Roughly Speaking

Gilbert Sandler is back. Author, raconteur, chronicler of his native city, at 94 years old, Gil still has a sharp mind full of vivid memories of bygone Baltimore. Today we’re headed to Attman’s Delicatessen on what remains of Baltimore’s Corned Beef Row to hear Gil describe his 10 Most Memorable Baltimore Moments. Born here in 1923, Gil has been observing and chronicling city life for decades. He wrote a regular column, Baltimore Glimpses, for the old Baltimore Evening Sun, and continues his story-telling to this day with weekly features on WYPR, the NPR station.

1:38: Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends a new memoir about a man who suffers from a Truman Show delusion: "Gorilla and The Bird," by Zack McDermott.6:04: Del. Mary Washington, D-43rd, talks about what she sees as a serious problem facing low- and fixed-income Baltimoreans: Some of them could lose their homes if they don't pay their increasingly expensive water bills to the city. Washington says the Maryland General Assembly and the Baltimore City Council need to find a better way to make sure the city gets paid and that homeowners don't end up homeless.22:46: Film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed review "Blade Runner 2049," and offer an appreciation of Ridley Scott's 1982 original.Links:https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/zack-mcdermott/gorilla-and-the-bird/9781478966104/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-tax-sale-20170505-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/sns-tns-bc-movie-blade-runner-director-20171006-story.html

Global tech guru Alec Ross, a\u160\ucandidate for governor of Maryland, says that, if elected, he will have the State Police arrest any agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who violates the rights of the "citizens and guests" of the state of Maryland.\u160\u"I swear to God," he says in an interview with Dan Rodricks, "if the ICE officers violate the laws of Maryland and violate the rights of the citizens and guests of us here in the state of Maryland, I will have State Troopers arrest the ICE officers, and God bless the confrontation that brings with Donald Trump." That position is provocative but problematic, as Dan explains in today's episode -- another in a series of interviews with candidates for governor in Maryland's June 2018 primary.\u160\uRoss, 45, is a former senior adviser on technology to President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;\u160\uhis work\u160\ufor the State Department\u160\utook him to 41 countries. He is an author of a best-selling book on technological

0:35: Americans like to think of their country as exceptional. But it's exceptional for all the wrong reasons. In this segment of the show: Commentary on the massacre in Las Vegas, the day-to-day violence in Baltimore, and the huge challenge that current U.S. political leadership is unwilling to take — rolling back the nation's obsession with guns.6:21: A tribute to rock legend Tom Petty, who performed with his band, The Heartbreakers, in Baltimore in July, part of a 40th anniversary tour that ended just a few weeks before Petty's death in California on Monday.

1:59: Paula Gallagher, librarian and book critic, recommends all but the last 40 pages of "Sourdough," a novel by Robin Sloan that foodies should (mostly) love.5:30: Sheri Parks, culture commentator, wants to talk about adulthood, and why it seems to be arriving later with each generation. In fact, research shows that, since the late 1970s, it has taken longer for each new generation to complete school, leave home, become financially independent, marry and have children. Millennials have even delayed getting driver’s licenses. What does the later launch mean for families and society? And what constitutes full adulthood? Parks is assistant dean in American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a regular commentator on Roughly Speaking.Links:https://us.macmillan.com/sourdough/robinsloan/9780374203108/

The first Baltimore 9/11 Heroes Run takes place Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Inner Harbor — dedicated to Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Xavier Martin, the young sailor from Halethorpe whose promising career was cut short in June when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan. Today on the show: Race director Pat Cappelaere and his wife, Doreen, talk about the race and their daughter — Navy pilot Lt. Valerie Cappelaere Delaney, a Howard County native and Naval Academy graduate who died during a training mission outside Spokane, Washington in 2013. The race is sponsored by the Travis Manion Foundation, named for a Marine and Annapolis graduate who was killed by sniper fire in Iraq in 2007. The foundation supports veterans and Gold Star families like the Cappelaeres and hosts community service programs with the aim of developing future leaders.Links:http://www.travismanion.org/community-engagement/911-heroes-run/2017-baltimore-md/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-halethorpe-sailor-killed

Heidi Beirich tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. She is an expert on various forms of extremism, including the white supremacist, nativist and neo-Confederate movements. In this episode of Roughly Speaking, Beirich talks about hate groups in Maryland, but more generally about how she works, and how the SPLC goes about declaring American organizations to be hate groups. Beirich oversees the SPLC’s annual survey of the nation’s hate and anti-government groups, available on the center's interactive Hate Map, which lists 917 such groups across the country and 18 in Maryland.Links:https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9afOBRDWARIsAJW4nvyf1Nyhh6ZPUwFwhXZz1rzEeL3HVONCLrGGwKsegNteMV0LPZFiGMwaAi6jEALw_wcB

