November 4, 2025 • 29 mins
Jonathan Buchwalter, a Tuscaloosa Highschool history teacher will be featured on the History Channel’s “Unbelievable” with Dan Aykroyd. He joins us to tell us about his roll as an educator and some of the things he talks about on this show. Then UAB Doctor Stephen Russell tells us how to stay healthy as we head into cold and flu season for this year. Finaly Birmingham Business Journal’s AJ O’Leary joins us to talk about some of the biggest economic developments in the mid-state of Alabama.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
A local high school history teacher in Tuscalosa County named
Jonathan Buchwalter joins me. Now he has the honor of
being selected by the History Channel for the show Unbelievable
later this month. Jonathan, Welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So education, especially history education, is so important because our
next generation of leaders and voters are making decisions that
are going to affect affect everyone's life, and so it's
great to hear you take your obligation so seriously. How
did you end up being picked to participate in this
national show on the History Channel.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I have been on social media. I've been really
active on TikTok in the last few years, and it
started as a really small thing as just me doing
book reviews of history books, and then it kind of
ballooned into this. I'm pushing two hundred thousand followers now,
and I talk about a wide range of topics. I'm
a Holocaust historian, so most of my history content on
(00:55):
TikTok focused on Holocaust history and Nazism, but it aimed
a really large audience. People were really receptive to it,
and it looked from there the History Channel found me
on TikTok and then I went to New York and
recorded with them.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So you teach in Tuscaloosa, in Tuscalusa County, what do
you teach all grades of specific grade and what part
of history do you teach.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I've taught a little of everything, but mostly I teach
twentieth century US history. It's for eleventh.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Graders, Okay. I always wonder because I remember when I
was in high school, it seemed like we spent a
ton of time on learning the like the early part
of history, like learning about the early settlers and learning
about the Revolution, and then kind of towards the middle
of the year you get the Civil War, and I
always felt like we get to about, like the skill
school years almost over when we raced through World War Two,
and whatever happened later happened later. So it sounds to
(01:44):
me like you focus on exclusively on that century. So
that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think. Yeah, we do a lot of work behind
the scenes to try and make sure that the content
is reflective of what students need to know. And certainly
I know I was the same one I was in
high school. Is there was I think an over emphasis
on early American history at the expense of basically everything
that happens after nineteen forty and so one of our
(02:10):
recent changes has been to I'm sorry, my son is
kind of playing in the background. So he's our guest,
our special guest.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's fine, studio audience, I like it.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
One of our recent changes, I would say, over the
last ten years, has been to make tenth and eleventh
grade deal with the first and second half of American history.
So the tenth graders will start at the founding and
go through reconstruction after the Civil War, and then I
will start at the age of imperialism and go into
(02:38):
the modern age. I expect me and my students we'll
get to the two thousand and eight recession by the
end of this semester.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
For example, Now, how about Alabama history, because Alabama has
had a big part and I don't just mean the
Civil War or the Civil Rights movement. Alabama has a
big part throughout history and even the twentieth century. How
do you tie that into national history?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh? Yeah, because Alabama is a part of the national story.
Before we did our recent content standard swap, for example,
I would also teach the Industrial Revolution. Now that's a
tenth grade thing. But during the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham is
the magic City. I mean, it's coming into its form
as this steel town, is this iron town in the
(03:16):
American South. And so you can highlight the connection between
labor history nationally and labor history in Alabama, between the
early movements in civil rights around labor issues and around
labor organizing issues, and how that affects Alabama differently than
it's going to affect say Chicago or New York.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I had heard, and you could correct me, because you're
the history teacher, that the reason why it's called the
magic city was because at the time of the turn
of the century, it seemed like magically buildings were just
popping up everywhere. Just it just grew exploded basically right
after a little bit after the Civil War, when all
of a sudden everyone needed steel and we had all
this iron ore that we could make in the steal.
Is that is that close to what happened?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yes, that is really really on target. So we get
the generally, yes, the magic cities because it pops up overnight.
It seemingly pops up overnight, but it's because Alabama is
really uniquely positioned on large iron mines and as iron
mining is taking off in central Alabama. Henry Bessemer develops
(04:17):
the Bestmer process, and that gets brought over to the
United States. It's a United Kingdom in Discovery, but it
gets brought over to the United States. It's how we
get bestmer. Alabama's named for Henry Besmer, a name for
the Bestmer process. And because you can now quickly and
cheaply mass produced steel. And you have this small company
town that's sitting on top of one of the largest
(04:39):
iron veins in the country, you get the magic city.
You get a city that pops up overnight to meet
that demand for steel.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I have friends who live in Pittsburgh and I always
tell us that tell them that they're the Birmingham of
the North. They don't like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, they should be honored that for that name, because
it's I mean, it's Alabama steel that helps dig America
out of the Great Depression, Alabama steel that's building tanks
to fight in World War Two. I'd say being the
Birmingham of the North is a pretty high honor.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Jonathan buck Walker joins me now talking about his experiences
as a Tuscaloosa County High school teacher and also your
show the show that you're going to be on. When
does that? I know it's this month in November. When
is that premiere? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yes, it's going to be in just a couple of weeks,
so depending on where you are in the country, it
will be live on the fourteenth or the fifteenth of
this month.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Now, something else I want to touch on with you,
because you teach in the Alabama school system and you've
been this year. We're three months in just about, and
there's a lot of there's been a lot of talk
about the Focus Act, this act that took the phones
out of the hands of all the kids in school,
and at first, of course, the kids hated it. Now
we're a little bit into the school year. How do
you think it's going.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
They still hate it. They still hate it. But but
I think I noticed immediate improvements in academic performance, immediate
slight improvements. And I want to oversell it immediate slight
improvements and academic performance because they have nothing better to
do with their attention than to pay attention in class,
(06:15):
and of course that's going to have a positive outcome.
What I'm looking forward to with the Focus Act is
not its impact this year, which will be minimal, but
it's impact in five years when let's say our students
have lost twenty percent of the amount of learning they
were going to get because they're like watching TikTok on
(06:37):
their phone under the table. If you're losing twenty percent
of that learning year over year over year, by the
time you make it to high school, you have like
really serious skill deficiencies in basic reading, writing, and math.
And so I'm really excited for the group of students
that will arrive to me having gone all the way
through middle school without the distraction of their phones. They're
(06:58):
going to be much stronger readers, stronger writers, and that
opens me up to do a lot cooler stuff with them.
