Supper with the Super: Ruth Turner on the School Vote. Plus: Cory Booker Part Two

0:00Big news, Montclair. You can now watch the Montclair pod on YouTube. That's right. Same local drama, same hot takes, same school budget stress, but now with faces. Starting with today's episode, we're officially on YouTube. If you ever thought, I wish I could watch this whole thing while folding laundry or doom scrolling. This is for you. Go to youtube.com, slash at the Montclair pod or search the Montclair pod on YouTube. Subscribe, watch, judge our expressions, and as always, still local, still independent, still very Montclair. I've really had my head down for what I felt like for seven months because this is a, I don't think anybody understands the depth of this crisis. It's almost, I like in it too, every month your mortgage comes up and you're not sure if you can make that house payment, right? You know, the level of anxiety that you have, not knowing if you're going to have a roof over your head. That is what has been like for us. Welcome back to the Montclair pod, everybody. I'm Farneesh. And I'm Mike, and that was our school superintendent Ruth Turner at the top of the show.

1:01She is joining us for the first of a series of interviews we'll be doing with her at local restaurants. We'll be talking about the food and maybe education a little bit. A little bit, just a smidge. And obviously, there's a lot to talk about this week, the referendum, school closures, staffing cuts, earthquakes, title waves, human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria. Mass hysteria actually goes down pretty smoothly with some delicious pizza. We did the interview at italiana by Zod, by the way. Finally, finally, we were actually supposed to go there a month ago or so for your birthday, Farneesh. And every time we talked about something upsetting relating to the schools, I was able to soothe myself immediately was in delicious food. What did you find to be the most soothing food? I mean, it was all comforting. It was actually the best restaurant we could have chosen given the topic at hand. It was all comfort food. I really liked the margarita pizza. I also really liked the spicy Caesar salad, but I swallowed a giant portion of the spicy dressing. I always do this. This is my thing.

2:05I'm not really good with spicy food. I always want to brave it. And I always end up like swallowing a clump of spicy something into the side of my throat. It was a five alarm fire in my throat as she's talking about, you know, something very sobering, like reinvesting a renaissance middle school. Do you could you tell that I was like, you felt the pain of the news? I felt it. I really did. I should have ordered you some milk. We'll fill you in on all the food and the schools during that segment, but that's not all because we've also got part two of our interview with Cory Booker, where we'll talk about media consolidation and why he and other elected leaders see a hyper local podcast like ours as a smart way to reach their constituents. We also talk about why health care costs are so freaking high. We talk about his thoughts on ice and the current immigration crackdown, the political fundraising industrial complex and his favorite restaurant in Montclair hint. It sounds like far news, but that's not our only

3:05senatorial experience of the week. We actually spoke to our other senator on Tuesday, Senator Andrew Kim for an upcoming episode about the sandwich generation and aging in Montclair. Senator Kim has been pretty public about his own father's battle with Alzheimer's and he's been elevating the caregiving crisis on the Senate floor. In that episode next week, we're going to talk about what happens when families get financially stretched caring for their kids and their parents at the same time. Make sure you're subscribed to the pod. So you get that first thing next Thursday. Also this week, we got healthy. We sure did. We got men. We got men did. For the latest installment of far news, you might get healthy. It's sponsored by men. A lymphatic wellness center just off Valley Road in Upper Montclair. Yeah, that's a thing I didn't know existed until we did this segment. It's all about fluid people and getting rid of the fluid. It's like ringing out all the bad stuff and let me tell you I'm here for it. It's right. It's definitely for everybody, but women who are postpartum or people dealing with the aftermath of any number of

4:07surgeries rely on this a lot and we're going to explain why and we'll introduce you to the owner. Someone called the poop whisperer. That deserves a theme song. Don't do it, Mike. Please, we've got serious things to talk about. All right. Of course, but I do think that I might end up creating like a Montclair pod album of all of these theme songs or Spotify list because we've had some bangers and I'm thinking about weaving in samples from the podcast. So it's like, you know, it's going to be great. I mean, well, you did say you wanted to work smarter, not harder this year, but you know, we did talk a lot about music with superintendent Ruth B. Turner. That was one of the more informal get to know you questions that we asked her. That's right. She grew up in Queens in the 90s and she got to here and see some great music and she met us at Italiana by Zod on Bloomfield Avenue between Park and Midland. Everything was delicious. So good. That spicy kale salad, the meatballs and the pizza. And then they brought a special dish. She was like a truffle pasta, compliments of Zod. Very good. Yeah. It was a combination of great food and an

5:11intense discussion about our schools, calling this segment supper with the super. And for this one, there is a jingle inspired by 90s hip-hop from Queens. Are you surprised by the yes, no? I was surprised by how close it is. I had a sense that we would get a yes on question one and a no on question two. How does this affect the cuts? So like we get yes, yes, 10 million if it's no, no. This is a split a little bit. Does that change the number at all? Right. If we indeed get a yes in question one and a no on question two, it provides very little relief for our current budget. Certainly for next year. So it won't be too much of a change in terms of our budget, but the budget we will present on Wednesday, assuming we don't have anything official

6:15before Wednesday would be with our current state aid and also the assumption of a no no. I think one of the things that still tends to have pledged, let me say that is that I have been as open and transparent as I possibly can be when I told folks what would happen if we don't get the resource that we need. I was some people accused me of being fear mongering and that I was exaggerating and now that we're living it out, people are acting like they're shocked or as if I can't believe this is happening and all along we've said these are the things that will happen because of the budget gap being so large that if we don't get the resources that we need, these are some actions that we're going to have to take and yet people are still surprised by that. What was the thinking behind announcing the Renaissance closure on Tuesday night, the night of the vote? Was that timed for any particular reason? Yes, let me clarify that because I know that in the world of social media, you know people

7:17make their own assumptions. So one of the things about me is that I try as much as possible to allow folks to hear from me. So I wanted to give individuals because I recognize you have working families, things that I didn't think would be fair to call a meeting on Thursday or Friday the week before without much notice. So Monday, we had a board retreat. I couldn't do it Monday. One's day, we had a board meeting. I couldn't do it one's day. So initially, my thinking was, okay, six o'clock on Tuesday, folks will vote and then come down. They were still enough time. And so that was the original announcement was that we will call a meeting with the staff after school as soon as dismissals over and that we wouldn't buy families to join us at 6 p.m. in person. I got very quickly feedback from folks that says, you know, how can you have a meeting during the vote and so forth? So I said, okay, then we pivoted to virtual 830. After the vote was done and then folks could put their kids to sleep or still be home and participate because

8:18I felt it was important to hear it from me before going public. So I shared with the board on Monday, shared it with the families and staff on Tuesday and I shared it publicly on Wednesday. When did you guys make that decision that that you were going to make this change? Looking at projections for next year and enrollments and also recognizing that even though yes, yes, there would be a consolidation of school. I didn't say what school because I had to look at numbers and figure all that out. Once we looked at the numbers, that's how that decision was made. So was maybe Tuesday, like definitively. One mom I spoke with who did actually vote yes now. She said how she learned that Renaissance was on the chopping block before voting. It would have given her more confidence to vote yes, yes. Because to her, the reason she voted no one question to was she felt like I wanted more of a definitive plan for going forward. What's the go forward plan? Do you regret not communicating it earlier? Absolutely not. Absolutely. It was communicated

