- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by TD Bank.

Rutgers University Newark.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Moving the region through air, land, rail, and sea.

The Fidelco Group.

And by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by BestofNJ.com.

All New Jersey in one place.

- This is One-On-One.

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

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

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

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been 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, I'm Steve Adubato.

We kick off today's program with Dr. Hee Yang, Chief Medical Officer of Asian Health Services at Holy Name Medical Center.

Good to see you, Doctor Yang.

- Hello Steve, how are you?

- I'm doing great.

Could you describe your role, and why it matters so much?

- Well, you know, my role is to help coordinate and direct Asian health programs services, which is primarily to take care of our patients.

- Okay, so, to be really clear, the Asian community has been affected, negatively affected, particularly since COVID, in terms of medical and healthcare.

What are the most pressing needs, medical needs of the Asian community?

- First of all, when the COVID started, you know, the Asian Health Service was started about 15 years ago to help patients with cultural and linguistic differences.

As you know, going to hospital, and seeing guys like me is very intimidating.

And if you add the language barrier to that, it's, it's unbearable.

So we started that program where we put staff in place to help patients navigate through the hospital, through translation and also personally handle them through the whole hospital visit.

And during the COVID, what had happened was patients were not allowed to bring any help with them.

Because a lot of, when these patients who don't speak the language, they come in with people who are able to translate for them.

But during COVID, we had to limit the number of people coming in.

So these elderly Asian patients were coming in and being dropped off at the hospital, by themselves which made our services that much more valuable and important.

So at that time, we focused on providing personalized services to all these patients, by meeting and greeting them at the door, and help them navigate through the hospital by staying with them through their entire visit.

- Doctor, Bergen County has a very large, large Asian population, correct?

- Correct.

- And also, let me disclose that Holy Name is an underwriter of our programming.

So, let me be clear on this, language is an issue, culture is an issue, not being able to have family members, an issue.

And also not having clinical professionals who look and can communicate in a fashion, in a language that is understandable to a patient.

Am I overstating that doctor?

- Well, that is absolutely correct.

However, there's an additional layer in that there are some disease processes and illnesses that are different in the Asian community.

- For example?

- For example, there's higher incidences of gastric cancer.

It has to do with the fact, it has to do with genetics, and diet and, and socioeconomic condition.

So those, those Koreans that grew up to adulthood and came to United States brought the same disease pattern from Asia or Korea to United States.

Therefore, they have much higher incidents of gastric cancer.

So what we do is, as a community at large, is that when Korean adult comes in with some sort of abdominal discomfort, we have very short, very quick trigger to perform endoscopy, which is the best way to detect stomach cancer.

So for example, if in the Korean community, we have, let's say about, early detection rate is about 70, 80%.

Meaning patients are seen and endoscoped prior to developing clear symptoms, which indicates that they have gastric cancer.

Whereas in non-Korean community, the early detection rate is much lower because of index of suspicion is very, very much lower.

And that's one example of how the disease pattern differs in United, in Asians versus non-Asians.

And by having an Asian health program, could bring everybody together into a single, concentrated area where these patterns become obvious and apparent where we could do something about it.

- You know, people think that healthcare and clinical care is, first of all, it's complex enough just because the diseases and the issues that people are dealing with are complex.

The the whole process is complex.

You add to that ethnic and cultural issues, barriers, challenges, and it really is incredibly important, the work that you and your colleagues are doing.

So, Doctor Hee Yang, Chief Medical Officer of Asian Health Services at Holy Name Medical Center.

Doctor, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you Steve.

Thank you for having me.

- You got it.

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.

[Jazz Music Playing] - He's back in the house, our house.

He's Christian McBride, bassist, composer, jazz advisor at NJPAC.

He has a new album coming out.

What's it called?

- Prime.

- We were just listening to that.

And, and, help us on this, Your, jawn, J-A-W-N, a slang term outta Philadelphia.

What's, what is it again?

- It's a noun.

It it's a person, place or thing.

It's a, a, a, it's an all-purpose word.

If you can't think of what something is called, it's a jawn.

- A jawn, okay.

So, Frank - Yeah.

You're holding, you're holding a jawn right now.

- Well, Frank Brown who's our, not just our great audio engineer, but he is a jazz and music aficionado.

He says, hey, you wanna look cool with Christian?

Tell him that you heard that the word jawn, J-A-W-N that Websters has said it's an official word.

That's not true.

Frank, is that true?

- That's very true.

- What?

- It's now an official word.

