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- 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 here.

We kick off the program with a very, very important conversation with Ken Zaents, who's President and Chief Executive Officer of Alzheimer's, New Jersey.

The website will be up right away.

Ken, good to see you.

- You too.

Thanks for having me on.

- You got it.

Ken, as we put the website up and also the hotline will be coming up after that, describe the organization and who you're primarily out there to help.

- Sure.

So we are a New Jersey incorporated local community-based organization, and we provide primarily services, programs and services for families that are impacted by Alzheimer's disease in the state of New Jersey.

We're not affiliated with a national organization, so our board and our staff are totally committed 100% to serving the needs of New Jersey families that are impacted by, as you already said, what it is a pretty charitable disease.

- So help us understand something.

My dad dealt with dementia for a long time past, a little over three years ago.

Dementia, is the umbrella term Alzheimer's and dementia.

Do I have it the wrong way?

- So the umbrella term is dementia.

So if you have Alzheimer's disease, you have a form of dementia.

So Alzheimer's disease is dementia, but it's a specific type of dementia.

And then there are many others.

There's vascular dementia, there's frontal temporal dementia, just to name a couple.

So the umbrella is dementia.

- And my sisters and I and others who connected to our family watched my mom who watches One on One every night, hey mom.

And she was my dad's primary caregiver.

And the impact on her was, and I imagine still is, extraordinary.

Talk about the caregivers of those who are dealing with Alzheimer's - And Steve, that's primarily where we concentrate on our work through support groups education.

We have a respite care and wellness program that teaches caregivers about the importance of getting time off for themselves.

It's an extremely stressful job, and caregivers oftentimes take it all on themselves, not necessarily with any help.

So one of the things that we try to impress on caregivers is there is help available.

It's such a challenge.

There are so many changes that the two people in a relationship are experiencing.

So caregivers need support.

And the hard part too is that so much of the expense of caregiving is born by caregivers because we do not have a system that, an insurance system that pays for the long-term care needs of families who are doing all this care primarily in their home.

- Why don't we?

- Well there's Medicare, but Medicare was never designed to be a system for a long-term illness.

Medicare will pay for, if someone has dementia and because of that, they're confused and they fall and they break their hip.

Well, Medicare will pay for the broken hip, but Medicare was not designed as a system to pay for the services that that family may have needed to prevent that fall like a home health aide or sending someone to adult day services.

Those, I guess you would call them, quality of life services that can make life so much easier for caregivers.

You're on your own.

It's private pay.

- And Medicare's never responded to that need.

It's always so interesting.

Someone says it wasn't created for that.

But so many things change and so many of us who are evolving and pivoting, you think, well, why wouldn't the federal government do that?

I don't want to get into a big policy discussion with you, but there's never been a pivot, there's never been an adaptation, there's never been a revision to deal with long-term care, correct?

- Correct.

- Okay.

- Do this for us.

While the hotline is up, right now, the website is up, someone calls the hotline, who's on the other end, Ken, and what specific help are they getting?

Then I wanna talk about the scholarships that you have for caregivers, please.

- Sure.

So if someone calls us, they will get one of our trained staff members who know the disease, who know the community resources.

They'll get someone that's compassionate, they'll get someone that cares, and most of all, they'll get someone that listens.

And in those helpline calls, depending on the nature of the call, we talk about community resources.

Sometimes we just talk, because that's what the caregiver needs.

And we try to probe, because a lot of times the caregiver will call for a specific question and by the end of the call, and it could be 15 minutes, it could be an hour, it depends on the need, that caregiver will come away with answers to questions that they didn't even know they had.

So that's really what we try to do when someone calls our helpline, - What are the scholarships for caregivers?

What does that mean?

- So as part of our respite care and wellness program, we wanna educate caregivers about the importance of getting time off for themselves.

And through an application process and through the generosity of our donors, we have money that's available annually so that caregivers can get up to a thousand dollars in a "scholarship" so that they can access a licensed respite care services in the community.

So it may be having some money to pay for adult day, it may be having some money to bring a home healthcare aid into the home.

It's really meant to be a starter.

It's meant to be, the scholarship is meant to be part of the education process to get caregivers to try these services without having to worry about spending their own money, at least not at first.

