- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology.

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PNC Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

The New Jersey Education Association.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

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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) - Hey folks, Steve Adubato.

Way more importantly, my media colleague, Mark Bonamo, who is the Editor of TAPinto Newark, also a stringer/contributor to "The New York Times."

(fingers snap) Hey, good to see ya, Mark.

- Good to see you.

How you doing today?

- I'm doing great.

Hey Mark, tell everyone what TAPinto is overall and we'll put up the website for TAPinto Newark.

Go ahead.

- Right.

TAPinto Newark is a regional network of local news websites that are spread throughout New Jersey.

TAPinto has basically been formed because local news has suffered over the years.

Some of the larger media entities in New Jersey have cut back on their local coverage.

What TAPinto is trying to do is stand in the breach and provide the local news that local communities need throughout the state.

Your view, Mark, as a long time media professional, who understands, and also, Mark does a program on MY9 called "New Jersey Now," if I'm not mistaken, - Right.

- every Sunday, every Sunday at noon.

You understand the media television side.

You understand the digital side.

You understand the print side with "The New York Times."

How do you see, quote, "The role of media," not just in the 2024 election, but the role of of media, different forms of media, in terms of protecting our very fragile and endangered democracy?

Loaded question, I know, - Right.

A particularly loaded statement right now, what you're asking, but media is fundamental to a healthy, thriving democracy.

Because voters need, as much as possible, to have as much education and information as possible when they go to the voting booth.

Also, the media plays an important role in shining a light on parts of our society, and even parts of our government, that don't want to be transparent.

They don't want you to see what they're doing because oftentimes, they're not necessarily up to anything that's any good.

Media plays an important role in showing people the ins and outs of our public discourse, of our public life, so they can know going forward how to best protect democracy through the vote, through speaking out, and any other way they can imagine.

- So with TAPinto Newark, the kinds of issues...

I mean, again, check out our interviews with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

We're not a local news program, a local program, but at the same time, Newark is the largest, no matter what the folks in Jersey City say, still the largest city with the largest population in the state of New Jersey.

And my dad, my late dad used to say, along with the late Mayor Ken Gibson, "Where America is going, Newark will get there first."

And they were really talking about urban communities.

Where do you see, quote, "Newark?"

And there are lots of Newarks.

You and I had breakfast recently.

We were talking about how complicated Newark is.

Where do you see Newark in 2024?

What does it have going for it and what are its biggest challenges?

Please, Mark.

- I think what it has going for it is that, because of the ongoing revitalization of the city, in many ways the city is being rebranded.

Newark always struggles from the shadow of 1967, a riot to some, a rebellion to others.

And many people are still somewhat cowed by the idea of Newark, afraid of it.

But when you go to Newark, when you see what's happening on the street every day, you see the buildings going up.

You see, in many ways, the police working effectively with the community, not in an adversarial way.

There is an undercurrent of it's still a struggle, but there's hope that things are already better and can get better in the future, no matter what changes are to come, particularly in terms of development in this city.

- Talk about crime in the city.

I know the mayor, Mayor Baraka will talk about crime statistics, and no disrespect to those in elective office, but I've heard so many different interpretations or ways to engage in the methodology that often produces results as it relates to crime that inures to the benefit of public officials.

It's a loaded way of saying I don't know if I trust the stats, and my question is, what do you believe, as a reporter and journalist who covers Newark on a regular basis, what do you think the reality of violent crime is in Newark?

- The reality, it's like cities anywhere.

It could move from block to block.

Now, the city is divided into five wards, North, East, Central, West, South.

And in many ways, you could get a different result, depending on what ward you're in.

Many times, you might see more gang violence in the South Ward.

The East Ward, the Ironbound, which many people feel for a long time is a safer ward, known for its restaurants, you'll still see a lot of petty crime on the street.

Increasing problems with, unfortunately, the mentally ill in our society haven't been accommodated well enough just like you'll see in the homeless population.

It depends a lot of your impression as to what's going on.

Also, the police can't be everywhere all the time.

One of the fundamental things people always talk about with the police is, are there enough?

When you're constantly moving the police around to try to deploy them as effectively as possible, some neighborhoods are always gonna feel a short shrift.

But this is the reality of dealing with crime in, as you say, the state's largest city, where resources aren't always there.

- Mark are the feds still, is the federal government still monitoring, in control of, on some level, the Newark Police Department?

- There's still a relationship going forward in terms of that monitoring because, again, of some of the, you could say the past sins of what's happened in previous police procedures throughout the city.

The idea though that there is the monitoring going on, you can already see some benefit to that.