9:21at the appropriate time once. I'm not going to communicate anything that's not definitive. I'm not going to communicate anything without looking, making sure the plan is viable. Now you have to recognize, I think from day one, we've worked with these ridiculous deadlines. It's always, you know, like we just got our stay date, right? Everything has to be done within a couple of days, within a couple of weeks. What I did present before people voted was that they would be a school consolidation and that would also be likely heard of another school being impacted. So no, I don't have any regrets about that. When you're not in it, it's easy to give feedback. It's easy for folks to say, why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? How do I know? Does how do I know that? But it's completely a different viewpoint from where I'm sitting at. But let's eat a little bit because you've been doing a lot of talking. Well, it's okay. You have a little bite. I like Brussels sprouts. This is kale Caesar and it's got a little bit of a kick and it's really good. I got to try that because I do like spicy. Yeah. And the fish is got yeah, and that's a big on seafood, but oh, it does have a, you know, yeah, it's basically like

10:26smoked salmon. Yeah, yeah, you want to get that jalapeno. It's a good, it's a good kick. Oh, and I got you like it here on town. Do you get a chance to try the different restaurants here? I've tried a couple. I don't get to go out very much, but I've tried a couple. What's your typical day like? Like what time do you wake up? What are your, what's your morning routine? I usually wake up between 4.35 a.m. What do you do first? I'm trying to get sometimes earlier. What time do you go to bed? Midnightish. Wow, 11. That's not healthy. 11 is a early, this is early day. No, it's, it's not sustainable. I recognize that. I'm with you. I do the same thing. But I'm also not, I've never been like one, he suits like six, seven, eight hours. No. No. And when I do, I know this sounds strange. I'm sluggish. Like, I start yawning. I mean, it happens every time. It's, it's interesting. So we wake up at 4.30. What do you do first thing? Do you journal? Do you meditate? Do you make breakfast? Do you have coffee? Do you go for a workout? I wish I won't for workout. I'm having a new, I'm adopting a new lifestyle,

11:26so that's, that's, that's slowly becoming a part of it. I usually wake up, like I said, 4.35 o'clock. First thing I do is read my Bible and I spend about a half an hour in prayer every day. And then I watch the news and then I, I'm usually taxing, emailing a little bit. I'm learning to schedule it so people don't get the emails when I send them. Because then they're like, what, she's, she's a little noony bin. No, I've done that. So that's pretty much it. And then make my way to the office or make my way to meeting or make my way to a school. What time you get to your desk? It depends. If I go straight, I get about eight. If I, you know, if I have to go to a school or somewhere else, I get there when I, when I get there. It's the leaving part, that's hard. Yeah. Because it's always one thing, you know, I'm going to do this next. I'm going to do this next. So that, that gets difficult. So that I leave the office sometimes maybe seven o'clock, but then I continue working at home, whether it responded to emails, whether it's, you know, drafting something or my mind is constantly thinking. Yeah. You said that restructuring

12:30rent into the preschool center is going to save 2.3 million. Is that annually or is that of one time savings? It will be a one time savings. And that also allows us to lease our, our building that, that's behind central office. So that would generate an annual, a monthly revenue. Great. What are some other examples of that scale of magnitude of savings that that maybe aren't considering? Yeah. As I said, we're looking at transportation. So I expect by the time we present on Wednesday that we found efficiencies in transportation that will be maybe not as equal, but close to that savings. So honestly, there's really not much in that sense. But what we want to do is have cuts that impact, what everything impacts, I hit using that word because everything impacts students, everything impacts staff. But as much as possible, not allowing majority of the cuts or hundreds of the cuts to come from staffing. Yeah. As much as we can. It's really, really

13:31difficult, but as much as we can. And as I said, when I shared about the information about the structural deficit, is that one of the things I said about the structural deficit, you have to make structural changes. That's reducing your footprint, looking at, at, at enrollment. And again, of course, it does, it doesn't feel good. Schools are one of the things that we are very attached to. All right. And I understand now, however, as I stated, it's, it's something necessary for us to have to do. And it should have probably been done a while, a long time ago. Could there be other school closures in the future? So it's not a school closure, it's a reinvestment on a consolidation, which is very different than a school closure. It's a difference. Usually when you close a school, you close that school and you usually let go of the property, you sell it, or you do something else. What we're trying to do is be innovative and reinvest instead of just having empty buildings or selling buildings or things of that sort. So I don't know. I'm being very honest. I don't know. I think if we continue to see a decline in enrollment, especially a

14:37significant one over the next couple of years, the responsible thing to do would be to consolidate those resources. But I do believe that we're going to come out of this and I do believe we're going to come out of it stronger. I really do. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be doing what I'm taking a lot of the heat that I'm taking. I mean, I'm not stupid. Yeah. Even though some people like to believe I may be, but I'm not. So it's just as hard when you're in the middle of that painful struggle transition period, right? It's hard to see a positive or hard to see what the end is going to be in terms in a positive outlook. But it will get better, especially if we, and I'm willing to make those tough decisions because I have to think of the long term and I have to think of the whole students and the whole system as a whole and not just pockets. And those are not important too, but that's how I look at it. I think in the next two years or so, we'll be having a different conversation. I'm positive of that. And then I do believe down the road will have periods of growth. There is a question as well as to, are we going to remagnet the magnet schools? What are the

15:40magnet schools that we want? You know, because we created these in the 70s. Like the world is changing. AI, job market. This isn't probably right now. What you're thinking about? It's my guess. No, but that's definitely, I have been thinking about that that's going to have to be our undertaking to to look at our magnet systems. I said very openly is one of the things that attracted me to to not clear. So I'm fond of it. I think the magnet system is a good way where schools can still have like their individual focus and then students and families have an an option within that. But I do agree that even as that looking at them strengthening it, I think sometimes some schools have their magnet theme and then they have other stuff that's not part of their magnet theme. I'm committed to preserving the magnet theme. Let's say one school is let's say the STEM school. That's not to say that there's not STEM opportunities in other schools, but their opportunities shouldn't look like what the STEM school looks like. Right. That's going to be unique. Whether we're talking about the arts, things like that, we just got to

16:44of tying that. But I do believe that our next undertaking is having a community conversation around the magnet schools and what would it look like for us moving forward? As I said, a lot of things have changed and that doesn't mean that having those discussions doesn't mean that we're trying to eliminate the magnet system. I think we have to evolve and change and strengthen it. So I do believe does the next critical step. What did you think of Governor Cheryl's announcement on the same day that she's how she's addressing the structural deficit in New Jersey specifically with schools? What I remember is an overall increase of 3% in education funding. We saw an increase in our state aid. I was really nervous because I think a week and a half prior to it and I think I shared it with the board publicly and definitely with my staff. We were told that our last superintendent monthly meetings that to anticipate possibly a small decrease, I was really concerned about that. And I know some folks that they've experienced a decrease, but I was glad that not only did we not get an increase, but we, I mean a decrease, but we've also got a little bit of an increase.

