Sheilah Kast

Now, a Stoop Story from Faye Houston, about how a chance encounter while on the hunt for shark teeth took on a new meaning decades later.

You can find more stories, as well as the Stoop podcast and event information at stoopstorytelling.com.

Opioid overdoses are claiming more lives in Maryland, up by 70 percent last year over the year before, to an average of five a day. Gov. Hogan declared an emergency in March.

Two years ago Baltimore City homicides soared to nearly one a day -- the city’s deadliest per capita on record. The statistic grabbed national attention and the focus of Amy Berbert, a student at UMBC. To her, the number represented the tragic anonymity of lives lost. In response Berbert conceived her final senior project, “Stains on the Sidewalk,” for which she’s documenting the 318 homicides of 2016. She returns on the one-year anniversary, at the exact time and location where the violence occurred, to make a photograph, and then shares it on social media.

A wedding ceremony may be the union of two souls, but the day represents so much more--encompassing families, cultures and communities. Tracie Guy-Decker, Jewish Museum of Maryland associate director talks about what we can read into dresses, documents, chuppas and cake-toppers -- some of what's featured in the new JMM exhibit, "Just Married! Wedding Stories from Jewish Maryland."

Whether it’s repairing defects, growing tissue, or customizing cell patterns, new technology is boosting the potential of regenerative medicine. We speak to Professor John P. Fisher, chair of the University of Maryland Fischell Department of Bioengineering, about the school’s new Center for Engineering Complex Tissue. And postdoctoral fellow Laurie Bracaglia describes her work using pericardial tissue, the thin tissue that surrounds the heart, as a graft material, as well as making printable “bio-ink” from this tissue.

Last fall, fifteen companies won preliminary licenses to grow medical marijuana in Maryland, but the new industry has since been mired in legal challenges. Erin Cox of the Baltimore Sun gets us up to speed. Then, a large-scale study of a compound in cannabis finds it can reduce seizures that don’t respond to typical treatments. We speak to Dr. Orrin Devinsky, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at New York University Langone Medical Center. And Gail Rand, a mother, tells us how her son’s epilepsy prompted her to become an advocate for medical cannabis.

Kevin Darrow Brown shares a story about the joy and the pain of being a foster parent. You can find his story and others, as well as information about live Stoop shows, here.

This weekend Baltimore celebrates LGBT Pride with a parade, block party, food, music, and more. Mimi Demissew, executive co-director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland, and co-chair of Baltimore Pride, tells us what this event means to her.

A stark picture of the toll that addiction is taking in Maryland came clear this month when the state issued its latest statistics: 2,089 people died from overdoses last year, an increase of two-thirds over 2015. Almost nine out of ten of these deaths were caused by opioids. In response to the epidemic, some are calling for approval of “safe consumption sites”--places where people can use illegal drugs with medical supervision. 

One of the ways many fathers connect with their children is through sports. Looking ahead to Father’s Day, we speak to former Baltimore Colt defensive lineman Joe Ehrmann about what it means to be a dad and about combating society’s harmful messages about masculinity.