Stay Connected***No longer adding new episodes*** On The Record was co-hosted by Sheilah Kast and Ashley Sterner. Sheilah and shared conversations with audacious artists, intrepid scientists, community leaders and more. And of course, tales from the beloved Stoop Storytelling Series.
On The Record was produced by Melissa Gerr. Jon Ehrens created the theme music. Louis Umerlik designed the logo.
Copyright: © 2024 WYPR Baltimore
Sometimes music can take you to places only reachable by your imagination. Singer and musician Jonathan Gilmore wants to be your guide for an intergalactic trip:
‘The Jonathan Gilmore Project’s A Journey to Funktopia’ is part theater, part concert and full of original funk, soul and R&B music -- with a simple message:
“I hope they feel so comfortable in their skin that they can be their whole beautifully human self. If they can just take the message that we’re gonna give, and just truly spread it around. It sounds so cliche, you know that song you know ‘put a little love in your heart and the world will be a better place?’ I believe it.”
Links: Jonathan Gilmore Project, Journey to Funktopia tickets.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
Here's a Stoop Story from Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer, Nora Lutzgendorf about her work on the James Webb Space Telescope. The J-W-S-T is scheduled to launch Friday, Dec. 24, -- just missing the Winter Solstice.
But you don’t have to miss it! There are lots of ways coming up to proclaim--even celebrate- the solstice:
Ensemble Galilei with guests James Oxley and Ronn Mcfarlane will perform their Winter Solstice concert Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. at An die Musik in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood.
Also on Tuesday, you can celebrate the Winter Solstice in Wyman Park Dell from 7 to 9 PM. The event features live music from Jim Eagan & Friends, warm drinks and sweet treats from Gertrude's.
‘The Longest night,’ a worship experience to acknowledge the heartache and pain some experience during the holidays, will take place at Towson United Methodist Church on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Also that evening, Tuesday, December 21, from 5 to 7 p.m, Health Care for the Homeless will host A Night of Remembrance and Reflection for neighbors without homes who have died in the past year. That will be in person at McKeldin Square, at Light and East Pratt Streets in Baltimore, as well as online.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
COVID testing slacked over the summer. At-home COVID tests are costly and hard to find.We speak about the continued need for testing with Stephen Thomas, director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity in the University of Maryland School of Public Health, and Dr. Adena Greenbaum, assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Clinical Services for the Baltimore City Health Department.
Learn more about the HAIR campaign - Health Advocates In-Reach and Research.
Then, Luke Tallon, of UMaryland Genomics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, describes how variant COVID strains are analyzed. He says testing is integral, “Encouraging broader testing would have a very positive impact not just on understanding these variants of concern but on understanding community spread."
Learn more about UMSOM's genomic sequencing work here.
Resources:Testing sites in Baltimore City
COVID Vaccination Clinics in Baltimore City
Find a vaccination clinic near you
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
The call to “Save the Bay” has galvanized Will Baker most of his life. As he wraps up four decades at the helm of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, he points to what’s improved and what hasn’t, Pennsylvania’s foot-dragging on the bay clean-up--and the late governor William Donald Schaefer’s wistful assessment that he had thought it would be easier to Save the Bay:
“Our elected officials have all thought that it would be easier and they have failed to follow the science and realize the fundamental changes that need to occur to save one of the nation’s greatest national resources, the Chesapeake.”
Plus Bay Journal environmental reporter Tim Wheeler explains ‘forever chemicals’ and why they’re in our water.
Links: Forever chemicals in MD and PA drinking water, Forever chemicals and fish consumption warning, Contamination at Naval Research Laboratory, Have your water tested.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
It’s documented that using social media -- the scrolling, the likes, the shares -- is addictive and seductive. If that’s its effect on adults, what about young kids?Dr. Drew Pate, chief of psychiatry at LifeBridge Health, talks about the different ways social media influences the minds and moods of children.Then Danny LaBrecque, creator of ‘Danny Joe's Tree House’ and ‘Cookies for Breakfast,’ says he’s wary of platforms that have plans to aim content at pre-teens. But he believes the control of a medium has more to do with education and intent than rules and regulations, “Whether it’s a stick, or a stone, or a smartphone, there are all these tools. We decide how to use these tools, not the other way around.”Original air date: October 21, 2021.Links: Danny Joe's Tree House, Cookies for Breakfast
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
After the deadly shooting of a West Baltimore 9th grader in 1983, police and prosecutors coerced the testimony of witnesses. Three innocent young men - known as the Harlem Park Three - were sentenced to life in prison for felony murder. Then, in 2019, they were released.
Jennifer Gonnerman writes about this case for The New Yorker, in a piece titled, “When a Witness Recants.”
And Baltimore City Deputy State's Attorney Lauren Lipscomb describes building the case for exoneration. Watch a video about the case, produced by the State's Attorney's Office. Find more information about the Conviction Integrity Unit.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
Feeling a sense of safety doesn’t encompass just physical security. To feel secure in one’s community also means being accepted, welcomed and seen.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland’s new exhibit, ‘A Fence Around The Torah: Safety And Unsafety In Jewish Life,’ asks visitors to consider how their own safety might make someone else feel vulnerable or dismissed.
We get a preview from artist and curator-in-residence Liora Ostroff and fromthe Jewish Museum’s executive director Sol Davis:
“Our aim is that it will inspire conversations that will go deeper into the various layers of safety in Jewish American life today.”
Links: Jewish Museum of Maryland
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
Here's a Stoop Story from Jennifer Mendelsohn about finding family against all odds.
Links: Return to the Stoop, where you can hear more about Jennifer's story about finding her mother-in-law, Frieda Pertman's, relatives, a short video about Frieda Pertman.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
Almost two years into the pandemic, the threat of eviction and homelessness looms large for financially insecure families.
Although Baltimore got millions in federal funds to forestall evictions, Karen Wabeke of the Homeless Persons Representation Project says her group is seeing more and more landlords refuse to take part, "We, along with partners in the Baltimore Renters United coalition, have advocated for the city to begin making direct to tenant payments. We have had clients who were evicted because their landlords refused the funding."
Find information about emergency rental assistance across Maryland here. Get information about rental and security deposit assistance in Baltimore City here.
Then we ask Irene Agustin,who's been heading the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services for six months, about preparing for the cold, and her priorities to make homelessness rare and brief. Find information about the 2020 Point-in-Time Count here. Learn how to volunteer for January's count here.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
From her days growing up in Liberia, through medical training, and now heading Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, Dr. Lisa Cooper has tried to understand and explain the ways race and the stress of discrimination shape health care and health outcomes. She’s distilled her work and ideas into a book, "Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem?" Now, Cooper says she’s eager to translate her health-disparities research to her new appointment to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Watch the council's meetings here. Original air date: September 27, 2021.
Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers mharvie@wypr.org 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers mgerr@wypr.org 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his sbdawes@wypr.org 410-235-1472
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