- And as we wrap up, I just wanna put some things in perspective.

16.6% of the New Jersey population over 65, age is not the only determining factor, but as a primary risk factor for cognitive decline.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, one of nine, one in nine people over 65 years of age are affected by Alzheimer's.

Wow.

Hey Ken- - It's a huge issue for our state, Steve, and that's kind of why we've concentrated our services right here in New Jersey.

- Yeah.

Hey Ken, I wanna thank you and your colleagues for the work you do every day as a not-for-profit organization making a difference for a lot of folks who often feel very isolated as caregivers.

Thank you, Ken.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thanks for helping us spread the word.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To see more One on One with Steve Adubato programs, visit us online at stateofaffairsnj.org.

If you would like to express an opinion, email us at info@caucusnj.org.

Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/steveadubatophd and follow us on Twitter @steveadubato.

- Recently with my colleague Mary Gamba on our sister series, "Lessons in Leadership," we talked with Helen Archontou, who's with the YWCA of Northern New Jersey.

We talked about empowering young women, and leadership with young women.

We talked about a whole range of issues, particularly if you're a leader in a not-for-profit organization, the challenges you face.

And that's what Helen talks about in this very important, compelling conversation.

"Lessons in Leadership" is pleased to welcome Helen Archontou, who is the CEO of the YWCA of Northern New Jersey.

Helen, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Thanks for having me.

- Tell everyone what the organization's all about.

- YWCA of Northern New Jersey focuses on eliminating racism and empowering women.

We're over a century old, served five counties in New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Hudson.

- And let's talk about women in leadership positions.

Do you think there's anything significantly different?

And if so, what is it about helping women become the strongest leaders they can be versus any guy?

- Well, I think when it comes to women in leadership, it really just has to do with access and equity, and we just don't have the same opportunities there.

And that's really what the YWCA of Northern New Jersey is all about, is providing those opportunities.

I've been with the organization 13 years, and our focus really has been, and continues to be, creating equity for all.

We do that by providing access to training, to mentorship, to concrete resources and funding, and opportunities for healing.

I mean, this is what women need based on our experience, based on the inequities that we are faced with daily, to be able to be pushed into these leadership spaces.

- Mary, jump in.

- Yeah, definitely, and talking about women in leadership, particularly younger women looking to get into the workforce, what advice, recommendations, you talked about training.

If there was one training tip, tool, book for these young women who are really looking to get out there and be competitive in the workforce, what type of leadership and communication skills tools do you think that they should acquire?

- Well, I think mentorship and sponsorship are really key in terms of pushing into a leadership space, and just pushing into a new arena to be able to get more skills.

All the other pieces, the training, funding, opportunities come once you have that gateway.

So it really is imperative.

And the reality of it is, all women don't have access to that gateway.

And that's why organizations and programs like ours are so important, because we do create opportunities for that, for all, not only for women, but more specifically, women of color.

We know that access for our underrepresented communities is even more challenging.

- Let me ask you this, I'm curious about something, because there are a whole range of organizations that we've worked with that seek to empower women, and particularly women of color.

And this is what I'm curious about.

Do you believe, and we're heavily into leadership coaching, communication coaching, do you believe that it is particularly important to have a woman leading, facilitating, coaching, being the trainer, the expert, if you will, in the field, or does it not matter?

- I think representation matters.

We see that over and over and over again.

So it is, especially right now, I would say, because we have a history of not having women, and not having women of color in these spaces, it is essential for that to be a priority right now.

Look, the reality of it is, we all need to link arms together, so it can't be done in a solo or in a vacuum for any one group.

But right now we definitely need to have women, and most importantly, women of color, at the forefront and at the lead and at the head of every table.

- The connection in your mind between being a strong woman leader, a strong leader who happens to be a woman, and wellness, is what?

- Well, I think the challenge for women as a whole is that wellness is not something that we have put at the top of our list for ourselves.

So we have been pushing ourselves to get into leadership spaces, but there's been a cost for that, because we have not felt that we could embrace wellness simultaneous to that.

And I think that that is a shift that has changed, and is changing.

You know, we talk about that there were some of the, try to look at some of the bright spots of the time of COVID.

It really did force us to look at mental health.

