Roughly Speaking

In a new book, sportswriter Alejandro Danois tells the story of the Dunbar High School basketball team of 1981-1982, with four future NBA players on its roster — Muggsy Bogues, Dave Wingate, Reggie Lewis and Reggie Williams — one of the greatest prep teams ever. Danois, editor-in-chief of The Shadow League sports-and-culture website, chronicles life in East Baltimore in the early 1980s and profiles the players and their coach, Bob Wade, during an undefeated season that paved the way for a national title the following year. Danois’ book is “The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball,” published by Simon and Schuster.Links:https://www.theshadowleague.com/authors/102http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Boys-of-Dunbar/Alejandro-Danois/9781451666977

2:22: Culture commentator Sheri Parks talks about San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest and the evolving definition of patriotism among the millennial generation of Americans.18:08: Melissa Deckman, chair of the the political science department at Washington Goucher, and Mileah Kromer, director of the Goucher Poll, talk about the race for the White House between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and the importance of the approaching televised debates.43:36: Sun media critic David Zurawik says the television networks and cable channels have been derelict in fully vetting Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, leaving the heavy lift of investigative reporting to newspapers and news web sites.

A talk about the presidential campaign: Hillary Clinton’s health issues and her struggles with transparency, the nature of Trump’s appeal to people in Dundalk, and some thoughts about the approaching debate between the two candidates. Dan’s guests are Kimberly Moffitt, associate professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-editor of “The Obama Effect," and Michael Reisch, the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Erica Green, education reporter for The Sun, talks about Renaissance Academy, the last-resort high school for at-risk youth in West Baltimore where a student was stabbed to death in a classroom last year. In addition, two other Renaissance students were killed within weeks of each other during the winter months. Now the U.S. Department of Education has granted the school $350,000 to enhance its highly-praised mentorship program and to help faculty establish and maintain a safe learning environment. Green talks about the school, the violence, last spring’s graduation and Renaissance’s determined principal, Nikkia Rowe.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-ci-renaissance-grant-20160906-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ci-renaissance-graduation-20160604-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-renaissance-wolves-20160305-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-renaissance-academy-graduates-discus

Two Baltimore sommeliers talk about their profession, helping diners order wine in restaurants without feeling bad about it.Ahead of the 33rd annual Maryland Wine Festival, a conversation with two Baltimore sommeliers about their profession and how they interact with restaurant customers. Greg Schwab is sommelier at La Cuchara in the Woodberry section of Baltimore. Jack Wells, who studied under the late Nelson Carey at Grand Cru, is the new sommelier at nearby Woodberry Kitchen. Both those restaurants recently made Wine Enthusiast magazine's list of top 100 wine restaurants in America.Links:https://www.facebook.com/events/1828192877467889/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bs-fo-wine-study-group-20160823-story.htmlhttp://www.lacucharabaltimore.com/the-restaurant/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-07-23/news/bs-md-ob-nelson-carey-20140723_1_wine-bar-grand-cru-food-and-wine/2http://www.woodberrykitchen.com/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bal-four-baltimore-restaurants-wine-prog

1:24: Baltimore City has been asked to finance more than half-a-billion dollars in infrastructure improvements for Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank’s Port Covington project, and that proposal has generated a lot of news this week. Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun staff joins us for this update.15:39: Brendan Dorr, president of the Baltimore bartenders guild and bartender at the B----O American Brasserie, shares thoughts about new rye whiskies that are being distilled, including Baltimore’s Sagamore Rye. Brendan offers a cocktail recipe, too — for The Diamondback.33:11: John Shields of Gertrude’s restaurant in the Baltimore Museum of Art shares some recipes for finger food, the appetizers you can make and serve if you’re having a happy hour at home. John draws his ideas from the late James Beard and from a 2007 article about appetizers by Mark Bittman in The New York Times.48:42: Film critic Christopher Llewellyn Reed reviews “Sully," the new Clint Eastwood film starring Tom Hanks as Sully Sullenberger, the pi

It has been 40 years since the Supreme Court ruled outright on the constitutionality of the death penalty. The court took up issues related to the death penalty — what kind of drugs can be used to kill a man, for instance — but, as to whether lethal injection by the state amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the 8th amendment, the court has not visited constitutionality since 1976. That could change in the near future because of what might turn out to be a landmark dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer. In June 2015, dissenting from the majority’s opinion in an Oklahoma case known as Glossip v. Gross, Breyer suggested that the death penalty had become so problematic in its application — arbitrary, unfair, unreliable — that it might be unconstitutional. He said the court should consider the question again and invited a new challenge to it. Legal scholars believe Breyer’s dissent sets the stage for a fresh look at the death penalty by the Supreme Court.The Brookings Institution in Washington aske

