- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Veolia, resourcing the world.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Wells Fargo.

PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

The Fidelco Group.

Prudential Financial.

And by Englewood Health.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

Part of the USA Today Network.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it'’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program talking about media, particularly in the world of higher education.

We're joined by Chris Aurilio, Director of Production and Facilities at the College of Human Development, Culture and Media.

That's at Seton Hall University.

And Kayla Fonseca, WSOU, 89.5 FM, Student Station Manager at Seton Hall University.

WSOU, celebrating 75 years of continuous operation.

Good to see both of you.

How's WSOU doing, Chris?

- WSOU is doing really great.

We're celebrating 75 years of being on the air this year.

We're actually talking to you from our library's Walsh Gallery, where we have a lot of this history on display, including some of these cool retro T-shirts.

- It's an awesome, awesome station.

Let me just close that Seton Hall is not just an underwriter of our program, but I'm a huge Seton Hall basketball fan.

And Pirate Line, Kayla, Pirate Line, I said, which is the program that comes on after a Seton Hall basketball game?

That is one of my favorite programs.

Is much of the programming live?

Because I know music is a big part of it as well.

Talk about it, Kayla.

Sometimes we even go to different businesses around South Orange and we'll have remote call lines, but definitely, we definitely have our broadcasters in studio.

- Hey, Chris, with media changing dramatically, with social media, the digital world exploding, and those of many say, hey, wait a minute, public broadcasting, regular TV, it's gonna be outdated soon enough.

Well, we don't think so because we all think we can coexist together.

But let me ask you this, Chris.

In the world of media today, what kind of students are signing up to be part of WSOU?

Please talk about it.

On the FM dial, 89.5.

Please, Chris.

- Well, the beauty of the station being within our College of Human Development, Culture, and Media is that what we're doing as this new college is we're welcoming people to our activities.

WSOU is, it's an activity.

We're welcoming folks from all majors.

So we could, like Kayla could go through it, and like all the different people who come from the business world.

Like we have people in sciences and they're becoming media professionals by just doing this great activity and being part of this community that we have here that is WSOU with all of its history and it's great music and whether you're on sports or news.

So you can actually do quite a bit of diversified work here.

We, you know, we talk about this age of social media.

We're integrating that into what we do just like any- - Absolutely.

- station would.

As we are.

And go on to the WSOU website.

We'll put it up right now.

And go on our website, steveadubato.org.

Check out an interview we did with one of the most famous alums.

You know where I'm going with this, Chris?

One of the most famous alums had a great career of almost 40 years, I think, At ESPN, Bob Ley?

- Bob Lee, absolutely.

Yeah.

And he's been a good friend of ours as a very active alumni.

He comes back.

He connects with the students.

You know, we have Center for Sports Media here as well.

And he's just a big part of what we do here at the station helping our student leaders and people who are new to the station.

He's been good to just like come and talk directly to the students and answer any questions they have.

- Not just a great broadcaster, but a great teacher as well.

I'm sorry, Chris, for cutting you off.

Kayla, why did you get involved with WSOU?

- Hey Kayla, let me ask you something.

I'm a student, not just of media.

I did my doctorate work in media at a competing university.

You may have, Rutgers, you've ever heard of it?

- Yes.

- Yeah, okay.

And what I'm curious about, because I'm also a student of leadership, put the two together.

How have you grown as a leader in the world of media and overall as a leader by being connected to WSOU?

Please talk about that, Kayla.

- So being a part of WSOU is a lot bigger than I think most students realize during their time.

And you sort of realize that maybe after you graduate or if you're in a leadership position like I have been the past two years, it really is a full-blown organization that you're running with listeners, real people listening and calling in and with real impact.

I mean, we have underwriting like you know, and we have a lot of impact on the community around us.

And so it is a really big deal that So you get to grow up pretty fast, I would say.

And you have a lot of power in your hands as a 21-year-old college student.

- Not just power, but responsibility.

Let me also say that I'm pretty sure that One-on-One, one of our premier programs on every night has an advertising- You're shaking your head, Chris, you heard us.

We have One-on-One, I know we have a buy there.

So I just want to acknowledge that as well.

Chris, let me ask you something.

