Midday

As the population of retirees increases, more organizations are turning to seniors for volunteers. A talk about the mutual benefits to the community and to the health of retirees who volunteer. Our guests: Bill Romani, director of AARP Experience Corps. of Baltimore ; Dora Tapp, a local volunteer with Experience Corps; and Hal Handley, a former senior vice president with McCormick & Co. recently named "Volunteer of the Decade" by the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance.

Fewer Americans are having strokes and those who do are now less likely to die from them, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Our guests: Two of the report's co-authors, Josef Coresh, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Dr. Rebecca Gottesman, associate professor of neurology. Original air date 7/16/14

Midday film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed review the summer's biggest and most interesting movies.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird chronicles the story of legendary CIA officer and Middle East specialist Robert Ames in, "The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames."

Beans, beats, tomatoes, basil, melons, peaches -- the time for bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables has arrived. Nancy Taylor Robson, master gardener and Grow It/Eat It blogger, and Baltimore Sun columnist Susan Reimer offer tips for growing backyard produce while warding off the bugs.

Click here for a link to the recipes talked about on today's show.

New Yorker staff writer and former China correspondent Evan Osnos offers insights and observations about the world's most populous country in "Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China."

What makes us laugh? In "Ha!: The Science of When We Laugh and Why," cognitive neuroscientist and former University of Maryland research scientist Scott Weems delves into what makes things funny.

One of the world's most admired organizations, Doctors Without Borders has delivered medical care to the world's most impoverished and imperiled places since its founding in 1971. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. Renee Fox, a sociologist and medicine scholar, chronicles the history of the organization and its influence around the globe. Original air date 7/2/14

With production help from Midday intern James Daley

Linda Przybyszewski, author of "The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish," describes the fascinating history of American style, along with the do's and don'ts of modern wardrobe. Guest host Nikki Gamer

With production help from Midday intern Anna Muckerman

The latest on the ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine and the U.S. response to it. Plus, we'll look at the geopolitics involving last week's plane disaster that resulted in the deaths of nearly 300 passengers. Our guests: Middle East expert Kimberly Katz, associate professor of history at Towson University; and Max Hilaire, chair of the political science department at Morgan State University.