- And say again what it means.

- It's, it's a person, place or thing.

It's a, it's a noun.

You know, a, a car is a jawn, a house is a jawn, a band is a jawn.

That's why when people say that my new band is called Christian McBride's New Jawn, people like to say oh, the New Jawn Quartet.

No, no.

A quartet is already a jawn.

It's just the New Jawn.

- I, I gotta work to keep up.

- In, in New York is, in New York, it's joint, you know?

Every region has its own version of that.

- I love it.

Hey, listen, talk to us about, first of all, the James Moody, the 12th Annual TD James Moody Festival coming up.

Talk to us.

- Yes.

Well, we're still in the early stages of putting it together, but we've had so much fun doing that festival over these last 12 years.

There's always some major, major hits.

And last year we had a huge hit with the Represent Night with jazz spoken word and hip hop where we had Black Thought, Yasiin Bey, the great Nicki Giovanni, along with my band.

And so we're looking forward to putting everything together for this year's Moody Festival.

- You know, to, I'm curious about this.

To what degree is the Newport, the iconic Newport Jazz Festival influence the James Moody Festival?

- Well, the Newport Jazz Festival is America's first festival, first jazz festival.

So every festival that has come after that has taken some sort of page from the Newport Jazz Festival.

In fact, George Wein, who was the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, his protege was John Schreiber, who is the CEO of NJPAC.

- And by the way, John is- -Newport and NJPAC.

- But, I'm sorry for interrupting, John isn't just the CEO of NJPAC.

John is jazz, John loves jazz.

- Yes he is.

- He's lived it for a long time.

- Yes, he has.

- Yeah.

I'm curious about this, the, the kind of folks who were attracted to, to the Moody Festival.

Who are they?

- Well, one of the things that we took into consideration when we first started this festival is that we wanted to get people from all across the spectrum.

We wanted to get younger people, we wanted to get people from all different cultures, and, you know, we do that by bringing, you know jazz, straight ahead, jazz fusion, straight ahead, Latin jazz, some soul, some rock, you know a little bit of everything.

So, I think we have about as diverse a following as you can have.

- Now, I'm curious about this jazz in the community here in Montclair.

As you well know, we have just a little bit of a jazz festival going on in the summer.

- Little bit.

- It is wild.

Real quick, tell folks why that matters because there are so many communities across the state and the region that have their own jazz festivals.

- Yes, yes.

Well, as you well know, my wife, Melissa, Melissa Walker, who was the founder of Jazz House Kids.

- Let's put up the website for Jazz House Kids.

Go ahead, I'm sorry, Christian.

- Yes.

Yeah, and so, 12 years ago, around the same time we started the TD Jazz Moody, James Moody Festival.

We, we started a summer camp and during that summer program we wanted to have a end of the camp concert for our, our young students.

And so the first year of the camp, you know, just the parents of the participants came out.

Then the next year it got a little bigger.

Then the next year we invited Monte Alexander to come and play with our young students.

Each year, it kept growing and growing and all of a sudden Melissa looked, and I looked at each other and said, Hey, I think we got something going here.

And it went from being 50 people in the audience to 20,000 people in the audience.

And now it's a free festival right in the middle of Bloomfield Avenue.

And I couldn't be any prouder of what we're doing here in Montclair.

- You know, you're, you're band right now.

Talk about, cause you've been in many groups, many bands, you've led many.

What makes this unique and different?

- Well, the band that I had before I had the New Jawn, I had a, I had a trio.

- That's right.

- And the, the two, the two other gentlemen who were in that trio, Christian Sands on piano, Ulysses Owens, Jr. on drums, that band became very popular.

And both of those two gentlemen went on to do wonderful things after that trio.

So I decided that whatever my next band was going to be, I didn't wanna simply just replace those guys and play the same repertoire.

Let me do a 180 and create a band that sounded nothing like that trio.

And so I got trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and the great Nasheet Waits on drums.

And I thought of this band as, you know, more of progressive, you know, we can get a little abstract, but we can go right down the middle.

This, this band is a, is a rollercoaster.

And we've been working together now for just about eight years.

- Hmm.

I'm curious, before I let you go, Christian, in all the times we've had you on, all the years we've known each other.

I've never asked you this, but I I do want to ask you now.

The business of jazz, the business of being who you are in the industry, your brand, as an entrepreneur.

It's an art form in itself, is it not?

- Absolutely.

You know, I came into this business for one reason only, and that was to be a working bass player.

