An Armao On The Brink

In this segment coming up you'll be hearing Rosemary Armao, host of the On the Brink podcast, talking with Albany Times Union opinion columnist Jay Jochnowitz. The two met in Bennington Vermont for a special two-hour podcast before a live audience at the Orchard Club to consider the transformational changes the Trump administration is ushering in including how we think about the law and corruption, American values and national unity.Jay Jochnowitz joined the Times Union as an Albany City Hall reporter in 1987. He became state editor in 2000, editorial page editor in 2008, and retired as opinion editor in 2022. He remains a member of the newspaper's editorial board and continues to write editorials and a monthly column.

St. Paul had a female traveling companion but we never hear about her; women suffering at all times of their lives from menstrual cramps to menopause are told by untrained doctors that it's in their heads, and even when mice are the subjects of medical experiments, they are almost always male. Long accustomed to taking a back seat and suffering in silence, women are increasingly speaking up for better treatment at the hands of medicine. Two of them from different generations, Abby Lorch, a UAlbany student, and Liz Seegert, a long-time health journalist talk about what should be done — and their despair that Health Secretary RFK will do it.Abby Lorch is a 21-year-old UAlbany student graduating with a journalism degree and a law and philosophy minor. She plans to attend Albany Law School starting in fall 2025. She has always been interested in women's issues, and reporting on the university community and the Capital Region has given her insight into how these issues affect her neighbors.Liz Seegert  is an award-winning, freelance journalist with more than 30 years experience writing for magazines, newspapers, radio and TV news, digital, PR, corporate, government, non-profit, and educational institutions. Her work has appeared in national, regional and local consume and trade outlets. She has done numerous fellowships with organizations such as  the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, and the Gerontological Society of America. She is active in the Journalism & Women Symposium and is an instructor at the Empire State College.

New York is on the verge of becoming the 11th state plus DC to give citizens suffering from terminal diseases the right to die when and as they choose. Oregon was the first state  25 years ago to grant this right. Religious leaders, champions of the right to life, even some advocates for the disabled worry that such  laws  open the way to abuse, coercion, and worse. It seems never to have occurred anywhere, but death is a  fearful issue and dying fraught with guilt and worry.  We talk with a lawyer and a legislator who have led the campaign in New York for a better say to die, forcing the issues into the open and swaying opinions so that a bill making it's way through the legislature now could shortly be on the governor's desk for a signature.Corinne Carey from Troy NY is a  lawyer, organizer, and policy strategist.  For some time her mission has been to improve care and expand options for people facing the end of their lives.  She joined the non-profit organization Compassion & Choices after nearly a decade with the New York Civil Liberties Union where she served as deputy legislative director and where as co-chair of the statewide Women's Equality Coalition she helped lead efforts to modernize New York's abortion law well before most believed that Roe v. Wade was in jeopardy. She is a graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law.State Assemblyman Al Taylor has represented the 71st District of Upper Manhattan since 2017. He's been an advocate for that community for more than 20 years pushing economic opportunities, social change and reform of the criminal justice system. He has fought to reduce gun violence and hate crimes against transgendered people in his neighborhood. He holds a degree in public communication from Lehman College and a Master of Divinity from Nyack College Alliance Theological Seminary. He and wife Gwendolyn have five children.

International lawyer and judicial reforrmer Sally Fleschner who has worked on justice projects in Bosnia, Palestine, Kosovo, and Somalia disagrees with the American Jewish Committee and says the deliberation bombing and starvation of Gazans is genocide. Further more, the US is complicit in that crime against humanity and most Americans are not interested in even seeing (via movies) or hearing the real story of Israeli aggression.Lawyer Sally Fleschner is an expert in rule of law, judicial reform and the drafting of legislation. She has worked with USAID and other international organizations in Afghanistan, Palestine, Kosovo, Bosnia and Somalia. She also teaches classes at Brandeis on war and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and  Northeastern University's School of Law. In spare time she is an animal lover,  world traveler, marathon competitor and talented cook.  

Investigative reporter Miranda Spivack who is an expert in government secrecy and use of public documents has written a book about people she calls accidental activists They are regular citizens with no expertise special knowledge of leadership motivated by grief or worry for their community who figure out how to network and mobilize and drag information out of government and corporations to successfully battle City Hall. She says we all can do this. Here she is talking about one of the Local Heroes.Sometimes regular people just trying to help their families and communities are forced to become heroes. Investigative reporter Miranda Spivack has written a book about some inspiring local heroes around the country with no experience in leadership or in giving speeches or reading government documents have fought back against government secrecy and shady deals between government and business to bring about reform. The message is that you too can fight the power.

Veteran NBC broadcaster and author Linda Ellerbee talks with us from Mexico about what  she and our foreign neighbors think of Trump's first three months back in office and none of it is positive. This from a woman Trump once tried to date. So how do you fight back and how do you cope with dictatorship?

