Midday

The “go back where you came from” taunt is one in a long, long series of demeaning comments by Mr. Trump aimed at non-white people. What did you think of the way the President’s view of people of color has been characterized in the media?Guests Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer at POLITICO and POLITICO Magazine Dr. Baruti Kopano, Professor and Chair at the School of Global Journalism and Communication a Morgan State University. Andrea K. McDaniels, is an editorial writer for The Baltimore Sun.

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Today, Tom's guest in Studio A is the newish police commissioner of Baltimore City, Michael Harrison. He was appointed by then-Mayor Catherine Pugh in January of this year, approved by the City Council a few weeks later, and sworn into office in March. Last Thursday, flanked by Mayor Jack Young and other city officials, Commissioner Harrison unveiled his new plan to address the crime problem that has afflicted Baltimore in particularly acute ways since the riots and unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.The plan addresses response times by police, where and how they are deployed throughout the city, technology needs, and how police can build cases that hold-up in court for people accused of serious crimes, while exploring alternatives to jail for those who commit lesser offenses. The Commissioner is with us for the hour today. And he takes listeners questions and comments via phone, email, tweets and WYPR's Facebook page, where this conversation was live-streamed. You can watch that video here.

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At precisely 4:17 pm Eastern time tomorrow (July 20), it will have been 50 years since a spidery-looking American spacecraft named Eagle touched down on the surface of the Moon. Two hours earlier, Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong and Lieutenant “Buzz” Aldrin had left Colonel Michael Collins alone in their orbiting Command Module, as they began their powered descent to the Moon and to their indelible place in history.Armstrong and Aldrin set the Eagle down on a lunar plain called the Sea of Tranquillity in the nick of time. They had less than 30 seconds of fuel left by the time they touched down. Six hours later, Neil Armstrong emerged from the lunar module and slowly climbed down its metal ladder. With billions of people on earth watching live on TV or listening on the radio, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, uttering those famous words: “That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”Today on Midday, we discuss the legacy of Apollo 11’s triumphant mission to the moon with two distinguished chroniclers of America's space history: Tom's guests are Dr. John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus at George Washington University's Elliott School, and the founder and long-time director of its Space Policy Institute. He is also a former member of the NASA Advisory Council and its Exploration Committee. Dr. Logsdon joins us on the line from his office in Washington.And joining us on the line from the Hudson Valley in New York is filmmaker Robert Stone, the producer, writer and director of an extraordinary new documentary about America's decade-long race to Tranquility Base called Chasing the Moon. The documentary is currently streaming on PBS.org as part of its American Experience series. PBS will rebroadcast the entire 6-hour film on Saturday, July 20. Check your local listings.

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Baltimore-based pianist and jazz innovator Lafayette Gilchrist joins Tom in the Midday studio to muse on the makings of his second solo CD, Dark Matter, out today (July 19) on the Lafayette Gilchrist Music label. The eleven tracks on the new disc were all recorded live in front of an ----intimate---- crowd at the University of Baltimore's Wright Theater in 2016 by acclaimed hip-hop producer Wendel Patrick (the composer and co-producer with Aaron Henken of WYPR's award-winning ----Out of the Blocks---- podcast series, and a man also known in music circles as classical and jazz pianist Kevin Gift). Over the course of the session, Lafayette Gilchrist's compositions range from deeply personal meditations to socially conscious declarations.We open the segment with the title track, Dark Matter, listen to a bit of Blues for Our Marches to End, and close the show with Black Flight, Gilchrist's ode to the famed African American WWII fighter pilots known as the Tuskeegee Airmen.

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It's Thursday, and theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us for another of her weekly reviews of the regional stage. Today, she spotlights the six plays being presented in rotating repertory at this year's Contemporary American Theater Festival, a showcase for important new work held annually since 1991 on the campus of Shepherd University in historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

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We're talking the O's woes, the latest edition of Madden and what the scores mean to NFL athletes, as well as an update on the athletic program at University of Maryland one year after the death of offensive linemen Jordan McNair. Guests: Milton Kent, the host of Sports at Large here on WYPR, and a member of the journalism faculty at Morgan State University. Jeff Barker covers national politics and the business of sports for the Baltimore Sun.

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“Send her back” has replaced “Lock her up” as President Donald Trump champions fear and divisiveness at a campaign rally in North Carolina last night. Political Scientist Dr. Carol Anderson joins Tom with analysis.Dr. Carol Anderson is the Chair of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Her most recent book is called One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy.

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Today, Midday on Ethics. The growing popularity of services like 23andme and other personal genetic testing companies means it’s easier than ever to find long lost relatives – including some who were assured that they would never be found. For years, men and women who donated sperm or eggs were guaranteed anonymity. That’s a guarantee that’s no longer possible in an era when the children they helped create are easily tracking down their donor parents and, in some cases, a slew of siblings they never knew existed. Dr. Jeffrey Kahn is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He joins me to discuss promises of privacy that can no longer be kept.

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What happens to our cognitive ability as we get older? Is age a legitimate issue in considering a person’s qualifications for political office? And what political calculations might voters make about the argument for maturity and experience versus a desire for a generational shift in leadership? Tom is joined today by two guests with valuable perspectives on those questions.Lisa Lerer is a reporter at The New York Times who covers campaigns, elections and political power. She covered the 2016 presidential race for the Associated Press. She joins us from NPR studios in Washington, DC.Dr. Jason Brandt is a neuropsychologist and Professor of Psychiatry ---- Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Brandt’s research focuses on cognition and neurological health in the elderly. Dr. Brandt joins us in Studio A.

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Tom Hall and his guests weigh in on the debates, candidates and key issues for the 2020 Presidential race. Guests: Kate Payne, reporter and Caucus Land co-host for Iowa Public RadioDr. Shayla Nunnally, Associate Professor of political science ant the Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. Julie Bykowicz, Wall Street Journal national political reporter, focusing on money and influence in Washington.Zach Montellaro, Campaign Pro reporter at POLITICO

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