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

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

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

Choose New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Summit Health a provider of primary, specialty, and urgent care.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Here when you need us most, now and always.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by Jaffe Communications.

Supporting innovators and changemakers with public relations and creative services.

And by ROI-NJ.

Informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

- 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.

- 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 but way more importantly, we are honored to be joined by Kimberly Mutcherson who is Co-Dean and Professor of Rutgers Law School, an expert on reproductive rights, a reproductive justice scholar.

Professor, Dean, so good to have you with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So we're taping this at the end of May 2020.

From your perspective, you've analyzed this, you studied it, you researched it, you understand abortion rights better than most.

Where are we in New Jersey?

And where do you believe this country is as is it relates to reproductive rights?

- Well, the New Jersey story is a positive story.

You know, New Jersey passed the Reproductive Freedom Act not so long ago.

We have codified Roe versus Wade in this state.

So there's- - What does that mean?

I'm sorry for interrupting.

Codified means it's in the books, you can't mess with it?

- Well, I mean the legislature could at some point decide to reverse the law, but I doubt that that will happen.

So it used to be that abortion rights were protected in New Jersey because of court cases, which is also good, but it's also nice to have it as an official part of the laws of the state.

So that's where we are now.

So New Jersey is a state where reproductive rights are going to be well-protected.

The rest of the country is a very different story.

So there are probably gonna be at least half of the states within the next several months where abortion is banned completely.

- Texas Law.

The US Supreme Court allowed Texas Law, which bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Mississippi Case Supreme Court Justices will rule on Dobbs versus Jackson.

Again, timing is tricky here because this is the end of May.

Dobbs versus Jackson Health Organization.

In June, we're gonna find out by the time this show airs, the case goes right to Roe.

It challenges Mississippi's abortion ban after 15 weeks.

So is each state Professor, gonna say, "Listen, this is what we wanna do."

The legislature will pass whatever the governor, he or she, they will sign whatever.

So we'll have a hodgepodge of reproductive rights, laws in each state?

- That's exactly what it is gonna look like.

And in fact, there are about 13 states that already have laws on the books that we call trigger laws which basically say as soon as Roe versus Wade is overruled, abortion will be illegal in our jurisdiction.

So that's 13 states right off the bat.

- You know, we've been doing an ongoing series about race and trying to confront, deal with issues of institutional racism, all forms of racism.

To what degree from your perspective Professor, will, if the Supreme court does what is expected based on the associate justice Alito's written opinion that was leaked this will be known by then, will this have a disproportionate effect on black and brown women?

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- Because?

- For a couple of reasons.

So one is that a disproportionate number of black women in this country have abortions, so if you make abortion illegal, there are a large group of folks who won't have access to it.

It also means that people who have fewer resources will be less likely to be able to access abortion services.

And so we know that there's serious income inequality in this country and there's a race component to that, so if you don't have the resources to travel to another state, you don't have the resources to get the childcare that you need, you can't take time off of work.

All of those things are reasons why somebody would not be able to access abortion services.

I think also have women in rural parts of the country, if you have to travel for two days in order to be able to access an abortion.

So really these kinds of bans, mostly target people who are already the most vulnerable people.

- You know, I'm curious about this.

We've often argued that the courts are supposed to be non-political, which is numerous.

It's not.

President Trump when president appointed several members of the Supreme Court.

President Biden only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

We will see what happens moving forward.

Elections have consequences, particularly in our courts.

Here's the question.

Given that more people than not believe in choice, some restrictions, do you believe the court should in any way reflect what appears to be quote unquote public opinion on this issue?

- That's a really great question.

So on one hand, the assumption is that the courts, as you said, should be apolitical, that they should just be focused on the constitution and law, but what we also know is that it has been the case over time, that public opinion sometimes seems to sway where the Supreme Court lands.

I think what's really hard about this is that when you think about our system, we have the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch.

The only branch that we don't get to vote for are the judicial branch.

I mean, those are the- they sit for life.

- Sorry for interrupting.

Should we vote for our judges?

Because in some states they do, obviously not on the Supreme Court- - That's right, obviously not on the Supreme Court.

Yeah I mean, I'm not sure that we should have a national election for Supreme Court justices.

I do think that there is room to talk about reform of the court.

And I'm not necessarily on board with court packing, but there are some things to really think about.

- How about from 9 to 12?

- Well, certainly there's nothing in the constitution that says that we can't do that.

I guess the question becomes, once you move to 12, why not move to 15?

And once you move to 15, why not move to 20?

- So the slippery slope here as it relates to the judicial process.

