Rob Sivak
Interim senior producer, MiddayRob Sivak is interim senior producer for Midday, with host Tom Hall. Recently retired after a seven-year stint as a Midday producer, Rob joined WYPR in 2015 as senior producer of Hall's previous show, Maryland Morning (which aired its final broadcast on September 16th, 2016). Before coming to the station, Rob enjoyed a 36-year career at the congressionally funded global broadcaster, Voice of America. At VOA, he honed his skills as a news and feature reporter, producer, editor and program host.
After reporting assignments at VOA's New York City, United Nations and Los Angeles bureaus, Rob spent two decades covering international food, farming and nutrition issues for VOA's 180-million worldwide listeners, and created and hosted several popular VOA science magazines. At Midday, he continued to pursue his passion for radio and his abiding interests in science, health, technology and politics.
Rob grew up as an ex-pat "oil brat" on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, and studied and traveled widely in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. He attended Hofstra University in New York and Boston University's School of Public Communications. Rob and his wife Caroline Barnes, a writer, live in Silver Spring, Maryland, where they've raised three daughters.
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World-renowned Czech guitarist Petra Poláčková joins us with a sampling of her mastery of the romantic guitar, ahead of her Sunday recital at UMBC -
Immigration and Custom Enforcement is expanding its facilities in Maryland. -
Dessa, the eclectic singer-songwriter and Minneapolis native joins us to talk about what's been happening in her home town. -
Maryland Institute College of Arts President Cecilia McCormick joins us to discuss the achievements and challenges of the esteemed arts college as MICA marks its bicentennial. -
Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck spotlights "The Shark Is Broken", a Vagabond Players production of a comedy about the making of the movie "Jaws." -
Baltimore Museum of Art Director Asma Naeem joins us as we spotlight a pair of extraordinary BMA exhibitions about Black culture and history, by two visionary artists. -
Each week here on Midday, it is our practice to read the names of the people who have lost their lives to violence in Baltimore City. -
Monica Reinagel, a licensed nutritionist, weighs in on the government's new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which offer controversial new recommendations for our intake of fatty meats, dairy, sugar and alcohol. -
Guest host Farai Chideya examines Maryland's tough labor outlook with Labor Secretary Portia Wu. She also speaks with two economists about unemployment trends, and how layoffs disproportionately affect Black women, and a career counsellor helping job-seekers keep hope alive. -
WYPR's State House reporter Sarah Petrowich discusses Governor Moore's call for a dynamic pricing ban, how the practice impacts Maryland consumers and what state lawmakers are likely to do about it