I can do a lot more interesting and exciting things
in my class when I'm not teaching fonds.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And that makes a lot of sense. And another thing
that I think I've that's going to come of it
is there are kids, as much as you say they
hate it, and they will tell you they do because
they have to say it, but there are I think
a lot of kids who secretly kind of like it
because in some ways they were almost a slave to
the phone because you had to be on snapchat, you
had to constantly keep up with your friends. If you weren't,
you were out of the loop. And you couldn't be
(07:31):
out of the loop. So everybody had to be on
social media all the time, and this made it to
where everyone has a level playing field. Nobody's allowed to
be on social media for those at least seven hours
of school they have to focus, and they're not. They
don't even have the choice if they wanted to, they couldn't.
So there are probably a lot of students that kind
of breathe a sigh of relief, Thank goodness, that burden
is off me. At least for these seven hours, I
can just be me and be in this place as
(07:53):
opposed to having to be in the social media place
with all my friends, like I have to do the
moment the bell rings at three thirty or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, I think that's the I think one of my
son's toys is talking to us. I think it's a
guest star for the day. One of the things that
I think our students are really going to notice in
themselves within the next probably month or two, is that
their memory is improving and their attention span is improving,
(08:21):
and they are enjoying things more because One of the
things that the phones do, that the apps do is
they take your they take your endorphins, and they give
you just this little drip of endorphins all the time,
and it makes basically everything you do all day long
less interesting because nothing beats that little endorphin drip. And
(08:43):
so I think they're going to be really appreciative, at
least a number of them will be appreciative once they've
had enough time to I guess, detox for lack of
a better word, and learn to enjoy things again or
touch some grasp.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Jonathan as a history teacher teaching young minds, how much
of how much of what they learn?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Do you think that they think they're smarter than everyone?
You know, that's just a common trade of teenagers. They
always think they know more than everyone else. But do
you find that they are better informed because they are
more plugged in after hours of course looking at things
that going on around the world, or do you find
that in viewing all those things it jades them to
the point of they have a misunderstanding of what's going on,
(09:26):
or how it's happening, or why it's happening.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I think you can sort into three messy categories. I
think you can sort students and their information about the
world in the three messy categories, where the first is,
as you say, they are engaging more with nonfiction content
because it is easier to access than it's ever been.
And I'll give you an example. One of my students
in my fourth block class now he asks really nuanced,
(09:53):
really deep questions, and I will say to him, how
did you even know to ask that question? He said,
while I watch like three dot ormmentaries on World War
One yesterday, and because he has his phone or his
school issued tablet and he gets bored in the evenings,
that's what he does. He reminds me a lot of
myself in that way. He watches World War One documentaries
when he's bored, and so he's like really interested in
(10:15):
the world around him and really is surprisingly well informed
on I guess, basic history concepts that go beyond what
you would learn in a normal classroom setting. The second
category is by far the largest, and that is kids
who are still really totally ignorant of the world around
them because the things they're engaging with online are not
(10:37):
nonfiction content, or at least not educational nonfiction content. They're
watching sports videos, they're watching video game streams. I'm not
saying these things are bad. I'm saying that they're just
not interested in history in the classroom, and they're not
interested in history outside of it either. The third camp
is the one that is concerning to me because it
is a large camp, not the largest, but it is
(10:57):
a large camp, and that is kids who have an
entirely warped perspective of reality because they don't really have
the media literacy skills to pick apart what they're engaging
with online and check it for accuracy. And what's particularly
difficult here is that there's a lot of really terrible
online content that looks really good and might in some
(11:19):
respects be factually accurate until you contextualize those facts and
that out of context, it's actually really inaccurate what they're
taking in. But it's just individual data points to say, well,
the data point is factually correct, you can back it
up with a source, but in broader context it's not correct.
And so you have this significant number of young people
who are engaged with the world, who are interested in
(11:41):
learning about the world, and they are gaining negative knowledge.
They are gaining less knowledge than nothing because they have
unrestricted access to social media.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I remember back in the early nineties the movie Forrest
Gump came out, and you remember those scenes in Forrest
Gump that back then took the computer animators a long
time to do, where Forrest Gump is act Tom Hanks
is shaking the hand of Richard Nixon, or he's shaking
the hand of JFK. Whoever it is. You'd almost believe
it could have happened, but you know that it's Hollywood magic.
But now AI makes that stuff on a dime. And Okay,
(12:13):
we know that Forrest company, or we know that Tom
Hanks didn't meet JFK. But if you have a picture
of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin having a conversation saying
words to each other, it looks really real, but it
might not be real at all. And there's a lot
of people who don't have I've think, especially younger people
who have the media literasy to know that's fake or
at least those words that they're putting in their mouths
(12:35):
are fake, and they might have a completely different idea
as to what's going on in the world than what's
really going on.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, that I think that worries me a lot in
a couple of directions. So, on the one hand, I
think the there's a great example of a conversation I
had with a student not all that long ago, where recently,
I'm sure we all saw that the president posted an
AI video of himself flying a plane and dropping i mean,
(13:05):
for lack of a better word, poop on protesters, and
the student asked me, was that real? Like was that
a thing that happened, not the plane part, but that
the president posted that and like us having to navigate, like, no,
that wasn't real. Wait so the president, Yes, the President
did post it, but the thing they posted wasn't real.
It's like, how do you know that the president actually
(13:26):
posted it and it wasn't an AI of an AI
And it's like that reality breaks down, right, like how
do you know what's real and what's not? In a
basic this person said that sense, and that really really
worries me.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And I guess as an educator, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
On the other hand, if these social media platforms are
all full of untrue information because it's all AI and
you don't know what of it is AI and what
if it is not AI, then the social media platform
becomes less useful and we stop you as much. And
I think that's probably a positive end. Like if I
(14:04):
am logging online and I say, well, one in every
two news media looking posts I engage with is like
actually just invented by an AI video image generator, then
I'm not going to get my news from that source
anymore because I'm I'm not going to take the time
in my day to fact check every other post that
I look at, and that would make me less likely
(14:26):
to use that platform. I think it would make most
people less likely to use those platforms, and we would
have to go back to like I need to get
a physical newspaper. I need to open a physical book
because that thing cannot be generated by anyone.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Jonathan, do you see a time and place, maybe sooner
rather than later, where there's actually a class being taught
in media literacy too high school students to be able
to fire it out what is the truth and what
is fabrication so that they can better understand what's really
happening in their world.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, that is something our English department is working on
right now. English classes at the high school level are
really media literacy classes, right You're analyzing character motivations you're
reading classic stories. You're comparing fictional stories to the time
period in which they were written. For example, one of
my coworkers is doing a lesson on the Crucible book
(15:17):
and movie, and it's also about mccartheyism, which is what
the Crucible book was written about. So it's like a
fictional account of a real event in history that's a
parallel to a real event history. And so it's this
really rich layered media literacy lesson. But the thing that
they're working on now is like, Okay, with this AI stuff,
how do we navigate truth and falsehood when the false
(15:39):
stuff is no longer just false information someone telling you
a fib But is this entire constructed reality of real
and fake and semi real AI assisted images that you're
just sort of receiving at all times on social media.
