WYPR: Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast Podcast

On today's episode of The Lines Between Us, we learn about the communities in Baltimore where so many ex-offenders return to from prison … young people see incarceration almost as a rite of passage. To discuss this, Sheilah Kast speaks with Dr. Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and Adrian Muldrow, program manager for the Druid Heights CDC We Can Achieve Program. Then-Tom Hall sits down with Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go. They discuss deadlines, identity, music, and twins.

You've heard of prepaid cell phone plans--but what about prepaid tuition plans? There are government savings plans that offer tax breaks. Joan Marshall, who leads the state program, tells us parents should take advantage. Then, Sheilah visits Make Studio, an organization that helps artists with developmental disabilties create--and sell their work. Plus, The Columbia Orchestra turns 35 this year--and plays Wagner this weekend. Tom Hall talks to music director Jason Love about how this community orchestra's programming has become more adventurous over time. And, the Maryland Morning Culture Calendar!

May 27, 2013 Today, Memorial Day, we'll read the names of Marylanders recently lost to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maryland is known as the Old Line State, thanks to a group of Revolutionary War soldiers known as the Maryland 400. Danny writes a play. Danny submits it under another name. Danny's play is selected by a prestigious festival. Danny hires a woman to pretend to be the playwright (him.) Why would a playwright on the verge of potential success do such a thing? Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck fills us in on Olney Theatre Center's production of The Submission. The National Spelling Bee comes to Maryland this week. We bring you a fictional story about the spread of performance-enhancing drugs among America's top pre-teen spellers. Tom Hall talks with former Maryland poet laureate Michael Collier about his latest collection of poems, An Individual History.

Keith Evans served over four years of a ten-year sentence for selling heroin. He's back out and looking for a job in Baltimore. In this piece, he tells his story about trying to get a "second chance" and become "a citizen again." Then-Every year thousands of ex-offenders return to Baltimore City. Often, their convictions make the first impression, and underlying educational and employment disparities disqualify them from a competitive workforce. We examine the barriers that confront those with criminal convictions as they transition from 'ex-offender' to 'employee.' Plus-Is it possible to get a clean slate as an ex-offender? Should you be able to? Tom Hall talks with a public defender and a re-entry advocate about expungement and shielding laws in Maryland.

May 22, 2013 Should Maryland farmers be required to post the pesticides they use to a state-run database? A new working group will try to answer that question. We talk with the Maryland Pesticide Network’s Ruth Berlin and the Maryland Farm Bureau’s Valerie Connelly. Back in the 80s and 90s, Baltimore's Sowebo neighborhood was a magnet for artists. Some called it the next SoHo. With the Sowebo Arts and Music Festival coming this Sunday, we look at the past and future of art around Hollins Market. Tom Hall talks with the co-authors of a new book about historic Perry Hall Mansion in Baltimore County. Maryland Morning Culture Calendar

A diagnosis of metastatic cancer is a challenge to live as well as you can, for the time you have left. Johns Hopkins has created a retreat for couples facing that diagnosis, to help caregivers and patients help each other. We talk about whether the retreat could be a model for other hospitals. Then, First lady Michelle Obama gave the commencement address Friday for Maryland’s oldest historically black college, Bowie State University. Today Bowie State professor Allissa Richardson tells us about a dramatic incident at traditionally white school … that forged her dedication to serving students at historically black institutions. And a review of "Beneatha's Place" at Centerstage. Plus, the future of museums with Ford Bell, president of the American Alliance of Museums, convening in Baltimore this weekend.

On The Lines Between Us, 50 years after Gideon v. Wainwright established the right to an attorney in criminal cases, but access may be limited. We talk with a public defender for the State of Maryland, executive director of Maryland's Access to Justice Commission, and a law professor. Then, Tom Hall talks with actress, writer and director Rain Pryor about a new school program that gives students access to tehater.

