Roughly Speaking

"I hope you can let this go," Donald J. Trump reportedly said to the former FBI director James Comey regarding th"e bureau's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser Mike Flynn. Was the president trying to obstruct justice? Today on the show, Dan talks Trump with commentators Melissa Deckman and Sheri Parks.Melissa Deckman is the Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs and chair of the political science department at Washington College. She is the author of, "Tea Party Women: Mama Grizzlies, Grassroots Leaders, and the Changing Face of the American Right."Sheri Parks is associate dean for the College or Arts and Humanities, an associate professor of American Studies, and founding director of the Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy at the University of Maryland at College Park. Parks is the author of "Fierce Angels: Living with a Legacy from the Sacred Dark Feminine to the Strong Black Woman." She is a regular commentator on American culture for Roughly Speaking.

American History: Chief Joseph, White Supremacy and the quest for human rights in the late 19th Century. In his new book, Daniel Sharfstein tells the story of two men — Chief Joseph, the young leader of the Nez Perce who fought to keep his ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest, and Oliver Otis Howard, the Union general who believed it was his destiny to send Joseph and his tribe to a reservation in Idaho. How the devout Christian and abolitionist Howard, the man for whom Howard University is named, came to conduct a ruthless war 140 years ago against Native Americans is the subject of "Thunder in The Mountains: Chief Joseph Oliver Otis Howard ---- the Nez Perce War." Daniel Sharfstein is a professor of law and history and co-directs the George Barrett Social Justice Program at Vanderbilt University. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, and his first book, "The Invisible Line: A Secret History of Race in America," won the J. Anthony Lukas Prize for narrative nonfiction.Links:http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/b

1:50: With Mother's Day approaching, Paula Gallagher recommends a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford, a memoir about his parents, with emphasis on this mother.5:22: With Maryland's early-season crab harvest expected to be strong, John Shields, Chesapeake culinary expert, offers a 12-minute tutorial in making the perfect crab cake. Two of John's most popular recipes for crab cakes, published in his cookbooks, can also be found online -- his grandmother Gertie's Baltimore crab cakes, and Miss Shirley Phillip's Eastern Shore crab cakes. John Shields is the owner of Gertrude's restaurant in Baltimore and the author of three cook books. Make sure to read John's essay on the "care and handling of crab cakes."Links:https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062661883/between-themhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/environment/bs-md-crab-population-survey-20170419-story.htmlhttp://www.aarp.org/food/recipes/info-05-2011/crab-cakes.htmlhttp://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/miss-shirleys-eastern-

A look at big problems in housing in Baltimore: People losing their homes — renters through eviction and homeowners under a federal program originally intended to keep them in their houses.3:10: Kristerfer Burnett and John Bullock, first-term members of the Baltimore City Council, have raised flags about problems caused by a federal program to sell off delinquent mortgages to private investors. Instead of helping homeowners modify the terms of their mortgages and stay in their houses, the result, they say, has been more evictions and empty homes.22:36: Sun reporters Jean Marbella and Doug Donovan talk about “Dismissed,” their long, deep look at rent court and the high number of evictions in the city. Their stories appeared within the last two weeks in the Sun, accompanied by a vivid, user-friendly display online at baltimoresun.com. The Sun’s investigation revealed, among other things, that in 2013, Baltimore's renters received more court-ordered eviction notices per capita than renters in any other city. Mor

A special edition of Roughly Speaking, the day after Donald Trump’s sacking of the FBI director, James Comey, whose agency has been investigating suspected ties between Russia and the Trump campaign for president. Reaction from:Michael Greenberger (0:43), professor of law at the University of Maryland and a longtime attorney with extensive practice in Washington as a litigator and as a financial regulator.U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (12:26), Maryland Democrat.

The Zika virus, largely concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean, has drifted out of the news since last summer, but with a mild winter behind us, and mosquito season coming, there are concerns, especially in southern states. A Johns Hopkins University researcher recently estimated the cost of a mild Zika outbreak (about 7,000 cases) at more than $183 million and the cost of a more severe one (700,000 infections) at more than $1.2 billion. Most people have mild or no obvious effects from Zika, but infections in pregnant women can result in major birth defects in their babies. Adults can also suffer from Guillain-Barr\u233\u syndrome. Dr. John Cmar of Sinai Hospital is a specialist in infectious diseases and provides some perspective on Zika and other arboviruses — that is, diseases spread by bugs, mosquitoes and ticks.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/maryland-health/bs-hs-zika-season-20170327-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/health/blog/bs-hs-zika-estimates-20170503-story.html

Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking book critic, recommends a dystopian novel from the eco-fiction shelf called "Borne," by Jeff Vandemeer.Baltimore bartenders Brendan Dorr and Amie Ward talk about Amari, the branch of herbal, bitter-sweet liqueurs produced in Italy, sipped as digestives and now being offered in some mixed drinks. Ward and Dorr join Dan for a taste test of Meletti Amaro, Rabarbaro Zucco, Fernet-Branca and Fernet-Valet, a Mexican liqueur. Be listening for Amie and Brendan’s cocktail recipe for the Italian Mule. Amie Ward tells her life story to Quinn Kelley on a recent episode of Female Trouble.Links:http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-borne-vandermeer-20170413-story.htmlhttp://www.meletti.it/UK/products_amaromeletti.htmlhttp://www.zuccarabarbaro.com/?age-verified=d69ec69409http://www.liquor.com/brands/fernet-branca/#gs.JfnUJcwhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/features/female-trouble/bs-female-trouble-amie-ward-20170424-htmlstory.html

