On The Record

On the Record reflects on the last nine years of our radio show and the interviews with — and insights from— artists, scientists, community leaders, and others that we spoke with along the way.

Sheilah Kast talks with former UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski about empathy, dialog, and forgiveness in this fraught political moment.

The Lumbee Indian community has had a longstanding presence in Baltimore. They arrived after World War II when thousands of people came looking for work, migrating up from North Carolina. When they arrived, many of the families centered around East Baltimore Street.
 
 Community-based artist and folklorist Ashley Minner Jones, a member of the Lumbee community, has used her talents to preserve, document and educate people about the community for years. She talks with us about her latest project: 'Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies.' 
 
 We also talk with Jill Fannon Prevas, a Baltimore-based artist and photographer who collaborated on the project.
 
 'Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies' opens at Eastpoint Mall on Indigenous Peoples Day, October 13, 2025. There is a reception, open to the public, at 6:30pm.

When you think of Ancient Egypt, what comes to mind? Sand, the Nile, pyramids, the Sphinx? Maybe, even mummies. If you’re thinking about mummies, you’re probably thinking about human mummies.
 
 But millions of animals were also mummified; they’ve been found at burial sites across Egypt — cats, dogs, birds and more. Those animal mummies are the focus of 'Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt,' a new exhibit at the Walters Art Museum and for a closer look, we turn to Lisa Anderson-Zhu, the Walters’ Curator of Ancient Mediterranean Art and the Curator of Provenance.

If you find “Lawyer Oyer” on TikTok or Instagram, the voice is calm and the demeanor steady. It can feel like a 3-minute tutorial on the law. But listen, and you realize it’s not at all passive.
 
 Before Liz Oyer was in charge of pardons at the U.S. Department of Justice, she was a federal public defender in Maryland for ten years. She was fired by the Trump administration six months ago, and started posting as Lawyer Oyer in April. We ask her about the 'Five-Alarm Fire' at the justice department, and more.

Tense financial times. Since January, 15,000 federal workers in Maryland have lost their jobs, more than in any other state. Looking ahead, policy changes in the federal 'One Big Beautiful Bill' are likely to knock tens of thousands of Marylanders off food assistance or health insurance, or both. A week before the last day of On the Record, Gov. Wes Moore joins us to take stock of where things are and what Maryland can do.

Part of success is looking back at the path that got you there. On the Record is in its homestretch -- ending October 3. We’re using some of our last shows to listen back to guests from whom we’ve learned a lot, and to talk with them again. Like the acclaimed cellist Amit Peled -- a professor at Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute and founder and conductor of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi. In 2018 Peled told us how it came to be that he plays the cello of Pablo Casals, and later, how he collaborated with Marni Fogelson and illustrator Avi Katz to publish “A Cello Named Pablo,” a book that exhorts children to pursue their dreams. Now Peled joins us to talk about the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, The Music House and what has come next!

On the Record will end October 3. I’m indebted to you, our listeners and to all those who spoke with our small team during these nine years--to all who explained what they’re pouring their energies into and why others in Baltimore and Maryland should listen and care. I wish I could re-interview and catch up with everyone who joined us On the Record. But time is short. Just a few shows left.
 
 Sharing insights about Maryland’s history--from people who have lived it and from people who have studied it with rigor--has been a priority, On the Record. 
 
 In 2019 Richard Bell, a history professor at the University of Maryland, published a book titled 'STOLEN: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home.' It grabbed me like a Laura Lippman suspense novel, but the tale is precisely documented.
 
 Five kids, 8 to 15 years old, each walking free on the streets of Philadelphia in August 1825 and, with the promise of an odd job, lured onto a ship — onto Maryland’s Eastern Shore — to Virginia — to a barefoot thousand-mile trek to Mississippi where their captors sold them to sugar and cotton planters. So common was this human trafficking, Bell calls it “the reverse Underground Railroad”.
 
