September 25, 2023 • 30 mins
Tri-staters young and old alike are feeling disconnected, some wanting to find a way out. My guest Dr. Paul Crosby is President and CEO of the Lindner Center of Hope in Cincinnati. It's a complete resource to help people with their mental health concerns. Dr. Crosby and I discuss how to help family & friends who are experiencing emotional pain.
https://lindnercenterofhope.org/
Then, Dr. Brian Calfano is here from the University of Cincinnati with a state-of-the-media-&-politics session. Considering the state of misinformation & fake news, his ideas on what will happen if President Trump is re-elected, and the problem of having frail lawmakers who don't step down.
https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/calfanbn
https://lindnercenterofhope.org/
Then, Dr. Brian Calfano is here from the University of Cincinnati with a state-of-the-media-&-politics session. Considering the state of misinformation & fake news, his ideas on what will happen if President Trump is re-elected, and the problem of having frail lawmakers who don't step down.
https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/calfanbn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
This week on iHeart Citsey, it'sreally important that the adults, that the
older people, that the mentors intheir lives are able to put words and
to normalize what they're experiencing. Trystats, young and old alike feeling disconnected.
So I'm wanting to find a wayout. My guest today is doctor
Paul Crosby. He's the president andCEO of the Lender Center of Hope,
(00:30):
a complete resource to help people withtheir mental health issues right here in the
Tri State. Doctor Crosby and Iwill discuss how to help family and friends
who are experiencing emotional pain and later, because even if Trump's reelected and it
has this second term, it doesnot mean anything will look the way that
it did for the first. DoctorBrian Calfano is here from UC with a
(00:54):
kind of a State of the Mediaand Politics session today with the state of
misinformation and fake news, his ideason what will happen if President Trump is
reelected and the problem with having fraillawmakers who just will not step down.
Now on iHeart Cincie with Sandy Collins, we have an action packed and fun
(01:15):
field show for you today, TariState communities sharing resource needed here to help
solve problems and share stories that upliftpeople. I'm Sandy Collins glad to be
back with doctor Paul Crossby, amental health advocate with expertise and anxiety,
learning disabilities, substance abuse disorders,and ADHD. He is also an associate
(01:38):
professor and vice chair at the Universityof Cincinnati's College of Medicine in the Department
of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. It'sgood to see you again, doctor.
Let's jump right in. This isa National suicide Prevention month, and we
know that the problem is growing.What can people listening right now due to
help a family member or a friendwho is really struggling. You know that's
(02:02):
a great question, Sandy. Well, so you know, there's really five
things that we recommend doing for anybodyin your life who might have who's experiencing
emotional pain, and who are yourconcern maybe thinking of suicide. The first
thing is ask, So it's okayto ask directly are you thinking about killing
yourself? I know it's not aneasy thing to ask, but studies show
(02:24):
that asking it actually does not increasesuicides or suicidal thoughts, and it's an
important thing to ask because it showsthat person that you're willing to have an
uncomfortable conversation and that you care enoughabout them to ask about that. Number
two is to keep them safe.So reducing a suicidal person's access to highly
(02:46):
legal means or places is an importantpart of that. About half of suicides
that occur in our country are dueto firearms, so that's one of the
single most important things that you coulddo to keep somebody safe. If a
firearm is in the house or ifthat person has access to one, please
remove it and then likewise anything elsethat that person might use to try to
(03:07):
harm themselves. Number three is tobe there, so listen carefully. I'm
learn what the individual is thinking andfeeling. And then number four has helped
them connect, So this is wherethe This is where you come in by
being there with them, but thenalso help them connect with the professionals.
So that's where the nine eight eightnumber can come in. That's the suicide
(03:29):
and crisis lifeline. You can callor text ninety eight eight, and that
line is staffed by professionals who aretrained to talk with people who are in
crisis and then connect them with theappropriate professionals thereafter and then finally stay connected.
Studies show very strongly that after theperson has been treated for the initial
(03:54):
crisis, is extremely helpful to remainin contact with the providers who cared for
them, as well as the importantpeople in their lives in order to continue
to stay safe. The CDC sentout some new information here this summer about
which populations are at the highest risk, including veterans. Can you go into
(04:15):
that a little bit, you know, I can tell you that certain populations
are at more risk than others,and you're right. So men in general
are more likely to complete suicide thanwomen. People who have had what we
call adverse life experiences, those aretraumatic events or very severe stressors in their
(04:41):
life, especially recently, are alsoat risk. And so veterans would fall
into that category. But then alsoon the younger side, LGBTQ youth than
that category have experienced some kind oftrauma or adverse life event, you know
that often bullying or something along thoselines. And so every event like that
(05:02):
actually multiplies your risk of attempting suicide. And there's a lot of help out
there which we're trying to pass alongtoday. We understand that men seventy five
and older have the highest rate ofsuicide. I'm guessing that's tied to I
guess end of life issues or perhapslosing their wives. I think losing your
(05:26):
life partner or those very close toyou can certainly be a cause for people
to think of suicide. You know, we think of connectedness in general.
This is what was so challenging duringthe pandemic for us as mental health providers.
Usually the number one thing that werecommend to people who are suffering with
any kind of mental health symptoms isto connect with the people who are close
(05:48):
to them, connect with your supportsystem. And you know, as we
all know that that was something thatyou know, due to the not wanting
to spread COVID, that that wasreally hard to do during the pandem Sometimes
as people age, either their healthor the health of those around them,
you know, can cause disconnectedness.And so if I had to pick,
(06:10):
you know, a main underlying cause, I would guess that that would be
that would be it. Talking withdoctor Paul Crosby from the Lender Center of
Hope, this is National Suicide PreventionMonth here in September. I'm Sandy Collins
doctor. It's really sad to hearabout young people in their late teens and
early twenties that are doing this,especially when they're just really getting their lives,
(06:33):
started feeling very hopeless. So youngpeople are suffering a significant crisis related
to mental health in general and suicidespecifically. Right now, suicide is the
leading cause of death for certain agesof young people and the second leading cause
of death for others. This wasthe case heading into the pandemic, so
(06:56):
it can't be blamed entirely on that, but it also accelerated during the pandemic,
and a large part of that Ibelieve is due to that disconnectedness.
