October 2007

Last month MICA and the Maryland ACLU teamed up to put together a rather unusual celebration for Constitution Day, a holiday that not many people bother to celebrate in the first place.  They put together an event devoted to the First Amendment, and the right of free speech.  Who better to speak on this topic than the trio of John Waters, Ralph Nader, and Helen Thomas?  That's what someone thought, at least, and they were all brought together for a couple hours.  It turned out great; the auditorium at MICA couldn't even fit everyone who tried to get in.  So, for those of you that missed it the first time, we'll be playing it as a two hour special, from noon-2, on The Marc Steiner Show today.  To hear the complete version, because we had to cut a little bit for time and edit a few words here and there, ironically enough, just go to www.wypr.org and download the podcast anytime in the next month.

-Justin

 Some interesting stats on vacant houses and property in Baltimore:

• 13% of the total property in the city is abandoned

• there are about 30,ooo abandoned buildings and lots in Baltimore

• the city owns about 1/3 of the abandoned property

• the city owns about 4,000 abandoned buildings and 6,000 abandoned lots

• the city owns about 25% of vacant buildings

All of these figures are taken from here, the Housing Authority's "A Plan to Create The Baltimore City Land Bank."  Basically, the city is planning to sell many of its vacant properties cheaply as soon as next July.  The city is also planning to acquire more vacant properties, with the intention of selling them, as well.

If you're wondering if and how you'll be able to buy a cheap house to fix up, tune in at noon today, when the author of the Land Bank Plan and the head of Baltimore Housing, as well as housing activist Michael Sarbanes, will be here to help us figure out how this is all going to work.

And for a look at a land bank program that has already been implemented in Flint, Michigan, another town full of abandoned properties, take a listen to this story from Morning Edition today.

-Justin

You may have heard Marc interview Roger Kamenetz in the past.  He's best known for two of his books, The Jew in The Lotus and Stalking Elijah.  His newest book is all about interpreting dreams in the context of spirituality.  It's called The History of Last Night's Dream.

It's crazy to think that we all spend about a third of our lives asleep, and who knows how much of that time dreaming, but most of us give it so little thought during the other two thirds of our lives, when we're awake.  I rarely remember my dreams past the moment I wake up, but if anyone has had any interesting experiences with dreams lately, we'd love to hear about it.

-Justin

Of all the people in the world who love to spout off about politics, few make a living doing it.  Even fewer get paid to do it in The New York Times twice a week.  This Paul Krugman must be a pretty smart guy.

He certainly has a lot to say.  Click here to see his work for The NY Times, and also a link to Krugman on The Colbert Report!  Click here for his own page with an extremely extensive archive of his writing.  There is even an official Krugman site with tons of archives, other people's writing about Krugman, and much more.  Click here for that.

Lastly, for a review of his new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, on salon.com, click here.

And, of course, tune in at noon today to here Paul Krugman on The Marc Steiner Show, then share your thoughts right here.

-Justin

Pronunciation:

\ˈim-ˌpas, im-ˈ\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

French, from in- + passer to pass

Date:

1851

1 a: a predicament affording no obvious escape b: deadlock2: an impassable road or way : cul-de-sac

Thanks to Webster's for the above definition.  Impasse is the word of choice for the contract dispute between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the Baltimore City Public School System.  If you are not a teacher or school administrator, you might be wondering what is such a big deal about some planning time that it is stalling the entire contract negotiation process, leaving teachers working without contracts.

I'm sure that our two guests today, BCPSS CEO Andres Alonso, and BTU President Marietta English can shed some light on the issue for you.  We'd love to hear thoughts from parents, students, teachers, and school administrators about how they view this dispute, and how the impasse is effecting them.  Call 410-662-8780 during the show at noon today, or leave your thoughts here on the blog!

Poll: Who should have their way in this situation?

-Justin

If this picture triggers horrible flashbacks to your school cafeteria lunch days, I'm sorry.  If this picture looks like your lunch today, I'm also sorry.  If this picture is making you hungry and you're offended by the first two sentences, I'm sorry, as well.

I never had cafeterias in my elementary schools, so I always had to bring lunch to school.  So, I don't have memories of frozen peas, carrots, corn, processed meat, cheese, white bread, boxes of milk, and whatever the hell is in the top right corner of that tray.  Jello?  Probably...

The contradiction between people's desires to raise healthy kids and the food we feed kids, whether in school or at home, is one of those things you might not ever think about, but once you do, it's hard not to wonder what on earth we're doing.  If we want kids to be healthy, why are school lunches notoriously unhealthy?  Why are kids menus full of fried, greasy, fatty foods like pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets?  Why do we assume these are the types of foods that kids naturally like?

At 1pm today, we'll talk about some different approaches to feeding kids, again, both in and out of school.  For some interesting ideas, check out The Food Studies Institute, started by one of our guests today, Antonia Demas.

If you're a parent, what have your experiences been when it comes to feeding your kids?  Are you happy with the food that they're given in school?

-Justin

The Dalai Lama is in DC this week receiving the Congressional Gold Medal Award.  Bush will become the first US President to appear publicly with the Dalai Lama, which is kind of funny in a twisted way, but not to the Chinese government.

Thomas Laird is going to be in DC for the occasion, and while he's there, he's making a trip up to Baltimore to join us in the studio at 1pm today.  He has spent years living in Asia and written extensively about Tibet.  His book The Story of Tibet is an oral history of the country as told to him by the Dalai Lama himself over the course of many visits to Dharamsala.

Funny side note:  there is a small community of Tibetan Monks in East Baltimore, including one who fled Tibet with the Dalai Lama.  We were hoping to have him and some of the others also join us for the show today, but they're all in DC with His Holiness.

-Justin

It's my pleasure to announce that Ed Jones will be joining us in the studio today.  I think his work speaks for itself.  If you haven't read him, yet, check out The Known World, Lost in the City, or All Aunt Hagar's Children.  And listen to what he has to say today.

-Justin

Are slots coming to Maryland?  The Governor hopes so, because he needs to raise some money to cover the state's budget deficit, and the less he has to raise taxes, the happier we all are.  Slots have been a politically divisive issue for years, though, and bringing them here is far from a done deal, yet.

Marc has been covering slots and gambling, discussing how, when, if, why, and where they might find a home in Maryland as long as he's been on the air, and today the debate continues.  We're joined by Ron Wineholt from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, Aaron Meisner from Stop Slots Maryland, and James Karmel, a history professor from Harford Community College with a new book on the way called Gambling on the American Dream: Atlantic City and the Casino Era.

-Justin

Before Rob Gifford got his current job as NPR London Bureau Chief, he spent six years as NPR's Beijing correspondent.  While there, he made the 3,000 mile journey from east to west along China's Route 312.  Then he wrote a book about it, China Road.  Rob joins us via ISDN from London today to tell us all about his exotic roadtrip, his time in China, and to share some observations about China's present and future role as growing world superpower.

While you're listening, you can go to Rob's site to see some pictures from China, like the one below, taken by Patrick Fraser.  Click here to go right to the pics.

-Justin

-Justin