The Hard Rock format.

Define Hard Rock as we, late in 2023, going into 2024.

What does it mean?

Because WSOU has a lot of alternative rock you don't hear other places.

So I'm like, what's the difference, please?

- So in the late '80s, we had a group that put together proposals to how they wanted to run the station and become, unique to College Radio, a formatted station.

And the idea was to start playing stuff that they couldn't get in this big New York market.

Like the music that people wanted to hear at the time.

And it has gone on to become our heritage legacy format that we play here.

And in the early '90s, you'd have bands that were playing this music that we were kind of calling alternative.

And so we were playing that as well.

Like we became a home for places that were, music that was underserved.

And now it's like stuff that's blown up.

- And you know, it's so funny.

The audio isn't what we would want it to be.

The connection is never what we want it to be.

Kayla, let me ask you, how significant for, I mean, we've been in business for a long time, tied to the greatest, you know, public television stations in the universe in New York and New Jersey, or WNET and NJPBS.

But there are all these technical issues.

How often are you dealing with technical issues, Kayla?

Because on hall lines, people are like, hey, I can't get through.

And then they get through.

But you have to stay with it.

How do you deal with technical issues that impact the production?

Please, Kayla.

- Well, we have very well-trained DJs and engineers, especially on sports team.

And we have our chief engineer, Frank Scafidi, who is always teaching us how to fix these things on the fly.

But yeah, we're just trying to get through it, always keeping up with those callers and trying to figure things out ourselves.

We've learned a lot about different types of equipment and software through these types of issues that we've faced.

But it does happen.

It does happen often.

- Kayla, real quick before I let you go.

Is it your plan to pursue a career in media?

- So yes, I got into sports photography and sports media through WSOU, and that is a path I would like to take going forward.

- On behalf of all of us at the Caucus Educational Corporation and our partners in public broadcasting, we wish you and all of your colleagues at WSOU, particularly the students, all the best, because you are the future of media.

Those of us who have been at this for a while, it ain't gonna be forever.

And so I wanna thank you.

And also, Chris, thank you for all the work you've done to mentor, teach, and coach students and to our higher ed partners at Seton Hall University.

Thanks so much.

All the best.

75 years at WSOU, 89.5 FM on the dial.

Thanks folks.

Steve Adubato, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're now joined by Diana Henriques, who is the author of the book, "The Wizard of Lies, Bernie Madoff and The Death of Trust."

We did a separate segment with Diana, all about the Bernie Madoff case.

Go on our website and check it out.

But Diana has a new book coming out.

Is it about FDR?

- It is Steve.

It's a story I've wanted to tell for decades, and it's about FDRs unprecedented effort to regulate Wall Street when he took office in 1933 and the aftermath of the 1929 crash.

- Post Herbert Hoover.

- Yes, post Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge and Warren Harding, who gave us... - Oh, those guys.

- Those guys gave us the roaring twenties.

And while it's remembered in our kind of glossy, you know, memory bank as this wonderful time of flappers and cocktails and Stutz Bearcats and raccoon coats, in fact, it was a time of incredibly unequal prosperity and a time when the financial markets, especially the aspects of the financial world we all rely on today, banks, mutual funds, Wall Street investments for our retirement savings were a jungle.

They were absolutely a jungle, largely unregulated, dominated by the richest and most powerful.

And the little people, the ordinary investors were chewed up and spit out by that system.

FDR came of age during that decade.

He became governor of New York in 1928.

So he had spent his adult life on the doorstep of Wall Street, actually worked briefly at a Wall Street law firm as a young man before he was crippled with polio.

And when he saw what wreckage this unregulated wild west marketplace had created, he made it one of his core priorities in the new deal to tame the street, to reign in this kind of ruthless predatory finance so that average people like you and me could safely put our money in banks, could safely invest our savings in mutual funds, and could really participate in American capitalism in a way that we could not have safely done just a decade earlier.

- By the way, I should have mentioned, in addition to the book on Bernie Madoff, Diana is one of the country's top financial journalist and award-winning journalist and respected by so many in the field of finance and Wall Street and etc, etc.

How about this, the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, did that come out of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration?

