Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, Icole, thank you very much as we head
Speaker 2: into a Tuesday night eight o seven here in Boston.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray, and we have again a
Speaker 2: double team effort going on back in the control room.
Speaker 2: Not all these rob Brooks back tonight after a wild
Speaker 2: night off last night. He is again working with Dan Cantano.
Speaker 2: So we got double double coverage here. You know, this
Speaker 2: is uh, this is not off and doesn't often happen,
Speaker 2: but we're in we're in good hands. We have four
Speaker 2: good hands back there. So no phone calls this hour,
Speaker 2: but they'll go to work next hour. Next hour, we'll
Speaker 2: talk about ballot Question number three, which is a question
Speaker 2: that could, if passed allowed, would allow ride share drivers
Speaker 2: uh TO to unionize here in Massachusetts. And then later
Speaker 2: on tonight we're going to talk with Emerson College polster
Speaker 2: Spencer Kimball about the state of the twenty twenty four race.
Speaker 2: But before we get to all of that, we will
Speaker 2: begin our conversation tonight with we'll have three doctors and
Speaker 2: a mayor in this first hour. We're going to start
Speaker 2: off with doctor William Berger, who is an allergist and
Speaker 2: Medical Advisory Council member for the Allergy and Asthma Network.
Speaker 2: And I guess a lot of us have been feeling
Speaker 2: a little under the weather, and a lot of us
Speaker 2: are wondering is it allergies, is it a cold? Or
Speaker 2: is it something worse like covid? And doctor Burger is
Speaker 2: going to help us work our way through that set
Speaker 2: of circumstances. Doctor Burger, welcome to night Side. Sir.
Speaker 3: Oh well, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2: So how can we figure out I mean, their fall
Speaker 2: has a lot of allergies, we know that. And of
Speaker 2: course when the weather one day it's hot, the next
Speaker 2: day it's a little cooler. We sometimes people get colds
Speaker 2: around the time of the year, you know, and and
Speaker 2: COVID coming make it a little bit of a comeback.
Speaker 2: What should we look for? Obviously we want to be
Speaker 2: able to figure out or our doctors. I'm sure we'll
Speaker 2: figure it out. But before, but before we get to
Speaker 2: the doctor, is there anything we can.
Speaker 3: Do well first to be able to differentiate between the
Speaker 3: causes of these symptoms. COVID, as opposed to allergy, is
Speaker 3: almost associated with an elevated fever with the temperature we
Speaker 3: also see that with the flu very rarely in the
Speaker 3: COVID and not at all analogies because allergies are not
Speaker 3: an infectious process. The symptoms obviously with COVID are our fever, cough,
Speaker 3: shortness of breath, and the one that people complain a
Speaker 3: lot about it is that loss of smell. With allergy,
Speaker 3: the most common symptoms are sneezing, running nose, watery, itchy eyes.
Speaker 3: Usually they're on set is pretty quick as opposed to
Speaker 3: to COVID, which you know can appear several days after exposure.
Speaker 3: The one that you that is a little more difficult
Speaker 3: to differentiate is with influenza because influenza, also like COVID,
Speaker 3: can give you fatigue and aches and pains and fever
Speaker 3: and chills and cough, So that's hard to tell the difference.
Speaker 3: But but covid UH definitely causes greater and more severe symptoms.
Speaker 2: Well, I had one case I had COVID but I
Speaker 2: guess now a couple of years ago UH, and it
Speaker 2: was mild. But my daughter had advised me that as
Speaker 2: soon as you were diagnosed with some of those at
Speaker 2: home tests, to get your doctor to prescribe packslovid UH
Speaker 2: to to kind of cut it off of the pass
Speaker 2: and that, and it really seemed to work for me
Speaker 2: either I had a really mild case of that, pax
Speaker 2: slova worked great. Are you an advocate of early intervention
Speaker 2: as soon as you get a positive tests to get
Speaker 2: something to fight it off and specifically pack slowed.
Speaker 3: Well, there's certainly certainly underlying conditions would make it more
Speaker 3: urgent that you do start unpackslod and as you may know,
Speaker 3: you need to really start it within five days symptoms.
Speaker 3: The earlier the better. These are anti viral medicines that
Speaker 3: prevent the virus from replicating and causing more severe symptoms.
Speaker 3: You still may have some COVID symptoms but doesn't get
Speaker 3: rid of it completely. But people, for example, over the
Speaker 3: age of sixty five, people who have any kind of
Speaker 3: chronic illness, especially in respiratory illnesses such as asthma or
Speaker 3: the chronic substructured pomony disease empazim and bartitis, or anybody
Speaker 3: with liver or kidney disease. Anybody who has any chronic
Speaker 3: illness certainly should consider pack slovid.
Speaker 2: If you're a young person, would you advise generally a
Speaker 2: healthy young person, meaning someone in their twenties or thirties,
Speaker 2: just to write it out. Even though pax slovan is
Speaker 2: the most doubt, is there a downside to the pax slovak,
Speaker 2: which would you wouldn't recommend it for everyone?
Speaker 3: Well, there have been cases of rebound where after you
Speaker 3: felt better five to seven days later, the symptoms did
Speaker 3: come back. The other thing is that you need to
Speaker 3: be careful about drug interaction. So if you are going
Speaker 3: to start past packlovid, it's really important that you checked
Speaker 3: with the pharmacists or your physician if you're taking any
Speaker 3: other drugs, especially drugs that affect liver function, so and
Speaker 3: if you are in any immunosuppressive drugs, So those are
Speaker 3: those are the types of things that you have to
Speaker 3: be concerned about. The you know there can there can
Speaker 3: be some issues with liver problems if you are taking
Speaker 3: other medicines that also affect liver function.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so important to make sure you do this
Speaker 2: through a doctor. Obviously, packs alov it is a prescription drug.
Speaker 2: You know, you're not to be able to buy that
Speaker 2: over the counter, like a lot of medications, so it's
Speaker 2: important there. Let me just go back to the to
Speaker 2: the allergies, which I guess in a pyramid here. Uh,
Speaker 2: it might be the base of what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: There may be more people impacted by allergies as opposed
Speaker 2: to a cold or the flu at this time of year.
Speaker 2: Allergies are different around the country. So if we're in
Speaker 2: Massachusetts and if you're in California or Florida, there's there's
Speaker 2: different allergies at different times during the seasons, during the
Speaker 2: every every season, I guess. So you've got to almost
Speaker 2: figure out where you live and what you might be
Speaker 2: exposed to when you when you start to get like
Speaker 2: a little minor case of the sniffle. Is that fair
Speaker 2: to say?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And the person that can help you out with that
Speaker 3: is analogous certainly. People have who have allergies can have complications,
Speaker 3: for example, chronic sinus problems. If it gets it affects
Speaker 3: you lungs, it can cause difficulty breathing. As far as
Speaker 3: pollen seasons, the usual pollen seasons in the spring, we
Speaker 3: usually see tree pollens and that usually starts February March, April,
Speaker 3: and then into May and June you get the grass pollen.
Speaker 3: And now in the fall, especially in the Boston area,
Speaker 3: ragweed is the major pollen in the air. Weeds are
Speaker 3: seen throughout the country, but different weeds could be causing
Speaker 3: different brows. For example, in southern California we have sagebrush.
Speaker 3: Not a lot of sagebrush in Boston.
Speaker 2: No, not within my memory. And then one other point,
Speaker 2: which which I'm sure you're aware of. I just learned
Speaker 2: this the other day. I'm on the wrong side of fifty.
Speaker 2: So I had gotten an RSV shot last winter, and
Speaker 2: I thought, well, maybe it's like the flu shot. You
Speaker 2: have to get a second one. And I went to
Speaker 2: a local drug store, a chain drug store, and they
Speaker 2: were bout to give me the rs They said, oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, have you ever had an RSV shot before?
Speaker 2: I said, well, can you check my records? Yeah? They
Speaker 2: said you had one last winter and they said RSV
Speaker 2: shots one and done. I did not know that.
