Midday

Does the conventional wisdom of the white dominated field of psychology make the wrong assumptions about the weight of racism and its impact on the psychological well-being of African Americans?

Tom speaks with Dr. Theopia Jackson, president of The Association of Black Psychologists. Dr. Jackson explains how African and Black centered psychology embraces Afrikan traditions, and draws on the strength of community to meet the individual mental health needs of Black people.

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More than 400 people in Baltimore City have died of illness related to Coronavirus. More than 200 others have been victims of homicide.

Ninety percent of those homicides are committed with guns. While there have been slightly fewer non-fatal shootings this year than last, nearly 400 people have been shot so far this year. Today, we’re going to talk with five people who’ve made it their life’s work to help the people at the epicenter of the epidemic of gun violence.

Later this hour we’ll meet two violence interrupters with the city's Safe Streets program, and we’ll touch base with a co-founder of Baltimore Ceasefire 365.

But first, Tom welcomes two representatives of Roca Baltimore, which launched in July of 2018 to engage with the young men most likely to be caught up in gun violence as both perpetrators and victims.

Joining Tom by Zoom are Kurt Palermo, the director of Roca Baltimore, and James “JT” Timpson, Roca's director of Community Partnerships and Safety. People seeking more information about Roca Baltimore or ways they can lend a hand, are encouraged to email: [email protected].

Just as Roca Baltimore has been intervening with relentless outreach over the past 18 months, the City-run Safe Streets Baltimore program has spent the past 13 years mediating conflicts and connecting at-risk people to resources that can help them avoid violence in the future.


Joining Tom next by Zoom is Dante Barksdale, Safe Streets’ Outreach Coordinator and the author, with Grace Kearney, of a memoir, Growing Up Barksdale: A True Baltimore Story; also joining Tom in this segment is Gardnel Carter, Safe Street's Community Liaison Officer.


Then, Tom welcomes another of the city's front-line champions of violence reduction. Letrice Gant is one of the co-founders and co-leaders, with Erricka Bridgeford, of Baltimore Ceasefire 365, a grass-roots end-violence movement that uses the moral strength of the community to dissuade potential perpetrators of gun violence, and to heal their victims. The Baltimore Ceasefire movement marked its third anniversary during the August 7-9 Ceasefire Weekend just past. For more information about Baltimore Ceasefire 365 and getting involved in its year-round events, visit their homepage at baltimoreceasefire.org.

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

The Coronavirus has slowed down or shuttered businesses large and small, but one city department has been as busy as ever rooting out malfeasance by Baltimore elected officials and employees.

Baltimoreans, sadly, know public corruption all too well. In the past decade, two of our mayors, Sheila Dixon and Catherine Pugh, have resigned amid corruption scandals. Ms. Pugh, a former police commissioner and several members of the Maryland legislature have been sentenced to prison terms.

My next guest is the city’s top crusader against corruption. Isabel Mercedes Cumming is Baltimore’s inspector general. Before taking on that role 18 months ago, she served as Assistant Inspector General of Investigations for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, where she oversaw 200 investigations in six years. She is the first woman to serve as the city’s top watchdog. Inspector General Cumming joins us from City Hall via Zoom.

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

My next guest is not only one of the most talented musicians of his generation, but one of the most thoughtful people I know when it comes to defining and re-defining the role that artists can and should play in shaping the conversation about society in good times and in bad times.

Darin Atwater is a gifted composer, conductor, pianist and producer who has worked in film, recording, radio and television. 20 years ago, he founded the Soulful Symphony, an orchestra with vocals that is made up primarily of African American and Latinx musicians.

The ensemble is the first symphony in residence at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. Darin Atwater also serves as the Artistic Director of the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission.

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On today's edition of Midday at the Movies, two of our favorite movie mavens, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and the Maryland Film Festival's founding director, Jed Dietz, join Tom for another of our monthly conversations about films and filmmaking.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep the nation's movie theaters shuttered, struggling film production studios and streaming services such as HBO, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are keeping their audiences entertained with a steady stream of multi-part series, documentaries and new feature films. Among Ann's and Jed's favorite new documentaries are The Fight, A Thousand Cuts, Red Penguins, and John Lewis: Good Trouble, the timely new film about the late civil rights champion. For multi-generational comedy fans, there's I Used to Go There and the quirky sci-fi rom-com, Palm Springs.

