The following is an original production of AZPM News.

(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, we'll meet a physician on the front lines of rural health care in Southern Arizona.

(Darlene) We're happy to see that there is a recognition but we need additional support to do what we are trying to do.

(Tom) See how this University of Arizona athletics program is raising the bar.

(Roberts) This is a place that's had a great history in the high jump, kind of known as high jump University.

And I want to maintain that background.

(Tom) The epic tale of how one local theater emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever.

(Ron) We've pretty much tried to do everything that we needed to do to make it a more safe, comfortable, accessible place for people to come here.

(Tom) And composer Marc Shaiman talks about working with Bette Midler, Rob Reiner and more on Speaking Personally.

Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara here at Silverlake Park in Tucson.

But we begin down in Cochise County where getting to see a doctor could mean spending hours on the road.

So next we meet a physician who's working across several communities to get a closer look at what rural health care really looks like in Southern Arizona.

♪ CALM MUSIC ♪ (Darlene) Cochise County is a beautiful place to live.

It's very peaceful.

There is a lot of wide open space.

In theory, you know, because of our access to the outdoors and open spaces, you would think we would have a longer life expectancy.

Unfortunately, the statistics don't support that.

The reality is that we are very far from specialty care.

If you happen to have a diagnosis, let's say, of type one insulin-dependent diabetes or cancer, you know, lung disease, or if you're a child born with a complex, you know, medical syndrome, the specialists, the nearest specialists are in Tucson.

My older sister and younger brother and I were raised by a single parent.

My mother is actually a Cuban refugee to this country.

When I was eight years old, I actually started having symptoms of extreme thirst, couldn't go anywhere without having to stop and use a restroom, and started losing weight.

Turned out that I was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes, but basically my life was going to depend on a medication, a very important medication, insulin, and essentially my life would depend on a healthcare system.

Watching my mother try to navigate through all of that, not being from this country, I think was part of the reason why I wanted to go into medicine.

So I'm on my way to the Willcox clinic today, after several years of not coming to see patients, but we just opened our modular last month, and so I am coming once a month.

I've been, you know, working as a pediatrician for many years in Cochise County, and so I have some patients I've been seeing for several years.

Tengo que hacer estiramientos, caminar con él, y programarme en el día para que él pueda caminar aproximadamente cinco horas diarias para ayudar a sus músculos que no se contraigan.

Desgraciadamente en el pueblo de Wilcox, la terapia física para los niños como nuestros hijos no se las dan, solo adultos.

Entonces él tiene que tomar una terapia cada quince días, entonces viejamos hacia allá.

(Daniel) It's one thing to address access to affordable healthcare and making sure that people have the primary and preventive services that they need for a growing population.

There's other social determinants that contributed to some of the challenges and the poor health outcomes that we see in rural areas, including things like, how far is it to the nearest place where you can get health care?

Do you have reliable transportation?

Cochise County is a population of about 125,000.

HR1, also known as OBBA, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, had some changes that are concerning.

The immediate concern is that it did not renew the advanced premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Longer term, one of the anxieties for counties, especially a county like Cochise, it has 30% of its population.

It depends on Medicaid for coverage.

Starting in January of 2027, so not very far down the road, there's new eligibility, enrollment, and redetermination processes for staying on Medicaid.

And it's estimated that as many as 250 to 400,000 Arizonans will lose their Medicaid coverage because of those new requirements.

(Darlene) I see the cuts to Medicaid both hurting us as an institution and our viability financially, but definitely as a huge detriment to the patients.

There is going to be a delay in care, especially with our adult population.

I would anticipate they're not gonna come in unless they're really sick.

And often that means the disease is very advanced.

(Daniel) Many of the clinics and hospitals operate on one to two percent fiscal margins.

And this will put a great deal of stress, one 10 to 20% of the people that they take care of no longer have a source of payment for their health insurance and for the type of services they provide.

It was about 17 pages in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act or HR1 of the 870 pages total.

But that 17 pages had to do with the Rural Health Transformation Program.

And that is a true opportunity for the state.

So the state just received an award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services of 167 million a year for the next five years.

(Darlene) At this point in time, we don't really know how that's gonna play out.

We're happy.

We're happy to see that there's a recognition that we need additional support to do what we are trying to do.

But how exactly that's gonna be dispersed and to what programming, I think that's still yet to be determined.

(Daniel) But that money can help with things like, let's make sure that we transform how we train health professionals to include places that are in high need for nurses and physicians and dentists and behavioral health providers.

(Darlene) There was one visit in particular.

I was 15 years old and I was going to see the pediatric endocrinologist for my diabetes.

I was sitting on the exam table and he was looking right at me and into my eyes.

