WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

Some critics call Blue Jasmine the best film Woody Allen ever made. It is certainly the first Allen movies in ages to resemble such classics as Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters. Midday film critic Linda DeLibero leads our discussion.

The Bradley Manning Case, Maryland health insurance rates, the status of oysters on the Wye River and more on the Midday Weekly Review.

Midday’s pop culture commentator Sheri Parks reflects on how the popular images of war – from the Civil War to World War II, Vietnam and the war in Iraq -- influence our emotional responses or indifference to war. How images of war in photo and film burnish modern memory. Plus, Robert Keith Chester, a teacher in American studies at the University of Maryland, looks at wars as crucibles for societal change perceived and real.

A conversation about the increases in shootings and homicide this summer with local activist Munir Bahar, organizer of the grassroots 300 Men March, and City Councilmen Brandon Scott and Nick Mosby, organizer of the Enough is Enough Peace Rallies. Also joining us: J.M. Giordano, contributing writer and photographer behind the City Paper series, “Summer of the Gun.”

What does it take to start up a business the Baltimore area? Our guests: John Fini, director of FastForward, Johns Hopkins’ new business incubator; Deborah Tillett, president and executive director of the Emerging Technology Centers; and Mike Brenner, co-founder and CEO of Betamore, a businss incubator that opened in Federal Hill last year.

Ever since the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board, policy makers have been trying to come up with best practices for achieving racial and socioeconomic diversity within public school systems. In a new Abell Report, Susan Eaton, research director at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, makes a compelling case for magnet schools as a solution by examining the successes of magnets in the Hartford area. A look at the Connecticut experience and what it could mean for Baltimore-area schools with Eaton, Liz Bowie, education reporter for The Baltimore Sun; and Mel Freeman, executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, Inc.

Edward Snowden, facing charges for leaking documents about the National Security Agency’s massive data-gathering tactics, has put government surveillance into the spotlight. But domestic spying by a government agency is hardly new. A look back at some of the history with award-winning journalist Seth Rosenfeld, author of Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power.

Families of color lost more wealth during the Great Recession and its aftermath than did white families. Black and Latino families now have just one-sixth of the wealth of white families in the U.S., according to a recent report from the Urban Institute. We explore the implications of America’s growing racial wealth divide with Signe-Mary McKernan, the Urban Institute report’s lead author; Dedrick Muhammad, senior director of economic programs for the NAACP; and Michelle Singletary, nationally syndicated personal finance columnist for The Washington Post.

The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal church shares his thoughts on God, love, homosexuality, marriage, the modern church and Pope Francis.

Deaths from heroin overdoses have spiked across the country. Maryland saw fatal overdoses rise 54 percent in 2012, and in Baltimore the jump was 66 percent, according to the state health department. What’s behind the recent spike in heroin overdoses and addiction and why has Baltimore been known as a “heroin town” for decades? Our guests: Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of the state health department; Chris Serio-Chapman, director of community risk reduction services for the Baltimore City Health Department; and Israel Cason, CEO of the “I Can’t, We Can” holistic recovery program.

An hour on fine food and wine with acclaimed chef Cindy Wolf and restaurateur and wine expert Tony Foreman.

A look at the most interesting stories of the region with the reporters and editors who covered them. This hour, we examine a handful of local stories including recent controversy over the results of the latest round of Maryland School Assessment scores with WYPR education reporter Gwendolyn Glenn, and Erica Green, who covers Baltimore city shools for The Baltimore Sun. Also, a review of the independent movie Fruitville Station with Midday film critic Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times magazine,takes a humorous and expansive view of Washington culture and the insiders who run the place. Leibovich is the author of This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-in America's Gilded Capital.

They were the little brothers of men who served in World War II – and, when their turn came, they served in the hellish Cold War conflict of Korea, “America’s Forgotten War.” Noting the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, we speak with Vincent Krepps, a veteran whose twin brother went missing in action; Melinda Pash, author of In The Shadow of the Greatest Generation: The Americans Who Fought the Korean War, and Bruce Cumings, chairman of the history department at the University of Chicago and an expert in modern Korean history.

The size of the typical American home has been growing steadily since the 1970’s. But the tiny house movement turns that upside down. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of minimalist living with Bill Thomas, a historic restoration specialist who established “Hobbitat,” an outfitter of tiny homes in Garrett County; and Gregory Johnson, president and co-founder of the Small House Society established in 2002 in Iowa.