We also spotlight the COVID-related financial problems afflicting the Walt Disney Company, and the news last week that director Christopher Nolan's much anticipated new IMAX sci-fi opus, Tenet, will debut internationally starting on August 26, before opening in select U.S. cities over the Labor Day weekend on September 3rd. Nolan on Thursday tweeted a video message to Chinese audiences announcing that Tenet will open in China on September 4.

And we take your calls, Tweets and emails...

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

On today's edition of the News Wrap, reporter Tamara Keith, NPR's White House correspondent and host of its Politics Podcast, joins Tom with her perspectives on a busy news week in Washington, with fewer than 100 days remaining before the November 3rd general election...


President Trump’s approval rating has taken a hit in recent polls. In recent days he has made several controversial statements about everything from accused sex trafficker Ghislane Maxwell and the evils of voting by mail, to dismissive comments about the late Civil Rights icon John Lewis.


And in a week of disturbing reversals in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in several states, President Trump said things that were at odds with reality and with the government’s own coronavirus experts — suggesting during an interview with Axios correspondent Jonathan Swan that the pandemic is under control, that the US is doing "very well." When reminded that about 1,000 Americans are dying every day, he responded that “it is what it is.”

Meanwhile, Congress has yet to agree on another round of economic relief measures. Supplemental unemployment benefits for millions of Americans expired nearly a week ago. Hangups include funding for the post office, money for elections, and money for schools.

To help us sort some of this out, NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins Tom via Comrex from her home studio in Washington, DC.

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In his latest book Eddie Glaude draws on his imaginative reading of James Baldwin and his own trenchant observations about the current American moment. The book is called Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lesson for Our Own.

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In their new book, I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad, Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg chronicle the story of the Gun Trace Task Force, their victims, and the lasting reverberations their crimes continue to have on Baltimore's criminal justice system.

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"The world lost one of its greatest musical minds and hearts on Sunday when the legendary pianist, conductor and teacher Leon Fleisher died of cancer at the age of 92. I was proud to be one of the many people around the world privileged to call Leon a friend. When I was working as a musician, I had the great honor of working with him at the Baltimore Opera Company and on several other projects. I also had the pleasure of interviewing him here on WYPR and at other public events over the years. He was a captivating artist, whose music making was suffused with unparalleled grace, and boundless passion. And he was a mensch. A funny, enlightening and wonderful guy whose company it was always a pleasure to keep.

"He gave his first public performance as a pianist at the beginning of President Franklin Roosevelt’s second term, and he continued to perform for eight more decades. When a neurological disorder known as focal dystonia restricted the use of his right hand, he played concerts with his left hand, and he conducted.

"And he coached young musicians. He taught at the Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute here in Baltimore for 59 years. I invited a few guests to be with us today to share their recollections of working with Leon Fleisher. First, Anne Midgette joins us. She is the former classical music critic for the Washington Post who collaborated with Leon on a book called My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir. Then I speak with concert pianists Lura Johnson and Michael Sheppard, both of whom studied under Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute.

"Thanks to all for sharing your recollections of this wonderful artist. Our hearts go out to Leon Fleisher's wife and pianistic collaborator, Katherine Jacobson, his sons Julian and Richard, and his daughters Deborah, Leah and Paula." -- Midday host Tom Hall

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

(Tom opens the show today with a salute to the legendary concert pianist Leon Fleisher, who died Sunday at the age of 92.)

Today, on Midday with Tish the Commish, an update from Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa on the troubling rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 in Baltimore, throughout Maryland, and the country.

Yesterday, Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the federal response to COVID-19, painted a somewhat dire picture of the state of virus containment. She told CNN that what we are seeing today is different from March and April. She said that the virus is extraordinarily widespread, and that it is affecting both rural and metropolitan areas throughout the country.

The number of cases of COVID 19 in MD has climbed steadily in the past several weeks. Since the middle of July, the State Health Department has reported more than 500 new cases every day. Over the past week, there have been an average of 933 cases per day -- 175 in Baltimore City alone -- an increase of 31 percent from the average two weeks earlier. Friday was one of four days last week in which MD saw more than 1,000 new cases. At least 9 new coronavirus deaths and 910 new cases were reported in Maryland on Aug. 2. As of Monday morning, there have been at least 90,835 cases and 3,515 deaths in Maryland since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database.

The statewide positivity rate hovers at around 5%. Yesterday, the rate stood at 4.36%. That’s the number that Governor Larry Hogan is keeping a particularly keen eye on as he makes decisions about restrictions and he adjusts the state’s re-opening schedule. But it’s higher in the City of Baltimore, and in some neighborhoods, it’s a lot higher.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa joins Tom, via Zoom, with the latest on the city’s effort to mitigate the virus.

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