Tom Hall

In 1989, five black and Latino teens in New York were indicted and then wrongfully convicted of raping a white 28-year-old investment banker named Tricia Meili, while she was jogging in Central Park. The five teens served five to seven years in jail before being exonerated for that crime. Last month, they agreed to settle a civil rights lawsuit against New York City for a reported $41 million.

The writer Rafael Alvarez is a former reporter for The Baltimore Sun.  These days, you’ll still see his byline from time to time in the Sun and many other local publications.  He worked for a while on "The Wire" with his former Sun colleague David Simon, and earlier this year, he published his eighth book. It’s a collection of short stories in which he introduces us to the kind of people and neighborhoods that give Baltimore its unshakable reputation for quirkiness. It’s called Tales from the Holy Land. Rafael Alvarez joins Tom Hall in the studio to talk about it.

In the summer of 2010, Shirley Sherrod was fired from her position as the Georgia U.S.D.A. State Director of Rural Development, when a right-wing blogger, Andrew Breitbart, doctored a videotape to make it appear that Ms. Sherrod was making racist remarks about a white farmer in a speech to the N.A.A.C.P. chapter in Coffee County, Georgia.

Step right up to hear Maryland Morning culture editor Tom Hall and theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck discuss The Kennedy Center's production of "Side Show." 

  Tom talks with BSO Music Director Marin Alsop.

Tom Hall talks with Jed Dietz of the Maryland Film Festival, and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, about what movies to see over the next couple of weeks--assuming watching the World Cup isn’t taking up all your time!

Chef Sascha Wolhandler gives us a lesson on new ways to prepare the summertime staple--the burger. 

The theremin is a musical instrument that you don’t actually touch to play. Its pitch and volume are guided by your hands as they move through the air between two antennas. It was invented in 1919 by a Russian scientist named Lev Sergeyvich Termen, known as Leon Theremin here in the States. Montreal writer,  Sean Michaels, found inspiration in the theremin and its creator for his debut novel, Us Conductors.  It’s a book brimming with unrequited love, international espionage, and enduring hope.

The Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro Leagues Baseball opened in late March.

Tom Hall recently traveled out to Owings Mills to pay a visit to the Museum, which illustrates the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues in America. He spoke with Ray Banks, the Museum's Ambassador, as well as Geraldine Day, widow of the Hall of Fame pitcher Leon Day.

Some of the most popular diet approaches emphasize protein in favor of carbohydrates and just about everything else.  But, certain researchers are concerned that most Americans are eating much more protein than they need. But, how much is too much? How much is enough? Tom Hall asks nutritionist Monica Reinagel.