Once every semester I invite three students of mine from UAlbany to do a podcast featuring a decidedly younger point of view than mine. This is that chapter and outta the mouths of Zoomers you'l hear about the futility protesting, exhaustion over world events and fear of the future, Tik Tok and even the wonder of torpedo bats. Mirai Abe is an exchange student from Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan, to UAlbany where she studies journalism and sociology. She arrived in the US last August in time to learn English, take up a full load of classes, and write for the Albany Student Press as well as for the Japanese Student Association. She is interested in gender and sexuality in East Asia, American and Japanese politics, and social issues. Now a junior, she hopes to work as a local news reporter in the US after graduation. In her rare free time she is learning Korean, reads novels, and watches K-dramas. The biggest culture shock she faced coming to the US, she says, was seeing students wearing pajamas to classes.Sean Ramirez is a sophomore at UAlbany, double-majoring in journalism and political science. His passion for politics began through grassroots involvement, including volunteering in various upstate New York campaigns. He is an active contributor to the university's radio station, and engages with MAP, the Minorities and Philosophy organization, exploring the intersections of identity, ethics, and public discourse. He'd like to merge his interests in media and political analysis, so is aiming to amplify underrepresented voicesthrough storytelling and policy advocacy. Latoya Wilkinson is a junior at UAlbany studying journalism and English. A Brooklyn native, she has danced, acted, and played the violin since childhood. She says she learned from the arts the importance and the satisfaction of rich storytelling. She loves travel and exploration for the same reason she is drawn to reporting and is looking for a career finding and writing stories that matter.

Long-time Albany County, NY Sheriff Craig Apple talks about the innovative programs he's instituted in his 38-year reign including inmates doing yoga and fostering pets and using empty beds for a homeless shelter. He's thinking about running for state office to help write laws about bail reform and gun safety that are thought out and smart.Craig Apple, began working in law enforcement in 1987, rose through the ranks, serving as a corrections officer and deputy sheriff, and starting in 2011 as Albany County Sheriff. In that job he oversees nearly 750 employees and a $100 million budget. But he is most known perhaps for his innovative community engagement and inmate enrichments programs such as the Sheriff's Heroin Addiction Recovery Program (S.H.A.R.P.) and the Sheriff's Inmate Fire Training Program. He enrolls inmates in Obama care and most recently has opened up unused space in his jail for the area' homeless people.

In this Chapter, Rosemary wanted to talk with leaders of Albany's unusually dynamic theater community about escape and make believe, but Patrick White and Chris Foster, the organizers of a unique Festival of Theater happening this summer, men who don't own a TV and watch plays every night of the week,  say live theater demands engagement, community involvement and public debate of controversy ad issues. You aren't just seeing a play, you are making a statement about values. A fantastic look at the importance of drama in our lives.Patrick White is a Capital Region "theatre maker" with more than 45 years experience acting, directing, producing, reviewing, and podcasting. He attends 300 shows a year. He has worked at nearly all the Capital Region theatres,  teaches an adult acting class at the Albany Barn, and  is a co-founder of Harbinger which has produced 14 Capital Region premieres in three years. White is also president of the Capital Region Festival of Theatre which will celebrate the 100+ theatres in Albany and its surrounding cities, towns and hamlets.Chris Foster  is the director of the Harbinger Theatre and secretary of the Capital Regional Festival of Theatre. He has directed numerous productions at the Harbinger theatre, Curtain Call Theatre, the Schenectady Civic Playhouse, the Albany Civic Theater and the Actor's Collaborative. His acting credits include: Ben Butler, In the Heat of the Night, Destroying David, The Normal Heart, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Time Stands Still, Turn of the Screw, Clever Little Lies, The Night Alive, Urinetown, Tigers Be Still, Opus, On the Twentieth Century, Bill W & Dr. Bob, The Andersonville Trial, Urinetown, and Sunday in the Park with George. He holds a BA in theater from Cal State University at Long Beach and an MFA from Penn State.

No pleasant introductions, or quaint toast at the end of this one folks. We may have moved past the brink, and into the abyss, but that's to discuss in later episodes....Today, three long-term USAID staffers  now retired and free to talk describe their anger over how  the foreign aid  program has been gutted and colleagues maligned, their fear about global suffering and losses that will result ,and their hope for a  come back  in the future.Francisco Bencosme was formerly the China Policy Lead for USAID, the principal advisor on issues relating to China and Taiwan. Prior to joining USAID, he was deputy to the Special Presidential Envoy for Compact of Free Association talks, helping conclude agreements with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau in the Pacific Islands. He was at the same time senior advisor to the assistant secretary for East Asian and the Pacific Affairs.Before joining the Biden/Harris administration, he was a senior policy advisor at the Open Society Foundations covering Asia and Latin America. During his time at Amnesty International USA, Bencosme led the US human rights policy and advocacy program towards the Asia Pacific.  In 2018, he was named one of The Hill's Top Lobbyist for a campaign on Myanmar Rohingya issues. He also has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff.Ann Posner spent more than 32 years working in USAID missions in the Czech Republic, Russia, Albania, Bosnia and the West Bank-Gaza.  As a Foreign Service Executive Officer she led local administrative staffs and helped manage programs involving issues ranged from crop marketing in the Eastern Caribbean, anti-corruption and free election laws in Russia, and agricultural aid in Albania to investigation journalism and judicial reform in BosniaSusan Reichle is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer of USAID and former president and CEO of the International Youth Foundation — global non-profit working to equip and inspire young people everywhere to transform their lives. Before joining IYF, Susan spent 26 years in leadership positions at USAID missions overseas and in Washington, D.C. During her last three years at USAID, she served as the Counselor to the Agency, USAID's most Senior Foreign Service Officer, and advised the administrator and senior leadership on global development policies and management issues. She served in Haiti, Nicaragua, Russia, Colombia and her last assignment in USAID/Washington she led the Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance bureau.

