Meet The Health Pros

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome, welcome to the Your Opinion Doesn't Matter podcast. I am the host, Mr. Lamont. And I'm here with some professionals in the medical field. Susan to my left. And Hugh to my far left. Me and you were starting to be like, Dad, why didn't we know each other? I saw your face, so I was like, where do we know each other from? And then we he came, introduced himself, and he's friends with all my colleagues. Norse is in Flow.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

You know Norse started a nonprofit?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

No, I don't. I know he's in the health field as well, but I didn't realize he started a nonprofit. He started like two years now. Okay, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

So um tell me some things about what do you do like for the community and in your profession.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

So I'm a Brooklyn born born and bred, um, right here in East Flatbush. Um I went to high school at Nasra Regional High School. From there, I got a track scholarship to Fordham. Oh, nice. Um originally I was supposed to be uh engineering major, and then during my time there, I fell in love with Health Field, particularly this uh physical therapist that was there. His name was Vinny, and I had a growth spurt, and he helped me tremendously through that process. Um from there I went to um a GW at Mercy College and got my um doctorate in physical therapy. Um also a little concentration in kinesiology, um, which is a study of body motion. Um I um subsequently um worked in the various uh different fields and stuff like that, and went into a private practice with a um young lady, um Dr. Keisha John, which is now standing since 2008. Um, and we are currently located at um 1336 Utica Avenue, and our practice, our patient physical therapy practice encompasses um pain management, orthopedic, as well as um obviously physical medicine, which is what where my concentration is at.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Okay, nice, nice, nice,

Physical Therapy Roots In Brooklyn

SPEAKER_04 1:54

nice. So, Susan. Hi.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Top that's so I hello, I'm Susan. I started out in nursing from Clara Barton. So I went to Clara Barton high school and I did the LPN program. And uh so at 18, I was a licensed practical nurse, and then I did a little different colleges. I went to started out at um Albany State, then I went to downstate, and then finally I got my RN at um Helene Full, and then I went on to SUNY downstate, where I got my bachelor's and I eventually got my master's. Um, I've been a nurse for over 25 years, and I recently got my family nurse practitioner about two years ago. So, you know, I've been in healthcare doing uh critical care. I started out in critical care. Um, I did work in clinics. I actually transitioned into working into um nursing informatics. So I work with the electronic medical records um Epic. So I was a builder for that, and then I transitioned into um like the pharmaceutical and medical device space where I do a lot of patient teaching and staff teaching. And currently, right now, work as a family nurse practitioner in home care, and also I still do the the teaching with in the pharmaceutical space as well.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

That's nice, that's nice. Between y'all, y'all like uh encyclopedia stuff. Um yeah, so we had this Father's Day event, and um, how did y'all um who do y'all actually know? Y'all know you know Troy. How did y'all get um you know partnered up in this event here?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

So um I've met Troy and the other members when I moved from Schenectady between London and church to um where my parents are at on Troy between Avenue H and I. So um one day um somebody was jumping the backyard when I first moved there. I said, Who the hell is jumping the backyard? And lo and behold, it was Troy. Right. And then um we forced a friendship from there.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Um, so since since that time, the collective us of us forced this friendship. There was a period of time I went away out of I was out of state and just taking care of medical school stuff and you know, graduate school stuff. And when I came back to um New York, um, we still came came back in contact and we decided to um brainstorm and put our heads together what what can we do that was sustainable for the community and things of that nature. And we sort of developed what we call Intralink. And the idea behind it is we want to offer our community um a holistic approach, of wholesome approach to things, not just with life, um, in terms of our health and stuff like that, but more importantly, with technology and electricity.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Nice, very good, very good, very good. Susan?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

So I know you. Um, you actually was my physical therapist. Oh, okay, okay. So that's how we actually met. Okay. Um, and he helped me through that transition. And so, you know, anytime you will call, I will always be there. Right. Um, you know, I've done, you know, health fairs, especially in our community, uh, East New York. Um, we used to, I used to be a like the resident nurse for a project called Project East New York, where we would do things like that, make sure that, you know, we as black people are screening our blood pressures, like actually getting into health. Um, so when he asked me to come and be a part of this today, no question.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

No question, no question. Oh, that's good to hear. Um, I have an event coming up, July 18th for block parties. Okay. And I would like to have a table taking blood pressure and all that other good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yes, I'm there.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Okay, okay, yes, yes, yes. And also, uh, you know, I wonder um how are they um how are they implementing like

Nursing Path And Community Screening

SPEAKER_04 5:32

technology? I know you're doing technology, but like AI in your medical field. How how are they doing that? Are they, I've seen a little bit of it like far as um, you know, tell me, I don't know. Do they do they use AI inside your field?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

They are, and and so they're trying to um bring AI, so like with the EMR, the electronic medical record, um, Epic, they're trying to implement like AI processes. So you're making like, you know, the the healthcare a little bit more seamless, right? So they may implement it by making sure it's flagging an allergy or flagging, you know, something like that. So they're implementing it a little bit by little bit, or they'll have like telemedicine where the doctor can see you. You're in the bed and the teledoctor is kind of assessing you in vital science. So they're trying to bring like bridge AI with medicine now.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

