He's Holy & I'm Knott

I think it's safe to say that the Rev and I love Keiffer Mitchell.  Imagine being him, growing up in Baltimore, in the Mitchell family, one of the Baltimore's most prominant families, the expectations that they all always live up to.

Public service is how they do it...for Keiffer it started with 12 years in the City Council, 1995 throught 2007 and then served in our legilature and went on to serve as a close advisor to former Governor Larry Hogan. 

What was it like to grow up in the Mitchell Family, come along for the ride and learn what it was like to grow up as Keiffer Mitchell, a Boy's Latin Laker Alumni, a former History teacher at that great institution.

Keiffer lays it all out there, he's a Baltimore treasure, from the days at the Farmers Market hand sqeezing Oranges to the days of running for Mayor, and finally as Chief of Staff basically running the State..Keiffer is one of Baltimore's best Ambassadors and this conversation is cool and refreshing...

In 1999 and in 2005, he was voted Baltimore's "Best Politician" by Baltimore City Paper. Among his community activities are membership on the Echo Hill Outdoor School Board, the Family Tree Board, the Habitat for Humanity Board, and the Board of Trustees of the Boys' Latin School. A lifelong parishioner at Sharp Street United Methodist Church, he lives in Baltimore's historic Bolton Hill, where he serves on the board of his neighborhood association.

Keiffer Mitchell, living the life of a Mitchell in our great city.  Thanks Keiffer, for all you have done for Baltimore,keep rolling..

Friends, this is a great conversation....

Enjoy!

We are back and we have 4 shows lined up for the opening of Season 4. We have some amazing guests coming out over the next four weeks and we are very excited for Season 4.  Following todays post with Rebecca Hoffberger we have three more great Marylanders, Keiffer Mitchell, Pat Moran and James Williams of the Amerrican Cancer Society.  Stay tuned for these Tuesday  releases over the next few weeks as we get in the studio with some great new guests.

It's so great to Welcome the great Rebecca Hoffberger.  A visionary for the Visionaries, Visionary Artists that is, she's established one of the most unique treasured Museums in the Country. Rebecca is someone that Rev. Al and I have both known for a long time. She was married to an incredible man who also had vision the late Leroy Hoffberger, father to one of my best friends Doug Hoffberger... Smaltimore...

Rebecca has done an incredible job with the American Visionary Arts Museum, how about this fact, AVAM is second to the BMA when it comes to visitors and that's saying something given the incredible Museums we have in Baltimore.  Rebecca is gifted and she has the most beautiful soul, she's traveled the world and worked with some incredible minds.   A life-long devotee of the power of intuition and fresh thought, Hoffberger was accepted into college at age 15 though chose instead the personal invitation of internationally renowned mime Marcel Marceau, to become his first American apprentice in Paris.

By 19, Rebecca had co-founded her own ballet company and by 21, was a sought-after consultant to a broad spectrum of nonprofits, including research and development scientific companies. At 25, she was awarded the title of “Dame” for her work to establish medical field hospitals in Nigeria. She studied alternative and folk medicine in Mexico. Returning to the States, Hoffberger served on the Board of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Center in Virginia and worked as Development Director at the Sinai Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry for People Encouraging People, where she first conceived her unique national visionary museum/education center. In recognition of this distinguished achievement in the museum field, Hoffberger was awarded the 2011 Katherine Coffey Award by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums. Hoffberger has received Honorary Doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Stevenson University, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and McDaniel College, as well as awarded Loyola College's Andrew White Award—the school’s highest civic honor—the College of Notre Dame Sarah's Circle Award, and was selected as Franklin & Marshall College's Conrad Nelson Lecturer. She is an inductee into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, a winner of the Urban Land Institute's National Award for Excellence, Israel Bonds' Golda Meir Award, and the first recipient of the Sir Arthur C. Clarke Vision and Imagination Award.

Any questions, we get into lots of things, there's so much to talk about, both Rev. Al and I are thrilled to know and call Rebecca a good friend.  Thanks Rebecca!

You're gonna love this one!

Enjoy!

One of things we love about this experience is the opportunity to bring to light organizations that are doing amazing work throughout the City, this episode we have Bernand Foster who is the Executive Director of the Tuerk House and he has overseen and been a part of tremendous growth since he came on board in 2011. 

