Roughly Speaking

Jeffrey Peck was an ----academically precocious---- kid who graduated from high school at 11, and from Towson University at 15. He was a profoundly gifted boy who seemed destined for a career in biological sciences. But, at 24, Peck drove to an abandoned elementary school north of Hunt Valley and killed himself with carbon monoxide. His devastated parents set out to learn why their only son had committed suicide. His mother, Dolores Peck, says her son was the victim of cyber-bullying during the last weeks of his life. She tells the story in a published memoir, and on the show today.Links:http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-05-11/news/0105110155_1_towson-beta-beta-dundalkhttps://www.facebook.com/agiftedlifecutshortthejeffreypeckstory/

Recordings of dispatchers, along with communications between officers and commanders, provide the minute-by-minute story of the quick response of police to the deadly shooting in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis last Thursday.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-quick-response-20180629-story.html

On this post-primary show, The Sun's Erin Cox and Luke Broadwater talk about Tuesday's election, starting with progressive Democrat Ben Jealous' decisive victory over five other gubernatorial candidates. Jealous will face incumbent Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in November's mid-term election. Also on the show: Commentary by Melissa Deckman, professor and chair in political science at Washington College. A look at the results from Baltimore County with Sun reporter Pamela Wood.

On the eve of Tuesday's primary election, Dan speaks with Sun reporters Erin Cox, Luke Broadwater and Pamela Wood about the campaigns for Maryland governor, Baltimore County executive, Baltimore State's Attorney and other offices.

Featured on today's show: A wide-ranging conversation with writer and activist Darnell L. Moore on Trump and immigrants, the Bible and politicians, and growing up black and gay.Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends a great summer beach read, ----The High Season,---- by Judy Blundell.Darnell Moore, a writer and editor and one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter, talks about the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants, the now-abandoned family separation policy, and the use of the Bible to defend public policy. Moore is the author of, ----No Ashes In The Fire,---- a memoir of his life as a black boy growing up in -- and surviving -- Camden, N.J.Links:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561515/the-high-season-by-judy-blundell/9780525508717/https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/darnell-l-moore/no-ashes-in-the-fire/9781549168727/

Six Democratic candidates are seeking their party's nomination this month to challenge Republican incumbent Andy Harris in Maryland's 1st Congressional District in November. Two of the candidates -- longtime Talbott County attorney Michael Pullen and Army veteran Jesse Colvin -- are on today's show, talking about their respective challenges to Harris and about an array of issues facing the district, which runs from the Eastern Shore to the metro Baltimore counties.Both Colvin and Pullen have been guests on earlier episodes of Roughly Speaking, and another candidate, Alison Galbraith was on the show in November and April.Other candidates did not respond to invitations to the podcast.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-jesse-colvin-20180223-htmlstory.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-michael-pullen-20180320-htmlstory.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-crime-fight-2

Kurtis Williams, who has spent half of his 35 years in Maryland prisons for second-degree murder, has earned parole. He's back in Baltimore and facing the formidable challenge of finding a job. “As callous as this sounds,” Williams says, “this is Baltimore City, and I’m not the first, and I’m not going to be the last, person that might have a murder charge sitting in front of you. That’s unfortunate. But that’s just the reality of the city that we’re living in.” Hear about his early life, his crime, his time in prison and his experiences being home and looking for work after 17 years behind the walls.

During the last week, there have been more than 1.5 million views of an online video featuring Maryland gubernatorial candidate Krish Vignarajah responding to sexist and racist tweets. Vignarajah says she has received hate mail and mean tweets ridiculing her gender, her ethnicity and even the appearance of her 11-month-old daughter, Alana, in a campaign ad. We hear what the trolls said, and how Vignarajah responded, in the candidate's second visit to the Roughly Speaking studio. Dan's first conversation with the candidate, former policy director for First Lady Michelle Obama, was in December, Episode 334, and covered an array of issues and candidate positions.Links:https://www.facebook.com/NowThisHer/videos/1286847331446139/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzVRsi7MF8shttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-krish-vignarajah-20171214-htmlstory.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-krish-vignarajah-profile-20180521-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.co

