(bright music) - A search for answers leads to a discovery dating back to the founding fathers for Chester County couple.

- From keeping track of the number of boosters to, is it safe for seniors together, I sit down with a Philly doctor to get the answers.

- Plus there's a new superhero coming to the DC Comic lineup.

I'll introduce you to the local author who created the character.

- And the South Street store is one stop shopping for all things crystals, candles and more.

(bright music continues) Welcome to You Oughta Know, I'm Shirley Min.

- And I'm Regina Mitchell.

Thanks for joining us.

We begin with the story of how an amateur genealogist discovered how her husband and her own family's history took them back to some unexpected discoveries.

(soft music) - [Announcer] Imagine trying to find your biological parent and instead discovering that you are related to the founders of this country.

(soft music continues) - What made you go on this journey to find all of this genealogy?

- It was my husband because he's an only child of an only child.

So he doesn't have lots of cousins and uncles and nieces and nephews.

And after his mother's death, we decided it was time to find the Shipley side of his family because he was raised by his mother and a stepfather.

- So where did you start?

- We started with Dewitt's father because he gave his son his family history.

He wrote it down for us.

And then he took Dewitt and his half sister to meet cousin Dorothy.

- And that's kind of like when you guys unearthed something that was a little, you know, off.

He said, I don't know, I gotta research this.

- She was talking and she said, Charles Carroll, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, that's the one you gotta know.

She said, that's your relative you know.

So I said, well, you know, that's odd.

So I just started googling and researching the Shipley name and Charles Carroll of Carrollton.

And I found an old sleeveless that was 1832 and that was the death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.

And part of his slave inventory, the last page, it had the names of five Shipleys.

And so that started the search.

- [Announcer] Charles Carroll of Carrollton was known as the first citizen of the American colonies.

He served as a delegate of Maryland to the Continental Congress and he inherited vast estates and was regarded as the wealthiest man in the American colonies prior to the revolution.

He was also the largest slave owner.

- This is the five generations of Carroll.

The settler, Annapolis of Carrollton, of Homewood and Outdoor Regan.

Five generations owned five generations of Shipleys.

- So Dewitt, you know, she's done all this for your family.

How does that make you feel?

- Well, it's nice to know that, you know, you have a history because, you know, my mother didn't talk about my father, my grandparents who I knew, they really didn't go into their family history.

So, you know, as Melva said, you know, when my mother passed, I knew I had some relatives on my grandfather's side in Mississippi and she said, "Well, you need to find out, you know, who your people are."

- [Announcer] 15 Years of research has garnered Melva and Dewitt a treasure trove of documents, pictures and family heirlooms to pass on to future generations.

- During this time when there's this fight about whether or not we should be teaching this, what would you say to that?

- I think if you knew your history, the book will open up because from researching your own history, you will learn history because it's not a book, it's not someone's interpretation.

It is what you can document and say.

- I think it should be not, people are upset with critical race theories.

Critical history theory that, you know, all this goes together to explain the history of this country, you know, in full.

And it's not to make anyone feel bad, you know, feel some sense of guilt.

It is to say here are all the parts that make up American history that, you know, you need to know.

Everybody needs to know.

(whooshing sound) - Social isolation because of the ongoing pandemic is taking a mental toll on our seniors.

As those who are 65 plus try to reintegrate into society, there are still so many questions about how to reengage safely.

Well, today we're going to try to answer some of the most frequently asked questions.

Joining me now is Dr. Larry Doroshow who specializes in family medicine, hospice and palliative care.

Dr. Doroshow, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

- And I guess I wanted to point out that, you know, you've been practicing so long that you've actually grown older with your patients.

- That's true.

I actually became a senior citizen this year, but I have been in practice for 37 years in primary care and so I have grown with a lot of my patients.

I also am the chairman of the board of Constitution Physician Alliance which is an independent physician association.

We joined together about 200 physicians and we care for about 15,000 lives in the Philadelphia, greater Philadelphia area.

- Wow, the first thing I wanna address is, you know, what booster shot are we on?

Because I feel like I'm losing track here.

- Yes, well, certain boosters were recommended for different age groups.

So that's some, not all age groups even were recommended to get a booster.

So what we're on now is the updated booster which is a bivalent vaccine.

Meaning that it has two strains of COVID in it.

It has the original COVID and it has Omicron.

You hear about variants all the time and new variants and variants or variants of Omicron.

So this new booster will protect you better against those variants in the upcoming fall and winter season.

- So for 65 plus they would be on shot five basically if they get the updated.

- If they got all of their vaccines up until now, this would be the fifth one.

But it is different, it's a different booster.

Anybody's eligible for this who's 12 years and up as an adult and they just approved it for five years and up as well.

