Specifically for Seniors - A New Direction

To be honest I should have titled this podcast -Surviving the Podcast Guests.Tune in and you'll understand why I said this. Joel and Karmela Waldman are mother and son co-hosts of their True Crime podcast called Surviving the Survivor. Joel worked most recently as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for Fox News, covering national politics from Capitol Hill. He has also worked as an investigative reporter for Fox 5 in New York City and for TV-news programs in West Palm Beach, Miami, and Tucson. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, Ileana, and his three children, Vida, Zizi, and Juda. Karmela is best known as Joel’s mom (Joel wrote this). But, she’s so much more! A graduate of the University of Geneva, Karmela went on to get her masters in Social Work at Rutgers University. She’s both a licensed marriage therapist and Holocaust survivor. Hence, the podcast’s name, Surviving the Survivor. Now from these guests you might have expected a pretty dry, uninteresting podcast, but it was one of those days everything went wrong technically - from inability to sign on to the recording program to improper syncing of voice and video and combined with Kamrela and Joel's senses of humor- leading to what I consider to be the best podcast we've ever done. Link to the book Surviving the Survivor: https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Survivor-Conversation-Holocaust-Therapist/dp/B0D3VMVM2T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HXLB1GUAAM7X&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JUU8BPhBhkLxg5vwvT2fAruoEoGn-l57lLdHMVnAETMQsSQ7ScF2PbT9hdoUxo2ouuqrfBt4U2qxsdzWIdtgD4WcN-eiOrcNB6glvQ9FvVhagapRw98HCQp09RnddDM4ytVnk3oy5RGEtYGD-JzaImD7uTKkMmkz1QVonWX8csRffNMWkQbqPHBZUz3GqZ3vXyssJMnlL5wFsD-JiC1LpR88VPOYBi8iEy_ZRvh3GBA.JK4_ie9MiSOqy3V-k8G8YH8eFWu3H4aQxQTPtmJrqEg&dib_tag=se&keywords=surviving+the+survivor&qid=1733420176&sprefix=surviving+the+survivor%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

We've just been through an historic election and so we asked Bob Levey, a prize winning journalist who has covered the Washington scene since the Johnson administration to talk with us about it. We talked about Bob's early years at The Washington Post and his currect column on the Senior Beacon Newspapers. Bob and I discussed the recent election, the job that both print and media did in covering the days up to the election, Bezos' refusal to endorse Harris and the problem with print endosements in general, the freedom of the press in the Trump administration and making peace with the election. On a lighter note, Bob talked about the game of bridge, folk singing and his novel, Larry Felder, Candidate.

This podcast was recorded during the part of the year in which the holiest of Jewish holidays takes place. It seemed appropriate to take some time to remember those of us who were lost during the Holocaust, but a part of the Holocaust many of us know little about, This podcast contains a film by John Pollick: (From the film's web page - https://www,beyondbabiyarmovie.com) "Babi Yar, or Babyn Yar, is a ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine. On September 29th and 30th, 1941, Nazis forced 33,771 Jews into it and shot them. The Nazis continued their campaign of mass shootings of Jews well beyond Babi Yar, extending through Ukraine, Belarus and other parts of Eastern Europe. This is how the Holocaust began. Although Nazis later engaged in industrialized killing, mainly in death and concentration camps in occupied Poland, an estimated 2.4 million, or 40%, of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust died by shooting. They lie in thousands of mass graves across Eastern Europe, most of which, to this day, are unmarked, unprotected and desecrated.    The mass shootings occurred primarily in Ukraine. In Ukraine alone, it is estimated that 1,500,000 to 2,100,000 Jews were shot at approximately 2,000 execution sites across the country. The majority of these sites are unmarked and neglected, and the names of nearly half of the victims in them are unknown.   John Pollick is a lawyer in Illinois. The families of his maternal grandparents, immigrants from what is now Ukraine, were among the shooting victims. In 2014, after decades of searching for the mass grave in his grandmother's hometown, he learned that an organization called Yahad-In Unum had located it. He also learned that it was one of five sites, among thousands, selected to be protected and memorialized through a project called "Protecting Memory". In 2015, he and his daughter attended the dedication of the memorial there. While there, he learned of the full extent of the mass shootings and the profound neglect of both the execution sites and the shooting victims themselves.   Returning home, Mr. Pollick found that, like himself before "Protecting Memory", Americans were not properly educated about the shooting victims and their neglected graves. In 2019, to address this void, he returned to Ukraine to make a film showing the reality of these forgotten victims and their graves, as well as the changing attitudes of Ukrainians regarding them. These changing attitudes include a growing willingness to remember and honor these marginalized victims, and bury them with dignity. The process of doing so, however, has barely begun. Hundreds, if not thousands, of execution sites across Ukraine and Eastern Europe will be forever forgotten, together with the Jewish victims in them, unless these efforts are greatly and immediately expanded.   The purpose of the film is to educate viewers about these forgotten Holocaust victims and their neglected graves, and inspire action regarding them. After 80 years, it is time to finally address this enormous historical and humanitarian injustice in an open and comprehensive way, and begin to restore to the millions of shooting victims the dignity and respect they have been so long denied." After the film, John and I talk about John's family's relationship to the killings, his involvement in making the film, and why he felt it was important to make the film. He also questions from members of the audience who viewed the film at Orchard Cove, a senior residence in the Boston area.

