Month: August 2020

For the last assignment, I would like to do the following:

• Interview someone or a group of individuals that works in real-estate during this crisis and ask them on their outlook on the current condition of the housing market, as well as what they predict for the future following the end of the pandemic (if there is one). I would also like to potentially (long shot but would be very interesting) interview a high level individual at real estate companies that own and lease major office spaces in high priced areas (ex. a top level person at WeWork) and ask for their thoughts as well.

For the last assignment, I would like to attempt one of the following:

1. Interview two local elementary school teachers who teach specialized subjects, ESL and speech.  Teachers who teach specialized subjects at school are currently facing bigger challenges (as opposed to regular classroom teachers) adjusting to 100% digital instruction due to the nature of the teaching methods they use and the specialized needs of the children they teach (i.e. students with learning disabilities).  Ask them what those challenges are specifically, what steps are being taken to overcome these obstacles, what they hope for the students and what they foresee as far as how this will affect their instruction/students’ quality of learning/progress/pace of learning, etc.
2. Interview a community director for one of the largest senior living communities in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ask her what she, her team and the company are doing to keep their residents safe.  In February, at the onset of the pandemic, a nursing home in Seattle, WA became the country’s epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.  What concerns did they have to address immediately due to the sensitive matter of dealing with a high-risk age group, how have those concerns been handled so far, successfully/unsuccessfully, what safety precautions have been put in place, how the residents have responded, the results of their efforts, what they hope/how they see this situation playing out for the residents/short-term and long-term goals of the company (related to addressing pandemic-related issues), etc.   Additionally, interview a resident that currently resides there (my mom) with what concerns she’s had/has and how her residents have been coping (loneliness, boredom, getting care for health-related issues) whether she feels what the company is doing is enough.

Host intro: Under these unusual circumstances that Covid-19 has brought upon the entire world, many people are facing dramatic changes in their lives and finding new ways to spend their time.  While traveling across the country, interviewer Saad Mustafa has had the opportunity to witness how different Covid-19 looks amongst different states. Here he is interviewing a local farmer’s market employee regarding how this virus has affected her life in Colorado and how it has been affecting the business.

Ambi1: wind, birds chirping, customers conversing in the background.

Track: I am here with Addison, she is an employee at a local farmers market in Loveland, Colorado. I am asking her about coronavirus and how it has affected her life and the business. She shares that she has taken this time to really focus on hobbies and other activities that she didn’t have time for before the lockdown.

Act: Yeah, this virus was and still is super scary but I’ve been trying to look at the bright side of things amongst all this craziness. I’ve gotten used to things being shut down and I’m honestly enjoying it. I’m a college student and my classes have been moved online so I have a lot of extra free time that I would normally spend commuting to school.

Track: Addison says that although the pandemic was scary, it has not only given her free time but also brought a lot of business to her work.

Act: This year was the busiest year we’ve ever had here at this farmer’s market. Since we are a business that is mostly outside and it’s not really an enclosed area, a lot of people feel safer shopping here because of the fresh air. A lot of people are also doing a lot of gardening this year because everything is on lock-down. At first I was really scared that it would negatively affect the business and I would lose my job but thankfully it ended up working out well.

Track: Fortunately, for Addison, Covid-19 didn’t have a negative affect on her life. She shares, though, that for many she knew, it had caused a lot of havoc in their lives.

Act: A lot of my friends lost their jobs due to Covid and they were struggling for a while financially. Thankfully, they managed and now they are doing well. A lot of people, like myself, have started to find enjoyment outside a lot and do things like camping and hiking. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful state where there are a lot of accessible areas that have stunning hikes and areas to spend outside.

Track: Covid has brought a lot of change around the world. Addison’s story relates to many others that I have heard in other states such as Michigan and Wisconsin. Many are trying to spend more time outdoors and many are thankful for the slowdown of life that Covid has brought.

Host Intro – With world slowly starting to boot back up, companies and small businesses are starting to call their workers back as the Covid-19 virus starts to mellow down. However, with all the guidelines provided to take safety precautions, certain group of people may still be varying about returning to work due them having a compromised immune system. Rupinder, who is immune compromised shares her thoughts about going back to work.

AMBI – Air conditioner running and Rupinder’s sister occasionally walking by in her living room

TRACK – Rupinder has been diagnosed with lupus for 7 years now and never had to worry about going to work up until the Covid-19 pandemic.

ACT – In 2013 I was diagnosed with Lupus and that’s what makes my immune system compromised. Also, with the medication that we use to treat my lupus it really compromises your entire immune system.

TRACK – Rupinder still must be super cautious about being in public and especially at her job with having to take care of the kids at the daycare and interacting with parents.

