Midday

Midday

By WYPR 88.1 FM BaltimoreSociety & Culture News

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Midday episodes

November 16, 2020 Midday on Higher Education: Baltimore City Community College President, Debra L. McCurdy
Today, another in our occasional series, Midday on Higher Education in which we sit down with the presidents of colleges and universities throughout the state.

Tom's guest is Dr. Debra McCurdy, president of Baltimore City Community College, a State-sponsored community college located in Baltimore's Park Heights neighborhood.

Dr. McCurdy took the reigns at Baltimore Community College in May of 2019. Before coming to BCCC, she served for 11 years as the Rhodes Stage College president in Lima, Ohio.

During her more than 30 years in higher education, Dr. McCurdy has held administrative posts at Georgia Perimeter College, Clark Atlanta University, Paul Quinn College in Texas, and Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
50 min
November 13, 2020 Evan Osnos's Probing New Profile Of The President-Elect
President-elect Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the presidential election in Arizona, bringing his total in the Electoral College to 290 votes. A hand recount ordered by state officials in Georgia will almost certainly confirm Biden’s win in that state as well.

Ever since he burst onto the scene with an upset Senate victory in 1972, Joe Biden has been a power player in Washington and on the world stage, and it's widely agreed that he will bring an unparalleled depth of executive and legislative experience to the job of president.

In his nearly fifty-year career in public service, Joe Biden has played influential leadership roles in the US Senate and served eight years as vice-president in Barack Obama's White House. Along the way, he has also endured deep personal losses and high-profile political disappointments, events that have given Mr. Biden a humility and an empathy for others in hardship uncommon in career politicians.

Today on Midday, New Yorker Magazine staff writer and veteran journalist Evan Osnos joins Tom for the hour to talk about what kind of president Joe Biden will be. Osnos -- a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award and a fellow at The Brookings Institution -- has written an unstinting and revelatory biography of the president-elect, called Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now.

Evan Osnos comes to us on Zoom.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
50 min
November 12, 2020 Baltimore's "Eye in the Sky" Program: What's Next?
Last May, an Ohio-based company called Persistent Surveillance Systems was granted permission to conduct a six-month trial program in Baltimore -- paid for by a foundation in Texas -- to determine if an Aerial Investigation Research (AIR) program was an effective way to help local police and prosecutors in their efforts to solve crimes. The trial period ended on October 31st. Final data from the trial program has not yet been released, but since it was first revealed in 2016 that planes were flying over the skies of Baltimore and recording the goings-on below during a previously unpublicized surveillance trial, the "eye in the sky" program has been controversial. Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was initially a skeptic about the efficacy of the AIR program, but after consulting with community members he agreed to the trial run...

Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that the planes do not violate privacy rights. But activists and opponents worry that the program can easily be abused, and Mayor Elect Brandon Scott has expressed little confidence in the program.

With the 6-month trial period and unsuccessful court challenges behind it, the AIR program has reached an inflection point, as new data on its effectiveness as a policing tool become available, and as new city leadership prepares to take office with serious reservations about the aerial surveillance plan.

On today's Midday, a range of perspectives on the AIR program. Tom talks first with Marshall Bell, director of the Community Support Program for Perpetual Surveillance Systems, the AIR program contractor. Next, Tom is joined by Rev. Duane Simmons, the long-time pastor of the Simmons Memorial Baptist Church in West Baltimore. Pastor Simmons is also the founder of a community and business coalition called Community With Solutions, whose 70+ members recently called on city leaders to proceed with the surveillance program.

Then, Tom welcomes Lawrence Grandpre to the Midday conversation. He’s the director of research for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a Baltimore community-action group that opposes the roll-out of the AIR program, and last April filed suit in federal court to stop it. The LBS suit, which was unsuccessful, was joined by the ACLU of Maryland, whose senior staff attorney, David Rocah, joins us on Zoom as Tom’s final guest.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
40 min
November 12, 2020 Freda Payne: From Jazz to Pop And Back Again
Tom's guest is singer Freda Payne. Some might know Ms. Payne for the 1970 Holland-Dozier-Holland song she recorded called Band of Gold. It was a huge, international top-40 hit single for the then-28 year-old singer. Payne had a solid run in the R&B genre, with another gold-record hit two years later, an anti-Vietnam War song called Bring the Boys Home.

Despite her success in the 1970s with R&B, the Detroit-born singer’s first love, and the abiding thread in her diverse career, has always been jazz. She grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. In the early 60s, well before her pop hits, she began working in New York with artists like Quincy Jones. At the age of 22, her debut album – After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More! (a jazz recording including songs by Duke Ellington and other standards) -- was released on the prestigious Impulse label. She has since recorded numerous jazz albums and toured the international jazz circuit. Her most recent release was the 2014 CD, Come Back to Me Love. She says another CD is in the works.

