- Here's what's coming up.

- Next on You Oughta Know.

In a city with thousands of murals, We Are Universal celebrates Philly's trans community.

- [Regina] Pennsylvania's rural and urban communities come together to create sustainable economy.

- [Shirley] Plus, if you haven't jumped on the Wordle craze, our quick tutorial may tempt you to try it.

- [Regina] And the refueled Philly Auto Show gets ready to roll into town.

(funky music) Hi, everyone.

Welcome to the show.

I'm Regina Mitchell.

- And I'm Shirley Min.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

- Well, Shirley and I have a lot of fun on this show.

And as you know, she is always trying to get me to try something new.

- It's all about sharing and if I like something, I want to share it with you.

- I can understand that and a little bit later on, today, we're gonna show you the newest thing Shirley is trying to get me into.

- Well, as the saying goes, sharing is caring.

I know we tell our kids that all the time, and that is the idea behind our first story.

America's rural and urban communities, they are divided in so many ways, but a local nonprofit led by a pioneer in the farm to table movement is looking to rebuild local supply chains to bridge that gap.

(hopeful music) - My name is Judy Wicks.

I spent most of my career as a restaurateur.

I founded the White Dog Cafe in 1983 and we became a pioneer, basically, in the farm to table movement, and then I retired from the restaurant business when I was in my sixties.

I'm now almost 75 and started just focusing on my nonprofit work around building local economies.

All Together Now PA is a nonprofit that I started a couple years ago with the purpose of uniting rural and urban communities to co-create local supply chains that deliver us our basic needs, and we feel that this is a very urgent project right now because as we see, the global supply chains are problematic and unreliable and it, well, in my opinion, being increasingly so due to weather and pandemics and cyber warfare and social unrest.

So, we feel it's really crucial that we produce our basic needs that we need to survive close at home, including food, plant medicine, clothing, and building materials, which are the four areas that we're currently focusing on.

So this year, we had our second annual hemp creek week.

We feel that hemp creek is the remarkable building material that more people should know about.

It's made from the herd of the hemp plant mixed with lime and water, and it is a great insulation material and a wall surface.

So it replaces environmentally harmful products, such as a fiberglass insulation or styrofoam and additionally, it's moisture resistant, you know, mold resistant, pest resistant, a fire retardant, and it absorbs carbons indefinitely.

So, we've been holding workshops.

Last year, we accommodated our week with an event at the Viaduct in Philadelphia to introduce the product to the urban marketplace, appealing to architects and developers and political leaders to recognize the value of this product.

- [Cameron] We have some workshop participants learning how to do cast and suture hemp creek, which again is a biocomposite insulation walling material, made out of the fiber industrial hemp stock.

They're also learning how to do some decorative casting with the material as well.

So, we're here to bring the material to Philadelphia.

Right now, it's a bit of an exclusive material and we wanna change that.

We wanna get it into the city and into the hands of people that can really benefit from the health benefits and the cost of ownership benefits of building with material.

- [Judy] Our goal is, ultimately, is local self-reliance.

We wanna move in that direction, so we have educational programs so that the public understands A, the importance of local self-reliance and how we can all participate in building a local economy that's resilient or self-reliant, that's regenerative in terms of our relationship with nature, and also while we're building this economy to do so in a way that's fair, that is inclusive of traditionally marginalized populations in both the rural and the urban area.

We feel that the common ground of the right and the left, which is so divided in our country right now, is in fact a community self-reliance.

The right has always valued self-reliance.

The left has always valued community, and you put the two together, community self-reliance, how can we work together to produce our basic needs at home?

And that's the idea of All Together Now Pennsylvania, that we need to come together, work together, to build local self-reliance and our basic needs, and have fun with each other, that knowing who makes your clothes and build your houses and brews your beer, that's part of the joy of community.

- This whole idea of self-reliance is so smart.

Here's how you can learn more about All Together Now PA and see their upcoming events.

- Keepin' with the idea of building local support, a retired Bucks county school teacher saw a need for families who were unable to buy basic necessities for their children.

Her solution, a diaper bank.

(gentle music) - [Woman] We provide diapers for babies and children.

We provide adult incontinence products and period products, all of which are basic needs.