17:49What would be your message to teachers right now? Because some teachers are thinking, do I stay, do I go? Teachers who want to maybe work here one day, but wondering, this place is in transition, is it really a safe place for me? What do you really want to communicate to teachers? Hang in there with us, and it's that that I don't want to say is that what what gives me comfort because it doesn't, is that there's other places laying off significantly, more than what we will probably have to. So I think looking at that to say it's not just isolated to my clear, it's a tough time in education right now. And then we have so many committed individuals, right? That's why when we had the layoffs in the mid-year and worked with some of our nearby school districts to help those individuals secure employment, there was like, well, if there's an opportunity for me to be required back, and I come back, and we said, you know, of course, and we worked with those folks to our wave their 60-day notice to do so. Of course, we didn't end up calling all of them back, but there's people that are committed, not just to public education, but to Montclair, and it really are, and would rather work here and stay here. So I just tell those folks, you know, hang in there with us, we're doing

18:53the best we can to stabilize it. Once we're stable, they won't be this like, I don't know what's going on, you know, month by month, year by year. And that's what I'm doing trying to work to the point where we can be stable and move on from there. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting there. I wonder if there's a world where we could fundraise because there was a lot of people who voted yes, yes. A lot of people who were ready to pay an increase in taxes, right? If you want to write a check to the Montclair School District, in honor of that, yes, second, yes. Could they do that? Is that like actually legal to do that? I've actually done a lot of questions from parents. Yeah, about that, wanting to help support so that programs and opportunities are not eliminated for our students. So there is a path forward for that. We've talked with legal counsel. So what most places do is create, not the school district, but the community, create a an awful profit foundation. I'll give an example back in New York, one of the work that I was doing that was always underfunded because it was a connected social emotional learning. They created

19:53a novel private called Friends of Rocky Story, where they were able to fund it. So that could happen here and it will most likely happen here, folks that are willing to do that and to create something like say, Friends of Montclair Public Schools, a novel profit foundation that would be able to then donate those resources to the district. One thing that I'm very careful about is I've got a lot proposals from a lot of folks who of course care about let's say, you know, they hear that they might be a reduction in sports. Let's just say, I bet that there's going to be no more freshman lacrosse. We can raise the money. All the parents will raise the money and that we can have, we can have freshman lacrosse, right? No, we can't and I'll tell you why because that will create inequities that I will not, I will not contribute to and I will not support. What I'm open to if folks are willing is have one pot, let's say for sports, have one pot, you know, whatever we think is important and find an equitable way to be able to fund those sound families in various sports or activities may be able to raise, let's say, 50,000, I've seen it with a

20:55matter of days and weeks. Like the ice skating rink. Yeah, they raised hundreds of thousands. Yeah, other individuals can't. So if I allow that to happen, then I'm allowing inequities to take place and I can't, I can't do that in good consciousness. It's not the right thing to do. Everything has to be for all students. I know this is the argument against sort of the PTAs that some schools have more lucrative PTA funds because I'm just the demographic and their ability to fundraise better or whatever it is. Have you thought about that too? Because that also creates inequitable structures. I'm working with them. As I said, you know, I've really had literally my head down for what I felt like for seven months because this is a, I don't think anybody understands the depth of this crisis. It's almost, I liken it to every month your mortgage comes up and you're not sure if you can make that house payment, right? You know, the level of anxiety that you have, not knowing if you're going to have a roof over your head. That is what it's been like for us because it needed such great attention. I would say 85, 90% of my time has been

21:55studying that, analyzing it, you know, paying attention to that, talking with our state officials and to really get a handle on that and to make sure that we're able to to meet payroll and all of the obligations that we have for this year. So I have seen some of that. I am going to work with the PTAs to get a better sense of that and to find a more equitable way of doing that because I say equities to me is not just a word and I don't think say by intention, you know, to say, oh look what we have. Look what you don't have. I think you just get focused. That is your child school. That is your school community. And that's all, that's like your lane, you know what I mean? So I don't think anything is dealt with ill intention. But once we know the unintended consequences, we have a responsibility to say, how do we address that moving forward? Oh my god. Our giggly pasta. I was going to call it the gilly pasta, the giggly. What's inside? Hi, it's a wild, a full mushroom base. Wow. Oh, that pizza is good.

23:00Really good. How was your salmon? That's great. Yeah. I have some. It's not spicy at all, but by sure. This is amazing. The gilly pasta. It's like a truffle mushroom pasta. You're like, how's the truffle balance? It's not overpowering. It's really good. Yeah, the lush and its pasta is perfectly. Yeah, and it's really nice. I'm going to have a bite. Take everything here has been really great. Yeah. What's been your last communication with the town? Any traction there? Yeah, as you as you are aware, they did a resolution to form this work group. I don't know. Yes, task force or task community. Yeah. That way we can talk about share services and just have regular communication and co-plan together. So I believe in the next couple of weeks where we're going to meet for the first time. So whose idea was that? The towns. Okay. Like the mayor or the I can't speak. I can't speak today. Well, that's an olive branch of olive branches, I'd say. Because it seemed like in the beginning, it was sort of like,

24:03good luck school district. And now there's a little bit more of an understanding that we are all in this together. Well, I don't know. I don't want to come by. Yeah. I don't know if we're there yet. There's always been at least in my experience. You know, I have not spoken with everybody. As I said, I think I've always said this. The mayor has been very supportive. She checks in all the time. You know what I mean? She's like, well, can we do the help? When we went to them initially and said, hey, look what we discovered. You know, what do you think? Can we get some assistance? She was really, really advocating. So I don't want to throw everybody in there. And Eileen Burman-Hamm has been another one also that is a bit very commutative and, you know, offering support. We joked that we should do like a boss swap where like, you become a town manager for a week and the town has to even becomes the superintendent for a week. Oh, yeah, I think that's a great idea. All right. Well, how can we figure that out? Well, you get in the reality production people. This is my, this is my Claire. If you're watching. Yeah. I had a very good friend of mine sent me a quote. You know, I'm very big and so cold. So they haven't

25:03figured that out yet. That's nothing. I do it every morning. I read a call. I just had to share this because I was like, this is so true. The cost of leadership is criticism from people who would collapse under your pressure. Uh-huh. Yeah. And that price is high in Montclair. Yeah. And that pressure is high. All right. Let's do some, I like to do like, what's it called? Like, Round Rob in a favorite book that you're reading of the last year. Because you have so much time to read. The 2026 budget plan. I'm not really between, you know, the school from my finishing up my doctorate and this budget thing. I don't think I've read for pleasure. Also, when are we going to call you, Dr. Turner? Hopefully, mate. Yeah. If I ever devote the time that I need, but I'm dissertation time. You're right in your dissertation. Wait, I don't think we know enough about that. Yeah. Why don't you explain to us what, what's the course of study is and what you're dissertation about? I'm getting a EDD in ed leadership. Mm-hmm. And my dissertation is looking at,

26:03it wasn't originally what I thought about, but you know, you evolve and it changes. I'm looking at professional development and whether they support, you know, whether they translate to, um, I'm trying to think of the technical name for whether they translate to good pedagogies and instructional strategies in the classroom. I see. Because we in some places invest a lot of time and money into professional development. So that is what I'm, yeah, what I'm, does it pay off basically? I see. And where are you studying? Where's, what, what, what's the program? It's been a seven year almost at the tail end of it. I'm at Capella. Ah. Yeah, I was originally a University of Buffalo. Okay. And then stopped because my mother was sick because a lot of things were happening. And then when I decided to go back, I, they were no longer offering the remote options. So then I transferred. What's your music of choice? Oh, I don't, I don't know. What's your theme song? Yeah, do you have a theme song? I will survive. I am very big 90s hip hop. Me too. I am in

