Midday

(This conversation was originally aired on April 9, 2021)

On this archive edition of Midday, we revisit Tom's conversation last Spring with the author of a book about three accomplished Black women: Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin. It’s part biography of these women, and part clarion call for recognition of all Black women.

Anna Malaika Tubbs writes that erasure, mis-recognition and historical amnesia are, sadly, part of the formation of African American female identity, and her book is part of her effort to erase that erasure. In exploring the revolutionary power of these women, who came of age between the two World Wars, Tubbs shows how their stories inspire the struggle for survival today.

Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin were each accomplished in their own right, and in their own way. Between them, they raised many children, three of whom grew up to be among the most significant figures in the American Civil Rights movement.

Tubbs makes the point that these remarkable women, overshadowed in history by their famous sons, have often been ignored, and, that they’ve been ignored in different ways. In this book, Tubbs goes about the task of elevating them, chronicling their individual achievements, assessing their influence on their children, and correcting the misrepresentations she finds in the current scholarship about them.

The book is called The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation.

Anna Malaika Tubbs joined us on Zoom in April, from Los Angeles.

Because our show was recorded earlier, we can’t take any new calls or comments.

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Today on Midday, a chronicle of stand-up comedy. Tom's guest is Wayne Federman. He has been a touring comedian for nearly 40 years. He has appeared on the Tonight Show multiple times, and he was a writer for Jimmy Fallon.

Federman has written a book that traces the evolution of standup comedy, from the 19th century when lecturers offered thoughts on serious subjects that they peppered with the occasional joke, through the vaudeville and nightclub eras to the explosion of comedy with the advent of radio, TV, streaming services and the Internet. Federman tells us how the standouts of standup have shaped this unique art form over many decades.

Wayne Federman joins us on our digital line from Los Angeles to talk about The History of Standup from Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle.

This conversation was pre-recorded, 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.

(This conversation was originally aired on March 22, 2021)

Welcome to an encore edition of Midday. Tom's guest today has written a thoughtful and insightful book on the subject of racial inequality. Heather McGhee is the former head of the think tank, Demos, an organization that focuses on inequality. She is now the Chair of the board of Color of Change, an on-line racial justice advocacy group with 7 million members.Her book is called The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.

McGhee’s reporting is assiduous and compassionate. She explores the history and lunacy of policies and norms that proliferate belief in a racial hierarchy.This insidious allegiance to racial hierarchy has dominated the United States since its founding. No aspect of American life is spared, and no issue has been unaffected. McGhee makes the case that White unwillingness to align with Black people in common cause has not only been crushing for African Americans, but for millions of White people struggling for opportunity as well.

She writes, “America’s racial inequality is the template that sets up a scaffolding of hierarchy that increasingly few people, of any race, can climb.” The Sum of Us also makes the case that the reasons for racial panic among White people are actually our biggest strategic assets, and our country’s greatest salvation.

McGhee observes that we have reached the productive and moral limit of the zero-sum economic model. And she argues that the social rewards of an equality that is true and sustainable are plentiful. She calls these rewards the Solidarity Dividend.

Our program was pre-recorded, so we aren’t taking any new listener calls or on-line comments.

Heather McGhee joined us on Zoom.

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(This conversation was originally aired on July 13, 2021)

Tom's guest today is the journalist and best-selling author Lionel Shriver. She is the author of 14 novels, including We Need to Talk About Kevin, an international hit that was awarded the Orange Prize in 2005, and made into a movie starring Tilda Swinton. Her novel, So Much for That, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2010. Her latest book is a deeply compelling and fascinating novel that is a rule-busting barrage of iconoclastic brilliance. It’s called Should We Stay or Should We Go. It imagines a parade of possible outcomes when a healthy couple in their early 50s decides that when they reach their 80s, they will commit suicide.

The story unfolds in the context of, among other events, a world-wide recession, Brexit and COVID-19. Shriver asks penetrating questions about what the metrics of a well-lived life could or should be, and what responsibility, if any, one has to others and to oneself if those metrics begin to show inescapable diminishment.

Born in North Carolina, Shriver divides her time these days between London and New York. A regular columnist for the Spectator in Britain and Harper’s Magazine in the United States, Ms. Shriver has also written commentary for the New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

Lionel Shriver joined Tom on Zoom from her home in Brooklyn, New York.

Their conversation was pre-recorded, so we aren’t taking any calls or comments today.

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This book imagines many different outcomes after its fictional characters have decided to commit suicide.If you or someone you know is considering suicide, phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and talk to somebody about it. Call 800-273-8255.

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

In April and May of this year, 7.6 million people quit their jobs. It’s been dubbed The Great Resignation. In a poll released last month, Gallup reported that almost half of employed Americans are thinking about changing jobs. The report suggested that The Great Resignation might better be called The Great Discontent.