There are some folks who are very upset.

Well, President Trump got to a 0.3, President Obama on the way out was not able to- I'm not gonna get into the inconsistency there as to, "Well you know on the way out, "you shouldn't be doing.

Let the new person-" but that wasn't the case consistently.

That being said, if this were to play out and Roe V Wade were to be reversed by the court, again if this is seen over the summer and beyond people will know, what effect do you believe this will have on the women overall in this country, in terms of their sense of how, and not every woman believes one thing on this, that's clear, but just on quote unquote women's rights.

- I think it says something really profound about where we are as a country, because the truth of the matter is that for women to be able to finish their education, to get the kinds of jobs that they wanna get, to live the career that they wanna live, to make the choices that they wanna make in life, you have to be able to control your reproductive health and your reproductive choices.

And particularly in a country that claims to care so deeply about families and about children and about care-taking and yet we don't have paid maternity leave, we don't have paid paternity leave.

Childcare is wildly expensive in this country.

So there are all of these things that could actually make it easier for people to have families and make it easier for people to parent and we don't do those things.

- Before I let you go, do you believe that, some do, that this apparent decision on Roe V Wade, as it relates to civil rights, the rights of individuals, that it could move into same sex marriage and a whole range of other issues that have been adjudicated, that have been litigated, that have been legislated and are where they are now, but may not be that way forever or is come on, that's hyperbole, right?

- Is definitely not hyperbole.

And I wanna really sort of reflect back on the folks who when Trump got elected and were saying that we're all being hysterical by thinking that Roe versus Wade could be overruled and yet here we are.

And if you look at the language and the draft opinion from Alito, on one hand, he says "Abortion is different" "and so all of these other rights, "there's no reason to be worried about those", but the language that he uses is incredibly broad, right?

So one of the things that he says is, "Well, the word abortion "doesn't appear in the Constitution."

Guess what?

"Woman" doesn't appear in the constitution.

"Privacy" doesn't appear in the constitution.

I mean, there are lots of things that we think of as being important rights to us that are not specifically enumerated in the constitution.

- Yeah, one more thing on this.

My job is not to editorialize, but in terms of the second amendment, we're taping after Texas.

- Yep.

- "Assault weapons", not in the constitution.

- Not in the constitution.

- As it relates to the second amendment, so.

- That's right.

You decide for yourself.

Kimberly Mutcherson, Co-Dean, Professor at Rutgers Law School.

Cannot thank you enough and also thank you for the work that you're doing with other media organizations, particularly NJ Spotlight News.

You've been on consistently sharing important and valuable information.

Thank you so much, Professor.

- Thank you for having me.

- You got it.

It's our honor.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That is Dr. Kimberly Mutcherson.

We'll be right back.

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

(bright classical music) - We're now joined by Ethan Stiefel, who is Artistic Director at American Repertory Ballet, good to see you, Ethan.

- Thank you, nice to see you.

- Yeah, we just saw a video of, excuse me, "Midsummer Night's Dream", right?

- Nice, yep.

- Yeah, let's talk about, first of all, let everybody know what that is and why it matters.

- Well, the "Midsummer Night's Dream" is a production very special to American Repertory Ballet because it's a full length production, and one that was premiered just about six weeks ago, here at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, and was the first new creation that I actually conceived and choreographed since becoming the artistic director here.

- Talk about American Repertory Ballet, what is it?

- American Repertory Ballet is a company of 21 dynamic and compelling dancers, and we're the resident company at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, and we are also a company that has an affiliation with the Princeton Ballet School in Princeton, New Jersey.

- How'd you get into ballet?

- How much time do we have?

No, it's- - When did it happen for you?

- No, I got into ballet when I was nine years old and I was growing up in Portage, Wisconsin, which is about 40 minutes outside of Madison and both my sister and I- - Is that a Mecca for ballet?

- Well, I would say this, when I went into the studio to start lessons, it was a historic moment because, including myself, I think there was a total of two male ballet dancers in the entire state.

So if that's a Mecca for ballet, then we'll call it that.

- I know it's a Mecca for the Green Bay Packers but you were breaking ground in terms of what you were doing.

And so, you started dancing at nine, one of only two boys who had been in that program.

So you come to New York when?

Talk about a Mecca of the arts, but go ahead.

- Yeah, no, I was fortunate enough that my father, who worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, just happened to be transferred to a correctional facility to work there in Lower Manhattan, and both my sister and I were lucky enough to get full scholarships at the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center.

So at the age of 14, I started my or continued my ballet education with the School of American Ballet.

