Roughly Speaking

3:33: The Sun’s State House bureau chief Erin Cox talks about Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s refusal to comment on President Donald J. Trump’s controversial — and now overturned — executive order on immigration. Plus, we get an update on the prospects for full marijuana legalization in Maryland.8:13: Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends "A Really Good Day," by Ayelet Waldman, a memoir of mood swings, marriage and microdosing LSD. Gallagher is a librarian at the Pikesville branch of the Baltimore County Public Library.21:13: In the spirit of international solidarity and adventurous cooking, Roughly Speaking foodies John Shields and Henry Hong join Dan to share recipes from the seven majority-Muslim countries targeted in President Trump’s executive order on immigration — Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Iran. Shields, owner of Gertrude’s restaurant in the Baltimore Museum of Art, is an accomplished author of cookbooks, and he recommends two for anyone interested in the cuisine of the Middle East

Can the country afford repeal of the Affordable Care Act, especially while we’re in the midst of a deadly opioid epidemic? What happens if the ground-breaking mental health provisions of the law, which include coverage for drug abuse treatment, are scrapped? Dr. Mark Komrad, a psychiatrist on the clinical and teaching staff of Sheppard Pratt Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, provides perspective on mental health and insurance through the years, and what’s at stake if Congress and President Trump repeal the ACA. Komrad is the author of “You Need Help: A Step By Step Plan to Convince Your Loved One to Get Counseling.”Links:http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/12/14242086/obamacare-repeal-opioid-heroin-epidemichttp://www.komradmd.com/Mark_Komrad_MD/Biography.htmlhttp://www.youneedhelpbook.com/You_Need_Help/Overview.html

If upheld, one of the ramifications of President Trump’s restrictions on travel from seven nations could be fewer primary-care doctors for areas of the United States where they are badly needed. In criticizing Trump’s executive order, the Association of American Medical Colleges notes that the U.S. faces a serious shortage of physicians. International graduates represent roughly 25 percent of the medical workforce. In the last decade, says the association, one immigration program alone directed nearly 10,000 physicians into rural and urban underserved communities. “Impeding these U.S. immigration pathways,” the association says, “jeopardizes critical access to high-quality physician care for our nation’s most vulnerable populations.” On today’s show, Dr. John Cmar, director of the residency program in internal medicine at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, discusses the role foreign medical-school graduates play in the U.S. health-delivery system.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-donald-trump-t

1:40: Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian and Roughly Speaking book critic, praises "Perfect Little World," a new novel from Kevin Wilson, best-selling author of "The Family Fang." If you liked the early works of John Irving, says Paula, you’ll like the characters in this new work by Wilson. With today’s podcast, Paula begins a series of weekly book recommendations.5:09: Lane Harlan, creator of Bar Clavel, the Mexican-inspired bar and restaurant in Remington, describes her establishment’s widely-hailed margarita and provides tequila drinkers with a primer on the world of mezcal. Joining us for some “mezcal enlightenment” is bartender Brendan Dorr of the B----0 American Brasserie. Hear Lane’s earlier interview on Quinn Kelley’s Female Trouble podcast.Links:https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062450326/perfect-little-worldhttp://www.barclavel.com/http://www.bandorestaurant.com/menus/food-drink.htmhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/features/female-trouble/bal-female-trouble-lane-harlan-20160712-story.html

Dan and David Zurawik have a spirited, wide-ranging and sometimes testy conversation about presidents (Trump and Obama) and the press, CNN being “iced out” by the White House, news reporting on Trump supporters, Obama administration pursuit of reporters’ sources, NAFTA and the Affordable Care Act. In this episode, Zurawik refers to two programs, a podcast from Al Jazeera English about the Obama administration and the press, and an upcoming Showtime program about the 2016 election.Links: http://www.sho.com/titles/3445564/trumped-inside-the-greatest-political-upset-of-all-timehttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2017/01/obama-media-freedom-unprecedented-intrusion-170122115158844.html

The Great Baltimore Fire started on Sunday Feb. 7, 1904, burned for 30 hours, devastated 80 blocks of downtown and destroyed 1,500 buildings and hundreds of businesses. The city had a young mayor — in fact, the youngest in its history, Robert McLane, 35 years old at his election in 1903 — and he oversaw the efforts to fight the fire, then took on the daunting challenge of rebuilding the central business district.Today, historian Wayne Schaumburg talks about the Great Baltimore Fire and the sudden, shocking demise of that young mayor — at the center of efforts to stop the fire in February, leader in the effort to rebuild the city immediately afterwards, but dead of a single gunshot wound in late May. Wayne Schaumburg conducts tours of areas affected by the Great Baltimore Fire, in association with the Fire Museum of Maryland.Links: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/history/bs-baltimorefire-slideshow-htmlstory.htmlhttp://articles.baltimoresun.com/2004-02-07/news/0402070176_1_mclane-committed-suicide-bal