Founded in 1970, the concept of drug and alcohol treatment was forever changed with the founding of this dynamic organization.   Dr. Isadore Tuerk, then the commissioner of Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene—knew there was a more collaborative, compassionate way to help people find lifelong healing and recovery. From their vision, Tuerk House was born. Today, our non-profit drug and alcohol treatment system serves nearly 300 patients a day, regardless of their ability to pay, through an innovative, integrated model of care that encompasses all aspects of recovery.

300 patients a day that's alot of people they are serving with four centers open, the biggest and most active in the City. All of this is made possible by the incredible leadership team and all of the dedicated workers that are providing hope for these patients in neeed.  Wait until you learn about their leader, Bernard Foster, who believe's God sent him here to do this work, and one thing I can tell you is Thank God for Bernard Foster, who opens up and brings along on his journey to do Gods work. 

Thanks to Bernard Foster and his team, doing God's work!  Enjoy!

Wow, every once and a while we bring forward these great organizations from the heart our our community and they are doing amazing work, right in our backyard.  Walter Billips and Earl El Amin are doing the work that's helping turn peoples lives in the right direction. 

NCIA, The program runs five traning courses for incredible jobs that can provide for a great living and everyone of them allows the skills possesor to do what they do nearly anywhere in the world. 

Let's take note, HVAC/R, Automobile Repair. Drones, Commercial Drivers Training, CDL, and Culinary Arts.  They have a great group of choices for those that enter the program do the hard work, and end up in jobs in our community.  They enjoy great relationships with other non profits in the City such as DCREP, District Court Re-Entry Program, and they are super focused on members of the population that are returning citizens with a real focus on Veterns returning to the workforce.

Nothing comes for free, these programs give people an opoortunity, skills are where its at.

What a joy it was to welcome these guys, we are both interested in the programs we would love to help hire people from this program and our next talk is going to be there when the Rev and I pay them a visit. I am excited to see this exciting program in action. 

Rev. and Earl are familiar faces in the community and Walters doing the lords work out there. Tune in for a great discussion that's shines the light on NCIA and the incredible people that work there and the work they are doing. 

Gentlemen, thanks for catching up and thanks for giving men and women a second chance and a fresh start. 

Reverand Al and I have been busy, AIR LLC and Beloved Community Services are about as busy as they have ever been and before we get even busier.  So its time to get busy with a series of new Podcasts to be released over the next two months. We've been back in the Advanced Indoor Resources Poast Studio with a bunch of exciting new guests. 

So get ready for weekly Posts as the next two months are filled with amazing guests just like Samantha Musgrove and Devin Weaver.  These two young hungry individuals are making Waves bringing free internet to parts of Baltimore that could easily be considered Internet Deserts. 

More than 96,000 homes in Baltimore City lack internet home service.  This has broad implications for these residents who lack this service.  How about this fact, at the start of the pandemic more than 24,000 students couldn't get online to continue their educations while they spent much of the Spring at home. That statistic in and of itself is why we are promoting this work.  You might well imagine where we do and don't have service throughtout the City, and if you guessed the same neighborhoods that were redlined over 100 years ago you guessed right.

Project Waves was founded in 2018 and through the design and creation of the Waves Point to Multipoint wireless network, their team has connected over 300 households to free high speed internet service.  Baltimore City residents face one of the highest rates of Digital Disconnectivity in the United States.  As you might imagine a lack of access, affordability and digital literacy exacerbate disparities in Education, healthcare access, stable housing and more.

Unlike traditional Internet Servcie Providers Project Waves is a non profit who's priority is ensuring members of their network have relaible high speed internet service regardless of socioeconomic status. 

Samantha and Devin bring so much energy and knowledge to this effort and they are a dynamic duo that are getitng the job done despite a lack of help and urgency from the City, who ultimately controls their destiny.  Listen in to this Podcast, there's so much to learn and understand about the heavy lifting that the people at Project Waves have undertaken.  Thanks to Sam and Devin your energy and enthusiam for providing what the UN has declared a human right, Internet service for all. 

Thanks for all you are doing to close the gap. 

Here we go wiith another great interview in Las Vegas at the ICSC Maryland Pool Party. 