I actually can still remember his eyes.

It's a very vivid memory.

And he said, "Do you want to lose your legs "and lose become blind?

"Are you ignoring?

"Why are you ignoring your diabetes?"

And I just left that visit in tears.

I thought, "Oh my gosh, why am I even trying?

"This is, you know, it's not worth it."

And that specific visit has guided my approach to being a pediatrician, probably my whole life.

After that, I basically said, I will never, no matter what, I will never make my patients feel like that.

What gets me up every morning are my patients, I would say.

I really, truly love them.

I mean, been here 15 years.

I've seen many of them grow up, especially as a pediatrician, and they are my motivation.

They definitely are.

♪ SOFT PIANO ♪ The University of Arizona High Jump team has been producing champions for decades under the wings of dedicated coach Bob Myers.

The Wildcats are constantly raising the bar for future generations.

So next, meet two stellar high jumpers who are friends, competitors, and a part of the university's high jump legacy.

♪ UPBEAT LATIN MUSIC ♪ (Paris) When we train here, it's like competition, because we're going back and forth.

Kaya, Emma, and I, every practice, it was like above six feet, we'd be jumping.

(Emma) We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and we all challenge each other.

I think it helps us all to be stronger and improve on everything.

(Paris) We just push each other, cuz, like, 'oh, she jumped that, or she jumped that.

I wanna go again, put the bar back up, Bob.'

(Emma) I don't think I would be jumping as high as I am if I didn't have Paris, and now Kaya, also, to push me.

(Bob) That thirst for learning, and that drive and dedication to be the best that they can be, that really puts them above a lot of people.

I mean, I don't think any other high jumpers work as hard as they work.

♪ UPBEAT LATIN MUSIC CONTINUES ♪ (Emma) When I was around seven, I just loved running.

I was always running at recess, so my mom put me in cross-country.

I saw some older girls high jumping, maybe five feet, and I was four something at, like, height wise at that point.

So I was like, 'wow, that's so high, I wanna do that.'

I actually got my name from the 2003 World Championships.

My mom was competing there, and when she came back, she found out that she was having me.

And so, it only made sense to name me Paris.

She went to the Olympic trials two months after having me, but she obviously trained with me in her stomach.

I was always at the track since I was in a stroller, and just being exposed to the sport of high jump.

And then when I was old enough to try, which was around, I think, eight years old, I went to Nationals.

I won my first Nationals ever, and it's just been meant to be since then.

[ FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING ] [ POLE RATTLING & IMPACT NOISE ] (Bob) Push out a little bit more, but move back another foot.

The high jump is a very psychological event, and they say it's an awful like a baseball hitter, you know: It almost always ends in failure.

[ POLE RATTLING ] Okay, good approach, take off, not quite as good.

This is a place that's had a great history in the high jump, kind of known as 'High Jump University,' and I want to maintain that background.

So, however long in the future, high jumpers are gonna wanna come to the U of A.

♪ SOFT PIANO BEGINS ♪ (Emma) Looking at Bob's credentials, he's had so many amazing athletes that he's coached in the past.

I think at one nationals he went one, two, three with his jumpers, which is unheard of.

I knew, as soon as I was talking to him, that this is where I wanted to be.

(Paris) I ultimately decided on the U of A because of Coach Bob.

I came here as a walk on and eventually have earned my full scholarship, but I owe it all to Coach Bob and training with Emma.

We've roomed together; we've gone to the Olympic trials together, we've gone to the US championships, U20s.

She pushes me like no one else.

(Bob) They both are the kind of people that have tremendous drive, tremendous dedication.

They're gonna do everything they can to be the best student athlete they can become.

I think they've set the standard and then the younger people see that standard.

And they realize, 'hey, if I wanna be that good, I'm gonna have to do, similarly, all those things very well to be successful as a high jumper and a student athlete.

I think right now we're ranked as the number one high jump school.

(Paris) Having that number one ranking just shows everyone that we do put in the hard work every single day, and this is a serious program here at the University of Arizona.

Let's just move up maybe a couple inches and still just really think about the arms.

(Paris) I would say what makes someone a good high jumper is consistency.

You only have about eight to twelve steps to get over a bar, and it's only moving up by this much.

Whether the bar is low or high, you've gotta do the same thing every time.

You can't try harder or else you're not gonna have a good jump technically.

(Paris) You may be five inches over the bar, and it goes up two inches; and you miss the next one.

One thing I've noticed is if I have a bad jump practice like a week out, I end up jumping pretty good at the meet—usually.

So, I'm getting the bad jumps out now, and then, I can jump good at the meet.

[ BAR RATTLING IN SLOW-MOTION ] (Emma) Knowing that I tried my best, and that I'm doing everything I can, is— makes me happy.