I don't have the answer for that one. I'm hoping
that my English department co worker, who are really wonderful people,
(16:01):
will find the answer to that one.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Jonathan buck Walter, you have been my guest today on
Viewpoint Alabama. We look forward to seeing you on the
History Channel's show Unbelievable as you wine some history. I
know you can't you're not allowed to disclose big chunks
of it, but in general, you want to give us
a little sleep sneak peek as to some of what
people may be seeing you talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, I can tell you, and I've confirmed this with
the studio. I can tell you just a little bit
about the show. So it's the Unbelievable with dan Ackroyd,
and it is interesting and lesser known stories from history.
And one of my very favorites that I worked with
was a Soviet spacewalk mission. It was the first spacewalk
mission that we had ever done as humanity, and basically
(16:44):
everything that could go wrong with it does go wrong
with it, and the astronauts or the guess the cosmonauts
barely survive and it's just a really cool, sort of
narrow escape story, and that was one of my favorites
that I worked on. This is a really fascinating sort
of like human courage in the face of the unknown moment.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well wonderful. We look forward to watching it. Did you
actually get to meet dan Ackroyd or was that he's
like the overall host of the show, but somebody else
talked with you.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
We did not meet in person. I got to talk
to over zoom one time, but we did not meet
in person, and I was just working with the background
crew and they're wonderful. The crew that I was working
with are just really professional, really curious, really fun people.
I had a great time recording with them, and I
think that's going to show in their work.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Jonathan buck Walter, thank you so much for joining me
on Viewpoint Alabama this week. We look forward to your
show unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Thank you, and it would mean the full world if
our listeners here could follow me on TikTok at Johnster
Truck that's Monster Truck but with a Jay. And if
you're interested in reading some science fiction, I wrote The
Night Sky Darker, which is available on Amazon and in audiobook.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
We'll have to hang on to that for the next
edition of Viewpoint. Thank you so much, Jonathan, Thanks man,
have a good one.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It has beguid plunging temperatures, has my nose running, probably
yours two. And the next thing you're going to start
wiping it and then spreading your germs and inoculating yourself.
Let's stop this cycle before it starts. This is Viewpoint
Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mountson.
Joining me now is doctor Stephen Russell. He is a
professor at uab's Division of General Internal Medicine. Doctor Russell,
(18:20):
welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The first thing I want to do, there's a ton
of all wives tales, you know. I want to separate
the fact from fiction. So if I can, can I
pitch some things and you can tell me if these
are fact or fiction. Let's start with absolutely, a good
night's sleep will help keep you well.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
You know, believe it or not. That's true. So we
do know that people who get an age appropriate amount
of sleep, which may be different for a teenager compared
to their grandparents, is going to be helpful with building
that immune system, allowing their body to repair some of
the problems that may have occurred during the day, in
overall helping things.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Okay, so we'll check that one. That one's true.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
How about this one, exposure to cold causes cold.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Well, we don't have any good evidence that exposure to
cold actually causes cold, but we do know that if
people can make sure that they keep themselves healthy in
the environment, including washing hands, that can be helpful for
preventing future problems with cold and other infectious diseases.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So cold doesn't cause cold, but if you don't wash
your hands, because I think what sometimes happens is you're
in cold weather, your nose starts to run, and you
wipe your nose a bunch with your hand. Then you
shake somebody's hand, and now you're spreading stuff around. You're
inoculating yourself, like I said before, And I think maybe
that's where that comes from.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know, I think you're onto something there, because we
do know that it's really easy to spread some of
these infections, and we do it well, we're not even
thinking about it. And certainly wiping your nose or scratching
your nose and then being in an environment where you're
with other people could certainly set you up for spreading
infectious diseases such as the cold.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, here's another one. You always hear about vitamins, and
everyone thinks vitamins are good, but they don't quite know
which ones to take. I hear vitamin C is go
for the immune system, or maybe it's D or D three.
What vitamins should we be taking or should we be
taking any to prevent illness in this time of year.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
It's a great question. And when we look at ways
that people can stay healthy, when it comes to vitamins,
we primarily think about the diet that they're eating. So
people who are eating a diet full of fresh fruits
and vegetables is a really important way to boost the
immune system. As studies have been out there looking to
see which of these individual vitamins that people can take
might be helpful, we just don't have a lot of
(20:31):
strong evidence to say taking more of this or less
of that is going to be helpful outside of a
well rounded diet of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Okay, so eat healthy foods that have the vitamins. So
I like what you point out that you should actually
ingest the vitamins with the food rather than because I
always thought these pills a lot of it just doesn't
get digested, just passes right through you and you don't
actually absorb it doesn't do any good.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Well, we know that if you think about your plate
as a color palette, the more color that you have
on your plate, be it from blueberries or red from strawberries,
or even this time of year, from different colored bell
peppers or other fresh fruits and vegetables. That's where your
body is really going to get the most nutrients. When
you take the pills, When you take the extracted nutrients
(21:14):
and vitamins over the counter, those are probably not harmful
for you, but we don't have as much efforts to
say they're as helpful as a good, well balanced, colorful diet.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Okay, doctor Russell, here is one that I've heard forever.
Feed a cold, starve a fever. Is there any truth
to either part of that?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's a great question. So we want to make sure
that when people are sick that have the nutrients to improve,
and that starts with drinking plenty of fluids to make
sure that your body is very well hydrated. Now, when
it comes to feeding a cold, that kind of gets
back to what we were saying earlier, insofar as we
want to make sure that people have the nutrients that
they need to get better. So, if you're sick, you're
(21:54):
not feeling well, making sure that you're drinking plenty of
fluids is going to be helpful. And if you're not
very hungry, may make sure that you maximize what you eat,
such as with fruits and certainly some vegetables as well.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So regardless, you should definitely hydrate both a cold and
a fever.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
It sounds like, yeah, absolutely absolutely. If there's one thing
that you need to do when you're sick, it to
make sure that you stay very well hydrated, and as
we mentioned earlier, wash your hands.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Now here's one and this is a little bit controversial
with some of our listeners. I'm sure vaccinations can give
you the flu? Is that true that vaccinations can possibly
cause the flu?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So vaccinations don't cause the flu with the vaccines that
we're using in the twenty first century. But what they
do do is they get your body ready to fight
off the flu if it sees it. So one example
that I've heard it really makes a lot of sense
to me, is if I put on an Alabama jersey.