And it is available for anybody that had the original COVID series.

So you don't have to have ever had a booster before, you just had to have the original COVID vaccine and then you're eligible for this booster.

But this is the only booster that's available now.

So everybody's gonna get that.

- What if you just had the older booster like, you know, in the spring, can you still get this updated booster?

- Yes, the recommendations generally about three months.

If it's been three months since your last booster, you're eligible to get this booster.

And on the same token, I get questions from patients that say, "I had COVID, how long do I wait to get my booster?"

And you get a pretty good protection after natural COVID for a few months.

So it's the same rule of thumb as three months later you are eligible to get the next booster.

- Can you combine flu with booster 'cause we are in flu season?

- Absolutely.

You can give them at the same time.

It's very important.

We do expect a very bad flu season this year based on what happened in the southern hemisphere when we were having our summer and they were having their winter.

- Yeah, I wanna talk about, you know, a lot of the questions are about can I attend a wedding, can I go to a graduation, can I go to a birthday party?

You know, what would your advice be to someone who is 65 plus and weighing these sort of options?

- Well, I do get these questions a lot.

First of all let me just say that the pandemic's not over.

We're still in a pandemic.

A lot of the restrictions are over, but patients are still at risk.

90% of deaths right now paired to be in patients that are over 65 according to a new study from Kaiser and a 40% are those over 85?

So the elderly do have a higher risk.

You have to judge what you're gonna do based on your own level of tolerance of risk and your own level of protection.

So if you've had all the boosters and you're currently boosted with the updated booster, then your risk is very low to get illness at least for the first few months after that updated booster.

And your risk is very low prolonged to have a serious illness, hospitalization or death.

So if you're not boosted and you're not to date, you have a higher risk.

So you wanna be more cautious and you might wanna think about wearing a mask if you can't control the distance and you're gonna be indoors and gathering with people.

If you're going to get together with a group that you know and you know that they're all vaccinated and up to date and your vaccine's up to date, I think it's safe to gather a lot safer, a lot lower risk to gather and be with people and not be isolated and not even have to wear a mask.

- And depending on the crowd, maybe you could even ask everyone to test in advance.

- Of course.

And in fact, if you're gonna get together with an elderly relative and you know that that person's at higher risk, it would be a good idea for everybody that's gonna gather there to take extra precautions as far as exposure goes for the week or two prior to gathering and also to test right before gathering.

- We were initially talking about how the pandemic has really taken a mental toll on our 65 plus community, just the social isolation has been worsened.

What symptoms or signs should family members look out for or even the individuals themselves that might be a red flag that, okay, I think I'm depressed and I should probably seek support or help.

- Sure.

Well I think there's two main reasons why we're seeing an increased risk of depression and an increased incidence of depression.

And it's in the elderly, but it's in all age groups.

The first reason I think was from the trauma of losses because initially when COVID first began in 2020, in 2021, there was a lot of deaths.

A lot of people lost relatives, lost friends, they've lost their social network.

And so that's traumatic.

And so some patients would have even post traumatic stress disorder or symptoms or anxiety symptoms or slip into a depression.

And the second reason is the social isolation.

So patients are at home and they're not gathering and they're not seeing people.

I have spoken to patients who are really afraid to go out of their house and they don't wanna leave, but some of 'em are happy and they're content.

Others aren't and others do slip into a depression.

So the signs of depression would be a feeling of sadness, a feeling of fatigue, a feeling of of not being interested in doing things, not having pleasure in things.

And so if you have an elderly relative, it's very important to check in on them, talk to them, try to look for the signs.

If they're crying a lot, they express sadness, fatigue, hopelessness, these are the symptoms.

And the best thing to do would be to contact somebody for help and probably the best person to contact would be the primary care physician and then they can direct you, they can assess the level of depression and direct you according to what they feel is best.

- And I'm sure you wanna almost weigh the risk of, okay, what is greater the risk of COVID or the risk of being socially isolated in the risk to their mental health.

- Absolutely.

And so there is a balance.

So the ideal scenario is that you're fully vaccinated, fully boosted and that you are gathering with other folks who are fully vaccinated and boosted.

The risk is very low when you do that.

But you do have to weigh that risk against the social isolation.

- Right.

Dr. Doroshow, thank you so much for your expertise.

- Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

(whooshing sound) - Jadzia Axelrod is an outspoken advocate in the LGBTQIA plus community.

Now the author has gained a new title as creator of "Galaxy."

It's the first transgender comic book hero written for DC Comics.

- [Announcer] Who amongst us doesn't know the name of the iconic heroes of DC Comics.

Well, get ready to learn one more name, galaxy.

- A galaxy is not one thing, it can't be.