We start off with Bill Henry, our Comptroller for the City of Baltimore, a Baltimore native and a man who has served our City for many years.  Bill gradualted HS class of 86' at Loyola Blakefield.  He served three terms as Baltimore's City Councilman representing the 4th District.  He loves revitalizing neighborhoods not only in his district but around the City.  He comes to the world of politics naturally because his father spent a life time running campaigns.  A mentor to Rev. Al, Bill's father sincerely beleived that you could make difference.  This trait passed along to Bill and he has run with it.  The man is totally prepared for the work he has taken on, Hopkins undergrad for Urban Studies and Loyola MBA with a concentration in Finance.  He's passionate about his job and he is working to bring the Comptrollers office into the 21st century.

This incredible conversation exposes the love he has for our City, we are lucky to have him.  It's not long before we are joined by Councilman Eric Costello, in his third term representing the mighty 11th District which consists of 24 individual neighborhoods and stretches from Fort McHenry all the way to Mt Vernon with alot going on.  Councilman Costello has established himself as the model Councilman, his sense of urgency is awesome and he always comes through for his constituents.

Two men, one from Baltimore and one from NY, both passionate workers for the betterment of our City. Thanks to both of them for taking time to speak with us during this incredible busy day for Elected officials in Las Vegas. 

So we are out in Las Vegas with all of the Developers in Maryland and as it turns out many Maryland born developers have also started developing in Virginia and who do we find at the Maryland Pool my friend, Levar Stoney..the Mayor of Richmond.

He grew up in Hampton Roads, went to James Madison and his next stop was Richmond. He fell in love with it and so why not become the Mayor.  The people of Richmond love him and he's done a great job as Mayor since being elected in 2016.  It's a two term limit in Virginia for Mayor and one term for the Governor, the Mayors success has many people in Virginia talking about a run for Governor in his future. 

This conversation spans 40 minutes but starts with Rev Al and the Mayor exchanging historical facts and family ties as the Rev has family from Richmond and knows his stuff, the ensuing discussion is enlightening and fun. 

The City of Richmond is a place where Levar Stoney is making a huge differance. He is the 80th Mayor elected in Richmond history, and prior to that he was the Secretary of State for Governor Terri McCaliffe's where he was the youngest member of that Administration. 

Levar Stoney is a winner, he knows how to build community, he knows how to lead and as a result the numbers across the board in Richmond are getting better. He's investing in Parks and infrastructure to support a City on the rise.   If you like Food Richmond is a new hot spot for foodies...

Jump in and learn about what makes this guy tick, Rev Al and I are so grateful for his time in between meetings and looking at deals for the City of Richmond.  We were lucky to have him come by. 

Thanks Levar, we appreciate you, your love for our neighbors to the south and your open mind about Government and how it can be better for the people... we can't wait to see what you do next. 

People come to Baltimore and fall in love with it and dedicate their lives to making it better,  Rev. Al and I couldn't be more excited to welcome Farmer Chippy a man who John Brothers couldn't stop talking about, so we had to bring him on and we quickly came to the conclusion he's a bigtime diamond in the rough.

Farmer Chippy, he's a farmer, he's community organizer, the father of two children and a difference maker in a Community that has been challenged for a too long. 

He started coming to Baltimore as a child to visit his grandfather from his home in Trinidad Tabago, he fell in love with the place and laid down his roots coinciding the birth of his first son...

If he's not working with kids that don't trust many other than him, he is buildng a reputation as someone that gets things done.  The largest Urban Farm in one of the state's most challenged neighborhood.  Bringing trust, growing a little food and providing "food for the mind" he's created a large following and he's leading his fellow citizens to the light. 

Community organizing is his strength and he recently pulled together the Carribean Community, which is prevelant and proud in Park Heights for a celebration of "Carnival" in Druid Hill Park, one of our favorite places. 

We got an hour with him, it's a great talk and we quickly realized that this guy is Holy, his work is Holy, and we are lucky to have him as a full fledged advocate for our City...This is what Baltimore does to  people...Rev and I feel the same way as you do Farmer Chippy, Baltimore, "The Greatest City in America"

Thanks for joining us and all you are doing for Baltimore.

Up Up and away we go...

