WYPR: Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast Podcast

In 1955, Jet magazine brought national attention to the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. We talk with the reporter behind the coverage: Baltimore native Simeon Booker, whose new memoir is called “Shocking The Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement.” Then, Coppin State University’s newly-named president expects a jump in enrollment for the 2014-15 school year. He tells us what changes he’s making to encourage Coppin’s future growth. And, Tom Hall and Sascha Wolhandler were at the Farmer's Market this weekend. They'll share advice from the farmers themselves on how to get the best meals out of your haul from the market. Plus, the Maryland Morning Culture Calendar.

What do people in prison, sentenced there for crimes, have to contribute to stopping crime in Maryland? An inmate in the Jessup Correctional Institution says they have a lot of wisdom to share. We learn about a symposium he and others are holding there to prevent violence among young people. Then, dogs sometimes need blood transfusions, just like humans. But canine blood is in short supply in Maryland. We learn how owners can sign their dogs up to be donors—and how to tell your dog’s blood type. And, we're coming up on the time of year that makes Baltimore sports fans’ minds explode—the Ravens and the O's playing at the same time! Tom Hall talks to sports journalist Mark Hyman about the Orioles pennant race and the Ravens prospects for another Super Bowl.

Dr. Nancy Kass at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics says it's time to rethink the division between medical research and medical practice. Baltimore-born author Adelle Waldman takes on a man's perspective in her debut novel The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. Maryland Morning J. Wynn Rousuck reviews Sick Stories, Gentle Granddaddy, one of the plays featured at the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. Tom Hall gets a tour with Baltimore Museum of Art curator Kristen Hileman and Front Room exhibition artists Jimmy Joe Roche and Nathaniel Mellors.

Today on "The Lines Between Us," we examine the racial disparities in the juvenile justice system that lead to what is known as disproportionate minority contact. We then speak with the people trying to bring about change in the lives of minority youth who would otherwise end up entangled in the system. Then, Tom Hall speaks with filmmaker and neuroscientist Monica Lopez Gonzalez, whose film "Moments" will be screened at Artscape to a live improvised jazz score.

July 17, 2013 Tisha Edwards is just a few weeks into her year as interim Chief Executive Officer of the Baltimore City Public Schools. She’s here! We’ll ask her about renovating the schools, the new Common Core Curriculum, and what she most wants to accomplish. Then, African-Americans have much lower odds than white patients of finding a bone-marrow donor. Why is that? And what’s it like trying to find that match? We talk to a Randallstown man with leukemia, and the legislative director of a bone-marrow organization. And, Tom Hall talks with photographer Will Knipscher about the art of large-format photography and his new exhibition at Full Circle gallery, "Evening's Empire". Plus, the Maryland Morning Culture Calendar.

How do you try a criminal case that's more than 30 years old? Prosecutors and defense lawyers face that question now that Maryland’s highest court has ruled that jury convictions before 1980 violated the constitution – because jurors were given faulty instructions. Dozens of prisoners are seeking new trials, and in Baltimore, 13 inmates have been released. We talk with the top prosecutors of Baltimore City and County, and to a public defender who's handling many of the appeals. Then, a new exhibit at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum shows the influence of the Bible on African American art. Tom Hall gets a tour from curator Leslie King Hammond.

Today, the implications of Trayvon Martin’s death and George Zimmerman’s acquittal with Baltimore NAACP chapter president Tessa Hill-Aston and Baltimore pastor Jamal Bryant. Then, Maryland's unemployment rate has hovered just below seven percent for the past year. And, while wages are high compared to most of the country, they’re growing more slowly here than in most states. We’ll try to figure out why with the author of a new study that monitors many factors in how state economies perform. And, Baltimore-based singer-songwriter Sonia Rutstein previews her new album, Broken Film. Plus, J. Wynn Rousuck reviews plays from the ‘Contemporary American Theater Festival’ in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Today on "The Lines Between Us", we look at an alternative to the criminal justice system we’re used to. Restorative justice focuses on healing all sides involved in a crime through dialogue outside the courts. We talk about how it works with someone who's used it and with Lauren Abramson, who leads the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore. Then-GROUP Ministries in West Baltimore is trying to kill those two birds with one stone: they're training ex-offenders in construction skills by having them renovate vacant homes in the Rosemont neighborhood. Tom Hall visits a couple of those houses to meet the men who are trying to revitalize the neighborhood...and improve their own prospects at the same time.

