Podcast Episodes – Jersey XYZ Stathis Theodoropoulos

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis Theodoropoulos is joined by New Jersey Policy Perspective’s Senior Policy Analyst, Sheila Reynertson, and New Jersey Policy Perspective’s Director of Communications, Louis Di Paolo, to discuss Gov Phil Murphy's second budget.
It is May and we are a few months into NJ's budget season. With  Sheila, Louis and Stathis, we break down what the budget does and doesn’t do for the state, and what it means for our state's fiscal health and for education, transit, and other important priorities.

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis Theodoropoulos is joined by New Jersey Policy Perspective’s Director of Government and Public Affairs, Brandon McKoy, to talk about one of the most consequential and important pieces of legislation NJ is working on, the $15 Minimum Wage. 
With the $15 Minimum Wage’s policy goal of lifting the pay for low wage workers and cutting poverty, Brandon McKoy breaks down the discussion for us. We start by diving into who the workers that would be most benefit from this policy, then leading us into the pros and cons of the legislation initially introduced in New Jersey’s Legislature at the tail end of 2018. Brandon talks about what the legislation needs to become in order to bring the most benefit to NJ, how we can use this an an opportunity to create innovative policies to support small businesses, and ultimately what the benefit would be for the Jersey’s workforce and Jersey’s financial well being if the state passes a clean $15 Minimum Wage Bill.
 
 

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis and co-host Democratic Strategist, Anne Sciaino sits down with Pete Oneglia, Co-Founder and General Manager, of InsiderNJ to breakdown the results on November's Midterm Election. We have a great analysis on a ton of themes. The episode includes:
Break down of the national picture after the election.   How the most contested races in NJ played out. What was the underlying effort that flipped so many districts, Red to Blue. Talk about what this elections means for 2019 and 2020 Elections. And much more…

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis sits down three veterans of the political arena. He is joined by the mayor candidate of Lambertville, Julia Fahl, Democratic Strategist, Anne Sciaino, and the Executive Director of the Waterfront Project, Rebecca Symes to talk about the Century of the Woman.
We tap into in the lived the experience of Julia, Anne, and Rebecca to understand the lived experience of a women running for office. With the elections of 2018 a week away, we explore some important themes:
 
Why are more women running in the this election than in elections in the past. What is the difference between a veteran women in politics running for office compared to a candidate diving in for the first time. What are the barriers that women candidates come across when they run. How do party structures engage with women candidates. What double standards do women candidates deal with. And much more…

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis sits with the Executive Director of NJ Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Patricia Teffenhart, and the Assistant Director Robert Baran, to continue a important dialogue on sexual violence.
This being of the most important conversations that we have on Jersey XYZ, we discuss with the NJCASA team:
Who are the hard to reach survivors of sexual violence, and how to reach them. What barriers certain communities face. How to give hard to reach survivors a voice. How our legal system, and police officers can better adopt to serve the needs of survivors of sexual violence. What laws Gov Phil Murphy passed to address issues around sexual violence, and what battles are ahead.  And much more...  

This week on Jersey XYZ, Stathis Theodoropoulos, along with Kavita Mehra and Brian Rock break down and talk about a few things in the news. 
We chat about the train cancellations and what is going on with NJ Transit which is creating the 'Summer of Hell: Part II'. Trains are cancelled and folks from NJ are not happy. 
We later pivot to talking about the Tuition Free Community College Pilot that Gov Phil Murphy's Administration is rolling out. We get into how this pilot program works, how it helps students and what it can potentially look in the future.