I heard all of these great jazz legends who I admired and looked up to, and I thought, I want to play bass with them.

So in order to do that, I had to learn a lot of music.

I had to do a lot of, you know, I guess they would call it networking, but I just tried to get to know all of these great jazz legends who I, I looked up to and things just kind of snowballed after that, you know?

So I always feel like if you want something bad enough you just gotta go out and get it.

You know, that, that, those hustle skills, that, that sort of extra, you know, just that-- - We call it grit, I'm calling it grit.

- That grit, man.

- Yep.

You know, I, I am sorry for interrupting.

I've often thought some people think I'm nuts on our team and I think, well, we're in the media arts, cause I believe we're in the arts, but we're also in the art, the art form of running a business that's tight and makes sense and, and, and, and, and, and turns a profit, if you will, even as a not-for-profit.

The point I'm making is I don't think people appreciate how hard people like you work at the business of being a great musician and pulling a band together.

Anyway, I'm on my soapbox.

That's Christian McBride.

He's a bassist, composer, jazz advisor at the great NJPAC, New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Wish you all the best, Christian.

- Always wonderful to speak with you, my man.

- Always great.

And, and also, give our best to Melissa Walker, your partner your longtime partner, your wife who leads Jazz House Kids.

Take care of my friend.

- Thank you.

See you soon.

- You got it.

Right back, right after this.

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

- Back by popular demand.

She's funny, she's charismatic, she's irreverent.

I could keep going all day.

That's Judy Gold, comedian, actor and writer.

The author of this book, it is called Yes I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians We're All in Trouble.

Judy welcome back.

- You gotta show the book.

Hello there we go.

Okay.

- It's gonna be in post-production anyway.

We're professionals.

By the way, Judy has a show, fifty-nine East.

- No it's E you're not supposed to say East.

It's fifty-nine E fifty-nine Theaters.

Don't ask.

- What the?

I'll leave that alone.

- I know.

But you know the address so that's good.

- Yes it is.

Hey, how you doing?

- I'm good, how you doing?

I'm good.

- Oh by the way, I had such a good time years ago when we used to be in person interviewing.

- Yes You remember that.

- But there's still chemistry here I feel it.

Let me ask you this.

When did you know you were funny?

- When did I know I was funny?

Well, I would get in trouble a lot at school but I think as a young, I think very young where I would say the most inappropriate things and then get in trouble and be like why?

If I'm telling the truth why am I not allowed to say that?

You know I always, that always confused me.

But yeah I tend to not have an edit button.

- The book, isn't that the premise of the book.

Why am I getting in trouble?

- Yeah pretty much.

- Same thing.

Nothing's changed.

- Right.

- What has changed in your view?

I mean a whole bunch of things have changed.

What are some of the biggest changes from your perspective Judy?

By the way Judy's website's up you can find out more about where she's performing.

Some of the most significant and frankly not healthy and dangerous changes in the world of comedy in the last several years.

- Oh my God.

Comedians are being assaulted.

Words are no longer able to be tolerated by people.

It is, okay first of all, the book by the way is becoming, is becoming an Off Broadway show at, as we said fifty-nine E fifty-nine.

So we've taken this book and sort of brought it to life.

But the book and the message in the book and the show first of all, comedians speak truth to power, satire, comedy.

Ummm...

It is part of the American experience.

I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better you know?

We are, it's such an extension of our First Amendment rights, and now it has become this assault on everything.

When a comedian tells a joke they're not thinking about you.

They're not thinking about your childhood trauma.

It's not about you.

Take a second and listen to what the comedian's intent is.

It's, it's ridiculous.

You hear a word and you're like I'm not listening to the rest of it.

No.

Stop it.

Oh what sorry.

My mic went crazy because I - Yeah, yeah.

Stop it.

I get, I get so annoyed about this stuff.

- So you say.

I'm sorry for interrupting.

You, you say.

- No you're not.

- No I am sorry because, because this is the thing I often say.

You say Trump, you say Biden you say COVID, you say whatever.

It triggers someone in the audience, and they start yelling.

Now you're dealing with a heckler.

- It's not even that.

I mean we've always dealt with hecklers.

We've always, it's been, there's no fourth wall but we are now, we're past heckler territory where someone needs attention or yells at the doubter or like prove to their girlfriend they're really-- You know we're done with that.

We've moved on to, you know, throwing things at the comedians.

- I saw that.

- Assaulting them, yelling, waiting for them after the show and beating them up.