2:54: Film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed have been binge-watching original shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and today they talk about what they've seen and what they like — from "The Keepers" documentary to "I Love Dick," and other series in between. Linda and Chris also discuss the phenomenon of binge-watching and how commercial streaming generally could effect the American cinema. Linda DeLibero directs the film and media program at Johns Hopkins University. Christopher Reed is chair and professor in the film and moving image department at Stevenson University.32:46: Comedian and actor Marc Unger talks about "Thespian," an original, crowd-sourced web series that he's been writing, directing and starring in, along with a troupe of Baltimore actors.Links:https://krieger.jhu.edu/film-media/directory/linda-delibero/https://krieger.jhu.edu/film-media/directory/linda-delibero/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1328862/https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thespian-web-tv-series-drama#/

President Trump this week praised Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for taking in refugees from the six-year-old Syrian civil war while his administration considers lowering further the number of refugees accepted in the United States. As a candidate and as president, Trump has taken a hard line on refugees while other nations have accepted hundreds of thousands of them. For instance, by the time Germany had accepted 600,000 last fall, the U.S. had welcomed only 16,000. On the show today, a look at the crisis with Alia Malek, Baltimore-raised journalist and civil rights attorney who traveled with Syrian refugees and profiled some of them for Foreign Policy. And Dan speaks with the leader of an Arabic music ensemble that will perform a concert at Towson University on Sept. 29 to keep attention on the refugee crisis.Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking book critic, offers a strong recommendation for, "Sing, Unburied, Sing," the new novel from National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.Alia Male

Did the twin punches of Harvey and Irma constitute a convincer? Will those massive, destructive and deadly storms persuade more Americans, starting with the president, that climate change is real and causing extreme weather? While the Trump administration pulled the United States out of a leadership role on climate change, state and local officials have pledged to move ahead with initiatives to further arrest greenhouse gases. On Wednesday, a coalition of environmentalists, clergy and solar and wind energy companies urged Maryland leaders to get half of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030.Brooke Harper, Maryland and District of Columbia policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, says setting the 50 percent goal would put Maryland in the vanguard of states confronting climate change.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/environment/bs-md-renewable-energy-goal-20170913-story.htmlhttp://chesapeakeclimate.org/

2:09: Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking critic, recommends a debut novel, "My Absolute Darling," by Gabriel Tallent.5:58: After the islands, Florida and southern states were pummeled by Hurriane Irma, after Houston was flooded by Hurricane Harvey, it might be hard for Americans to turn their attention to Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan and the famine hitting those countries. But our topic is something a lot of Americans might not be aware of: The Trump administration's proposed deep cuts to foreign aid that for decades enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress. Thomas Awiapo, a native of Ghana orphaned as a boy, survived childhood famine because of U.S. foreign aid, and he tells us his heartbreaking story of survival. Now a consultant with Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, Awiapo was in Washington recently to says thanks for the food he received at a village school and to ask that such aid continue.Links:http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/541271/my-absolute-darling-by-g

Ahead of the 18-hour Ken Burns-Lynn Novick PBS film on Vietnam, Dan speaks with Arnold R. "Skip" Isaacs, who covered the war in the 1970s for The Baltimore Sun. Isaacs separates fact from myth: Was the U.S. military really limited in how it could fight the North Vietnamese? Has the anti-war movement's role in ending the war been overstated? Did the U.S. press corps sway public opinion against continued American involvement? Did final defeat for South Vietnam result from the cutoff of U.S. aid? Arnold Isaacs, a veteran reporter and editor, is the author of the acclaimed "Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy," and "Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia." He taught courses on Vietnam at Towson University.