27:07for 90s hip hop song plays somewhere. Make it sound like mom, please don't. I'm talking about like every bigger. I hate me. I'm talking about. Biggie. Oh, biggie. What's your favorite vacation? Are you like a relax on the beach? I am anywhere that has a beach. I grew up by the ocean. Come from a country that's right along the red scene. Anywhere the ocean. I don't care where it is. Give me a little sun and the ocean when I'm good. Do you get vacation? Built into your schedule. Are you going to be taking it this year? I have, I have vacation time, you know, as part of my contract. I think like 25 days. I've probably taken two and that's only because I had to go back home for. Yeah, some family. It doesn't roll over? No, it doesn't roll over. Well, thanks for coming out to dinner with us. Thank you for having me. I love the idea of supper with the super supper with the super. Since she loves hip hop, we need to change the jingle to some sort of hip hop vibe. Okay. Yeah. He's good with that.

28:07All right. That was supper with the super volume one. Yeah. It was a success. We did it. We pulled it off. I am sight. She's down to do more of these. And where are we going to do the next one? It's the question like, Oh, I think we said me sob, right? Yeah. I guess we're going to have to ask me. So if that's okay. Oh, we know one thing that stayed with me when we were discussing Renaissance and the reinvestment, a Mrs. Turner, she had a quote about how in difficult times, the adults set the tone. If the adults sort of, you know, seem like they're okay and they're showing strength during tough times, the kids are going to be okay too. The kids kind of take cues from us. I was sort of like when there's turbulence on a plane, the first people you look at, at least for me, the flight attendants, right? Yeah. The flight attendant looks calm and like business as usual, I'm calm. But if she or he is panicking, I'm not going to be in a good place. This is such good wisdom for parenting in general because whenever I'm freaking out about one thing or another, I can tell that like my kid is leaching it off of me and I immediately feel

29:12bad about that. Yeah. I mean, listen, you can't control it. Sometimes we all go through emotional shit. But just be aware that when that happens, like they are absorbing that energy and it happens between all of us, really. Right. Well, thanks to Italiana by Zod for being down with us filming in their restaurant. Full disclosure, separate with the super was financed by the Montclair Pod. No pay for play people. And we do have some behind the scenes of Zod's kitchen and a little conversation with him about running a restaurant in Montclair in this moment. The challenges head to the Montclair Pod on Insta. And before we get to our next segment, let's talk a little bit about the yes no vote. And why for some people in Montclair, this was the preferred outcome. We spoke with three different voters, one, a former student who recently graduated, another, a mom of three, and another, a dad whose child graduated a bunch of years ago, they all wanted to remain anonymous. And you know, despite coming from different perspectives, I spoke to all three of these people.

30:12Again, a former student, a parent of three, and a dad whose child already graduated, they all shared the same concern. They were willing to help fix the past deficit because they felt as though it wasn't really anybody's fault currently, but they didn't want to give the district a blank check going forward without more accountability, without more of a to put it in one voter's words, a go forward plan. And another person said, you know, they wanted the district to be forced to make difficult decisions, financial decisions, and operate more like a business. They felt like this recurring tax hike, it was just going to give the district sort of a license to kind of overspend potentially and repeat some of the past mistakes as opposed to be really stealthy. And you know, adjust their spending and kind of again, run it like it run the operation like a business. And like also it was going to set a precedence potentially that they can always go to

31:16the taxpayers for more funding. And so this was something that we had asked our audience on Instagram, you know, hey, did you vote? Yes, no. We want to hear from you because I think most people went to the polls either with a double yes or a double no, but as it turned out, we are here at yes, no. Yeah. And I think we were both kind of surprised initially. I'll tell you for me, I was surprised because I was like, like, if you're going to do yes, no, maybe you just might as well do no, no, because the likelihood is is that because of the budget gap with that we now have, we're still going to need some money from the state, which could trigger a state monitor. And if we're going to end up getting a state monitor anyway, and I know that's not a foregone conclusion, then we might as well have just taken the advance on the state aid that was interest free as opposed to, you know, an average tax bill of over $1,000 for everybody, which is not a little bit of money, even though it's only one dime, there are no clear lines here. And we heard from a lot of people to your point that voted this way. It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of all of the

32:21votes were, you know, how many people voted yes, yes, how many people voted no, no, how many people voted yes, no, and how many people voted no, yes. I'm sure we could make that request to the Essex County folks and maybe they can figure that out for us. No, I mean, do they, they must be counting it that way, right? Be interested in the state because I wonder if there was a plurality, a clear plurality of one versus the other. And then if you look at the votes, there's one website where you can look at the votes according to the different districts. Yes. And they voted differently, you know, I mean, very clearly in some cases. Yes. Well, moving along time now for Cory Booker Part last week, we shared the first half of our in-person conversation. We spoke about his new tax proposal that keep your pay act, which proposes raising the standard deduction to $75,000. We also brought it up the challenges facing our schools, New Jersey's fraught school funding formula. And what it was like when Booker was mayor of Newark and the school district had a state monitor. Go back and listen the last week's episode if you missed it. And this week we pick up where we

33:24left off, digging into issues like immigration, the cost of living, health care, food policy, political corruption. And where the Senator believes the Democratic Party needs to go next? First, though, we begin with a question that feels really personal to us as independent journalists. What's the future of local media in an era of massive corporate consolidation? Take a listen. Big media companies are getting bigger. We, on the other hand, are a small independent media company. Can you talk a little bit about your position on this paramount merger and the latest developments since Netflix came out of the deal? As well as what you think the role of independent media is, because we obviously think there's an important role for that. And it's possible for two people like us to come here and sit with a US Senator and with our phones record all of this and get it out into the world, it tends to mean I think that what's possible now for independent

34:25media maybe wasn't possible 10 years ago. So talk a little bit about, I guess, this consolidation of big media in the context of the ability for people like us to do what we're doing right now. Well, first of all, we're in crisis in our country because local media is being devastated. When I was married, the city ignored the star ledger alone had five people focusing on everything that I did. There was real local accountability. I used to call them pains in the neck, but they were always watching and you want your government always to be watched. That was just one media outlet. I also had to deal with New York Times, New York Post, the Bergen record, all rifling around, looking at reports, trying to figure out what was going on. And it kept me on my toes in a good way. Now there's none of that. When it comes to the print newspapers we've talked about. The star ledger isn't even in New York really anymore. And that's bad. And a lot of the reason why that happened was because of the monopolistic power of big tech companies. Google controls so much now of the ad

35:33spend. The resources of revenue that our newspapers had is just dried up completely because who's going to newspapers to look for help wanted or local government's advertising on in their local newspapers. And that's created a very tough environment. And on top of that, this corporate consolidation is giving a lot more power to a few corporations and a lot less power, frankly, even to folks like you who are creating content that people really want to see, but monetizing the content you're creating is very difficult given the power, the corporations, how even have even over the platforms that you all post on. So I'm very worried about this continued corporate concentration and what it's doing to media and what it's doing, frankly, to jobs and artists. So let's go specifically to the merger we're talking about. Remember that when Disney merged with 20th century Fox, the number of movies that were being created that you see on the screens