Speaker 3: Yes, the concern with RSV again are the higher risk
Speaker 3: patients who have respiratory problems asthma, COPD, bronchitis. But the
Speaker 3: place that we get particularly concerned RSV is in very
Speaker 3: very young children. Is the cause of what we've heard
Speaker 3: it was bronchiolitis, and there's not a lot of good
Speaker 3: treatment for it. It's just supportive treatment, giving fluid, giving oxygen.
Speaker 3: But we really don't have a definitive treatment for RSV
Speaker 3: other than supportive care, and so we really want to
Speaker 3: do everything we can to prevent RSV infections.
Speaker 2: In I assume that RSV would not be a good
Speaker 2: thing for grandparents, but the secondaries, you don't want to
Speaker 2: transmit it to a young child, to your grandchild. So
Speaker 2: there's two reasons why grandparents should be thinking about that
Speaker 2: particular inoculation correct right now.
Speaker 3: Fortunately, we do have very good treatments for allergies, We
Speaker 3: have very good treatments for asthma. Allergists and promonologist certainly
Speaker 3: can can help with that. And this group the patients
Speaker 3: who have allergy, and as with the ones that we
Speaker 3: worry about with with covid and the ones we worry
Speaker 3: about with influenza. That's why it's so so important to
Speaker 3: get vaccinated. Right now, they're doing vaccinations combinations of influenza
Speaker 3: and covid vaccine. Personally, I did that. I feel that
Speaker 3: you know, you should try and do everything you can
Speaker 3: to try and mitigate, meaning decrease they of the symptoms
Speaker 3: because there is no there's no way to predict how
Speaker 3: bad you're going to get young and healthy. People have
Speaker 3: gotten very severe cases of both influenza and COVID, so
Speaker 3: I would recommend you know that you get it and
Speaker 3: the younger people now we have an influenza can be
Speaker 3: vaccinated with the use of a navals bro It's called
Speaker 3: flu miss in between the ages of five and forty nine.
Speaker 3: You don't have to get the shot if your nervous
Speaker 3: around the needles. It's a weakened form of the virus,
Speaker 3: so you can you can sniff it up your nose.
Speaker 2: Okay, Doctor William Berger, I really appreciate you. You founded
Speaker 2: the Allergy and Asthma Associates of Southern California Medical Group
Speaker 2: back in nineteen eighty one, so you've been doing this
Speaker 2: for a long time and you work with the Allergy
Speaker 2: and Asthmen Network. You were great, You've been great. Thank
Speaker 2: you for giving us some time tonight, and love to
Speaker 2: have you back as we roll through into a different
Speaker 2: allergy season. Hope you have a great rest of October.
Speaker 2: We've had fabulous weather back here. I hope you have
Speaker 2: good weather out there as well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Yes, we do. As a matter of fact. Our national
Speaker 3: meeting the American College of Allergy is going to be
Speaker 3: in Boston starting this Thursday, so I will be in
Speaker 3: the Boston area.
Speaker 2: Well, it's gonna get a little cooler, by the way,
Speaker 2: so pack a sweater. Okay, it's gonna right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, thanks thanks for the advice, and thanks for
Speaker 3: having me on your show.
Speaker 2: My pleasure, Doctor William Berger. Enjoy Boston. Okay, it's a
Speaker 2: great city. Thank you so much. All right, thanks, all right,
Speaker 2: and we get back on to talk about another really
Speaker 2: important issue. Uh, and that is the issue of breast cancer.
Speaker 2: Going to talk with a surgical breast oncologist, but we're
Speaker 2: going to focus a little bit on breast cancer amongst men,
Speaker 2: which I think is an important aspect of this Breast
Speaker 2: Cancer Awareness Month. My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: You're listening to w BZ, Boston's news radio ten thirty
Speaker 2: on the AM dial. We will be right back. Of course,
Speaker 2: you can always get us in the iHeart app just
Speaker 2: downloaded for free. You can listen to us anywhere at
Speaker 2: any time. Twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: five days a year and three sixty six and a
Speaker 2: leapyear back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nights Side Studios, WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, I think most of us know that October is
Speaker 2: breast cancer Awareness Month, and rightfully or wrongfully, most people
Speaker 2: associate with breast cancer with women as the victims of
Speaker 2: that disease. But that's not true. And we're going to
Speaker 2: talk with doctor Sam Nordello, who's a surgical breast oncologist
Speaker 2: at Toughts Medical works both at Toughts Medical Center and
Speaker 2: at the Melrose Wakefield Hospital within the tough Medicine health system,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about the reality of breast
Speaker 2: cancer in men, Doctor Noddllo, I knew that men are
Speaker 2: not immune to this disease, but how prevalent is it
Speaker 2: amongst men? Is it rare? Somewhat rare? How would you
Speaker 2: characterize it?