With the avenue of COVID, um, telemedicine or so a lot of people are still being able to see their doctors for different varies of things, but only through the apps of the phone or tablets and computers, things like that. So so on and so forth. But in my practice or in just retract that a little bit. In my personal life, I use AI for a number of different things. Um, I use AI for stock research. Um, so I don't have to go necessarily to uh try to evaluate things. I can have the AI process help me do some charting. Um, in terms of professional-wise, um, there are a lot of things that um we do and we want to be able to say, hey, this is what the research says that this works. Yeah. So we we I can say, hey, I'm gonna use um a particular machine machine on you and figure out what does the research say. And that AI will allow me to basically print out the research and justify to the insurance company this is why we used it, this is how effective it is in the past, and this is why it's warranted in this case.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Um AI also helps us clean up our documentation in terms of shooting out some reminders, specifically with what we call um EMR electronic medical records, to justify to insurances, hey, this is why this particular treatment or this approach is necessary, and it sort of kind of refocuses everything towards that. So that's how AI makes it um helpful. We're intending to use it to help our patients about their appointments, adjust things a little bit more, streamline it easier and communicate with our office, but we just haven't um implemented it full full flesh yet. But it's something that's coming very soon.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Right, right, right, right. Now I was just um the reason I asked, I was listening to a um assistant to a podcast coming down and it was talking about AI and how it's like it's like he's got his hands and everything. And I saw a little glimpse of it as far as in the medical side, but um in the um sci-fi side, you'll see like a um a person laying down and then the machine just scans the body and says what's wrong with them, or just have like something like fixing them. So I found that incredible. And I don't know. Who knows? What do you think? That would ever happen?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

I think the technology is there. Uh-huh. Um you have full body scans. Yeah. I know at hospital levels, um, radiology, um the ability for the machine, the MRI unit, CT scans to be done, and have AI actually identify all the areas of concern and print out a report is going to greatly impact radiology in that aspect. Um, it's gonna make it more efficient, quicker, things of that nature. And it may also positively and negative, negatively um impact that particular field of radiology. Right.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Um there are robots um that we are using, considering that this is uh Father's Day event. One of the things that particularly affect men, especially black men or men of color, is um prostate. Yeah. Um so with prostate, there is a machine that actually can go in and dissect the prostate cancer um for you without the actual surgeon doing it themselves. Uh the approach is typically called Samsonite approach. Uh that approach has um been around for a while, but with the avenue of AI, it's actually gone up tremendously.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

No, and that's nice. Um, yeah, so um, Hugh, tell me some more things that um that you um you're working on or your approach on different things that you do.

AI In Care Notes Scans And Robots

SPEAKER_01 10:09

For somebody like Susan and I, um one of the things that we always employ in our patients, family member, friends, the general community to always know about is called the ABCs of life. What is that? A stands for A1C, B stands for blood pressure, C stands for cholesterol. Um, those are the B big markers that are preventative that, hey, if we get ahead of it in terms of what is our family history is like, what is it for us when we're young, what is it for us when we're young adults, what is it when we're middle age, and what is it when we get older, it has a tremendous impact on how we can shift things for us. So specifically with A1C, we want to have an idea what is our blood sugar like during the course of a 90-day period. Um, B obviously is for blood pressure. What is that like um when we're young and active, and what is it when we start working under stressful conditions of uh marriage, fatherhood, motherhood, those type of things. And then C, what is the impact of all those life choices when we get older and stuff like that? Um, so fortunate for us, Susan has a great background in cardiology. So she can expound a bit on the uh cardiac um portion of that.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

So, like he was saying, um the ABC. So A1C is your blood sugar that's measured over a 90-day period. So it's not like you eat a meal today and it's gonna spike um tomorrow. Like it's it's literally monitoring over a 90-day period. So anything over, you know, if you're wondering like the range, um, anything less than 5.7 would be, you know, you have normal blood sugar. Anything over between 5.7 and 6 uh.3 would be pre-diabetes. And then anything 6.5 and over would be your, you know, diagnosed with diabetes. So you always want to make sure that your, you know, healthcare providers monitoring your A1C and you know what those numbers mean. You should be, you know, be active and advocate for your health. Um and then blood pressure. You always want to know your blood pressure numbers. Um, so you know, we are, you know, like the American Heart Association recommends that our blood pressure be less than 120 over 80. And so the top number is called the systolic, the bottom number is called diastolic, and the top number is basically the amount of um pressure that the that your heart is um that your heart has to pump against. And then the diastolic would be when your heart is actually relaxing. So those are how you get the numbers. And so you know, when we're talking about blood pressure, you know, 120 over 80 is um where we want you to be when you're going to the doctor. And then anything between 120 um to 129, that would be like, you know, pre pre-hypertension. Um, over 80 to 89 would be like pre-hypertension. And then you have hypertension stage one, which would be between 130 to 139, over um 180 to 189. And again, that would be like hypertension stage two. And then officially hypertension will be 140 over 90. So you always want to know your numbers. You always want to make sure that you're monitoring your blood pressure. Um, and then you have your cholesterol. You know, there's numbers that go with that. You have your cholesterol less than 200. You want to have look at your good and bad cholesterol. So your battery cholesterol will be your LDLs, and then your good cholesterol is uh your HDL. So these are the numbers that you're looking for when you're going to your healthcare provider, making sure that you know what the what they need, talk to your healthcare providers, get screened. You know, unfortunately in the black community, we have a higher incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, um, due to just health care disparities. So you always want to make sure you know your numbers, understand, and go to the doctor and continue to have a healthy life.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Yeah, wow. That's um, that's very um interesting. There with these numbers, it's kind of scary. Hyper something. I was like, my goodness. I just went to the doctor the other day said I have good um blood pressure. So I'm like, I'm I think I'm in the 120s. Okay, great. When you go up to 146, I'm like, it's time to get a call of ambulance or something. There you go. It's the it's a good thing. I'm I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear, you know, you're pointing out some things that we do need to um take heed to before it's like too late. People like to make changes when it's when something happened. They don't like to be proactive and really get to it. So, like maybe I have a question. Like far as cholesterol, how can you um how do you how do you stop like you know, lower it? How do you lower it?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

