Uptown Radio

In today's AT&T service disruption, tens of thousands of users across the US experienced outages, attributed to software update faults according to analysts. Roger Entner highlighted the commonplace nature of such glitches, likening wireless networks to computers susceptible to occasional malfunctions. While the outage affected communication abilities, including limited 911 access, AT&T assured users of ongoing fixes. Entner emphasized that while frustrating, these incidents are not uncommon across carriers, with minimal long-term impacts on customer loyalty. Despite user annoyance, trust in the network remains largely intact, drawing a humorous comparison to dropping a box of eggs – an inconvenience, but not a relationship breaker.

Image courtesy of Lunar New Year For All

Harlem Residents Celebrate Langston Hughes' Birthday by Uptown Radio

Pharmacists are pushing for stronger regulations around pharmacy benefit managers. Since the pandemic, the number of New York students missing school has doubled. There’s one unlikely culprit: student entrepreneurship. A new study proved an online test to diagnose autism is actually effective. And how much would you pay for an Elton John ticket? All that and more on Uptown Radio.

HOST, TOMMASO BARONIO:

Who doesn’t love online tests? We’ve seen them all, from ‘what’s your personality type’ to ‘which shape of pasta represents you best.’ But what happens when a new viral multiple choice quiz can diagnose you with autism? Giulia Leo reports.

LEO 1

Katie Bowen never thought she was autistic… until, in 2021, she started posting TikTok videos about making her home ADHD friendly.

((FADE UP “KATIE TIKTOK” AND RUN UNDER THROUGH LEO 1))

And the comments started coming in.

BOWEN 1

And they were like, Dude, you're not just ADHD. And I was like, Am I autistic? Who's to say?

LEO 2

Usually, the first step to confirm suspicions of autism is to visit a psychologist. But now, a decades-old test to self-diagnose autistic behaviors is getting a new life.

It’s called RAADS-R – quite a mouthful, I know– And it’s available online for free. It takes a half-hour to answer the 80 multiple-choice questions. Then, the test spits out a score between 0 and 240. And if you score above 65, well –like Katie Bowen – you might be autistic.

BOWEN 2

I think I was like 160s, maybe 180s, really high up there.

LEO 3

The credit for the test’s newfound popularity goes to autism researcher Alexandra Sturm. She asked almost 900 adults –some who self-identify as autistic and others with an official diagnosis– to take the test. And all of their scores put them on the autism spectrum.

But Sturm acknowledges there’s a difference between socially identifying as autistic and having a medical diagnosis.

STURM 1

You also have to meet this threshold for what the medical community would term impairment.

LEO 4

And impairment is not that easy to measure on a scale. Jennifer Bain teaches neurology at Columbia. She says you can’t measure autism the way you do something like blood pressure. She also says on one hand the test is great if it helps reduce the stigma around autism but…

BAIN 1

On the other hand, you certainly don't want to be swayed by, yeah, I have a little bit of that and a little bit of this and therefore I'm diagnosing myself with autism.

LEO 5

But Ali Carbone says people only want to be a certain kind of autistic.

CARBONE 1

The RAADS thing is glamorous and it's sexy.

LEO 6

Carbone just wrote a book about living with her three autistic siblings.

CARBONE 2

People love to learn about my brother Anthony because he's social, you can have a conversation with him, he loves to perform, he loves to be around people.

LEO 7

These kinds of autism traits are very well accepted, even liked… but the ones her other brother Michael has… Well, not so much.

CARBONE 3

Like, can't see, can't speak. Got nothing. Nobody wants to hear about Michael's story because it's depressing, it sucks.

LEO 8

So Columbia neurologist Jennifer Bain says the test has limitations. But it can offer some clues.

BAIN 2

It just kind of gives you a likelihood for, yes, we should keep pursuing the autism question or no.

LEO 9

So, treat this test like most internet quizzes; be curious but skeptical.

Giulia Leo, Columbia Radio News.

Samuel Eli Shepherd - Speed Dating Services Try To Woo Gen Z by Uptown Radio

There are plans to reduce long-term scaffolding on the Upper West Side, and residents say it’s about time. More on the skepticism beat, New Yorkers remain uneasy about the economy. And city council members try to “press the gas” on improved bus services. AI is popping up in everything these days, but does it have a role to play in creating rap music? All that and more on Uptown Radio.

Another New York Fashion Week just ended. This year’s edition was special because it featured an entirely new way of showing clothes: via hologram. The technology, called Real Live Motion, is part of a wave of new innovations being embraced by fashion designers.

HOST INTRODUCTION:

How do you want to be cared for when your life is ending? We have a tendency to think there’s plenty of time. And to put off difficult conversations about end of life.

But life is uncertain. More than 80,000 New Yorkers lost their lives due to COVID since 2020. While research suggests that most people in the US want to die at home less than 35 percent actually do. People die at hospitals, surrounded by doctors,and machines, getting life prolonging treatments they potentially didn’t want.

And hospice care, that prioritizes comfort and quality tend to be underutilized. In fact, in New York, the rate of hospice utilization is only 25 percent. The lowest in the country.

Subeksha Poudel [paw-o͞o-dell] reports.

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: It was Sajay Deshpande’s first day at Harvard. He’d come all the way from India to his dream college. Right when he finished unpacking his luggage in the dorm, he recalls freezing and falling down, hitting his head hard on the floor. He woke up 48 hours later, at a hospital, to the news that he had brain cancer.

SANJAY DESHPANDE: I was being wheeled into the operation theater for my surgery. And the doctor did not know how I would emerge at the end of the surgery. Imagine being a 29 year old person thinking about ok so what’s going to happen once I die.

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: Some of us die suddenly, with no time to think of our end of life. And some of us die slowly. Either way it can be really hard to contemplate our own end of life care.

MANDY ZUCKER: Some of the things we want to think about is what matters to us, as far as our values go. Would you want to live as long as possible, even if that means you’re in pain, or would you want to live less if it meant that you would not be in pain?

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: Mandy Zucker. Executive Director of End of Life Choices New York. She says there are no right or wrong answers. It’s our preferences that ensure our lives are as good as possible until the end.

MANDY ZUCKER: This not only helps by the way the patients but it helps the family. Because when you die on a table getting aggressive treatments and family members are left to wonder is that what they wanted and are they in pain and that’s an awful feeling for the people who are left to grieve.

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: Zucker says New Yorkers are far behind in using end of life services.

MANDY ZUCKER: So NY has one of the lowest rates of hospice utilization at about 25 percent. And if you compare that to like Nevada, they have the highest rate of hospice utilization at about 60 percent. So there’s a huge gap.

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: She attributes the low uptake to people not knowing about their options and doctors who are trained to save lives not discussing hospice options. Zucker recommends making an end of life care plan early on, without having an emotionally charged reason to do it.

When Sanjay Deshpande went into his surgery, he says he mustered all his courage to share his wishes.

SANJAY DESHPANDE: I basically told my father, that in the middle of the surgery, if they come out and say, ok here’s the problem, we can get the whole tumor out but in the process, he might lose his ability to do X, Y, Z and hence it might affect his quality of life. And I told my father very clearly, that I'm willing to take my chances at chemo and radiation aa but I would want better quality of life. Rather than like you know focusing on like you know longer life span.

SUBEKSHA POUDEL: Deshpande’s cancer is in remission. Right now, he’s where he wants to be - back studying Learning Design, Innovation and Technology at Harvard. But he also knows where he wants to be EVERY five years - revisiting his end of life care plan.

Subeksha Poudel, Columbia Radio News

Dean J. Condoleo - NY-03 Special Election by Uptown Radio