It's made up of too many disjointed parts.

It's like that poem from English class, I'm large, I contain multitudes.

Well, Galaxy is a story of a space princess in exile who is hiding out on earth and she's hiding out in disguise as a human being.

And as an extra layer of security, she's disguised as a human boy.

- [Announcer] Jadzia Axelrod, an award-winning author, illustrator and podcast host can also add creator of the first trans superhero for DC Comics to a resume.

- Michelle Wells, who was the editor of DC's Young Adult line at the time happened to talk to my agent and say, "We are looking for people who have an interesting point of view and a new perspective, but who are also familiar with the DC stable of characters.

Do you know anyone like that?"

And he said, "Do I have the girl for you?"

- [Announcer] As the vice chair for Philly Family Pride, Axelrod had no problems talking about the issues the LGBTQIAQ plus community faces.

Now her talking points are subplots in a graphic novel set in Metropolis where a trans queer alien princess finds her power by claiming her true identity.

But this wasn't the story Axelrod first thought the comic book giants wanted to tell.

- I gave Michelle four pitches.

One of them was a Superman one because you have to, it's DC.

Another one was Alex Luther.

I had a few others and then at the bottom was the pitch that would become "Galaxy."

And I didn't think they would do it, I honestly didn't think.

It was a story I really wanted to tell and I was gonna kick myself if I didn't.

So I put that in and that was the one they wanted.

There is a lot of me, it is a very personal story which is strange 'cause it's about aliens and that sort of thing.

But wow, this is me.

The jewel, it doesn't hurt.

I didn't realize how much it hurt until it stopped.

- [Announcer] Axelrod says she wrote the book to create an authentic narrative about what it's like to be trans and queer.

And to help people understand, you don't need to fit into one particular box.

- One mother messaged me about her trans daughter who carries it with her to school in her backpack every day as like this emotional armor to protect her at school.

So like, I'm really glad that lots of people are reading it.

I'm even more glad that the people whom I really hoped was going to read this are getting a chance to read it.

- Jadzie is currently working on another project for DC Comics.

It's a book of all LGBTQIA plus characters with the history of their origin stories.

And you can find your copy of "Galaxy" at comic book stories near you.

- Have you ever wanted to touch the actual instruments your favorite bands have used on stage?

How about playing a vintage synthesizer played by the earlier greats?

If so, you may wanna put the electronic music education and preservation project on your list to explore.

(electronic music) - [Announcer] Vince Papilio Sr. was a performing rock musician before the era of disco slowed down his opportunity for gigs.

Little did he know then that his love of vintage instruments will become a vehicle for inspiring others around the globe.

- After a number of years he decided, I'm gonna go back and buy an electric piano and synthesizer like I used to have.

Over the period of about a dozen years or so, he started to go from a collector to a curator where he would fill out specific parts of the collection to tell stories of the histories of these instruments.

And then EMEAPP was born.

- [Announcer] The Electronic Music Education and Preservation project is a place where you can find vintage electronic instruments and gear.

- EMEAPP's mission is really education and preservation.

When you walk through the halls of EMEAPP, you'll see some very, very rare instruments.

We want the world to know about those instruments.

We actually create videos and audio samples for the world to gain knowledge from them.

(electronic music continues) Having electronic music pioneer Don Slepian in-house is important because he was there in the creation of many of these instruments.

He was the test pilot that took these very, very early instruments on their first musical journeys.

- We're preserving the history, we're preserving the performance techniques.

How it was done in the '70s, '80s, '90s and so on.

- [Announcer] For example, playing a vintage Hammond B3 isn't quite the same as a contemporary piano.

- We think these instruments are significant in the field of music.

- [Announcer] Here at EMEAPP, the gear from artists like Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, The Who and many others are here on display.

- The pinnacle was when we took delivery of Rick Wakeman's keyboard set up.

We know the song "Roundabout" by Yes.

- [Audience] Yes sir.

- This is the organ that rips that tasty solo.

- [Audience] Yeah.

- Today's a great example of what we do at EMEAPP.

We were able to bring in large group of students from Montgomery County Community College.

- It's like the Please Touch museum, but it's like for students that are into music, that's what's so cool about it.

- We wanna inspire young musicians to go as far as they cut with their own vision, knowing where we came from the past.

(piano music) (audience cheering) - To learn more about this private curated collection, go to their website and you can watch educational videos about the instruments or better yet, make an appointment to visit.

- Now to two stories that may raise an eyebrow.

We visit a Delaware couple whose collections of vintage funeral relics turned into a mortuary museum.

But first, a reincarnation of a century-old South Street business that attracts mystics and healers.

(soft music) - Behind me is the building where Harry's occult shop used to be.