Before your grandmother could listen to a radio, someone had to figure out what it should look like. Same with television a couple of decades later. Today, we head back several decades to learn about a prolific artist named John Vassos, who designed some really cool radios and televisions, and a lot of other things (view a gallery of some of them below) — portable record players, juke boxes, restaurants, a fountain pen, even the turnstile still in use at Oriole Park and other major league ballparks. He was also involved in the design of an early fax machine intended to deliver newspapers via radio waves to homes in the 1930s. Danielle Shapiro, who lives in Baltimore, is our guest. A historian of modern design, she’s written a biography, “John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life.” Links:http://www.johnvassos.com/about-the-author.htmlhttp://www.johnvassos.com/john-vassos-industrial-design-for-modern-life.html

2:07: Liz Bowie, the Sun’s senior education reporter, talks about the reaction to Maryland Gov Larry Hogan’s decree that all public school systems start their academic year after Labor Day and end by June 15.14:52: Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian, reviews three books — one about “pseudocide,” or faking one’s death; an excellent memoir about going gluten-free and a first-time novel that takes us back to Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-school-labor-day-20160831-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-labor-day-local-districts-20160901-story.htmlhttp://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Playing-Dead/Elizabeth-Greenwood/9781476739335http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/247616/in-memory-of-bread-by-paul-graham/9780804186872/http://thepenguinpress.com/book/monterey-bay/

You can’t learn to throw a curveball from words and pictures in a book. Why is that? Jonathan Flombaum, an assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University, mixes philosophy with some neuroscience to come up with an answer. We also talk about algorithms, machine leaning, deep learning, three-pointers and autonomous cars. Flombaum’s work at the Visual Thinking Lab at Hopkins focuses on big questions about the brain: What we already know about how it works and, more importantly, what we don’t know, and why so much of the brain’s process is a mystery to us.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bal-learning-to-throw-the-curve-ball-and-other-mysteries-of-the-brain-20160831-story.htmlhttp://www.jhuvisualthinkinglab.com/

2:37/42:05: Julie Lawson, executive director of Trash Free Maryland, talks about the amount of micro-plastics her organization has found in the Chesapeake Bay and efforts underway to reduce the kind of pollution barely discernible to the eye. Also, Lawson talks about Trash Free Maryland’s project to recover and track some of the merchandise lost by Main Street stores during the Ellicott City flood late last month, including ceramic Christmas figurines.13:01: Rona Kobell, reporter with the Chesapeake Bay Journal, discusses Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to roll back septic rules for new houses put in place by his predecessor, Martin O’Malley. Plus, O’Malley-era oyster sanctuaries — watermen want some of them opened to harvest, and they might get their way. Rona also has a story about ex-offenders being put to work planting trees in Baltimore neighborhoods in dire need of things green.Linkshttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bal-last-and-found-a-flotilla-of-figurines-from-the-ellic

2:13: Dr. John Cmar, an infectious disease specialist based at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, gives an excellent primer and update on Zika following news that Johns Hopkins Medicine plans to establish the world’s first center devoted to the mosquito-borne virus.27:58: The Sun’s media critic David Zurawik’s head almost explodes as he gets into … all of it: Trump, Clinton, Bannon/Brietbart, Ailes, The New York Times, Vietnam, lies and moral authority.48:38: Catherine Pugh, the Democratic candidate for mayor of Baltimore in November’s election, says she’s been researching “best practices” for approaching some of the city’s chronic problems. She speaks with Dan about the Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department and her idea for tackling unemployment in the city’s most distressed neighborhoods.

2:49: The Baltimore Police Department has been using a surveillance plane to investigate all sorts of crimes, from property thefts to shootings, reports Bloomberg Businessweek, and some Baltimore citizens are outraged about it. Sean Gallagher, IT editor of ars technica, talks about how the system works and the company behind it.14:16: Plus, who hacked the hackers at the National Security Agency? More from Sean on a story that has the information security world buzzing and bolstering system defenses.Links: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-secret-surveillance-20160824-story.htmlhttp://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/a-tivo-for-crime-how-always-recording-airborne-cameras-watch-entire-cities/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-nsa-hacked-auction-20160815-story.html

Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee and Maryland lieutenant governor, says he’s spoken privately with Donald Trump about "some of the crazy," and says the Republican presidential nominee "is his own worst enemy." With his controversial and offensive statements, Trump has been "writing the commercials for Hillary Clinton," says Steele, but he adds that a much-needed change is now underway, thanks to Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. Steele, who served as RNC chair from 2009 to 2011, is a political analyst for MSNBC.