It's enough for me.

I'm the kind of coach that really just wants to develop successful people.

We talk about things, about getting a job, about finances, all sorts of things that they're going to experience later in life.

So, they're not just released into the wild, so to speak, when they finish their school and competition.

All right, good.

Good rhythm.

(Emma) He'll go over how important like visualization is, and how to deal with the pressure in those meets.

When she was jumping in Tokyo in September, the high jump was the only event going on, and there was 68,000 people there yelling and screaming.

(Emma) Dealing with that big of a crowd and seeing, you know how it affects me, and how to deal with it, and how to just focus on jumping.

(Bob) Being able to deal with your emotions is something that needs to be practiced just like physical skills in high jump.

(Emma) When you're on that third attempt, and you've already missed two bars, being able to calm down and give full effort without thinking too much about how much pressure is on you.

That's when I try to even de-stress even more like telling jokes, try to keep their mind off of, 'Hey, this is a big competition, and Everyone's going to be looking at me.'

Going to bed, throughout the day, like, I can just close my eyes and think, like, 'Okay, one, two, three, four,' you know, like, the rhythm of what I need to do approaching the bar.

Every day isn't going to be perfect, but it's a day to see where you're at.

I think that's what is most important.

In the grand scheme of things, I have come a long way, and that's what matters.

You can't really look too far ahead You just kind of have to take each day one at a time, and then, we just take it one year at a time— one meet at a time.

We're hoping to get as many people at the Nationals as possible and come home with at least two more All-American awards (Paris) What counts for success for me is just trying my best, and listening to Bob.

That's all that matters.

I probably would have said, a few years ago, beating my mom.

Hopefully one day I can be as good as her, but we all have our own stories.

When I was starting coaching, I didn't want any of my athletes that had the motivation not to achieve what they were capable of achieving.

So, I've really dedicated my life to being the best coach I can be, you know, try to give the athletes all that I can give so they can be the best they can be.

The Loft has been a staple in Tucson for decades, but like a lot of businesses, it faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But not only did they survive, they came back stronger than ever.

[ BEEPING ] (Peggy) I think The Loft means to this community a place to gather to look at films together.

Whether it's Welcome to the Dollhouse this crazy independent movie that I saw last night with 64 other people, or whether it's Sinners on 70 millimeter or, you know, I mean there's just, the range of films we show is vast.

♪ JAZZ MUSIC ♪ (Jeff) My parents brought me here when I was a kid, when The Loft was located on the U of A campus.

So kind of watching it transition to becoming what I think of as a thriving part of our community, as an audience member has been really exciting, but as someone who works here has been really kind of gratifying.

♪ SOMBER MUSIC ♪ (Peggy) I tell you, the Friday before I had gotten a really lovely award, and then on the Wednesday we had a meeting with our banker to talk about financing for an expansion project, and then on Friday we closed.

It was quite a shock.

(Ron) I thought, oh this will be a month maybe at the most, and we will be back, and it lasted as you know a long time.

(Jeff) That was the first time we ever closed, because movie theaters are open 365 days a year.

Our whole business model is based on showing movies, and if you can't show movies, what do you do?

So that was a bit of a panic moment.

(Peggy) I was worried about everything.

I was worried about dying.

I was worried about people I knew dying, and I was worried about the Loft dying.

You know, a lot of theaters did shutter during this time, and it was terrifying.

(Jeff) In the back of my mind I thought there's a chance we may not get through this.

(Peggy) We didn't do anything for a while, and then we started doing, you know concessions, curb pickup.

(Jeff) We realized, well let's get into virtual cinema, which has always been the enemy of movie theaters, and then we decided let's build an outdoor movie theater screen in our parking lot.

That way we can have live theater screenings here at the theater, and so that really started bringing people back.

That was a huge outpouring of support from the community, and that kept us going, especially in terms of our morale.

(Ron) We were a strong organization, and we were stronger I think for the challenges that we met.

So the reality of the situation, which was why we started talking about this in 2010, the existing building isn't capable of dealing with what we are generating here.

(Jeff) This building was built in the late 60s.

(Peggy) We had 500 seats.

We would sell 500 seats, and that postage stamp of a lobby would be "ah."

It was clear that we just sort of outgrew the space that we were in, so that's what we're trying to do, sort of match the space to our programming.

(Ron) The board and Peggy and the staff, this is time.

This is it.

We've got to expand.

We want to show more films.

We want to keep them longer.

(Peggy) In 2023, we had a donor reach out and say, "I want to get you guys going on this."

The lobby, which we're in, will be the new concession stand, which is behind me.

a huge women's room, a half huge men's room, and just all new fixtures, all new plumbing, all new everything.