This, despite some very shaky economic times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Congressional Research Service, in the first four months of 2020, as COVID 19 took hold, the American economy shed 22.1 million jobs. Congress has stepped in repeatedly with massive funding bills to stabilize families and businesses across the economic spectrum. As of today, 13 million of those jobs have been recovered, but there are still more than 9 million people out of work. That doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs out there. It’s just that we can’t seem to match the openings with the people who are available. Many industries - from trucking to retail, from health care to hospitality - are experiencing severe labor shortages.And more and more companies are finding it hard to keep workers who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs.What effect has remote work had on these historic trends? How are people thinking about work differently, and what are people expecting that work will offer them in their lives, in addition to a paycheck?

To help us answer these questions, we've invited two leading business economists to join us today.

Tom's first guest is Dr. Robert McNab, an economist on the faculty of Old Dominion University, where he directs the Dragas Center for Economics and Policy.

Professor McNab joins us on Zoom.

Then, Tom speaks with Dr. Tsedal Neeley. She is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and the author of Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere.

Professor Neeley also joins us on Zoom.

How are you feeling about your job, and how have those feelings changed during the pandemic? We welcome listeners to the conversation...

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It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom today with her review of Steel Magnolias, Robert Harling's popular 1987 play that's getting a notably live production at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre — the company's first live on-stage presentation since the pandemic forced theaters to close in March 2020.**

The play, directed at Everyman by Casey Stangl, centers on six southern women and the friendship they enjoy while gathered at their beauty parlor over a three-year period. The play received a Drama Desk Award nomination, and a film adaptation was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes.

The Everyman production features Resident Company Actors Megan Anderson as Truvy, Helen Hedman as Ouiser, Beth Hylton as M'Lynn and Katie Kleiger as Shelby. Rounding out the cast are Heather Gibson as Annelle and Nancy Robinette as Clairee.

Steel Magnolias continues on stage at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre until September 5. The play will also be streamed for ticketed patrons from August 27 to September 19. Follow the links above for more info.*

*Everyman is requiring all patrons to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination along with a photo ID to enter the theater. Also, all patrons entering the theater are required to wear a mask (except when eating or drinking in the cafe area or upstairs on the mezzanine level at the high top tables). All theater staff and crew have been vaccinated.

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

And now, an update on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

Reports from the area outside Karzai Airport describe ongoing chaos and danger for those who are attempting to leave the country, as the US and other countries rush to evacuate their citizens and Afghans who assisted NATO forces over the last 20 years.

After the Taliban gained control of Kabul on Sunday, the scene at Karzai Airport was chaotic for a couple of days, until American troops finally restored order at the airport, and implemented a schedule of military and commercial flights.

Tom's next guest is Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. She has long been an advocate for the Afghan partners who are facing an uncertain future.

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah joins us on our digital line.

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

In a press conference in Annapolis yesterday, Gov. Larry Hogan announced new vaccine protocols for people who work in hospitals and in nursing homes. They will be required to show proof of vaccination or submit to regular testing. And, those who are not yet vaccinated will need to act fast. All employees of hospitals and nursing homes have until September 1st to get their first dose of the vaccine.

Joining Tom now with more on the new rules is the MD Secretary of Health, Dennis Schrader.

Sec. Schrader joins us on Zoom.

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

And now, an update on Afghanistan.

On Sunday, the President, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country as the Taliban made their way into Kabul. He and his family have re-surfaced in the United Arab Emirates. Officials there said they welcomed him on “humanitarian grounds.”On the real ground in Afghanistan, the situation remains tense and unpredictable. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced it had secured the airport in Kabul and that the evacuation of American embassy personnel and some Afghans who had assisted Americans in the war effort had resumed. Taliban soldiers are facilitating the passage of some people to the airport, and denying access to others. The heartbreaking scenes of chaotic crowds on the runway and desperate people clinging to the fuselage of a plane as it taxied for takeoff, have been replaced by numerous flights with hundreds of Americans, Afghans and other NATO allies finding their way out of the country. But thousands remain.

Taliban leadership has announced an amnesty for those who opposed it during the 20-year war, but that claim has been received skeptically, and it is assumed that many people remain in hiding, afraid to venture out and become vulnerable to Taliban retribution.

For analysis of this fluid and perilous situation, Tom welcomes Brian Katulis, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, who focuses on national security strategy, the Middle East and counterterrorism.

Brian Katulis joins Tom on Zoom.

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

We begin today with the challenge of digital equity in Baltimore City.

Forty percent of Baltimore’s 243 thousand households lack wired internet service. What would it take to get those homes connected, and to connect all of the city’s public institutions, our public housing units, our recreation centers, and our small businesses?

What other cities can serve as paradigms? What would it cost to create and maintain a high-speed network? What are the costs of not acting and keeping so many of our neighbors on the outside looking in when it comes to the digital economy?

Tom's guests are three leading advocates for broadening and improving Baltimore's broadband service:

Jason Hardebeck is the director of Broadband and Digital Equity for Baltimore, a new office created a few months ago by Mayor Brandon Scott. Jason joins us on Zoom.

Adam Echelman is the Executive Director of Libraries without Borders and co-leader of The Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition, a coalition of more than 60 members. Adam joins joins us on our digital line.

Mary Miller is a Senior Fellow at The Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative, and the co-author, along with Mac McComas, of a report titled Achieving Digital Equity in Baltimore. She was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary for Mayor. She joins us on Zoom.

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