Cambodian travel guide Tek Leng grew up in a country devastated by war, genocide, and poverty.  He works now taking tourists through old prisons and mass graves turned into memorials and museums and he preaches a Buddhist mentality about acceptance and letting go of the past so you can face the future.Tek Leng, 45, was born soon after the end of the Khmer Rouge's genocide in Cambodia. His, like every family in the country, lost loved ones to the killing fields. He grew up in the countryside along the Mekong River amidst staggering poverty and mass PTSD. Schools were not operating, teachers, like doctors, engineers and government officials had been mostly all murdered. He has talked extensively  with his two teen-aged daughters  about what he calls the Dark History of Cambodia and he earns his living as a licensed guide taking tourists around mass graves and old prisons converted now into museums and memorials. He calls it a passion to share the terror and the rebirth of his culture with others. English was the key for Leng. After Cambodia reopened to the world following 1993 elections, sponsored by the United Nations, he began learning English in bits and pieces, even biking for 40 miles a day for six months to take lessons in a city school. For his country, he maintains, Buddhist therapy has been the salvation. Cambodians, he said, have had to move on and leave the horrors of the past, leaving aside anger and longings for retribution.

Given the current issues in the US and abroad regarding immigration, the Russia-Ukraine war, democracy, and anti-semitism, Katy Meilleur, a nurse scientist who works on drugs for neurological disorders, recently published her father's memoirs. Lev Perlov escaped from Communist Russia with his wife and two daughters in 1973 tricking the KGB and slipping out despite rules meant to thwart Jewish emigrants. The daughter tells us that his story of survival and human triumph against all odds, is hopeful and inspiring.Katy Meilleur is a nurse scientist with a BA in biology from the University of Maryland, a master's in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in nursing from Johns Hopkins University. She works in the biotech industry developing drugs for rare, neurological disorders. Born in the 1970's in communist Russia, she narrowly escaped to the US with her parents when she was an infant. She recently translated, added to, found photos for, and published her father's memoirs about that escape in a book entitled The Flight: How My Family Outsmarted the KGB.

Podcast Host Rosemary Armao talks with colleagues from other departments at the University at Albany in trouble because of conservative attacks, economics that favor job-attracting majors, and dropping enrollments. Her guests are Professor Emerita of English Martha Rozett and Professor of Women and Gender Studies Janelle Hobson.

Boomer Jeff Wilkin, Millennial Zach Grady, and Gen Z'er Amar Sayeed tell Rosemary about finding, evaluating, and dumping dates in this age of online hookups, apps, and toxic masculinity. This is the flip side to Dating in the Digital Age from the point of view of women that we aired a while back. The women all had similar views, but men of different generations seem to have very different ideas. Different methods. Different taste. It's kind of intriguing.

In this chapter Malcolm Nance talks with Rosemary and long-time investment banker Mark Wittman about the dangers in sees coming in the new Trump Regime including civic violence and mutiny in the military and what citizens ought to do about it. Mark Wittman earned his MBA in finance from NYU and has worked as an investment banker for more than 25 years.  He has provided financing and strategic guidance to consumer products clients in the US and globally.  He is a regular on WAMC's Round Table panel talking about all he knows. Malcolm W. Nance is an author and media pundit whose commentary is based on his long-time career as a counter-terrorism and terrorism intelligence consultant for the U.S. government's Special Operations, Homeland Security and Intelligence agencies. A 20-year veteran of the US intelligence community's Combating Terrorism program and a six year veteran of the Global War on Terrorism he has extensive field and combat experience as an field intelligence collections operator, an Arabic speaking interrogator and a master Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) instructor.

Mary and Mike both teach civics/social students; Mary in a New York high school and Mike in a Virginia middle school. In this chapter they talk about what their kids don't know that they should, about the foolishness of banning books, about violence and guns in schools, about the threat of vouchers to public education, teaching to the test, and other controversial school issues. Our speaker bios this week are purposefully incomplete. Because teachers who speak out publicly are often disciplined by administrators we agreed not to identify the full names or the school districts and schools where the two teachers speaking in this chapter work. Mary has taught for more than 25 years at a small rural district in upstate New York. She has a BA in philosophy from Barnard College and a MA in European intellectual history from the University of Chicago. She has lived in England, Scotland and Switzerland and as a teen she attended five high schools, including a stint at a storefront alternative high school. These experiences have affected her views on education as did raising three sons, one of whom was autistic. Two of her sons work in the tech field. Mike has taught middle school civics and American history for more than eleven years in Virginia. He holds a BA in history and international studies from the University of South Florida and a MA in political science from the University of Missouri. From 2007 to 2009, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand teaching English and conducting HIV/AIDS awareness programs. In addition to teaching he coaches his school's wrestling team and summers leads international student tours to significant historical sites, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Normandy, and the Acropolis. Mike is the father of two daughters who he says continually inspire and scare him with their perspectives on growing up in the digital age—a world vastly different from the one he knew at their age.