Tomorrow Governor O'Malley will sign into law new restrictions on guns in Maryland. We talk to the woman leading a referendum drive against the bill and to a researcher who studies gun laws across the country. Tom Hall talks to the winner of Washington College's Sophie Kerr prize, the largest undergraduate literary award in America. Preakness is here Saturday. What will you be serving at your Preakness Party? Sascha Wolhandler has some ideas. The Maryland Morning Culture Calendar: treats for aesthetes!

It's been 59 years since Brown vs. Board of Education, but in today's courts, lingering inequality is still being challenged. We talk with two civil rights attorneys Ted Shaw and Susan Goering. Then, we talk with two filmmakers Joe Troppea and Skizz Cyzyk about their recent film, Hit and Stay, a documentary about the Catonsville nine. And theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us to tell us what she thinks about musical "American Idiot" at the Hippodrome.

The Black Guerilla Family hit the headlines two weeks ago when Tavon White, other inmates and 13 corrections officers were indicted for criminal gang activity at the Baltimore jail. But, B.G.F.’s history reaches back five decades when Black Panther George Jackson started a revolutionary organization to protect prisoner rights. We learn what part of that political ideology is still visible here in Baltimore. Then, our series "Flags of Maryland" continues. We learn why Queenstown, on the Eastern Shore, chose to create a flag, and hear from an artist who has stolen flags for projects. And, CENTERSTAGE artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah on his new play "Beneatha's Place," a world premiere tonight. It continues "The Raisin Cycle."

May 6, 2013 Astronomers at Johns Hopkins have discovered a supernova that exploded 10 billion years ago--the oldest ever spotted. Named after President Woodrow Wilson, the supernova could give us insights into how the early universe functioned. We talk with Nobel laureate Adam Riess, the physicist who's leading the team. 1963 was a pivitol year in the civil rights movement--and in American history, generally. Activist Doc Cheatham is sharing a presentation on the year with different groups in Baltimore. Today, he shares his knowledge with us. Brother against brother: Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews Topdog/Underdog at Everyman Theatre. A new opera, Camelot Requiem, will dramatize the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Tom Hall talks with the librettist Caitlin Vincent and composer Joshua Bornfield about the opera.

May 7, 2013 Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andres Alonso is retiring at the end of June. We ask WYPR education reporter Gwendolyn Glenn what his six-year tenure means for the city’s kids. Catoctin Furnace in Western Maryland fashioned iron into bombshells to fight the British during the Revolutionary War. It closed in 1903 with iron ore to spare. Elizabeth Anderson Comer, editor of a new book on the furnace, tells us why. Forty-five years ago, a protest group known as the "Catonsville 9" changed the way Americans view the Vietnam War. Author Shawn Peters talks with Tom Hall about the impact they made.

May 1, 2013 Maryland's largest health insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, has proposed a 25 percent hike in premiums for individual plans. CareFirst says the Affordable Care Act is driving the proposed increase. We talk with CEO Chet Burrell. Prince George's County police officer Adrian Morris was killed in the line of duty last August. He will be one of seven honored Friday at this year's Fallen Heroes Day at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. We talk with one of his friends and fellow officers. Fred Lazarus is stepping down as the President of MICA after 35 years at the helm. We ask him about his tenure at the school, which included the creation of Artscape--and the future for MICA and the city. Maryland Morning Culture Calendar: Treats for aesthetes!

April 30, 2013 The Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance has released its annual compilation of data on Baltimore neighborhoods. We find out what the data can tell you about your neighborhood. This week, Heavy Metal Parking Lot director Jeff Krulik turns his lens on the fringes of public access television. Culling the best clips from his years working at Prince George’s County Public Access TV, Krulik will present oddities from his collection on Thursday evening during the Found Footage Festival at the Creative Alliance. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson will be in Howard County this week to discuss her account of America's Great Migration. Tom Hall speaks with her in advance of the talk.

On The Lines Between Us, we look in the psychological effects of "administrative segregation" and "disciplinary segregation" on Maryland prisoners and how they compare to solitary confinement. Then, Jed Dietz of the Maryland Film Festival and Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post tell us what movies to look out for at this year's Maryland Film Festival.