It really had us focus on mental health differently, that it really is wellness.

It's not just, you know, as if it were something prescriptive or a medical condition.

The reality of it is, mental wellness is really the word.

It's that kind of combination of the two.

So it's important for women to be at the lead, but it's also important for women to be supported, and to have opportunities for access to mental wellness on that journey as well.

- Mary, one more?

- Yeah, definitely, I would love to talk a little bit.

The pandemic, obviously, it shone a light on the challenges that, especially in my opinion, women, being a woman leader myself, were having, because we're working from home, but we also had the children at home.

So obviously now our kids are back in school.

But what opportunities now have come from those challenges of these women?

Have we learned anything in terms of how women can rise up in these challenging times?

- Well, I think that we've provided more opportunities for flexibility, and we're continuing to push those opportunities, and advocate for them, for ourselves.

And we're not as fearful when we are on job interviews to ask about those opportunities, and to put them down as an expectation and a requirement for employment.

And hopefully, there are more employers.

I know at the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, we came back as a permanently hybrid workforce with a flexible work schedule and a hybrid work week, which is not common in the nonprofit sector, even now.

But the reality of it is, it's better for your employees, it's better for their mental health, it's better for their work productivity.

It's better for our organizations, and it models for others to see that it can be done.

- It's interesting how Helen lays us out the hybrid situation, and I've said this before, we are fully remote.

Yes, we do get together in certain situations when our production operation is out in the field, but we are 90%-plus remote.

And so connecting with each other and making sure people don't feel as isolated as they obviously are, in many cases, when you're fully remote, is critically important for men, women, for anyone out there in the workplace.

So Helen, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

Best to you and the team at the YWCA at Northern New Jersey.

Thanks so much, Helen.

- Thank you for having me.

- Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To see more One on One with Steve Adubato programs, visit us online at stateofaffairsnj.org.

If you would like to express an opinion, email us at info@caucusnj.org.

Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/steveadubatophd and follow us on Twitter @steveadubato.

- We are pleased to welcome Roz Chast, who is the author of this compelling, interesting, gotta get this book, "I Must Be Dreaming".

Roz, great to have you with us.

- Oh, thanks for inviting me, - Roz, I'm an obsessive reader, but this book is so different from any other book I've ever read.

You're brilliant.

I'm sure people say that to you all the time.

The cartoons, excuse me, the illustrations and the writing, you did it all.

- That's what I do.

Yeah.

(chuckles) - But let me ask you this, 'cause I'm actually gonna ask people to go to, if we can show the graphic on page 10 of the book, why dreaming is so great.

Why is dreaming so great?

- Well, there's a lot of reasons.

For one thing, it's free.

Anybody can do it.

Everybody does do it.

And, this stuff that we make up when we go to sleep has always fascinated me since I was a little kid.

I didn't really understand what it was.

Every night, every single person, we do this odd thing that we call dreaming, but we don't really know what it is or why we do it.

And I think it's great because it's interesting and also it's a mystery.

A mystery of daily life.

- Roz, the other thing is, you're very upfront about the fact that you suffer from anxiety.

What is the connection between your anxiety and your work, your art?

- I think for me, it's probably humor and anxiety.

I don't know, they're kind of like peanut butter and jelly.

There's something, there's some connection there.

I'm not the most analytical person you've ever met, but I think there's a lot of things that if they weren't funny, I would probably just wind up like ripping off all my clothes and run screaming down the street.

- And you do not have dreams about that, do you?

- I have certainly had dreams where I haven't had clothes on.

I think everybody does.

That's a very common dream thing.

- Yes it is, yeah.

The other thing about you that is fascinating to me is when you were growing up, you were not allowed to read comics as a child.

- Yeah, - Because?

- Well, my mother was an assistant principal, my father was a teacher.

To them comics were for morons.

They were for people that did poorly in school, that didn't care about school, that were maybe kind of stupid.

And they were just bad.

They were just like junk books.

And my parents did not believe in that, especially my mother.

And she used to brag about being in school and taking comic books away from children.

So, go figure.

- Yeah.

I'm curious about this.

As a cartoonist, as an artist, how early on did you realize that you had a gift and a talent in this area?

- I always loved to draw from the time I was... Before I could write, like many kids.

