Midday

Today on Midday, we begin our series of Conversations with the Candidates. Over the next few months, we plan to speak with the major candidates in the Democratic primaries for Baltimore Mayor and City Council President, congressional candidates in the 3rd and 6th Districts, and candidates running for the U.S. Senate.

Former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon joins us to discuss her campaign to return to city hall. She is a familiar political figure whose service in city government began nearly 40 years ago. A Democrat, she represented the 4th District on the City Council for 12 years beginning in 1987.

She later served as the President of the City Council from 1999 until 2007, and then became Mayor in January of that year when Martin O’Malley was elected governor. After reelection to that position, her term was cut short when she resigned in early 2010 as part of an Alford Plea in a perjury case. Currently, she works with the MD Minority Contractor’s Association.

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

The huge humanitarian crisis at the southern border continues. More than 300,000 migrants were processed by US immigration officials just last month. And the repercussions of the crisis are far-reaching. Republicans in Congress are holding up aid to Ukraine and Israel until some kind of deal is reached about tightening border security in the US.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, returns to the show to discuss the crisis.

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

It’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch, our monthly conversations about public health with Dr. Leana Wen.

As we lean into our new year’s resolutions, Dr. Wen has written about some lifestyle changes we should consider, and how to get the most out of our exercise regimens.

Dr. Wen is a former health commissioner of Baltimore, 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.

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on October 30, 2023.)

Our guest Jill Lepore is a writer with an amazing gift for drawing connections between the historical and the contemporary. She connects dots like no other observer, and in this terrific and wide-ranging compendium, she weaves a beautiful tapestry of the personal and public, the quirky and the quotidian.

She’s a professor of history at Harvard and next summer, she will take on a concurrent appointment as a professor at the Harvard Law School. She’s been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 2005, and she’s the author of more than a dozen books, including the international best seller, These Truths: A History of the United States.

Her latest offering The Deadline, is a collection of 46 essays, all but three of which have appeared in the New Yorker over the past decade.

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on November 27, 2023.)

Tom's guest is Dr. Joy Buolamwini, her ground-breaking work in the field of artificial (AI) intelligence led her to form an organization called the Algorithmic Justice League, with which she leads the crusade against the harms of AI.

Dr. Buolamwini recently published a book that tells her remarkable story and how she came to understand the shortcomings and dangers of AI.

The book is a clarion call to world leaders, tech entrepreneurs and scholars to address the deficits in AI and regulate this powerful technology so it cannot be deployed unfairly and illegally.

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on September 29, 2023.)

Today on this encore edition of Midday, we’re going to talk about suicide with mental health professionals and advocates who are educating the public to help save lives.

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 48,000 people died by suicide. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention estimates that around 1.7 million people attempted suicide that year.

Tom turns to three experts to give us a better understanding of suicide and the thousands of individuals affected in our state.

Tammi Ginsberg is the former President of the Maryland Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Dr. Ethan Mereish is an Associate Professor and Director of the Lavender Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park which focuses on people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Chauna Brocht is the Director of Crisis Services for Behavioral Health System Baltimore which coordinates the 988-help line in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County and Carroll County.

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

(This conversation was originally broadcast on November 14, 2023.)

Today on this encore edition of Midday on Music, Tom is delighted to welcome the Ndlovu Youth Choir to the Performance Studio at our sibling station WTMD, in Towson.

This talented singing group from South Africa — the troupe with us today is comprised of seven young men and six young women — has become one of the world's most popular and inspirational musical ensembles since it was formed in 2009. The creative outgrowth of an after-school program for orphaned and vulnerable children in Limpopo, South Africa, Ndlovu is now a youth portal to a career in music. Membership in the choir also instills values of togetherness, a work ethic and a sense of social responsibility, and promotes self-discipline, self-confidence, and leadership.

Check out WYPR's Instagram page for great video clips of this performance!

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

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland, DC and Virginia regional stage.

We take a look at Dial M for Murder, at the Everyman Theatre through January 7, 2023. The classic murder mystery was inspired by Hitchcock’s iconic film and follows Tony Wendice, a former writer who concocts a plan to murder his wealthy wife, Margot.

Photo by Teresa Castracane.

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

Today on Midday, a year-end edition of Newswrap. The WYPR news team joins me to talk about some of the big stories they’ve covered in 2023.

We talk to the reporters who covered changes in voting laws, the election of Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore's inclusionary housing law and the devastating mass shooting in Brooklyn Homes, south Baltimore.

Photo Credit: @iamwesmoore via X.

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

A recent survey commissioned by Live Baltimore explores the reasons people choose to call Charm City home.

What does the data tell us are the important factors as people decide where to live?

Annie Milli is the executive director of Live Baltimore. We ask her about the survey and what it reveals about who is leaving and who is staying in our city, and why they are making the decisions they are making about where to live.

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