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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Lashar, a corporate IT consultant, believes the time is right for a third-party candidate for governor; he explains his libertarian visions for the state. -
The White House Bureau Chief for Politico discusses his deep dive into Trump's plot to undermine the 2020 election, and its devastating impact on American politics. -
Baltimore City's budget director and the CEO of a leading grant organization explain why they oppose the Renew Baltimore plan, discussed here last week, to cut city property taxes by 40% over the next six years. -
Our theater critic, J. Wynn Rousuck, spotlights the new production of the Tony Award-winning 60s musical comedy. -
We get mid-summer gardening tips from two of our favorite green thumbs: Carrie Engel of Valley View Farms' and Farmer Chippy of the Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm. -
The city's top doc joins us with the latest on the state's monkeypox outbreak and how the city is working to promote control efforts and secure vaccines. -
The veteran political writer discusses his new book about Donald Trump's Washington, and the moral collapse of a major American political party. -
Three perspectives on how determined neighborhood residents and Baltimore city came together on a fraught redevelopment plan. -
Baltimore Sun reporter Jean Marbella helps us size up Maryland's key congressional contests in November's general election. -
The city's former interim police commissioner discusses his recent appointment by Mayor Scott as Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, and the crime-fighting priorities in his new role.