And then, at the age of 16, I was actually living and working in New York City because I had received a contract from the New York City Ballet.

- Ethan, how has COVID impacted ballet?

- Oh, it's had a profound effect.

I mean, the fact that ballet and so many of the performing arts were shut down abruptly and for such a period of time, it's been a very challenging and difficult time.

I think, especially perhaps for ballet dancers, because a lot of what we do requires conditioning and athleticism and maintaining strength and stamina, and that's a difficult thing to do.

But at the same time, it was one of those things where you find a silver lining and you're inspired by all of your colleagues that are remaining diligent and have just the passion and the love of what they do that they were keeping things going in their living rooms or in their basements, and really maintaining things.

So it's been very difficult and we couldn't be happier that we're now back in theaters performing and sharing what we love to do with our audiences.

- Yeah, I appreciate what you're saying about your love, your love and the other people, other professionals in the field of ballet and the arts and the impact of COVID.

And we'll continue to do programming, We are dedicated to making sure we not just promote the arts, but help tell the story of those in the arts who are struggling and trying to get, I don't even know what through COVID means, but tell that experience.

But that being said, I'm gonna ask you something.

Growing up in our home, every Saturday, believe it or not, other than listening to Sinatra, which apparently it had to be done, but my mom was big on opera, you know, "Madame Butterfly" and ballet.

So it was a big part of our world growing up.

Trust me, I can't sing and I can't dance.

That being said, how do we make ballet, like opera, how do we make it more accessible to those who haven't been exposed?

I think that how we do that is through the people and the programming.

So it's something that I found when I was younger, that you wanna see people up there on stage that you can relate to and have the same background.

And so, making sure that we have artists and people creating that are from diverse backgrounds and have different stories to tell is one thing that's very important.

And then those stories, in terms of what are the productions and the ballets we're putting on stage?

So first, they see the people that they can relate to but then we're also presenting stories or music or design that is also relevant to our audiences in our communities.

- Before I let you go, a lot of people may recognize you from the film "Center Stage", real quick, 30 seconds, that experience, describe it.

- Well, not anymore because I have a mustache and long hair.

- So they may not recognize you, check it out, go ahead.

- I'm incognito.

But, no, that is something that was a once in a lifetime experience, and I was really just lucky to be the person selected to be in a film that has had such staying power and had such, I guess, has such a cult following.

But to be a representative of the art form that I love and to be up there, not only acting, or trying to act, but be up there performing and trying to do my best to show ballet and dance in the best light, and also then part of it being the ability to reach a broader audience through film and so on was just incredible.

And, yeah, I couldn't be happier and kind of pinch myself every day that I was Cooper Nielson in "Center Stage".

- Yeah, not bad, good stuff.

Hey, Ethan, I wanna thank you so much for joining us, and you and the team at the American Repertory Ballet, we wish you all the best, thank you, Ethan.

- Thank you, appreciate it.

- You got it, we'll be right back after this.

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

- Chris Craver is Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Products at Valley Bank.

Good to see you, Chris.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

- So you will admit that you're one of the students in The Valley Leadership Academy that I teach in.

You admit this?

- I will admit that.

I'm an early entrant, yes.

- Yeah, and one of the first things I picked up about you when I read about your description of what you do is you are engaged in digital technology at a time where more and more people who rely on banking, and that's all of us, more and more people want and need digital technology.

Fair?

- That's right.

I'd agree with that.

- How...

But for old school folks, including myself in some cases, where we're wary and, like, really, seriously?

Can it all be done digitally?

Can I just go to my branch?

What do you say to folks who are hybrid that way?

'Cause I'm a kind of a hybrid and I know I'm not alone.

- Yeah, look, I mean, there are certain things that in the near term, we're not gonna be able to digitize.

So, you know, if you need a cashier's check because you're, you know, buying a car, it's a good place to, you know, good place to go to, you know, to be able to do that, to go to a branch.

But there are things you can do 24 by seven by 365 at home, and that's get access to your finances.

Be able to look over your bank statements.

And actually there's some new and interesting and I think pretty valuable tools and services that we're starting to offer.

We recently launched an ability for people to get a holistic view of their finances, whether it's at our institution or at other institutions.

So you can start to set goals, manage your budgets, really get that overall picture of what your financial situation looks like.

And you can't do that without digital.

- But Chris, that's one of the things that I do think about a lot.

And again, I know I'm not alone in this.

Issues of security.

Issues of whether you call it cyber security.

I don't care what you call it, but how secure are we?

- Well, Steve, I'll tell you there are a lot of bad guys out there for sure.