 An exciting story -- and Professor Bell has an ear for the exciting. He’s a fan-boy of 'Hamilton,' Lin-Manuel Miranda’s exuberantly popular hip-hop-soul-Rhythm & Blues adaptation of Ron Chernow’s biography of founding father Alexander Hamilton. In 2020 Bell shared with us his unabashed praise for the show and his historian’s critique of how Miranda airbrushed slavery and immigration.
 
 Now Richard Bell is about to publish another historical page-turner: 'The American Revolution and the Fate of the World.' It looks at the war American rebels declared in 1776 as a global conflict -- basically a world war, even if it wasn’t called that. We talk to him about it.

From before the dawn of recorded history, people have come together to tell stories. Whether it’s the oral traditions and folk tales of yore… or simply folks chatting around the campfire or watercooler… there’s one thing that’s true: everyone has a story. And for nearly 20 years, the Stoop Storytelling Series has featured true stories, told live in Baltimore… on stage, in podcasts, and here on the radio. The series' co-founders, Laura Wexler and Jessica Henkin, tell us how it got started, and what live storytelling means to them.
 This radio story featured excerpts from three Stoop Stories: one told by Elijah Cummings, another by Mimi Dietrich, and a third by Petula Caesar.

For this week's Stoop Story, we hear from Sophia Garber... about a butterfly named Nathaniel who never got to spread his wings. Information about upcoming live storytelling events , more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com.

For more than a century, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center -- called BARC -- has generated scientific discoveries that improved farmers’ productivity, food safety and human nutrition. That would end under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to close BARC and to downsize USDA’s Washington-area staff, sending more than half its 46-hundred employees from the DC region to four other states -- or laying some of them off. BARC sits on 65-hundred acres in the same area of northern Princes Georges County as NASA and the Patuxent Research Refuge. Joanne Wilson, who lives in Laurel, worked as a support scientist at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center for 33 years, until twelve years ago. We ask her about it.

Betsy Fox Tolentino calls her new gig -- heading Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services -- her dream job. She was named acting secretary in early June after Gov. Moore decided her predecessor, Vincent Schiraldi, wasn’t making progress fast enough. Fox Tolentino already had worked 11 years in leadership roles at DJS, before leaving three years ago to manage juvenile-justice initiatives at the Roca Impact Institute. What is she changing at DJS? What are her priorities?

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The Panamanian Golden Frog holds major cultural significance in their native Panama. "They are one of the symbols of Panama, similar to the Bald Eagle in the US," says Ellen Bronson, Senior Director of Animal Health, Conservation, and Research at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. The frogs haven't been seen in the wild since 2009, but the Zoo is working to keep them alive; it was the first institution to successfully breed the frogs in captivity. We talk with Bronson about that, and about hopes to repatriate to their Central American home. And we get a tour of the Zoo's "Panamanian Golden Frog Conservation Center" from Kat Mantzouris, Conservation Programs Manager at the Maryland Zoo. If you go to the zoo, you'll find some of them on display at the Chimpanzee Forest.

With other states, Maryland is suing the Trump administration over transportation, healthcare and other cuts. Republicans warn those lawsuits put federal funds for the Key Bridge at risk. We ask Attorney Gen. Anthony Brown.

If you’ve heard of Cory McCray, you’ve most likely picked up that he’s a state senator, from East Baltimore. And maybe you’ve also been told-- and thought: “Huh, that’s kinda surprising ..” -- that McCray is an electrician. What you may not have heard is that a week before his 18th birthday he was charged as an adult with possession of multiple firearms and distribution of narcotics. And that was far from his first arrest.
 
 How all this ties together is the gripping plot of the book McCray is publishing at the end of the month: 'The Apprenticeship that Saved My Life: Guidebook to Navigating the Earn-While-You-Learn Opportunity of a Lifetime.' We talk with Sen. McCray about his book.
 
 Sen. McCray will be featured at the Baltimore Book festival 6pm Saturday, presented by Urban Reads, and 1pm on Sunday, presented by the Ivy Bookshop. More info here.

