Dr. Peter V. Rabins has been studying the brain, and dementia in particular, for a half century, since before most Americans had heard of Alzheimer disease. He founded and directed the division of geriatric psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Over the decades patients have asked him thousands of questions about how memory works, what dementia is, what might stave it off, how to help someone they love. The questions he’s asked most often he collected into a short book, called Is it Al...
Jul 02, 2025•25 min
Here's a Stoop Story from Rohaizad Suaidi about his love and dedication for America. You can catch the next live stoop event July 18 at 7pm at the Patterson Park Cedar House. The theme is ‘Smalltimore: Stories About a City So Small, Even Your Secrets Have Neighbors.’
Jul 01, 2025•10 min
Juvenile crime is down, but many people don’t feel safer. What’s Maryland doing wrong? Vincent Schiraldi, just replaced as head of the Department of Juvenile Services, decries charging kids as adults. He tells why he left, and what’s next: “I’m gonna kayak, I’m gonna hike a little, and then I'm gonna come back out and pick a fight.”
Jun 30, 2025•25 min
Here's a Stoop Story from Geoffrey Danek about the bond that can grow between man and beast. Find more information at StoopStorytelling.com
Jun 27, 2025•12 min
Do you ever wonder about who produced the food you enjoy each day? Lindsey Jacobs, who served as Ms. Agvocate USA 2024, wants the public to better understand the farmer to table connection. We learn more in a visit to her Church View Farm. Today’s show is an encore presentation from July, 2024. It recently took top prize from the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcaster’s Association for ‘outstanding use of sound’. The judges called it "Radio so alive, you can see it.”
Jun 27, 2025•12 min
Of every six people who live in Maryland, one was born outside the U.S. Sixteen per cent. Many have been here legally through something called TPS, Temporary Protected Status. TPS has allowed about a million people from countries torn by war, civil unrest and natural disasters to live in the U.S.legally -- and to work legally in the U.S. Shortly after he was inaugurated in January, President Trump signed an executive order directing officials to limit TPS, on the grounds that the temporary relie...
Jun 23, 2025•14 min
In less than three weeks, more than ten thousand Afghans who fled their country when the U.S. pulled its military forces out three years ago will lose the protections that allow them to live and work in the U.S. When the government announced it was revoking Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, the Baltimore-based nonprofit Global Refuge called it “a crushing blow to Afghan allies who were promised U.S. protection.” Global Refuge is the new name for ‘Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service,' the ...
Jun 23, 2025•9 min
The Trump administration has told hundreds of thousands of migrants who fled violence or disasters in Latin America that they can no longer stay in the U.S. We ask a labor leader and a worker what this means in Maryland, and an advocate for refugees what will happen to thousands who fled Afghanistan.
Jun 23, 2025•14 min
Dr. Joanne Martin tells a stoop story about the founding of the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. The next live Stoop Storytelling event is tonight; it's called "Unleashed: No muzzles, no collars, just real stories about animal companions." Information about the event, more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com.
Jun 20, 2025•10 min
The Irene and Richard Frary Gallery - located in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC - is featuring an exhibit that draws heavily on the shining talents of its neighbor to the north. It’s called ‘Strong, Bright, Useful & True: Recent Acquisitions and Contemporary Art from Baltimore’ and it runs through September 6. We talk about it with the gallery’s inaugural director, Caitlin Berry, and with Jerrell Gibbs, one of the featured artists.
Jun 20, 2025•15 min
It’s been less than a month since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that his department no longer recommends that healthy kids and pregnant women be vaccinated against Covid 19. The turmoil has only accelerated, as Kennedy last week fired the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee, and began restocking it with doctors, some of whom are skeptical of vaccines. We talk about the implication of the changes with Dr. James Campbell, Interim Division Head of Pediatric I...
Jun 18, 2025•15 min
Baltimore-based non-profit Make Studio supports the work of artists with disabilities in myriad ways and the space creates an atmosphere that churns with creativity, collaboration and fun. Their latest exhibit is: ‘Express Impressionist: The Inversive Artistic Practice of Eddie Kil’ and there’s a gallery opening tomorrow night. We talk about the exhibit and about Make Studio's mission with Stefan Bauschmid, Make Studio's Associate Director and Studio & Art Preparations manager... and Jill Sc...
Jun 18, 2025•10 min
Author Laura Lippman is out with her 29th or 30th novel, depending how you count. 'Murder Takes a Vacation' is a cozy mystery that follows a plus-sized Baltimore widow in her late 60s who is breaking out of her shell… at the same time she becomes the target of ruthless international criminals. A book launch event is on June 17th in the Penguin Room at Whitehall Mill.
Jun 16, 2025•24 min
Lola tells a stoop story about how a queer awakening. The next live Stoop Storytelling event is called "Unleashed: No muzzles, no collars, just real stories about animal companions." Information about the event, more stories, and the Stoop podcast is at StoopStorytelling.com. The 50th Year Anniversary of Baltimore Pride is this weekend, with the Pride Parade starting at noon on Saturday, and Pride in the Park at Druid Hill Park starting at noon on Sunday.
Jun 13, 2025•8 min
The paved 1½ mile trail that around the lake at Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park (aka the loop) has reopened! It’s been out of commission for years because of a federally mandated infrastructure project that broke ground in 2017... a project that put two massive water tanks underground to protect drinking water for Baltimore residents. Now that this project is nearly complete, another project is about to begin... a project that could bring fishing, boating, and more to Druid Hill Lake. We hear about ...