With the 2017 Maryland Film Festival now underway during a busy weekend in Baltimore, our critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed list the films they're looking forward to seeing at the festival's new home in the renovated Parkway Theater in Station North.Linda's list: "Werewolf" "Golden Exits" "Rat Film" "Motherland" "Love After Love"Chris's choices: "Beach Rats" "The Blood Is At The Doorstep" "Lemon" "Maineland" "Princess Cyd" "Person To Person" "Sylvio" "Tell Them We Are Rising"Plus, Linda and Chris review two movies in feature release: "Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume II," and "Their Finest," a movie about movie-making in wartime England.Links:http://mdfilmfest.com/schedule/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-weeksbest-0430-20170429-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bs-ae-maryland-film-festival-parkway-2017-20170429-story.htmlhttp://mdfilmfest.com/film-guide/

How do you keep brilliant researchers who come up with great ideas from taking their successful startups to Silicon Valley or Cambridge, Mass.? Since 2012, companies founded on Johns Hopkins technology have raised about $1.1 billion in funding, but about 85 percent of them are no longer in Maryland. Incubating tech and bio-tech startups and retaining them in Baltimore is a mission of Hopkins at its new FastForward 1812 lab space in the university’s sprawling medical campus. Christy Wyskiel, special adviser on commercial investment to the JHU president, talks about building a solid business infrastructure for new companies — and about an effort to support social innovation that benefits Hopkins’ neighbors in East Baltimore.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-hopkins-incubator-20170407-story.html

“Make no mistake about it, I believe President Trump is causing damage to our country, primarily to the values America stands for.” Sen. Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat, stopped by the Sun’s studio to talk about the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Cardin explains why he believes Donald Trump is damaging the country, but also where he thinks Trump could notch some achievements should he choose to act in a bipartisan manner.

Film historians consider “High Noon” to be a Western, but it’s more than that — the story of one man’s moral courage in the face of overwhelming odds. In the 1952 film, a town marshal, played by Gary Cooper, is about to retire his badge and his gun and move away with his new bride, played by Grace Kelly. But the marshal learns that a man who hates him, a vicious outlaw named Frank Miller, is coming back to the town to kill him — and he’s arriving on the noon train. High Noon is a Hollywood classic, but it was made during the post-World War II Red Scare, when Congress was looking for suspected communists among the film industry’s producers, writers, directors and actors. The screenwriter of “High Noon” was Carl Foreman, and in the middle of the film’s production he was forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about his former membership in the Communist Party. Refusing to name names, he was eventually blacklisted and fled the United States. Author Glenn Frankel, a Pulitzer Prize winn

Book critic Paula Gallagher strongly recommends, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” by David Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “The Lost City of Z.” His new book is about the mysterious murders of Native Americans in Oklahoma in the 1920s, and the birth of the FBI.Kevin Shird, a Baltimore native and drug dealer-turned-youth advocate, talks about the unrest that hit Baltimore two years ago today, on the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral. Shird is the author of two books, “Lessons of Redemption,” about his tough early life and his 12 years in prison, and “Uprising in the City,” about the civil unrest that hit West Baltimore on April 27, 2015.Links:http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/208562/killers-of-the-flower-moon-by-david-grann/9780385534246/http://aalbc.com/authors/kevin-shird.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/investigations/bs-md-ci-gray-investigations-20170419-story.html

Are Maryland farmers and Baltimore entrepreneurs missing a big economic opportunity by not growing and processing hemp for the commercial market? A report commissioned by the Abell Foundation concludes that hemp-marijuana confusion, along with a federal prohibition, form obstacles to a new branch of environmentally-friendly agriculture that could augment the income of Maryland farmers and spawn new businesses. Kentucky has already moved forward with growing hemp, despite the federal ban against the fibrous cannabis. Rona Kobell, reporter for the Chesapeake Bay Journal, joins Dan to talk about hemp’s potential. She wrote the Abell report. "Hemp offers opportunities for new products, good jobs, wellness, an improved environment and healthier soils," the report says. "It can help farmers diversify and keep their land in agriculture. It can jump start entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that process and transport hemp. And it can keep more Baltimore college graduates in the city to pursue careers in botani

The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. gave its secret recipe for Coke to an Atlanta rabbi, who helped the company make its popular soft drink kosher. On today’s show, Roger Horowitz, a food historian, tells the tale of Rabbi Tobias Geffen in a new book, "Kosher USA," about the keeping of the Jewish dietary law in the modern industrial food system. Among his stories: How Oroes became kosher, and how and why Manischevitz became one of the most popular wines among African-Americans. Horowitz is director of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware. He is the author of "Negro and White, Unite and Fight: A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking and Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation."Links:https://cup.columbia.edu/book/kosher-usa/9780231158329

