WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

What would you do if Michael Bloomberg gave you $5 million to improve Baltimore or some aspect of life in Maryland? Midday listeners get a chance to share their ideas as we look at those that won $9 million in prizes in the inaugural Mayors Challenge sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Some 400 cities, including Baltimore, submitted ideas to win the prizes to fund their implementation. Baltimore’s did not win, but we’ll hear about those that did from the April edition of The Abell Report.

With the upcoming release of “The Great Gatsby,” our film critics, Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed, look at remakes and sequels over the years.

A look at the top stories of the region with the reporters and newsmakers who covered them.This hour, we talk about the expansion of the Port of Baltimore with Christopher Lee, chairman of Ports America; we'll look at the latest in the Anne Arundel County storm water fee dispute with Rona Kobell of the Chesapeake Bay Journal; more on the Black Guerrilla Family scandal with Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Maryland Council; and then we discuss the Civil Rights exhibit at the Reginald Lewis Museum with Betsy Cunningham of the Maryland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

For nearly four years, Tavon “Bulldog” White, leader of the notorious Black Guerilla Family prison gang, built a network of corruption so extensive within the Baltimore City Detention Center he controlled every aspect of the jail’s operation. That’s according to a federal indictment against members of BGF and 13 female corrections officers. Four of those officers became pregnant by White. Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for Maryland, whose will prosecute the case, is our guest.

Our relationship with the terrorism threat 12 years after 9/11 and two weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, with Midday contributor Sheri Parks, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland.

It used to be eggs came two ways: brown and white. But today consumers have a larger choice: free-range, organic, cage free and “all natural.” We’ll talk about the burgeoning egg industry and the backyard hen movement with our guests: Cathy Hudson, who raises chickens in Howard County and is an activist for the backyard movement; Bud Wood, CEO of Murray McMurray's Hatchery in Webster City, IA; and Jesse Laflamme, whose Nellie’s Eggs sells cage-free eggs from 50 small, family farms.

How did researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute come to be accused of conducting human experiments on African-American toddlers at risk of lead poisoning? The class action lawsuit against Hopkins is the focus of a new book about the relationship between science and industry, research ethics and patient rights. Our guests are Gerald Markowitz, history professor at John Jay College and the City University of New York, and David Rosner, public health and history professor at Columbia. They are co-authors of Lead Wars and the Fate of America’s Children.

Spring has most certainly sprung, and for the many green thumbs that means getting in the garden once again. Baltimore Sun columnist Susan Reimer is back for another Midday gardening hour. She’ll share her tricks for getting the best results and why we’re in what she calls an “impatiens crisis.”

If all goes according to plan, the Maryland Transit Administration’s long-debated Red Line, connecting southeastern Baltimore City with the west side of Baltimore County, will be up and running by 2021. A look at the early stages of the Red Line plans with Henry Kay, executive director of the Maryland Transit Administration’s Transit Development and Delivery office; Osborne Anthony, the Red Line’s chief architect; and Baltimore architect Klaus Philipsen.

Preservation Maryland, dedicated to preserving the state’s historic buildings, neighborhoods, landscapes and archaeological sites, has released its annual “Endangered Maryland” list, a compilation of the state’s threatened historic properties. Our guest: Tyler Gearhart, executive director of Preservation Maryland.

Chef Cindy Wolf and restaurateur and wine expert Tony Foreman with the rites of spring -- fresh fish, fresh greens and fine wine. Plus, the Midday Chef’s Challenge.

A look at the top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them. This hour, a possible backlash against American Muslims in wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, a massive corruption scandal as a prison gang runs rough shod over the Baltimore City Detention Center, GM launches their electric engine in White Marsh, and the latest in the ongoing speed camera saga.

After World War II, Baltimore had numerous social and pleasure clubs for the working man; it seemed like there was one on every corner. But as manufacturing declined and people moved to the suburbs, many social clubs disappeared. Today, however, some are enjoying a resurgence and looking to rejuvenate their ranks with a new generation. We talk with members of the Arch Social Club on Pennsylvania Avenue; Ducky’s Pleasure Club in Canton; and the Polish Home Club in Fells Point.

Can we live sustainably on this planet, and if so, for how long? Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Ken Weiss of The Los Angeles Times spent a year investigating those questions as he traveled the globe for a five-part series called “Beyond 7 Billion.” He joins us to talk about the cultural, economic and environmental consequences of population growth. Also, we speak with The Nation's Michael Klare, author of The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources.

We continue our coverage in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. We discuss the relationship between 19-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in custody and being questioned and his older brother Tamerlan, who was killed by authorities.