Many young people missed celebrating milestones suchas going to prom graduating high school,
(07:17):
graduating college, even going to collegeand experiencing those first years in the dorms,
you know, getting your first job, things like that that would be
you know, kind of rites ofpassages that they might celebrate with people around
them, and they didn't get achance to do that, And those things
(07:38):
adding up over time certainly caused anincrease in the burden of mental health symptoms
that are young people are experiencing today. Even you know, it feels like
asking a younger person whether they're havingthoughts of suicide. For me, that
feels a little harder than asking foran older person. I guess maybe for
the fear of given them the idea. You know, I think I think
(08:03):
it's it may be harder, butit's even more important. So the thing
about young people, the younger personis the more that they may not have
a language for what they are experiencingand maybe the first time that they've heard
of or dealt with any of thesekinds of feelings and symptoms. And it's
(08:24):
really important that the adults, thatthe older people, that the mentors in
their lives, are able to putwords and to normalize what they're experiencing.
And so it's even more crucial tobroach the subject and to broach it directly
in an open way that it's gearedtowards listening and learning what the internal experience
(08:46):
is of that young person. Yeah, I think you're right. It might
have been a while ago for me, but I think some of the best
advice I've ever gotten can be boileddown to you know, these four words.
Remember, this feeling is temporary.It won't always be like this.
That's absolutely true. That's a coreskill that we mental health providers try to
(09:09):
teach our patients is that no feelingis permanent. You know, that includes
happiness, but it also includes extremelypainful feelings that can lead to thoughts of
suicide. One of the best treatmentstrategies is to actually just let time pass
because that feeling will go away,it will get better, it will not
(09:31):
last forever. That's good to know. Now, we have heard a lot
about the lack of mental health resourcesover the years, So let's kind of
talk here locally, where can peoplego for help here? One of the
so the best single point of contactwould be that nine eight eight number,
and also text nine to eight eight. The other text number is seven four
(09:54):
one seven four one, And thenlocally, you know, any emergency room
if it is a crisis and alife threatening emergency. Any emergency room would
be equipped to handle a mental healthcrisis. There are specific ones around towns.
In Hamilton County, there's a mobilecrisis that can be accessed through the
psych Emergency Services at University Hospital.Likewise, Children's Hospital has a psychiatric Intake
(10:20):
and Response Center that can be calledfor children. And of course you can
call us at the Lindar Center ofHope. Our phone number is five one
three five three six hope. Allright, doctor Crosby, thank you.
We have to ask for help whenwe need it, and there seems to
be some resources here in town thatwe can count on. So thank you
very much for being a part ofthe show today and we'll hope to talk
(10:43):
to you soon. Thank you.Sandy. Coming up, you end up
looking at the landscape and you sayit's just as big of a mess as
it was back then. We aretalking about the political and media mess that
we're in with a new perspective fromone local experts. Coming up on iHeart
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This is iHeart Since, a tristate public affairs program here in Cincinnati.
I'm Sandy Collins. My next guestis a professor at the University of
(12:16):
Cincinnati. He's an expert in politicsand journalism, Doctor Brian Kalfano, Who's
going to give us some idea ofwhere we're at today with the media and
politics and what's going on with MitchMcConnell. Well, let's get to it,
because I've got so much to talkto you about and not enough time
in the day, so let's getstarted. So, for our listeners,
(12:39):
your expertise is in politics and injournalism and media, and those two have
been rapidly evolving and influencing each othermore and more over the last decade.
So let's get caught up. Letme start with your kind of assessment of
where we are right now with ajuxtaposition of politics and journalism Yeah, that's
such a great question overall, becauseit seems like when you don't have politicians
(13:07):
actively calling out so called media thepress on a regular basis the way that
President Trump used to do it kindof gives, I think, the false
impression that everything's fine and we've goneback to sort of normalcy, But really
we haven't. Most of the trendsthat we talked about being problematic several years
(13:28):
ago in terms of people isolating andlooking at information in a particular way through
certain sources they prefer to go toon a fairly regular basis. All of
that continues, in fact, insome ways if you look at what happens
on the right a lot of timeswith the more conservative news organization trying to
outflank, say something like Fox,which will fall out from the settlement with
(13:52):
the election fraud coverage and everything else, I think, you know, push
Newsmax into a pretty strong number twoconservative news organization position. You end up
looking at the landscape and you say, it's just as big of a mess
as it was back then. Butwe've moved on to talk about some other
(14:13):
things for the for the moment,If President Trump, former President Trump ends
up becoming nominee Trump in the mannera lot of people, I think are
expecting to happen, given the waythings look right now, that whole fake
news and enemy of the people narrativecomes flooding back in to our daily news
(14:33):
cycle, and we're right back toI think a lot of the heat that
we felt about our institutions, journalismin general, and the way that the
public evaluates the veracity, if youwill, of what media produced, and
whether you are somebody who looks atthis and says, well, that's really
(14:56):
unfair, the way that media youare picked on, or you know,
media got to do a must doa better job. They have to do
a much better job in terms oftrying to get at the truth and to
represent the voices of variety of interests, not just the ones who are easy
to talk to and all that sortof thing. Whatever your position is on
these issues, I think it comesdown to a question of you know,
(15:18):
what, are we going to eventuallywrap our heads around and say, these
are the common pieces of information thatwe're going to use to make a decision
as a country, whether that befor a particular policy area that people are
worried about today or they're looking downthe road and saying it's going to be
an issue for tomorrow. Like AI, I mean that these stories are really
(15:39):
important and we need to have seriousjournalists covering them. And you know,
when you begin to undermine the faiththe public has in these institutions, or
you double down on undermining, itbecomes a big problem. It serves short
term political interests, but it doesnot serve long term institutional and democratic interests.
