, a man shot his girlfriend in Federal Hill here in Baltimore, then drove to Columbia, where he murdered his ex-wife, before taking his own life.

Last month in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, a man murdered his wife in their home, and after shooting the woman’s mother and the family dog, committed suicide. The woman was a nurse in a domestic violence center.

Recent surveys indicate that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. Today on Midday, conversations about intimate partner violence; how the problem has been exacerbated by the pandemic, how the holiday season is of particular concern to advocates for domestic violence, and how women of color are disproportionately impacted.

Tom's first guest is Dr. Tiara Willie. She’s an assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on gender-based violence, and trauma-informed policies, programs, and interventions.

Tom's second guest, joining us later in the hour, is Bill Mitchell. He lives in Ellicott City, and for the past 16 years, he has been a passionate advocate for victims of domestic violence. He is the author of a book called When Dating Hurts: What We Learned About Dating Violence After Our Daughter’s Tragic Death, in which he shares the tragic story of his daughter Kristin's murder in a case of dating violence. He hosts a podcast and a Website of the same name.

Bill Mitchell joins us on Zoom to discuss his crusade to educate people about the dangers of intimate partner violence.

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-SAFE (7233) or Maryland’s 24-hour Hotline, House of Ruth: 410-889-RUTH (7884).

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

Next week, Will Baker will retire as the president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a position he has held since 1982. He joined the organization six years prior to that, as an intern, fresh out of college. The foundation is the largest nonprofit conservation organization dedicated solely to preserving, protecting, and restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

Will Baker joins us on Zoom to reflect on his tenure, and the future of the Bay.

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

Before the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus made businesses reconsider plans to return to their workplaces, people who have had the luxury of being able to work at home were beginning to consider the upside and downside of returning to in-person employment. There’s no question that the world has changed a lot in the nearly two years since since the pandemic began. If and when folks do return to the workplace, have the rules for office etiquette changed too?

Tom's first guest today is Thomas P. Farley, an etiquette expert who writes a syndicated column called “Ask Mister Manners,” and who appears in the media and consults with companies about workplace etiquette.

Thomas Farley joins us on Zoom from New York City.

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

Today, it's Midday on Sports, and Tom's guest is the best-selling author and multi-media sports commentator, John Feinstein.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved hands at the 1968 Olympics, they did so knowing that they would pay an enormous price. 50 years later, when basketball superstars LeBron James and Kevin Durant talked about politics, a conservative media personality admonished them to “shut up and dribble.” Colin Kaepernick’s quiet protest against police misconduct in 2016 cost him his career.

As John Feinstein chronicles in his new book, there are many, many more athletes, coaches and front office personnel in professional sports whose trailblazing activism happened behind the scenes. Feinstein explores the racial dynamics of sports at the highest level, and finds that when it comes to equity for people of color, sports reflects what we know to be true in other businesses: we have a long way to go.

His new book is called Raise a Fist, Take a Knee: Race and the Illusion of Progress in Modern Sports.

John Feinstein joins us today on Zoom from Potomac, Maryland.

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

Today, Tom is joined live on Zoom by Helicon, the renowned traditional music trio that includes Ken Kolodner, Robin Bullock and Chris Norman, along with members of the old-timey, roots music group Charm City Junction and The Ken & Brad Kolodner Quartet, for our annual Holiday Concert.

Helicon has been delighting their fans here in Baltimore with a Winter Solstice Concert for 36 years. They continue this great Baltimore holiday tradition with two live, COVID-safe performances tomorrow (Saturday, December 18) at 3:30 and 7:30 pm, at Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium.

In addition to Helicon, the Winter Solstice Concert shows will feature Charm City Junction, with Brad Kolodner, Alex Lacquement, Patrick McAvinue, and Sean McComiskey. The vocalist Rachel Eddy, fiddler Elke Baker, and North American step-dance champion Jonathon Srour will also be part of the festivities. For ticket information, click here.

Guests on today’s Midday Holiday Concert include: Helicon: Ken Kolodner, on hammer dulcimer, and fiddle; Robin Bullock, on piano, guitar, cittern and mandolin; Chris Norman, on wooden flutes, tin whistle, piano, and small bagpipes. Plus: Brad Kolodner plays the clawhammer banjo with Charm City Junction and The Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet.; Alex Lacquement plays upright bass with Charm City Junction and The Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet; Sean McComiskey plays button accordion with Charm City Junction, and Elke Baker plays fiddle withThe Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet.