36:33went down significantly. When the Paramount emerged with Skydance, they laid off over a thousand people and you might see people more. And what you're seeing for consumers, people among Claire who are already saying paying too much in property taxes, Jersey energy costs have just gone up 20%. And now I'm going to have to pay more for my Paramount subscription or pay more to watch the shows that I like. That's the problem with corporate concentration is that it creates higher costs, unfortunately, lots of job loss. And then on top of that, the lack of competition often means that they're not trying to compete for your eyes as much. And so they're even making less content until those artists have less platforms to go on. So this Paramount merger really concerns me. And it also concerns me that one family now is going to control CDS, CNN, a lot tick-tock, a lot of the things that we use. They now will be able to control and influence. You've probably heard people talk about the disappearance of third spaces. Those places

37:37outside of home and work where communities gather. As more of our lives move online, a lot of people are feeling that loss. And one of the most powerful ways to bring people back together is through the arts. That's the idea behind champion for the arts. A special event hosted by peak performances at Montclair State University happening Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m. in presentation hall. The featured guest is Donna Walker Cune, widely considered one of the nation's leading experts on building audiences for the arts. She's helped shape engagement strategies at organizations like the public theater, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the New York City Opera. The conversation will be moderated by Montclair Film's Tom Hall. And it's all about how communities like ours can strengthen and grow inclusive arts audiences across Montclair and Essex County. The event will also recognize MSU students as champions for the arts for their work supporting creativity on campus. And the best part tickets are free. You can learn more and register at peakperfs.org. That's p-e-a-k-p-e-r-f-s.org. That all said, we now spend a lot more of our time with local

38:43podcasters like you all, because the consumer now often doesn't trust media. But when folks like you, especially with your track record, the connection, the audiences may not be like when we all watched the final episode of MASH. You all might not be old enough. Okay, when we all watched, when we all watched Roots, these are things that literally like a third of Americans watch. Nobody's aggregating those audiences anymore. Maybe the Super Bowl, American Idol. Now we have a much more fragmented market, but trust is so important and so valuable. I meet these influencers that only have 50,000 followers, yet they're able to get companies that want to place their products because they know that the persuasiveness or the intimacy of the connection is a lot deeper. And so what you all do to me is vital, not important. It's vital, because a lot of people among Claire know you. They say, wait a minute, you guys go to the same restaurants as me. It's because of a problem, actually. So welcome to my world. It takes me an hour

39:47longer to go shopping than the average person. But no, but that's so valuable. And we're thinking about creating a caucus in the center called the creators caucus to really try to help the smaller creators out there because as newspapers have crashed as shows like Colbert report, somebody that New Jersey loves are being forced out by I think some really bad decisions of these large corporations. It necessitates those vacuums being filled by people like you that have real trust and connection to their viewers, to their audience, to the community they've created. Well, thanks for indulging us. Yeah. No, I love that you guys. This is a great conversation. We got to do this regularly. We can we have a wish start on. Well, in other news, immigration New Jersey home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants. We have one of most diverse populations in the country. If Congress had to pass comprehensive immigration reform tomorrow, what would you like to see on that? Oh my gosh. Well, well, first of all, I think both parties have been wrong in this. I think that Democrats didn't do enough to secure our border

40:50or southern border, which was a humanitarian crisis down there as much as it was a public safety crisis when you have families dying in the desert dying right across the river. So the democratic party has to get serious about securing borders and protecting this nation from the people that are coming here to do harm. Now, like I want to be very clear that immigrants have a lower crime rate than undocumented immigrants even have a lower crime rate than average Americans, but that's still no excuse not to have borders that are secure. But then we need to expand legal immigration. We need to triple quadruple legal immigration. When the conservative Cato Institute says that it is outrageous how long and how hard it is for legal immigrants to get status in our country that we've restricted it so much. It's like winning the lottery. When we know that if you bring in immigrants, they create a multiplier effect on our economies. Immigrants grow our economy. And so whether it's agricultural workers or high end scientists,

41:50it is insane that this country is not expanding pathways to legal immigration three or four hundred percent. We will fight for secure borders and we will fight for expanded pathways for immigration. Let me tell you my favorite story on this because I graduated from Stanford University. For those of you who don't know in New Jersey, I got into Stanford because of a 4.0 1600 4.0 yards per carry 1600 receiving yards. I was a high school American football player. The best way to get into college and you know when you get into college because of sports and not necessarily because you had a perfect SAT score. You have a little bit of an imposter syndrome the entire time you're there that lasts your whole life. So here I am in the United States Senate and I get a call. My office gets a call from the Stanford President's office saying the president demanding to see me when he comes to Washington. And I'm all sudden panicked. Oh my god. Did I not finish a paper? Did I not really graduate? I'm like, oh my god. And so he comes to see me angry because he says, I'm tired of seeing this. People come into Stanford University, get

42:51degrees and things that half of Congress can't spell. And then as soon as they're done, we kick them out of our country. Like we should be stapling these us on these kids because they're getting PhDs in quantum physics and quantum computing and robotics. Like why is it so hard for the best minds on the planet to stay in our country and start businesses that could employ hundreds of thousands of people if not more. So our broken immigration system is hurting everybody. People are terrified, Senator. In Montclair, we've spoken to law experts at Montclair State University. We've spoken to a restaurant operators who say, a, my workers are afraid to come into work. Oh my god. Keep our free leather homes and not just Montclair. I mean, this is like a national problem. So how would you address your constituents New Jersey specifically around this fear piece and the unlawful practices? Okay, so that's a whole different topic than what I would do if I could write immigration laws. Look, we have a president who's unleashed hell in our

43:54communities. They are allowing secret police to jump out of unlast marked cars masked and drag people out of New Jersey schools, courts, places of worship. I've stood with priests in our state. I've served with stood with local police officers. They're saying that Donald Trump's reckless and out of control, ice enforcement is making our communities so much less safe. That is assaulting the dignity of our communities. But even more than that, striking fear, literally have had friends. One of my closest friends in Newark told me that her neighbors begged her to please walk my children to school. My American children to school because I'm afraid to do so. Businesses all over our state are telling me anywhere between 5% to 30% reductions in patronage because people are afraid to even come out and use their businesses. And then you have these private prisons like the one here in Newark where I visited and it was appalling to me. But I speak to people there don't even have an accent that lived in this country for 30 years

44:56that have families here. American family members that are now being put in a private for-profit prison and then being tagged to be deported out of our country to countries they don't even know. This is such a violation of our values and here's something that should even more outrage you. It's a violation of the federal court orders. When we had a federal judge here, Judge Farbiage, order the U.S. Attorney's Office to tell them, document how many times have I given a court order and you all violated the court order? They had over 50 times that they gave them a court order involving an immigrant that had a right to be here or was on a legal pathway that they unjustly deported. So this president is out of control. He's hurting our communities and fundamentally making us less safe. Why? Because now people who are victims of crime, if you happen to be an immigrant, you are afraid to even go to the police. So that means the person that mugged them, robbed them, assaulted them is still free in our communities because the witnesses to those crimes are afraid to come forward. So right now I am telling you, Jersey, I'm not voting for one more dollar