I'm not an Alabama football player, but some people from
a distance may think that I am. And in similar ways,
(22:50):
when you take a vaccine, you're not giving yourself the
actual player that's going to be causing the problem, But
what you are doing is giving your immune system the
opportunity to recognize something familiar and then fight it off.
The next time it actually sees it.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
While we're talking about vaccinations, the COVID virus, the CODE
vaccine has been around. It's an mRNA vaccine. I know
it's a little different, but it's been around for about
four years now, and a lot of us got it
early on and a lot of us kind of slacked
off on it, and I think the recommendations have changed.
Is it still a good idea to get the CODE
(23:24):
vaccine or it really depends on what your doctor recommends,
or at this point it's sendemic and it doesn't really
make much of a difference.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So great question. And first of all, the middle thing
that you said as well, we want all people to
feel comfortable doing, and that speak to your doctor, because
your healthcare provider is going to have information and going
to be able to answer the very specific questions that
people may have as it relates to their own health.
When it comes to protecting against other infectious diseases, and
this is true for flu, it's true for covid and
(23:51):
there's other infectious diseases as well. We can't just rely
on having had the infection to protect us from future infections.
So we see this as a larger picture way of
keeping yourself healthy. But certainly vaccinations do have a role
to play, and for people that have questions about vaccines,
we want to talk to you about those and we
(24:12):
want to answer those questions so we can make sure
that the things that people do are right for them.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And of course, even though as cold and you don't
really feel like getting outside, we still need to move,
even if we do it inside on a treadmill, or
maybe we wait until the warmest part of a cold
day to get out, but we still should get out
there even in the cold weather and get that exercise
because it just gets the cardiovascular system going, gets that
limb flowing, and it is still going to help make
us keep us healthy.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That's an excellent point, and we do know that maintaining
an active lifestyle is very important for improving the immune system.
So as you are thinking about ways to keep yourself healthy,
keeping your body moving and moving your body at some
point every day is going to be helpful both for
boosting the immune system because of the exercise, but as
(24:58):
we talked about at the top of the interview, helping
you to get the rest that you need in the
evening to be able to maintain a healthy immune system
as well. So yes, moving your body and healthy exercise
is a great way to boost your immune system during
the cost of cold season.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So I guess what we're saying is, although nothing we
said here will absolutely prevent or eliminate the chance of
you getting cold or even the flu, it betters your
odds the more of these things that you try and
incorporate into your daily behavior, because washing hands, exercise, eating right,
all that stuff will help your immune system be able
to ward off the bad stuff this season, right, doctor Russell.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Absolutely, there's a menu of options that people can select from.
And the more things that you can do at rest,
be a nutrition at exercise or immunizations and of course
washing your hands. Those kinds of things can be helpful
for keeping people healthy during this cold and flu season.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The actor Stephen Russell. He is a professor at uab's
Division of General Internal Medicine. Thank you so much for
joining us today on Viewpoint Outlabama.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Well, thank you for having me. It's been have a
great weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And finally today on Viewpoint Alabama, I want to check
in with the folks from the Birmingham Business Journal, because
there's always something going on in and around the mid
State some big developments. Joining us this week is Aj O'Leary. Aj.
Thanks for joining us, Hey, thanks for having me. So
I already saw this a little earlier this week. A
seventy million dollar office to apartment conversion is happening out
(26:26):
on two eighty and I think I know just the building.
It's like right off of two eighty, right before you
get to.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
The it's the office park in the Inverness, the development
the Heights at Inverness. They have big plans there over
the next few years.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I would think I wouldn't want to live in an
office building. It doesn't sound like it'd be a fun
place to live. So they're gonna have to do some
serious work to make it, you know, like a place
somebody would want to live.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Absolutely well, it's going to be a major kind of
conversion project. They're going to turn it into apartments. I
mean they're investing seventy million dollars in it. They're going
to complete the clubhouse for the project in some or
fall next year and start leasing the first building soon after.
So it's going to be a multi year thing where
they're gonna be converting it. But it should have two
(27:08):
hundred and eighty nine apartments and up to thirty thousand
square feet of retail space. So it's really going to
be a pretty major project, so.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Mixed use as they say, so in other words, you
could theoretically live there and work there and shop there.
Absolutely absolutely. Well, let's talk about another thing going on
the the Harbard Management Corporation. They're a really big, really
big player in the Birmingham area and they've got a
new chief operating officer.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
That's right, Well, new chief executive too, stepping up. Actually, yeah,
that'sh Sorry, So that's huge news for them because Raymond
Harbert led the business for I think well over thirty years.
Starting January one next year, they'll have the current COO,
Travis Pritchett, step up, and he's done a lot in
(27:54):
the business, has worked on the real estate side of things.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
And one more a construction is under way for a
sixty million dollar project in Mountain Brook. What are we building?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Obviously it's a big project, sixty million dollars, but senior
housing I think is so needed in so many places.
