(upbeat music) - [Shirley Min] Next on "You Oughta Know", see how a local program is giving our most vulnerable veterans hope for a new day.

- [Regina Mitchell] Learn how you can foster a pet and help a vet.

- [Shirley] Plus, a look at how AI is helping Delaware nurses.

- And we take a trip to the Philadelphia Whiskey Society.

Welcome to "You Oughta Know".

I'm Regina Mitchell.

- And I'm Shirley Min.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We begin with a big thanks to the men and women who served and are serving our country in the military.

- We salute you on this Veteran's Day.

- Assistance programs like those offered at the Veteran's Multi-Service Center are helping to meet the needs of vulnerable vets.

New Day is among the platforms offering help and support for the treatment of addiction.

- The New Day Program started three years ago in response to the opiate crisis in Philadelphia.

The goal was to find our transient vets that are not getting services that are struggling with opiate use disorder and to get them the treatment they need.

The focus of our team is to help them on every level.

We try to treat the whole person, whether it's getting them food, taking them to appointments, getting them into treatment, providing whatever basic needs to help them overcome any barriers they have to lead a better life.

New Day has helped over 800 veterans to date.

We've provided over 2000 individual counseling and support sessions, over 2000 groups.

We've also distributed more than 5,000 doses of Narcan and trained more than 75 people.

We've also helped 113 vets get into treatment and four of them were suicidal that we've helped prevent further tragedies.

- You become certain different things when you join the Marine Corps.

You become, of course, a killer, but you also become alcoholic.

I think those things start up me off into my addiction.

As I transferred into civilian life, not having that structure around me.

So I allowed the streets to dictate what I did and how I did it, and it escalated.

We think in our addiction that nobody cares.

We think that there's no help for us.

We think that, you know, we're at the bottom and people want to step on you and keep you there, and that's not true.

- We have several plans that we're working on.

One is creating better partnerships with the providers in the city of Philadelphia.

We've also recently partnered with Beacon, a residential treatment provider, which helped us get folks access to care in less than 24 hours where the wait time was seven days.

So our goal now is to focus on those warm handoffs to further help our veterans.

- Before I came here, I had lost faith.

I had lost my self-esteem.

My addiction was going crazy.

And being a veteran, you really don't know what you can do, where you can go.

If it wasn't for this program, I would probably be dead or out there in the streets somewhere.

It has given me a sense of wellbeing.

It has given me a sense of purpose.

I belong.

I'm in a place where there are other vets who are going through what I'm going through.

- For those veterans that are active in their addiction, this is a pariah audience.

Folks don't want to address that problem.

Don't want to see that problem.

BMC's the exact opposite.

With our work with New Day, we see that veteran struggling, active in their addiction, and we go to where they are.

Whether that's Kensington Beach or whether it's in a shelter, we're going to those veterans, encouraging them to get the treatment they need.

No veteran is off limits for us.

We wanna reach them all, no matter how bad they're struggling, no matter how far off they actually are.

- I can tell you that people showed me love and compassion.

Somebody that cared, somebody that reached their hand out to me to let me know that there is stuff available for me.

- These people cared, and that hadn't happened to me in the long time.

That somebody actually care about me as a person, that I am worth something.

- As a Air Force veteran, and seeing what combat does to individuals, and then seeing the trauma and damage it causes to the family unit and understanding that so intimately, is one of the reasons why I've wanted to serve veterans.

They have lots of struggles that I think only a veteran can understand, and so it's my honor to be here to help them.

- Being in the military means you are on call every hour, every day, and can be deployed at any moment.

While they're away, there are programs that help service people find care for their children and family members left behind, including the four-legged furry ones.

- [Maxine Matl] I was going into a convenience store and she came around the corner and came right up to me, and she was so sweet.

Turns out, like, she'd been abandoned and I just, I knew, like, I had to take her home.

- For 21 year old Army specialist Maxine Matl, it was love at first sight.

She named her new furry friend Katie Cheese Fries, after discovering the dog had a thing for cheese.

The two instantly hit it off.

- She's my shadow as a lot of people put it, she goes everywhere with me.

I had to buy a new car so she could sit in the back, because if I, like, leave, she just barks and barks and barks.

- But it wasn't long after Cheese started settling into her new place, Matl got the call, she was being deployed to Germany for an indefinite amount of time.

