WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

Newly anointed Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer ignited a national debate over the merits of telecommuting after she demanded that her employees work exclusively from the office. We discuss the new Yahoo! Edict, and its implications for workplace culture with Sharon Kim, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School who specializes in organizational behavior; and Ray Fisman, professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, and author of The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office. Also, Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md) discusses his telework law passed in 2010 that gave federal employees the option to work from home.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman said Friday that he has a gay son and can no longer justify his opposition to same-sex marriage, making him one of the most prominent Republicans to oppose his party on the issue. In her latest DecodeDC report, former NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook profiles former Rep. Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who served in Congress from 1985 to 2003, and who came out in 1996. As the Supreme Court takes up the Defense of Marriage Act, we discuss Republican politics and evolving attitudes about gay rights.

Today marks the golden anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Gideon v Wainwright, that affirmed the Sixth Amendment right of all criminal defendants, including the indigent, to counsel. A look back at Gideon and the defense of the poor, plus the effort to provide “civil Gideon” for those who cannot afford a lawyer. Our guests: Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights; Michael Millemann, professor of public interest law at the University of Maryland; Charles “Chip” Dorsey III, deputy public defender for Maryland; Nancy Forster, attorney and former Maryland public defender; and Debra Gardner, legal director of the Public Justice Center in Baltimore.

The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based organization that supports lowering the nation's incarceration rate, says five states have reduced youth confinement by more than 50 percent over the last decade. What practices did they implement to achieve these results, and what's being done in Maryland? Our guests: Spike Bradford, senior research analyst for the Justice Policy Institute; and Scott Beal, executive director of community services for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

Cooking, eating, drinking and traveling the world with acclaimed chef Cindy Wolf and Baltimore restaurateur Tony Foreman. This hour, we are joined by acclaimed Southern chefs the Lee Bros.

A review of top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them and some of the newsmakers behind them. This hour: Allison Bourg of the Capital Gazette on the sentencing of former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold;WYPR State House repoter Karen Hosler on the latest from Annapolis; the Baltimore Sun's Steve Kilar on Baltimore's population growth; Patch.com's Adam Bednar on the seqeuster's local imact; Danielle Gaines of the Frederick News Post on a proposed dram shop law; the Washington Post's Steve Mufson on a bill in Annapolis that is trying to close a loophole that paid millions of dollars in renewable energy money to Western Maryland paper mills that produced black liquor; and author Kathleen Koch on the two-year anniversary of the Japanese tsunami disaster.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Gale E. Rasin, recently retired, shares her observations and experiences about juries with Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, author of Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizens Guide to Constitutional Action. Ferguson is professor of law at the David A. Clarke School of Law at the University of the District of Columbia.

Disagreements over money can ruin romantic relationships and inject stresses into family life. Why does money have such a powerful hold on our emotions, and what are some of the best ways to talk about money with those we love? Columbia-based psychologist Brad Sachs shares tips on balancing financial troubles and relationships.

In collaboration with Midday, a new polling center at Goucher College releases results from its most recent survey of Maryland citizens, measuring attitudes toward President Obama, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Sen.Ben Cardin and Gov. Martin O’Malley; transportation issues; direction of the state; gun control; the death penalty, and hydraulic fracking. Our guest:Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center. The Goucher Poll is conducted under the auspices of the Hughes Center, which is part of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Goucher College.

Have you ever had a fit of the hiccups or found yourself yawning and sneezing and wondering what your body was up to? Why does tickling make us squirm and giggle? University of Maryland Baltimore County professor Robert Provine has studied the behavior and physiology of our bodies’ mundane actions in an effort to explain them. He is the author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccuping, and Beyond.

Since taking over for disgraced county executive John Leopold, Laura Neuman has tried to clean house in scandal-scarred Annapolis. In addition to making staff changes to build a new administration, Neuman removed a secret system of 500 cameras that her predecessor had had installed in county office buildings. Neuman has been on a tour of the county to meet residents and public officials, and joins us for her first interview on Midday.

Last month, a fireball exploded over Russia, destroying buildings and injuring more than 1,200 people, the result of a meteor hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The same day, an asteroid half the size of a football came within 17,200 miles of the planet. So what's the risk of the human race going the way of the dinosaurs? What technology do we have in place to track giant space rocks? Our guest: Ed Lu, a former NASA astronaut and CEO of the B612 Foundation, which is building one of the largest telescopes in the world to discover, map, and track asteroids whose orbits approach Earth. Also joining us: Hal Weaver, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Midday on Science contributor John Monahan.

This month marks the centennial of the death of Harriet Tubman, the legendary abolitionist who helped slaves escape to freedom. We examine her incredible life with one of the nation's leading Tubman biographers, Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, and consulting historian and curator of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center; and Anthony Cohen, who conducts tours along the routes of the Underground Railroad. Cohen is president of the Menare Foundation, a group preserving the legacy of the Underground Railroad.

Special guest Richard Blais, winner of Bravo's Top Chef All-Stars, joins Henry Hong and John Shields to discuss recipes and cooking tips that help home chefs step up their game in the kitchen. Blais is the author of Try This At Home: Recipes From My Head to Your Plate.

A review of top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them. Plus, actress Stefanie Powers on her role in "Looped," the play about late-career Tallulah Bankhead that opens this week at Baltimore's Hippodrome.