You saw it- - You're talking about racial profiling, Mark, sorry for interrupting.

You're talking about racial profiling?

- Yes.

- You're talking about a police force that, again, you go back in the history of Newark, the history is it was a corrupt police department - Yes.

- for many years.

- And proven.

- And back in the '70s, the mayor of Newark, who went to jail, Hugh Addonizio, had a police chief, Dominick Spina, - Yeah.

- a criminal.

- Right.

- And a corrupt police department.

Fast forward.

And also, Blacks and Hispanics were disproportionately arrested and harassed and treated very differently.

How much progress have we made in that regard, A, and B, how much of the police force reflects the population in the City of Newark, which is largely Black and Brown?

- You talk about the era of Addonizio and Spina.

There was a book written around in that time by a man named Ron Porambo, who was a local journalist.

Name of the book was "No Cause for Indictment."

And he expressed frustration because all these malpractice that was being committed by the police at the time, all that corruption, hadn't been effectively addressed.

Part of the monitoring program is an attempt to finally address these wrongs that had happened over decades.

You've already seen some improvement in relationship between the community and the police, which was, for a long time, largely adversarial.

You saw it during the George Floyd protests.

- That's right.

- You saw, again, the police standing back, letting the protestors express their viewpoint.

The protestors, at the same time, trying not to agitate the police too much.

Partially that's because of increased oversight of the police department, also because nobody wants 1967 to ever happen again.

Another way to ensure a situation like that doesn't happen again and people begin to trust the police, the police needs to look like them.

This is a city that is about 47 to 50% African American, 37% Latino and rising, about 10% white European.

That needs to be reflected in the police force, and increasingly you see that.

So if you see people who look like you, you are less likely to feel oppressed.

- Mark Bonamo, who is editor of TAPinto Newark, a contributor/stringer at "The New York Times."

And we thank you, Mark, for joining us.

We appreciate it, my friend.

- Thank you very much.

Great to be here.

- 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.

- We're now joined by Dr. Keith Libou, who's Chief Clinical Officer of Delta Dental, New Jersey and Connecticut.

And also Dr. Elisa Velasquez, who is President elect of the New Jersey Dental Association.

Great to have you both with US doctors.

- Thank you for having us.

- Great to be here.

- And thank you.

And let me just disclose that Delta Dental is an underwriter of our healthcare programming.

Dr. Keith, let me ask you this.

There are 6.5 million people in the US with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The reason we're doing this segment is because a high percentage of those folks do not have access to quality accessible oral health.

Why don't they have access?

And what are the implications of that?

Please, doctor, - We looked at the problem and through our work with Special Olympics and talking with dentists and talking with the pediatric dental specialists, we became aware of the fact that there are just a number of hurdles that this population faces.

You know, not only is it a question of finding the right dentists who could provide their care, but there are financial barriers.

There are financial barriers that we to address.

- But Dr. Velasquez, let's talk about the implications of this.

I mean, so many of us take our oral health for granted, which is a whole, not even a different subject, but it's accessible to us.

It's affordable for us, we can do, but we're talking about a population that it's much more challenging for.

But what are the implications of not getting that oral care, Dr. Velasquez?

- Yeah, great question, Steve.

As we know, oral health is for sure part of overall health, and anyone who isn't going regularly to the dentist can have implications.

But certainly the vulnerable populations are way more susceptible to problems that can snowball.

- Such as.

- Any medical issues.

So, for example, a child that's nonverbal, autistic patient, perhaps that doesn't go to the dentist, may have a dental problem that their families weren't aware of, and it could turn into a facial cellulitis, for example, where they have to be hospitalized to have that treated.

So things can become exacerbated very quickly.

So we're all about prevention.

So that's what the game should all be about.

- You know, Dr. Libou, listening to your colleague, one of the things that strikes me is the question of access to dentists, to professionals in the field, to doctors in the field.

What about training dentists to deal directly with this very large and significant population with intellectual and developmental challenges, disabilities?

How the heck do we train clinicians to help those who are dealing with these issues Libou?

- Steve, the dental school curriculum give a very good basic education how dental students need to work with patients that have various special needs.

Additionally, as dentists are out there practicing, many of them pick up the skills just through life, through working with their patients.

And they learn how to do that from working with their existing patients.

Sometimes it's a life experience they've had with a family member.

Other times it could be continuing education.

And then we have the pediatric dentists like Dr. Velasquez, who go through many years of additional specialty training to work with the more complex cases.

- Along those lines, Dr. Velasquez, what are the more, as your colleague talks about the more complex cases, are there any specific challenges or ways you need to, as a dentist, deal with someone with certain challenges that is different than someone who doesn't have those challenges please, doctor?