Two veteran political journalists Jim Asher and Dale Eisman who have investigated and analyzed Washington power for decades discuss what they saw in watching the Trump Inauguration and what they think it portends. It was a weird day from the guest list to the richest man in the world making a Nazi salute and it's likely to get more weird, they agree. James Asher, now retired, was a veteran investigative journalist and Pulitzer-Prize winning editor. Over his career, he worked as reporter and editor at five newspapers on the East Coast, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun, In 2002, he moved to Washington as national investigative editor for The Knight Rider company. He later ran the Washington Bureau for the McClatchy Co., which bought Knight Ridder in 2006. Under his leadership, McClatchy set a standard for independence in Washington, winning numerous national awards for journalistic excellence. In 2017, he shared a Pulitzer for his work on the global Panama Papers document leak about off-shore tax havens. In all, he managed and edited four other projects that were finalists for a Pulitzer, including two for McClatchy and two for The Sun.  After leaving McClatchy, he worked for Injustice Watch, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice reform, and he helped The Associated Press with its coverage of the Mueller investigation of Donald Trump.  A native of Utica, NY, Asher holds a B.S. and a M.S. from Syracuse University and did postgraduate work in finance, economics and accounting in Temple University's MBA program. Dale Eisman is a veteran journalist who capped a 37-year newspaper career in Virginia and Washington DC with an eight-year stint advocating for good governance as a writer and editor at Common Cause. He's covered trials in state and federal courts and campaigns for offices from city council to the Virginia statehouse to the US House and Senate. He's also been catapulted off aircraft carriers and tracked sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines in the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Now retired, he lives in Surf City, NC.

Boomer and Gen Z guests Kris Antonelli and Emily Robbins talk with Rosemary about finding, evaluating, and sometimes dumping dates in this age of online hookups, apps, and toxic masculinity. What's the bare minimum you should look for in a new guy and what is the worst date of all time? Emily Robbins, from Ravena, NY, is a sophomore at UAlbany, majoring in communication and minoring in journalism. She loves tennis and running in her free time. Kris Antonelli is a freelance writer and a literacy tutor in Baltimore Public elementary schools. She is a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun.

Mokhtar Alibrahim fled his hometown of Damascus nearly eight years ago, leaving behind family, friends, and the budding career as a journalist he'd just begun other than be conscripted into the Syrian Army of Beshir al-Assad to wage war against fellow countrymen.  He lived in Lebanon, then Jordan, and now Germany despairing he would ever see home again.He learned two new languages English and German, He got his doctor wife out of Syria and they began building a new life in the west. Then weeks ago a miracle. Al-Assad was suddenly ousted, Syria liberated, and brutal civil war finally done. The future is unclear, Syria is still a mess under bombing by Israelis and Americans, but Mokhtar says he is hopeful and optimistic. There's a lesson here for despairing Americans on the brink of a new Trump regime.

Two weeks out we continue to look into what the Democratic election losses portend and how Dems ought to be reacting to the drubbing they took. Michele Salcedo, a past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, talks about why Latino supported Trump and what they may expect in return and Ryan Horstmyer, a lawyer, lobbyist and long-time Democratic activist in ruby-red upstate New York, so he knows about defeats, talks about what Dems need most to do next. Michele Salcedo has covered Latinos and other communities of color throughout her 36-year journalism career in newspapers, wire service and digital platform. She is a past national president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the author of "Quinceañera: The Essential Guide to Planning the Perfect Sweet 15 Celebration." Ryan Horstmyer has volunteered on Democratic political campaigns for 24 years. He is a former member of the Albany County Legislature, Chairperson of the Colonie Democratic Committee, and District Director for the Office of Congressman Paul D.Tonko (NY20). He is an attorney and registered New York State lobbyist.

Steve Greenfield, a New Paltz firefighter and long-time activitist for alternative and third-party candidates explains the self-defeating votes we've just seen by working class people and minority men. Democrats need to understand why this happened and act to prevent it — yet again — from costing them an election Steve Greenfield, 63, of New Paltz, is a past member of the New Paltz Board of Education, the current Captain and former Secretary and Executive Board member of the New Paltz Fire Department, and has served the village, town, and school district of New Paltz in appointed positions for more than 20 years. He is a former New York State and National Committee member of the Green Party. He resigned from that job in 2020 in a disagreement over failing party strategy, and ran for Congress in the Hudson Valley in 2002, 2018, and 2020. He has been an organizer of civil disobedience actions against non-defensive war, fossil fuel use, and ICE and police misconduct, and has been arrested many times. He was the press officer for the New Paltz Green Party at the time of the first illegal same-sex marriages conducted in New York State by then-Mayor Jason West, the first Green Party elected official in New York State history. In 2005, Steve generated a brief national media frenzy by entering the Democratic Party primary for US Senate against Hillary Clinton, on an anti-war and progressive platform, in protest against Clinton's support for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In his youth and young adulthood, he became an Eagle Scout, earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Columbia, and has traveled the world engaged in his career as a musician. He is also an endurance athlete for a variety of charities, including the 9-11 oriented Tunnel To Towers Foundation and the Sloop Clearwater.

