On The Record

On the Record reflects on the last nine years of our radio show and the interviews with — and insights from— artists, scientists, community leaders, and others that we spoke with along the way.

Sheilah Kast talks with former UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski about empathy, dialog, and forgiveness in this fraught political moment.

The Lumbee Indian community has had a longstanding presence in Baltimore. They arrived after World War II when thousands of people came looking for work, migrating up from North Carolina. When they arrived, many of the families centered around East Baltimore Street. Community-based artist and folklorist Ashley Minner Jones, a member of the Lumbee community, has used her talents to preserve, document and educate people about the community for years. She talks with us about her latest project: 'Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies.' We also talk with Jill Fannon Prevas, a Baltimore-based artist and photographer who collaborated on the project. 'Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies' opens at Eastpoint Mall on Indigenous Peoples Day, October 13, 2025. There is a reception, open to the public, at 6:30pm.

When you think of Ancient Egypt, what comes to mind? Sand, the Nile, pyramids, the Sphinx? Maybe, even mummies. If you’re thinking about mummies, you’re probably thinking about human mummies. But millions of animals were also mummified; they’ve been found at burial sites across Egypt — cats, dogs, birds and more. Those animal mummies are the focus of 'Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt,' a new exhibit at the Walters Art Museum and for a closer look, we turn to Lisa Anderson-Zhu, the Walters’ Curator of Ancient Mediterranean Art and the Curator of Provenance.

If you find “Lawyer Oyer” on TikTok or Instagram, the voice is calm and the demeanor steady. It can feel like a 3-minute tutorial on the law. But listen, and you realize it’s not at all passive. Before Liz Oyer was in charge of pardons at the U.S. Department of Justice, she was a federal public defender in Maryland for ten years. She was fired by the Trump administration six months ago, and started posting as Lawyer Oyer in April. We ask her about the 'Five-Alarm Fire' at the justice department, and more.