- To be honest with you, I was extremely worried.

If you think about it before, like, she was, like, you know, living kind of on, like, the streets.

She had just gotten, you know, a home and someone to care for her.

What was I gonna do?

Just have her, like, you know, stay in my apartment, just kind of fend for herself for the next, like, however long I was gonna be in Germany?

You know, it was something that was definitely weighing really heavy on my mind.

And you know, mind you, like, outside of, like, everything that I had to deal with while being deployed and that's when my mom found PACT.

- P-A-C-T. PACT.

The name stands for People + Animals = Companions Together.

Think of them as an emergency foster care for pets.

Using their database, they link people in need of pet care with loving foster homes.

For those in the military, it is a lifeline when they're called to duty.

For volunteers like Joanne Colameco, this is how they serve.

- I had just lost my dogs maybe a year and I wasn't really ready for any more pets, but I also felt very strongly about wanting to help out people so that they can keep their pets.

- A few years ago, she volunteered to foster two large dogs for for a woman in California going to bootcamp.

- Lily and Dexter, they were four years old.

The owner drove them cross-country.

I love big dogs.

They were just so sweet.

- All PACT foster pets come with insurance to cover minor damages they may cause in any home.

The pet owners are also required to provide the food, medical costs and other supplies for their furry friends.

In return, the pet fosters often send pictures and updates to the owners, a small comfort while they're away.

- Getting those pictures while I was in Germany, I almost kind of teared up a little bit because I missed her so much.

She looks so cute.

And it was so, like, I guess, relieving and heartwarming to see that she was happy and, you know, comfortable and, you know, getting to be a dog.

The PACT program, it's a resource that a lot more military should know about, especially for, you know, people that are, you know, going on deployments and don't necessarily have all the money to have a dog sitter come in every day or go and board it somewhere.

It was nice to put her in another home, you know, because even though she wasn't at home with me, she was still at home with someone that cared about her.

And that meant a lot to me.

- What a moving story.

And who knew there was a program out there that offered this service.

Here to tell us more is Betsy Kilkenny, Executive Director for PACT.

Thank you so much for joining us, Betsy.

- Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

- There are already a lot of programs that will take in pets.

There are kennels, there are lots of places.

But you guys decided that what was really needed was a foster care system.

Tell me how that all came about.

- Absolutely.

So our founder, Buzz Miller, has been an animal advocate his entire life, in addition to his legal career.

And about 12 years ago, he started hearing heart-wrenching stories from military families that there was a rapid deployment coming up, and there was just nowhere to go with the pets.

Kenneling services were out of the question, it's not fair to the pet and it's gonna cost way too much money and suddenly they have to leave.

Well, where the pets gonna go?

And of course, we all know what happens when you have to surrender your pet to a shelter and a pet is there at the shelter for too long.

So thus the idea for PACT for Animals was born.

And we are a national nonprofit providing long-term foster care for the pets of our military soldiers when they're on deployment.

- But it's not just for military, right?

- Correct.

The program had started to be successful in the first three or four years, and then the board decided, let's offer this to civilians that are also facing long-term medical needs.

Suddenly an emergency comes up and you need to be in the hospital for a couple months or recovery time.

So now we have two supportive programs.

- You make it seem so simple, but it is very, very intricate.

How does all of this come together?

- Sure.

Well, the idea is simple, but yes, we pride ourselves on the fact that we are the only organization that manages the entire foster care process.

There is both the pet owner side and the pet foster side.

So if you come to us and you are in need of support for one of your pets, either military or medical, you start by filling out an application.

And of course we need to know that your pet is up to date on vaccines, they're spayed or neutered, they're not aggressive.

But we also create a pet profile and that's gonna be how we're gonna match your pet with an appropriate foster, including a screening process for our fosters, people that wanna become a foster.

And then our team, our match.com team, gets to work to start looking for the appropriate loving home for each pet in our system.

- And that's what I love.

We were talking earlier, you said it's not just cats and dogs, it's pretty much everything.

You guys even do frogs and horses?

- Yes, we do.

Primarily cats and dogs are in our program, but horses, ferrets, hamsters.

We had a turtle and two frogs this year.

(laughs) - That is awesome.

So if people wanna help, what can they do?

- Absolutely.