It's going to be Cahaba Road, twenty nine hundred Cahaba
Road that's right across from Brickington. It's going to be
one hundred and sixty two age restricted apartments.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Age restricted meaning you you can't you have to be
of at least a certain age to live there, right,
like twenty nine or older.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I don't know, lord of this is thirty A senior.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, depends So the uh so in this I imagine
they'll have amenities that would be helpful for a senior,
so probably more walkable, not a lot of stairs, that
sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Absolutely, and it's it's really a huge building. You've got
two hundred and thirty six thousand square feet. It's on
a five acre property, five stories in some places. You know,
that would be the goal to make it very accessible,
easy to live for seniors in that area.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And not just various levels because I understand some of
it's going to be for people who need memory assistance,
some who are going to be able to actually live
more independently, because there's all different stages as you're a
senior as to what you're going to need in the
way of housing. Right, Absolutely, and so this will definitely
service an important niche of the population. This it's needed
(29:21):
in our area.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Well.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
AJ for all these stories and more. We can visit
the bbj's website.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
What's that website Birmingham Business Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Great check it out these stories in more in the
Birmingham Business Journal. My name is John Mounts. This is
Viewpoint Alabama and AJ. Thanks so much for being on
the show.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
A local high school history teacher in Tuscalosa County named
Jonathan Buchwalter joins me. Now he has the honor of
being selected by the History Channel for the show Unbelievable
later this month. Jonathan, Welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So education, especially history education, is so important because our
next generation of leaders and voters are making decisions that
are going to affect affect everyone's life, and so it's
great to hear you take your obligation so seriously. How
did you end up being picked to participate in this
national show on the History Channel.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I have been on social media. I've been really
active on TikTok in the last few years, and it
started as a really small thing as just me doing
book reviews of history books, and then it kind of
ballooned into this. I'm pushing two hundred thousand followers now,
and I talk about a wide range of topics. I'm
a Holocaust historian, so most of my history content on
(00:55):
TikTok focused on Holocaust history and Nazism, but it aimed
a really large audience. People were really receptive to it,
and it looked from there the History Channel found me
on TikTok and then I went to New York and
recorded with them.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So you teach in Tuscaloosa, in Tuscalusa County, what do
you teach all grades of specific grade and what part
of history do you teach.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I've taught a little of everything, but mostly I teach
twentieth century US history. It's for eleventh.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Graders, Okay. I always wonder because I remember when I
was in high school, it seemed like we spent a
ton of time on learning the like the early part
of history, like learning about the early settlers and learning
about the Revolution, and then kind of towards the middle
of the year you get the Civil War, and I
always felt like we get to about, like the skill
school years almost over when we raced through World War Two,
and whatever happened later happened later. So it sounds to
(01:44):
me like you focus on exclusively on that century. So
that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think. Yeah, we do a lot of work behind
the scenes to try and make sure that the content
is reflective of what students need to know. And certainly
I know I was the same one I was in
high school. Is there was I think an over emphasis
on early American history at the expense of basically everything
that happens after nineteen forty and so one of our
(02:10):
recent changes has been to I'm sorry, my son is
kind of playing in the background. So he's our guest,
our special guest.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's fine, studio audience, I like it.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
One of our recent changes, I would say, over the
last ten years, has been to make tenth and eleventh
grade deal with the first and second half of American history.
So the tenth graders will start at the founding and
go through reconstruction after the Civil War, and then I
will start at the age of imperialism and go into
(02:38):
the modern age. I expect me and my students we'll
get to the two thousand and eight recession by the
end of this semester.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
For example, Now, how about Alabama history, because Alabama has
had a big part and I don't just mean the
Civil War or the Civil Rights movement. Alabama has a
big part throughout history and even the twentieth century. How
do you tie that into national history?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh? Yeah, because Alabama is a part of the national story.
Before we did our recent content standard swap, for example,
I would also teach the Industrial Revolution. Now that's a
tenth grade thing. But during the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham is
the magic City. I mean, it's coming into its form
as this steel town, is this iron town in the
(03:16):
American South. And so you can highlight the connection between
labor history nationally and labor history in Alabama, between the
early movements in civil rights around labor issues and around
labor organizing issues, and how that affects Alabama differently than
it's going to affect say Chicago or New York.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I had heard, and you could correct me, because you're
the history teacher, that the reason why it's called the
magic city was because at the time of the turn
of the century, it seemed like magically buildings were just
popping up everywhere. Just it just grew exploded basically right
after a little bit after the Civil War, when all
of a sudden everyone needed steel and we had all
this iron ore that we could make in the steal.
Is that is that close to what happened?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yes, that is really really on target. So we get
the generally, yes, the magic cities because it pops up overnight.
It seemingly pops up overnight, but it's because Alabama is
really uniquely positioned on large iron mines and as iron
mining is taking off in central Alabama. Henry Bessemer develops
(04:17):
the Bestmer process, and that gets brought over to the
United States. It's a United Kingdom in Discovery, but it
gets brought over to the United States. It's how we
get bestmer. Alabama's named for Henry Besmer, a name for
the Bestmer process. And because you can now quickly and
cheaply mass produced steel. And you have this small company
town that's sitting on top of one of the largest
(04:39):
iron veins in the country, you get the magic city.
You get a city that pops up overnight to meet
that demand for steel.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I have friends who live in Pittsburgh and I always
tell us that tell them that they're the Birmingham of
the North. They don't like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, they should be honored that for that name, because
it's I mean, it's Alabama steel that helps dig America
out of the Great Depression, Alabama steel that's building tanks
to fight in World War Two. I'd say being the
Birmingham of the North is a pretty high honor.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Jonathan buck Walker joins me now talking about his experiences
as a Tuscaloosa County High school teacher and also your
show the show that you're going to be on. When
does that? I know it's this month in November. When
is that premiere? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yes, it's going to be in just a couple of weeks,
so depending on where you are in the country, it
will be live on the fourteenth or the fifteenth of
this month.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Now, something else I want to touch on with you,
because you teach in the Alabama school system and you've
been this year. We're three months in just about, and
there's a lot of there's been a lot of talk
about the Focus Act, this act that took the phones
out of the hands of all the kids in school,
and at first, of course, the kids hated it. Now
we're a little bit into the school year. How do
you think it's going.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
They still hate it. They still hate it. But but
I think I noticed immediate improvements in academic performance, immediate
slight improvements. And I want to oversell it immediate slight
improvements and academic performance because they have nothing better to
do with their attention than to pay attention in class,
(06:15):
and of course that's going to have a positive outcome.
What I'm looking forward to with the Focus Act is
not its impact this year, which will be minimal, but
it's impact in five years when let's say our students
have lost twenty percent of the amount of learning they
were going to get because they're like watching TikTok on
(06:37):
their phone under the table. If you're losing twenty percent
of that learning year over year over year, by the
time you make it to high school, you have like
really serious skill deficiencies in basic reading, writing, and math.
And so I'm really excited for the group of students
that will arrive to me having gone all the way
through middle school without the distraction of their phones. They're
(06:58):
going to be much stronger readers, stronger writers, and that
opens me up to do a lot cooler stuff with them.