According to Senator Bob Casey, the ranking member of the special committee on aging , "The right to vote is one of the fundamental pilars of our democracy, but that right is under attack for millions of older Americans across the nation. Attempts to limit voting locations, the length of early voting periods, inaccessible voting locations, and new, strict voter identification laws threaten the hard won voting rights of older Americans." So we invited Attorney Joan Bondareff to be our guest on Specifically for Seniors today to explain what can be done to make it easier for older adults to register and vote. Attorney Bondareff is Special Counsel at Blank Rome Government Relations,LLC. She primarily focuses her practice on marine transportation, and environmental, regulatory and renewable energy legislative issues. Joan served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School and as an adjunct professor at American University/Washington College of Law and is a  member, American Bar Association Center for Excellence in Elder Law and Dementia. Joan and I discussed the importance of the senior vote, the barriers to voting, specific issues for seniors in nursing facilities, congressional actions and what we can do to help older Americans to vote.

We all get them - those momentary lapses when we can't recall someone's name, why we came into a room or where we left the car keys. We call them senior moments, but are these moments inevitable or limited to seniors? We'll learn more about these senior moments and how to work through them with our guest this week on Specifically for Seniors, Dr Stan Goldberg. Dr. Stan Goldberg is an expert in the areas of aging, human information processing, change, loss, and end-of-life issues. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Francisco State University, and his writing has received 26 national and international awards. We’ll be talking with Stan about his thoughts on Preventing Senior Moments and How to Stay Alert into Your 90s and Beyond - which is also the title of his latest book. Book: Preventing Senior Moments and How to Stay Alert into Your 90s and Beyond Web Site: https://stangoldbergwriter.com Questions, comments, suggestions for future guests: Https://www.specificallyforseniors.com/voicemail

My guest today on Specifically for Seniors is Emmy winner, international acclaimed journalist, executive producer, food and travel lover, and creator of the beloved groundbreaking show Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, David Page takes us deep into the world of chefs, restaurateurs, and everything “foodie” on his new podcast Culinary Characters Unlocked, featuring incisive, entertaining and uninhibited conversations with culinary stars, future stars, as well as chefs and owners who run beloved local classics and mom-n-pop restaurants from coast to coast. The podcast, premiering August 27th on Apple Podcasts, You Tube, and all other all major platforms as well as on culinarycharactersunlocked.com, will drop twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Among the first guests are: Dan Barber, multi-Michelin-starred chef at the forefront of the local food movement. Nancy Silverton, legendary Los Angeles Michelin-starred chef who has been a pioneer in the California cuisine and artisanal bread movements. Drew Nieporent, called by the New York Times, “the last old school restaurateur standing,” best known for partnering with Robert DeNiro on Nobu and the Tribeca Grill. Adrian Miller, an award-winning culinary scholar who is one of the country’s leading authorities on Southern and African American foodways. Christine Nguyen, James Beard award winning chef whose restaurants run the gamut from Vietnamese to South American. Marvin Lender, who along with his brothers introduced non-New York America to bagels after figuring out how to mass produce and freeze them. Page, a two-time Emmy winner, is best known for creating the Food Network hit Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and executive producing the program for eleven seasons. His other entertainment/reality projects include syndicated and streaming series Beer Geeks, nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Culinary Program, and multiple Food Network series including Outrageous Food, Tailgate Warriors, Al Roker’s Diner Destinations, and Al Roker’s Country Fest. His prior television experience includes decades in network news at both ABC and NBC, covering some of the biggest stories on the planet (including walking through the Berlin Wall the night it opened) and control-room producing Good Morning America. Page is also an author, writing the award- winning book Food Americana about the creation of American cuisine from the foods of other countries and cultures.

