Roughly Speaking with Dan Rodricks

Episode 277: Baltimore Politics, Part III: Building and rebuilding the city, separating the races

Continuing from episodes 275 and 276, political historian Matt Crenson describes Baltimore in the decades after the Civil War.

Rodricks: Trump's idea of making America great is not mine
The failure of Republicans to ruin Obamacare is a testament to American greatness: The Affordable Care Act was so well designed — in principle and, to a considerable extent, in practice — that it's pretty much impossible to kill. Despite incessant rhetorical attacks and efforts at sabotage, Obamacare...
Rodricks: The great Baltimore swine debate
In the beginning, back when Baltimore was a town of just 60 acres, there were pigs. There were people, of course — 43 of them by 1729 — but apparently a lot of pigs, too: free-roaming swine that some 18th-century Baltimoreans liked and others despised. Some of the town's first inhabitants considered...

'Your guests will inhale this salad and ask for the recipe'
Turning fresh vegetables and greens into a summer garden party
Ten years since 'Sicko,' still seeking a cure
Ten years ago this month, Michael Moore's "Sicko" offered a blistering survey of the for-profit health insurance industry. The two-hour polemic focused not so much on the 48 million Americans who were at the time uninsured, but on men and women engaged in futile battles with their private insurers...
Rodricks: 'If we could just stop the homicides'
A couple of months ago, I was in the back of Joe Hooe's tire shop on Hanover Street, on Baltimore's south side, because he wanted to show me exactly what he had done to Beulah, my car. Nice guy, this Joe. After explaining how he had balanced Beulah's tires, he offered me beef tenderloin on a bun....

The take-away from the Smith brothers tragedy
The pervasive violence and trauma across generations in Baltimore
The problem in Washington, and throughout America: not enough grownups
A president who is a mature adult, conscious of his station and worthy of respect, would not concern himself with morning television and the insults of the chattering class. He would get out of the house early and go to the streets where young men are dying from gunfire — here in Baltimore, for...
Good Books for Summer 2017, recommended by Paula Gallagher
Paula Gallagher, Baltimore County librarian, offers a rich list of titles for summer reading