I can do a lot more interesting and exciting things
in my class when I'm not teaching fonds.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And that makes a lot of sense. And another thing
that I think I've that's going to come of it
is there are kids, as much as you say they
hate it, and they will tell you they do because
they have to say it, but there are I think
a lot of kids who secretly kind of like it
because in some ways they were almost a slave to
the phone because you had to be on snapchat, you
had to constantly keep up with your friends. If you weren't,
you were out of the loop. And you couldn't be
(07:31):
out of the loop. So everybody had to be on
social media all the time, and this made it to
where everyone has a level playing field. Nobody's allowed to
be on social media for those at least seven hours
of school they have to focus, and they're not. They
don't even have the choice if they wanted to, they couldn't.
So there are probably a lot of students that kind
of breathe a sigh of relief, Thank goodness, that burden
is off me. At least for these seven hours, I
can just be me and be in this place as
(07:53):
opposed to having to be in the social media place
with all my friends, like I have to do the
moment the bell rings at three thirty or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, I think that's the I think one of my
son's toys is talking to us. I think it's a
guest star for the day. One of the things that
I think our students are really going to notice in
themselves within the next probably month or two, is that
their memory is improving and their attention span is improving,
(08:21):
and they are enjoying things more because One of the
things that the phones do, that the apps do is
they take your they take your endorphins, and they give
you just this little drip of endorphins all the time,
and it makes basically everything you do all day long
less interesting because nothing beats that little endorphin drip. And
(08:43):
so I think they're going to be really appreciative, at
least a number of them will be appreciative once they've
had enough time to I guess, detox for lack of
a better word, and learn to enjoy things again or
touch some grasp.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Jonathan as a history teacher teaching young minds, how much
of how much of what they learn?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Do you think that they think they're smarter than everyone?
You know, that's just a common trade of teenagers. They
always think they know more than everyone else. But do
you find that they are better informed because they are
more plugged in after hours of course looking at things
that going on around the world, or do you find
that in viewing all those things it jades them to
the point of they have a misunderstanding of what's going on,
(09:26):
or how it's happening, or why it's happening.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I think you can sort into three messy categories. I
think you can sort students and their information about the
world in the three messy categories, where the first is,
as you say, they are engaging more with nonfiction content
because it is easier to access than it's ever been.
And I'll give you an example. One of my students
in my fourth block class now he asks really nuanced,
(09:53):
really deep questions, and I will say to him, how
did you even know to ask that question? He said,
while I watch like three dot ormmentaries on World War
One yesterday, and because he has his phone or his
school issued tablet and he gets bored in the evenings,
that's what he does. He reminds me a lot of
myself in that way. He watches World War One documentaries
when he's bored, and so he's like really interested in
(10:15):
the world around him and really is surprisingly well informed
on I guess, basic history concepts that go beyond what
you would learn in a normal classroom setting. The second
category is by far the largest, and that is kids
who are still really totally ignorant of the world around
them because the things they're engaging with online are not
(10:37):
nonfiction content, or at least not educational nonfiction content. They're
watching sports videos, they're watching video game streams. I'm not
saying these things are bad. I'm saying that they're just
not interested in history in the classroom, and they're not
interested in history outside of it either. The third camp
is the one that is concerning to me because it
is a large camp, not the largest, but it is
(10:57):
a large camp, and that is kids who have an
entirely warped perspective of reality because they don't really have
the media literacy skills to pick apart what they're engaging
with online and check it for accuracy. And what's particularly
difficult here is that there's a lot of really terrible
online content that looks really good and might in some
(11:19):
respects be factually accurate until you contextualize those facts and
that out of context, it's actually really inaccurate what they're
taking in. But it's just individual data points to say, well,
the data point is factually correct, you can back it
up with a source, but in broader context it's not correct.
And so you have this significant number of young people
who are engaged with the world, who are interested in
(11:41):
learning about the world, and they are gaining negative knowledge.
They are gaining less knowledge than nothing because they have
unrestricted access to social media.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I remember back in the early nineties the movie Forrest
Gump came out, and you remember those scenes in Forrest
Gump that back then took the computer animators a long
time to do, where Forrest Gump is act Tom Hanks
is shaking the hand of Richard Nixon, or he's shaking
the hand of JFK. Whoever it is. You'd almost believe
it could have happened, but you know that it's Hollywood magic.
But now AI makes that stuff on a dime. And Okay,
(12:13):
we know that Forrest company, or we know that Tom
Hanks didn't meet JFK. But if you have a picture
of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin having a conversation saying
words to each other, it looks really real, but it
might not be real at all. And there's a lot
of people who don't have I've think, especially younger people
who have the media literasy to know that's fake or
at least those words that they're putting in their mouths
(12:35):
are fake, and they might have a completely different idea
as to what's going on in the world than what's
really going on.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, that I think that worries me a lot in
a couple of directions. So, on the one hand, I
think the there's a great example of a conversation I
had with a student not all that long ago, where recently,
I'm sure we all saw that the president posted an
AI video of himself flying a plane and dropping i mean,
(13:05):
for lack of a better word, poop on protesters, and
the student asked me, was that real? Like was that
a thing that happened, not the plane part, but that
the president posted that and like us having to navigate, like, no,
that wasn't real. Wait so the president, Yes, the President
did post it, but the thing they posted wasn't real.
It's like, how do you know that the president actually
(13:26):
posted it and it wasn't an AI of an AI
And it's like that reality breaks down, right, like how
do you know what's real and what's not? In a
basic this person said that sense, and that really really
worries me.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And I guess as an educator, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
On the other hand, if these social media platforms are
all full of untrue information because it's all AI and
you don't know what of it is AI and what
if it is not AI, then the social media platform
becomes less useful and we stop you as much. And
I think that's probably a positive end. Like if I
(14:04):
am logging online and I say, well, one in every
two news media looking posts I engage with is like
actually just invented by an AI video image generator, then
I'm not going to get my news from that source
anymore because I'm I'm not going to take the time
in my day to fact check every other post that
I look at, and that would make me less likely
(14:26):
to use that platform. I think it would make most
people less likely to use those platforms, and we would
have to go back to like I need to get
a physical newspaper. I need to open a physical book
because that thing cannot be generated by anyone.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Jonathan, do you see a time and place, maybe sooner
rather than later, where there's actually a class being taught
in media literacy too high school students to be able
to fire it out what is the truth and what
is fabrication so that they can better understand what's really
happening in their world.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, that is something our English department is working on
right now. English classes at the high school level are
really media literacy classes, right You're analyzing character motivations you're
reading classic stories. You're comparing fictional stories to the time
period in which they were written. For example, one of
my coworkers is doing a lesson on the Crucible book
(15:17):
and movie, and it's also about mccartheyism, which is what
the Crucible book was written about. So it's like a
fictional account of a real event in history that's a
parallel to a real event history. And so it's this
really rich layered media literacy lesson. But the thing that
they're working on now is like, Okay, with this AI stuff,
how do we navigate truth and falsehood when the false
(15:39):
stuff is no longer just false information someone telling you
a fib But is this entire constructed reality of real
and fake and semi real AI assisted images that you're
just sort of receiving at all times on social media.
I don't have the answer for that one. I'm hoping
that my English department co worker, who are really wonderful people,
(16:01):
will find the answer to that one.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Jonathan buck Walter, you have been my guest today on
Viewpoint Alabama. We look forward to seeing you on the
History Channel's show Unbelievable as you wine some history. I
know you can't you're not allowed to disclose big chunks
of it, but in general, you want to give us
a little sleep sneak peek as to some of what
people may be seeing you talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, I can tell you, and I've confirmed this with
the studio. I can tell you just a little bit
about the show. So it's the Unbelievable with dan Ackroyd,
and it is interesting and lesser known stories from history.
And one of my very favorites that I worked with
was a Soviet spacewalk mission. It was the first spacewalk
mission that we had ever done as humanity, and basically
(16:44):
everything that could go wrong with it does go wrong
with it, and the astronauts or the guess the cosmonauts
barely survive and it's just a really cool, sort of
narrow escape story, and that was one of my favorites
that I worked on. This is a really fascinating sort
of like human courage in the face of the unknown moment.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well wonderful. We look forward to watching it. Did you
actually get to meet dan Ackroyd or was that he's
like the overall host of the show, but somebody else
talked with you.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
We did not meet in person. I got to talk
to over zoom one time, but we did not meet
in person, and I was just working with the background
crew and they're wonderful. The crew that I was working
with are just really professional, really curious, really fun people.
I had a great time recording with them, and I
think that's going to show in their work.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Jonathan buck Walter, thank you so much for joining me
on Viewpoint Alabama this week. We look forward to your
show unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Thank you, and it would mean the full world if
our listeners here could follow me on TikTok at Johnster
Truck that's Monster Truck but with a Jay. And if
you're interested in reading some science fiction, I wrote The
Night Sky Darker, which is available on Amazon and in audiobook.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
We'll have to hang on to that for the next
edition of Viewpoint. Thank you so much, Jonathan, Thanks man,
have a good one.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It has beguid plunging temperatures, has my nose running, probably
yours two. And the next thing you're going to start
wiping it and then spreading your germs and inoculating yourself.
Let's stop this cycle before it starts. This is Viewpoint
Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. My name is John Mountson.
Joining me now is doctor Stephen Russell. He is a
professor at uab's Division of General Internal Medicine. Doctor Russell,
(18:20):
welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The first thing I want to do, there's a ton
of all wives tales, you know. I want to separate
the fact from fiction. So if I can, can I
pitch some things and you can tell me if these
are fact or fiction. Let's start with absolutely, a good
night's sleep will help keep you well.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
You know, believe it or not. That's true. So we
do know that people who get an age appropriate amount
of sleep, which may be different for a teenager compared
to their grandparents, is going to be helpful with building
that immune system, allowing their body to repair some of
the problems that may have occurred during the day, in
overall helping things.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Okay, so we'll check that one. That one's true.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
How about this one, exposure to cold causes cold.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Well, we don't have any good evidence that exposure to
cold actually causes cold, but we do know that if
people can make sure that they keep themselves healthy in
the environment, including washing hands, that can be helpful for
preventing future problems with cold and other infectious diseases.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So cold doesn't cause cold, but if you don't wash
your hands, because I think what sometimes happens is you're
in cold weather, your nose starts to run, and you
wipe your nose a bunch with your hand. Then you
shake somebody's hand, and now you're spreading stuff around. You're
inoculating yourself, like I said before, And I think maybe
that's where that comes from.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know, I think you're onto something there, because we
do know that it's really easy to spread some of
these infections, and we do it well, we're not even
thinking about it. And certainly wiping your nose or scratching
your nose and then being in an environment where you're
with other people could certainly set you up for spreading
infectious diseases such as the cold.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, here's another one. You always hear about vitamins, and
everyone thinks vitamins are good, but they don't quite know
which ones to take. I hear vitamin C is go
for the immune system, or maybe it's D or D three.
What vitamins should we be taking or should we be
taking any to prevent illness in this time of year.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
It's a great question. And when we look at ways
that people can stay healthy, when it comes to vitamins,
we primarily think about the diet that they're eating. So
people who are eating a diet full of fresh fruits
and vegetables is a really important way to boost the
immune system. As studies have been out there looking to
see which of these individual vitamins that people can take
might be helpful, we just don't have a lot of
(20:31):
strong evidence to say taking more of this or less
of that is going to be helpful outside of a
well rounded diet of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Okay, so eat healthy foods that have the vitamins. So
I like what you point out that you should actually
ingest the vitamins with the food rather than because I
always thought these pills a lot of it just doesn't
get digested, just passes right through you and you don't
actually absorb it doesn't do any good.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Well, we know that if you think about your plate
as a color palette, the more color that you have
on your plate, be it from blueberries or red from strawberries,
or even this time of year, from different colored bell
peppers or other fresh fruits and vegetables. That's where your
body is really going to get the most nutrients. When
you take the pills, When you take the extracted nutrients
(21:14):
and vitamins over the counter, those are probably not harmful
for you, but we don't have as much efforts to
say they're as helpful as a good, well balanced, colorful diet.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Okay, doctor Russell, here is one that I've heard forever.
Feed a cold, starve a fever. Is there any truth
to either part of that?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's a great question. So we want to make sure
that when people are sick that have the nutrients to improve,
and that starts with drinking plenty of fluids to make
sure that your body is very well hydrated. Now, when
it comes to feeding a cold, that kind of gets
back to what we were saying earlier, insofar as we
want to make sure that people have the nutrients that
they need to get better. So, if you're sick, you're
(21:54):
not feeling well, making sure that you're drinking plenty of
fluids is going to be helpful. And if you're not
very hungry, may make sure that you maximize what you eat,
such as with fruits and certainly some vegetables as well.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So regardless, you should definitely hydrate both a cold and
a fever.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
It sounds like, yeah, absolutely absolutely. If there's one thing
that you need to do when you're sick, it to
make sure that you stay very well hydrated, and as
we mentioned earlier, wash your hands.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Now here's one and this is a little bit controversial
with some of our listeners. I'm sure vaccinations can give
you the flu? Is that true that vaccinations can possibly
cause the flu?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So vaccinations don't cause the flu with the vaccines that
we're using in the twenty first century. But what they
do do is they get your body ready to fight
off the flu if it sees it. So one example
that I've heard it really makes a lot of sense
to me, is if I put on an Alabama jersey.