- Yeah.

So as Dr Libou said, we are all trained in dental school.

I'm an alumni of the Rutgers Dental School, and it is part of the curriculum.

And then as you specialize, you find your areas of interest.

So as a pediatric dentist, it is a big portion of our education.

We do an additional two to three years of residency, and then we work with a variety of special needs patients.

I'm in practice over 20 years, staff dentist at Children's Specialized Hospital.

And so for example, I was there this morning, for example, I have many patients in wheelchairs, on ventilators.

And you have to, one, feel comfortable and able to handle their medical complexities and potential medical emergencies that may arise.

But sometimes you have to be ready to handle patients that need additional services to have the dental work completed.

For example, we often have to sedate kids.

So in New Jersey, you have to have a permit to be able to sedate children.

- That's right.

- Requires additional continuing education.

So that's something as a board certified pediatric dentist that I make sure I complete.

- You know, Dr. Libou, it's interesting listening Dr. Velasquez, 'cause you mentioned early on Special Olympics and I've been honored the last several years to to host a fundraiser.

It's a golf outing raising dollars for Special Olympics that's hosted by Delta Dental.

And I've been honored to be a part of that effort to raise money for such a good cause.

What is the role in Special Olympics in this whole initiative, Dr. Libou?

- The role of Special Olympics?

Well, yeah, we work very closely with them and we were involved in clinics to bring access to the athletes, to make care more accessible.

And they've just been a great, a great source for connecting us with doctors in New Jersey who have skill sets, who have experience working with these individuals and also as sort of a consultative source to help us define our new benefits.

- Dr. Velazquez, lemme try this.

So you were saying before that oral health is so much connected to other health and medical issues for us, help folks understand by giving another concrete example, whether it's dealing with someone who has developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or those of us who may not, but may take oral health for granted.

Help us understand with one concrete example that if we're not taking care of our oral health, that there's a real specific problematic health related issue that could be a byproduct of not taking care of oral health.

Please Dr. Velazquez.

- Yes, sure.

Again, great question.

So for example, a patient with Down Syndrome often have comorbidities, may have heart conditions, may have thyroid conditions, and if they're having dental problems, often they're related to dental cavities.

And we have to remember that's a bacterial infection.

So then that bacteria is harboring around on the teeth and can be negative consequences on the heart valves.

So it's all all related.

- Sorry to interrupt.

Does it get into the bloodstream?

Is that we're concerned about?

- Yes, exactly, exactly.

So we would have to know the medical condition of that specific patient that has that syndrome and understand the extent of their cardiac condition, for example.

- But along those lines.

- That would be related to children, adults, anyone.

- But again, if you're dealing with someone who's got intellectual or developmental disabilities, it's one thing to talk about a child in that situation and help getting information from their parent.

But if someone is older and may not have those caring caregivers, if you will, that's really challenging.

Is it not Dr. Velasquez?

- Yes, for sure.

So if the dental care is frankly, non-existent or the patient is having just irregular visits just for emergencies and whatnot, their mouth is unhealthy and then it can cause issues on the medical side.

When their immune system is compromised for X, Y, or Z, then the dental problem can basically blow up on them and become an issue, especially on an intellectually challenged patient that can't verbalize what they're feeling or experiencing.

And we don't know until there's a physical sign of infection.

And that's the shame of it.

- Dr. Velazquez, Dr. Libou, such important information.

So many people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who are not being, getting the care, the oral health care they need.

Important subject.

We will not leave this alone.

We'll follow up again.

Thank you both, doctor, we appreciate it.

- Thank you for highlighting this important issue.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you Steve.

- 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.

- We're now joined by Diana Dapito, who is head of Regional Content North America for a little company called Audible.

A huge company.

Good to see you, Diana.

- You too, Steve.

Thanks for having me - Do this.

All about audiobooks, right?

- Audiobooks, podcasts, Audible Originals, whatever you wanna listen to, spoken word, we've got it.

- And so this is, let's go right to it.

I'm obsessed.

I was just talking to our team behind the scenes.

I'm obsessed old school, which basically means old, so books, mark them up, dog-eared, things in the columns.

How the heck do I do that on audiobook?

My colleague Mary Gamba, who runs our company, audiobooks, audiobook.

Now, I am out of the loop on this, am I not?

- I mean, you should be catching on to the trends.

All the cool kids are doing it.

The young people are listening.

I'm listening.

- All us kids should be doing it.

Go ahead.