- It did, it was born in June of 1934, and its first chairman was Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of President Kennedy.

- Wait, hold on.

But he was... - Yes.

- But Ambassador, hold on.

Ambassador when?

And then head of the SEC when?

- Head of the SEC first, that was his first government job, was as chairman of the SEC in 1934.

It was after he left the SEC, he became the very controversial US ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II.

So an incredibly complex character.

My book, which is called "Taming the Street."

- Say it again, "Taming the Street."

- "Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDRs Fight to Regulate American Capitalism."

And while FDR and Joe Kennedy are two of the figures I focus on, two others are William O. Douglas, who most of us my age remember as a life long, one of the longest serving Supreme Court justices in history.

Yes, and a great civil libertarian.

Yes, great civil libertarian and early environmentalist.

So this was before he ever dreamed of going on the Supreme Court.

He became the third chairman of the SEC.

So my book looks at the very early years of the SEC and how FDR envisioned it as the cop on Wall Street and the battles that they fought.

And one of those biggest battles was with the fourth character Richard Whitney, who was this incredibly patrician president of the New York Stock Exchange, who was secretly a crook.

So it's quite a story and a lot of dramatic developments.

- A totally inappropriate question.

Joseph Kennedy becomes the head of the SEC first.

- Yes.

- Did that get in the way of his bootlegging business?

- You know, there's no evidence at all that he was a bootlegger.

I do deal with this, but my editor made me move it through a footnote.

So check the footnotes.

- In public broadcasting we have to only go with facts.

So it's not a proven fact.

- No, it is not.

Absolutely not.

And highly dubious.

After he left private practice and went to work for the SEC, he went through two, three subsequent senate confirmation investigations at a time when he was already pretty controversial.

And you know, there are a lot of people... - Is that because of isolationist as policy or did that come later?

- Partly that, partly his growing isolationism, partly just his personality.

He was always gonna be the smartest guy in the room.

He had nothing but contempt for other people who didn't think we were as smart as he was.

- And wanted to be President.

- And many people felt he was going behind Roosevelt's back to secretly, you know, try to become a candidate for the 1940 election before FDR had quite decided what he was going to do about the 1940 election.

So he wasn't fully trusted even by FDR's own people.

So we have to believe that if anybody could have turned over a rock and come up with evidence that he was a bootlegger, they'd have used it and they never did.

- That was totally inappropriate and irresponsible on my part.

I apologize.

Biggest lesson, particularly for those who follow Wall Street on a regular basis, and more and more average citizens are participating in the stock market and Wall Street.

Biggest lesson from the regulatory initiatives and the zealous, I don't mean that in a negative way, but the very aggressive regulatory efforts of the Roosevelt administration.

Biggest lesson we should take from that for all investors today is?

- Roosevelt was right.

He was right.

That we needed to regulate the world of finance to keep it safe for ordinary investors.

He was right then.

He's still right today.

- Diana, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- It was a delight to be with you, Steve, thanks.

- Thank you, stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- That's how girls from Staten Island talk.

They don't speak, they like sing words.

(audience laughs) They can't say, where are you going?

It's gotta be, where are you going?

(audience laughs) It's like a (censored) race car going around the racetrack.

Let's go to a vegan place.

(audience laughs) Oh.

- You were just watching this young man who does make a lot of people laugh.

I will disclose that I was one of them recently and we'll talk about that in a moment.

Eric D'Alessandro.

It says comedian here, but he's so much more than that.

He's a performer.

He's an artist.

He's talented.

You can check out him on social media sites all over the place.

It'll come.

Eric, how we doing, my friend?

- I'm great.

How are you, Steve?

- Great.

I saw you at Count Basie Theater in Red Bank recently, and you, as they say in your business, you killed.

This is part of our quote, "What's so Funny?"

series, and I gotta ask you outta the box.

You grew up in Staten Island, right?

- Yes, sir.

- What makes...

I grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a largely Italian American neighborhood, similar to yours.

I thought my neighborhood was insane and funny and mostly dysfunctional.

How about yours?

- Yeah, it's probably the same.

There's something, New Yorkers are just funny.

I don't know why.

I laugh at the accents.

I laugh at the obnoxiousness.