So if you're looking for a conversation about development you might want to find yourself by the Pool at the Maryland Party at the ICSC Conference in Las Vegas Nevada.

Rev. Al and I couldn't be more pleased to have the opportunity to catch up with Mark Renbaum, a friend, and a man on a mission to bring a Transit Oriented Development to Lutherville, Maryland. 

Mark's firm owns the old Caldor site and is looking to redevelop that site as a transit oriented residential and commercial developement. He's also developing in the City with David Bramble at Northwood Plaza adjacent to Morgan plus he's involved in the redevelopment of Madison Park at the 800 Block of North Ave, a place that hasn't been invested in for too long. 

Mark takes the community approach, he understands that the community needs to be involved and he is working with them on prioritizing green space in Lutherville and delivering the ammenities that support a strong community.  Look at the transformation of Northwood by two of Baltimore's best  developers, a once blighted property now thriving with great retailers and a new grocery store for the community and it has all the amenties that the Morgan students want.

Lutherville is next and the investment in that property is going take the value from 9 million to over 200 million dollars.  The taxpayers paid for the light rail a long time ago, we should be maximizing it's use, this development improves the ROI for taxpayers and we all agree that we should be maximizing transit oriented development where ever we can. 

This is Holy work and Rev Al says Mark is a Holy man!  Come along for this lesson in development, he really is one of Baltimore's best. 

Thanks Mark for coming on to talk about your work and this incredible development in Lutherville, we can wait to see it when it's done!

This is the first of a bunch of new releases that were recorded while we attended the ICSC Convention. It is Maryland's Real Estate Extravaganza held anually at the Wynn in May. 

You can hear the crowd in the background around the pool,  a huge thanks and shout out to Howard Perlow and the Wynn for the set up and space to conduct these interviews..

Brooke grew up in politics, that's what happens when your fathers Terry Lierman, she represented the 43rd District in Baltimore City and did a fantastic job, always looking out for her constituants she built a strong following which allowed her to take her service to another level and run a successful Statewide campaign  to become the first Woman Comptroller in Maryland History.

We get the whole journey from the begining, Brooke is determined and she is a hard a working elected offical.  She also likes to have fun, and she's an amazing mother whose passionate about her children.

Get a read on what's happening in Las Vegas that's attracting Marylands top officals from the Governor to the Comptroller, County Executives and many others. 

We capture Brooke's thoughts coming off her first Legislative session and the first 6 months in office.  She's also got great idea's about how to make the Comptrollers office an office for the people and a modernized office for 2023.

This is a great one and we have our first Angel....what more could we ask for in Vegas..

Thanks Brooke! 

When you grow up in the Embry Family you are well versed in what it means to be a part of a Community.  You watch your parents lead in the areas of Art's, Philanthropy and Community building,....and next thing you know you end up becoming Elizabeth Embry.

City College> Yale > Columbia Law School...its all impressive, but when you start off with City College you know you're gonna end up Holy...

Rev Al and I both know Elizabeth well and it was such a pleasure to see the world through the eyes of this incredible woman who is so well respected in our Community. 

Elizabeth gives us a glimpse of the Journey over the past 10 years from a Prosecuter, to a Mayoral Candidate and a Candadite for Lt Governor now in the Legislature representing the 43rd District and coming behind the great Del. Maggie McIntosh who served that district for decades.  Make no mistake Elizabeth will leave her mark.

Learn what she's learning from her constituents and hows she's putting that into action on the legislative front.  We talk about the Bills she succesffuly navigated in her first session and what it WAS like to be a freshman in the Legislature.so much fun!

Craig Thompson, > Elizabeth Embry, we're off to a great start...thanks Delegate for coming in and sharing your time with us and thanks for all you are doing for the City we love so much!

How about this guy, super lawyer, author of several childrens books, educated in Maryland's Public School system, he's a Terp for Life!  He serves on multiple Boards at the University of Maryland, he Chaired Gov. Wes Moore's campaign and is now the Board Chair of the Maryland Stadium Authority. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Rev Al and I are thrilled to open up Season #3 with Craig Thompson.

We talk about everything, and it was a true pleasure to get to know this incredible man.  He wanted to teach his young daughter about diversity and there wasn't enough material focused on diversity so a simple concept of ABC's resulted in the publishing of two childrens books focused on the ABC's of African American Inventors and Afrtican American History.  He also wrote a chapter in a book called the Life and Death of Tupac Shakur, how's that for cool.