So, good question. So that's a lot of our health um issues that we have, it's based on diet. So that's the number one thing is your diet. Are you, you know, eating a lot of processed foods? Because that's gonna bring up your cholesterol. So you want to minimize your processed foods. You want to institute things like omega-3, so that's eating stuff like salmon, or you can also take a um fish oil pill. So just make sure you take a quality omega-3 um fish oil.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

So that's fake ones.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

So you need to fake fish? But not good fish oil. It's not actually doing anything for your cholesterol. It's not helping to build up your good cholesterol, which is your HDL, and that HDL helps clean up all of the bad cholesterol.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

So give me some examples of what a good um cholesterol feed.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So it would have when you're looking for the ingredients and you again looking for a good quality um omega-3 or fish oil, make sure it has DHA and EPA. Those are the ingredients that you're looking for when you're looking for a quality fish oil and making sure that it has a good omega-3. But you also can just, you know, institute more salmon. Um, if you've ever heard of like a Mediterranean diet, kind of, you know, eating more salads and um reducing red meat, that kind of stuff would help to reduce your cholesterol over time. Okay, so exercise. Don't forget exercise because it's not just about diet.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Exercise is vital.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

You have to do exercise, right? Exercise. At least, you know, like 180 minutes a week. Like you have to be moving, you have to move. It's not only about diet. That is a big portion, is your diet, but you have to start instituting exercise as well. One-two combo. Yes, yes.

The ABCs Of Life Explained

SPEAKER_01 16:24

As I mentioned before, I, you know, I'm Brooklyn born. My parents are from the Caribbean, actually. So when my dad and mom got here, fortunately, there was a doctor, an Indian doctor by the name of Dr. Nyer, took great interest into my parents. And one of the things that he helped them understand as it relates to the ABC, specifically the B and C portion, because theirs was elevated at the time, um, was have them shift their cooking styles. So um instead of um stewing a lot of our stuff, he had them shift it to baking. Um, he also made it a big thing for us to always have oatmeals or high high fiber diet. So immediately from when I was young, um, we eliminated white bread and shifted more towards whole wheat bread. And that habit has stayed on to me. So now I'm passing it on to my own kids and my family members. So things of that nature. So um I remember having brown rice as a staple um prior to it being kind of like a fat thing.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Um, so that's that that's basically pretty much it. And while we live in a very dynamic world where fast food and eating out is very common, um, we want to kind of shift it where, you know, it's more like a treat and not um uh everyday, the everyday thing.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Yeah, not gonna lean on it.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

You know, like I hear you, I hear you. So now when you say the omega-3s, what is that? Is that like a bottle? Yes. Like Nature Valley, I think what's that?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Well, right. So when I talk about quality, I don't know if Nature Valley is. I just remember that brand though. Right, right. Um, and then you know, like anyone, you so sometimes you have to kind of do your research because, like you said, some there are a lot of fake ones out there. So they're not, they're just filled with fillers, but they're not actually doing anything. So, you know, I mean, I'm not gonna promote any brand, but you know, just kind of making sure that they have the the DHA and the EPA, those are the ingredients that will um be in the omega-3s to make sure that it's actually working effectively.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Okay, and this is where AI works. Right. We can actually go to the store or you can take a screenshot of it, go into a chat, GBT or cloud AI, and say, hey, what is the rating for this? And it will do the spit out the entire research for you. As and then you can actually from a scale of one to ten, you can be very specific with that wording um in terms of ten being really excellent and one being where would you rank this? Yeah. And the AI would actually do that for you.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. AI AI became a friend of mine. Um, my my my colleague is coming here, he's supposed to be coming here from Jersey. We have a program. Um, right now, I we used in two schools. I was teaching chess and computer science. I do the chess part, he does the computer science. We used to work in um for like the the government, and he came back to the community to um he graduated his story, he graduated at the top of his class from high school, but then he went to college. He just seen it was a big gap. And the the gap was opportunity to further his, you know, he didn't have like, okay, I could go here to get, you know, more you know, more knowledge. You know what I mean? Because if people are paying, you give you get to know more. So what his thing is to say, like, I'm gonna come back to the community, close that gap. So kids like us, once we get to school, we're gonna have an opportunity for us, I mean, at least in a computer computer um science area. So um what we're doing, we have this program called Spark. Spark is like um where where we have kids, where we have kids think. Where we have kids think from okay, instead of they see a problem, don't look at it as a problem, look at it, try to figure a solution for it. But enough about me. It's about y'all and all. But me and him's gonna come here. We um he's coming here. Sounds like an awesome thing. Yeah, we know yeah, and that same school that we do in chess and computer science, they want us to use this program Spark as mentoring. Because you know, we have the we have the kids that you know that need help, man. We we're here, we're here, we're here. But um, anyway, enough

Lowering Cholesterol With Food And Movement

SPEAKER_04 20:26

of me. Okay, um, yeah, so um so what is what is the um how would you like to see the community? What would what would you if you say like four things to the community, like to hey, to pick to pick this up and keep this going for the rest of your life, what would what would it be? From a healthier or from just general like from from your a professional side.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Um, so one of the biggest things that I would like to see, and um fortunately and unfortunately, we're we're seeing it here in Brooklyn, um, is as things are being gentrified, the quality of foods have improved. So I would like the exposure of those foods that are presented when a neighborhood gets gentrified to be presented prior to that. Before, right? So, what that means, but what would that look like? Um, does it mean that we have less liquor stores and fast food places? No, we have different quality of it. So I remember in Bedford Stuyvesant, there was always a bunch of uh liquor stores. But now when you walk into a liquor store now in Bedford Stiveson that's been gentrified, um, it's more a selection of a wine.