2:07: Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian, says readers who liked JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” will enjoy a new novel, “The Animators,” about the friendship of two artistic women from poor backgrounds who become the talk of the indie film world.6:43: Leila Atassi, City Hall reporter for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, talks about Cleveland’s effort to curtail illegal dirt biking by building a $2.3 million dirt bike park. Baltimore’s so-called “12 O’Clock Boys” have taken to the streets — and sometimes the sidewalks — of the city for years, prompting citizen complaints and a police crackdown (On episode 155 of the podcast, Dan interviewed Wheelie Wayne, considered the godfather of the 12 O'Clock Boys). While a private group studies the feasibility of building a dirt bike park in Baltimore, a divided Cleveland City Council has moved ahead with the controversial idea. Atassi fills us in. 17:42: Political analyst Herb Smith talks about the effect the Trump presidency has had on the American tourism industry,

On this episode of Roughly Speaking with Dan Rodricks, a dive into data about health, housing and community trends across the city — which neighborhoods are struggling, which ones are hot, which will be hot in the coming months and years, and which neighborhoods are the most ethnically and racially diverse.2:45: Seema Iyer measures Baltimore life in all kinds of ways. She’s associate director of the Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore, and each year for the past 15 years, the institute, in partnership with the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, has published Vital Signs, a statistical portrait of the city, measuring everything from unoccupied homes to high school dropouts and teen pregnancy.29:26: We get the latest on the general health of Baltimoreans from Meredith Cohn, the Sun’s health and medical research reporter, and Dr. John Cmar of Sinai Hospital.42:32: A look at Baltimore housing market trends with representatives of LiveBaltimore, Annie Milli and Steve Gondol.1:02:21: Seem

1:43: Paula Gallagher, a Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking book critic, recommends "Mozart's Starling," a non-fiction look at the great composer's relationship with a bird and how starlings, once favored as pets, came to be considered a nuisance in the United States.5:43: The General Assembly has authorized the state attorney general, Brian Frosh, to sue the Trump administration to protect Maryland’s interests — and Frosh is now empowered to do so without first getting the permission of the Governor. In his story about this in today’s Baltimore Sun, reporter Ian Duncan says the assembly left behind “a kind of night watchman” to keep an eye on Washington while the legislature is in recess. But what actions by the Trump administration would prompt Frosh and other Democratic attorneys general to go to court? We’ll also hear of efforts to stop price gouging by pharmaceutical companies and how the state legislature reformed a bail system that Frosh believes would ultimately have been found to be unco

Remember Toya Graham, the ‘Baltimore Mom’ during the unrest that hit West Baltimore on the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral in 2015? She was videotaped grabbing, berating and slapping her teenaged son in an effort to pull him away from the other teenagers who threw rocks at police near Mondawmin Mall. Graham’s actions were praised as heroic, but our guest today, Stacey Patton, offered a dissenting opinion in the Washington Post. In 2008, Patton, a journalist and assistant professor at Morgan State University, wrote a memoir, That Mean Old Yesterday, about how, as a foster child, she had survived a childhood of abuses, including whippings at the hands of her adoptive mother. Patton did not expect to write about corporal punishment in black families again, but, because of Toya Graham, Patton is back on the subject with a new book, “Spare The Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America,” an important and convincing argument against a common and widely accepted practice.Links:https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Today’s guest, Firmin Debrabander, is a professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, an author and social commentator. He’s at work on a book about privacy and wonders if it really matters any more. He thinks Americans like to say they cherish privacy in the Internet age, but actually do little to protect it and pay only lip service to the evils of surveillance. Between online consumerism and shameless social media posts, people seem to actively eschew privacy for being part of the digital community. DeBrabander has written on the subject and in today’s show he dares listeners to define privacy and why it matters.Links:https://www.mica.edu/About_MICA/People/Faculty/Faculty_List_by_Last_Name/Firmin_DeBrabander.htmlhttps://aeon.co/essays/how-baring-and-sharing-online-increases-social-conformity

Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack scored major pop hits in the 1970s with their duets, “Where Is The Love?” and “The Closer I Get To You.” But Hathaway, a gifted soul singer and song writer, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a severe form of mental illness that extracted a heavy toll on his music career and his personal life, culminating with his suicide at age 33 in 1979. At Baltimore Center Stage this month, Kelvin Roston Jr. portrays Hathaway in “Twisted Melodies,” a one-man play Roston wrote and reworked over the last 10 years.Today Dan speaks with Roston (3:03) about Hathaway and the play, and about mental illness. Then, Dr. Mark Komrad (17:26), Baltimore psychiatrist, gives his impressions of “Twisted Melodies.” Komrad, a contributor to conversations about mental health on Roughly Speaking, is the author of, “You Need Help: A Step-by-Step Plan to Convince a Loved One to Get Counseling.”Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/artsmash/bs-ae-arts-story-0324-20170320-story.htmlhttp://w