So one of the biggest challenges we have right now is the fact that since we are in all 50 states, getting the word out, helping us by being a social media warrior, helping us with donations, come onto our website and make a donation, send in a donation, host a little charity event for us, and definitely become a foster.

Fostering is wonderful.

We've had over 2,700 pets fostered so far from all 50 states and more than 1200 fosters throughout the country.

It's such a, it's such an amazing experience.

- It sounds like it.

Thank you so much.

And if you would like more information on PACT, log onto their website.

Betsy, thank you so much for joining us.

- [Betsy Kilkenny] Thank you.

- Earlier this year, ChristianaCare added two cobots, short for collaborative robots, to its staff.

Powered by artificial intelligence, the autonomous cobots are programmed to help nurses and other caregivers in the hospital, so that they can spend more time with patients and less time running around doing busy work.

Moxi glides around the halls of ChristianaCare, Delaware's largest hospital, 22 hours a day.

The AI powered collaborative robot, or cobot, largely helps nurses with what they call the hunting and gathering part of their job.

- It looks like Moxi's actually here for me to put something in the drawer.

- [Shirley] Moxi communicates through meeps, mostly.

- Put something in and close it, and then click deliver order.

- [Shirley] Chief Nursing Informatics Officer Kat Collard says having Moxi frees up nurses so they can do their jobs without interruption.

- What we know from nursing research is that nurses spend about 30, 33% of their time hunting and gathering supplies and equipment.

So their day is not really that smooth.

- [Shirley] Amanda Spence is a nurse in a surgical unit.

She says having Moxi allows her to spend more time by patients' bedsides.

- I think that it looks cool and I like the heart eyes, but mostly, of course, it's the fact that I can use the kiosk to send anything I need to send throughout the hospital.

And when it comes up, it has the things that I need right there instead of waiting a long time or going and getting it myself.

- The 300 pound autonomous robot works on lidar, or a robotic radar.

It has small cameras on its frame and has an articulating arm to open doors.

- Can I wave to Moxi?

- You can wave to it.

Oh, look!

- See?

- That's so cute.

- Moxi knows its space.

It knows where the walls are, where the elevators are.

- Come on in, Moxi.

Go ahead.

- It can sense if there's a piece of equipment in the hallway and go around it.

Or if someone is walking towards it, it can stop and wait.

Prior to Moxi, nurses could transfer things like samples or medications through tube stations like this.

But as you can see, not everything can fit inside these tubes, so that's where Moxi comes in.

Moxi has a big drawer for things like patient belongings and smaller drawers and back that can only be accessed with staff badges.

- 75% of his time is spent in pharmacy.

It can go to the equipment room and pick up equipment.

So, say I need a pump for the tube feeding.

I can send down to the equipment room for a pump and it will deliver that.

- Christiana was an early adopter of this tech, but more hospitals across the country are adding cobots to their staff.

And while it's already proving it's worth, Kat says Moxi is not taking anyone's job.

- We need human beings who have critical thinking skills and knowledge to take care of our patients.

- Doesn't Moxi remind you of Rosie, the robot from the Jetsons?

Well, between the two Moxies at Christiana, they're accomplishing 280 tasks a week.

And Christiana is looking to add more.

The hospital was recently awarded a one and a half million dollar American Nurses Grant.

And Kat Collard says they'll use that money to bring in at least one or two more cobots.

- It's that time of year again.

And you would have to be meshuga to miss the Annual Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.

One of the longest run Jewish film festivals in the country is back for its 42nd year.

From November 12th through the 19th, the Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media Group will premiere seven international feature films and one short program.

For more information on films, ticket prices and more, check out their website.

- My name is Annie Fanelli.

Soon I'll be an editor at the New York Times Magazine.

- Your voice, simply peerless.

- And in six weeks I'm getting married in a lavish but tasteful ceremony.

Luke comes from money.

- Let's go babe.

- But I have something no trust fund can buy: the edge.

- [Patrick Stoner] Mila Kunis has been a delightful comedy presence in many a film.

In this one, she takes on a more serious role.

"The Luckiest Girl Alive", which she seems to be.

But it turns out in the past there were things that were controversial.

I talked to her about taking on this more serious role.

- I get to see your beautiful background.

- Yes.

Well, you know, during the pandemic I had books to read, so that kept me busy and I just thought I'd share them with you.