SPEAKER_04 21:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Uh and we know for a fact, numerous studies have shown that wine at a moderate level has a very nice impact on on cardiac aspects.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Um red wine specifically. Yeah, red wine specifically, yeah. Um as it relates to food options, um, now when we go to the corner stores or the bodegas, like we, you know, as we we know it, it typically would have. Whole nuts, different fruits options and stuff like that, versus when prior before it was just constantly chips or anything processed. So the options are actually presented, you know, there. Um the biggest thing right now that I'm uh and I even have this issue in my own household is um the movement away from the um processed meats, the cold turkeys, um that, you know, turkey sandwich, um, you know, ham and cheese, those type of things, uh, the bacon, um, those things, you know, the most recent research has shown that has a very bad impact. So shifting that to more um tuna fish, um, those type of things, or even a chicken salad, um, are the things that I've been shifting a lot in my uh within my own community, and I would like to see community shifted amongst ourselves. Um salads as a daily staple. Um in the city or anywhere, you typically can go and have a options or you have a salad bar restaurants. We don't have that um in the uh lower social economic areas as as as options source. Right. So those are the things that I would really like to see. Um more options for um gyms or activities like that we're at a park here. Um I know in Albany and um Forster Avenue, somebody organized through the local officials to have somebody do an exercise class every morning. So I'd like to see that at all the parks as a free option for those who can't afford to go to the gym.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

That's some good stuff. That's some good stuff. Susan, how are you gonna save the world?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Well, I don't know how I'm gonna save the world, but I just want in our communities, there's a lot of disparities in the black communities, just access to health. So I just want to see an increase in access to health, making sure that, you know, if you're your biggest advocate, um I'll just give an example. So the other day, this is probably like a couple days ago, there was a lady crying outside of my um, she was just on the sidewalk crying, and she was like in this severe pain. And she, you know, I went to her to kind of do an assessment of what was going on, and she said, I have a lot of severe abdominal pain. And she said, I got diagnosed with the hernia and I'm in all this pain. However, I do, you know, I didn't, you know, she she did abuse drugs, and she said anytime she went to the hospital, they just kind of like dismissed her. Once they did the labs, they never even bothered to see check on that hernia. Is it strangulating? Is it, you know, does she have any, you know, obstruction in her abdomen? Um, so she was not able to get any access to health care because of the pre- you know, conceived notion that she's just drug seeking or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

She did more last week.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yes, you know, and I can see it. Like I can do the assessment, and obviously I can't scan it. She would need scans, but I could see what is happening. So there is so much mistrust and disparities in the black community and our access to healthcare, maternal health is very high, you know, even acts, just access. So I want to be able to be that person, to be an advocate, to make sure that we as black people get access to good quality health care. So that's how I'm gonna try to save the world. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Um, how would you go about that?

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Um, so again, just you know, I'm I'm new to being a provider. I've again I've been a nurse practitioner uh just shy of two years. So just advocating, make sure that um when I'm talking to my patients, I'm advocating for them as well, not just, you know, dismissing them. Like a lot of times you you kind of feel like it's um like a top side, like you're going in and you know, and they want you to see all these patients and you can't spend quality time. So I want to be able to spend quality time with my patients. That's why I went into the home care route, because I can spend time with my patients as a nurse practitioner. I'm going in and making sure that there's no care gap. So right now, on a smaller scale, I'm doing the home care route where I can spend an hour with my patient and making sure that there's no, they're not a risk for any care gaps. And, you know, being that advocate, if I'm assessing, like, you know, do you need this, that, that I can make that assessment and make those suggestions um to their provider. So on the small scale, that's where I'm going. And I just hope to continue that and make it on a grand scale. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Let's make it spend out. Right, right, right. So following up with your partner that's with you in Sparks, um, and Susan is aware of this, um, in our field, um, sometimes it can feel very lonely. And what I mean by that, there's very few people who look like us. Right. Right. Um so one of the things that would have a tremendous impact, and I'm not sure how to fix that, is what does medical school, graduate school in the allied health, and allied healths do to increase the recruitment of black folks and those African American folks in those venues. Um and I think one of having that would speak l uh uh uh hugely to our cause because if we are able to have a person who can relate to what it means, hey, I gotta have you adjust your jerk chicken or for an acid reflux or to have you reduce the use of um you know, salt in your provisions, I can effectively communicate that with you in a more holistic way than just handing you a piece of paper and saying, hey, follow this diet.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

The other thing that's gonna be very impactful is if our health insurances figure out we're a profitable way of making preventative medicine as lucrative as retraction. So currently, right now, or the vast majority of our healthcare approaches, something is wrong, the health insurance helps fix it. Whereas we don't invest as much time and effort into hey, what are the underlying causes that may uh impact that that can help us improve those things?