46:01to fund that age to. We're going to technically in a government shutdown right now on a standoff. So first and foremost, your senator, I'm pledging everybody, I'm not funding an agency that is doing so much harm and so much damage. And I will vote against anything that comes before when you have this reckless out of control immigration work. That's number one. Number two is New Jersey, no matter of months is going to have a chance to vote on this issue. Do you endorse these immigration practices or do you reject them? And if New Jersey resoundingly rejects them, here in this state, we can win a house seat or two and take back the House of Representatives. Now we have the ability to further do what Congress should be doing, which is check and balance a president that's out of control. Congress has rolled over for the United States, for the president of the United States and is allowing him to do whatever they want. They're complicit and complacent in this kind of outrageous in our community. And it will continue as long as the Republicans are in power in the House and the Senate. So if people in New Jersey are

47:05tired of this, especially in those districts where you have Republican House members that are not fighting, that are voting along with all this outrage, then vote them out. We live in a consumer culture in many ways in a consumer-based economy, largely built on the strength of the dollar and our ability to buy inexpensive things, either because they're built somewhere overseas with cheap labor or they're picked here using cheap labor, which is why we have so many immigrants coming here to do these jobs that, frankly, don't pay enough for average Americans to want to do. Can that change? I mean, it seems like that's what the American economy is built on. It seems like it's impossible to talk about immigration reform without acknowledging the fact that if you're working a minimum wage job, you're not getting any of the things that you need necessarily to survive and thrive as a citizen of the richest country in the world. So let me connect the dots here real quick when what we've talked about. So first of all, if my big idea goes through and nobody pays income

48:06tax on the first $75,000 and part of that bill is expansion of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. If you wear a single mom making $50,000, $60,000 in New Jersey, you will get almost 10%, you'll be able to keep almost $6,000 more. They can help you afford childcare, help you afford rent. We have got to make work pay. That's the first big idea. The second thing, one of the other things we talk about is corporate concentration. We spend more money than any other nation on the planet earth on healthcare and we get the worst results because we've allowed corporate concentration. How is it that a health insurance company now controls the doctors, the pvms, and the pharmacies? They've vertically integrated and drive up the costs. We put limits on health insurance companies and what profits they can and how much money they return. So you know how they make their profits? They own the pharmacy and they say overcharged people and really who they're overcharging is the insurance company. So we're going to shift our profits to the things that are not being curtailed. Enough of that. We need to break up these big corporate monopolies that are

49:10doing all kind of schemes to jack up prices on consumers and make healthcare too expensive. And then the final thing that we have to do is you're talking about keep your pay act, which is very important. Breaking up corporate monopolies, which is really important. And then do what I did when I was mayor the last thing. When I was mayor of the city in Newark, I just my philosophy when I first came in there, let's just attack stupid. We had detectives in our gang task force working Monday through Friday 9 to 5. I don't know about the gangs in Montclair, but the gangs in Newark did not work 9 to 5. So the people investigating them shouldn't work 9 to 5. I had 4000 or so employees in Newark. And we had 3,500 outstanding workman compensation claims. I mean, these things you couldn't make up. And I just wanted to attack stupid. If we attack stupid, then we're going to create a result. Two of the costs I couldn't control, though. I told you we cut our government overall 25 percent, but the cost that would go up every year I was mayor were my pension costs and my healthcare

50:12costs. I couldn't figure out why healthcare every year was going up so much. And I was looking for ideas and somebody told me an idea of how to attack stupid. And what was that idea? I went to a big casino company. We're in New Jersey, but my mom was in Vegas. So I'd be going out to Vegas to visit my family. And this is a casino company that had thousands and thousands of employees. And he told me to I couldn't control my healthcare costs. They kept going up. And so one day I went down to my cafeteria where we feed thousands of people. And he goes, Corey, I saw deep friars, I saw cinnabot. The food we were giving our people were so ultra processed. It was insane. And so what did I do is he said, I ripped out all of these deep friars, got rid of all the highly processed foods and brought in the best chefs there were. At first, they fought me because they wanted their cinnabons or whatever. But when I brought these chefs in, they loved the food. And he said, then I'd have these single moms that work two shifts at the gaming table. And then they they're going

51:12home and they're they say, can I take some food home from my kids? So I'm not stopping at that fast food restaurant. Lo and behold, he said his cost curve on his healthcare costs started going down because his people got healthier. So let me tell you what's stupid in the United States of America that most people don't know. 93% of our ag subsidies go to ultra processed foods. Only 7% go to the foods our doctors tell us to eat the most of. It's why in Montclair, your kids go to a corner grocery store and a Twinkie product is cheaper than an apple, not because of the free market. I have not heard literally like we subsidize everything at the fast food restaurant and then we go and have to pay $15, $20 for a bucket of salad. This is insane. We have designed this system by monopolized food companies to make ultra processed highly luring foods and not support that. So if we just said no more of this, we were going to put our subsidies on the food that we want people to eat and it's going to create healthier habits. How do I know this works? It's because when I was

52:15mayor of the city of Newark, we created an entire city block that was an urban farm and then as a mayor, as a senator, I supported something called the double bucks program. What the heck is that? Well your food stamps or your snap benefits. When you go to a farmer's market, they're worth double. And so I went out to this farm to do a food ink. It was this documentary. So they were doing food ink too and I went out there with them to show them this great thing and all of these Newark residents, I will never forget, came up to me and said, I had diabetes and then I sourced all my food from this farm because I got double bucks and my diabetes, my doctor said his reverse is gone. Another woman said she had a gut problems that her doctor said would not be soft. She'd do on medication the rest of her life. The monthly cost of her medication was $700 and her, she paid $100. We picked up as taxpayers. It's $100. She started sourcing all fresh vegetables from this farm. Her doctor called it a miracle cure. It's not a miracle cure. It's having access to fresh healthy foods. So if it works for one of the biggest casino operators

53:17in Las Vegas to lower his health care costs, why aren't we in America doing the same thing and making access to fresh healthy foods low cost and affordable and letting the free market deal with the expensive foods. I'm a vegetarian. I'm a plant-based guy. If you want a hamburger, I want you to eat that hamburger. I'm going to do everything I can to stop the big neat packing industries from driving up your hamburger costs. But I don't think that we should be subsidizing the cheese and the grains and the corn syrup and all the other things that goes into your ketchup. We shouldn't be subsidizing that. We should let the free market control those costs. And if there's any food that we're subsidizing as a nation, let's subsidize the fresh healthy food. Let me say one thing more controversial like why do we with our snap payments not expand the programs I've been supporting that help you get healthy food and not let people buy sugar water. Coke and Pepsi make billions of dollars every year from snap payments from food stamps. That's outrageous. There's nothing nutritious about a Coke. You want to buy it, buy it. But why are

54:22my taxpayer dollars helping you buy Coke? And whenever you try to change this and say you can't buy Coke or Pepsi, but you can. We'll increase the ability to buy fruits and vegetables. Their lobby comes in big soda comes in and then they want to cry things like it's racist that you're doing this, which by the way, it's really problematic that they even say that in the first place. So because the people that are worse impacted are often disadvantaged communities by diabetes and prediabetes. Half of our country now, half of the adults in our country are either diabetic or prediabetic because Coke and Pepsi and a lot of other companies and so easily push that stuff into our food system, not according to the free market, but because a taxpayer substance. So how do you work with Robert Kennedy Jr. on that where you've probably aligned with him on stuff like that, right? But at the same time, you know, he's got other positions that I'm sure, are you totally aligned? I'm just saying about human beings is we're all mountain ranges. We all have peaks. We all have valleys. Some people have deep cavernous, grand canyon like valleys