(gentle music continues) I was surprised that you couldn't get diapers with food stamps, that Wick didn't provide diapers, and that there was a huge unmet need for diapers.

(gentle music continues) When we first started, a social worker told us if she had a client that was in need, she could find food for them, but there was no place for diapers.

There's just no federal programs or state programs that provides those basic needs.

(gentle music continues) One of the social workers call it dinner and diapers and sometimes when they give a mom diapers for her child, they know that mom is gonna eat that day.

We know that our diapers help parents send their child to daycare if they're in school or they're working, and that helps with the cycle of poverty.

We know the impact of our diapers in that way.

(gentle music continues) In 2019, we distributed just over 800,000 diapers.

In 2020, we distributed 2.3 million and it looks like we'll be doing even more this year than last.

(inspiring music) When people give us a monetary donation, we can purchase diapers way less expensively than you might purchase them yourself in the store.

We are always looking for funds.

We have drop off sites.

That's how we get our diapers.

(inspiring music continues) We rely on a core group of volunteers that are tireless.

It's heartening.

We have a variety of different partners.

We work with different clinics and hospitals.

A lot of food banks, families could go to a food bank and get our products.

We also give to schools.

For a small organization that does big things, we believe that all children and adults deserve to be clean, dry, and healthy.

I think it makes us feel like we are doing something that's important and makes a difference.

(inspiring music continues) - The Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank is always in need of donations.

Check out their website to see how you can help and get information on this upcoming event.

(laid back music) - Ready to get out and experience other countries?

Then, check out Dine Latino Week in Philadelphia, no passport required.

(Salsa music) - [Jennifer] Dine Latino is an initiative that the Hispanic Chamber created in order to support Latino owned restaurants and food entrepreneurs during the pandemic, and it has grown to have events and our marque event, or a signature event related to the initiative, is Dine Latino Restaurant Week.

Oftentimes, people might think that the Latino culinary experience in Philadelphia is south Philadelphia and Mexican restaurants, but the reality is that we have vegan options, like Bar Bombon, for example, or Queen & Rook, which is a vegan restaurant with a game cafe associated with it.

We also have, of course, Mexican food, Puerto Rican food, for example.

Buerico, our restaurant, has joined Dine Latino, Argentinian restaurants like Jezabel, and we have, you know, any number of Colombian restaurants like Thea Colombiana, and Mixto to, as well.

Dine Latino will take place between March 14th and March 18th.

And then, we are updating our website with participants on a rolling basis, so you should visit our website to learn who's participating, and so we'll invite everybody to come in and take a look at what we have to offer.

- [Shirley] Here's how you can learn more about Dine Latino Restaurant Week.

And Regina, one of the vegan restaurants featured in Dine Latino is over at the Reading Terminal Market.

- Oh, what?

I'm gonna go there, now.

- No, we need to finish the show, first.

- All right, fine.

I'm gonna pump the breaks on that one, but it is full throttle at this year's Philly Auto Show.

- I see what you did, there.

Here's a look at some of the trends you'll see.

(rock music) - [Kevin] Well, the auto show is iconic and what the show is, when you get down to the grassroots, is information, education for the consumers.

One of the biggest things that we're seeing in the marketplace is obviously EVs and people informed about what an electric vehicle is.

We have several manufacturers who will have their latest EVs there, and you'll be able to get in the vehicle and feel the torque, as you go through a course within the convention center.

These electric vehicles are probably their top vehicles.

They have the most technology of any of the vehicles in their portfolio, so you'll be seeing the latest and greatest for many of these manufacturers.

(techno music) There's so many varieties.

And so, you have hybrids that do not plug in.

Those are driven by small electric motors that are generated by the engine.

Then, you have hybrid plugins.

These have an engine as well, but they have larger batteries that you'll plug in.

They may only need two or three hours to plug in and they will give you 20, 30, 40 miles.

So you can actually go to work and come back without burning a drop of fuel.

(techno music continues) We continue to see the migration of the technology to be safe in these vehicles.

So, whether that's lane avoidance, whether that's automatic braking, whether that's your seat rumbles on the left or the right if there's a vehicle in the right lane or the left lane to you, we're seeing the manifestation of autonomous driving in these vehicles.

They're not autonomous vehicles, but many of the components that make an autonomous vehicle are put into these vehicles to help the safety scenario of people driving down the highways.

