Roughly Speaking

In the latest in a series of conversations with candidates for governor of Maryland, Rushern Baker talks about his life before entering politics and his career path since then — as a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates and as the Prince George's County executive since 2010, following a major corruption scandal sent his predecessor to federal prison. In talking about his bid to challenge to the incumbent governor, Republican Larry Hogan, Baker says he would focus on economic development and job creation, revive the Red Line light rail project in Baltimore and keep state funding the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks/bal-roughly-speaking-2018-gubernatorial-candidates-storygallery.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-baker-governor-20170620-story.htmlhttps://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/1048/Transforming-Neighborhoods-Initiative-TN

Gilbert Sandler is back. Author, raconteur, chronicler of his native city, at 94 years old, Gil still has a sharp mind full of vivid memories of bygone Baltimore. Today we’re headed to Attman’s Delicatessen on what remains of Baltimore’s Corned Beef Row to hear Gil describe his 10 Most Memorable Baltimore Moments. Born here in 1923, Gil has been observing and chronicling city life for decades. He wrote a regular column, Baltimore Glimpses, for the old Baltimore Evening Sun, and continues his story-telling to this day with weekly features on WYPR, the NPR station.

1:38: Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends a new memoir about a man who suffers from a Truman Show delusion: "Gorilla and The Bird," by Zack McDermott.6:04: Del. Mary Washington, D-43rd, talks about what she sees as a serious problem facing low- and fixed-income Baltimoreans: Some of them could lose their homes if they don't pay their increasingly expensive water bills to the city. Washington says the Maryland General Assembly and the Baltimore City Council need to find a better way to make sure the city gets paid and that homeowners don't end up homeless.22:46: Film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed review "Blade Runner 2049," and offer an appreciation of Ridley Scott's 1982 original.Links:https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/zack-mcdermott/gorilla-and-the-bird/9781478966104/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-tax-sale-20170505-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/sns-tns-bc-movie-blade-runner-director-20171006-story.html

Global tech guru Alec Ross, a\u160\ucandidate for governor of Maryland, says that, if elected, he will have the State Police arrest any agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who violates the rights of the "citizens and guests" of the state of Maryland.\u160\u"I swear to God," he says in an interview with Dan Rodricks, "if the ICE officers violate the laws of Maryland and violate the rights of the citizens and guests of us here in the state of Maryland, I will have State Troopers arrest the ICE officers, and God bless the confrontation that brings with Donald Trump." That position is provocative but problematic, as Dan explains in today's episode -- another in a series of interviews with candidates for governor in Maryland's June 2018 primary.\u160\uRoss, 45, is a former senior adviser on technology to President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;\u160\uhis work\u160\ufor the State Department\u160\utook him to 41 countries. He is an author of a best-selling book on technological innovation and a fellow at Johns Hopkins University.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-alec-ross-profile-20160618-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ice-arrests-baltimore-20170929-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-alec-ross-announces-candidacy-20170426-story.htmlhttp://foreignpolicy.com/2013/03/14/tech-guru-alec-ross-leaves-the-state-department/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-alec-ross-profile-20160618-story.html

0:35: Americans like to think of their country as exceptional. But it's exceptional for all the wrong reasons. In this segment of the show: Commentary on the massacre in Las Vegas, the day-to-day violence in Baltimore, and the huge challenge that current U.S. political leadership is unwilling to take — rolling back the nation's obsession with guns.6:21: A tribute to rock legend Tom Petty, who performed with his band, The Heartbreakers, in Baltimore in July, part of a 40th anniversary tour that ended just a few weeks before Petty's death in California on Monday.