55:25that I'll do everything I can to fight. This measles outbreak we're having right now falls directly at the feet of the Trump administration and they're not science-backed attacks on common sense vaccines, but I will find alliances wherever I can. Remember, you all at the dissender that it really believes in working across the aisle and getting stuff done. I will fight Donald Trump in every way possible, but I will tell you also with him, I passed the first step act in his first term, deliberated thousands of people from prison, hundreds in New Jersey alone from being unjustly carcerated. I don't demonize anybody. I will work with you where you are doing what's right. I will fight you like hell when you're trying to hurt people in New Jersey. Final question, you know, we're going to ask. Please. What is your role in the Democratic Party in the future and is there presidential run in your future? I will tell you right now, I want to be reelected in New Jersey, please. In November, I hope that New Jersey will give me another six years, especially I got the receipts. Nobody. If you're a taxpayer in New Jersey, no senator in six years has brought more money

56:28back to the state. A lot of that was obviously COVID, but a lot of that was the big infrastructure programs we did. I just came back from whom feel where we got them hundreds of thousands dollars from lead paint abatement. I'm hoping that I've earned New Jersey's trust again to be reelected. But then after that, I want the Democratic Party to be redeemed because it has let a lot of folks down. I think our party needs new leadership, needs a new vision. I think America needs a new vision and that we've got to redeem the dream for working families that are going to be the kind of ideas that could create transformative change, not incremental change, but transformative change for working America. What would you love to see the Democratic Party doing in terms of how it's messaging and not that this is not a big idea in terms of the standard deduction, but you know, what other big ideas are you talking? Are we talking about single payer health care or the expansion of Medicare to everyone? Are we talking about college that does not cost $100,000 a year?

57:32This might shock you between now and November. This is not the last big idea we're going to be unveiling. So I'm going to try to be the change I want to see in the world. Democratic Party has failed in its communications. One of the greatest evidence points of that is Donald Trump is the president. We fail to effectively communicate. I'm done. I want to show the way now. So this is the first one. I will foreshadow you the next one as my team behind you gets really upset with me. But the next one is going to be what every American knows is that our political system is deeply corrupted by big money and politics. One of the reasons why Jersey should know this. I was the fourth Senator in American history to say I will not take corporate pack money anymore because when I got down there, I started seeing what this concentrated power of corporations that were getting wealthier and wealthier and could easily put $20 million, $30 million, $50 million. I've seen industries put together $100 million packs to affect our politics. And you don't even know it.

58:34You're watching these ads and you don't even realize some dark money corporation has put that money in there. If we will never fix our democracy and make it work for working people, if we're giving big money, wealth like we've never seen before, the ability to influence our politics so easily. So the next pillar we're going to talk about is corruption and how to end the corruption from senators being able to trade stocks, something I don't do that should be, should be outlawed all the way to how do you get the big money out of politics because corporations are not people, by the way. And Citizens United was one of the worst decisions ever decided by our Supreme Court that allowed us ugly amounts of money to come to our politics in the first. Well, it seems like, you know, all either of the parties do. Their core confidence these days is raising money whether from big organizations or even individuals. I mean, we all get text messages all the time from every campaign. And I don't give money to politicians because I'm a journalist and cheap. But I get them all the time. And I guess the question is, is do politicians

59:39need to raise this much money through every election cycle? Why can't there be a public option? That's enough. I mean, there's no barrier to distribution as we're demonstrating right now. You don't need to buy air time. But essentially, there's this huge political industrial complex. So is that is that part of the solution? Yes, it is part of the corrupt system that I'm describing that, you know, I feel very blessed. And people will say this to me in politics or you have big platforms, which you can communicate on. But I don't. And this big pack is corporate pack is about to put 20 million dollars against me. I got to raise money every day. That's crazy. New Jersey didn't elect me to be a full-time fundraiser. They elected me to bring forth big ideas to grapple in the Senate to get things done. And we've created this very perverse system where you send a congressperson down there and they are constantly sitting in a room, especially House members who have to run every two years, a sit in a room, make fundraising call, a fundraising call after fundraising call, and take all this pack money that I don't think they

1:00:40should be taking. So how did we change that? You can't blame the senators in that bad system. You need to change the system. And that's what I'm calling for. And we'll probably be the next big rollout we have when we hope you'll come and join us for the conversation about it. But we have a inherently corrupt political system. I've seen it with my own eyes that some corporation wants a little loophole so that they can avoid paying their taxes and they rig our system so that we don't get as much money revenues as a government. And then you have Donald Trump running around saying we need to cut your health care. We need to cut your food stamps. We need to cut your special needs funding for your school in Montclair. That's outrageous. Senator Booker will see you next time. I hope so. We ate so much. We already do. We need to ask him about Montclair, favorite places in Montclair, favorite restaurant in Montclair. Well, it is, I told you already on my plant-based guy. My wife is not. So I took her this Friday to a happy medium that you're going to teach me how to pronounce because I could not pronounce it well. For a bouge, for a bouge, for a bouge. For a bouge.

1:01:51It was a great meal. I could not pronounce the name, but the restaurant and they have a vegan menu, which I was really psyched. Yes, but there is a vegan in Montclair that I have Uber-eated from many times Veggie, what is it? Veggie heaven? Oh, that's, yeah, that's, that's, that's an upper Montclair down the street from my house Oh my god, I'm ever, ever and I've tricked friends and told them it wasn't vegan and they have not they've believed me that they were actually eating pork when they were not eating pork They're like masters at that unbelievably good food and so that is almost like a comfort place Favush Favush, not Farnush by the way he was like gonna call it Favush didn't he? He called it Farnush I think it's okay well for that full interview be sure to check out our YouTube page All right, it's time for you know what Farnush and Mike getting healthy a sponsored series that

1:02:52supports our ongoing attempt to become slightly more functional human beings while living in Montclair Slightly and you can too, you know, I'm really glad we're doing this series because as we've learned It's not always easy between work kids commuting finding parking and keeping up with whatever school district Controversy is happening this week. Yes, taking care of your own health can slip pretty far down the list But we got to stop making this and after thought and you're gonna be proud of me Mike because last Friday I checked something huge off my list. I got my first colonoscopy best sleep of your life, right? Yes I have to say the anesthesia was a nice cap to last week school drama and the many hours that we spend producing the show you and I were up really late last week Last week kicked my butt. Yeah, but in all seriousness to all my 45 and up friends listening public service announcement you got to get your colonoscopy done Go schedule it very important the prep is not so fun But it's the hardest part of the whole thing and then you got a beautiful sleep like Mike said and it can literally save your life

