Midday

Maryland's economy is deeply connected to the federal agencies sprinkled across Maryland from Baltimore to Washington D.C.

Mass layoffs of federal workers by the Trump Administration are leaving thousands of Marylanders without work.

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller is leading the state’s efforts to help those now hoping to find new employment.

Sarah Ruhl is the author of 15 plays, an opera libretto, two collections of poetry, a collection of essays and a memoir.

Ruhl teaches playwrighting at the Yale School of Drama, and her latest book is a terrific compendium of 60 brief essays about what she has learned and the people who have taught her. In Lessons from My Teachers: From Preschool to the Present, Ruhl details an education in and out of classrooms, with probable and some improbable tutors. In her book, she shares her insights about her experiences with these sagacious influencers with grace, and gratitude.

On today's Midday on Education, we’re hearing from students in our area today.

College seniors are considering their futures, in employment or graduate school.

Maryam Abdiruhman will graduate soon from Goucher College in Towson, where she’s majoring in Professional Creative Writing, with a focus on poetry.

We asked her about the use of AI in college-level education and facing the job market in the midst of a faltering economy.

Over the course of the next month and a half, high schools in the Baltimore area will send off another class of graduating seniors into the world.

Last September, we spoke to a group of rising seniors in Baltimore. We asked them about cyberbullying, social media and phone use in schools, their concerns about the future of our country and their hopes for their final year in school.

9 months later, we’re checking back in with that same group of students as they prepare for their next steps.

Laila Gheis is a student in the Bryn Mawr School, a private high school in Roland Park.

Lamont Clark is in school at Dulaney High school in Timonium, in Baltimore County.

Shawn Ware is at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, also known as BLSYW, here in Baltimore City. Shawn lives in McElderry Park and is a former intern here at WYPR.

Artificial intelligence, social media, smart phones and cyberbullying. Today’s young people live with access to digital technology unlike anything older Americans had when they were young.

Schools across the country are still playing catch-up with policies regarding technology use by students. WYPR education reporter Bri Hatch joins Midday to talk about what local schools are doing when it comes to smartphone use and their students.

Dr. Leana Wen joins Tom for Midday Healthwatch, where they discuss issues affecting the health and well-being of Charm City residents.

Wen discusses the ongoing outbreak of measles, and a new movement of parents organizing around wariness to vaccines and processed foods. Plus, could the CDC change its guidance on vaccines?

Dr. Wen is a former health commissioner of Baltimore. She’s a columnist on health matters for the Washington Post, a medical expert at CNN, and a scholar at George Washington University and the Brookings Institution.

Scott Shellenberger, the State’s Attorney of Baltimore County, was first elected to the position nearly 20 years ago.

Recently, state lawmakers have made changes to criminal justice policy. Last week, Governor Wes Moore signed several criminal justice bills into law that Speaker Adrienne Jones suggested would address the state’s “inequitable criminal justice system.”

How do those reforms change the job of Schellenberger and other State's Attorneys?

Midday at the Movies is our monthly focus on new films and film-industry trends, with our regular movie aficionados, Jed Dietz, founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, and Ann Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post.  

We discuss recent horror films including Sinners and The Shrouds in addition to the compelling documentary Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round.

More people called Baltimore home in 2024 than in the previous year. For the first time in a decade, more people moved into Baltimore City than moved out. The increase was small with only about 800 additional residents, but after years of steady decline a little growth is a sign of hope.

Meghan McCorkell, the Executive Director of Live Baltimore, joins Midday to discuss attracting and retaining more Baltimore homeowners.