(16:00):
So we have to come up witha way to kind of agree on
what we're going to use. Wealready know what to use. We know
how to use facts. But thatis being twisted. Oh who certainly is
because now you have the era ofwell, these are my facts, and
you can have your facts, andI guess we'll bring our facts together and
(16:22):
basically deal with the fact that we'renot dealing in facts. I mean,
it's so ridiculous on a lot oflevels. But part of this is just
because of the subject matter. Whenwe're talking about political preferences and people voting
for a certain candidate or supporting apolitical party, you're trying to do a
lot of taking what's going on inthe past and applying it to the future.
(16:47):
You know, so the expectations aboutfuture performance for a party or a
politician. And in this case,Trump is a really interesting example because you've
got him having had a first termand now this interruption period, and then
maybe he has a second term,and so you're really looking at prior performance
to try to predict future outcomes.But that's really hard to do because even
(17:11):
if Trump's reelected and it has thissecond term, it does not mean anything
will look the way that it didfor the first You're dealing with a whole
set of new circumstances. By definition, you have so many changes in the
world that would have happened over theprior four years. There's just no way
(17:32):
you're going to get the kind ofstable outcome most people assume when they say,
well, I support this side becausethey're going to make this happen,
or this side supports X. Andall we know is that you know,
you have to continue to push forthese things, because as soon as you
stop advocating for all these changes,then you know, bad stuff happens.
In reality life and politics and theperformance of these policies that politicians love to
(17:56):
put into bills and pass them,they don't really have the kind of one
to one direct outcome that pundance andmany members of the public expect them to
have. Can be really annoying becauseit's hard then for politicians to go out
and say we got to do thisand this and this to make sure that
we have certain good outcomes. Peopleget disillusioned by all of that, and
(18:21):
when it comes to talking about whatwe ought to do politically and then saying,
you know, when we do this, we'll have an outcome that everybody
can agree to and can live with, there's no guarantee of any of that.
And I think on some instinctive level, people kind of know this,
and so they say, what betterway to just have a bunch of opinions
and argue about it. We feellike we're doing something, and we'll yell
(18:45):
and we'll get behind a particular party, and we'll sort of delude ourselves into
thinking that voting for you know,this group or that group is going to
change things. And you know,that's really where media journalism they have to
do a better job of leveling withpeople. But a lot of times news
organizations don't want to get into anyof that because it would suggest that whatever
(19:07):
they're reporting on and the whole processis really not squared away to do the
kinds of things that the public wantsit to or that the politicians say looking
biased, looking not only just biased, but I would even go beyond biased,
looking incompetent, impotent, unable toreally change things, unable to have
(19:32):
the leverage to pull off the changethat you're talking about. And when you
promise people, well, all wegotta do is X, and if we
just do X, this really goodoutcome that we all say we want,
it's going to happen. Well,again, I've only been around forty six
years, but I've seen enough toknow that that almost never happens. And
(19:56):
it leads people to start scratching theirheads and go, they're all full of
it. They don't know what they'retalking about. You saw that same kind
of dynamic with COVID, Right,Okay, we got this novel virus going
around doctors, epidemiologists. What dowe have to do, Well, maybe
you have to wear a mask.Yeah, it's distance and you know.
(20:18):
And then okay, we got thevaccines and this is supposed to and people
go, well, I still seepeople dying, and I still got sick,
and I got even more sick afterI got the show. Yeah,
that you have all of these differentoutcomes that don't fit neatly into a narrative
that you can put a little bowon and say, this is the news
for today. My guest today isdoctor Brian Caulfinal. You'll find him at
(20:41):
the University of Cincinnati. He runsthe journalism and Political science department there,
and he has an expert on whatis going on in the media and in
politics, and it's always a goodconversation, Brian. Americans love authority.
They love somebody that has all theanswers and then tells them the answers.
And what we're all finding out inreal time is that when really nobody has
(21:03):
all the answers, we all haveto think for ourselves. We all have
to I agree with you, andI don't hear a lot of journalists saying
that. I think, especially whenwe start gearing up for the primary election.
Well look how long it took forjournalists to begin to say with clarity,
(21:23):
after misleading statements and untruths and allthese dance around words. It took
like three years before I think collectivelyof the media finally just said he he
just lied. So let's just canwe agree on just saying it that was
a lie, and once that happened, that word then creeped into the narrative.
(21:45):
But journalists were so concerned about callinga spade a spade, they were
so worried about being that direct andsure that I think you're right. That's
why journalists now have to stop beingafraid of telling the real trade and stop
being afraid and embrace the ambiguity,which is really hard. And I come
(22:10):
from you know, TV work,So the last thing they want to do
is embrace ambiguity. Why because everythingthey do is predicated on the notion of
we're going to break this down,as they say, for you. We're
going to simplify this for you.We're going to tell you what you need
to know so you don't have tothink, yeah, well, or so
(22:30):
you'll trust us for your news.And so in a way, the promise
is a bit broken these days becausepeople now not just with and I'm not
even going down the route the roadof okay, conspiratorial thinking, you know,
or even the question of I don'tlike what you're saying about a candidate
or a politician that I like.It's more journalism can't deliver the goods that
(22:56):
it promises, just like politicians haven'tand can't deliver what they promise because the
way they promise, the way theygo about saying, this is what we're
going to do for you. Witha lot of this work ends up looking
phony in the end because people say, well, you didn't do this,
(23:18):
you didn't solve this. And it'snot necessarily the fault of the politician.
Even it's not necessarily the fault ofthe journalist. It's when you it's the
process. Yeah, there's only somuch we're going to be able to give
you. It's going to give yousome kind of determination and to give you
a guaranteed outcome. And so humannature is also we like to think we
(23:40):
have an idea what's happening tomorrow.We like to think, well, the
futures somehow certain, because when thefuture is not certain, because the future
is never certain. But whatever,right we want certain. We want somebody
that knows what they're talking about.We want to feel like someone's in control,
and we want to feel like someone'sgiving us what we need to know.
Again, and they sound like cliches, but this is this is why
(24:03):
we I wanted to talk to youtoday because we're talking about someone being in
charge that knows what they're doing.And I wanted to talk to you about
the aging of our elected officials.You know the idea of that, you
know, age brings wisdom, butyou know, Americans seem to be very
concerned about the presidency, the membersof Congress, local leaders that have no
term limits. Is there anything thatcan be done to move the needle to
(24:30):
allow these people to retire and knowthat, you know, the party will
move on without them and bring upyounger qualified candidates and leaders. Oh yes,
well, that is an internal partyprocess that neither party has done a
terribly good job of, I thinkexecuting. And part of the reason,
(24:56):
which is ironic given what we justtalked about, I think, is that
the younger politicians tend to be theones who embrace this idealism more than the
older ones. And so the idealismbeing well, we're gonna get this done,
we're going to change things, we'regoing to make everything better for people.
You know that that kind of overpromise, if you will, that we
(25:18):
just mentioned, Whereas I think theolder, more seasoned folks like McConnell don't
really engage in that kind of discussion. You know that I say, this
is our goal. We want totry to do something. We want to
basically move something in a certain directionif we can. But you don't get
the sense from these folks that there'sgoing to be this radical transformation. Let's
(25:41):
talk about McConnell here real quick,because we know that he kind of blinked
out a couple of times during thesenews conferences earlier this year. Has a
lot of people worried about his health. The doctor there in Congress looked at
him and said, you know,he didn't have a stroke. He basically
likely had some sort of a sideeffect of the concussion that he suffered earlier
(26:03):
this year. So with McConnell,there was a real concern about him holding
onto power and not being able todo the job and kind of being a
blank slate at this point. Thefear of that, and then there's a
real complicated process to would need totake place to get him out. Can
you go over that with us inthat particular case Kentucky, Because every state's
(26:26):
different, by the way, sowe can speak about individual states. So
in this particular case, Kentucky nowhas ironically, because McConnell asked it to
a couple of years ago, aprocess by which the governor doesn't have carte
blanche and being able to just picksomeone to fill in. So let's say
McConnell has to resign, not juststep aside temporarily. You know, he's
(26:49):
tired, he's on vacation, hejust has to resign the seat. What
the Republicans in Frankfurt were concerned aboutwith Andy Basher, democratic governor, is
that what you're gonna end up now, getting some Democrat in there, some
liberal. We can't have that.So the Republicans and the legislature said,
(27:11):
here's what we'll do. Will createa bill that will sail through and have
a veto proof majority. Basher canveto it, but will override it.
That says, if you have to, as governor phil a vacancy, it
has to come from a list thatthe legislature approves. So Basher's kind of
(27:32):
choice basically, if this ever happens, of say, three Republicans that he's
going to have to pick from,unless you assumed that the Republicans in the
legislature would somehow put a Democrat onthere. But you know, I think
that's probably impossible to imagine. SoBashir is essentially getting to pick. Yeah,
I guess some leeway he could maybepick what he thinks is the lesser
(27:52):
of the three options. Then itdepends really on when the resignation would take
effect and how closest to the nextelection, And there's different cutoff points time
wise for people to keep in mind. So if McConnell leaves within certain maybe
it's about two or three months ofan election as election already schedule, that
(28:15):
individual who besher with a point wouldserve until that new election happens, and
then you'd have the new elected persontake over. If it's sort of thing
where you're a little further away froman election but it's within the next year,
you basically have a little bit moretime. If you're the appointee in
that seat, it generally wouldn't happenfor more than a year at the most,
(28:38):
depending on when all of this wouldwould shake out, because there's always
an election coming down the pike,particularly a mid term or a presidential level
election, so there's going to besome opportunity there for the Commonwealth to run
an election for filling that vacancy.And in that particular case, it gets
even more interesting because the way Kentuckyworks. It runs what they call a
(28:59):
jungle primary, which means that it'snot the standard primaries we're used to in
Ohio. You've got the Republicans doingtheir thing and the Democrats doing theirs.
You have basically anybody who can getlike a thousand signatures on a paperwork to
effectively get on the ballot. Andso you've got this list of presumably just
(29:22):
anybody who's got a thousand people youcan get verified signatures for it to get
on this thing. And that makesfor a pretty interesting process. And in
that particular case, it's where youmay end up having Kentuckians vote for somebody
who the Republicans just wouldn't want inthere at all. And of course that
would be to replace fully replace McConnell. And so it's really a fascinating thing,
(29:45):
more so from the standpoint of thatprimary process that it is for the
pointing of replacement. I could talkto you forever in a day about all
of this. You're just so knowledgeable. Thank you, doctor Bryan Colfano.
He is the professor of journalism andpolitical science and the head of the department
at University of Cincinnati. Let's getyour calendar out and get you on our
(30:07):
calendar again. Here real soon.Okay, you bet? Thanks Sandy.
Well, that's our show for thisweek. You can find the show on
the iHeart Radio app. Just clickon podcasts and search for either Sandy Collins
or iHeart Sinsing. We'll be backagain next week. Appreciate you listening.
Let us know what you think aboutthe show. I've got an idea I
need to do is send me anemail to iHeart since with an I at
(30:30):
iHeartMedia dot com. See you nextweek. iHeart Cincy is a production of iHeartMedia Centinnati
This week on iHeart Citsey, it'sreally important that the adults, that the
older people, that the mentors intheir lives are able to put words and
to normalize what they're experiencing. Trystats, young and old alike feeling disconnected.
So I'm wanting to find a wayout. My guest today is doctor
Paul Crosby. He's the president andCEO of the Lender Center of Hope,
(00:30):
a complete resource to help people withtheir mental health issues right here in the
Tri State. Doctor Crosby and Iwill discuss how to help family and friends
who are experiencing emotional pain and later, because even if Trump's reelected and it
has this second term, it doesnot mean anything will look the way that
it did for the first. DoctorBrian Calfano is here from UC with a
(00:54):
kind of a State of the Mediaand Politics session today with the state of
misinformation and fake news, his ideason what will happen if President Trump is
reelected and the problem with having fraillawmakers who just will not step down.
Now on iHeart Cincie with Sandy Collins, we have an action packed and fun
(01:15):
field show for you today, TariState communities sharing resource needed here to help
solve problems and share stories that upliftpeople. I'm Sandy Collins glad to be
back with doctor Paul Crossby, amental health advocate with expertise and anxiety,
learning disabilities, substance abuse disorders,and ADHD. He is also an associate
(01:38):
professor and vice chair at the Universityof Cincinnati's College of Medicine in the Department
of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. It'sgood to see you again, doctor.
Let's jump right in. This isa National suicide Prevention month, and we
know that the problem is growing.What can people listening right now due to
help a family member or a friendwho is really struggling. You know that's
(02:02):
a great question, Sandy. Well, so you know, there's really five
things that we recommend doing for anybodyin your life who might have who's experiencing
emotional pain, and who are yourconcern maybe thinking of suicide. The first
thing is ask, So it's okayto ask directly are you thinking about killing
yourself? I know it's not aneasy thing to ask, but studies show
(02:24):
that asking it actually does not increasesuicides or suicidal thoughts, and it's an
important thing to ask because it showsthat person that you're willing to have an
uncomfortable conversation and that you care enoughabout them to ask about that. Number
two is to keep them safe.So reducing a suicidal person's access to highly
(02:46):
legal means or places is an importantpart of that. About half of suicides
that occur in our country are dueto firearms, so that's one of the
single most important things that you coulddo to keep somebody safe. If a
firearm is in the house or ifthat person has access to one, please
remove it and then likewise anything elsethat that person might use to try to
(03:07):
harm themselves. Number three is tobe there, so listen carefully. I'm
learn what the individual is thinking andfeeling. And then number four has helped
them connect, So this is wherethe This is where you come in by
being there with them, but thenalso help them connect with the professionals.
So that's where the nine eight eightnumber can come in. That's the suicide
(03:29):
and crisis lifeline. You can callor text ninety eight eight, and that
line is staffed by professionals who aretrained to talk with people who are in
crisis and then connect them with theappropriate professionals thereafter and then finally stay connected.
Studies show very strongly that after theperson has been treated for the initial
(03:54):
crisis, is extremely helpful to remainin contact with the providers who cared for
them, as well as the importantpeople in their lives in order to continue
to stay safe. The CDC sentout some new information here this summer about
which populations are at the highest risk, including veterans. Can you go into
(04:15):
that a little bit, you know, I can tell you that certain populations
are at more risk than others,and you're right. So men in general
are more likely to complete suicide thanwomen. People who have had what we
call adverse life experiences, those aretraumatic events or very severe stressors in their
(04:41):
life, especially recently, are alsoat risk. And so veterans would fall
into that category. But then alsoon the younger side, LGBTQ youth than
that category have experienced some kind oftrauma or adverse life event, you know
that often bullying or something along thoselines. And so every event like that
(05:02):
actually multiplies your risk of attempting suicide. And there's a lot of help out
there which we're trying to pass alongtoday. We understand that men seventy five
and older have the highest rate ofsuicide. I'm guessing that's tied to I
guess end of life issues or perhapslosing their wives. I think losing your
(05:26):
life partner or those very close toyou can certainly be a cause for people
to think of suicide. You know, we think of connectedness in general.
This is what was so challenging duringthe pandemic for us as mental health providers.
Usually the number one thing that werecommend to people who are suffering with
any kind of mental health symptoms isto connect with the people who are close
(05:48):
to them, connect with your supportsystem. And you know, as we
all know that that was something thatyou know, due to the not wanting
to spread COVID, that that wasreally hard to do during the pandem Sometimes
as people age, either their healthor the health of those around them,
you know, can cause disconnectedness.And so if I had to pick,
(06:10):
you know, a main underlying cause, I would guess that that would be
that would be it. Talking withdoctor Paul Crosby from the Lender Center of
Hope, this is National Suicide PreventionMonth here in September. I'm Sandy Collins
doctor. It's really sad to hearabout young people in their late teens and
early twenties that are doing this,especially when they're just really getting their lives,
(06:33):
started feeling very hopeless. So youngpeople are suffering a significant crisis related
to mental health in general and suicidespecifically. Right now, suicide is the
leading cause of death for certain agesof young people and the second leading cause
of death for others. This wasthe case heading into the pandemic, so
(06:56):
it can't be blamed entirely on that, but it also accelerated during the pandemic,
and a large part of that Ibelieve is due to that disconnectedness.
