Maryland has been invaded. Again. This time the Spotted Lanternfly is the enemy, endangering the nutrient systems of plants. Mike Raupp, Professor Emeritus of Entomology and Extension Specialist at The University of Maryland, talks about what’s being done to keep the insect in check.

Plus, The Park School of Baltimore citizen scientists have been hard at work in the arctic! Biology teacher Vicki Mathew and Park Upper School science department chair Julie Rogers talk about the program, now in its 17th year. Rogers says:

“It’s churning out some scientists for sure, but it’s also just churning out students who have had an opportunity that they thought they would never have and it has helped them dream big.”

Links: Spotted Lanternfly at The Bug Guy, Maryland Extension Spotted Lanternfly information, International Student-led Arctic Monitoring and Research program, 

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

American politics seems more divided than ever. That division can lead to extreme views about political opponents, that they are evil or less than human.

Hopkins political scientist Lilliana Mason says these attitudes can be a precursor to violence, like the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Her latest book, co-authored with Louisiana State professor Nathan Kalmoe, is “Radical American Partisanship.”

How widespread is the acceptance of political violence? What are the consequences for democracy?

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

Remember the buzz about--and from!-- Brood X cicadas last summer? That  phenomenon prompted On the Record producer Melissa Gerr to explore the powerful feelings associated with awe and wonder, and how they affect us. 

She talked with an astrophysicist, a naturalist, a spirituality researcher and also with David B. Yaden, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working in ‘The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research’. One of his experiences of awe, he said, came from thinking about vastness:

“That vastness can be perceptual, like looking out on a large expanse like the Grand Canyon, or it can be conceptual, like when you imagine the magnitude of the size of the galaxy.”

Links: The Goethe Institut's Big Ponder listening series.

*Originally produced for the Goethe Institut's The Big Ponder transatlantic listening series.

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

Even as she was growing up in a posh Baltimore family a century ago, Virginia Hall defied convention. Still, no one--especially after a hunting accident forced amputation of her lower left leg-- could imagine she’d become one of the most intrepid spies of World War II. 

Rejected as a junior diplomat by the U.S., Hall got a field job in a fledgling British spy operation. It sent her to France to support the resistance against the Nazis. She took alarming risks, adroitly dodging betrayal.  

“She would constantly change her address. She would constantly change her looks, putting little rubber slivers in her cheeks so the shape of her face changed. But that was largely what she had between her and capture.” 

Author Sonia Purnell on her spell-binding book A Woman of No Importance.

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 is a Stoop Story from Roy Taff about his haunting experience aboard the USS Constellation.

Want more of the Stoop Storytelling Series? Check out the podcast. Find information about upcoming live events.

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

Amaree McKenstry-Hall was in his senior year at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick. Football, Homecoming, and his future weighed on his mind. That’s why filmmaker Matt Ogens made Amaree the heart of his coming-of-age documentary, “Audible.”

"Audible" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary - Short Subject. You can stream the film on Netflix. This interview originally aired on March 11, 2022. Transcript available here.

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

Today we Pass the Mic to LGBTQ advocate and educator Jabari Lyles. His guest -- Londyn Smith de Richelieu, Baltimore City’s new Director of LGBTQ Affairs -- talks about the need to change the culture and attitude toward trans folks from within City Hall.Then Lyles is joined by Legacy Forte, head of BMORE BLXCK , talking about resources they provide for Black trans youth and Toby, a trans tenth-grader at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, on the message he picks up from youth-centered anti-trans legislation across the US:

“They want to send the message to younger people because they want to tell them when they’re young: your existence is wrong. You shouldn’t feel safe in your existence. You shouldn’t feel ok with your existence.”

Links: Baltimore Office of LGBTQ Affairs, BMORE BLXCK, Trans Maryland resources, The PRIDE Center of Maryland, Monkeypox resources. Original airdate: 6.14.22

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

Since 2012, the Goucher Prison Education Partnership has offered college courses to men and women at two Maryland prisons. Executive Director Eliza Cornejo describes how Goucher stays in touch even after participants leave prison to help them continue their studies or find work. 

And William Freeman, a graduate, now pursuing a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, says signing up for GPEP was a no-brainer, "One, I had the time, and two, there were other individuals who were in close proximity to me that I could witness on any day studying in small groups. And I used to see the level of intent and purpose that they seemed to have with the material and with one another, and I wanted it."

Watch Freeman's 2020 Commencement speech here.

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

Some factors in the economy are slowing--but not the job market. “Help wanted” signs are everywhere. Some employers are brainstorming how to hire the talent they need. Penn-Mar Human Services, a nonprofit that offers a range of supports for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, works with businesses that want to analyze whether some part of their workflow would fit a person with a disability. Greg Miller is Penn-Mar’s CEO:

“It is not a charity, it is not something where we expect an employee or a business to lower expectations. It is trying to find the right job in the right business for the right person.

And we meet Tim O’Neill, a Penn-Mar client who has worked at Bank of America’s Hunt Valley campus for two decades, .. and his manager, Joseph Waldron.

Links: Penn Mar Customized Employment Program

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

Even in pre-school, Jessie Dunleavy’s son Paul struggled to learn. His disabilities forced him to switch schools over and over. He turned to poetry, and eventually, after several mental-health diagnoses, to drugs. After he died of an overdose, his mother found a poem alluding to his addiction as a moral disgrace. Dunleavy said it broke her heart, "I would do anything to change that, because I think the shame drives you further into the addiction and into seeking the escape.”

In the memoir, "Cover My Dreams In Ink," Dunleavy recounts the sobering lessons she learned from Paul’s life and death.

Find Dunleavy's blog here. This interview first aired on January 25, 2021.

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