It's, it is, you know, it's not just, I have to say, every, You know, I've been doing this almost forty years and every president has been fodder for material.

No matter what side you're on, you know?

You made fun of Clinton, you made fun of Bush, you made fun of Reagan.

You know you made fun of Carter.

All right I wasn't doing standup when Carter was in office but you know.

- Obama hard to make fun of?

- Obama no, yeah I totally made fun of Obama.

Everyone made fun of the of the, the presidents.

It's part of, it's part of them being the president of this country you know?

And it got to the point in 2015, 16, where you couldn't make fun of Trump because people would literally.

You couldn't even make fun of something benign like his hair people would get ooh.

And it, it became this, this thing where it was like wait what happened?

But it's not only that, it's, it's this political correct stuff Where you can't say this word or you can't say that word or going back ten years or twenty years and this person said that.

No the world has changed.

We've evolved.

I'm not doing jokes from twenty years ago because they're not relevant anymore.

You know, it's just beyond ridiculous.

It's, and this assault, it's a, it's an assault - It bothers you.

- Yeah well first.

- A lot.

And by the way look at the graphic that's coming up as it's what's so funny now you're gonna wonder.

It's a new series that we have talking to the most interesting, provocative, thoughtful comedians across the region and the nation.

Also focused in New Jersey as well.

This pisses you off.

- It totally pisses me.

When you silence people who are trying to make you laugh that's the end of free speech.

That's it.

You know Hitler, I don't know if you heard of Hitler.

Very funny comedian - We're getting Antisemitism right now too.

Go ahead.

- But Hitler, because comedy's a weapon.

Because it tells the truth and people feel threatened by it.

And Hitler passed this treachery act in 1934 where you could not make fun of the third Reich.

You would get killed or punished for even listening to a joke about because it weakens their propaganda or what, you know.

We're headed in that direction.

You know, we're headed in like, you know, we're we're banning books, we're banning ideas.

We're telling people what they can and cannot learn.

We're or talk about, no, this is the end of free speech.

It's the first amendment.

It's the first one.

- But this doesn't have to be the end.

How do we fight back?

- Well I'm fighting back.

- Is that what you're doing right now?

- Right you gotta, it, it's, you gotta speak out and you have to stop being, you know afraid.

A joke without context, nuance and intent is not a joke.

If you're just gonna get offended you know.

Remember when you got offended?

Like you'd see something, you'd be like eh I don't think that's funny and then you'd move on with your life.

No one does that anymore cause we have social media.

So they just try to ruin that person's entire livelihood.

- Are there, are there some lines here?

Because when Dave Chappelle and I watched his special.

He clearly made a lot of jokes about the LGBTQ community, the transgender community.

And where is the, is the line different for everyone?

Every situation?

- Well, you know, I think, you know, George Carlin said it's a comedian's job to find the line, cross it and make the audience glad that you did.

And you know when I think of Dave I believe in free speech, all speech.

I think you have to protect free speech.

Do I, did I laugh at every one of Dave's jokes?

No.

But I could have changed the channel or I could have just shut it off.

But, you know, I don't have to.

- But don't we have to protect on some level folks who already are targeted for who they are?

- Yeah I, I think they're lazy jokes.

They're not funny.

Targeting people, marginalized people who are in really bad situations like anti-Semitism and stuff like that, you know.

And anti-trans and, and racist and anti-immigrant and anti-Asian.

Like you, I mean, we could go on and on.

It's not funny.

Make a, make a, make a funny joke.

If you're gonna, you can joke about anything as long as the joke is funny and well crafted.

Why Dave wanted to spend his entire special on trans issues and his opinion about them.

I don't know.

I mean, I think it's a weird choice but we live in a country where you're allowed to say whatever you want.

- And that's why this book, yes I can say that.

Which is now tell everyone again where the plays where.

- So the play is at fifty-nine E fifty-nine theaters.

And if you wanna know the address.

- Judy Gold is comedy Gold, public television gold.

You're the best.

Judy I wish you and everyone tied to your team all the best moving forward.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

- That's Judy she's funny.

I'm not, I think I am but I'm not.

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 TD Bank.

Rutgers University Newark.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Fidelco Group.

And by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- (Narrator) New Jersey is home to the best public schools in the nation, and that didn't happen by accident.

It's the result of parents, educators and communities working together year after year to give our students a world class education.

No matter the challenge, because parents and educators know that with a shared commitment to our public schools, our children can learn, grow and thrive.

And together, we can keep New Jersey's public schools the best in the nation.