WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's recent unilateral power grab has sparked violent protests throughout the country reminiscent of those during the Arab Spring more than a year ago. Our panel of Middle East experts analyze the latest events in Egypt during the first hour of Midday.

Lawrence Blum, acclaimed philosopher and professor at the University of Massachusetts, taught a course on race and racism over four years at an ethnically and economically diverse high school in Cambridge, Mass. He's written a book about his surprising and sometimes humorous conversations with uninhibited teenagers -- the new face of America. Blum, who speaks at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore Tuesday evening, is the author of High Schools, Race and America's Future: What Students Can Tell Us About Morality, Diversity and Community.

Baltimore native Michael Austin spent nearly 27 years in prison for an armed robbery and murder he did not commit. While in Maryland's old House of Correction, Austin turned to music as a way of coping with life in "The Cut" while he sought legal help from outside. He wrote songs and refined his singing voice. Austin, pardoned in 2001, talks about the redeeming value of music, and we'll hear songs from his new CD, "I Just Want To Love You." Original air date 09/06/12

For everyone who doesn’t know a “bond” from an “option” from a “future,” Paddy Hirsch, of American Public Media’s Marketplace, provides a straightforward and entertaining primer on how markets really work. Hirsch is author of “Man Vs. Markets: Economics Explained Plain and Simple.” He is a senior producer at Marketplace and the creator of the acclaimed and popular Marketplace Whiteboard. Original air date 10/02/12

A special hour on our relationship with the mighty whale and how Americans young and old respond to Melville’s great American novel. A conversation with George Cotkin, author of "Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby Dick," an entertaining guide to Ishmael’s odyssey; Meg Guroff, a Hopkins grad who created a web site with an annotated Moby Dick to help readers; and Hollis Robbins, poet and professor of humanities at Hopkins and the Peabody Institute who has taught the novel in a Peabody seminar. Original air date: August 21

Dr. Marty Makary, surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, says if medical error were a disease, it would be the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. Dangerous doctors, unnecessary procedures, surgical slips and other medical mistakes injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. A conversation with Makary, author of "Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care." Original air date: September 24

Evan Pritchard, director of the Center for Algonquin Culture in New York and a professor of Native American History at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, on the stories and culture of Maryland natives whose influence helped shape the state we live in today. Pritchard sings native songs, explains "the way of the heron" philosophy, and tells the story of Maryland's 17th Century "Thanksgiving moment."

We take a look at reality television’s depiction of rural America with Sheri Parks, Midday culture commentator and associate dean and professor of American studies at the University of Maryland College Park. Original air date: November 1

A conversation with Jeanne Marie Laskas, intrepid journalist and author of "Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make the Country Work." Original air date: October 4

Tim Wise, an author and lecturer on racism, looks at racial politics across the American landscape – from the recent presidential campaign, to the rise of the Tea Party to battles over immigration. His most recent book is, “Dear White America, Letter to a New Minority.” Original air date: August 21

Maryland made history on Election Day by becoming, with Maine and Washington, the first states to make same-sex marriage legal by ballot. Nine states and the District of Columbia now allow gay and lesbian couples to be married. But there’s still a very different story in the South. Author Bernadette Barton says the Bible Belt is full of gays and lesbians trying to live ordinary, spiritual lives, but the conventions of small town life, Southern attitudes and the political power of Christian institutions smother them with both passive and active homophobia. Barton is the author of, “Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays.”

"Even the translation of a single word can be a minefield, and a misstep can lead to disaster," says interpreter Nataly Kelly, who provides a look at the surprising and complex ways translation affects the practice of religion, global commerce and medicine. Kelly, a certified court interpreter, gives language lovers an inside look at how translation affects the Internet, international politics, sports and culture. She and translator Josh Zetzsche are co-authors of "Found In Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms The World."

As Barbara Ehrenreich did to chronicle the lives of the working poor, Tracie McMillan took jobs picking produce in California, stocking lettuce in a Walmart in Detroit and working as an "expo" in a busy Applebee’s in Brooklyn to tell stories about how the country eats. The result is an odyssey through the food industry, and through class and American culture. McMillan is the author of "The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table."

Perspectives on news and trends, interviews with newsmakers and authors, quick takes on some of the week's most interesting regional stories with the Maryland journalists who covered them.

As Ken Burns prepares to release his two-part, four-hour documentary about the ecological calamity that intensified the Great Depression, Midday contributor Rona Kobell looks at lessons learned about land conservation after the Dust Bowl. Our November edition of Midday on the Bay includes a conversation with Susan Shumaker, associate producer of "The Dust Bowl," and a look at how Maryland and other states protect agricultural lands in the Chesapeake region.