WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

A review of top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them.

What happens to our digital selves when we die? It’s a question lawyers and legislators are thinking about. The average person has 20 to 30 different online accounts, from social media pages to email. We explore the realm of digital identity, assets and death with Midday on the Law contributor Jim Astrachan; George Washington University law professor Naomi Cahn; and Evan Carroll, founder of The Digital Beyond, a blog about posthumous digital existence.

A conversation with architect Klaus Philipsen about urban spaces and the need to move people around them and to them -- the challenges of retrofitting old cities like Baltimore for modern transportation systems while accommodating pedestrians and bikers.

This week the Supreme Court considers the issue of gay marriage; on Tuesday the Court heard opening arguments concerning Proposition Eight in California, which prohibits same-sex couples from marrying in that state, and today the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is on the docket. Midday on the Supreme Court and gay marriage today at noon.

Author Po Bronson explores what compels us to compete, why our culture is driven toward competition, and the hidden factors behind every sort of win and loss — from bringing home Gold in Olympic swimming to bombing the SAT. Bronson is the co-author of "Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing."

Following up on a popular Midday hour on central Maryland supermarkets, this time with Jeff Metzger, president of Columbia-based Best-Met Publishing Co., publisher of Food Trade News, Food World and the Mid-Atlantic Grocery Industry Directory.

A look at the 2013 session of the Maryland General Assembly and Governor O’Malley’s trip to South Carolina and other early forays into presidential politics with Baltimore Sun Opinion Editor Andy Green.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Michael Moss surveys the giant processed foods industry and its complicity in the U.S. obesity epidemic, now effecting one in three adults and one in five children. Moss is the author of "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us."

A federal appeals court has reversed a Baltimore judge’s ruling on Maryland’s handgun permitting law, saying the state can insist an applicant show “good and substantial reason” to carry a gun. We look at a case that originated in Baltimore County and could end up before the Supreme Court with Mark Graber, associate dean and professor of government and law at the University of Maryland School of Law; Gavin Aronsen, reporter for Mother Jones; and Aaron Davis, reporter for the Washington Post.

Top Maryland Restaurants: Friday March 22, 1-2 p.m.

A review of top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them. This hour, WYPR’s Karen Hosler has her report from Annapolis, the Baltimore Sun’s Justin Fenton details West Baltimore violence, and the Baltimore Brew’s Mark Reutter talks about Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake’s budget that includes new taxes and fees. Plus a follow-up on our report on Maryland legislation that would establish a container deposit system in the state.

Should Maryland taxpayers foot the legal bills for a Perdue farmer who was sued for polluting the Chesapeake Bay? Apparently so. At the behest of the O’Malley administration, the House of Delegates approved up to $300,000 for an Eastern Shore farm that raised cornish hens for poultry giant Perdue. The Hudson family won a lawsuit brought by the New York Waterkeeper Alliance, litigated by the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland and criticized by Gov. O’Malley. The Bay Journal’s Rona Kobell reports on how the Hudson litigation has further strained relations between farmers and environmentalists. Plus, Maryland’s entry into wind energy.

In the Internet age, bullying has taken on new, complex, and insidious forms. Journalist Emily Bazelon explains how bullying has evolved online and what social media companies are doing (or not doing) about it. Bazelon is author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. Also, we talk to Chris McComas, mother of Grace McComas, the Howard County teenager who committed suicide last April after being bullied in social media. Chris McComas is lobbying the General Assembly to outlaw the harassment of minors online.

On an off for the last five years, 80 or so homeless people called the encampment near Baltimore’s JFX freeway home. But at the beginning of the month, the city razed the camp to deal with the city’s homelessness problem. The move is just the latest in a series of measures made by the Mayor as part of her 10-year plan to end homelessness in Baltimore. But many of the city’s advocates say the Mayor’s plan is ill-conceived. And what’s worse—it’s not working. This hour, we look at the problem of homelessness in Baltimore—including what underlying systemic issues are complicating the situation. Guests: Jeff Singer, president and CEO of Health Care for the Homeless; Kate Briddell, director of the Homeless Services Program under the Mayor's Office of Human Services; and Sheila Crowley, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Carolyn Jones, author of a beautifully crafted book of photos and essays chronicling the lives of nurses, is traveling across the nation transforming the book into a documentary film. She stops in Baltimore and Studio A to discuss the project with one of the subjects of the book and documentary, Naomi Cross, an obstetrics nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital.