Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:18 Live from WMUR news. I'm Katherine Odom. You're listening to the news at six o'clock on WMUR, 89.3, FM HD one Evanston Chicago it's Wednesday, February 9th, 2022 tonight on WMUR news news from hotel Hinman and other COVID-19 updates, a conversation with a Northwestern grad and former hype house assistant and cooking a meal in a dorm kitchen. Those stories and more are coming up now on WMUR news at six. Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday evening with Northwestern's COVID positivity rate subsiding quarantine housing at 1835. Hinman is not nearly as full as it was in the beginning of the quarter. Reporter Jungen Jennifer Kim has updates on COVID-19 and from students in Hyndman
Speaker 3 00:01:15 These are the sounds you can hear in the hallways of Henman Northwestern's quarantined dorm for students who test positive for COVID-19 silence. Before we learn more, let's rewind back a little bit. The cases were spiking in the first two weeks of the winter quarter with students and faculty returning to campus from worldwide, and the school made the decision to switch to online classes and dedicate those weeks to out wellness students on social media platforms, like Geekhack joked about the conditions of the new quarantined housing, some even violating the expectations. Others were genuinely concerned about the rumors that circulated such that students with different variants were forced into the same room columnist. Laura David even wrote an article for the daily Northwestern about her, not so pleasant stay there today. Northwestern and Evanston in general have been well maintaining a relatively low positivity rate of 2.2, 5% in the past seven days. But this hints that there still are students who test positive and are sent to Hyndman. I was able to come in contact with Paul Kim, a freshmen that McCormick currently quarantined to ask about the housing conditions.
Speaker 4 00:02:35 Uh, so first of all, the laundry is actually a done for us. Uh, there's like a weekly or a laundry service, but, uh, suddenly I actually like missed it for last week. So, uh, that's a bit of a bummer and it sort of showering, uh, there's like communal, there's a communal bathrooms like throughout the corridor, but because there is not many showering, it hasn't been an issue. Hasn't been an issue has been fairly convenient
Speaker 3 00:02:58 While the laundry and facility make living quite convenient. Paul adds that because he has different dietary needs. He anticipated personalized meals, but his expectations were not met.
Speaker 4 00:03:11 But, uh, I don't think, um, the qui like, uh, dining services have always tried to cater, cater, cater me to like bare requirements.
Speaker 3 00:03:22 Otherwise Paul says Hinman is no longer as crowded as the beginning of the year and thus in much better condition than rumor.
Speaker 4 00:03:31 I mean, occasionally like from time to time, I see like one or two people like in the corridor, um, mainly using some cooking, something in the microwave or any exit, uh, the restroom, things like that. But other than that, it's been fairly quiet here, uh, and you know, mainly a private space somewhere.
Speaker 3 00:03:49 Paul further fact check that with fewer students, everyone is isolated in separate rooms.
Speaker 4 00:03:56 Uh, so I believe, uh, people were randomly allocated singles and doubles, but obviously without roommates, I think roommates only been allocated in desperate, desperate times,
Speaker 3 00:04:10 Going online for a full year Northwestern faculty and students have both adjusted to hybrid and zoom sessions as opposed to in-person ones. So there doesn't seem to be much trouble in terms of technology. In fact, Paul says his professors are understanding of the given circumstances,
Speaker 4 00:04:29 All except for one class is being recorded. So that's never been an issue, but, um, communication with professors has been going all right. Uh, they've been trying to make it lenient for me as much as they could. So I really, really appreciate it. Luckily for me, I didn't have any, uh, exams to take, although I did have a quiz today, which I was, uh, excused from. And other than that, I did get an extension for one of my assignments, uh, from, from my professor last week. So that was really nice. And then
Speaker 3 00:04:59 Like most people nowadays, Paul never experienced any symptoms, but to him, the results seemed out of the blue.