A look at what's growing in Baltimore: A spring survey of the city's biodiversity leads to the discovery of a rare wild plant in the Jones Falls Valley while, elsewhere, workers tend to more than 1,000 fruit and nut trees in 100 orchards across the city. Who knew the city had orchards?Book recommendation: Our critic, Paula Gallagher, likes a new memoir, ----Beauty In The Broken Places,---- by Allison Pataki.Wolf Pecher, an associate professor at the University of Baltimore, leads Dan to the rare native plant, the purple-stemmed cliff brake, discovered growing in a railroad bridge abutment during a recent biodiversity survey in the Jones Falls Valley. Eric Sargent, planting coordinator for Civic Works' Baltimore Orchard Project, talks about the fruit and nuts trees planted in more than 100 locations across the city and describes BOP's latest undertaking, Moveable Orchards, during a visit to the pilot site at the Baltimore Food Hub in East Baltimore.Links:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554652/beauty-i

In the latest in a series of conversations with candidates for governor of Maryland, attorney Jim Shea says the man he hopes to challenge in November, incumbent Republican Larry Hogan, has been just ----treading water,---- doing little to advance education, transportation and Baltimore's crime fight. Shea says that, in lowering highway tolls, widening roads and ----doing no harm,---- Hogan has lowered expectations for the governor's office, and Shea promises to reverse Hogan's minimalist approach.Joining the conversation is Shea's running mate, lieutenant governor candidate and Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-jim-shea-profile-20180515-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-jim-shea-20170802-htmlstory.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks/bal-roughly-speaking-2018-gubernatorial-candidates-storygallery.htmlhttps://elections2018.news.baltimoresun.com/

Dr. Gilbert Burnham, founder of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University, believes the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico could be even higher than the estimate of 4,600 made by researchers affiliated with Harvard's school of public health last week. The Harvard estimate far surpassed the government's count of the dead, and it underscored the problem of delayed medical care in the aftermath of the devastating storm. Burnham is an expert in conducting household surveys to estimate deaths from wars and natural disasters. He led teams that investigated civilian deaths after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and, more recently, deaths that occurred during the military liberation of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from ISIS control.Links:https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/110/gilbert-burnhamhttps://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1803972http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-hurricane-maria-deaths-20180529-story.htmlhttp://articles.baltimoresun.com/2006-10

A Baltimore movie, a Baltimore homecoming, and a good book.Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends a new psychological thriller: ----The Perfect Mother,---- by Aimee Molloy.Mike Finazzo, a Baltimore filmmaker, talks about his new made-in-Baltimore romance, ----Bored In The USA,---- and its upcoming premier at the Senator Theater.In the next few months, Marylanders will be hearing more about the Baltimore Homecoming, an effort to give the city a much-needed boost by reconnecting accomplished natives -- people who've gained fame and fortune -- to their hometown. The idea is to gather some of the Baltimore disapora, show them around the city and expose them to people, places and projects looking for backers and investors.Dan speaks with the co-founders of the October event, J.M. Shapiro and Nate Loewenthiel.Plus, we hear about an effort to identify people in the city doing great things. The organizers of the Baltimore Homecoming are looking for nominations for Homecoming Hero Awards. Details in the show and at th

In another in a series of conversations leading up to the June 26 primary election, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Madaleno says Maryland under Larry Hogan ----walked away from [Baltimore] during the darkest times.---- Madaleno criticizes the incumbent Republican for failing to support the city by killing the Red Line transit system and the redevelopment of the state government center on the city's west side. Madaleno, a state senator from Montgomery County, also claims that policies Hogan adopted -- on education funding and transportation, for instance -- were made possible by progressive Democrats in Annapolis who held Hogan’s budget-cutting ambitions in check.In this episode, we also hear from Madaleno's running mate, Luwanda Jenkins. A Baltimore native, Jenkins has extensive background in business and state government. Among other positions, she directed the Office of Minority Affairs for Maryland’s last three Democratic governors.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-

Book critic Paula Gallager recommends ----Love And Ruin,---- a new novel based on the marriage of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn.With the release today of ----Solo: A Star Wars Story,---- film critics Linda DeLibero and Christopher Llewellyn Reed tells us what they think of the latest prequel in the Star Wars franchise while offering a retrospective of the main subject of the new movie -- Han Solo, the smuggler and starship pilot played by Harrison Ford in the original series.Our critics: Linda DeLibero is director of Film and Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Christopher Llewellyn Reed is chair and professor in the department of film and moving image at Stevenson University. They join us once a month to discuss the cinema, current and classic.Links:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534054/love-and-ruin-by-paula-mclain/9781101967386/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/sns-tns-bc-solo-movie-review-20180524-story.htmlhttps://krieger.jhu.edu/film-media/directory/linda-delibero/https:/