A photograph captures a moment in time, and when you string many of those moments together, it paints a detailed picture of what once was. 
 
 That is the case of the decades-long work and keen eye of photographer I. Henry Phillips Sr. From the mid to the late twentieth century, he chronicled everyday life in Baltimore’s Black communities for the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper and as a freelancer. His work is featured in 'The Daily Hustle,' a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry that opens Saturday, Sept. 13. There are dozens of images, with a focus on the vibrant spirit and the important contributions of Black workers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders in Baltimore’s rich industry history.
 
 We talk with Webster Phillips, the grandson of I. Henry curated 'The Daily Hustle.' He also founded and directs the I. Henry Photo Project, and with Beth Maloney, BMI director of curatorial affairs to get a preview. If you are interested in networking or resources, stay in touch with @ihenryphotoproject and @bmiatwork.

It’s the biggest verdict ever against a gun dealer in the U.S., Baltimore says: $62 million dollars. In late August a jury sided with the city in its lawsuit alleging an Anne Arundel gun dealer had flooded Baltimore with ghost guns, evading gun laws and wreaking violent destruction.
 
 Baltimore plans to use the $62 million in three violence-reduction programs. We talk with JHU Bloomberg professor of American Health Daniel Webster to discuss the implications of the jury’s verdict.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, published a handbook with new guidance that omitted the mention of Jews when teaching Holocaust history. They said they’ve updated the handbook … but it’s still not available on their site. We ask Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the University of Maryland College Park Dept of History, what are the ramifications. Plus, John Carroll Catholic High School teacher Darrion Siler talks about why teaching Holocaust history can promote moral courage.

Labor Day is Monday… and for a bit of an early celebration, we bring you a couple stoop stories about jobs. The first: a tale from Naomi Cross, about her first foray into the working world… the second, from author Laura Lippman, featuring reflections on her final days at the Baltimore Sun. Laura Lippman recently spoke with Sheilah Kast about her latest novel; you can listen to that conversation here. The Stoop Storytelling Series’ next live show is on September 12th; it’s called “From Scratch: Stories about the messes, memories, and magic of making food.” Information about the event, more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com.

Several times a year the Natural History Society of Maryland offers folks an opportunity to explore the geology of Baltimore City’s buildings and monuments. The next tour is Sunday, September 14, led by Sam Glasscock, a semi-professional geologist who volunteers for the Natural History Society — he gave us a preview.

Author Laura Lippman's 29th or 30th novel, depending how you count, is 'Murder Takes a Vacation': a cozy mystery that follows a plus-sized Baltimore widow in her late 60s who is breaking out of her shell… at the same time she becomes the target of ruthless international criminals. She spoke with Sheilah Kast about it in June.

Author Rosalia Scalia is out with another collection of short stories. It’s called “Under the Radar” and includes tales that catch people at their most vulnerable.
 
 Sometimes, because of death, and loss. Sometimes, it’s just because people are complicated. Complicated characters anchor every story in this book. They’re characters who will not leave your head — including a pig named King Charles who you will fall in love with.

Americans buy a lot of clothes. The non-profit Public Interest Research Group estimates that the average consumer bought 53 items of clothing last year, which is four times as much as 25 years ago.
 
 A lot of that clothing ends up in the trash - it’s estimated that more than half of clothes get thrown out within a year after being purchased.
 
 And in the US, upwards of 17 million tons of textiles get trashed annually.
 
 A lot of those clothes could have a new life… and that’s what the Public Benefit Corporation Helpsy is working to facilitate. In this encore broadcast, we talk Helpsy chief of staff, Lisa Scianella.