Speaker 4 00:05:07 Um, well I was shocked because I thought I was completely okay. Well, I did feel some like flu, like symptoms, like a bit of a cold. So, and I had to test like that Lisa cause I was trying to attend the social event, which required everyone to test and, um, sounded like that could pay that, that came back positive. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:05:29 Paul, the process of moving into quarantine was smooth and organized.
Speaker 4 00:05:34 Uh, so I was obviously instructed to pack my pack of my belongings. How much? Yeah. Uh, just to get prepared, to move to England, I guess they were pretty quick about, you know, driving me down to the facility. And, um,
Speaker 3 00:05:50 One weakness of the system is that Northwestern does not inform or ask for a list of people who came in close. Rather it is the individual's responsibility to report to their friends or family.
Speaker 4 00:06:03 So I actually had to like tell my roommate and like all my other friends that were like close contact with me to go test positive, they weren't given the actual like formal instructions.
Speaker 3 00:06:14 And although he is unsure who he was infected from, he assumes they were from one of the social gatherings.
Speaker 4 00:06:21 Might've been probably someone in my tour, you know, sometimes it's me and my friend had just had like a chat, you know, in something like sweet altogether. And probably I got COVID from there. I'm not too sure
Speaker 3 00:06:36 As Northwestern adjust to COVID-19, the school has implemented strict mask requirements and easy access to rabbit testing while some floss still exist. The statistics are proving. We are building a safer community. This was, and Jennifer Kim signing off from WMUR news.
Speaker 1 00:06:59 Hopefully Paul can check out of hotel Hinman soon now onto arts and entertainment, whether you're a Tik TOK, fiend, or just casually aware of the app, the high post tick-tock influencers might be closer to home than you think. Reporter Margo Mula now ski chats with a recent Northwestern grad and previous assistant to the house.
Speaker 5 00:07:17 This story starts with a little bit of a confession, not an egregious confession, but a confession. Nonetheless, I have watched the entirety of the hype house, Netflix television show.
Speaker 6 00:07:30 We have 10, 20 year olds living in a $5 million house together, filming content all day. It just doesn't sound real.
Speaker 5 00:07:39 If you aren't familiar with the hype house, it's a group of teenage and young adult Tech-Talk users that live together, make content together. And more recently had a TV show made about them. While I personally find this confession, mildly embarrassing, watching this show led to an interesting connection.
Speaker 7 00:07:59 It's actually like not super crazy. Like I it's, it's weird that I ended up there, but it's not. It's like a pretty logical progression.
Speaker 5 00:08:07 That's Nicholas, Holtermann a previous assistant to one of the content creators who appears on the show. When I sat down to watch the hype house show with my friend and roommate, Sarah Katurah. Yes, that's right. Executive producer of WMUR news. I had no idea. I'd see on screen a face so familiar that I immediately took to Facebook to figure out who it was.
Speaker 7 00:08:31 So I graduated from Northwestern in 2019.
Speaker 5 00:08:36 That's right. Nicholas Holtermann was a Northwestern grad whom I recognized from a French class that I had with him freshman year picture my surprise when Sarah and I put the pieces together, I tweeted about the whole thing. Nick saw the tweet and as one thing led to another, he agreed an interview
Speaker 7 00:08:55 With me. A lot of Northwestern kids when they graduate in film, like if they move to LA or New York, they like work at like a large talent agency. Holtermann
Speaker 5 00:09:04 Did the same, but as the pandemic hit, he got laid
Speaker 7 00:09:07 Off. So I lost my first out of college job.
Speaker 5 00:09:10 Thankfully, after some time spent at home and keeping in touch with his agency who is already repping major influencers like Addison Rae, Nick landed a position as an assistant for a member of the hype
Speaker 7 00:09:21 House, basically the Northwestern to hype house pipeline.
Speaker 5 00:09:25 Nick stayed on at the position for about a year.
Speaker 7 00:09:27 I'm very glad I did it. Um, uh, people used to, I would tell people like I go to parties or like meet people and they be like, where do you work? I'd be like, I work for, uh, I, at first I would say I worked for an influencer and then they'd be like, what infants? And then I'd be like, I worked for a tech talker and then I would, and then I just started getting to the point where I would just say, I worked for F for the hype house because people knew exactly what that was. And they'd be like, that's insane. You're joking. And I'd be like, no, that's what I, that's where I work. It wasn't, um, crazy at all. And in a good way, it was almost mundane. Like it was just a job, you know? Uh, I didn't actually watch the show.
Speaker 5 00:10:00 He did remember fondly when the show was filmed.
Speaker 7 00:10:03 I've I've like received screenshots and I've like narcissistically, like ha like scroll through it to find myself. But I just like, haven't watched the show, but it was fun to be there watching them film it.
Speaker 5 00:10:15 One section where Nick himself was heavily depicted was when a hype house member injured their leg minorly. I asked Nick if things like this stressed him out
Speaker 7 00:10:25 During his job, honestly. No, it was kind of hilarious. Um, cause he was clearly never in danger. He just has a really, I think in the show, I dunno, they definitely included this in the show, but he has, he's just like queasy about breaking bones. So that's why it was so dramatic, but it wasn't like I was, I was like, yeah, we should just figure this out. Cause you know, he hurt himself, but it wasn't. Um, I mean that's the kind of, that was kind of like the job itself was like stuff like that didn't happen everyday, but like, uh, you know, expect for anything. And that was kind of why it was fun.
Speaker 5 00:11:00 Nick, although he no longer works for the hype house has also gained a bit of a Tik TOK following the origins of it might lie partially in his job with the hype house, but a particular tick talk of his, about a, not so humorous, but spun humorous event went viral. Can you tell me a little bit about your Razor's situation?
Speaker 7 00:11:22 Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Yeah. I got Murcia and then I went like viral for getting Murcia.
Speaker 5 00:11:29 Hi.
Speaker 7 00:11:30 Hey Betsy loved the video. I love a Tik TOK. Super clever idea. I just wanna remind everyone not to share razors or use random people's raisers. Uh, you can get an antibiotic resistant flesh-eating bacteria that is really painful and it was as possible all the time. And the antibiotics will make you constipated for two weeks and if they don't work, you will die. Okay. So like I used my roommates razor and I'm not gonna put them on blast because they also went to Northwestern. I don't think his razor had Murcia on it. Like, I don't know how I got Murcia, but like I remember using my roommates razor and being like, I don't normally do this, but it's probably fine.
Speaker 5 00:12:04 It was not fine. What it did go viral when he do edit another tick, talk about Murcia.
Speaker 7 00:12:10 But I saw, I was like sitting in the car and I saw this girl post this and I was like, this was put on my algorithm for reasons that take talk went viral. But then like a month after I got interviewed for Buzzfeed and I was like, yeah, like I'll just do this because it'll be funny. But it turns out people do read Buzzfeed, but the demo is so different on Buzzfeed. It was a lot of like older people, like in the comments being like this guy is so stupid. Like what a dumb, like the new this generation of kids is so stupid and like whatever, whatever,
Speaker 5 00:12:38 Despite the foolishness of the way Nick rose to have a bit of a following, we also had a nice chat on a slightly more serious note about constructing.
Speaker 7 00:12:48 Um, I would say in real life, 10% a bit. And then on social media, like 80% a bit.
Speaker 5 00:12:54 No, really we did end up having a slightly more serious conversation,
Speaker 7 00:12:58 But there was no such thing as authenticity on social media. So in one sense, I feel it's not other people's responsibility for how their audience feels. But the other part of me thinks that I would feel like if I had a large following, I would feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to be very careful about what I put on my, on my platform.
Speaker 5 00:13:20 You know, I think I agree with him. I couldn't imagine being an influence.
Speaker 7 00:13:25 That's a job. I don't think it's it's as it's an honor as honorable of a job as like farming or being a doctor is which is like, you know, something where you're helping people or creating a real, tangible object. Um, but it's definitely not like working for ExxonMobil or something.
Speaker 5 00:13:43 You and you are news. I'm Margo melanoma. SK-II
Speaker 1 00:13:48 Thank you to Margo for that hype story. Looking over to oddities. Have you ever missed home cooked meals so much that you decided to make one for yourself? Report? Our POS Baum puts a Northwestern freshmen dorm kitchen to the test to make a full meal
Speaker 8 00:14:04 In high school. Come dinner time. You probably sat down to a meal. Your parents made whipped something up in your stock, kitchen or drove to pick up your favorite takeout. I'm guessing you didn't walk in. Sub-Zero temperatures to a dining hall to eat dry chicken. Now the ladder has become a reality for a lot of Northwestern underclassmen. What do you do when you're craving something other than Alison fine dining, but your Uber eats bill has been worryingly high. Recently. One option is to cook dinner in your dorm kitchen. How feasible is it though? To cook a meal in a dorm kitchen? I decided to find out I'm going to take you through all the logistics, materials, cost cooking and cleanup because I'm not gifted in the kitchen. I decided to go through this journey with Katia. Chada a self-proclaimed foodie. She is a Weinberg freshmen, his dorm kitchen, which is shared with about 70 other residents is equipped with an oven, a stove and little else. How often do you call,
Speaker 9 00:14:55 Like when you lived at home at home? Probably at least once a week. I mean, it depends on the week, but I cooked pretty often. What do you miss most about being able to cook at home? I think something that I took for granted was just having a fully stocked kitchen, like salt, pepper, spices, things that I never really thought to buy were just there. And now you kind of have to collect all of those ingredients all over again. If you want to make a meal, what have you done since
Speaker 8 00:15:26 It's moving to college to try and find those things that you miss about cooking out in your own
Speaker 9 00:15:30 The kitchen. So I think for me, because I'm obsessed with pasta, I had to get just a pot and a sauce pan so I could boil some water and make pasta. So I've got that. I have a brownie pan because I can't live without brownies. I'm hoping to grow my collection.
Speaker 8 00:15:47 Okay. We decided on a fairly traditional menu for this challenge, pasta with pesto, a caprese salad and a baguette. First we gathered the materials. This brings challenged number one because we don't have our own kitchen material collection means more than just grocery shopping. We need to acquire pots plates and utensils. In addition to ingredients and Katia is room. She keeps a pot, a sauce pan, and a brownie pan. I provide a few plates and a set of utensils to fill in the rest. We tracked a target and whole foods. Our total for materials and ingredients is $50 and 36 cents. And we plan to feed six people to put that in perspective at dinner, Alison dining hall for one person called $16 and 7 cents. This dinner costs half as much per person back in Katia storm kitchen. The true work begins, but first challenge. Number two, there's a group monopolizing the kitchen for coffee and Robin. We wait until they finished to start our dinner.
Speaker 9 00:16:44 Well, the pasta's boiling. We're going to start to assemble the,
Speaker 8 00:16:48 Since there's no cutting poured or big knife around here, we're using a plastic plate and a kitchen knife to cut up the tomatoes. It gets the job done. I'll be a little messily. We don't have any serving plates. So we set the salad up on a personal sized plate.
Speaker 9 00:17:01 That means it's time to check our pasta tastes good
Speaker 8 00:17:06 After straining the pasta and Katia new colander, we mix it with our pasta. The sauce is store-bought. We unfortunately do not have the funds for a blender. We did. However, invest in a serving bowl. Final
Speaker 9 00:17:16 Step is the baguette.
Speaker 8 00:17:20 While the bread heats up in Katia is brownie pan. She mixes together ricotta with honey salt pepper. This mixture will serve as a spread for the bread. Finally, we're done. I asked Katia her thoughts, but not for a taste test.
Speaker 9 00:17:37 I honestly had no idea what was going to happen when we tried to come. So I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Speaker 8 00:17:43 I also asked the thoughts of the other people who eat the meal. It was delicious.
Speaker 10 00:17:47 Thank you, Katia. I love it
Speaker 9 00:17:49 So much. Alison
Speaker 8 00:17:52 Taj number three comes with the cleanup. We used most of our ingredients, but there are some extra like the bus sonically is an olive oil Katia said that she plans to leave these ingredients in the kitchen for others to use for their own recipes. What do you think
Speaker 9 00:18:05 It was the hardest part of this process? I think honestly, figuring out all of the equipment, obviously I'm used to a very specific set of, you know, the oven, the stove, and so adjusting to all of that and just figuring out how to use this new kitchen and work in it. What'd you cook a meal, this kitchen again? I definitely would. I mean, there were definitely some bumps in the process, including not realizing that the stove was not turned on for a good 15 minutes, but in the end I feel like the product was worth it and a good home cooked meal. It's just so delicious. You're planning to be on exec board for your dorm next year. So you'll have some power over the budget. How do you plan to invest funds into the kitchen? I definitely think the kitchen is just the hub of a dorm. I mean, food just brings people together. So I really hope to get a toaster and get a bunch of kitchen supplies so that everyone can make it feel like home
Speaker 8 00:19:09 There. You have it folks, how you can spend $50 and several hours to avoid eating dining hall food. It's a great way to enjoy delicious meal while spending time with some friends. My conclusion to our initial challenge, it is in fact possible to cook a full meal in a dorm kitchen for WMUR news I'm pass bomb.
Speaker 1 00:19:30 Well that meal sounded absolutely delicious in the headlines today. Illinois statewide mass mandate will be partially lifted by February 28th. Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday indoor areas, including malls, restaurants, bars, and other places of business will be affected schools. Hospitals and nursing homes will not be affected. Pritzker said improving hospital metrics guided his decision Northwestern's men's basketball team beat Indiana 59 to 51 at Welsh Ryan arena on Tuesday night before the game, Indiana lost five players to disciplinary suspensions. Northwestern took the lead late in the game and kept it until the end McCormick senior year. John Kim competes in the jeopardy national college championship at 7:00 PM central standard time. Tonight Kim is involved in w and you are, and the American Institute for chemical engineers, mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed a recent carjacking wave on remote learning, drawing response from the Chicago teacher's union data shows by March 1st, 20, 20 weeks before classes were canceled.
Speaker 1 00:20:32 Chicago saw a 68% increase in carjackings compared to that time in 2019, the union wrote quote to suggest that our students are somehow disproportionately responsible for these crimes is precisely the kind of scapegoating and smear tactics, black and brown brown students and adults have had to contend with in any discourse about crime for generations and taking a look at the weather right now, it's 37 degrees with cloudy skies and wind speeds around 12 miles per hour. You may see some flurries in the next few hours to tonight. You can expect temperatures in the low thirties tomorrow will be cloudy with a high of 34 and a low of 27 on Friday. You can expect balmy temperatures under cloudy skies with a high of 43 and a low of 25. Sounds like t-shirt weather to me this weekend will bring colder temperatures with cloudy and partly cloudy skies.
Speaker 1 00:21:24 Saturday's high will be 27 and Sundays will be 23 Lowe's will be in the mid-teens throughout the weekend. That's all for WMUR news at 6:00 PM. For more news updates and reports. Follow us on Twitter at WMUR news and Instagram at WMUR news, 89 dash 89. You can listen to these and other stories of the day on our Spotify, Google podcasts, and sound. You can also find us on our new website, w N U R dot our producer today is Madison Brown. Our reporters are young on Jennifer Kim, Margo Mula now ski and pasta. I'm Catherine from all of us here at WMUR news. Thanks for listening. Catch our next show. This Friday, February 11th at 6:00 PM. Now back to scheduled program,