1:59: Paula Gallagher, librarian and book critic, recommends all but the last 40 pages of "Sourdough," a novel by Robin Sloan that foodies should (mostly) love.5:30: Sheri Parks, culture commentator, wants to talk about adulthood, and why it seems to be arriving later with each generation. In fact, research shows that, since the late 1970s, it has taken longer for each new generation to complete school, leave home, become financially independent, marry and have children. Millennials have even delayed getting driver’s licenses. What does the later launch mean for families and society? And what constitutes full adulthood? Parks is assistant dean in American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a regular commentator on Roughly Speaking.Links:https://us.macmillan.com/sourdough/robinsloan/9780374203108/

The first Baltimore 9/11 Heroes Run takes place Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Inner Harbor — dedicated to Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Xavier Martin, the young sailor from Halethorpe whose promising career was cut short in June when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan. Today on the show: Race director Pat Cappelaere and his wife, Doreen, talk about the race and their daughter — Navy pilot Lt. Valerie Cappelaere Delaney, a Howard County native and Naval Academy graduate who died during a training mission outside Spokane, Washington in 2013. The race is sponsored by the Travis Manion Foundation, named for a Marine and Annapolis graduate who was killed by sniper fire in Iraq in 2007. The foundation supports veterans and Gold Star families like the Cappelaeres and hosts community service programs with the aim of developing future leaders.Links:http://www.travismanion.org/community-engagement/911-heroes-run/2017-baltimore-md/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-halethorpe-sailor-killed-20170619-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-valerie-cappelaere-delaney-20160905-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-valerie-cappelaere-delaney-20130312-story.htmlhttp://www.travismanion.org/our-story/

Heidi Beirich tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. She is an expert on various forms of extremism, including the white supremacist, nativist and neo-Confederate movements. In this episode of Roughly Speaking, Beirich talks about hate groups in Maryland, but more generally about how she works, and how the SPLC goes about declaring American organizations to be hate groups. Beirich oversees the SPLC’s annual survey of the nation’s hate and anti-government groups, available on the center's interactive Hate Map, which lists 917 such groups across the country and 18 in Maryland.Links:https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9afOBRDWARIsAJW4nvyf1Nyhh6ZPUwFwhXZz1rzEeL3HVONCLrGGwKsegNteMV0LPZFiGMwaAi6jEALw_wcB

2:54: Film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed have been binge-watching original shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and today they talk about what they've seen and what they like — from "The Keepers" documentary to "I Love Dick," and other series in between. Linda and Chris also discuss the phenomenon of binge-watching and how commercial streaming generally could effect the American cinema. Linda DeLibero directs the film and media program at Johns Hopkins University. Christopher Reed is chair and professor in the film and moving image department at Stevenson University.32:46: Comedian and actor Marc Unger talks about "Thespian," an original, crowd-sourced web series that he's been writing, directing and starring in, along with a troupe of Baltimore actors.Links:https://krieger.jhu.edu/film-media/directory/linda-delibero/https://krieger.jhu.edu/film-media/directory/linda-delibero/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1328862/https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thespian-web-tv-series-drama#/

President Trump this week praised Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for taking in refugees from the six-year-old Syrian civil war while his administration considers lowering further the number of refugees accepted in the United States. As a candidate and as president, Trump has taken a hard line on refugees while other nations have accepted hundreds of thousands of them. For instance, by the time Germany had accepted 600,000 last fall, the U.S. had welcomed only 16,000. On the show today, a look at the crisis with Alia Malek, Baltimore-raised journalist and civil rights attorney who traveled with Syrian refugees and profiled some of them for Foreign Policy. And Dan speaks with the leader of an Arabic music ensemble that will perform a concert at Towson University on Sept. 29 to keep attention on the refugee crisis.Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking book critic, offers a strong recommendation for, "Sing, Unburied, Sing," the new novel from National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.Alia Malek, attorney, journalist and author of "The Home That Was Our Country, A Memoir of Syria," talks about the civil war, the refugee crisis and her Syrian ancestors. Malek is a featured speaker at the Baltimore Book Festival. She appears on the Ivy Bookshop Stage Friday at 5 pm.Michel Moushabeck is the leader of Layaali Arabic Music Ensemble, which comes to Maryland Sept. 29 to perform an evening concert for Syrian refugee awareness at Towson University. He offers a tutorial in Arab music ahead of the free concert.