I laugh at the loudness.

It's, yeah.

Like, everyone that I knew was funny.

It wasn't just me, it was just everyone.

The guy at the deli, everyone was hilarious.

- Yeah, but here's the thing.

You talk about New Yorkers, and I have to make a distinction.

You were in Jersey when I saw you in New Jersey, down at the Jersey Shore Red Bank.

Are we in New Jersey, 'cause I know you guys look down on us, even if you're from Staten Island, you do as well across, you know... What's the biggest difference between New Yorkers and New Jerseyans from a comedic perspective?

Please.

- You know, if it wasn't for the Jersey Shore, I don't think that people outside of this area know what real New Jersey is because New Jersey, to me, it was always, like, weird.

Like, my cousin grew up in Manalapan and he would say "his town."

"Oh, that guy's from my town."

And I'm like, "Town?

He's from the neighborhood.

What are you talking about?"

So like, they played soccer.

They lived on like cul-de-sacs and had to, like, risk their lives crossing a major highway to get Wawa.

It was like a weird place.

But you're from like an actual city area?

- Oh, yeah.

It's called Brick City.

Trust me, there were no cul-de-sacs in Newark.

Brick City.

It was similar in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

You'd appreciate it.

- New Jersey is so weird.

- Yeah, New Jersey is so different.

It has all those areas.

- Okay, this is gonna be unfair to you, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

All right.

- Okay.

- You didn't come here to do a routine or any routines, but there are a couple that just resonated for me, and I believe they'll resonate for our audience.

Could you just help us on a couple things?

I told some things, I told my wife you said some things about men and women.

The power dynamic between men and women.

Could you share your perspective on that and how it's somewhat skewed in the eyes of many?

- Yeah, it's a very tricky thing because it... We want progress, right?

That's what I'm told.

As a society, we're supposed to have equality, we want progress.

And then the more I try to approach that with women, the more they're like, "Oh no, your opinions and feelings are invalid.

You're not allowed to have an opinion on the back splash.

You're not allowed to have an opinion on the couch.

We rule the world and you are just supposed to get the hotdog that fell on the floor and be thankful for it."

And I'm the first guy that's like, "Maybe I can not have the banana that was ran over by a truck and I can have a good one because maybe we are equals."

But that's actually not what women want.

They want to bully us and get away with it.

- Come on, Eric, you don't... Now there are women watching all over saying, "Why does Adubato have this other Italian guy on from Staten" You know, that's... You're joking, correct?

Or is it?

(chuckles) - Uh, sure.

You know what's funny is I'm very lucky.

My wife is the greatest.

She's the coolest and we don't have that dynamic, but I've noticed that like a lot of my friends are just like, "Oh, you know, I wanted to wear this for the wedding, but she said I wasn't allowed to."

And I was like, "Well, if you reversed that and you said that I said she wasn't allowed to wear something, I'd be on this show apologizing for my actions.

And I have learned my lesson and I will be donating to a charity of some sort or doing something I'm supposed to do."

- But you just triggered something, my friend.

One thing I wanna ask you, as much about your friends, you said, and I'm gonna ask you about cancel culture as well.

I don't wanna confuse things, but real quick on this, you said that many of your friends, when you go out to a club, not to a club, a bar or whatever, a lot of your friends who are married will say, "If I were single, could you just pick that up?"

Because my friends a lot older than your friends will say the same thing and I'm saying, "You're kidding me, right?"

Go ahead.

- Yeah, I think my friends aren't just single in their imagination.

They're also better looking, more successful, and can speak to women.

When they were single, I just remember them being like, "Let's just get drunk and not talk to anyone.

We'll just fall asleep and call it a good night."

And I'm like, "I don't know what you think happened when you got married.

All of a sudden you have these magical powers to be irresistible to women," but they're delusional.

And I wish that more men would just be more, yeah, more humble about the fact that you should be grateful that anyone decided to live with you.

- I feel the same way about some of my friends.

Hey, how about this, cancel culture?

You did a lot on politics and you don't do politics per se, but you talk about how absurd our, how we view our differences and how polarized we are and how we demonize others as it relates to, "Hey, there are people who want others to be canceled."

