Midday

Today, we'll hear first about one of the ways Baltimore’s Everyman Theater has adapted to the new normal: they’ve attached themselves to a city-sponsored film festival. The Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights is hosting the Fair Housing Film Festival from August 24 to 28, and Everyman’s entry is a live theater event, The House That Holds Us, a virtual evening of theatrical readings, scenes, and monologues that examines the housing experience in Baltimore.

Joining Tom via Zoom to talk about the new work is Vincent Lancisi. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Everyman Theatre.

Then, we take a broader view of the coronavirus-affected theater scene, in which companies are restricted to presenting their work on-line. But that restriction hasn’t prevented the arts community from producing a wide range of innovative theater.


Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom via Skype to suggest some new virtual theater offerings you might want to check ou

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

In Night Three of the Democratic National Convention, Sen. Kamala Harris made history, Barack Obama sounded an alarm about the future of democracy, and a diverse array of women gave testimonials about gun control, immigration, child care, climate change and domestic violence.

Political scientist Dr. Christina Greer of Fordham University and The Grio joins Tom with analysis.

Christina Greer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University in NYC. She is the politics editor at thegrio.com and the co-host of FAQ-NYC podcast. She’s also the author of Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream.

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

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on the local and national economy. Maryland’s unemployment rate stands at about 8%, much better than much of the rest of the country, but still, more than a quarter of a million Marylanders are out of work.

Some businesses, like airlines, restaurants, and entertainment venues, have suffered badly in the COVID 19 economy. But other businesses are thriving. Yesterday, for example, Apple became the first US company to reach a 2 trillion dollar market cap. And as more consumers stay out of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of on-line shopping, Amazon has had a banner year. Since March, Amazon stock has increased by more than $1,500 per share. It’s currently selling at about $3,200. And the grocery industry has fared well during the pandemic, too, with the region’s largest food retailer, European-owned Giant Food, enjoying steady growth in earnings since March.


Amazon and Giant Food are just two among scores of employers, large and small, now hiring aggressively in the Baltimore region and beyond...

We’ll hear about some of those employment opportunities today as Tom talks first with Anirban Basu, an economist and CEO of the Sage Policy Group, an economic and policy consulting company he founded 16 years ago. He’s also the host of the Morning Economic Report, heard daily here on WYPR.

Then, Tom is joined by Courtney Johnson-Norman, a communications specialist with Amazon Operations, which runs the company’s four Maryland fulfillment centers; and later, by Kendra Logan, a Human Resource Business Partner for Giant Food. Both guests describe an abundance of job openings at their companies and how job seekers can apply.

All Tom’s guests today joined him via Zoom.

To learn more about working at Amazon, visit aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon.

Information about positions with Giant Food can be found on the company’s careers website at giantfood.com/pages/careers.


Also check out these local employment resources:


Mayor’s Office of Employment Development

Baltimore County Office of Economic Development

Maryland Department of Labor Employment Job Fairs

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

Tom's guest for the hour today is the celebrated Baltimore-based artist, John Waters. He’s the director of 16 films, the author of nine books, a visual artist with museum shows to his credit, a spoken word artist, an actor, and most recently, a pitchman for haute couture.

His latest book, published last year and now out in paperback, is called Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.

It's part memoir, part advice column, and part peroration on the passing parade. It’s a fascinating, funny, and insightful commentary on subjects as disparate as the nature of celebrity, and the snobbishness of restaurants, the art market and architecture, and it’s an often deeply personal take on the importance of family and friends. Waters offers a behind the scenes look at the sausage making of his movies, from his transgressive cult classics to his mainstream hits. And he ruminates unstintingly on his successes and his mistakes during a long career in which he has re-invented himself multiple times.

John Waters joins Tom on the phone from Provincetown, Massachusetts. Calls, emails and tweets are welcomed.

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

Today on Midday, a conversation about the U.S. Postal Service, which is embroiled in a political and fiscal crisis unlike any in the service’s 228-year history.


Shortly after our broadcast Tuesday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy released a statement announcing that he is halting his controversial cost-cutting initiatives at the US Postal Service until after the November election. The statement says he is canceling service reductions, reinstating overtime hours and ceasing the removal of mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes.


As the COVID-19 pandemic persists and intensifies in many states, election experts are predicting record numbers of Americans will use the mail to cast their ballots in November. Is the Postal Service prepared to process those ballots and assure that every vote arrives in time to be counted by local boards of elections?

Late last month, the general counsel of the Postal Service sent letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia in which he answered that question, “No.” He said there is a risk that mailed ballots may not arrive in time. Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy – a Trump donor who took office in mid-June – has ordered sweeping staff and operational changes at the Post Office that have already significantly slowed nationwide mail service. President Trump has said he opposes emergency funding for the Post Office because it will support voting by mail...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called Congress back from recess on Saturday to demand answers from the Postmaster General, and to pass legislation that would prohibit any service cutbacks ahead of the elections. Louis DeJoy will appear before the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday. He is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.