Songs you’ll hear on today’s Holiday Concert:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (traditional; arranged by Helicon) / Christmas Eve (Ireland): everyone joining in

Lay Down Your Arms (Doron Levenson, Israel): featured on the CD, On a Cold Winter's Day -- Helicon with Elke & Alex:

Black Eyed Susie (Old-time) from Ken & Brad's 2020 CD, Stony Run -- Ken/Brad & Alex

Gesu Bambino (Italy, arranged by Helicon) -- Helicon

Hop High, My Lulu Gal (Old-time) - led by Brad on banjo with everyone playing - from Charm City Junction's last CD, Duckpin

Enjoy the music, and Happy Holidays!

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 Tom this week with her review of The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-Prize winning play that's getting a lively new production at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre.

First produced on Broadway in 1942 as the world was being engulfed by war, Wilder's innovative play imagines how humanity survives a global apocalypse and emerges stronger on the other side.

Noah Himmelstein directs Everyman Theatre's ensemble cast, starring resident company actors Felicia Curry as Sabina, Jefferson Russell as Mr. Antrobus and Beth Hylton as Mrs. Antrobus.

The Skin of Our Teeth continues at The Everyman Theatre through January 2. A streaming option will be available later in this run. For ticket information, click here.

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

Tom's guest today is the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Joseph Ellis, whose latest book - his 13th - examines the American revolution and its two abiding legacies: independence and slavery.

Many participants in the fight for independence worried that the central challenge was not winning the war, but surviving its aftermath. Ellis observes that at the time, there was no such thing as an American identity, and that a cohesive consensus about nationhood and the institutions of democracy remained elusive following the war. In our time, events since the last Presidential election would indicate that consensus remains elusive to this day.

The book is called The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783. Joseph Ellis joined us on Zoom from Woodstock, Vermont.

Tom's conversation with Joseph Ellis was recorded earlier, so we can’t take any calls or comments today.

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

More than 800,000 Americans have died from complications related to COVID 19. More than 200,000 of those deaths occurred after vaccines were available. Despite that availability, more people died in 2021 than had died in 2020. The vast majority of those who have perished recently had not been vaccinated.

The Maryland Department of Health website was the victim of a cyber attack earlier this month. The only data that is current on the site concerns hospitalizations and vaccines. More than 1,100 people are currently in the hospital because of COVID. Several area public schools are reporting a significant uptick in cases, and nationwide, the country is experiencing a surge of cases because of the delta variant. The omicron variant has now been detected in 77 countries and 35 US states, including Maryland.

Today on Midday, we take a look at the problem of post-COVID conditions, commonly known as Long Haul COVID. Many people who are infected with COVID-19, even with relatively mild cases, experience repercussions from that infection for many months after they are first diagnosed. A study published in October by researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine estimated that more than half of people who are infected with COVID 19 will experience post-COVID symptoms up to six months after recovering from the initial disease.

A team at Johns Hopkins Medicine works with long haul COVID patients to address a range of problems that include persistent fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, nausea, and a host of other debilitating conditions. A little later in the show, Tom speaks with two advocates who work with Long Haul COVID patients.

We begin with the co-directors of the Johns Hopkins Post-Acute COVID-19 Team, or JH PACT, an inter-departmental collaboration that operates clinics for patients with a variety of post-COVID conditions.

Dr. Alba Azola is an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Hopkins School of Medicine…

And Dr. Ann Parker is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Hopkins.

Tom is then joined by Emily Taylor, the Director of Advocacy and Community Relations at Solve M.E., an organization dedicated to ending chronic fatigue syndrome. Solve M.E. co-founded the Long COVID Alliance.

Tom's final guest today is Chimére Smith. She is a former middle school teacher in Baltimore who now serves as an advocate for people in urban communities who suffer from Long COVID. Chimére Smith testified before Congress last Spring about her experience with Long Haul COVID. (Her testimony to the House Energy & Commerce Health Committee hearing on April 28, 2021 titled "The Long Haul: Forging a Path through the Lingering Effects of COVID-19," can be read here.

We invited listeners who are struggling with the long-term effects of COVID to give us a call, or send us an email or Tweet, and tell us their story…

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