On the eve of the 2024 election we talk with retired teacher George Goodwin of Albany who has done Democratic Party work for more than 20 years. This fall he's been traveling to Pennsylvania and other nearby states drumming up votes for Kamala Harris and he knows a little about how to talk to people with different politics annoyed to see you at their door. He knows how persuasion can work and when it doesn't. And Rosemary has been talking to voters about what they'll do beginning today after the candidate has lost. Cry, Drink and Resist. Harder is the short answer. George Goodwin is a retired teacher and administrator in Albany NY. Since 2004 when John Kerry was running against George W. Bush he has worked for Democrats traveling in and out of state to canvass for candidates. This year he's spent a lot of time in the election battleground of Pennsylvania. He and his wife Maureen also have been making phone calls and filling out postcards and writing texts in support of the Harris campaign. That doesn't count all his work for local candidates as well. Goodwin has watched on-the-ground campaign strategy change over the decades with the advent of new technology and the emergence of a new breed of voters. 

Three billionaires, Elon Musk the car and space innovator who owns what used to be Twitter, Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon and another space explorer who owns the Washington Post , and Patrick Soon-Shiong, the doctor who bought the Los Angeles Times six years ago, are in the news because of their influence over the 2024 election. Musk is campaigning for Donald Trump and through X spreading commentary aimed at boosting his candidacy. The two newspaper owners have blocked their consequential outlets from publishing Harris endorsements. All this raises questions about disinformation, media ownership, the future of the free press, and political power in modern America. Guests are former Washington Post editorial page executive Jo-Ann Armao and Wall Street investment banker Mark Wittman

How could deep blue New York vote down a simple declaration that all people should be treated the same under the law in this state? It could happen. Organized opposition to Proposition 1 on the NYS ballot from the Catholic Church and conservative Republicans has been unexpectedly fierce and organized around disinformation and fear mongering. The League of Women Voters, devoted since its founding to educating voters, is fighting back. The heads of three Capital District chapters talk about why Prep 1 matters.  Guests: Mary Kate Owens, Albany County; Tiffani Silverman Rensselaer County and Linda McKenny, co-president of the Saratoga County Chapter of the League of Women Voters.

Suzanne Mateo of Milan, NY, tells a horrific story about being swindled out of her retirement savings. It happened this summer shortly after she was widowed and retired from a long career as a nurse and hospital administrator. Scams preying on the vulnerable and elderly are on the rise and according to Gino Cortesi, a softwear designer and student of AI, they are likely to get more sophisticated and hard to resist. Mateo is trying to get past shame and embarrassment to warn others.Suzanne Mateo of Milan, NY, was a nurse and hospital administrator for more than 30 years in a variety of health care settings. She served as vice president for Patient Care Services at Putnam Hospital after a diverse career including stints as a educational administrator and family therapist.Gino Cortesi of Boston is now retired after a career in softwear engineering centered on design for easier user experiences, a field in which he hold all or part of seven patents. He is fascinated by the development of AI and its impact on society, including its implication for hacking.

Rosemary chats with Anthony-Bourdain like chef and international tour guide Ric Orlando on the shores of the Ionian Sea about phallic cannoli, why there is little hummus in chickpea-rich Sicily, and the connections between cheese and bulls and eating veal. Ric Orlando is a renowned chef, restauranteur, musician, writer, food marketer and tour guide through Italy and Sicily. He was. a pioneer of Hudson Valley farm-to-table movement, ran beloved restaurants in Saugerties, Woodstock and Albany, produced and starred in the PBS series Ric Orlando's TV Kitchen; beat Bobby Flay and won Chopped — not once but twice — on The Food Network. He written books and does a Substack newsletter on food, maintains a social media presence on a series of platforms including Facebook and Instagram. He imports and sells specialty Sicilian and his own products and sauces and hosts small group travel around Italy.