And today, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that Maryland has joined with a group of more than a dozen other states that are suing the U.S. Postal Service to reverse “unlawful” cost-cutting moves that Frosh said represent the “most deceitful plan in American history to disrupt an American election.”

To help us understand what’s really going on at the US Postal Service, Tom is joined first by Washington Post business reporter Jacob Bogage, who has been leading the paper’s coverage of the problems at the Postal Service.

Later in the hour, Tom talks with WYPR reporter Emily Sullivan about the Maryland lawmakers who teamed up at a news briefing yesterday with local postal-workers union officials to criticize the operational changes made by the new Postmaster General.

Then, Tom talks with Democratic Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, who represents Maryland’s 2nd District. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee, which funds the Postal Service. The Congressman has been critical of the postal service changes, and will be voting to roll them back in the emergency House bill now being drafted.

All our guests joined us today via Zoom.

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

School districts in and around Baltimore will be opening virtually for the first term. President Trump continues to state falsehoods about children and COVID-19 – and to urge schools to open for in-person learning. Testing, with results delivered accurately and quickly, remains the key to responding to super spreader events in schools and elsewhere. And for children and adults who need to be tested, what’s the best kind of test to get?

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and the former Health Commissioner of Baltimore City. She’s also a columnist for the Washington Post and a visiting professor and a distinguished fellow at the George Washington U. School of Public Health.

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

Today on Midday, a conversation about how school children and teenagers are taught the history of Black people, in America, and before they were enslaved here.

Tom is joined by three scholars who are helping to change the way we teach African American history and contextualize the experience of Black Americans.

Guests:

Dr. Daina Ramey Berry is the Rabkey Regents Professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. Her most recent book is called, 'A Black Women’s History of the United States.'

Dr. Kwame Jeffries is an Associate Professor of history at The Ohio State University, and host of the podcast 'Teaching Hard History,' a production of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Dr. LaGarrett King is the Isabelle Wade Lyda and Paul C. Lyda Associate Professor at the University of Missouri, and founding director of the Carter Center for k12 Black History Education.

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

Today, conversations with musicians across musical genres, to see how they are faring in an online-only world.

Later in the show, Tom speaks with three pianists with local roots whose work has taken them to venues around the world: Classical pianist Lura Johnson; composer, producer and pianist Wendel Patrick; and virtuoso jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut.

We begin with a look at Maryland’s largest arts organization, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The BSO’s performances, of course, have been put on hold -- except its online offerings. Brian Prechtl is a percussionist with the BSO, and the head of the Players Committee. Peter Kjome is the orchestra’s president and CEO. They join Tom on Zoom, like all our guests today.

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

The long running dispute between Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and just about the rest of the known universe concerning how to conduct the November elections appears to have been resolved.

Election officials from across the state had urged the Governor to conduct the election the same way we voted back in June: a mostly mail-in election, with a handful of polling places open for a limited number of voters who either didn’t want to vote by mail, or were unable to vote by mail...

Turnout on June 2nd was high, but problems with the election were somewhat plentiful. The Governor described it as “an unmitigated disaster,” and he made no secret of his displeasure with the way the Board of Elections handled it. He ordered the board to make plans to vote in November in the normal way, meaning that while voters would be encouraged to vote by absentee ballot, all 1,600 plus polling places would open on Election Day.

The elections board balked. Last Sunday, board chairman Michael Cogan wrote a letter to the Governor asking him to agree to a plan that establishes about 360 “Vote Centers” instead of precinct level polling places. On Monday, the Governor reluctantly agreed to the plan, in an acerbic letter in which he re-stated his concern about not having regular polling places open.

Mr. Hogan also chastised the Board for not sending out absentee ballot applications. Those are slated to be mailed at the end of this month. Election officials and the Governor agree that voters should be strongly encouraged to vote by mail, or use drop off boxes, rather than voting in person, due to concerns about COVID-19.

Baltimore City Election Director Armstead Jones, Sr. and former Maryland Secretary of State John Willis join Tom to discuss what it will take to vote safely and securely in the November 3rd election.

For information on the Maryland State Board of Elections' meeting agendas, minutes, audio and video, click here.

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

Last January, Senator Kamala Harris announced her campaign for President in front of a large, energized crowd in Oakland, CA.

Yesterday, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President, announced her as his choice for a running mate, in a text message.

This afternoon, Sen. Harris and Mr. Biden will appear for the first time as a team in Wilmington, DE.

What does choosing Kamala Harris mean for the Biden campaign, for the Democratic Party, and for women of color? Farai Chideya, an award winning journalist, author and scholar, joins Tom via Zoom.

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