ACT –  umm… lupus is an auto immune disease in which your immune system mistakenly attacks all the healthy cells in your body and its potential can damage your entire body and there is no known cure for it so it’s really healthy habits that you need to do to stay healthy.

TRACK – Even with proper guidelines, Rupinder and many like her still find it hard to feel safe because she has to been in contact with the kids and you wont know if a child may be carrying the virus or a parent because no temperature checks are required except for word of mouth.

ACT – When the state announces that we all need to go into quarantine we switch to remote learning. Even though the State has provided mandatory guidelines for each daycare to follow and not all the daycares are following them to exact measures. As in for my daycare you know we are told to ask the parents for the child’s temperature instead of taking it before they come in or if they came in contact with somebody who has COVID-19 so there’s really no way of knowing if the parent is asymptomatic or if they are carrying anything because there is no testing required for anyone to come back.

TRACK – Having to resort taking a medical leave to prioritize her health, many may not be fortunate enough to do so because they need to keep a roof over their heads. People with compromised immune system face a lack of job security and are at high risk to be exposed to the virus still.

ACT – Yes I think it’s a big disadvantage for someone who has a compromised immune system and uhmm you know someone who is really vulnerable to covid-19 to go back to work as I had to a medical leave because I was in a position where I really had to decide do I want work or is it okay to put myself at a high risk like that so it was tough decision I had to make but you know health is wealth. Also, I know many people who have lost their jobs because they just simply cannot return to work, even with the guidelines, it still puts them at a very high risk of being around people. Especially when not everyone around is wearing a mask or covering their face or taking safety precautions.

TRACK – With the lack of safety for immune compromised people, going back to work is not going to be easy. Many will be at risk and as of right now there aren’t any solutions or benefits available that would help protect their jobs or alternatives that some companies can’t offer to help them keep their jobs. For Baruch college, this Navpreet Singh in Queens, New York.

https://soundcloud.com/navpreet-singh-599279208/radio-projectnav

Ambi: natural sounds of typing on a keyboard

Track: I’m here with Zuzanna, a research assistant at a memory lab at Rutgers University, looking at biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. She is finishing a lab report, typing away in her suburban New Jersey home.

ACT: ZUZANNA: At the end of March all of our research activities were shut down completely until further notice. So, everybody has had to work from home, myself included. It’s been…there’s definitely been a lot of changes.

Track: Without any face-to-face interactions, her work day looks very different.

ACT: ZUZANNA: It’s definitely been a big transition for me personally, um I’m not used to just looking at data for 5-6 hours a day. It’s been a little exhausting honestly.

Track: Her lab was faced with new challenges since the pandemic, working with a high-risk population.

ACT: ZUZANNA: My job before was mostly testing and working face-to-face with the older participants usually in their 70s and their 80s, they’re now the most vulnerable population. So, we have had to plan what we’re going to do, essentially for the rest of the year, because we’re not sure when we’ll be able to see these participants in person again.

Track: Although skeptical, her lab is still hopeful about resuming research with the right precautions in place.

ACT: ZUZANNA: We’re definitely taking into consideration their age and the fact that even just getting to our location is going to be putting them at risk. So, for the past few weeks we are trying to plan a different testing site. We’re thinking of maybe moving our testing to a church nearby where there is a lot of room. We can keep the windows open and stay six feet away with face shields and masks. But even so, there are still risks. So right now it’s really just a waiting game.

Track: Aside from the difficulties imposed by working with a high-risk population, the lab is going to have a hard time designating research assistants to test the participants.

ACT: ZUZANNA: Usually, in a research lab, half of the staff were undergraduate students who were looking for some research experience, but because all of these classes are now going to be remote, even in the fall, we lost almost half of our staff.

Track: With a lot of changes happening, Zuzanna had assumed a lot of new responsibilities in the lab.

ACT: ZUZANNA: Because they are a few people who have left the lab or who are leaving, I do have to take on some new responsibilities. I think the most difficult part is the training aspect so for example I’m learning how to administer fMRIs right now and its been really difficult to just picture how I am going to administer it to the participant without physically being there.

Track: Although some research has been put to a halt due to COVID-19, other research has been prioritized.

ACT: ZUZANNA: I do plan on pursuing a career in research, so this has definitely been an eye-opener for me. We have had a lot of budget cuts at our lab and I know that moving forward there is going to be an emphasis on Covid-related research, and maybe in the future even other medical research as opposed to what I am looking at now, which is memory and neuroscience.

Track: As of now most research activities at Rutgers University are on hold. Everyone is patiently waiting as we track the spread of Covid19 and wait for new information.