2:06: John Dickerson, host of "Face The Nation" on CBS, talks about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and presidential campaigns of the past. Dickerson is a contributor to Slate and its podcast "The Political Gabfest." He is the author of “Whistlestop: My favorite stories from Presidential Campaign History.”24:37: Sheri Parks, our American culture commentator, talks about the Rio Olympics, race and gender, and about the prominent roles black women have played in the summer games. Parks, associate dean in arts and humanities at the University of Maryland College Park, is the author of “Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman In American Life and Culture.”Links:http://www.cbsnews.com/face-the-nation/http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/gabfest.htmlhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FD96JQ6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8----btkr=1#nav-subnavhttps://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Angels-Strong-American-Culture/dp/0345503147

With a remake of “Ben-Hur” opening in theaters nationwide, film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed talk about the long, loud and lavish line of Hollywood epics that stand iconic in American cinematic history, including the remarkable productions of “Ben-Hur” from 1925 and with Charlton Heston in 1959. Plus, Chris and Linda review two new films, “Hell or High Water,” and “War Dogs."Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nO2DPqO6Bghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irQdcfOZpCUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQoqsKoJVDwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdFIkMY1SUI

Elizabeth Letts, author of the best-selling book, "The Eighty-Dollar Champion," talks about how she discovered the great story of champion jumper Snowman and the horseman who saved him from the slaughterhouse, Harry de Leyer. Snowman is the subject of a documentary film due for release in September. Letts has a new book, due out next week, also about saving horses. "The Perfect Horse" tells how the Nazis stole priceless European stallions and set out to develop a super breed of horses, built for war. It also chronicles the men of a U.S. Army unit who carried out a secret mission at the end of World War II to save the stallions from certain death.Links:http://www.elizabethletts.com/elizabeth-letts/http://www.elizabethletts.com/the-eighty-dollar-champion-snowman-the-horse-that-inspired-a-nation/https://vimeo.com/111068304http://www.elizabethletts.com/the-perfect-horse/

As the new school year begins, Jennifer Green, co-founder and CEO of Baltimore-based Urban Teachers, talks about her program’s success in preparing hundreds of college graduates for lasting careers in city schools. Since 2010, Urban Teachers has used a demanding, medical school-style residency model to develop new teachers for jobs in Baltimore and other low-income school districts across the country.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-teacher-residency-20140817-story.htmlhttp://www.urbanteachers.org/

1:54: Book critic Paula Gallagher reviews what has all the makings of the next great American novel, Colson Whitehead’s "The Underground Railroad."9:11: Sean Gallagher, IT editor of ars technica and our favorite tech-splainer, talks about the suspected Russian hack of Democratic National Committee email and its larger, geopolitical significance.28:33: We meet John Rusnak, a former currency trader convicted 14 years ago in one of the largest U.S. bank frauds in history. As an ex-offender, Rusnak now devotes a good part of his life to a jailhouse ministry, visiting young men and boys -- juveniles all -- who face trial for violent offenses. Rusk is executive director of UnCuffed, a faith-based organization devoted to young offenders who face an uncertain future.47:28: And we top off the show with a chat with John Shields, cookbook author, chef and owner of Gertrude’s in the Baltimore Museum of Art. Today’s topic is Corn: Beyond Boiled and Buttered. We’ll compare notes on recipes for corn off the cob.Links:http:/

A University of Baltimore criminologist talks about the scathing Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department. Jeffrey Ian Ross wonders why federal investigators did not undertake their examination of policing practices sooner and how the DOJ will go about enforcing its recommendations for reforms. Ross is professor in the School of Criminal Justice and a research fellow of the Center for International and Comparative Law at UB. He is the author of several books including, "Policing Issues: Challenges and Controversies," published in 2011 by Jones ---- Bartlett Learning.Links:http://www.jeffreyianross.com/Forthcoming_Q0KG.phphttps://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-Ian-Ross/e/B000AQ10W6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1378919895----sr=1-2-enthttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/doj-report/bs-md-ci-doj-reaction-20160810-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-doj-report-20160810-story.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/dan.rodricks/photos/a.212487828799080.50839.212350378812