On The Record

Teens who have lost someone they love may feel angry or overwhelmed, struggle to ask for help and withdraw from their friends. The nonprofit Roberta’s House aims to let young people know they are not alone in grief, and help them develop tools to work through their grief and rebuild their lives. We speak to Dorenzer Thomas, coordinator of youth and school-based services at Roberta’s House, volunteer Mary Dorsey, and three young people who tell us what they’ve gained from activities at Roberta’s House.

Actress Maria Broom sharing a story at the Stoop Storytelling event, “The Show Must Go On,” which took place at Everyman Theater in May. She shared some of the wisdom learned on set filming the HBO series,“The Corner,” here in Baltimore. You can find more stories like this, as well as information about live Stoop events, here.

Imagine a tour of Shakespeare’s greatest works, given by the Bard himself, except that he is a shark. Hard to wrap your mind around? Never fear: Fluid Movement, a performance-art group in Baltimore, will bring this wacky tale to life with singing, dancing, and costumes in “Sharkespeare - the water ballet”. It’s powered by goggles, face paint, and lots of sunscreen. Co-producer Rachel Kassman tells us about the group’s synchronized swimming talents.

Say goodbye to those iconic yellow boxes. The Baltimore Sun Media Group has announced it plans to close a recent acquisition, the Baltimore City Paper. City Paper first hit the presses in 1977. Over four decades, the local paper with an attitude has provided a forum for investigative reporters, writers, cartoonists, and oddballs alike. And every week, without fail, it has appeared on street corners throughout the city, for free. Current editor Brandon Soderberg and long-time City Paper writer Michael Anft join us to reflect on Baltimore’s beloved alt-weekly.

Two wind farms off the coast of Ocean City could be supplying electricity for tens of thousands of Maryland homes in a few years, now that Maryland regulators have OK’d a subsidy through a charge on utility customers’ bills. The projects are required to make big investments in steel fabrication and upgrading the former Sparrows Point shipyard. Advocates predict wind power will create thousands of jobs here, especially if Maryland moves faster than other east-coast states to build an offshore-wind industry. We’ll discuss the prospects with Paul Rich, director of project development for U.S. Wind, and Liz Burdock, executive director of the Business Network for Offshore Wind.

Since the 1970s, archaeologists have sifted through the debris of St. Mary’s City, the capital of colonial Maryland. What have they learned from the bits of pottery and brick they’ve discovered? We ask Historic St. Mary’s City’s Chief Archeologist Travis Parno and ‘field school’ assistant Sarah McCoy. Then, Director of Research Henry Miller shares the mystery of three lead coffins discovered while excavating a chapel in 1990.

Ticket info for Tidewater Archaeology Weekend (July 29-30) is here.

Why do some smells repel us more than others … and why do some immediately trigger a memory? How does our sense of smell interact with other senses, like hearing and sight? Why does an older woman, if her sense of smell grows less acute, have a smaller social circle -- but the same is not true of older men? We talk about all that and more with Johan Lundstrom, a cognitive psychologist who does research at the Monell Chemical Sense Center in Philadelphia and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Steve Walker shares a Stoop story about a broken drive shaft, a pretty girl, and a large chocolate milkshake. You can listen to more stories and learn about Stoop shows at stoopstorytelling.com.

One scoop or two? Cup or cone? You can’t go wrong with ice cream--whether it’s plain vanilla or an exotic mélange of candy and fudge. From the birth of the ice cream truck to the origin of the root beer float, we get a pop culture history of this delectable dessert from Amy Ettinger, author of the new book, "Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America".

Why is it important for each Baltimore neighborhood to understand the dozens of statistics that describe it and its people--where they live, how long it takes them to get work, how many of the homes around them are vacant? We ask Seema Iyer of the University of Baltimore, driving force behind the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, how such data can predict where things are going, not just trace the past. And we ask consultant Alyce Myatt about GeoLoom, a new interactive map that tracks elements of art and culture in every corner of the city.