Health Access Advocacy And Prevention Incentives

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Oh, nice. Yeah. I'm actually um uh uh founder of a nonprofit. Um started in two more years, it's gonna be 20 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

So congrats on that.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

2009. Wow. And uh as far as like in the community, what I've done, I I was part of the Michelle Obama's Point on the Pounds campaign, helping them um lower the consumption of sugar beverages in the community. I got an award from the NAACP at um 2011 and 2013, the same kind of similar initiative with the Department of Health. Um and I and I I care about the community and um and I hear the stuff that y'all saying. I'm not just saying it, hey, because y'all sitting right next to me, and I'm um I think that um we could make we can make a two things. We could actually put some things together. And uh, you know, even if we really can't help the world, we got two people. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

You say, all right, we did it. Right, we did it. Right. Two people, three people every week, that's what, that's two for six, eight, and that's for the year, our numbers could be our numbers could be great. It's just uh you just we just put we just want to put it in front of people to make them understand, make them understand um certain things and um and as we're getting older, it's like it's people try to fight that fight when it's too late. Uh preventative is is is the is the way to go to me to me. Like you saying as far as extraction, people that's when they want to extract. What about the um before it gets there? Right. How are we gonna how are we gonna how to fix that? How we gonna, you know, prevent them, prevent them, prevent them. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Any closing words? And so refactor. Uh my biggest closing work is prevention is the best cure. Uh know your A what ABCs of life, you know. Um, you're more than welcome to reach out. My office is located at 1336 Utica Avenue, uh, Brooklyn, New York, on the corner of uh Utica and Fosler. Um we offer all sorts of uh healthcare pro healthcare assistance, but specifically centered around physical medicine, which is inclusive of orthopedic, physical medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, things of that nature.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

And always be your biggest advocate. If someone, if something doesn't feel right, switch another doctor, switch another provider. Always be your biggest advocate. Don't let if something is not right, something is not right. So always make sure that you're advocating for yourself and don't take no for answer if you feel like something is wrong. So that is my last, like, always advocate for yourself.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

Hey, listen, I agree with them. Advocate for yourself. You know, no one knows you better than yourself. And if you feel that's like you said, hey, listen, I had a doctor real quick. This doctor, he was like, I kissed I had um I had a preliminary um blood class, and he was like so gloomy, this doctor. He was so gloomy. And then I went out when I went to my um my blood doctor. He's like, don't worry. So then um, I was like, this is my my primary doctor, he's like Dr. Doom. I'm like, he don't pick my spirit up. So I said, say change your doctor. Change your doctor if he's not in bringing he's having to do it.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Absolutely. That's yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

So I um I thank y'all. I thank you, Sue. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having me. And everybody, listen to them. All right, this is the Your Opinion Doesn't Matter podcast, and we are out. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Thank you so much.

Reentry After Prison And Giving Back

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Okay, welcome to the Your Opinion Doesn't Matter podcast. I'm here with Kenny. Kenny, we're at the Father's Day event, and um Kenny has an interesting story of how you came about to um becoming um integral part of helping the community. Um, so tell her, tell me a little bit about yourself and tell me your story. And also tell me how did you wind up meeting Troy?

SPEAKER_02 31:51

All right. Um, first thing first, I want to say thank you for um having me here to um to discuss this um about my life and the life journey that took that took place. Um Troy is a um lifelong friend from the childhood, from basically since we were like 13 years old. Um, how did that come about this? Wow. There's a lot. When we think about journeys, we think about different obstacles that come in the way and different things that take place. And and all this plays a major factor to who we are and what we do for society. Um to make a long story short, I did 18 years in prison, and it was a journey nonetheless. I learned a lot of things in the process, and one thing I learned that was most important is helping the community. I took away from the community because from the crime that I committed, and I wanted to give back. And my my giving back is um is plays a major role of what I'm doing right now and every aspect of what I do. Um one of the things I do when I when I come giving back is finding out the needs of society and the culture and going on in the neighborhood I live in, right? So like one of the stuff is that um I'm currently the vice president of the civic group, Flatland Flatbush Civic um group. And with that, we take the place of knowing whatever the needs. I'm I I'm the voice for the voiceless. When things go wrong, when things got pressure and concern, I'm there for them and assist them in how to go about doing it. In the process of doing that, I be you know, I was appointed as a community board member. I was elected as a Democratic community member also. And that in this list goes on in different things and aspects I do. I'm also a director of a parole preparation project, which assists people that could come home and have assistant and I'd be a life coach, help them with housing, employment, and so forth. And it and I, like I said, the list goes on in different activities. I I try to live a selfless life when it comes to society and doing things and helping other people. Eventually land me to entry link, where I play a major factor in entry link because I realize there's a lot of things that's been absent in our neighborhood and need to be addressed. One thing is on green energy. Green energy, I feel, is so important because it helps us to breathe better, focus better, and basically assist each other in ways that we can never imagine by just being healthy all together. So I embrace different things when it comes to this, right? Solar panels, movie nights, we have um Father Day uh events, all this, just everything in it. When people talked about the Knicks and how everybody communicated together, everybody was saying hello, how everybody was just friendly. This is the blueprint of how we want society to be. And this is what we, Interlink, and the people that the members in Interlink are trying to portray and try to basically enforce with everybody as a community. They always say that saying, um, it takes a village to raise a child, and that's what we're about doing.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

That's nice, that's nice, that's nice. I mean, um, it's a good your story. Your story's great, and I liked um, you know, I liked your your your transition. Yeah, was it an easy transition after doing all those years? How long it took you to get to get like, you know, like moving and growing.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

I um to be totally honest, like I started saying where it takes a village to raise a child, it took a village to help me uh incorporate back to society. And I and and with the community had, Troy, for instance, it they aim they was able to make me able to integrate into society and help me out in on different questions and stuff and for so forth. And the other thing, too, I also had a group, such as the SOS group, where we also assist each other when people come in and with questions that people who had took this journey prior to me. And I learned from their mistakes as well. They teach me of things to avoid or things to embrace.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

Nice, nice, nice, nice,

Green Energy Jobs And Women

SPEAKER_04 36:06

nice. So, what where do you see yourself um and your and your and the green solos in the green solar space? Where do you see yourself in like the next five years? How impactful do you think your reach will be as your your team?