School is almost back in session! Kids in Baltimore City and Baltimore County - and several other jurisdictions around the state - are set to hit the books on Monday. Others will start in the coming weeks. In preparation, we bring you a couple school-themed Stories from the Stoop. We start with a memory from Beth Landeau about an embarrassing first day of sixth grade. Then we hear from Bridget Cavaiola, about a school play that DID GO ON… despite many obstacles. The Stoop Storytelling Series is putting on its own live show TONIGHT! The theme: ‘Naked: Stories about baring bodies, souls, and secrets.’ It starts at 7pm at Checkerspot Brewing Company. Information about the event, more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com.

School is almost back in session! Kids in Baltimore City and Baltimore County - and several other jurisdictions around the state - are set to hit the books on Monday. Others will start in the coming weeks. In preparation, we bring you a couple school-themed Stories from the Stoop. We start with a memory from Beth Landeau about an embarrassing first day of sixth grade. Then we hear from Bridget Cavaiola, about a school play that DID GO ON… despite many obstacles. The Stoop Storytelling Series is putting on its own live show TONIGHT! The theme: ‘Naked: Stories about baring bodies, souls, and secrets.’ It starts at 7pm at Checkerspot Brewing Company. Information about the event, more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com.

'Sunday Best', a new Netflix documentary, shows how Ed Sullivan did more than launch careers on his variety show--he used it as a platform to fight racism.

Amtrak’s multi-year Frederick Douglass Tunnel project moves forward, but folks in affected neighborhoods feel frustrated from unanswered questions, like relocation plans and appraisals for their homes.

What do cuts in food stamps and Medicaid, the denial of emergency aid to flood victims, the end of public-broadcasting funds mean for western Maryland? We ask Congresswoman April McClain Delaney.

Last fall, voters approved a ballot question that would add two seats in the chamber. But getting from seven council members to nine is a complicated political process, so to hear how it’s going, we turn to WYPR reporter John Lee, whose focus is on Baltimore County.

Here's a Stoop Story from Fred Lohr about a series of memorable summer camp experiences in Maine. The next live stoop event happens Friday, Aug. 22! The theme is ‘Naked: Stories about baring bodies, souls, and secrets.’ It starts at 7pm at Checkerspot Brewing Company with musical guest Danah Denice.

The population of the tiny blood sucking arthropods appears to be surging in Maryland. And if you spend time outside, they’ll try to make a meal out of you.
 
 Says JHU Prof. Douglas Norris: “They can crawl up pant legs, they can get in very tight spaces.” Maryland’s tick identifier offers tips for keeping them off.

August. Temperatures in the 90’s — with the humidity it feels hotter. And then Aug. 11 in the afternoon, about 4,000 BGE customers, mostly in Howard County, lost power for a half hour.
 
 The blackout was short and not widespread, but the headlines reminded customers who think their electric bills are too high that supply can also be an issue. We talk with BGE director of regulatory strategy and revenue policy, John Frain, to learn why.

Among the seismic budget cuts propelled by President Trump, you may have missed his executive order March 14 essentially dismantling a small agency you hadn’t heard of, “The Institute of Museum of Library Services.” Why are librarians in Maryland upset, and what does any of it mean for you?
 
 It turns out that the IMLS has been sending Maryland libraries about $3 million a year, which they use for digital access, lifelong learning, staff training, youth services and other projects.
 
 Maryland’s State Librarian, Morgan Lehr Miller, explains what’s at stake and what’s being done to save the funding

Behind the headlines we remember from the Civil Rights Movement was an organized effort to teach African-Americans the literacy and civic skills they needed to register to vote--how to sign their names, how to read parts of the state constitution and how to hold their heads up as citizens. We ask author Elaine Weiss about her new book, 'Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement.'

Here's a Stoop Story from Tom Hall about a performance made particularly memorable thanks to the intervention of a cat. Find more information about Stoop Stories, including live events and the Stoop podcast, at Stoopstorytelling.com

Today is International Cat Day! And Walters Art Museum is celebrating cats today and every day through late February with a new exhibit, called “Paws on Parchment.” It’s an exploration of the role cats played in folks lives during medieval times, as evidenced in manuscripts from the 1200s through the 1600s.
 