How does that play out in the world of comedy?

I know that's complex and political, but help us on that, Eric.

- Yeah, I don't really, I don't get into, like, the weeds with that.

It's more of like a broad thing of like, yes, cancel culture is crazy.

If you want someone to lose their livelihood for making a mistake, that's the opposite of progress.

That's like, I don't get that at all.

But at the same time, people also mask cancel culture to spew crazy things.

You know, they'll say, everybody's so sensitive these days, and then say something incredibly, like, inappropriate and blame it, like, on cancel... Well, it's like, "No.

That's just you being racist or homophobic or something.

It's not cancel culture's fault that you're insane."

And then on the other end it's like, well, "I just made a joke.

I wasn't trying to hurt anybody's feelings" And I don't think you should be homeless because of that.

I think that that's...

Both extremes are just, that's where I fall.

I try to be in the middle and that's not going well either, I've noticed.

- You know, what I read about you is that growing up you were moved very much by comedians like Eddie Murphy, but also Dave Chappelle.

Is Chappelle a big impact on you?

- Oh my God, he is...

Absolutely.

Yes.

- Give us more on Chappelle and why, what resonated for you and why some may not appreciate how great he really is.

Please.

- I think a lot of people need to watch Dave Chappelle from the beginning of his career to now and see the trajectory because he is just an absolute genius.

Maybe, I know some people aren't, like, so into what he's done recently 'cause he's gotten more divisive, but, like, if you watched him grow, and my friends and I were obsessed with him from a very young age when he was in, you know, "Half Baked" and "Blue Streak" and then "The Chappelle Show."

And his standup is just incredible.

Like, for what it's worth, "Killing Them Softly."

He even had like a comedy half hour on Comedy Central, like in Aspen or Colorado years ago.

He's just... Yeah, I could talk about him for, for hours.

He just, he's the...

I don't even know what to say.

He just is... His commentary is what I would like mine to be, which is fair, logical, not one sided.

It's just like making fun of the extremes on this side, making fun of the extremes on this side and then also just being really hysterical at the same time.

- Growing up in Staten Island, again, you talked about what was so funny and your friends were funny, the neighborhood was funny, everybody was funny.

But for you, you've made an extraordinary career out of this and you're as a very young man that your potential is pretty exciting for those of us who have become fans.

When did you know that comedy would be your professional life?

And it's not just comedy.

You check out Eric's website and you'll see all kinds of things that he does.

They're not just quote "comedy."

He's an artist.

He performs.

He does impressions.

He does all kinds of things.

When did you know that this art form would be yours?

- I don't remember a day when I didn't love just playing around with my friends and my sister.

We would do skits in my basement.

We'd pretend we'd make commercials and we always...

I'm a very musical family.

My mom was very passionate about the piano.

We sang in like the church choir and we just loved to play around.

My brothers, my sister, my friends, we were all just into, at being at someone's house making skits.

And I never didn't want to do this.

I don't remember a day when I discovered it.

It wasn't like this, "Oh aha, I'll do this."

It was just as clear as the sun is there.

I love to just play around with my friends.

And that's kind of what I've always wanted to do is just, like, never feel like I had a job.

Just be having fun like I was doing as a kid and I do that now.

I'll get paid to do like an Instagram post for a company and I'll get to write it, direct it, and all that stuff.

And I say to my wife, "Like, this is exactly what I wanted to do when I was seven.

This is so cool."

So yeah, I'm just really grateful that the internet came along and made different avenues for people to find ways to make a living off of it.

- And you make a lot of people laugh in the process and bring joy, and I cannot thank you enough.

Part of our series "What's so Funny?"

I know what's so funny.

Eric D'Alessandro's funny.

Eric, I cannot thank you enough and wish you all the best.

- Oh my God, thank you so much, Steve, and I'm glad you had a good time at the show.

Thank you for coming.

- Best time.

That's a funny guy.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Veolia, The New Jersey Education Association.

Wells Fargo.

PSE&G, The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The Fidelco Group.

Prudential Financial.

And by Englewood Health.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

(Sounds of Water) - (Narrator) Most people don'’t think of where there water comes from.

But we do.

Veolia, more than water.

Resourcing the world.