He sees problems and he fixes them, he sees challenges and he overcomes them, he sees holes he fills them.  Born to a single working mother, whom he talks about with such reverance it's no wonder he's been able to achieve all that he has acheived.  He's keeping it simple, be a great son, be a great father and be a great husband. 

What's going on with Craig Thompson?  Come along for a ride and get to know this incredible Baltimoreon as he embarks on a new journey at the Maryland Stadium Authority, an organization that's got a lot of balls in the air.  His collective experience will be great for the citizens of our great state.  Amazing organizations need amazing leaders, MSA just landed Craig Thompson, what a catch!

Thanks Craig, for all you do for our Community.  The Rev and I can't think of a better way to kick off our latest Season with great conversations like this one to take us through the New Year!

Here we go.....10...9...8...7...6.......

We hit a high point for Holiness on this day when we welcomed Dr. Frank Lance, the President and CEO of the venerable Parks and People Foundation and Sr. Pastor at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church.

We talk about everything Parks and People and the amazing work that this tranformative organization is doing all over Baltimore City.  There's not a neighborhood out there that hasn't been improved by this organization.  Serving thousands of residents and hundreds of kids it is the Parks and People Foundation that is holding our cities Park system together and adding green space for residents all over the city.  Workforce development and training on how to maintain landscapes, Summer camps for hundreds of kids, keeping a sharp focus on improving our City's park system, one of the largest in the country.

Frank, the Pastor of the Church right across the street from the new Parks and People HQ at Druid Hill Park had made his way onto the Board and then Board Chair Matt Kostmayer saw the light and approached Frank about filling the open position for CEO.  Matt says its the "Smartest move ever" and the Board agreed and its been 4 great years since he took over. 

With a steady hand at the till the Foundation continues it's growth making Baltimore a healthier and greener place for all residents. Frank understood the energy of the Founder the great Sally Michel who was the force behind making this organization happen when Mayor Schaefer challenged a group of supporters to rally around our Parks. 

Tune into this great conversation, it's Spring and our People are returning to our Parks, all made better by the great work of this incredible institution. Thanks Frank Lance for stepping up and thanks for all you and your staff are doing to make our Park System the best it can be. 

Reverand Al and I are especially pleased to Welcome the curators of Charm City Blue Grass. Two great entertainment guys, Adam Kirr and Phil Chorney.  Fells Point Festival, check, great success this past fall and now we are in the Spring and that means Charm City Bluegrass and it's 10th Anniversary..

A bunch of musical fanatics we venture into the minds and backgrounds of these two guys and we also entertain the spirtiual aspect of the music in Bluegrass and each of our lives. We bring forward an amazing Bluegrass fact...Baltimore was the first place to mass produce Banjo's and we talk about the banjo and it's journey from Africa to the Appalacian Mountains.  Full of fun conversations we also focus on this great event coming up with weekend at Union Craft Brewery starting Friday and ending after a maraton 12 hour day on Saturday Headlined by the Infamous Stringdusters it's going to be hopping. So many great acts...Twisted Pine, The Honey Dew drops, Grateful dub, Magic Beans...and many more...

I have many great memories of the first few Charm City Blue Grass Events at the old Union, off of Union and this Festival keeps growing and growing.  We've been to Druid Hill Park but now back at the Union Collective with a great inside and outside venue. Tons of food trucks this looks to be a real good smash up of Bluegrass fans from all over celebrating this great art and doing it in Union with nature, food, drink and fun times. 

It's heavenly work and these guys have it down, there's lots to learn here and Rev and I think you are really going to like it. Thanks to Adam and Phil, always good to have you in, thanks for all of the hard work and the passion for Bluegrass. 

Rev. Al and I so excited about this episode, the Mayor and Rev. go back a long ways, both graduates of City Collge High School, and both leaders in this community since their High Schools Days. 

An amazing athlete Kurt Schmoke lead the City Knights to Championships two years while he was in High School, Junior and Senior year.  One of his mentors was George Young, a man who went on to run the New York Giants, he helped Kurt set his sights high and was pivitol in his journey to Yale.