Dementia is a family disease that affects not just the afflicted person but everyone who loves, depends on, and cares for her. Alzheimer's and related diseases don't kill off their victims right away but instead drains them over years of their ability to think or do or even really be themselves. Watching that happen is horrifying and tests caregivers. Writer Will Doolittle knows this. Seven and one half years ago his wife Bella was diagnosed with Alzheimer and told she probably had eight years to live. He writes about how the disease has changed their lives. Rosemary's family care for her 98-year-old mother who is slowly disappearing. Ruth Fish is a nurse practitioner who offer support and hope and sees the bright spots for families like Doolittle's and Armao's. Will Doolittle is 64. He met his wife, Bella, when he was 13 and living in Saranac Lake, and she came over from Lake Placid to see her boyfriend, Dave, who was one of Will's best friends. Bella was 15. Will worked at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, his family's business, as a teenager, and then again after college and some time abroad. In 1986, he was living in Lake Placid,, working on the newspaper there, when he went into the Lake Placid bar P.J. O'Neill's and, after pushing through a crowd, saw a bartender he thought he recognized. "I think I know you," he said to Bella. "Yeah? Half the guys in here think they know me," she said. Before long  they were seeing each other. After several months, Will moved into the apartment in Saranac Lake where Bella lived with her two children, Travis and Ginny, who were 8 and 7.  Will and Bella got married in April of 1990, and the family moved the next year to Malone, where Will worked as the editor of the local paper, the Telegram.  Bella commuted to Saranac Lake to continue working as a photographer for the Enterprise, then took a job as a bartender at a notorious biker bar in Malone.  They moved to Glens Falls in the fall of 1993, where Will had taken a job as an editor at the Post-Star. He worked as night, Sunday, features, editorial page and special projects editor — not all at once — over the next 29 years, retiring in January of 2022 to stay home and take care of Bella full-time.  Bella worked various jobs and finished her undergraduate degree, then got a master's and a teaching certificate while she was working full time as a domestic violence counselor at Catholic Charities.  Will and Bella adopted their son Zo in 1990 and daughter Tam a couple of years later.  Bella took a job as a teacher and administrator for the Ticonderoga branch campus of North Country Community College but was forced to retire in 2018 after informing the college in 2017 she had been diagnosed with Alzheimers.   Will was able to keep working for a few years but eventually had to stop. He is now writing a memoir that will include what's happening with my life now with Bella. He also writes a Substack column about that which you can read here: https://kentingley.substack.com/ Ruth E. Fish is a certified family nurse practitioner with more than 35 years of experience in internal medicine and geriatrics. She is an educator for the Center for Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease at the Glens Falls NY Hospital. She holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from SUNY Plattsburgh and a master's from the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond in Family Nurse Practice and Community Healthy. She has been awarded the Warren County Bar Association's Liberty Bell prize for work helping adult reach physical and neuron-cognitive wellness. A nurse beloved by patients she also has an extensive volunteer history including helping refugees coming into her community. 

They seem like so sweet and wholesome, Victoria Houston and Dianne Hagan, in love with the outdoors and nature and their families. But both harbor dark souls and foul plots that they pour out in murder mysteries that have evolved into series with recurring characters and locales. Houston has penned the long-running Loon Lake Mystery series and Hagan the Cadence Mystery series . The two authors talk about the fun in murder,  turning their hometowns and some of their friends into characters and why it is that women are such masters of this book genre.

Rosemary podcasts live from New Orleans in this episode pulling members of JAWS, a 50-year-old feminist women's organization away from workshops at their annual Camp to talk about their current diverse assignments, from national politics, to mentoring young women journalists in reporting careers that make a difference, to writing about isolation, disinformation and other indignities of the Covid age. JAWS For nearly 40 years, the Journalism and Women's Symposium has advanced the professional empowerment and personal growth of women in journalism and also advocated for more inclusive coverage of diverse experiences and culture. Advance women in the field, is the belief, and you transform the world. At an annual “camp” and other events and projects JAWS is a powerful network of women who support each other through friendship, knowledge, tools and mentoring. Jodi Enda is the Washington bureau chief and senior correspondent for The Fuller Project, where she focuses on the effects of U.S. policies and politics on women and girls in America and around the world. She has covered government and politics at every level, from city hall to the statehouse to the White House and presidential campaigns. She has specialized in women's rights, challenges and emerging power, and lately that means the battle over abortion rights and the influence of female voters. Over her career she has been editor in chief of ThinkProgress; spearheaded CNN's 2016 election book, Unprecedented: The Election That Changed Everything; and covered the White House, Congress, presidential campaigns and national news for Knight Ridder newspapers. Her award-winning work has been published in numerous national outlets, including Vanity Fair, USA Today, CNN.com, NBCnews.com, American Journalism Review and the American Prospect. Rachel Jones holds the title of director of Journalism Initiatives for the National Press Foundation in DC. By her own description she is a writer, a feminist, and a global citizen. She is an educator and mentor as well. Over a 30- year career she has trained young journalists in the US and in Kenya. She has been especially concerned with doing and getting others to do in-depth work on global health issues. Lynn Sweet is the Washington Bureau chief of the Chicago Sun-Times. She's worked on that newspaper for more than 40 years but you've probably also seen her doing political analysis on CNN and elsewhere. She holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is a former fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. She is deeply sourced and richly informed. Washingtonian Magazine picked her as one of the capital's “50 Top Journalists.” Michele Weldon is and has been for more than 40 years a journalist, a professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, a storyteller, editor and author. And that's not even counting the neighborhood newsletter she began writing at age 10. She's a prolific author whose 7th non-fiction book “The Time we Have: Essays on Pandemic Living” has just come out.

Two aspiring New York State Senate candidates from the Capital District talk about indignities and inconveniences of a political career, including begging for money, plastering neighborhoods with lawn signs, and coming up with a Plan B in case they lose. Alvin Gamble  is a Colonie NY Town board member running for the District 43 State Senate seat. He grew up in Colonie, graduating  from Colonie Central High School in 1979. He then went to SUNY Brockport and has worked since 1983 for what is now the National Grid Power Company. He and his wife Abbey, a nurse, have two children. He is a lifelong union member (Electrical workers) and an ordained deacon at his Baptist Church in Albany. He is an advocate of reproductive rights for all, protecting the environment and public education. Minita Sanghvi is the Commissioner of Finance on the Saratoga Springs NY City Council. She moved with her family to the US from India in 2001 and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in accounting, an MBA and a PhD. She worked first in industry and now is a tenured business professor at Skidmore College. She is also a parent.  She was the first LGBTQ+ member of the Saratoga council and is running to become a state senator from the 44th District. On the city council she helped get new sidewalks, parks and playgrounds. In the senate she hopes to help towns get infrastructure dollars, and supports women's access to health care and LGBTQ+ rights.

