An Armao On The Brink

Podcast Host Rosemary Armao talks with colleagues from other departments at the University at Albany in trouble because of conservative attacks, economics that favor job-attracting majors, and dropping enrollments. Her guests are Professor Emerita of English Martha Rozett and Professor of Women and Gender Studies Janelle Hobson.

Boomer Jeff Wilkin, Millennial Zach Grady, and Gen Z’er Amar Sayeed tell Rosemary about finding, evaluating, and dumping dates in this age of online hookups, apps, and toxic masculinity. This is the flip side to Dating in the Digital Age from the point of view of women that we aired a while back. The women all had similar views, but men of different generations seem to have very different ideas. D...

In this chapter Malcolm Nance talks with Rosemary and long-time investment banker Mark Wittman about the dangers in sees coming in the new Trump Regime including civic violence and mutiny in the military and what citizens ought to do about it. Mark Wittman earned his MBA in finance from NYU and has worked as an investment banker for more than 25 years.  He has provided financing and strategic guid...

Mary and Mike both teach civics/social students; Mary in a New York high school and Mike in a Virginia middle school. In this chapter they talk about what their kids don't know that they should, about the foolishness of banning books, about violence and guns in schools, about the threat of vouchers to public education, teaching to the test, and other controversial school issues. Our speaker bi...

Two veteran political journalists Jim Asher and Dale Eisman who have investigated and analyzed Washington power for decades discuss what they saw in watching the Trump Inauguration and what they think it portends. It was a weird day from the guest list to the richest man in the world making a Nazi salute and it's likely to get more weird, they agree. James Asher, now retired, was a veteran inv...

Boomer and Gen Z guests Kris Antonelli and Emily Robbins talk with Rosemary about finding, evaluating, and sometimes dumping dates in this age of online hookups, apps, and toxic masculinity. What’s the bare minimum you should look for in a new guy and what is the worst date of all time? Emily Robbins, from Ravena, NY, is a sophomore at UAlbany, majoring in communication and minoring in journalism....

Mokhtar Alibrahim fled his hometown of Damascus nearly eight years ago, leaving behind family, friends, and the budding career as a journalist he’d just begun other than be conscripted into the Syrian Army of Beshir al-Assad to wage war against fellow countrymen.  He lived in Lebanon, then Jordan, and now Germany despairing he would ever see home again. He learned two new languages English and Ger...

Two weeks out we continue to look into what the Democratic election losses portend and how Dems ought to be reacting to the drubbing they took. Michele Salcedo, a past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, talks about why Latino supported Trump and what they may expect in return and Ryan Horstmyer, a lawyer, lobbyist and long-time Democratic activist in ruby-red upstate Ne...

Steve Greenfield, a New Paltz firefighter and long-time activitist for alternative and third-party candidates explains the self-defeating votes we’ve just seen by working class people and minority men. Democrats need to understand why this happened and act to prevent it — yet again — from costing them an election Steve Greenfield, 63, of New Paltz, is a past member of the New Paltz Board of Educat...

On the eve of the 2024 election we talk with retired teacher George Goodwin of Albany who has done Democratic Party work for more than 20 years. This fall he’s been traveling to Pennsylvania and other nearby states drumming up votes for Kamala Harris and he knows a little about how to talk to people with different politics annoyed to see you at their door. He knows how persuasion can work and when...

Three billionaires, Elon Musk the car and space innovator who owns what used to be Twitter, Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon and another space explorer who owns the Washington Post , and Patrick Soon-Shiong, the doctor who bought the Los Angeles Times six years ago, are in the news because of their influence over the 2024 election. Musk is campaigning for Donald Trump and through X spreading comme...

How could deep blue New York vote down a simple declaration that all people should be treated the same under the law in this state? It could happen. Organized opposition to Proposition 1 on the NYS ballot from the Catholic Church and conservative Republicans has been unexpectedly fierce and organized around disinformation and fear mongering. The League of Women Voters, devoted since its founding t...

Suzanne Mateo of Milan, NY, tells a horrific story about being swindled out of her retirement savings. It happened this summer shortly after she was widowed and retired from a long career as a nurse and hospital administrator. Scams preying on the vulnerable and elderly are on the rise and according to Gino Cortesi, a softwear designer and student of AI, they are likely to get more sophisticated a...

Rosemary chats with Anthony-Bourdain like chef and international tour guide Ric Orlando on the shores of the Ionian Sea about phallic cannoli, why there is little hummus in chickpea-rich Sicily, and the connections between cheese and bulls and eating veal. Ric Orlando is a renowned chef, restauranteur, musician, writer, food marketer and tour guide through Italy and Sicily. He was. a pioneer of  H...

Dementia is a family disease that affects not just the afflicted person but everyone who loves, depends on, and cares for her. Alzheimer's and related diseases don't kill off their victims right away but instead drains them over years of their ability to think or do or even really be themselves. Watching that happen is horrifying and tests caregivers. Writer Will Doolittle knows this. Seven and on...

They seem like so sweet and wholesome, Victoria Houston and Dianne Hagan, in love with the outdoors and nature and their families. But both harbor dark souls and foul plots that they pour out in murder mysteries that have evolved into series with recurring characters and locales. Houston has penned the long-running Loon Lake Mystery series and Hagan the Cadence Mystery series . The two authors tal...

Rosemary podcasts live from New Orleans in this episode pulling members of JAWS, a 50-year-old feminist women's organization away from workshops at their annual Camp to talk about their current diverse assignments, from national politics, to mentoring young women journalists in reporting careers that make a difference, to writing about isolation, disinformation and other indignities of the Cov...

Two aspiring New York State Senate candidates from the Capital District talk about indignities and inconveniences of a political career, including begging for money, plastering neighborhoods with lawn signs, and coming up with a Plan B in case they lose. Alvin Gamble  is a Colonie NY Town board member running for the District 43 State Senate seat. He grew up in Colonie, graduating  from Colonie Ce...

On The Brink of an Election Season Ted Bridis spent 30 years in journalism working for The Associated Press and Wall Street Journal, including 11 years running AP's Pulitzer-winning investigative team in Washington. He now teaches political and public policy journalism full time at the University of Florida as the Michael and Linda Connelly senior lecturer in investigative reporting. At AP, Br...

All five of the Armao sisters in one place is a rare event but we captured just that in this last podcast before OTB takes a three-week summer hiatus. We talk about the validity of birth order research from our perspective, about Justice Altio's wife and his flags, and about the summers we have shared and will share over the next three months. In birth order: Rosemary, Jo-Ann, Kate, Lisa, and...

Early in May, On the Brink featured some smart, angry women talking about attacks on American women in the form of legislative fiats and judicial rulings that banned abortion, criminalized miscarriages, inserted government into their bedrooms, and hobbled doctors. Now we are giving men a turn to talk about abortion: what it has to do with them and why they are standing up for and with women. You&#...

Just as in the 1970s when students on campuses nationwide began sitting-in, dropping out, occupying campus buildings, and marching against war in Vietnam, young people are now protesting US involvement in the war in Gaza. Also just as 50 years ago the nation is divided over the university unrest, many sympathizing with the students, many also decrying violence and lack of control by university off...

May means flowers, lawns and gardens --  outdoor glory that can make war, famine, student protests and hate  go away for a while. But  while planting native plant species and shrinking grassy areas around your home to make room for flower beds is relaxing and beautifying, it's also an important way to fight back against climate change and environmental degradation. Listen to two of the best Ma...

Why do old men judges and politicians get to make decisions about how women use their bodies? Why is the US moving backward in matters of reproductive health when even Catholic countries are modernizing? Why should doctors face criminal charges just for caring for patients? Rosemary talks with some smart and angry women about abortion lunacy. Hear from women’s cancer care Dr. Heidi Godoy, long-tim...