Most kids, they draw.

I think when I was probably around five or six, you know how one kid is gonna be the fastest runner and one kid is good at math and one kid is the prettiest.

And, I was always the kid who drew.

So I never really thought like, "Oh, I have a talent."

It was just like, I'm the kid who draws.

- In 1978, you joined the New Yorker, you're on board there.

- Yeah.

- And how big a thrill was that?

- It was a shockaroo.

It was as much of a sort of shock as it as it was a thrill, 'cause I never really thought that was where I was going to be.

I thought if I were very, very fortunate, I would be a cartoonist for the "Village Voice", which published Jules Feiffer and Mark Allen Stamaty and Stan Mack.

People whose work I adored.

And, it was somewhat narrative and it was very personal and their styles were very idiosyncratic.

And, I didn't draw gag cartoons with the boardroom or the cocktail party in the line underneath.

That's not what I did.

So when they hired me, I was gobsmacked.

- Semi lucid dream.

Team, could we put up semi lucid dream?

- Talk about that.

- Well, lucid dreaming.

I have a feeling that your listeners probably know what lucid dreams are.

It's a dream where you're kind of aware that you're dreaming, but you keep dreaming.

I don't have them very often, but I've certainly had enough of them to remember them and think, "Oh yeah, that was one."

And, this one was, I come out of the grocery store and I have my grocery bags and I'm looking for my car.

And not only can I not find my car, but suddenly it's like, everything looks unfamiliar.

It's like, oh, even the grocery store that I just left looks very different.

And I don't know what parking lot I'm in.

This looks completely different.

And then I realized that I also, on top of everything else, I have somehow lost the frozen turkey that I bought.

And then I suddenly have this insight that I'm dreaming and that everything is completely fine.

And this is just a dream.

I haven't lost the car and everything like that.

But then I think, but I still have to find the frozen turkey.

I still haven't found the frozen turkey.

- That's in real life.

You haven't found the frozen turkey.

- That is what?

- In real life, not just the dream?

- Oh, no, no, no.

In the dream, I haven't found the frozen turkey.

So like, I'm aware that I'm dreaming and the fact that everything looks unfamiliar and that I can't find my car, it's no big deal.

But somehow, even though I'm aware that that's a dream, the frozen turkey part- - Oh my gosh, there's a lot going on here.

Dare I ask Nubbins.

My kid was sitting on my lap and I noticed his fingers were nubbins.

- Yes.

- What's nubbins?

I got a minute left.

Go ahead.

- Yeah.

I realized that there were no fingers there.

It was just nubbins.

And then I realized that mine were nubbins and I could make everything sort of...

I was dreaming and that I could make the fingers get smaller and bigger by will.

And I turned to him and I said, "Ha ha ha, we have sleepy hands."

- Roz, my dream that is recurring, I never shared this, that there's a math test in high school and I've absolutely not studied for a second.

I don't know if I knew there was a test or just didn't care that there was an exam.

And I'm sitting there and know absolutely nothing.

And when I wake up, I'm very grateful.

I know this.

I'm gonna go see a therapist and find out what's going on there.

I must be dreaming.

Roz, quick before we go.

Do you know what that is?

Do you know what that's about?

- What is about?

- My dream.

That I'm not prepared.

- All I know is that that's an extremely common.

I hate to tell you, but that is an extreme- - I'm very common, - Very common dream.

We all have that dream of being back and taking a test or you don't know.

I'm back in high school all the time in my dreams.

Sometimes it's even a lucid dream.

You would think that at some point I would realize, I would have an epiphany and I would not have that dream again.

But no.

- Not probably gonna have it tonight.

I must be dreaming.

Roz, well done, congratulations.

That's the book.

- [Roz] Thank you.

- Thanks, Roz.

- Thank you.

- What are you dreaming about?

See you next time.

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

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The North Ward Center.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

And by Seton Hall University.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by Meadowlands Chamber.

(light music) - The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, in partnership with utility companies throughout the state, can help you save money and create a more comfortable home through Comfort Partners, a free program that helps income-eligible customers reduce their utility bills through cost-effective measures that save energy, including lighting, hot water heaters, large appliances, heating and cooling improvements, insulation, and much more.

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