And they're after our information both our identity and certainly our bank accounts.

Now, I'll tell you for our institution, you know, we do have multiple layers of security.

Some of the things you see, like when you sign in and you log in.

Some of the things you don't, and that's for good reason.

We don't want you to see that are the bad guys to see that.

But we've got a team of information security professionals that are behind all that.

But all those things said, I know it doesn't address necessarily, you know, some of the fears that people have.

There are some best practices that people can take when they look in balance, you know, the benefits of going to digital and some of the potential risks.

So, you know, some of those best practices are things like when you sign into your digital accounts you can set up things like notifications and alerts.

So if there's ever a transaction on your account, you know about it right away, and you can contact us if it's something that isn't recognized, or something that you didn't do.

It's also important education these days as we start to get, you know, those fishy emails, or those things that, you know, we're not really sure if it's from our financial institution or not.

It's important to know, you know, you can call us up, you could bring it in, you can talk to us.

You know, was this us?

You know, was this at your financial institution or not?

Be wary, that's important, and be cautious.

But, you know, with the benefits, come some risks, but we need responsibility.

- You know, you used the word education, Chris.

And the issue of financial literacy, particularly for younger people.

How do you deal with that?

And can we help people, kid, I shouldn't say kids.

We have two teenage boys.

One about to turn 20 in the fall.

And I realize they don't understand much about financial literacy banking.

Because some of us have not really helped in the process.

We'll take care of that.

You know, don't worry about it.

That's a problem.

- I would agree with you, Steve.

As a father to six and nine year old boys, and those boys are very much interested in Minecraft coins.

(Steve laughs) If you don't know what those are, you probably don't want to.

So there is some responsibility - We have 17 and 19 and they're in the Minecraft as well, but go ahead.

- Okay, good.

You know, there's some responsibility we have as parents, but I also think, you know, the way I like to think about it is, you know, you wouldn't let, you know, I'm sure you don't let your teenagers, or haven't let them behind the wheel of the car without some education that went into that process.

And it really, we have to look at financial education in much the same way, because there's a lot of self harm, and harm to others that can be done without proper knowledge in managing your finances.

- Yeah.

You know, for, say there's some folks a little bit older than that, they're in their twenties, early thirties, and they want to secure their financial future, the stock market as we do this program at the end of May, up, down, peaks, valleys, whatever.

Who knows where it's going?

What advice do you have for younger people, a little bit older than teenagers, who want to start thinking about their financial future?

- Yeah, so I think, you know, look, the important thing is understanding, you know, learning how to budget.

And it sounds so simple, but it really is, you know, in the good times, it's oftentimes you're not, you know, looking at that so closely.

And now, you know, we are headed into presumably an economic downturn.

And so along with that, we have much more mindfulness on our expenses with inflation and our earning.

So how do we look at budgeting?

As you mentioned, investing is really important.

How do we also look at saving?

Because I don't know about you, but when I look at my investment portfolio right now, it's not in the greatest spot, certainly where it was maybe a year ago.

I think the other two things I would say are responsible use of credit.

It's easier now more than any other time, especially when you go online to be able to pay for something over time.

You know, I'm old enough to remember going into the department store and if you wanted something, you didn't have the money for it, you put it on layaway.

And so, you know, those things don't exist anymore.

- I mean, I'm sorry, Chris for interrupting you.

You mean as opposed to, I want it and need it now, gotta get it now?

- As opposed to instant need gratification, Steve, that's right.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know, there's plenty of opportunities and pitfalls there, but responsible use of credit.

And finally, the last thing I would say, it really, maybe it's the first thing, is for people to find a money management hero.

And that may be an uncle, an aunt, a grandmother, or a parent, or, you know, someone else that you know.

Find that person that you can trust and learn from and have these conversations.

- Key word is trust.

Chris Craver, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Products at Valley Bank.

One of, to disclose, one of our underwriters at the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Hey, Chris, all the best to you and the team.

Thanks so much.

- Thanks, Steve.

- All right.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Chris Craver.

Thanks for watching.

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 RWJBarnabas Health.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

PSE&G, Choose New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Summit Health Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by Jaffe Communications.

And by ROI-NJ.

- Hi, I'’m Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

Did you know that there are nearly 4,000 New Jerseyans waiting for a life-saving transplant?

And 67 percent of those people are people of color.

Just one organ and tissue donor can save 8 lives and enhance the lives of over 75 people.

Let'’s come together to raise awareness in our diverse communities.

Donation needs diversity.

You have the power to make a difference.

For more information, or to become an organ and tissue donor, visit: www.njsharingnetwork.org.