- Beautiful.

- You have a younger version of yourself in this film.

Talk about, if you will, integrating all of that so that it all seemed like one person.

- [Mila Kunis] I think that when we cast Kiara, Mike and I had a conversation of trying to figure out, I don't think either one of us wanted to influence the other.

I think the story was a really great influence.

I think there was, like, a technicality of mannerisms that we wanted to find.

But as far as character development goes... - Yeah.

- You know, that was one of the beautiful things about how Jessica structured the script and the story, and the plot is, it didn't need very much heavy lifting from us as far as interpretation went.

It was very well spelled out as to how you got from point A to point B.

The fun part about any character is that figuring out that journey and the why.

- We got to know you so much in various comedies.

How much pleasure is it to be able to show off your acting range?

- I think comedies are just as complicated.

- Oh, sure.

Oh sure.

- As dramas.

I, you know, there's a, it's an interesting connotation to, if you can cry on cue, that's like real acting.

You know, if you ask my eight year old that, if you tell my kid that I'm gonna take away their iPad, let me tell you, they will cry on cue like there's nobody's business.

It doesn't make them the greatest of actors, it just makes them in touch with their feelings.

So there's a version of me that always, I think, resented coming out of comedy, how people always viewed dramas on a pedestal and viewed comedies as lesser than.

- Oh yeah.

- And so, I think that both are fun.

Like I, I'm not gonna lie, I think the complexity of a character is always really fun to play.

Anytime the character is not linear, that's a joy in all in its own.

- Mila, it's always a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you so much.

- Oh, you too.

I'm so sad I don't get to see you in person.

- We will, we will.

Since you don't change, but I do.

We will.

(Mila laughs) Thanks.

- As the holidays approach, it's time to figure out what food and drinks you'll wanna serve your guests.

And if whiskey's an option you're considering, and why not?

Check out the Philadelphia Whiskey Society.

- They're one of the oldest, largest and most active member-based whiskey organizations in the tri-state region.

Enjoying camaraderie and exclusive discounts at all the best liquor stores.

(piano music) - Better go easy on that stuff.

That makes three you had.

- Yup.

- For the last 30 years I've been on a journey of exploring whiskey.

Whiskey is very interesting, different and complicated.

A lot of whiskeys can bring a lot of different layers of flavor, depth, a lot of different finishes.

Port, Sherry, Madera, Vermouth finishes, lots of different things that shape the flavor and the complexity of the whiskey.

They come in all different shapes, colors and sizes ranging from almost fuel oil dark to Coors Light yellow.

And what you might expect might be completely different from what's delivered.

The umbrella category of whiskey is very simply: you take grain, yeast and water and you cook it.

And when you cook it up, it makes a beer.

Then you distill the beer, and that's where things have endless possibilities.

The Philadelphia Whiskey Society was founded by Alex Chang about five years ago.

And basically the idea is to bring together people who share a bond in whiskey and enjoy that experience together.

Whiskey demand has grown greatly worldwide, very big in America.

And we have some amazing distilleries in the greater Philadelphia area.

Old Line in Maryland.

Dad's Hat in Bristol.

Manatawny Still Works in Pottstown, and New Liberty, Red Brick, and Philadelphia Distilling.

You get a group of us together, we start talking.

Next thing you know, it's, "Hey, try this.

You like that?

I got something for you.

Try this."

And the comradery is just fantastic.

And we get a really nice eclectic group.

When you experience a whiskey, you start with the nose.

You're not gonna swirl it around like you would wine.

You're just gonna waft.

Then when you drink it, I suggest a very small sip.

Let it go from the front of your tongue to the back, hold it and swallow.

Then exhale.

Your tongue is going to light up with flavor when you do that.

The air going over the tongue is just going to set off a sensory storm.

- I find it very smooth.

- [Speaker] Women are actually becoming major, major players in the whiskey industry.

And that's in large part because women are said to have better senses of taste and smell.

- I joined the Whiskey Society because I wanted to learn more about whiskey.

It's very interesting to hear about distillers and how they blend their product.

- It has helped me expand my palette.

There's a lot of knowledgeable people here.

- It's a great group regardless of your gender.

They're open.

We have debates about the various whiskeys.

We discovered that we had more things in common besides whiskey.