1:03:56So very very important. Yeah, and once you start thinking about what's going on inside your body you start realizing There are a lot of systems in there doing important work that most of us never think about including one We learned a lot about recently the lymphatic system. Yep, and that's why we ended up visiting men the lymphatic wellness center in upper Montclair We're found a Renee Ambrose specializes in something called manual lymphatic drainage and as we learned pretty quickly This treatment has some very enthusiastic fans take a listen If you walked down Cooper Avenue in upper Montclair you might pass an old brick building that once housed horses Back when commuters arrived by carriage This was a livery a place where the horses stayed before people caught the train into the city Today the building is still about movement just a different kind Inside is men lymphatic wellness center founded by Renee Ambrose her specialty a part of the body most of us barely learned about in school

1:04:57The lymphatic system and once you hear about it you start realizing it might be responsible for a lot of things You didn't know how to name the lymphatic system performs a couple of primary duty is it's most important duty is to Generate immune cells and it also performs the duty of transporting the immune cells from the lymphatic system to wherever in the body those immune cells need to go To attack whatever invader is in the body whether it's bacteria or virus or whatever and that's just part of it The lymphatic system isn't just about immunity It's also quietly regulating fluid levels throughout the body when we Just kind of go through our daily lives. There's always some fluid dynamic shifts going on in our body and the lymphatic system helps to manage that Translation when people talk about feeling bloated puffy or like they're retaining water This system might be part of the story

1:05:57Ambrose's work focuses on helping that system do its job better using a technique called manual lymphatic drainage I provide classical Water style manual lymph drainage. That's a technique that was developed in Europe almost a hundred years ago And it is the gold standard for treatment of the lymphatic system all around the world Ambrose didn't come to this work from the spa world Her background is medical one of the only providers in New Jersey who's a dual licensed physical therapist assistant and massage therapist She's also one of the only providers in New Jersey who's certified in treatment of the head and neck Which means the people who come through her door aren't just looking to relax They're often dealing with real health issues right now I'm actually seeing a lot of women come in with perimenopause and metapause related issues However, I do see a fair amount of perineal clients as well And we treat everything from women who are trying to conceive to help them optimize their fertility

1:06:59All the way through postpartum recovery, breastfeeding and beyond She also works with people recovering from surgery, cancer treatment, or chronic conditions But one of the biggest themes she sees right now midlife As we age in our hormone shift for example, there's a flux in estrogen and progesterone levels in our body That can disrupt our fluid dynamics and we can become Kind of tense and you know the tissues can feel tight and we can feel bloated because we start to retain more fluid The lymphatic drainage can help to reduce that feeling of bloating fluid retention tension But beyond the physiology, Ambrose says there's something else happening when people come in for a treatment People often report that they feel very safe Because they know that there's no point during the treatment that it's ever gonna hurt Which brings us back to the bigger idea behind men Ambrose didn't want to just open a treatment room

1:08:00She wanted to create something closer to a support system A third space wellness environment that she says inhabits the space between medical treatment and daily life And this can be especially important for women A lot of women are discharged from medical care To go home and they're cleared quote-unquote cleared to do whatever But they don't have any ongoing support and I wanted to be the one providing that support And if you're wondering what the treatment actually feels like Ambrose has a surprisingly good metaphor Think of it as They're ringing out the tissues It's gentle though. It's not like cranking on a on a wet towel. It's more like kind of smoothing out the wrinkles on a blanket Which may explain why some of her clients leave feeling lighter more relaxed even a little reborn And occasionally with very enthusiastic digestive results I've had a couple of clients call me the poop whisper

1:09:01It makes me happy it brings me joy Thank you to Renee Ambrose for partnering with us and teaching us so much About how our lymphatic system works. She's helping so many people And I feel like she kind of needs to trademark the poop whisperer I mean if she hasn't already I got a theme song for that one too. I'm sure you do Learn more everybody at mend lymphatic massage.com. We'll put that link in our show notes as well. All right. Let's get into the news Students at Montclair high walked out of classes last Friday to protest ice marching from Rand Park to municipal building Yes, a lot of kids participated in this the Montclair local covered it And there's a good gallery of images from the walkout on tap into Montclair We're going to link to those in our show notes and sticking with the local big congrats to their reporter's Matt Kadoche and Asa Jung They want an excellence in community media award from the center of cooperative media at Montclair State University

1:10:03Yes, this was awarded for their coverage of the school budget crisis And they even got a nice tip of the hat from the governor Mikey Cheryl who was there great work guys and congrats The whole Montclair local team very well deserved now time for the one big thing All right, Mike you go first, okay, so we have a very cool only in Montclair double feature for the arts and comic nerds in the audience And I say this with love because I'm I'm one of them. Yes, you and my son Evan both of you I assume this involves east side mags. It does this Saturday from three to five PM east side mags Is hosting a signing for a new 3D graphic novel based on the 1950s camp classic robot monster It features stories from 30 different artists and writers But the coolest part is the local tie in recent Montclair high grad Carl Shekel actually has his first two professional stories published in the book

1:11:03He'll be there at the signing alongside the pros And afterward, there'll be a screening of robot monster at the clerage just across the street and a panel discussion after So head over to Montclairfilm.org for more information on that sounds like fun What I know what I'm doing kind of I guess go ahead tell me I'm going on a shopping challenge with the Montclair Nista Wendy to Bertio if you remember Wendy joined us for our food challenge our food tour Back in like us last year when we were kind of going off the beaten path to find some interesting places to eat So she's kind of the eyes and ears of Montclair She knows where all the cool places are she's like a cool monger in Montclair And so we wanted to do something light and exciting after all this heavy coverage of schools And so let's shop and I said Wendy let's go out and like discover some cool things in town and support small business And let's give it a theme. Let's give it like a spring theme. She's so down for it

1:12:06She's already got a list of things to find places to go So that's happening this weekend We're going to go find some spring themed items outfits gardening items etc And along the way we're going to showcase some of the cool retail shops in town mom and pops You know, I didn't tell you this but I bumped into Wendy this weekend And I suggested that I might just bomb in on this little shopping excursion And that you guys might be able to pick some clothes out for me. All right. Well, it's not like we weren't going to invite you Oh, I didn't necessarily feel like I thought it was like kind of a girl shopping trip and I wasn't so sure Well, I don't know. You're going to be like all siphying it out. So I well, I got that I also have a gig. Have you ever been to the meat locker in Montclair? Which is like a metal club? I'm one who's ever been to the meat locker I don't know. I don't judge. I don't judge But yeah, I'm playing with my buddy Mike Patenz's band at the meat locker on Saturday night So maybe you could pick out an outfit for me for that because you know I'm going to need to like look metal like a seersucker outfit because we're going spring theme

1:13:07So yeah, I should show up for the metal concert in a sea It's not really a metal band, but like yeah totally seersucker suit absolutely. All right. I'm thinking like Dick Van Dyke from Newary pop it Yeah, all right everybody. Thanks for tuning in We will see you next week We're going to have senator Andrew Kim on the show talking about aging and sandwich generation You don't want to miss that episode see in town I've been named after you should get a plate a special dish there, right? I really should I've been you know, I have a dress named after me get out. Yeah From when mm. Lafler It's my friend Sarah Lafler is the founder of mm. Lafler And she surprised me one day and named a dress after me. So the far news check it out There were a piece of clothing named after me. What would it be? Well be called the Mikey the Mikey Shriver The Mikey Shribes. That's what Ray and her friends call me Mikey Shribes sometimes