Many young people missed celebrating milestones suchas going to prom graduating high school,
(07:17):
graduating college, even going to collegeand experiencing those first years in the dorms,
you know, getting your first job, things like that that would be
you know, kind of rites ofpassages that they might celebrate with people around
them, and they didn't get achance to do that, And those things
(07:38):
adding up over time certainly caused anincrease in the burden of mental health symptoms
that are young people are experiencing today. Even you know, it feels like
asking a younger person whether they're havingthoughts of suicide. For me, that
feels a little harder than asking foran older person. I guess maybe for
the fear of given them the idea. You know, I think I think
(08:03):
it's it may be harder, butit's even more important. So the thing
about young people, the younger personis the more that they may not have
a language for what they are experiencingand maybe the first time that they've heard
of or dealt with any of thesekinds of feelings and symptoms. And it's
(08:24):
really important that the adults, thatthe older people, that the mentors in
their lives, are able to putwords and to normalize what they're experiencing.
And so it's even more crucial tobroach the subject and to broach it directly
in an open way that it's gearedtowards listening and learning what the internal experience
(08:46):
is of that young person. Yeah, I think you're right. It might
have been a while ago for me, but I think some of the best
advice I've ever gotten can be boileddown to you know, these four words.
Remember, this feeling is temporary.It won't always be like this.
That's absolutely true. That's a coreskill that we mental health providers try to
(09:09):
teach our patients is that no feelingis permanent. You know, that includes
happiness, but it also includes extremelypainful feelings that can lead to thoughts of
suicide. One of the best treatmentstrategies is to actually just let time pass
because that feeling will go away,it will get better, it will not
(09:31):
last forever. That's good to know. Now, we have heard a lot
about the lack of mental health resourcesover the years, So let's kind of
talk here locally, where can peoplego for help here? One of the
so the best single point of contactwould be that nine eight eight number,
and also text nine to eight eight. The other text number is seven four
(09:54):
one seven four one, And thenlocally, you know, any emergency room
if it is a crisis and alife threatening emergency. Any emergency room would
be equipped to handle a mental healthcrisis. There are specific ones around towns.
In Hamilton County, there's a mobilecrisis that can be accessed through the
psych Emergency Services at University Hospital.Likewise, Children's Hospital has a psychiatric Intake
(10:20):
and Response Center that can be calledfor children. And of course you can
call us at the Lindar Center ofHope. Our phone number is five one
three five three six hope. Allright, doctor Crosby, thank you.
We have to ask for help whenwe need it, and there seems to
be some resources here in town thatwe can count on. So thank you
very much for being a part ofthe show today and we'll hope to talk
(10:43):
to you soon. Thank you.Sandy. Coming up, you end up
looking at the landscape and you sayit's just as big of a mess as
it was back then. We aretalking about the political and media mess that
we're in with a new perspective fromone local experts. Coming up on iHeart
Cincy. This is fifty five KRCand iHeartRadio Station. The biggest stars and
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all of music share the stage atour twenty twenty three iHeartRadio Music Festival,
daunto You by Capitol One. LetMe Hear You Fighters, Kelly Clarkson,
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Ye all the action now at iHeartRadiodot Com slash Festival and get ready
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Why is iHeartRadio the number one streamingradio app free music, free live radio
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Iheartradios. Join the millions of musicradio and podcast fans on the number one
streaming radio Now iHeartRadio, iHeartRadio,Higheart Radio Free. Never sounded so good.
This is iHeart Since, a tristate public affairs program here in Cincinnati.
I'm Sandy Collins. My next guestis a professor at the University of
(12:16):
Cincinnati. He's an expert in politicsand journalism, Doctor Brian Kalfano, Who's
going to give us some idea ofwhere we're at today with the media and
politics and what's going on with MitchMcConnell. Well, let's get to it,
because I've got so much to talkto you about and not enough time
in the day, so let's getstarted. So, for our listeners,
(12:39):
your expertise is in politics and injournalism and media, and those two have
been rapidly evolving and influencing each othermore and more over the last decade.
So let's get caught up. Letme start with your kind of assessment of
where we are right now with ajuxtaposition of politics and journalism Yeah, that's
such a great question overall, becauseit seems like when you don't have politicians
(13:07):
actively calling out so called media thepress on a regular basis the way that
President Trump used to do it kindof gives, I think, the false
impression that everything's fine and we've goneback to sort of normalcy, But really
we haven't. Most of the trendsthat we talked about being problematic several years
(13:28):
ago in terms of people isolating andlooking at information in a particular way through
certain sources they prefer to go toon a fairly regular basis. All of
that continues, in fact, insome ways if you look at what happens
on the right a lot of timeswith the more conservative news organization trying to
outflank, say something like Fox,which will fall out from the settlement with
(13:52):
the election fraud coverage and everything else, I think, you know, push
Newsmax into a pretty strong number twoconservative news organization position. You end up
looking at the landscape and you say, it's just as big of a mess
as it was back then. Butwe've moved on to talk about some other
(14:13):
things for the for the moment,If President Trump, former President Trump ends
up becoming nominee Trump in the mannera lot of people, I think are
expecting to happen, given the waythings look right now, that whole fake
news and enemy of the people narrativecomes flooding back in to our daily news
(14:33):
cycle, and we're right back toI think a lot of the heat that
we felt about our institutions, journalismin general, and the way that the
public evaluates the veracity, if youwill, of what media produced, and
whether you are somebody who looks atthis and says, well, that's really
(14:56):
unfair, the way that media youare picked on, or you know,
media got to do a must doa better job. They have to do
a much better job in terms oftrying to get at the truth and to
represent the voices of variety of interests, not just the ones who are easy
to talk to and all that sortof thing. Whatever your position is on
these issues, I think it comesdown to a question of you know,
(15:18):
what, are we going to eventuallywrap our heads around and say, these
are the common pieces of information thatwe're going to use to make a decision
as a country, whether that befor a particular policy area that people are
worried about today or they're looking downthe road and saying it's going to be
an issue for tomorrow. Like AI, I mean that these stories are really
(15:39):
important and we need to have seriousjournalists covering them. And you know,
when you begin to undermine the faiththe public has in these institutions, or
you double down on undermining, itbecomes a big problem. It serves short
term political interests, but it doesnot serve long term institutional and democratic interests.