 We’re joined by Lynley Anne Herbert, the Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Walters, to get a preview.

Last year about one in three Americans carried medical debt, and nearly one third of them took out loans -- totaling 74 billion dollars. We hear about ‘Dollar For’ - a non profit that teaches people how to eliminate medical debt by accessing financial assistance hospitals are legally required to provide. We talk with founder Jared Walker, and Sally Kervin and Nayano Taylor-Neumann, two Marylanders who had their medical debt erased.

Lots of things to worry about in this world. Too much wealth and power in the hands of too few people, too many of them self-absorbed and thoughtless. Bad decisions that threaten the delicate balance of land and water. Not to mention tensions that keep people from appreciating the ones closest to them.
 
 If you can weave all that into an absorbing on-the-edge-of-your-seat mystery set near the ocean -- that’s a win, right? That’s just what Annapolis author Kate Myers has done in her second novel, 'Salty' and we talk with her about it!

When Dr. Meena Seshamani, an ear-nose-&-throat surgeon and former head of the federal Medicare program, was sworn in as Maryland’s health secretary four months ago, she stepped into a swirl of challenges: budget and policy pressures from the Trump administration, the Free State’s high levels of opioid addiction and overdoses, departures of top staff. She joins us to talk about her priorities and concerns in the job.

Wendy Sittner explores the impermanence of life. Here is her Stoop Story. For more information about Stoop Storytelling, including live events and the Stoop podcast, visit Stoopstorytelling.com

This month Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum opens a new solo exhibition, called “The Strength To Be Joyful: Messages from Mary Proctor” exploring the life and work of the Southern visionary artist.
 We talk with Ellen Owens, AVAM’s new Executive Director and Curator and Grants Manager Gage Branda to get a preview!

Our show today has roots in the dark history of Baltimore’s racist housing practices, called redlining. But what’s grown from it - in this case - is a streamlined path to homeownership with the intention of building neighborhoods based on equity. 
 
 Two high school friends, who discovered their families had textbook example -- though polar opposite -- experiences with housing discrimination, set out to disrupt the cycles of lost generational wealth. So in 2019 they launched Project Own, a non profit that builds new tools for Black wealth creation. 
 
 We hear from Project Own co-founders AJ Protin and Tyrell Dixon, and from Meredith McAllister, a counseling program manager at Garwyn Oaks Northwest Housing Resource Center.

The summer heat may have you wanting to stay inside, but it’s the perfect weather for spotted lanternflies. They’re an invasive species. You may have started seeing their adult form flit through the air in recent weeks.
 
 Spotted lanternflies may be pretty, but they can be pretty irritating, too. Especially to some farmers. But they are here to stay, and to find out how we can coexist, we turn to Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland.

The House of Ruth Maryland has supported survivors of violence by intimate partners for decades. It's learned that to end that violence, not just cope with it, abusers need access to help, too. Now there’s an anonymous hotline 24/7, for abusers called Gateway 2 Change

Here's a Stoop Story from Duilla DeMello about discovering a supernova.

The James Webb Space Telescope is celebrating its third year of operations, answering questions about asteroids, early galaxies, black holes, exoplanets and more.
 Deputy Project Scientist, Dr. Macarena Garcia Marin shares some of Webb’s discoveries.

Professor Martha S. Jones of Johns Hopkins .. an acclaimed scholar and historian whose work illuminates how we understand citizenship and the Black American experience … has now applied those skills to a memoir. She gives us new ways to think about race and the color line.

When you live in a city as old as Baltimore, you are always standing on a lot of history. Every single lot in this centuries-old town has decades of stories behind it. We talk with historian Katie Labor, who has been exploring some of those stories in her project called BehindBmoreLots.

More than two dozen people simultaneously overdosed on a mix of sedatives, fentanyl and other drugs in the Penn North neighborhood July 10. Combining drugs isn't unusual, but this is unprecedented. We talk to WYPR health reporter Scott Maucione.