I'm not an Alabama football player, but some people from
a distance may think that I am. And in similar ways,
(22:50):
when you take a vaccine, you're not giving yourself the
actual player that's going to be causing the problem, But
what you are doing is giving your immune system the
opportunity to recognize something familiar and then fight it off.
The next time it actually sees it.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
While we're talking about vaccinations, the COVID virus, the CODE
vaccine has been around. It's an mRNA vaccine. I know
it's a little different, but it's been around for about
four years now, and a lot of us got it
early on and a lot of us kind of slacked
off on it, and I think the recommendations have changed.
Is it still a good idea to get the CODE
(23:24):
vaccine or it really depends on what your doctor recommends,
or at this point it's sendemic and it doesn't really
make much of a difference.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So great question. And first of all, the middle thing
that you said as well, we want all people to
feel comfortable doing, and that speak to your doctor, because
your healthcare provider is going to have information and going
to be able to answer the very specific questions that
people may have as it relates to their own health.
When it comes to protecting against other infectious diseases, and
this is true for flu, it's true for covid and
(23:51):
there's other infectious diseases as well. We can't just rely
on having had the infection to protect us from future infections.
So we see this as a larger picture way of
keeping yourself healthy. But certainly vaccinations do have a role
to play, and for people that have questions about vaccines,
we want to talk to you about those and we
(24:12):
want to answer those questions so we can make sure
that the things that people do are right for them.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And of course, even though as cold and you don't
really feel like getting outside, we still need to move,
even if we do it inside on a treadmill, or
maybe we wait until the warmest part of a cold
day to get out, but we still should get out
there even in the cold weather and get that exercise
because it just gets the cardiovascular system going, gets that
limb flowing, and it is still going to help make
us keep us healthy.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That's an excellent point, and we do know that maintaining
an active lifestyle is very important for improving the immune system.
So as you are thinking about ways to keep yourself healthy,
keeping your body moving and moving your body at some
point every day is going to be helpful both for
boosting the immune system because of the exercise, but as
(24:58):
we talked about at the top of the interview, helping
you to get the rest that you need in the
evening to be able to maintain a healthy immune system
as well. So yes, moving your body and healthy exercise
is a great way to boost your immune system during
the cost of cold season.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So I guess what we're saying is, although nothing we
said here will absolutely prevent or eliminate the chance of
you getting cold or even the flu, it betters your
odds the more of these things that you try and
incorporate into your daily behavior, because washing hands, exercise, eating right,
all that stuff will help your immune system be able
to ward off the bad stuff this season, right, doctor Russell.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Absolutely, there's a menu of options that people can select from.
And the more things that you can do at rest,
be a nutrition at exercise or immunizations and of course
washing your hands. Those kinds of things can be helpful
for keeping people healthy during this cold and flu season.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The actor Stephen Russell. He is a professor at uab's
Division of General Internal Medicine. Thank you so much for
joining us today on Viewpoint Outlabama.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Well, thank you for having me. It's been have a
great weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And finally today on Viewpoint Alabama, I want to check
in with the folks from the Birmingham Business Journal, because
there's always something going on in and around the mid
State some big developments. Joining us this week is Aj O'Leary. Aj.
Thanks for joining us, Hey, thanks for having me. So
I already saw this a little earlier this week. A
seventy million dollar office to apartment conversion is happening out
(26:26):
on two eighty and I think I know just the building.
It's like right off of two eighty, right before you
get to.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
The it's the office park in the Inverness, the development
the Heights at Inverness. They have big plans there over
the next few years.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I would think I wouldn't want to live in an
office building. It doesn't sound like it'd be a fun
place to live. So they're gonna have to do some
serious work to make it, you know, like a place
somebody would want to live.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Absolutely well, it's going to be a major kind of
conversion project. They're going to turn it into apartments. I
mean they're investing seventy million dollars in it. They're going
to complete the clubhouse for the project in some or
fall next year and start leasing the first building soon after.
So it's going to be a multi year thing where
they're gonna be converting it. But it should have two
(27:08):
hundred and eighty nine apartments and up to thirty thousand
square feet of retail space. So it's really going to
be a pretty major project, so.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Mixed use as they say, so in other words, you
could theoretically live there and work there and shop there.
Absolutely absolutely. Well, let's talk about another thing going on
the the Harbard Management Corporation. They're a really big, really
big player in the Birmingham area and they've got a
new chief operating officer.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
That's right, Well, new chief executive too, stepping up. Actually, yeah,
that'sh Sorry, So that's huge news for them because Raymond
Harbert led the business for I think well over thirty years.
Starting January one next year, they'll have the current COO,
Travis Pritchett, step up, and he's done a lot in
(27:54):
the business, has worked on the real estate side of things.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
And one more a construction is under way for a
sixty million dollar project in Mountain Brook. What are we building?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Obviously it's a big project, sixty million dollars, but senior
housing I think is so needed in so many places.
It's going to be Cahaba Road, twenty nine hundred Cahaba
Road that's right across from Brickington. It's going to be
one hundred and sixty two age restricted apartments.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Age restricted meaning you you can't you have to be
of at least a certain age to live there, right,
like twenty nine or older.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I don't know, lord of this is thirty A senior.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, depends So the uh so in this I imagine
they'll have amenities that would be helpful for a senior,
so probably more walkable, not a lot of stairs, that
sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Absolutely, and it's it's really a huge building. You've got
two hundred and thirty six thousand square feet. It's on
a five acre property, five stories in some places. You know,
that would be the goal to make it very accessible,
easy to live for seniors in that area.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And not just various levels because I understand some of
it's going to be for people who need memory assistance,
some who are going to be able to actually live
more independently, because there's all different stages as you're a
senior as to what you're going to need in the
way of housing. Right, Absolutely, and so this will definitely
service an important niche of the population. This it's needed
(29:21):
in our area.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Well.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
AJ for all these stories and more. We can visit
the bbj's website.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
What's that website Birmingham Business Journal dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Great check it out these stories in more in the
Birmingham Business Journal. My name is John Mounts. This is
Viewpoint Alabama and AJ. Thanks so much for being on
the show.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
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