Bakari Sellers was the youngest African American elected official in the country when he won a seat in the South Carolina state legislature at the age of 22.

Sellers is a civil rights attorney, a CNN political analyst, and the author of two books. The latest is an essay on race, politics, and equality, and a prescriptive call for how to address the challenges our country faces living up to its stated ideals.

He joins Midday to discuss his book, The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning that Wasn’t, and How We All Can Move Forward Now.

(Photo by John R. Walder)

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A new feature on WYPR seeks to highlight the bright side of the news headlines and celebrates the good in all of us.

The Good News, hosted by former head of the NAACP Dr. Benjamin Chavis will broadcast on WYPR and WTMD. The daily radio commentary and headline news review will seek to offer timely and unique perspective on the headline news of the day across America and throughout the world.

Chavis joins Midday host Tom Hall to discuss the show's launch.

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Dr. Leana Wen joins Tom for Midday Healthwatch for their monthly discussion about the public health of Charm City residents.

Today, Wen answers questions about menopause. What therapies are effective, and what do women need to know?

Plus, with the 2024 Olympics set to get underway next month, is the World Doping Agency doing its job?

Wen is a former health commissioner of Baltimore. She is 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.

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A New York jury unanimously found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to influence the 2016 presidential election, marking the first time a former president has been found guilty of a crime.

Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne joins Midday to share his analysis of the conviction and how it may impact the presidential election.

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City officials are considering Mayor Brandon Scott's proposed fiscal budget for 2025.

The Mayor said his budget contains few cuts, with more money going to schools, the Department of Recreation and Parks and public safety.

Bill Henry, Baltimore City's Comptroller, joins Midday to discuss the proposed budget, reforms to the city's procurement policy and more. Henry sits on the city's Board of Estimates, a powerful committee tasked with formulating and executing Baltimore's fiscal policies.

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Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday to share another weekly review of a local theatrical production.

This week, we take a look at The Matchbox Magic Flute, continuing at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington through June 16.

Special note: Songs used in this interview were performed by the cast of The Matchbox Magic Flute at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  

(Photo by Liz Lauren)

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Jury deliberations in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump's alleged hush money payments resumed today. The twelve jurors, all New Yorkers, asked to reheard testimony and some of the judge's instructions, according to reporting from AP News.

Midday host Tom Hall spoke to Maryland Law Professor Mark Graber and prominent Baltimore-based defense attorney Warren Brown about the latest news from the Manhattan trial and the former president's other legal concerns.

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

In 2018, Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate won nearly 20 million more votes than their GOP opponents, but Republicans gained two seats and established a 53-47 majority.

This is one example of the disintegration of majority rule cited by Mother Jones national voting rights correspondent Ari Berman in his new book, Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People and the Fight to Resist It.

Berman examines the deleterious effects of the Electoral College, gerrymandering, voter suppression and the skewing of the courts to the right. How can democracy survive in the face of such efforts?

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

Journalist and best-selling author Erik Larson joins Midday to discuss his latest book on the years leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War is a granular look at the events taking place in the five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 and the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861. The bombardment of the Union fort in South Carolina marked the beginning of the war.

6 of Larson’s previous 8 books have become New York Times best-sellers, and his subject matter ranges widely. In The Devil in the White City, he wrote about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He also authored histories of Winston Churchill, the final crossing of the Lusitania and the first ambassador to Nazi Germany.

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Political scientist Tom Schaller, who teaches at UMBC, and former Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman have written a book that examines how rural communities wield out-sized political influence.

Going even further, to the chagrin of their critics, Schaller and Waldman assert that, quote, “white rural voters pose a growing threat to the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.”

But critics of the book say the threat Waldman and Schaller hypothesize isn't actually there. Nicholas Jacobs, a researcher cited in White Rural Rage, wrote for POLITICO that his work was misinterpreted by the book's authors. Jacobs found that 27 percent of rural voters—including 23 percent of rural Trump voters—think that if the opposing candidate wins in November, “people will need to take drastic action in order to stop [Biden or Trump] from taking office.” That is the exact same proportion—27 percent—as voters in urban and suburban areas who hold the same view.

The book is called White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy.

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