A rooftop deck, which we're calling the Overlook, because it overlooks the lobby and it overlooks the open air screen, and it also is a Shining reference.

We're adding a fourth screen, which we're gonna be calling, I think, the Red Room, which is gonna be an homage to Twin Peaks.

And then we've got a permanent open air cinema, which will have a 32-foot screen mounted on shipping containers with a projection booth up kind of in the area of the open air bar upstairs.

(Ron) We've pretty much tried to do everything that we needed to do to make it a more safe and comfortable and accessible place for people to come here.

(Jeff) What I would say to the community is, thank you, this was for them, this was for you.

The Loft would not be here for 53-plus years if it didn't have the support of the community.

Tucson has been a city that has supported this for many years.

If your New Year's resolution was to watch more (bleep) movies, I would thank the community for supporting us and joining us on this adventure that we're about to go into the next phase of The Loft, which will hopefully not require another expansion ever.

(Ron) I say thank you a thousand times.

It's a dream come true for me, for the board, for the staff.

And I think when our patrons show up, they'll see something, then they'll be blown away.

(Peggy) It was really scary when we closed during COVID and we knew we didn't have a sustainable building.

But the cool thing was how our community just rallied around us.

It's been like a vision, a dream.

A reality of how necessary it is, all of those things, and to finally see it shaping up.

The fact that we've been able to get the support to do this has just been incredible.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC ♪ ♪ CROWD SINGING ♪ Marc Shaiman is a Grammy, Tony, Emmy and BAFTA award-winning composer and lyricist who's also been nominated for seven Oscars, so far.

If you've seen a movie since the late 1980s, chances are you've heard his work.

On our latest episode of Speaking Personally, he sat down with AZPM's Mark McLemore to discuss his long-serving friendship and career with Bette Midler, his close Rob Reiner relationship, scoring the Addams Family films, and why he never watches the South Park movie.

Hello, thanks for joining us.

My name is Mark McLemore and I'm welcoming a very special guest to the show a Composer a songwriter and Bon Vivant joining me now Marc Shaiman.

Hello, Marc.

Welcome to Tucson.

Thank you Thank you Mark with a K. Yeah Marc with a C and in the wild we can sometimes be natural enemies I think we've worked it out.

All right.

I want to talk about Bette Midler.

Okay, so before you even met her or get the opportunity to work with her I went from the Mary Poppins soundtrack to Bette Midler records when her first two albums came out my music teacher in junior high as a present for a thank-you present for helping him with the talent shows Gave me Bette Midler's first two albums and then I sat in the back of the rehearsal studio And I watched them rehearsing up on the stage and in walk Bette Midler And I was just you know fantasy.

Oh my god I'm I'm having my own private Bette Midler concert and she's rehearsing with the band and then she called out a song to the band that was from her third album and They didn't have music for it on their stands and they're like, we don't know that song and one of the Harlettes went over to Bette [WHISPERS] And so Bette Midler Kind of like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard said you there She said can you play "No Gesturing" and I actually got to walk to a stage and say oh Miss Midler I know every note of every song of every album Please let me play for you like my dream my daydream literally came true and and it's been like that ever since approximately...[LAUGHS] Take you take a deep breath Approximately how long did your association with Bette Midler continue right up until this morning.

I could show you the text She fired you this morning.

Yeah.

No, we're still great friends.

We're like brother and sister With from that moment when I played the song that she wanted the band to play.

She kind of was like stick around I could use you.

Since we lost Rob and his wife Michelle so many wonderful things have been said about him So many people have touching stories and just simple stories about how he would have lunch With the crew and the the actors some directors don't do that, you know What's something that you think you learned about working on a film set that you would say you learned specifically from Rob Reiner?

Well, my job is away from the film set.

Although I did go visit the film sets often I was lucky enough that my parents once came to visit me in LA and Rob was filming "A Few Good Men" and we went to the set and it was the day Jack Nicholson was doing the big You can't handle the truth scene.

So we got to watch that over and over again unbelievable, but um With Rob it was all about the hang, H-A-N-G once everyone realizes everyone's got the talent to do what they're to do Then it's about you know Having a great time with the people you're working with my memories of working with Rob are all about us sitting around schmoozing laughing telling jokes telling stories finishing each other's jokes and stories and Then I then oh, yeah At some point I went to the piano and played him what I was working on but that's like the the dimmer memory it's it's the companionship the friendship That I will always remember.

Be sure to watch the full interview with Marc Shaiman on YouTube or listen to it on our new Speaking Personally podcast For more information go to azpm.org/speakingpersonally Like what you're seeing on Arizona Illustrated then connect with us on social media for even more Arizona Illustrated.

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