The history of the store as I have come to understand it started at 1917 with Harry Seligman.

The original Harry was a pharmacist.

He opened up an and a lot of the people that lived in this part of town, black folks, a lot of folks from the Caribbean brought with them their traditions and their ways of healing.

The clientele became aware of the herbs that were very similar to theirs and they mentioned to him, "These are things that we use."

And with that he felt the need to fill that niche for the folks that were here at the time.

(soft music) - Harry's occult shop was around for a very long time.

The original address was 1238, South Street.

2012, they brought the business down to this location.

And 2013 I had acquired the business.

So I decided that maybe it was a good opportunity for me to establish something.

So a lot of the products that they carried in the old Harry's occult shop had to do with mystical healing, peace, self development, personal empowerment.

Some of the old things that they carried included oils, herbs, crystals, candles.

A lot of the things were used in many backgrounds.

I came from a Vietnamese culture very heavy on Confucianism.

So a lot of the traditional herbs that they were providing in the old Harry's occult shop kind of went along with what we were doing back in Asia.

For example, in Vietnam we used lemongrass in our everyday cooking, we used it for steam baths, we use it for a bunch of different healing remedies.

We use many other herbs to burn, to cleanse our space, to cleanse our home.

Even boiling it to a high temperature can offer a healing medicinal property.

So as I was building the shop, I started to add things from the European continent, things from Asian continent, things from the African continent, things from basically all around the world.

(soft music) - In the '70s, from the reading that I did on the store, it seemed like it kind of had more of a darker aspect, maybe 'cause of the word occult was being thrown around so much in Hollywood.

As we came into the '80s, I think people were more accepting of the fact and understood that occult doesn't necessarily mean something evil, but more hidden.

It means hidden knowledge essentially is where it comes from.

And a place like Harry's, it was so vast of knowledge.

You're talking about almost a 100 years.

You learn a lot from the clientele as they come in.

And I believe that that's what helped the store adapt and ultimately service community better.

- Every day we get people coming from all over the world looking for the old Harry's occult Shop.

They come down the South Street to try to get that old South Street vibe.

And I would tell 'em no, this is not exactly the old Harry's occult shop.

We're kind of like the reincarnation of the old Harry's occult shop.

We're trying to keep the spirit alive, trying to provide the products and the services that Harry's once did.

(soft music) - I'm Chris Thompson.

- And I'm Jessica Thompson.

- Welcome to Grim and Shine.

(bright music) This is like a weird please touch museum.

And when that pandemic hit, we were kind of bored, so let's start posting some things.

To our surprise, it took on.

We were selling five, six, seven items a day.

It's been an awesome ride so far.

- Very successful.

(bright music) - Our customer base kind of ranges from folks that just want something that's a little odd.

To our surprise, we have a lot of funeral directors that purchase items from us.

They're doing remodels, they're looking for something unique.

(soft music) When we started to get into this, we'd go knocking door to door on a funeral home.

It kind of sounds odd, but a lot of the funeral directors, they would tell us, "You should have been here a year ago."

I threw all in the dumpster.

It didn't sit well with me.

Every funeral home that we go into, we're saving these items.

You find a different story and history is about stories, about people.

It's really good to see that these items have been taken out of a basement or attic and now they're back in use.

That's super important to us that they're being appreciated.

- In a good home.

- Yep.

(dramatic music) (instrumental music) - I really wanted a hearse when I was a kid.

Finally got the hearse of my dreams.

It's just so much fun that the stairs and the looks you get from people, even kids.

Kids love our hearse.

They call it a spooky car.

It's a great feeling to drive something that's so different from any other vehicle out there.

(soft music) My favorite thing to collect because I'm a cosmetologist is the old makeup kits.

There's just something about them.

They're colorful, they're artistic.

(soft music continues) I'm like a history preserving hoarder.

But my favorite thing is just showing people who are like, "You're weird.

You're crazy.

Why are you into this stuff?"

(instrumental music) I like being different.

It's fun.

(instrumental music) - I wouldn't say it's something dark or creepy.

I think there's something beautiful about the artisanship and craftsmanship.

We want folks to appreciate these items.

(instrumental music) - The African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware is gearing up for its first in-person annual meeting and awards ceremony since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event happens on Wednesday, October 26th at Lincoln Financial Field.

Business leaders throughout the region that represent and support African American businesses will be honored.

And congratulations to WHYY board members Steven Bradley.

He'll be receiving the 2022 Vanguard Award for his 13 years of service and leadership as chairman of the Chamber Board.

- Well, it sounds like it is going to be a wonderful evening.

Well, that's it for our show tonight.

- We look forward to seeing you back here next week.

Goodnight.

- Bye.

(bright music)