As graduation season approaches, a lot of college-bound seniors are happy to have the tense admissions process behind them. That process, says family psychologist Brad Sachs, is fraught with all sorts of problems created by the pressures placed on students to win acceptance to the country's most prestigious universities. Some high school students have been driven to suicide over pressures from final exams and college expectations. Sachs works with children and parents as they struggle through the college decision, right up until graduation and, in some cases, even beyond. He talks about the pressures kids feel to excel and to get to top-tier schools.Brad Sachs specializes in clinical work with children, adolescents, couples and families. He is the founder and director of The Father Center, a program designed to meet the needs of new fathers. You can find Brad Sachs and a list of the books he’s written on his website.Links:http://www.drbradsachs.com/https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/19/this-16-year-olds-suici

In another in our series of conversations leading up to Maryland's June 26 primary election, tech guru and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alec Ross introduces us to his running mate, Julie Verratti, and talks about the need for ----21st Century thinking---- in state government. Ross criticizes the incumbent Republican governor, Larry Hogan, for failing to support Baltimore by killing the Red Line transit system and the redevelopment of the state government center on the city's west side. He also talks about the need to address the increasing costs of child care across the state.Verratti describes her background in federal government, working in the Small Business Administration, and her experiences running a business -- a brewery and restaurant -- in Montgomery County.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks/bal-roughly-speaking-2018-gubernatorial-candidates-storygallery.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-roughly-speaking-alec-ross-immigration-crackdown-

On today's show: A visit to the busy City Seeds kitchen at the East Baltimore food hub, and Paula Gallagher's weekly book recommendation.Paula's choice this week: ----Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles,---- by Ken Leadon.Time to see what’s happening at the East Baltimore food hub, a redevelopment project that has been in the making for several years. Last fall, City Seeds became the hub’s first tenant, moving into a shiny new building off North Wolfe Street. City Seeds is a commercial kitchen that provides catering and grab-and-go meals for some major institutions and businesses in Baltimore. Its core mission is to employ people who’ve faced challenges in their lives and train them for culinary careers. It’s an impressive social enterprise of the Humanin non-profit. On today’s show, we meet Deborah Haust, the Humanim vice-president who runs City Seeds as well as the other program in the new space, School of Food; Chef Aharon Denrich and some of his staff -- James St. John, the cookie man;

With more than 135 million views, ----This Is America,---- the provocative video by Childish Gambino, the musical alter ego of actor Donald Glover, has quickly become a cultural phenomenon. The symbolism in its dancing, staging and violent imagery has been the subject of robust interpretation. The song opened at No. 1 on Billboard's singles chart this week. American culture commentator Sheri Parks joins us to talk about the song's refrain, ----This is America/Don't catch you slippin' up,---- and what she sees as a reference to several recent instances of white people calling 911 to report black people in public spaces.Sheri Parks has been associate dean at the University of Maryland and, starting June 1, she will be taking on a new job as vice-president for strategic initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art.Links:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY

Picking up on a favorite subject of Republicans since Ronald Reagan -- the assumption of widespread abuse of the country's social safety net -- the Trump administration has ordered an audit of federal welfare programs while supporting efforts by some states to attach work requirements to food stamps and Medicaid.Dan's guest: Michael Reisch, an expert on social policy, professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a one-time resident of public housing in New York.Reisch explores why many Americans who in some way benefit from the social safety net -- or have it as backup -- believe that it’s rife with fraud. A letter from a Sun reader in western Maryland provides Exhibit A of that attitude.

In another in a series of interviews with candidates in June's primary, Baltimore State's Attorney candidate Ivan Bates promises to recruit experienced lawyers to prosecute repeat violent offenders who, he says, have been getting off too easy during the tenure of incumbent Marilyn Mosby.Bates says the failures of Mosby's office have contributed to Baltimore's increase in violence, a surge now in its fourth year. The city recorded its 100th homicide of the year this week.Bates, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, says Mosby's office has been depleted of prosecutorial talent, makes too many plea deals and loses too many prosecutions of violent offenders. He also says he wants to emphasize fighting crime at its roots — among juvenile offenders, and in the communities hardest hit by violence.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-youth-violence-20180509-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-100-homicides-20180509-story.htmlhttps://elections2018.news.balti