Kurt remembers wanting to be Mayor back to his early days in High School inspired by then Mayor Tommy Dellasandro during a speech at school. 

A graduate of Yale undergrad and Harvard Law School and as a Rhodes Scholar he landed himself in Oxford for two years.  In High School he was a member of the famed Boys Club the Lancers.  As a Lancer he traveled the world and it opened his eyes to cultures all over the world.  He didn't get smaller he got bigger, and before you know it he was Baltimore's States Attorney and eventually its Mayor, where he served three terms  While Mayor he focused on making Baltimore "The City that Reads" and he tore down and rebuilt every multi-story public housing project in Baltimore. 

As the President of UB he lends his experience and his vision for a new Station North which is underway with UB playing a real role in the redevelopement and repositioning land in the immediate area as construction begins on Baltimore's New state of the art Train Station along with UB's redevelopment of the US Post Office site adjacent to the campus. 

A man raised in the public schools here in Baltimore he shows us what's possible with good parents and good mentors in life. Thanks Mayor Schmoke, for all you have done over the years, thanks for what you are doing now, this was a great conversation, we thank you for your time!

As we enter into Passover and the Easter Weekend there's a ton of "Holiness" going around especially in this episode as we welcome Kennedy Krieger's President and CEO Brad Schlaggar, MD PhD. to the fold.  I've had the pleasure of getting to know Brad over the past year and what a great steal from the City of St. Louis.  His journey is a great one as he walks us through his career and the steps it took to get to the top of the mountain as Kennedy Krieger's President and CEO. He has published over 150 research papers and he's a highly sought after lecturer, people want to hear from this guy.

When you spend your life persuing knowledge in the world of neurology and pediatrics and you get the call to come to Kennedy Krieger, you pick up your life and make the move.  So with his wife, Hristina who loves to laugh and also has a PhD in Neuroscience and their two kids they made the move to Baltimore.  Like everyone else that comes from other places they quickly settlled into our little Bohemian City and are loving life!

At Kennedy Krieger Brad leads a team of over 2800 people providing services focused on improving the lives of children, adolocents, and young adults with disorders and injuries of the brain, spinal cord and musculoskeletal systems.  Kennedy Krieger is the second largest research Hospital in Baltimore's East Side and dominates the planet in the areas of it's focus.  I remember sitting in the lobby of the original building over 40 years ago when they were at the forefront of trying to understand ADHD and how to help wild type's like me.  The work is ongoing and the progress has been tremendous.

There's so much more to this institution than most people in Baltimore know and Brad opens the curtain and unviels what's new across a broad spectrum of reasearch topics and some of the Institutions most exciting work.  When not working Brad loves music and in particular the Grateful Dead, so we get along just exactly perfectly.  

Let's get into this one, a great talk with a newly declared Holy Man just in time for the Holiest time of the year.  Rev. and I are so pleased to present this one and give everyone a look behind the curtain at this incrediblely important institution.  Brad, thanks for coming to Baltimore and thanks for your leadership at one our State's most valuable healthcare assets.

Happy Passover and Easter to All...

The Rev and I are huge fans of Howard Perlow, I knew him as the king of Real Estate Title work and the host of the Maryland Party at the Annual ICSC Convention in Las Vegas, but through this Podcast Rev. and we learned so much more about him and you will too.  To say Howard loves Baltimore is a huge understatement, he's dedicated his life to making Baltimore a better place.  As a young man he was part of the Lancers Boys Club, with the likes of Kurt Schmoke and William Donald Schaeffer.

Howard is a leader in Baltimore's Jewish Community having served on Boards of the JCC and many other Jewsih institutions now he spends his time as the Chair of the Board of Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center, located just west of the LifeBridge Campus. 

As mentioned above Howard is the host of the Maryland Party, his brainchild.  This event which takes place in May is the largest gathering of real estate professionals from Maryland and the Mid Atlantic area, if your in the real estate world this is where you go to shoot fish in a barrel.  No other state in the country has more real estate professionals come together than Maryland does, deals are happening every couple minutes.  If you are a County Executive, Governor, Mayor or in the Economic Developement world  this is where you go to get more done in 4 days that you could get done in a months work.