1:08: Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian, recommends a new non-fiction book, "American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land," by Monica Hesse of The Washington Post.6:20: A former president of the NAACP, Ben Jealous has been running for the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor since June. In today's show, he criticizes the incumbent, Gov. Larry Hogan, for showing only recent interest in Baltimore's severe problem with violent crime. He also notes Maryland's decline among states with the top-ranked educational systems and pledges to increase funding for schools to recommended levels. Links:http://books.wwnorton.com/books/American-Fire/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-jealous-governor-20170530-story.html

In part two of Dan's conversation with Gilbert Sandler, the teller of Baltimore tales talks about Baltimore after World War II and through the second half of the 20th Century. He gives his views of Baltimore yesterday and today, and takes a couple of nostalgic side trips to old Orioles Park and the Club Charles. Sandler is the writer and host of Baltimore Stories on WYPR. For more than 30 years, he entertained and informed readers of the Sun with his Baltimore Glimpses column, with descriptions of the way things used to be in the city. He is the author of several books about his hometown.Links:http://wypr.org/people/gil-sandler

1:38: Our weekly book recommendation: Paula Gallagher reviews, "Stay With Me," an excellent debut novel by a young Nigerian writer, Ayobami Adebayo.5:22: Gilbert Sandler: Teller of Baltimore Tales, Part I: Few people of 90 years or more are blessed with a memory like Gilbert Sandler's, and few know as much about Baltimore. Born here in 1923, Sandler has been observing and chronicling city life for decades. He wrote a regular column, Baltimore Glimpses, for the old Baltimore Evening Sun, and continues his story-telling to this day with weekly features on WYPR, the NPR station here. The author of several books about the city, Sandler sits down with Dan in the podcast studio to talk about himself for a change: Growing up in northwest Baltimore, selling newspapers on street cars, living through the Depression and attending City College before going off to war with U.S. Navy.Coming next week: Part II: Gilbert Sandler remembers Baltimore after World War II and talks about the many changes that have taken place in t

Dan and guests Peter Jensen (0:40), a member of The Baltimore Sun's editorial board, and Richard J. Crosss III (19:46), Maryland Republican speechwriter and political commentator, talk about the last couple of weeks in Trumpland, from Charlottesville to Trump Tower to the President's long, rambling screed at a rally in Phoenix. What is the President gaining from his frequent attacks and on the media and members of his own party in Congress? The Sun's Erin Cox, originally scheduled for this episode, was unable to join, but will do so on a future show.

Some have been torn down, some have been turned into stores, many into churches. Baltimore once had more than 100 movie houses, many of them small theaters in city neighborhoods. Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis became fascinated with the forgotten cinemas and spent close to a decade tracking them down, learning their histories and taking photographs of what remains. The result is, "Flickering Treasures," a 302-page book, loaded with old and contemporary photographs, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Amy Davis has been a staff photographer for The Baltimore Sun since 1987. She and her book will be the main attraction at a Enoch Pratt Free Library's Writers Live event at the Parkway Theater on Sept. 19.Links:http://flickeringtreasures.com/about/https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/flickering-treasureshttp://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/amy_davis_flickering_treasures_rediscovering_baltimores_forgotten_movie_theaters#.WZ01fHeGNsM

1:53: Paula Gallagher's weekly book recommendation is, "The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South," by Maryland-based culinary historian Michael W. Twitty, creator of the Afroculinaria blog.5:31: Jim O'Leary, senior scientist at the Maryland Science Center, talks about Monday's solar eclipse and what visitors to the center can expect as the moon passes between the Sun and Earth.Links:https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062379290/the-cooking-genehttps://afroculinaria.com/http://www.mdsci.org/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-hs-eclipse-research-20170811-story.htmlhttp://www.mdsci.org/event/sun-fun-eclipse/

Maybe the newest technology isn't always the best, or maybe the best needs a backup. That is turning out to be the case in two arenas of life — navigation and voting. While GPS is in wide use now — military, commercial and civilian — it's not foolproof. "The Coast Guard has reported multiple episodes of GPS jamming at non-U.S. ports," reports Sean Gallagher, the Baltimore-based IT and national security editor for Ars Technica. "South Korea has claimed on several occasions that North Korea has jammed GPS near the border, interfering with aircraft and fishing fleet navigation." So what's the answer? A return to the LORAN system — a land-based radio navigation system developed during World War II and declared unnecessary within the last decade. Gallagher describes how a LORAN comeback is in the offing as a backup for GPS.And while new technology has entered the realm of elections and voting, there still are major concerns about hacking, enough that security experts suggest a return to good old paper ballots, lik

0:35: Peter Jensen, a member of the Baltimore Sun's editorial board, talks with Dan about the overnight removal of statues honoring Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and two other Confederate memorials, from Baltimore overnight. Plus, a conversation about President Donald J. Trump's controversial remarks on white supremacists and counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville over the weekend.20:18: Luke Broadwater, who covers Baltimore government and politics, has the latest from City Hall on Mayor Catherine Pugh's decision to have the Confederate monuments removed.