I've been doing the show for 25 years.

It's generational.

You have grandmas and grandpas and grandsons and sons and daughters that have been coming for decades, and they didn't have it last year.

There's a need and a desire to get back to what's normal.

We're gonna have a safe convention center and they're gonna come in droves and they're gonna love themselves from Philly Auto Show.

- Exciting stuff.

The Auto Show rolls into town on March 5th.

(laid back music) - If a new car is on your list, you'll wanna get your finances on track, especially if you overspent during the holidays, Here's how you can do it to become a better you in 22.

Last holiday season, people went shopping.

According to statistics, Americans made up over 7 billion dollars in retail sales between November and December, 2021.

- [Mark] Yes, people have spent a little bit more than maybe they should.

The spending is up about 8.5% over last year, which is an all time high for year to year.

We had inflation, we had this supply chain issue, and I think people said, oh my goodness, I have to go out.

I have to buy my stuff now and they may have put a little bit too much on their credit cards.

- Ding, ding, ding.

That would be me.

And now with the tax season around the corner, I wanted to know how I could get my financial life back in order.

Mark Fried, president of TFG Wealth Management, says it's all about staying calm.

- [Mark] Don't panic, get organized, take a look at your bills.

Organize the credit cards in terms of how much you have on each card and then how much the interest is on each card so that we can put a plan together to pay it off.

- So, what happens when you also have other issues, like you're trying to still pay the bills that you have while you're in the trenches with your credit cards?

- Let's all acknowledge, you're not gonna pay off all your credit cards all at once.

One thing you need to do is, take a look at your current spending and see what you don't really need to spend, right?

I know, it sounds awful, but just try and cut back a little bit and take that money and put it towards your debt.

As soon as you can get outta debt, then don't stop there.

Continue to take that money, but instead of putting it towards debt, let's start saving for the future.

Retirement will be here, I promise, one day, and you wanna make sure that you're prepared.

The sooner you start, and you only have to put a little bit away, because time is on your side, right?

If you can put money away over 20 years, you'd be amazed at how much you can save.

Start with 1% of your income, but over time, try and get up to 20% of your income put away for retirement, and you'll be fine.

- What if you're one of those people who are talking like, I've tried to do this and I don't know how to begin.

Where do you go to get help?

- Just begin by just putting some money in the bank and the second place you wanna go is at work if they have a retirement plan and start putting $10, $20 a weekend.

Now, when you get about five thousand or $10,000, look for maybe some help, a financial professional, investing your money, and you wanna make sure that you get good advice.

It actually isn't that complicated.

Spend less than you make.

Save the difference.

There you go.

That's it.

- I like that, and if you would like more financial advice from TFG Wealth Management, you can check out their website.

- Neural Arts Philadelphia has created more than 4,000 murals throughout the city, and the nonprofit recently unveiled its first, celebrating trans and gender nonconforming people.

Artist Kah Yangni created the mural titled We Are Universal on a 100 foot long wall in Fishtown.

The mural is bright with pinks, yellows, and purples, with drawings of residents from Morris home, the only residential recovery program in the country geared specifically for the transgender community.

The mural also features text that reads, we're trans, we're survivors, we are joyful, we feel rage, we are universal.

I spoke with executive director, Jane Golden, about why dedicating a mural to the trans community was so important.

- I think that, for people who are part of this community, they have for too long felt in the margins and have faced adversity and have felt that their voices have not been heard.

In what better way than to say we are here than to have a large work of public art in a very prominent part of the city.

We are always striving for equity and fairness and to underscore our common humanity and those are universal concepts, it says we are universal, that we should always be striving for.

- You can see the mural for yourself.

It's on Frankfurt Avenue at West Thompson street.

- I love Philly murals and the entire mural arts program.

- I love the color it adds to the city landscape.

They really are beautiful.

Well, from murals to the movies, and this week's flicks from Patrick Stoner.

- That's right.

He talks to Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz about The After Party on Apple TV.

- Why are you in the shower?

- [Ben] I started writing a tribute song.

The acoustics here are incredible.

Listens to this.

♪ Just a boy in the bathroom, let him cry ♪ - [Sam] Amazing, truly.

