Dan Rodricks

Dan Rodricks is a former longtime columnist for The Baltimore Sun newspapers,^[1] and former host of the Roughly Speaking podcast for baltimoresun.com. He was previously the host of Midday, a two-hour, daily talk show on WYPR FM 88.1, the NPR station in Baltimore, and the host of "Rodricks For Breakfast" on WMAR-TV, (Channel 2.1). He is a journalist, author and playwright.

After arriving in Baltimore from New England, Rodricks started writing a column for the former afternoon paper, The Evening Sun in January 1979. The column appeared at least twice per week, but most often three times per week, until January 2025. The column moved to the newly consolidated morning and evening editions of The Sun in 1990. It was one of the longest-running newspaper columns in the U.S. In early 2025, Rodricks started writing a weekly column for Baltimore Fishbowl, features for The Baltimore Brew and a thrice-weekly column on national affairs and general topics on Substack. He also posts commentary and observations on his WordPress blog.

Rodricks' "Dear Drug Dealers" series^[2] in The Sun, a public call for an end to criminal violence in Baltimore, won the 2006 "Excellence in Urban Journalism Award" from the Freedom Forum and the Enterprise Foundation (established by Gannett Newspapers) and the 2005 "Public Service Award" from the Chesapeake Associated Press. Thousands of ex-felons and current incarcerated prisoners over the years contacted Rodricks seeking help in post-prison employment. Rodricks has won national awards, including the "National Headliners Award" for commentary and the "Heywood Broun Award" from the Newspaper Guild for columns that championed the underdog. His columns have won numerous awards from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association. Rodricks has frequently been cited as best columnist by readers of the longtime metro monthly periodical, Baltimore magazine and the weekly alternative newspaper, the Baltimore City Paper.

From 1980 to 1993, Rodricks produced a weekly commentary or feature for WBAL-TV's 5 pm newscast. From 1989 until 1993, Rodricks hosted a nightly talk show on WBAL-AM (1090), as well as a five-hour Saturday morning radio show that ran until 1995. His radio documentaries won the "Silver Medal" in an international broadcast competition in 1993. Rodricks weekly hosted a live, local-interest Saturday morning television show, "Rodricks For Breakfast" on WMAR-TV from January 1995 until October 1999. His Midday show ran on WYPR-FM from 2008 until 2015, when Rodricks created the Roughly Speaking podcast for the Baltimore Sun. The podcast was retired after 450 episodes in 2019. A collection of Rodricks' columns, "Mencken Doesn't Live Here Anymore," was published in 1989. His second book, "Father's Day Creek: Fly Fishing, Fatherhood and The Last Best Place on Earth," was published by Apprentice House in 2019. It was selected as one of the top five books of the year by Trout, the national magazine of Trout Unlimited.

Rodricks resigned from The Baltimore Sun in January 2025.^[3] In an interview with WYPR radio host Tom Hall, Rodricks said that he wasn't ready to retire from The Sun, but was driven to leave the paper because of changes made under its new owners, David D. Smith and Armstrong Williams. Later that month, it was announced that Rodricks would become a contributor to the Baltimore Brew^[4] and a columnist for the Baltimore Fishbowl.^[5] In February 2025, Rodricks started his Substack commentary.

Dan Rodricks has written, produced and performed in two original plays, "Baltimore, You Have No Idea" and "Baltimore Docket." A third play, completing his Baltimore trilogy, is entitled, "No Mean City: Baltimore 1966" and will be staged at the Baltimore Museum of Art's Meyerhoff Theater in March 2026.