(16:00):
So we have to come up witha way to kind of agree on
what we're going to use. Wealready know what to use. We know
how to use facts. But thatis being twisted. Oh who certainly is
because now you have the era ofwell, these are my facts, and
you can have your facts, andI guess we'll bring our facts together and
(16:22):
basically deal with the fact that we'renot dealing in facts. I mean,
it's so ridiculous on a lot oflevels. But part of this is just
because of the subject matter. Whenwe're talking about political preferences and people voting
for a certain candidate or supporting apolitical party, you're trying to do a
lot of taking what's going on inthe past and applying it to the future.
(16:47):
You know, so the expectations aboutfuture performance for a party or a
politician. And in this case,Trump is a really interesting example because you've
got him having had a first termand now this interruption period, and then
maybe he has a second term,and so you're really looking at prior performance
to try to predict future outcomes.But that's really hard to do because even
(17:11):
if Trump's reelected and it has thissecond term, it does not mean anything
will look the way that it didfor the first You're dealing with a whole
set of new circumstances. By definition, you have so many changes in the
world that would have happened over theprior four years. There's just no way
(17:32):
you're going to get the kind ofstable outcome most people assume when they say,
well, I support this side becausethey're going to make this happen,
or this side supports X. Andall we know is that you know,
you have to continue to push forthese things, because as soon as you
stop advocating for all these changes,then you know, bad stuff happens.
In reality life and politics and theperformance of these policies that politicians love to
(17:56):
put into bills and pass them,they don't really have the kind of one
to one direct outcome that pundance andmany members of the public expect them to
have. Can be really annoying becauseit's hard then for politicians to go out
and say we got to do thisand this and this to make sure that
we have certain good outcomes. Peopleget disillusioned by all of that, and
(18:21):
when it comes to talking about whatwe ought to do politically and then saying,
you know, when we do this, we'll have an outcome that everybody
can agree to and can live with, there's no guarantee of any of that.
And I think on some instinctive level, people kind of know this,
and so they say, what betterway to just have a bunch of opinions
and argue about it. We feellike we're doing something, and we'll yell
(18:45):
and we'll get behind a particular party, and we'll sort of delude ourselves into
thinking that voting for you know,this group or that group is going to
change things. And you know,that's really where media journalism they have to
do a better job of leveling withpeople. But a lot of times news
organizations don't want to get into anyof that because it would suggest that whatever
(19:07):
they're reporting on and the whole processis really not squared away to do the
kinds of things that the public wantsit to or that the politicians say looking
biased, looking not only just biased, but I would even go beyond biased,
looking incompetent, impotent, unable toreally change things, unable to have
(19:32):
the leverage to pull off the changethat you're talking about. And when you
promise people, well, all wegotta do is X, and if we
just do X, this really goodoutcome that we all say we want,
it's going to happen. Well,again, I've only been around forty six
years, but I've seen enough toknow that that almost never happens. And
(19:56):
it leads people to start scratching theirheads and go, they're all full of
it. They don't know what they'retalking about. You saw that same kind
of dynamic with COVID, Right,Okay, we got this novel virus going
around doctors, epidemiologists. What dowe have to do, Well, maybe
you have to wear a mask.Yeah, it's distance and you know.
(20:18):
And then okay, we got thevaccines and this is supposed to and people
go, well, I still seepeople dying, and I still got sick,
and I got even more sick afterI got the show. Yeah,
that you have all of these differentoutcomes that don't fit neatly into a narrative
that you can put a little bowon and say, this is the news
for today. My guest today isdoctor Brian Caulfinal. You'll find him at
(20:41):
the University of Cincinnati. He runsthe journalism and Political science department there,
and he has an expert on whatis going on in the media and in
politics, and it's always a goodconversation, Brian. Americans love authority.
They love somebody that has all theanswers and then tells them the answers.
And what we're all finding out inreal time is that when really nobody has
(21:03):
all the answers, we all haveto think for ourselves. We all have
to I agree with you, andI don't hear a lot of journalists saying
that. I think, especially whenwe start gearing up for the primary election.
Well look how long it took forjournalists to begin to say with clarity,
(21:23):
after misleading statements and untruths and allthese dance around words. It took
like three years before I think collectivelyof the media finally just said he he
just lied. So let's just canwe agree on just saying it that was
a lie, and once that happened, that word then creeped into the narrative.
(21:45):
But journalists were so concerned about callinga spade a spade, they were
so worried about being that direct andsure that I think you're right. That's
why journalists now have to stop beingafraid of telling the real trade and stop
being afraid and embrace the ambiguity,which is really hard. And I come
(22:10):
from you know, TV work,So the last thing they want to do
is embrace ambiguity. Why because everythingthey do is predicated on the notion of
we're going to break this down,as they say, for you. We're
going to simplify this for you.We're going to tell you what you need
to know so you don't have tothink, yeah, well, or so
(22:30):
you'll trust us for your news.And so in a way, the promise
is a bit broken these days becausepeople now not just with and I'm not
even going down the route the roadof okay, conspiratorial thinking, you know,
or even the question of I don'tlike what you're saying about a candidate
or a politician that I like.It's more journalism can't deliver the goods that
(22:56):
it promises, just like politicians haven'tand can't deliver what they promise because the
way they promise, the way theygo about saying, this is what we're
going to do for you. Witha lot of this work ends up looking
phony in the end because people say, well, you didn't do this,
(23:18):
you didn't solve this. And it'snot necessarily the fault of the politician.