All five of the Armao sisters in one place is a rare event but we captured just that in this last podcast before OTB takes a three-week summer hiatus. We talk about the validity of birth order research from our perspective, about Justice Altio's wife and his flags, and about the summers we have shared and will share over the next three months. In birth order: Rosemary, Jo-Ann, Kate, Lisa, and Christine

Early in May, On the Brink featured some smart, angry women talking about attacks on American women in the form of legislative fiats and judicial rulings that banned abortion, criminalized miscarriages, inserted government into their bedrooms, and hobbled doctors. Now we are giving men a turn to talk about abortion: what it has to do with them and why they are standing up for and with women. You'll hear no fundamentalist preachers extolling the sanctity of unborn life on this program. You will hear from a public relations expert who watched a brilliant campaign against Roe unfold over the past 50 years, a former newspaper editorial page editor who's seen opinion about abortion swing wildly, and from a long-time Planned Parenthood official who has ideas about fighting back against anti-abortion extremists.

Just as in the 1970s when students on campuses nationwide began sitting-in, dropping out, occupying campus buildings, and marching against war in Vietnam, young people are now protesting US involvement in the war in Gaza. Also just as 50 years ago the nation is divided over the university unrest, many sympathizing with the students, many also decrying violence and lack of control by university officials. Host Rosemary Armao talks with a Palestinian student who helped organize the Washington student encampment, and journalists/activists involved in the Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights, and Vietnam peace movements about whether the First Amendment right to publicly contest the actions of our government is endangered. Law enforcement and government officials don't like demonstrations and want control over them. Does protesting, really, however, even make a difference?

May means flowers, lawns and gardens --  outdoor glory that can make war, famine, student protests and hate  go away for a while. But  while planting native plant species and shrinking grassy areas around your home to make room for flower beds is relaxing and beautifying, it's also an important way to fight back against climate change and environmental degradation. Listen to two of the best Master Gardeners in New York's capital area explain how it all works. They also answer a slew of your frequently asked gardening questions.

Why do old men judges and politicians get to make decisions about how women use their bodies? Why is the US moving backward in matters of reproductive health when even Catholic countries are modernizing? Why should doctors face criminal charges just for caring for patients? Rosemary talks with some smart and angry women about abortion lunacy. Hear from women's cancer care Dr. Heidi Godoy, long-time Planned Parenthood Spokeswoman Blue Carreker, college administrator Malia Du Mont, and political activist Christine Promomo. 

The news has been so intensely bizarre lately that we had to take a minute to talk about it all rationally. Former and maybe future President Trump is on trial for paying a porn star to shut up about their sex-capades, Trump won't shut up about jurors and witnesses despite a gag order, the press is catching flak  for giving airtime to Trump and writing about the jury. While meantime in DC Republicans in Congress led by Margery Taylor Greene are talking about shaking up the speakership again. Talking about this circus with me are editorial writer Mark Mahoney of the Gazette in Schenectady and former Washington political reporter Phyllis Jordan.

It's been months since we have put the war in Gaza and the even longer battle rocking Ukraine on our agenda, but these awful conflicts have not died out and, in fact, are threatening to spread wider. I have teamed up with Wall Street banker Mark Wittman and International educator Jim Ketterer,  colleagues from the old WAMC Roundtable,  to talk about the suffering, the threat of worse to come and the dim possibility of peaceful settlements. 

Outspoken UAlbany students talk with Prof. Rosemary Armao about the mess Boomers have left them in politics, racial equality,  health, and climate control and about what they intend to do to change the world. This is a chapter full of smarts, passion and hope. Ethan Pausel is a Long Island native and a sophomore in biology at UAlbany. He hopes to be working soon on innovations in biomechanical engineering, organoid synthesis, and prosthetics. He holds twin passions for science and for interpersonal connections based on shared knowledge and journalism. This is from Ethan: “I often wonder why there are so many problems my peers and I face in the world today—conflict, class struggle, climate change, bigotry—and I think it can all stem from a failure of good information. Information is the most valuable resource when it comes to changing the world, yet it can so easily be warped into a malignant harbinger of disorder, fear, and hate…We must cultivate an environment of rich, valuable information that can…prepare everyone for the future—whatever it may look like. I hope my peers and I can build a world that learns from its mistakes and provides for its future. A future people can see themselves living in.” Nayeka Edmond is a junior at UAlbany  from Brooklyn. She is double majoring in criminal justice and journalism along with a minor in  legal philosophy. She also works in the New York Attorney General's office and hopes to continue in that line of work cracking down on white collar crime.  Law school is in her future but at the moment she's busy running for Student Body President. 

Travel can literally transport you to a different place, take you out of time, and make you forget your troubles and the world's. Or it can go all wrong.  In this week's chapter veteran globetrotters Hawley Johnson, Drew Sullivan, and Aida Cerkez along with host Rosemary Armao tell funny, awful and exhausting stories about their worst bad trips.

