Rob Sivak
Contributing producer, MiddayRob Sivak is a contributing producer for Midday, with host Tom Hall. Recently retired after a seven-year stint as Midday's senior 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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Maryland's newly inaugurated governor unveiled his first budget proposal for 2023-2024 on Friday, and WYPR News Director Matt Bush helps us unpack its most important elements. -
While lawmakers in Congress wrangle over raising the US debt ceiling, a financial crisis expert at Hopkins' Carey School of Business explains what's at stake — for the US and the global economies — if Congress fails to act. -
Real News Network filmmakers Stephen Janis and Taya Graham join with investigative reporter Jayne Miller in exploring Baltimore's use of tax incentives to spur development — and its troubling costs. -
New developments at the former State's Attorney's federal trial on financial fraud and perjury charges have challenged her legal defense team. Prof. Jaros explains. -
Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck tells us about a nuanced new production of playwright Neil Simon's Tony Award-winning 1986 comedy about show business — and his own development as a writer. -
Maggie Villegas of BCAN, Jeannie Howe of GBCA and musician/activist Navasha Daya weigh in on how the city's arts and events office can up its game. -
Midday's Tom Hall hosts WYPR's live coverage of the historic inaugural ceremonies, featuring reports from Annapolis by WYPR's Matt Bush and Rachel Baye, with in-studio analysis by American historian and author Dr. Terry Anne Scott. Live audio courtesy of MPT. -
Kristin Henning, a Georgetown Law professor and director of its Juvenile Justice Clinic, discusses her new book examining how Black teens in America are stigmatized as potential criminals. -
The city's deputy mayor of Equity, Health & Human Services discusses her outreach efforts to youth, community leaders and the BPD as the city's targeted squeegeeing ban goes into effect. -
Midday marks this year's MLK Day of Service by focusing on the work of three local individuals for whom every day is a day of service.