Freda Payne’s career has taken her from the concert stage to Broadway, to movies and TV, and this weekend, it is taking her to Baltimore’s Keystone Korner for a three-night gig, starting tonight at 7:30. For ticketing and streaming information, click here. Freda Payne joins us on Zoom…
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
10 min
November 11, 2020 The COVID Economy: Retailers And Consumers Brace For An Uncertain Holiday Season
Today on Midday: another check on the economic impact of the pandemic. For retailers, it's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. But this year, as cases of Coronavirus surge across the country, consumer spending may be a ghost of holiday's past.

Bill Thorne, the Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at the National Retail Federation, explains why consumers should start shopping early this holiday season.

Melody Simmons of the Baltimore Business Journal talks about her reporting on the Black business owners in Baltimore fighting to survive the pandemic.

Plus, Hampden Village Merchants Association President Ben Ray discusses the importance of keeping cash in the community this Christmas.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
50 min
November 10, 2020 The 2020 Vote: Discordant Politics, A Divided Nation
Early analysis of the results of the election underscore the deep divisions in our country. President Donald Trump garnered 8 million more votes this time than he received in 2016. He won solid majorities among white males. He was favored by both the wealthiest voters and those without a college degree. President Elect Biden won more votes than any candidate in history, winning majorities of African Americans, women and first-time voters.

The President remains recalcitrant and defiant, refusing to concede and waging legal fights that claim fraud. Senior Republican leaders are going to bat for him.

The Biden-Harris ticket ran on a platform of uniting the country, a challenge that seems substantial, to say nothing of the challenges of arresting the Coronavirus, restoring the economy, addressing racial inequity and climate change, and rebuilding relationships with our allies.

Eugene Scott is a reporter with the Washington Post. He writes about identity politics for The Fix and hosts a new podcast miniseries hosted on Amazon Music called The Next Four Years. The series examines what the outcome of the 2020 election tells us about the country's profound political and social divisions, and how they are affecting Americans' sense of a shared national identity. Eugene Scott joins Tom on Zoom.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
19 min
November 10, 2020 Nicole Krauss, On Her New Collection, "To Be A Man"
Tom's next guest is the acclaimed author Nicole Krauss. She is the author of four novels, including the international bestsellers Forest Dark, Great House, The History of Love, and her debut novel, Man Walks Into a Room. She’s been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Orange Prize, and she a winner of the Saroyan Prize and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France.

Last week, on Election Day as it turns out, Harper Collins published Krauss's first collection of short stories. It’s called To Be a Man: Stories. In it, we are introduced to a dazzling array of characters in locales that span the globe from Israel, to Japan, Switzerland, and both coasts of the United States.

Nicole Krauss is doing a number of virtual events in which she’ll talk about her new short-story collection. Tonight, she’ll be online with the Free Library of Philadelphia at 7:30. Tomorrow, the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will host an event at 7:00. And she’ll be at an event sponsored by the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, next Wednesday afternoon at 3:00. [Ticketing fees for the online events cover the purchase of Ms. Krauss's new book.]

Nicole Krauss joins Tom on Zoom…
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
32 min
November 10, 2020 'Stoop Therapy' For Survivors Of Trauma; Baltimore Ceasefire Weekend 11.09.20
The Family Survivor Network is a local non-profit organization in Sandtown Winchester that supports the hidden victims of gun violence - the survivors and witnesses of homicide who are left picking up the pieces after a traumatic death.

Today on Midday, FSN Executive Director Dorian Walker explains how through individual counseling, peer support groups, and community-centered engagement, his organization supports families and communities in their recovery from trauma.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
26 min
November 09, 2020 Midday With Dr. Tish The Commish: 11.09.20
As we head into the winter months, the number of cases of COVID 19 continues to rise in Maryland and across the country.

On Thursday, Governor Larry Hogan warned of difficult times ahead, urging residents to stay the course, comply with pandemic restrictions, and to "wear the damn mask."

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young has announced new restrictions for bars, movie theaters, and other public places.

The statewide positivity rate is now above 5%. The rate here in Baltimore currently hovers at around 4%, but it's up 67% from a month ago.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa joins Tom with the latest on the city's efforts to combat the uptick in infections.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
24 min
November 06, 2020 Midday at the Movies: Our Political Crises, Mirrored in Film
It's another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at films and filmmaking. As the world nervously awaits the results of vote-counting in multiple states that will determine who will be the next President of the United States, we spotlight some of the new films that have sought to capture the intense angst -- and hopefulness -- many Americans are feeling during this time of deep political, cultural and racial divisions.

Tom is joined once again by Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, author of the popular filmgoers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies; and Jed Dietz, founder and former director of the Maryland Film Festival and SNF Parkway Theater on North Avenue in Baltimore.

Ann Hornaday and Jed Dietz join us on Zoom.
Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.
24 min

About Midday

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Monday-Friday from noon-1:00, Tom Hall and his guests are talking about what's on your mind, and what matters most to Marylanders, the latest news, local and national politics, education and the…