- [Patrick] The After Party is an Apple TV Plus comedy series about a murder in which each episode has a character seeing it in an entirely different way.

Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz are improvisational actors.

- Can't wait, Patrick.

Let's do it.

- Doing the multiple scenes allows the improvs, you don't have to really worry about continuity too much as long as, you know, you're hitting the points because people remember things differently, those ala Rashomon, you know, any person's like, interpretation of it.

You know, the mind will then fill in blanks through prejudice and through, you know, whatever personal foibles or whatever.

As improvisers like, improvising on stage, improving for film, we are pretty good at being able to remember on like, the other side of, so you're shooting this way, you have an improv line, you're shooting back.

We're pretty good at remembering what those like, beats were comedically or scenically.

- From the table read to when you're finally shooting it, does the tempo rhythm change?

- Ooh, great question.

I think almost always for the table read too, because a table read is kinda like getting it on its feet for the first exact time, and then for Sam and I especially, who we come from improv backgrounds and from Detroit and Chicago and me from New York, when we get in the room and Chris Miller, who's a genius, allows us to have a little bit of room to breathe and collaborate and turn these scenes to make it feel as real as we can.

So I think then, you know, that magic starts happening oftentimes.

When you get two people pull together and, you know, you have a wonderful director, you get to kind of make the scene come alive in ways that are individual to you that help the script.

I think absolutely, I think, what you see in the final take, 'cause also you gotta think, you have your writer, right?

That's the first draft of a movie, then you have the acting.

That's another draft of the movie, and then the editor can make that movie look whatever they feel like.

So, it's three kind of three different re-writings of the same draft, so we were a big, heavy part of that second part.

- Because you do different takes, but you've improvised, I wonder if the one that's chosen- - The one that shows up, what if you're disappointed, like another one didn't make it there.

Well, you really don't get precious about the things that you put out there 'cause like, improvising from stage, you're improvisin' and that's the last time anybody sees it again, you know?

So, you know, it's one beautiful moment.

So getting to do it on film, it's kind of rewarding that you get to see any of it show up again, you know?

- It's true.

- You're more mature than I would be about it, I think.

That's part of your professional training and background.

I guess you get used to it.

- Yeah, you really do.

- [Patrick] Well, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

It was very revealing.

Take care.

- Nice to meet you, man.

Take care.

- Nice to meet you.

(chuckles) - We close out Black History Month with a story about the black doctor of the Pines, Dr. James Still.

His family is preserving and passing on his legacy.

(soulful music) - My name is Samuel Calvin Still the third, and I am the second great grand nephew of Dr. James Still.

Dr. James Still was born very poor.

He only had three months of formal education and he became interested in becoming a doctor because a doctor came to the house and he saw him vaccinate the children and he knew it at that day, he wanted to become a doctor.

He didn't know how he was gonna do it, but he figured out somehow, he was gonna make it happen.

As he became of age, he moved to Philadelphia for a short period of time.

He saved his money while he was working and he bought books on botany, physiology, anatomy, and sciences, and also how to distill medicines from herbs and different plants.

He moved back here to Medford, was able to buy a piece of property, back there in the woods early on and he started distilling his medicines and he started selling his medicines.

And the word got out throughout the county that there was this African American man, this black doctor of the Pine Barrens out here in New Jersey.

(hopeful music) - I'm the vice chairman here at the Dr. James Still historic site and education center.

I also just happened to be the great, great, great niece of Dr. James Still, and recognizing the need to further the importance of this site and the fact of Dr. James Still bringing medicines that weren't available at the time to people of the community.

One way that I have a connection, personally, I just happened to work in the field of clinical pharmaceutical development.

Dr. James Still was actually pretty much ahead of his time in the type of cures that he created from herbs and he often treated patients that medical doctors were not able to treat.

So, I really do feel that he was significant because he was doing something that others could not do.

- During the time the doctor still lived and dealing with all the prejudice that he did, he overcame a lot of adversity.

A lot of times, people, when they came to him, it was a last ditch effort.

Like, they had been to another doctor and they weren't getting any better and somebody would say, well, you know, you need to go see a black doctor in the Pines over there in Bedford, and he would cure them.

After a while, he was able to start by property.