My guests today on Specifically for Seniors caught my attention in an Opinion piece in the Washington Post.  Professors Ben Katz and Pamela Teaster urged “an objective, scientific conversation about mental and physiological aging - both for our leaders and for the rapidly aging populations around the world” realizing that these conversations are both difficult and obligatory. We’re going to try to at least open that conversation here on Specifically for Seniors, today. Both Ben Katz and Pamela Teaster, are part of the faculty of Human Development and Family Science at Virginia Tech Pamela Teaster is also director of the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology and on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. She is a fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. She is an active board member and former president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.

My guest today on Specifically for Seniors is a practicing magician, but his story goes way beyond slight of hand and deceptions. Richard Hatch holds two graduate degrees in physics, but found it easier to apparently violate ther laws of physics than to discover them. Dick has always had a fascination with books on magic, but one book, in particular, led him a deeper understanding of the Jewish people during the holocaust. Dick discovered and translated, from the German, a book entitled DIE JUDEN IN DER ZAUBERKUNDST - Jews in Magic published in Berlin in 1933 wirtten by a Jewish author named Gunter Damman. Researching the book, Dick, who is not Jewish, came to a deeper understanding of the plight of the Jewish people during the holocaust which we talk about during the podcast. This is a story you have not heard about the holocaust and one that you must hear.

An unfortunate fact of life at our age is that sooner or later we are going to face a hospital admission whether due to an illness, an injury or pain, and that can be confusing and frightening. Many of us need help in preparing for an Emergency Room and/or hospital visit. Once in the hospital learning how to navigate hospital care and advocate for ourselves is essential So I called on Dr. Monique Nugent, author of Prescription for Admission: A Doctor's Guide for Navigating the Hospital, Advocating for Yourself and Having a Better Hospitalization for advice. Dr. Nugent is a praciticing hospitalist and Associate Director for the Division of Hospital Medicne at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, MA. She completed her medical school training and residency training at Loma Linda University Medcal Center in southern California and completed her Master in Public Health at the Harvard Schoo f Public Health. Dr. Nugent and I talk about what to do before you face a hospital admission and how to advocate for yourself once in the hospital. Her well-organized book is essential readng for older adults. Book is available everywhere books are sod and at Amazon. Prescription for Admission

My guest today on Specifically for Seniors is a practicing Rabbi and stand-up comedian.  Bob Alper has been seen on Good Morning America, Showtime, The BBC, CNN and was featured on Extra, TV’s top rated entertainment program, immediately following a segment on the size of Jennifer Lopez’s butt. Bob and I talk about how a Rabbi got started as a stand-up comedian, why he feels that humor is holy, hs 'gentle' humor, his book - Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This - and how his father used to shower with the lady next door. Bob talked about performing and explained several of his programs - The Spirituality of Laughter and his Laugh in Peace Tour where he performs with Christian and Muslim comedians. Bob enlightened me on Albana's role in saving Jews during the holocaust and how Albania was in contention for becoming a Jewish state. We got serious at the end of the podcast about the war n Gaza, anti-semitism and the pro-palestinian protests in New York City. Books: Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This: The Holiness of Little Daily Dramas Thanks I Needed That