- You know, it's been a growing trend, something we've been doing at Audible since 1997 though, right?

Helping people fit more books into their life, finding different ways to get more stories in.

And it's just, it's such a powerful format, a powerful medium.

So we're so excited that more people can be listening and hope you'll join them.

- I will.

I promise I'll do that.

My wife's big on audiobooks too.

Question.

- Yes.

- COVID's impact on Audible's work, particularly with the books, the audiobooks.

- Yeah, I mean, what a time for all of us.

The first impact for us was shifting our recording studios that were in-house production and those teams to remote studios, helping narrators set up studios in their own homes so they could still work and work from there.

And for people who'd been listening when they were commuting, they had to find new times in the day to listen.

So they were sitting around with their families doing puzzles and they were listening together.

They were going on longer walks with the dog and they were listening during that time.

So it really became more about shifting the use cases and the times when people were listening.

And frankly, a little bit more that they wanted to listen to those escapist fiction genres, right?

More romance, more sci-fi and fantasy, less nonfiction, less news during that time.

- A question of literacy.

We've done a lot of programming around the subject of literacy.

To what degree do you believe that audiobooks promote literacy as opposed to not helping?

- Oh, they definitely help for reluctant readers or people who are learning.

Hearing the words pronounced, there are countless studies that show how it drives comprehension, helps improve vocabulary.

And there's also studies that show how much listening and stories, especially fiction, can even help improve empathy and really expose people to cultures or others their everyday lives.

that they might not be experiencing in But on the literacy front, really just having more words, hearing more words, again, countless studies that show how helpful it is.

- So, tell me where this, I don't like quoting statistics or studies unless I know where they come from, but I'm gonna wind up doing that anyway.

You probably know this.

The average American reads one book, I think it means in a year.

But the average Audible customer is consuming about 12 books a year.

First of all, who says that?

Second of all, is that true?

- So, my understanding is that there are not a lot- - We're public television.

We have to have a source.

(laughs) - Yes.

- Go ahead.

- But my understanding, not a lot of readers out there and not a lot of volume when the average American is reading.

I'm less concerned about that.

I'm more excited about the average Audible customer who is consuming so many stories, so many hours of listening and really finding that it enriches their life.

Either, whether it's that escapist fiction or whether it's the business book that helps you land that next interview or skills to help improve on the job.

It's, you know, 12 books a year average.

- And hold on one second.

Talk to me about comprehension.

Talk to me about whatever research studies that are anecdotal.

- Yeah.

- And/or anecdotal that, I mean, to me, again, I'm obsessing over the way I consume information.

That retention, I'm thinking it can't be the same if you're not reading it.

Not true?

- It's not true, and I think maybe you haven't had the right listening experience yet.

And that's sort of what I think about critics who think listening doesn't count.

- I'm not a critic.

I'm just asking questions.

Go ahead.

- (laughs) Fair.

But for the critics who do question if listening counts or not, I think it's important to have the right experience, and sometimes that takes a few different tries.

I recommend listening to a book you already love, and you get to experience it in a new way and think about how the performance just brings such a new angle to it.

We have what we call the Audible Essentials, right?

These performances that have just stood the test of time and, you know, are really incredible.

And I think when people find that special listening experience, that really helps them understand how intimate, how powerful the experience can be, it can be life-changing.

- Before I let you go, I remember 20 years ago, one of my first books...

I hate when people say, "my first book."

But I wrote a book called "Speak from the Heart," and Simon & Schuster was the publisher, and they insisted I do it.

- Yep.

- I read the book and I'm saying 12 hours later, no voice, nothing, you know.

And the last many books that I've written, I was like, "No, I'm not doing it."

Question, how many authors do their own stuff versus somebody with a much better voice?

- Well done that you finished your first one, and I totally understand that you didn't do the others.

We've had some of the biggest celebrity actors, some of the biggest names come into the studio and say, "That was the hardest job I've ever had."

Because you don't get to work with other people.

You can only rely on the power of your voice, so it's very difficult.

I would say the author is usually the right narrator, if it's a memoir.

And that's usually.

It's not always for everybody.

In most other cases, unless you're David Sedaris, somebody else should be narrating your story, - Spoken by the expert.

She is Diana Dapito, head of Regional Content in North America for Audible.

Hey, Diana, thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

I'm gonna, my first audiobook in 2024, promise.

- All right.

We'll send you some recommendations.

Thanks so much, Steve.

- Good stuff.

Thank you.

That's Diana, I'm Steve, and we thank you so much for watching.

We'll 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 New Jersey Institute of Technology.

PNC Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

The New Jersey Education Association.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

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