SPEAKER_02 36:18

How do you well right now what's been going on that um people have let not know is women. Women, and the reason I say women is because right now women are not getting the education or the opportunity that they deserve when it comes to getting getting into the green space. So what my projected is to have women be educated in this realm so that in this way they could get um get the and meet the proper employers so they could be a uh a factor. When I'm saying when I say a factor, because they're already a factor, I mean a factor as in the numbers to go higher because we're trying to be able to have a more of a man world where the man is more projective as seen in the limelight. But we need women to be there too. So in the next few years, I want more women being educated about this realm. So then this way they could play the um play a major role and position in this group.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Oh, nice, nice, nice. Okay. More power to the women.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

More power to the women.

SPEAKER_04 37:18

Women on your side, you could go far, man. People think that um, you know, that's not a one monkey normal on the show.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

But um, I I I I I I commend you. I commend you on the work that you're y'all doing and your actual um aspirations of what y'all what y'all where y'all plan to go. And um, and going green is is it's something special, something special in every aspect of in every aspect of life. So yeah, so let's um, so tell me some other things, um, some other avenues that you that you plan to like you you want to tap.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Well, I'm I'm big with the employment, I'm big, very big with employment. Because there's a lot of employment that's out here, and that's I noticed that people are not actually grabbing into it, and especially for the young younger, see, youth, I should say, right? They I feel that they need to be guided more, and we and more mentors should be around to show them the way to go about gaining whatever they need to get.

SPEAKER_04 38:15

Right. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, because um, that's true, that's true. People, you won't know things if you don't, if if you don't ask, you don't inquire, you don't know. You won't never know certain things. And um, but it's more or less things gotta be more visual. You gotta show them. You gotta really gotta put things in people's face. I have my 18 year old nephew. Yeah. You think that he you think that he's born in like the country because he don't know, he don't know, he don't have no drive. He doesn't really, like, he's just there. Like what we do, like as as people, that's no, not bigger than not bigger than going that's going green, but the whole the whole thing of life, like we try to make the like, okay, hold on. Let's show these kids, let's bring these kids with us and let them let them actually know this is real, what we're doing,

Mentoring Youth And Learning To Lose

SPEAKER_04 39:02

what we're doing. Because I do a lot of things in the community, and even though my nephew's right there, but he's not there, I don't know what we gotta do, but certain things, man. I think that is um, I think that is, I think it's uh it's probably like the internet. So much things that's like actually just making us go back. Like they're attacking us like on social network and on the television, the YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

But um, but as long as we're doing things that we can say that we tried, it's yeah, I totally agree with you because it was on a lot of social experiments that took place. One of them was the social experiments of video games, which a lot of people play in the and if um I don't know if you recall or even understand remember the video games such as Pac-Man and all those um Donkey Kong games. When we used to play those games back in the days, right, there was you had a few lives. When you die, the game is over. The game told you when it's over.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Game over.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Game over. But the games now, you get many lives and you can play forever. They embrace the errors where you're not learning from your errors. They will point direction where you're supposed to go, whereas games that we used to play in the days, that by your loss, you learn, okay, not to go left. Let me play again to make a right. So the game, the sector of the game is it, and then later on in schooling, where there's a race going on, everybody's winners. They didn't teach people how to lose. And I feel that that's a major defect in society, even because you're not building people to be prepared for society where life is rough. Yeah, life is difficult. So when an error takes place, teaching somebody to get up and just keep on fighting. And this is not being being taught, is more or less everything's gonna be okay, and that's it, type of thing, and when people are not learning from their errors.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

I agree. I remember I used to play, I went away to college and I was playing pole position too. That's the only time when the cosmies was on. I was playing that over, losing, another quarter. Let me figure it out. Yeah, another quarter. Let me figure it out. It took me a month. I wind up at the end, I wind up having like groups of people watching me clear it. I used to clear it on one quarter at the time. At the beginning, I spent like five dollars.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 41:30

You know, around there. But you know, but um, but yeah, so I mean, we we have a mission. We have a mission to them, you know, for our future.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Um, having mentors for the kids, but all the older individuals, if you can, mentor our youth, because it's definitely needed. And if it's a sport that I have to recommend, I say chess, because if you ever play chess, right, it's a game of um thinkers. And when you ever play a chess player, they'll tell you no game is lost unless you didn't learn from it. So being able to be able to make moves three steps ahead is a bit is just like life. We should not live by day by day. We should be thinking about what's in our future, months, years, and so forth.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

Yeah, I agree with you. Actually, I teach chess. I um yeah, I'm I'm considered I'm a chess expert. Yeah, so I um I'm on I play. Do you play on chess.com?

SPEAKER_02 42:21

No, I don't.

SPEAKER_04 42:22

Okay, do you play?

SPEAKER_02 42:23

No, I play chess, but I don't play that back on. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

So yeah, I mean chess, that's the that's the key. That's the key. Um you gotta you gotta really think about it and you gotta prepare. Yes, as you said. So, you know, it's been great talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 42:37

And uh, the pleasures are mine.

Flooding Fixes And After School Oversight

SPEAKER_04 42:39

And I'm here with an inspiring um soon-to-be assembly person. Yes, introduce yourself. Yes, your name.

SPEAKER_05 42:46

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Jabril Jalo. I'm born and raised in Southeast Brooklyn, and I'm running to represent folks in the 59th Assembly District, which includes Kenasi, Flatlands, Mill Basin, Marine Park, Garrison Beach, and Bergen Beach in Georgetown.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Nice, nice, nice. So, what um, how long have you been into politics? Um, you said you were working on the what's this gentleman's name again?