Leaders from two Baltimore-based relief agencies — the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Catholic Relief Services — talk about President Trump’s order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim nations and Trump’s indefinite ban on refugees from the Syrian civil war. Dan’s guests are Linda Hartke (1:28), president and CEO of LIRS, and Bill O’Keefe (13:14), vice-president for government relations for CRS. Offering commentary on the potential international ramifications of Trump’s controversial order: Arnold Isaacs (22:17), former Sun foreign correspondent and editor, and author of “From Troubled Lands: Listening to Pakistani Americans and Afghan Americans in post-9/11 America.”Links:http://lirs.org/http://www.fromtroubledlands.net/troubled lands about the author-1.htmhttp://www.fromtroubledlands.net/

Could voter fraud of the massive scale being asserted by President Donald J. Trump occur in the United States? Sean Gallagher, the Baltimore-based IT editor of Ars Technica and our favorite techsplainer, explains why getting 3 million to 5 million illegal votes cast in multiple states would be nearly impossible. Gallagher also talks about the Russian hack of the 2016 presidential campaign, but he believes Internet trolls likely had more of an influence on voters than did the Russian hackers and WikiLeaks.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/sns-bc-us--trump-20170124-story.htmlhttps://arstechnica.com/author/sean-gallagher/

With 2017 off to a deadly start in Baltimore, Bob Cherry, a Western District sergeant and past-president of the police union, asks citizens to step up and help officers prevent and solve crimes across the city. Additionally, Cherry suggests that the police department adopt a New York City model for patrol-based targeting of violent, repeat offenders to reduce the shootings that have claimed nearly 700 lives since the spring of 2015. That means, he says, fewer officers in special units and more in uniform and on the street. With the city in a consent decree with the Justice Department to foster reforms within the department, Cherry says it’s time to shift more attention back to the crime fight. “We will increase trust when we start cutting crime,” says Cherry, a city resident. “If you get the numbers down and people feel safer, they’re going to feel proud and good about their police department.” Past-president of the Baltimore lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, Cherry also serves as a national trustee for

Roughly Speaking film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed share their thoughts with Dan on nominations for the 89th Academy Awards, noting nods to African-American actors and directors following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2016, a snub of actress Amy Adams and yet another (and perhaps unnecessary) nomination for the great Meryl Streep.

Thomas McCreary lived in Maryland’s Cecil County in the 19th Century and, in the 1840s and 1850s, he became widely known as a slave catcher, a man who would cross into the free state of Pennsylvania to nab black men, women and children he suspected of being runaway slaves. Sometimes they were; sometimes they were not. At a time of heightened tensions over slavery, McCreary’s exploits were decried by abolitionists and praised by those who defended slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Cecil County historian Milt Diggins tells the story of McCreary and Rachel and Elizabeth Parker, the black sisters who were born free yet abducted by McCreary from Pennsylvania and taken to the Baltimore slave market. Diggins’ book, “Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line,” also tells of white neighbors of the Parkers who traveled to Baltimore to demand their release and McCreary’s prosecution.Links:https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/stealing-freedom-along-mason-dixon-line

Kimberly Moffitt, associate professor in American and Africana studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County; and Richard Cross, Maryland Republican analyst and speech writer, give their takes on President Donald Trump's inaugural address.

1:35: Culture commentator Sheri Parks talks about the transition from Obama to Trump, and Friday’s inauguration.19:37: The Sun’s media critic David Zurawik expounds on Trump and his incessant tweets, and David explains how he came to be known as “Schmobo in Baltimore.”

It happened just a few days before Christmas: Maryland’s governor, comptroller and treasure — the state’s Board of Public Works — voted to cancel the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment plan on mid-town Baltimore’s west side, a project 10 years in the making. Gov. Larry Hogan claimed the plan made no economic sense. What’s more, the state filed a lawsuit against State Center’s developer, seeking to break the leases for office space that underpin the financing of the project. Then, state comptroller Peter Franchot suggested that a whole new plan be developed to include a sports arena for an NBA or NHL team. And just like that, Hogan agreed to have the Maryland Stadium Authority fast-track a study of how to redevelop the property, including whether an arena would be feasible.So, in a very short period of time, a huge, well-vetted redevelopment project was killed, a new one proposed, and the state went to war with the developer. Merry Christmas! What happened? Dan goes over the story with Caroline Moore, CEO