Invitations have been sent out and if you haven't signed up you should do it quickly at www.themarylandparty.com  This year the Rev and I are going to be broadcasting from Vegas, talking to the biggest Real Estate professionals and Government officials bringing our audience up to speed on the latests deals. 

Listen to this one and learn about a great Baltimorean and the Inventor of the Biggest Party in Maryland Real Estate History.  Thanks Howard for a life dedicated to making our City and State a better place. 

Rev. Al and I are back, and we start the 2023 year with a guy who made more news happen in 2022 than anyone we know.... Stewart Bainum, the uber successful CEO of Choice Hotels International, made lots of news by getting himself in the news business as the lead investor in The Baltimore Banner.  Local news across the country was disintegrating our own Baltimore Sun was under seige by it's latest owner, investment in local news was down...

In Baltimore, a movement led by my friend Ted Venetoulis was under foot to do something different, and Stewart the ultimate entreprenuer saw the opportunity to fund a non profit entity and bring forward Baltimore's newest source of local news The Baltimore Banner...

Stewart walks us through it all, his amazing career, as a businessman, a politian, and as a family man.  How lucky are we as Baltimorean's that Stewart beleived in Ted's vision and he put his money on the table and said let's do it...The Baltimore Banner is off to an incredible start, great hires at CEO, and Editor in Chief and many of the story tellers are familiar to us. 

This one was recorded last Summer, we've been saving it to kick off the year and our next run of Podcasts.  Thanks for your time Stewart, things are on the rise at the Baltimore Banner, thanks for single handedly saving local news.

Oh say does that star spangled Banner yet wave

O're the land of the free and the home of the brave!

This one is pure education...two experts in Real Estate one from a global level and one from an Interior perspective.  Note to self before listening, we live indoors over 90% of our lives.

Our guests are fantastic, Brendan Gill, President of the MacKenzie Companies, a Full Service Real Estate company located in Lutherville with roots all over the Baltimore Metropolitan area, his Uncle Mike Gill our Commerce Secretary was with us just a few weeks back, part of a great Baltimore family.  Kelly Ennis of the Verve Partnership is in my opinion is amongst the best of a new class of Interior Designers, not just looking at space but looking at space and how it impacts humans while we are inside it. 

You'll learn that there is healthy space, and there's every other space.  Major companies are looking at recreating space in a post Pandemic world and these two are right in the middle of it. We discuss a wide range of topics including workforce, and the need for a focus on creating more jobs for the Built Environment and we talk about the future of buildings and what it's gonna take to get employee's back to these workplaces left abandoned by the pandemic. So much learning..

People are the reason buildings exist...our two great guests, both delcared Holy by the Rev give us hope for a healthier future indoors....

Thanks Brendan and Kelly for an awesome enlightning conversation...

Reverand Al  and I have been waiting to get this one out there for this special occasion as this program celebrates it's 8th Graduation this Wednesday November 30th at 11:30.

The District Court Re-Entry Project provides options to Baltimore City District Court Judges to select to send someone to one of 17 training programs across a multitude of industries.  The intended outcome is providing defendants with skills that lead to a job in Baltimore's workforce.  With over 165 men and women as graduates and a very small rate of recitivism, this program has captured the attention of our elected officals in Annapolis, especially Senator Cory McCray who knows a "Fire Starter" when he see's one.

He and Judge Pastore teamed up, got legislation crafted and passed so that this program could hone it's work and become a model across the state. 

I have known Judge Pastore for over 30 years and I met Cory about 6 years ago, you've got two people here that love themsleves some Baltimore, born and raised here they both call it home. Both have run for political office, Nicki was spared buy a small amount of votes, the Universe had bigger idea's for her energy.  This is her baby and it arrose because defendants were complaining about the lack of jobs. Nicki, the consumate fixer thought of giving them skills and sparing the State the cost of incarceration.  It's a labor of love for the Judge and I know alot of hard work has gone into making the program a reality.  No one works harder on these graduations.. 

It's working, and this Wednesday in Partnership with the Baltimore Ravens, Jermaine Lewis will be there to inspire the graduates on their new journey and turn this Court Appearance into one that is positive, lifts people and provides pride and dignity for those getting their graduation certificate.

Listen in and learn.  Thanks to Senator McCray and Judge Pastore for coming in to spread the good news, it's Holy work!