SPEAKER_05 43:10

Public advocate Jamani Williams. Yes, okay. Yes, so I have the endorse. I'm proud to have the endorsement of New York City Public Advocate Jamani Williams, Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, who also represents a lot of this area, and some large unions like 1199, SCIU, which is a healthcare union, and my mom has been a member of my whole life. Okay. Also DC 37 and the Nurses Association. We also we all remember the nurses went on strike for like 42 days. Okay. So winning their contract. So I'm uh someone who's looking to represent the working class people of this neighborhood. We know everything is going up. We know government is not responsive. Um, so I'm half I'm proud to have this broad coalition of support to bring some change to the community.

SPEAKER_04 43:50

Right, right, right, right. That's good, man. I hope when you get in there, you don't forget the small people, you know. Never that. You know, but um, but uh it's it's it's a good thing. What's your what's your primary focus? What is a Areas like do you like to tackle or yeah?

SPEAKER_05 44:02

So all across Southeast Brooklyn, we run along the Jamaica Bay and we experience flooding, chronic flooding in our community, and our infrastructure needs to be upgraded. Our stormware stormwater infrastructure needs much more investment. Ever since Sandy hit, uh, we have not seen the level of investment that we need. So one of my main priorities when I head up to Albany is to push on the state legislator in the upcoming budget to allocate more capital dollars to upgrade and our infrastructure. Because look, it's not just a climate resiliency issue, it's also a cost issue. When you have your basement that floods and you need to pump out that water or you lose your boiler, that costs money. And we know we're in an affordability crisis, so we need to make sure that we address that.

SPEAKER_04 44:47

Right, right. So what would what would it be? Like um put put more concrete or what would be.

SPEAKER_05 44:53

So one example is in Kenasi, we received a 42, 43.2 million dollar investment in this thing called rain gardens, where each one of these gardens holds up to 1,200 gallons of water. And they beautify the community, but they also help with that stormwater runoff. So the water runs into the rain gardens, which they're planted along the sidewalk, uh next to the um drainage that comes off the corner of the curb and it flows within the rain garden and it settles there and it gets caught. Uh so one of the main things is that a lot of folks, especially in Southeast Brooklyn, are paving over their lawns. So when it rains, that's less uh area that the water can go and sit. It goes into, you know, folks, uh the storm water drainages can uh hold all of that water. And we know year after year we experience we experience more intense rain.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Right, right, right, right, right. That's um that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Um so um what else what else do you plan to tackle?

SPEAKER_05 45:52

So we know our after-school programs need stronger uh oversight in terms of quality. So we've seen too many times young folks jumping on trains or doing teen takeovers, things that when I was growing up, I didn't really see happening. I know now we have the advent of social media, which is fueling some of this, but we have to ask, between the times of when school comes out, where when folks' parents get home, why are kids milling about in the street? Where could we be putting them? Having events like this where we're outside today, happy Father's Day, everybody in Fox Park at a beautiful Father's Day event. Kids are out here playing basketball on a nice Saturday afternoon. Where's our enrichment programs? There's our arts programs that can keep these kids in a safe space where they can really develop their talent. So that's one thing I'm also going to do when I head up to Albany. Really look at what is the oversight mechanism that the state has over the city uh to make sure that we're having higher quality after school programs and expanding our after school program and options.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

Right. Hopefully by the time you make it to where you're going up top, we have a program ourselves. Um he's a gentleman that I'm that's coming right now. I'm in school right now teaching chess and computer science. I handle the chess. My colleague handles the computer science.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

I love that.

SPEAKER_04 47:03

So what it is is that we are bringing a structured way of thinking, um, along with critical thinking, right? To make it, and it's basically a commentary program as well. We tell kids, so listen, this is what you gotta be prepared, prepared for, or this is what the basics of what you need to know to actually further your further further the way you think. Prepare yourself how you think. Don't wait for something to happen and then all of a sudden, oh, you're not ready, you're not ready for it. Right, right. So we have this program called SPAR.

SPEAKER_05 47:28

I love that.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

Spark. It's like you um see a problem, but don't look away from it. Try to solve that problem. Right. And then it's a it's a one school picked us up to pick this up to use this SPAR program as a mentoring program for stamp. So it's like we're we're doing it. You're doing we're doing our thing. We're doing our thing with that. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_05 47:48

So keep it going. Yeah, we can collab. We can collab. But look, we're gonna get there soon. Election day, it's Tuesday, June 23rd. All early voting is happening now until 5 p.m. today, Saturday, June 20th. Come out and vote. We need change in our community, we need a new generation of leadership, and we need a real Democrat. Brother, thank you so much for giving me a bit of your time. All right. All right, thank you, man. Good luck. Please go out and vote. Thank you, guys.

SPEAKER_04 48:12

Yes, he's gonna have vote.

Kings Bay Coaches Teach Life Skills

SPEAKER_04 48:14

I'm here with these gentlemen. Next to me is Clyde. To my far left is Vinny. How you doing? How you doing? Um, through my through my time in basketball, you know, I never I never knew there was people just similar to me who care about the kids. Um through all my years until I came to Kings Bay. There was a group of group of brothers who actually do care. And um been putting in the work for years at Kings Bay. I'm I'm 14 years in. Clyde was there like seven years before me, vinyl, 10 years before him, something like that, right?

SPEAKER_06 48:47

Well, I started in 1998, yeah. Oh man. And um, so you probably came on board a couple years after that.