April Ryan, White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks, talks about the president-elect, Donald J. Trump, and his criticism of the press. (He will be the fourth president Ryan has covered in her broadcasting career.) But, with her new book, Ryan’s focus is on the important roles mothers play in the lives of African-American children, particularly boys and young men. Ryan’s book is “At Mama’s Knee: Mothers And Race In Black And White,” and it addresses race relations, and relations between African-Americans and police, the Freddie Gray case and the death of Trayvon Martin. (“Everyone needs to read a book about race,” Ryan says.)April Ryan is chief of American Urban Radio Networks’ Washington bureau — the only African-American broadcast bureau in the White House, with a network of more than 300 stations nationwide and nearly 20 million listeners each week. Ryan is the author of “The Presidency in Black and White: My Up‑Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America.” She’ll discuss her

Film critic Christopher Llewellyn Reed says "Silence," about Jesuit missionaries to Japan in the early 17th Century, is Martin Scorsese's best work in years, a monumental film notable for the director's uncharacteristic restraint. "It's as if Scorsese had taken the title to heart," he says. Reed also reviews from the current cinema "A Monster Calls," Hidden Fences," "Patriots Day," and "20th Century Women."Christopher Llewellyn Reed is chair of the Film ---- Moving Image Department at Stevenson University. He is the lead film critic for Hammer to Nail, a website devoted to independent cinema, and he writes occasional reviews and pieces for Bmoreart and Film Festival Today.Links: https://chrisreedfilm.com/about/http://www.hammertonail.com/

“Brides of Tortuga,” “Grundelhammer” and “Phantom of the Paradise” were three of the original productions staged by the Baltimore Rock Opera Society over the last eight years. But BROS actors, writers, designers, builders, musicians and artists now finds themselves in exile, without a headquarters and production house. The nonprofit opera company was among tenants of the old Bell Foundry building until Baltimore officials condemned the workspace in the Station North Arts District last month. Now BROS is trying to raise money to buy a permanent home for its raucous and imaginative productions. Today’s guest: Aran Keating, the company’s artistic director, talks about BROS’s quest for a new space. Here’s an amusing video that BROS used in 2015 to raise funds.Links:http://baltimorerockopera.org/https://www.crowdrise.com/brosforeverhomehttp://www.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimore-insider-blog/bal-hilarious-video-launches-fundraising-campaign-for-baltimore-rock-opera-society-20150224-story.html

1:29: Just two days after being sworn in as Maryland’s junior Senator, Chris Van Hollen took to the floor to speak out against Republican fast-track efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On today’s podcast, Van Hollen talks about the consequences of dismantling President Obama’s signature health insurance law.18:48: Rep. Elijah Cummings criticizes congressional Republicans, including the chairman of a government watchdog committee, for not questioning President-elect Donald Trump’s extensive foreign financial holdings and the potential for conflicts in his presidency. Cummings and other Democrats have filed legislation requiring all presidents to divest of their businesses and put their assets in a blind trust. Anything short of that, says the Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will put Trump in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause the day he takes office. In this podcast, Cummings also talks about the significance of the Russian hack

With President Obama scheduled to give his farewell address from Chicago on Tuesday night, Michael Days, editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, talks about the president’s legacy. Days has written a book about Obama’s time in the Oval Office, assessing everything from the passage of the Affordable Care Act to the Detroit bailout and the efforts to pull the nation out of the worst economic decline since the Great Depression. Days, author of “Obama’s Legacy: What He Accomplished,” will be the featured speaker Tuesday evening in Baltimore as part of the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Writers LIVE! Series.Links:https://www.whitehouse.gov/farewellhttps://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-i-days/obamas-legacy/9781455596614/http://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/writers_live_michael_i_days_obamas_legacy_what_he_accomplished_as_president#.WHPfVdIrK71

1:04: John Fritze, the Sun's Washington correspondent, talks about the new Congress and the battles ahead, plus the roles of Maryland's two Democratic senators, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, are expected to play in Trump administration confirmation hearings next week.12:52: Kevin Rector, crime and criminal justice reporter for The Sun, provides perspective to the disturbing statement, by the police union leader, that Baltimore does not have enough cops on patrol to protect its citizenry. The warning came just after the city closed out another deadly year of violence, with homicides over 300 in both 2015 and 2016.21:23: Luke Broadwater, City Hall reporter, talks about Baltimore's new mayor, Catherine Pugh, and her first big challenge — getting crime under control as the city and the U.S. Justice Department work toward a consent decree on police reforms. Plus, what's up with the city's new water-billing system and those crazy, $80,000 bills some homeowners received?