He got help from the Quakers that was in the area and he paid everybody back and he bought an old tavern around the corner here, so he turned that tavern into a hospital into a tenement house.

So he's not only just a doctor in the area in his crossroads of Medford, but he became quite an entrepreneur and a well known, prominent figure.

And the crossroads in Medford, New Jersey was what it was called then and it became, really, an African American community because of Dr.

Still being here.

- He had an earnest desire to read on his own and to come to an understanding of how to make the herbal medicines.

And so with that, he created his own business.

He ended up being the third largest landowner here in Burlington county, New Jersey, which for an African American in his time period in the 1800s, was pretty significant and to achieve what he did at that time period is phenomenal.

- Those things help us out to know the history of where we come from.

It gives us the strength of being in the family and the fact that we can have classes there for all the kids, not just only Medford township, but all the townships around who are willing to come here and learn about the history of Dr. James Still and give them, I should say, the ambition to forward themself in education.

- Being able to tell people about Dr.

Still, it gives me great pleasure.

Since I started volunteering here about five years ago, I have seen great changes.

Sam Still, he's a go-getter.

It's just an amazing thing, the work that he's done to make an impact to Medford as a town and to all of south Jersey.

- I started doing this because I wanted to find my family roots.

I tear up because I know that my parents would be really proud of me, and part of my responsibility as a direct descendant, and that's what I want kids to realize, that Dr.

Still was an entrepreneur and he was smart and he took the time to learn and to teach and to prosper.

- The state of New Jersey has recently protected land and provided additional resources for the historical site.

- The Wordle craze is going strong, as millions try to solve the word game every day.

A Brooklyn software engineer originally developed the game for his partner who loves word games and recently sold it to the New York Times.

I personally am hooked, but Regina has never played.

So take a look at what happened when Regina and I had a little downtime the other day.

Regina.

- Hey, Shirles, what's up?

- Do you wanna try your hand at Wordle?

Oh, I wish I had a game to get you to play something, all right.

- Grab your phone.

So, here is the instructions.

Every day is a different word.

- [Regina] Mhm.

- [Shirley] The object of the game is to guess the five letter word and you have six tries.

Each guess has to be an actual word and then you hit enter.

After each guess, the color of the tiles will change.

Green means the letter is in the word and in the correct spot.

Yellow letters are in the word, just in the wrong spot, and gray means the letter is not in the word at all.

Everyone plays the same word.

Some days, you get the Wordle quickly.

Other days are.

(tapping sound effects sounding) You can also share how you did without giving it away.

Lots of people share on social media, spawning countless memes and some of them are really funny.

(humorous music) What I love about the game is that my sisters, my nephew, and I share our results every day in a group chat, see?

It's a great way to connect and who doesn't love a little friendly competition?

- Oh, I got it!

See, it says splendid.

I like that!

But I don't like this game.

- What?

- It's a lot of work and a lot of spelling.

- The first time is really hard, but I'm telling you, it's addictive.

- No, no, no, it was fun.

I like that.

- Please tell me you're gonna play again.

- I'm going to play again.

(Shirley laughing) - Can you guess what five letter word that makes me.

- No.

- If you play again?

H-A-P-P-Y!

(Shirley laughing) The game is free and you can play once a day.

Also, just wanna remind everybody, everyone plays the same words, so don't spoil the game by telling people what the word is.

- Shirley got really upset once when this happened, so don't do that.

Don't do that to her.

- Well, so then I also ask my Facebook friends.

I put out a poll because I guess some people approach Wordle with a strategy.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

So, a lot of my friends said they start with the word stare, S-T-A-R-E, or adieu, A-D-I-E-U 'cause they're both vowel heavy so they think it gives them a leg up in solving it.

Others rotate a few different words, but warning, it feels bad when you don't solve the Wordle.

- You wanna know my strategy?

Asking someone else what the word.

(laughing) And it feels so good when I'm done and I solve it.

- It's not the intent of the game.

- Well, here's my five letter word for today.

Ideal.

That's it for now, everyone.

- We won't be here for a couple of weeks to make way for WHYY's membership drive.

- And if you're already a member, thank you!

- And if you'd like to become a member, welcome aboard.

- That's right.

We'll see you on March 18th.

- Good night, everyone.

- Bye.

- Bye.

(funky music)