SPEAKER_03 48:56

I came on board. I I have four kids, and I I wanted to uh get my kids involved in basketball, and I didn't know nothing about no Kings Bay, I knew about other programs, but I I didn't know anything about Kings Bay. So I don't know, I used to be at tournaments. I'm like, oh, what's this Kings Bay? So I went down there, I did a little investigation, and I took my kids in Kings Bay, and uh I got involved. The the the director said, all right, your kids are here, run practice. I'm like, wait a minute, practice? I just came here to bring my kids. And uh I you know I like the idea of uh I could uh share my knowledge with uh other coaches and the kids. And uh and I just met a nice group of guys, Vinny being one of them, and uh we just grew. And uh it was a nice organization where the kids weren't that talented, but with our uh coaching knowledge and sharing of uh different things, we were able to uh teach this kids uh about the fundamentals of the game. Like I said, they weren't that talented, but talent don't always get you places, it's always it's knowledge, it's uh mental. And uh we was able to teach the mental part of basketball along with the uh kids' uh physical abilities, and we excelled in what we did, you know, and uh we went strong until COVID kind of like uh derailed us, and you know, we actually were trying to get back to where we once was, and uh that's that's my uh thing with Kings Bay.

SPEAKER_06 50:47

So how it started was um I was coaching softball and uh we was playing against Kings Bay's, my daughter's team was playing against Kings Bay's uh softball team. And the this gentleman, Atelio, uh watched our team warm up and practice and play, and just said, Wow, I'd like to come to your practice to see what you guys do. Um so he brought his daughter out practice, and uh we ran, you know, a discipline practice, and he said, Hey, I'd like to bring my daughter over to your team. And I was like, I don't know if it's gonna work because you're taking from a uh taking your daughter from a team that's in the league and moving her to another kid on the league. Why don't we wait till next year and try that? And then he said, Well, could we talk? I said, Yeah, let's talk. He said, Well, Kings Bay is looking to open up a basketball program, and I'd like you to help me do that. And I said, sure, let's do it. So we sat down for a good nine months planning it out. Uh, we got gym time at Kings Bay, and uh we started multimeting, setting out flyers to start the team, and as people came in, we started figuring out who could help us coach, because it was only two of us. So we got the baseball, the guy who ran baseball for Kings Bay. We got a guy on the football team, and we kept working it. And as we interviewed people that came in to bring their kids in, we decided who we were gonna make coaches. So that's how we did it. And then we started just having open practices and we just worked with the kids. So um that's how it went. Uh, we had a good, good run for a good number of years. Like Clyde said, COVID killed it, but uh we're bringing it back.

SPEAKER_04 52:35

That's nice, that's nice. Uh, I commend y'all, I commend y'all for sticking, sticking, you know, sticking through it. Even after your kids left the program years ago, you still did it. Yeah, yeah. You know, that shows that shows that you do care. You know, you're coming in, usually, usually it's to help your children, and then you see everything. Oh wow, everybody needs help, you know. So and then that's when you're that's when the real mission starts. You know, you look at everybody like Israel if they're your child and you try to help everybody. So, you know, and that's um that's the beauty of that's the beauty of that's the beauty of of basketball now. That I and our pride our our program at Kings Bay, we don't have the elite kids, and we really don't want them, really. At least I really don't like to coach too much. Kids who think they're that good. I'd rather teach a kid who wants to learn than kids who think they know how to play already. The kids who think they know how to play already or still can't make their school team. True, true. And blame it on the coach. Right, there you go.

SPEAKER_06 53:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

Oh, and the coach, what he's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And the thing about Kings Bay coaches are, I mean, we come from back different backgrounds, different uh jobs and everything. Like I I was in law enforcement. And you know what, when you teach the kids, you don't only teach about basketball, but you're teaching about life skills, like, you know, being in the law enforcement background, you know, teaching kids, you know, have respect, know what your rights are. Yeah. And uh so from those teachings and integrated with basketball, it just makes a stronger mind and able to um excel in um the basketball mentally, you know. And uh that's that was a highlight of Kings Bay. Different coaches from different backgrounds, um uh job environments, and uh it was a pleasure working with all the coaches.

SPEAKER_06 54:22

Yeah, I thought we had a good run, and uh, we're looking to try and do it. We're still doing stuff, just trying to get the kids back in the gym with um you know clinical training. So we run clinics to help them get better.

SPEAKER_04 54:39

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

The work don't stop, the work don't stop. The only thing changes is the year. And it's nice to see Lamont here, um kind of like taking the torch and doing his program. You know, I remember when Lamont came down, nice quiet dude, uh like a sponge, who was taking in everything, learning, learning, learning. Because he had one of his his um his relatives come down and uh actually trusted us enough to say, oh, you know what? I want my my nephew to learn under you guys. Like, wow, okay. But like I said, Lamont, he uh carried the torch now, he's running his program and doing an excellent job. So Luke for Lamont and uh come on down.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

It's hard work, hard work, but it's just due to Vinny. Vinny, Vinny, Vinny's still a staple, you know. You know, if Vinny was to leave anytime he let all of us to the last, Vinny's the reason why we there. Yeah, he's the only reason we're there. I mean we love the kids, but if Vinny was to leave, we out of there. We out of there. But you know, I appreciate y'all. I appreciate y'all. Y'all like mentors to me. You know, even though I don't say it, but I do take guidance. Vinny knows I call Vinny all the time. I appreciate the call. You know, but uh, you know, we we we still got work to do. And Vinny used to whatever, wherever you go, I'm there to follow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:05

We're gonna go in the right direction, helping the kids. That's where we're going.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

Well, we appreciate you, Lamar, for having this format to allow us to uh share our experiences with uh the wide, the viewing public. Right, right, right. So thanks.

SPEAKER_04 56:20

So I know I held y'all, y'all wanted to go. Vinny said he's gonna be here in 10 minutes, now it's 10 hours. But yeah, so okay, so um, I thank y'all. Okay, and appreciate it. Your opinion doesn't matter, podcasting. We are out here. Appreciate you.