Since 1966 Americans have enjoyed freedom of information, a right to access the documents and the workings of government. Since 2002 journalists have celebrated Sunshine Week during March as a reminder that transparent government is less corrupt and more responsive. That right is badly under attack right now. Bureaucrats hide and withhold documents, flagrantly and with impunity, many journalists have given up trying to exercise the right at all while citizens are barely aware there is such a right. Most disturbing, legislatures across the country are exempting once-public records and otherwise watering down Freedom of Information. Mark Mahoney has won a Pulitzer Prize writing about government secrecy and Miranda Slovak has a book coming out next week about activists who use government information. They are the guests on this week's chapter of On the Brink.

The envelopes are all opened, the gowns and jewelry packed back up but we're not done talking about the Oscars. Why do those gold statuettes matter, what do they have to do with real life, why should we care? Columnist/author Kate Cohen rewrites the big speech in Barbie, women's right activist Pamela Nugent scolds Oppenheimer for a missed chance at lobbying for peace, film enthusiast and student Jim Getz talks about why film and film prizes are more than just glam. Plus extra bonus content after the episode; an excerpt from a presentation I made to the League of Women Voters.

It's not only in the movies where it's hard to tell sometimes if behavior is heroic or reckless, inspired or foolhardy. Aleksei Navalney gave his life to oppose authoritarian rule in Russia -- but might he not have lived on in exile and done more? Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange went on trial fighting extradition to the US where he faces espionage changes that could put in behind bars -- where he's already spent years. Does he deserve that or is he really a journalistic hero fighting government secrecy? Evan Gershkovich. Daniel Pearl, Anna Politkovskaya all risked safety and their lives for what they thought was right. How much risk do we take for our ideals? Anti-corruption investigator Drew Sullivan  and journalist Rosemary Armao dissect heroism and the difference between patriotism, vainglory, activism and journalism.

What if politicians were serious about solving America's screwed-up immigration system? Could it be done? What happens if Putin prevails in Ukraine after two years of war and dwindling opposition to him from the West? Is there any way to avoid the now routine crises of impeding government shutdowns? Political analyst and reporter Mary Ann Sharkey and investment banker Mark Wittman return for Part 11 of a discussion about rational solutions to some of the big problems the country is confronting. If you could strip away the political rhetoric and posturing, couldn't you come up with solutions and improvements? In a word, yes.

What if China makes a move to take over Taiwan? What if Donald Trump wins a second term and begins to put into motion the scary authoritarian ideas he's talking about? What do we do then? Does America or Americans personally need a Plan B in case of a new Cold War or election catastrophe? Now is the time to begin planning according to Mary Anne Sharkey a veteran investigative reporter and political operative based in Ohio and my old WAMC Roundtable colleague Mark Wittman who join me in this week's chapter of On the Brink. Mary Anne Sharkey is a veteran newspaper reporter, political commentator, and communications consultant in Ohio. She was Statehouse Bureau Chief and Editorial Director at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer,  Communications Director for Gov. Bob Taft, and a regular panelist on WKYC-TV and public radio and TV. She was a fellow at the Institute of Politics, Harvard University, and was inducted into the Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame. She has written for publications including People, George, Cleveland Magazine and Ohio Magazine. She has written speeches including for inaugurations, state of the state, and Cleveland City Club. She has consulted on political campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate, and statewide issues.  Mark Wittman earned his MBA in finance from NYU and has worked as an investment banker for more than 25 years.  He has provided financing and strategic guidance to consumer products clients in the US and globally.  He is a regular on WAMC's Round. Table panel talking about all he knows.

Did you ever wonder what the point of reading was when you know you are going to forget everything about the book in your hands including maybe even its title within a year? Does it count as reading if you listen to the audiobook? Is reading a Kindle different from turning the pages of a real one?  Are book clubs fun or just a lot of pressure? If stranded on a desert island for an indeterminate time with just one book, which one would you like it to be? Two avid readers Laura Bellinger and Kate Armao (yep, one more Armao!) talk about books they love and hate and why reading is the best escape from real-life politics and trouble ever invented.

Food critic Steve Barnes of the Albany Times-Union, Tiim Howland of Primal, Your Local Butcher, and nutrition professor and butcheress Emily Petersen defy all those vegans and vegetarians out there who have telling you that meat will make you sick, ruin the planet and promulgate cruelty to farm beasts. All lies. The latest chapter of Armao on the Brink is a hymn to animal protein timed nicely just in advance of this Sunday's orgy of meat-fueled football spectating.

Veteran Capital District columnists Fred LeBrun of the Times Union and Andrew Waite of the Gazette in Schenectady give us the low down on outmigration of citizens from New York and horrible handling of immigrants coming in. The also assess the many faults and a few graces of NY's first female governor and fantasize about who they'd choose as the ideal governor. 

Three experienced journalists dash and praise the media for how they did recently covering three big stories: the Iowa caucus, right-wing political attacks on universities, and, the really important one, Taylor Swift's sexuality.

Two Finger Lakes NY animal doctors dish on the real life of veterinarians from their high suicide rate to sky-high prices they charge, You'll learn the truth about doggy accupuncture, holistic veterinary practices, and pheremones for aggressive cats. Why is there a shortage of vets nationwide and did vets really prefer it when pet owners had to stay outside in their cars during the pandemic.