WYPR: Midday with Dan Rodricks Podcast

Kevin Manning, Stevenson University’s president, on how his institution went from Villa Julie College, originally a medical-secretarial school for women, into a full-fledged liberal arts college, one of the largest private universities in Maryland, with nearly 4,000 students. Also: the enduring value of a liberal arts education in a time of economic transformation and uncertainty.

State Del. Neil Parrott (R-Washington County), a freshman state legislator and tea party organizer, positioned himself as a major challenger to the Democratic establishment by organizing the campaign to get three referendum questions on the ballot this November. Through Parrott’s efforts, voters will now decide the fate of the Maryland Dream Act, the law to legalize same-sex marriage, and the state's new congressional map. We’ll hear Parrott’s take on the referendum process, and on why he thinks those laws should be overturned.

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."

A look at the role first ladies play in presidential politics with culture commentator Sheri Parks, associate dean and associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland College Park, Maryland.

According to a new Abell Foundation report, encouraging Baltimore police officers to live in the city could help reduce crime. Yet the report found that nearly 72 percent of employees of the Baltimore Police Department live outside of the city. Our guest: the report’s author, Matt Van Itallie, on why so many officers chose to live in the suburbs and how providing housing incentives could help lower the crime rate.

A look at the DNC and President Obama's re-election campaign, with political writer and analyst Brian Wendell Morton and Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-editor of "The Obama Effect. Plus calls to Charlotte for on-the-floor analysis with C. Fraser Smith, WYPR senior news analyst, and Ken Ulman, Howard County executive and 2012 convention delegate.

What it means to be poor in Maryland, one of the nation's wealthiest states: With Elizabeth Kneebone, senior research associate and associate fellow, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program; Ralph Moore, director emeritus, St. Frances Community Center; Kelly Little, executive director, Druid Heights Community Development Corp; Al Passarella, research coordinator, Advocates for Children and Youth; Courtney Thomas, executive director, Allegany County Human Resources Development Commission; and Bita Dayhoff, executice director, Howard County Community Action Council. Originally broadcast 08/01/12

In the first hour, a look at poverty on the national scale. Is the economy really to blame for the increase? What is happening to our safety nets? Who makes up America's poor? What can be done to reverse the trends? With Michael Reisch, the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland School of Social Work; Indivar Dutta-Gupta from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Margaret C. Simms, fellow at the Urban Institute and director of the Institute's Low-Income Working Families project.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” This hour, a conversation about fear, its omnipresence in our society, and how to overcome it, with Dr. Gordon Livingston, a Columbia, MD-based psychiatrist and writer of “The Thing You Think You Cannot Do: Thirty Truths About Fear and Courage.” Original airdate: 7/24/12

Could marijuana be the nation's new cash crop? Doug Fine, an investigative journalist and NPR contributor, gives the economic argument for legalization in "Too High To Fail: Cannabis and The New Green Revolution." Original airdate: 8/22/12

In "Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball 'And America' Forever," author Tim Wendel captures the turmoil and rapid political change of the late '60s by weaving together a story about the country's most iconic pastime: baseball. Originally broadcast 07/11/12.

Smartphone apps can track everything from sleep patterns to diet habits in an effort to help Americans change lifestyles and improve health. David Freedman, author of June’s Atlantic cover story, “The Perfected Self,” joins us to talk about the psychology at work in smartphone tracking. WYPR and NPR technology commentator Mario Armstrong fills us in on the latest self-help smartphone apps. Original air date: 7/31/12

Start your engines! The second Baltimore Grand Prix is just days away. We check in with Tim Mayer, general manager of the Grand Prix of Baltimore for Andretti Sports Marketing and J.P. Grant, the Columbia-based financier heading Race On LLC (which has a five-year contract to put on the city's IndyCar race,) about how the race is shaping up, speak with Team Baltimore Racing driver Marc Bunting, and get listener questions and comments about the big Labor Day weekend event.

As the deadline looms for the massive budgets cuts put in place by Congress last year to end the stalemate over the nation's debt ceiling, Pulitzer Prize-winning economics writer David Wessel describes the people and the politics behind the federal budget, and why it is on an unsustainable course. Wessel is the author of In Fed We Trust and Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake introduces her pick for Baltimore's next Police Chief, Anthony Batts. We get to know Batts, and hear from Rawlings-Blake on why she chose him to lead the department following the departure of Frederick Bealefeld.