- Well, now that we know more about the Philadelphia Whiskey Society, it is time for Regina and I to taste and see what it's all about.

- Absolutely.

Joining us now is Eric Gronwaldt, a member of PWS.

- Yes.

- And all of this looks so interesting.

What do you have for us?

- So today, we're gonna make two drinks for you.

Two whiskey forward drinks.

We're gonna make a Brooklyn, which we're gonna make with rye.

And we're gonna make a boulevardier, which we're gonna make with bourbon.

- Oh.

- And really the difference between a boulevardier and a negroni is, negroni's made with gin.

But today we're gonna use the bourbon and we're gonna make a boulevardier.

- Very familiar with the boulevardier.

(laughs) - So which one did we wanna start with first?

- I think- - Let's start with the Brooklyn.

- Okay.

- Sounds good.

- Hey, start with the liquor.

- Okay.

So what I did, I added some rye with some vermouth and amaro, and maraschino liqueur.

- Okay.

- I put it into a mixing glass with a little bit of ice.

We're gonna mix it up.

We're gonna strain it off.

- Okay.

Oh!

- Whoops.

- Good catch.

- Thanks.

- Now do you rec- - Into a coupe glass.

Go ahead.

- Do you recommend these if you're new to drinking whiskey?

- Yeah, 'cause what I like about a a nice mixed cocktail is it gives you an opportunity.

Whiskey can be hot on the mouth.

- Yeah.

- Really strong whiskey can be a little bit burning, but a cocktail will help you, you know, enjoy the whiskey.

But when you mix it with the other flavors, it dilutes it down and makes it... - Yeah.

- A little bit more palatable, a little bit more drinkable - A nice introduction.

- Sure.

And then we're just gonna add a cherry to that.

- Regina, you drink the Brooklyn.

- Okay.

- There's your Brooklyn.

- Oh, thank you.

- There you go.

- And so I know that a lot of people will either drink whiskey neat or on the rocks.

Is there a right wrong way?

- There's not a right and wrong way.

It's really just personal preference.

Some drinks, like the Brooklyn, you drink it neat.

You're mixing it with ice to dilute it down, but you serve it without ice.

Whereas the boulevardier, you're serving it with ice on the rock.

So, you know, it's a nice cool drink.

- And this is good.

Like, I can taste the liquor.

It's very, you know, it's not like something that's really mixed.

It's really good.

Like, I like the flavor of it.

- And that's it's, is it the flavor profile.

- And the glasses add to the experiences... - It really does.

- Which is kind of nice.

Yeah.

- It's nice because, you know, different drinks should be in different glasses.

A rocks glass, which has the alcohol with ice in it, as opposed to a coupe or a martini glass, where you normally don't see ice in those glasses.

So you get to enjoy the drink a little bit without the ice in it.

- And this is really good for the holidays, right?

- It really is.

- It's that thing that warms you up.

You know, you always.

- Warms you up.

- Yeah.

- You know the nice thing about, especially the boulevardier, we put a little chocolate bitters in there.

So you know, around the holidays you want a little chocolate, you're having a dessert, you know, this is a nice drink along with dessert.

- Now whiskey can be spelled one of two ways with an "e" or without, Tell me, what's that about?

- So it's interesting.

So back in the early 1800s, when the two major countries, which was Scotland and Ireland, were producing whiskey, they had two different type of dialects.

So the Irish term was with the "ey".

- Okay.

- And then the Scottish term was with the "y".

And then the countries that were influenced by those countries, so Britain, Australia, Japan, Canada, they were influenced by the Scottish sort of influences.

So they didn't use the "e", so it's just a plain "y", whereas the United States was influenced by the Irish immigrants coming over.

So that's why they added the the "ey" to the whiskey.

- I did not know that.

- I did not, you learn something new every day.

- Eric, thank you for this demonstration.

I'm like a kid in a candy store.

- Ah, there's more.

We're gonna invite the crew in to have a cocktail.

- Yes.

I feel so warm on the inside.

And if you would like to learn more, here's how you can learn about the Philadelphia Whiskey Society.

- Well that is it though, for the show.

Good night.

Regina and I are gonna enjoy our drinks.

- Yeah, not it for us.

'Cause I want what she's having.

- I'm gonna have this one here.

- Okay.

- All right.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

(upbeat music)