Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings died a year ago tomorrow. He invested time in his final months, amid painful health challenges and tough confrontations between Congress and President Trump … to write a memoir called, “We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of our Democracy” It weaves his personal story with accounts of some public battles. His widow and partner, Maya Rockeymore Cummings, says we can hear in the memoir what her late husband would be telling America in anticipation of this year's election.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

Here’s a Stoop Story from Marshai Allen being a pioneer and the power of poetry. You can hear his story and others at Stoopstorytelling.com or on the Stoop podcast.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

For 14 years after she was raped by her best friend Jeannie Vanasco lived with it, lived with recurring nightmares and with an aching sense of confusion about whether she was making too much or too little of it. Eventually, she reached out to ask him to speak with her, and recorded a series of phone conversations that are the core of her new memoir, "Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl."

You can catch Jeannie Vanasco, a week from today, in conversation with author Kate Wyer to discuss Wyer’s new book “Girl, Cow, & Monk,” at a virtual event hosted by the Ivy Bookshop. And week from tomorrow, on October 23rd, Vanasco will moderate a virtual panel with four authors from different genres to discuss how they approach writing about trauma.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

The Lloyd Street Synagogue, an anchor for the Jewish Museum of Maryland, turned one hundred seventy five this year. To celebrate, JMM shot for the moon! Executive director Marvin Pinkert tells us about their exhibit "Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit." Plus, psychologist Harriette Wimms and Tracie Guy-Decker, JMM deputy director, discuss the series: “Jews of Color, Jewish Institutions and Jewish Community in the Age of #Black Lives Matter.”

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

The new Goucher Poll asks Marylanders whether the state is on the right track, what they see as its most pressing issue, whether they’ll take a Covid vaccine … and what financial and emotional tolls the pandemic is taking. It also looks at the reform ideas growing out of Black Lives Matter protests of police brutality: how do Marylanders assess proposals .. for independently investigating complaints of police misconduct? Making such investigations public? Banning chokeholds? De-funding the police? All that in our conversation with Goucher assistant politics Professor Mileah Kromer, who directs The Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

Imagine an election jammed with tension … voter intimidation … threats of violence … and then after the vote, months of bitter dispute over the electoral votes of four divided states. The election of 1876 almost plunged the country back into civil war. Part of the stakes, says University of Maryland historian Michael Ross, was the course of Reconstruction, the Republican regime that posted federal troops in the old Confederacy to protect former slaves.

Learn more about this election in Ross' book, "The Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court during the Civil War Era."

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

Think your car gets good mileage? Blackpoll warblers, birds that weigh about one ounce, achieve the equivalent of 720 thousand miles per gallon each year when they migrate to warmer weather. We learn these facts and more with Chris Eberly, director of the Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership. Later this month he’ll be presenting, through the Natural History Society of Maryland: ‘Unlocking the Mysteries and Marvels of Bird Migration.”

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

Here's a Stoop Story from Terri Diener about what our pets want us to know. ...Whether we like it or not! You can hear her story and others at stoopstorytelling dot com or on the stoop podcast.

The next virtually live Stoop show is Invisible Labor: Stories About Hidden Work, Unseen Efforts and Toiling Far From the Limelight. It happens on Thursday Oct. 15 at 7pm via zoom.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

Many Americans are finding the pandemic has reshaped their sleep schedule, for better or worse. Dr. Stephanie Wappel is a physician at GBMC Health Partners –Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine. She details the side effects of both too little or too much sleep. One habit to avoid-- screen time before bed.

And then, artist Landis Expandis is making music videos on everything from an out-of-whack sleep schedule to social distancing. How do you harness creativity during quarantine? You can check out his music here, as well as in the new exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum, opening this Saturday: “The Science and Mystery of Sleep."

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472

The COVID-19 pandemic may not be a hurricane, a terrorist attack or a war, but it is a disaster. As a disaster psychologist Dr. George Everly has spent four decades responding to the mental-health needs of victims of calamities around the world.

One of his conclusions is that the psychological casualties of a disaster--people so badly hurt mentally or emotionally that they can’t do what they need to do in life--always outnumber the physical casualties. What should we be doing now to address the pandemic’s psychological cost?

Dr. Everly has written more than 20 books including, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Psychological First Aid, and, with Dr. Douglas Strouse, and Dennis McCormack, Stronger: Develop the Resilience You Need to Succeed.

His blog in Psychology Today is “When Disaster Strikes: Inside Disaster Psychology.” In this commentary for the the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, which he co-founded, Dr. Everly describes steps in moving past the pandemic.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472