Even it's not necessarily the fault ofthe journalist. It's when you it's the
process. Yeah, there's only somuch we're going to be able to give
you. It's going to give yousome kind of determination and to give you
a guaranteed outcome. And so humannature is also we like to think we
(23:40):
have an idea what's happening tomorrow.We like to think, well, the
futures somehow certain, because when thefuture is not certain, because the future
is never certain. But whatever,right we want certain. We want somebody
that knows what they're talking about.We want to feel like someone's in control,
and we want to feel like someone'sgiving us what we need to know.
Again, and they sound like cliches, but this is this is why
(24:03):
we I wanted to talk to youtoday because we're talking about someone being in
charge that knows what they're doing.And I wanted to talk to you about
the aging of our elected officials.You know the idea of that, you
know, age brings wisdom, butyou know, Americans seem to be very
concerned about the presidency, the membersof Congress, local leaders that have no
term limits. Is there anything thatcan be done to move the needle to
(24:30):
allow these people to retire and knowthat, you know, the party will
move on without them and bring upyounger qualified candidates and leaders. Oh yes,
well, that is an internal partyprocess that neither party has done a
terribly good job of, I thinkexecuting. And part of the reason,
(24:56):
which is ironic given what we justtalked about, I think, is that
the younger politicians tend to be theones who embrace this idealism more than the
older ones. And so the idealismbeing well, we're gonna get this done,
we're going to change things, we'regoing to make everything better for people.
You know that that kind of overpromise, if you will, that we
(25:18):
just mentioned, Whereas I think theolder, more seasoned folks like McConnell don't
really engage in that kind of discussion. You know that I say, this
is our goal. We want totry to do something. We want to
basically move something in a certain directionif we can. But you don't get
the sense from these folks that there'sgoing to be this radical transformation. Let's
(25:41):
talk about McConnell here real quick,because we know that he kind of blinked
out a couple of times during thesenews conferences earlier this year. Has a
lot of people worried about his health. The doctor there in Congress looked at
him and said, you know,he didn't have a stroke. He basically
likely had some sort of a sideeffect of the concussion that he suffered earlier
(26:03):
this year. So with McConnell,there was a real concern about him holding
onto power and not being able todo the job and kind of being a
blank slate at this point. Thefear of that, and then there's a
real complicated process to would need totake place to get him out. Can
you go over that with us inthat particular case Kentucky, Because every state's
(26:26):
different, by the way, sowe can speak about individual states. So
in this particular case, Kentucky nowhas ironically, because McConnell asked it to
a couple of years ago, aprocess by which the governor doesn't have carte
blanche and being able to just picksomeone to fill in. So let's say
McConnell has to resign, not juststep aside temporarily. You know, he's
(26:49):
tired, he's on vacation, hejust has to resign the seat. What
the Republicans in Frankfurt were concerned aboutwith Andy Basher, democratic governor, is
that what you're gonna end up now, getting some Democrat in there, some
liberal. We can't have that.So the Republicans and the legislature said,
(27:11):
here's what we'll do. Will createa bill that will sail through and have
a veto proof majority. Basher canveto it, but will override it.
That says, if you have to, as governor phil a vacancy, it
has to come from a list thatthe legislature approves. So Basher's kind of
(27:32):
choice basically, if this ever happens, of say, three Republicans that he's
going to have to pick from,unless you assumed that the Republicans in the
legislature would somehow put a Democrat onthere. But you know, I think
that's probably impossible to imagine. SoBashir is essentially getting to pick. Yeah,
I guess some leeway he could maybepick what he thinks is the lesser
(27:52):
of the three options. Then itdepends really on when the resignation would take
effect and how closest to the nextelection, And there's different cutoff points time
wise for people to keep in mind. So if McConnell leaves within certain maybe
it's about two or three months ofan election as election already schedule, that
(28:15):
individual who besher with a point wouldserve until that new election happens, and
then you'd have the new elected persontake over. If it's sort of thing
where you're a little further away froman election but it's within the next year,
you basically have a little bit moretime. If you're the appointee in
that seat, it generally wouldn't happenfor more than a year at the most,
(28:38):
depending on when all of this wouldwould shake out, because there's always
an election coming down the pike,particularly a mid term or a presidential level
election, so there's going to besome opportunity there for the Commonwealth to run
an election for filling that vacancy.And in that particular case, it gets
even more interesting because the way Kentuckyworks. It runs what they call a
(28:59):
jungle primary, which means that it'snot the standard primaries we're used to in
Ohio. You've got the Republicans doingtheir thing and the Democrats doing theirs.
You have basically anybody who can getlike a thousand signatures on a paperwork to
effectively get on the ballot. Andso you've got this list of presumably just
(29:22):
anybody who's got a thousand people youcan get verified signatures for it to get
on this thing. And that makesfor a pretty interesting process. And in
that particular case, it's where youmay end up having Kentuckians vote for somebody
who the Republicans just wouldn't want inthere at all. And of course that
would be to replace fully replace McConnell. And so it's really a fascinating thing,
(29:45):
more so from the standpoint of thatprimary process that it is for the
pointing of replacement. I could talkto you forever in a day about all
of this. You're just so knowledgeable. Thank you, doctor Bryan Colfano.
He is the professor of journalism andpolitical science and the head of the department
at University of Cincinnati. Let's getyour calendar out and get you on our
(30:07):
calendar again. Here real soon.Okay, you bet? Thanks Sandy.
Well, that's our show for thisweek. You can find the show on
the iHeart Radio app. Just clickon podcasts and search for either Sandy Collins
or iHeart Sinsing. We'll be backagain next week. Appreciate you listening.
Let us know what you think aboutthe show. I've got an idea I
need to do is send me anemail to iHeart since with an I at
(30:30):
iHeartMedia dot com. See you nextweek. iHeart Cincy is a production of iHeartMedia Centinnati
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