Jun 13, 2025•18 min
Democratic opponents of the cuts Congress intends to make in SNAP -- the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for people with low incomes, what used to be called ‘food stamps,' say it’s the biggest rollback in an anti-hunger program ever. In Maryland, more than one-tenth of the 684-thousand people who now get SNAP benefits may lose them, and another one-fifth may see their benefits reduced. In the Free State, the average monthly SNAP benefit is about $180 —$6 dollars a day — and 40 percent ...
Jun 11, 2025•12 min
Every day in the Free State, 120-thousand people who might otherwise be hungry get a meal through the Maryland Food Bank. The nonprofit has been distributing food for 45 years— it was the first food bank on the East Coast — and a lot has changed. These days it’s serving more working families, children and older adults. It’s paying more attention to nutrition, distributing millions of pounds of fresh produce. And beyond distributing food, the Maryland Food Bank works to fix what puts people at ri...
Jun 11, 2025•13 min
The arts can provide an outlet of expression that other ways of communication cannot. Making art can foster expanded thinking, creative problem solving, empathy, and more. And: art can help kids learn in ways that traditional education cannot. Enter Arts for Learning Maryland. The non profit provides schools with programming across all creative disciplines, and has based its work on these fundamental ideas for 75 years. We talk with Jessica Smith, Arts for Learning Maryland Young Audiences Chief...
Jun 09, 2025•12 min
From the middle of 2013 to the end of last year, more than 1,300 reports of alleged child sex trafficking were screened by Maryland Child Protective Services. Last week hundreds of people working to stop child trafficking gathered in Towson to raise awareness and focus on partnerships to protect vulnerable kids. We talk with conference organizer Nadine Finigan-Carr, executive director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Center for Violence Prevention.
Jun 09, 2025•14 min
Think “homeless in Baltimore.” Think “healthcare”. Right away, your brain may paint a picture of the nonprofit Health Care for the Homeless, reaching out to people on the street, without housing, connecting them to healthcare. Except that until this spring, Health Care for the Homeless wasn’t actually delivering medical care on the street. It has always reached out to unhoused people, it operates satellite clinics and mobile clinics where people can get care -- and it offers lots of other kindne...
Jun 06, 2025•13 min
Here's a Stoop Story from Luke Wesby about his journey to becoming a homeowner and what it has meant to him. The next live Stoop event happens Friday, June 20th, at 7pm at Checkerspot Brewing. In partnership with the Maryland SPCA, the theme is “Unleashed: No muzzles, no collars, just real stories about animal companions!”
Jun 06, 2025•12 min
Professionals worry there’s a mental-health crisis among young people; some say social media and excessive screen time makes it worse. We ask Dr. Ernestine Briggs-King, a licensed psychologist in charge of its Department of Family and Community Interventions at Kennedy Krieger Institute, how parents can safely curb its use and build “digital resilience.’’
Jun 04, 2025•13 min
Picture this. You’re in middle school, dealing with all the issues that beset middle-school kids: will anyone in your new class like you? What if the cool kids are mean to you or someone you like? Will you stand up for them? What are you good at-- and what if the cool kids don’t think that’s cool? On top of that, imagine that your mother is a “momfluencer” -- an influencer with thousands of followers on social media, who can’t get enough of her take on raising a family. She posts things about yo...
Jun 04, 2025•12 min
Coard Bounds, an eastern shore farmer and co-owner of Couldbourn Farm, talks about what it takes to get his corn and soybean crops in the ground and some of the issues of modern farming today.
Jun 02, 2025•12 min
The Maryland State Park Service is rolling out a “day pass” system to keep its most popular parks from overcrowding. Angela Crenshaw, the Director of the Maryland Park Service, explains the policy, and offers tips for hiking and camping.
Jun 02, 2025•13 min
Here's a Stoop Story from Tom Ritter about the power of the clipboard … and believing in miracles. You can find more information about li ve events and the Stoop podcast at Stoopstorytelling.com.
May 30, 2025•14 min
Ospreys are one of the largest birds of prey in North America, with a wingspan of up to six feet. Many spend their summers catching fish, building nests, and having babies around the Chesapeake Bay. But they’ve developed an affinity for nesting on utility poles. That can be life-threatening for the birds, and can cause power outages that impact us. Baltimore Gas and Electric has developed a program called “Osprey Watch” - to protect the birds AND the power lines. We hear about it from Sarah Kneb...
May 30, 2025•10 min
An audit of a decade-and-a-half of rulings by Maryland medical examiners on the causes of deaths of people restrained while in custody found a pattern that could be racial or pro-police bias. We ask state Attorney General Anthony Brown: What now?
May 28, 2025•26 min
Here's a Stoop Story from Thomas Dotstry, executive officer of the USS Louisiana, about the power of being present in the moment, and the gift of human connection. You can hear more stories, find out about live events and the Stoop podcast at stoopstorytelling.com
May 26, 2025•11 min
We go On the Record with Paula Davis, treasurer of Maryland Gold Star Mothers. The group honors and preserves the memory of their children who died during conflict -- by offering their continued service and support to the military community.
May 26, 2025•13 min