Now that the Obama administration postponed the requirement that large companies offer their workers affordable insurance, an estimated five thousand more Marylanders will remain uninsured. We’ll talk to the owner of two affected businesses, the Houlihan's restaurants in Columbia and Crofton, and ask how the delay will affect their workers - and the restaurant’s bottom line. Then, like thousands each year, writer Michael Clune came to Baltimore for graduate school. Unlike most, Clune was addicted to heroin. He tells us about his memoir, White Out, and why he calls addiction a memory disease. And, the Nutrition Diva, Monica Reinagel, tells Tom Hall why vitamins—in pill form—don't pack the nutritional punch we once thought.

Fifty summers ago, protesters worked to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore County. Among them were members of the Goon Squad, a Baltimore civil rights group that included Dr. Homer Favor, a Morgan State Professor who died last month. We spoke with Dr. Favor about the work of the Goon Squad in April, along with members Lalit Ghadia and Patrick Scott. And, Tom Hall talks with writer Jessica Anya Blau about her new book the “The Wonder Bread Summer,” about a 20-something girl on the run from a hit man with a bread bag full of cocaine.

July 8, 2013 We hear from a Baltimore teenager who lives with pediatric HIV, and a nurse and social worker who are helping those born with it to transition to adulthood. When you think of the port of Baltimore, you probably don’t think of a ministry there. We talk with Rev. Mary H.T. Davisson of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center. The best and worst of summer cinema: we ask our movie peeps, Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post and Jed Dietz of the Maryland Film Festival, about June films to see. Is it the house? Is it all in her mind? Is all going according to her husband's plan? Maryland Morning theater crtitic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews the thriller Angel Street at Olney Theatre Center.

July 5, 2013 On "The Lines Between Us," we hear feedback from listeners on inequality in transportation, policing, and job opportunities. Can Northeast Baltimore hang on to its middle class legacy? "The Lines Between Us" asks two residents: city Bureau of Solid Waste worker Demetric Farmer, and Glenham-Belhar Community Association president Sheila Ebelein. Maryland poet Lucille Clifton died in February 2010. At the time, we asked three local writers to read her work, and discuss her legacy.

Today we revisit our talk with Adam Goodheart, author of "1861: The Civil War Awakening," about President Lincoln's address to Congress on July 4 of that fateful year. Then, our nation's first president...and his choppers. Tom Hall talks to the curator of the National Museum of Dentistry about George Washington. And, does beer taste good, no matter the vessel? We ask our beer buddy, author Rob Kasper, whether the taste really differs from can, bottle, and keg. Plus, the Maryland Morning Culture Calendar!

In January 1777, Baltimore postmistress Mary Katherine Goddard printed 13 copies of the Declaration of Independence. We talk to Mindy Belloff, an artist who painstakingly reprinted these Goddard broadsides. Then, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, online and in print - there are various ways to read the news these days. But what if staying informed meant having the news read to you? We visit a radio service doing just that. Plus, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte was the daughter of a Baltimore businessman and the sister-in-law of Napoleon. She helped define celebrity in the early 1800s. Tom Hall talks to her biographer, Charlene Boyer Lewis.

July 1, 2013 Police use confidential informants all the time. What does the practice do to our criminal-justice system? Law professor and former Baltimore public defender Alexandra Natapoff thinks it’s damaging. We spoke with her about her book, Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice. What happens when you mash up the sound of a police scanner and ambient music? We find out from Eric Eberhardt, creator of the website “You Are Listening To Baltimore.” During the Great Depression, years before Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947, a professional baseball team in North Dakota broke the color line. We talk with former Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Dunkel, who's written about it in his book, Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball's Color Line.