Speaker 4: By Dan? I just want to take a moment to
Speaker 4: thank you as well as all the listeners free opportunities
Speaker 4: to speak this evening. As you mentioned, it's breast cancer
Speaker 4: Rare Month.
Speaker 2: Honored doctor, now teller you can we often we get
Speaker 2: a lot of great doctors here and we are very
Speaker 2: grateful for all of them. Go Red ahead. I did
Speaker 2: not mean to up your interrupt you. I apologies.
Speaker 4: I yeah, I wanted to take a month to express
Speaker 4: my admiration to all the listeners here who have personally
Speaker 4: dealt with or have a family member with cancer. Every
Speaker 4: day I'm reminded of their strength and courage, and it
Speaker 4: helps motivate me and all my colleagues to find a cure.
Speaker 4: So you had mentioned the prevalence. Unfortunately, it is rare. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: cancer is very very common in men. There's about twenty
Speaker 4: seven hundred men diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and
Speaker 4: it makes up about one percent of all the breast
Speaker 4: cancers that we diagnosed annually.
Speaker 2: So this is this is in America, not in America. Yeah,
Speaker 2: in America. Okay, So if it's you said, it's it's
Speaker 2: one percent.
Speaker 4: One percent of all breast cancers are in men.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, fine, okay.
Speaker 4: So fairly on, fairly uncommon, but not something that people
Speaker 4: should ignore. And you know, if you have a family
Speaker 4: history or if you feel something, I think that that's
Speaker 4: the reason to bring that to the attention of your doctor.
Speaker 2: So most obviously men do not take mammograms. I assume
Speaker 2: that they probably are not available for men. And with
Speaker 2: that such, you know, a low frequency uh, it probably
Speaker 2: would not be worth the risk. So what what should
Speaker 2: men do? I mean, would they feel a lump somewhere,
Speaker 2: you know, in their upper upper torso and in the
Speaker 2: in the what you know, their breast area what we
Speaker 2: would call the pecks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, Dan, you know, it's surprisingly I see
Speaker 4: a lot of men. A lot of men do come
Speaker 4: to see me because they feel a new lump or
Speaker 4: their significant other feels a lump and they come in.
Speaker 4: And in that case I do recommend a self exam,
Speaker 4: especially as there's a strong family history. So if a
Speaker 4: man has as a strong family history of either other
Speaker 4: men in their family who has had a breast cancer
Speaker 4: or a first degree relative, I think it's important not
Speaker 4: only to do testicular exams, but to do breast exams.
Speaker 4: And if you feel something, that would be a good
Speaker 4: reason and an indication to get not only a mammogram,
Speaker 4: but an ultrasound. Now, if somebody has a mutation in
Speaker 4: a gene such as a brack a gene which places
Speaker 4: them at a hundredfold increased risk of developing beast cancer
Speaker 4: over the lifetime, that is somebody that might actually benefit
Speaker 4: from getting a mammogram on an annual basis, and in
Speaker 4: that case, we typically would start mammograms starting at age fifty.
Speaker 4: So the conception of just because I'm a man, I
Speaker 4: can't get a mammogram, that's something that you should talk
Speaker 4: to your doctor about because you might actually have a
Speaker 4: reason to get one.
Speaker 2: How do you figure out if you had that gene?
Speaker 3: Yeah, great question.
Speaker 4: It's usually a strong family history. So if you notice
Speaker 4: several family members have breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, of cancer, melanoma.
Speaker 4: If you just notice there's a cluster, that's a good
Speaker 4: reason to talk with your doctor or meet with a
Speaker 4: certified genetic counselor to determine if you could get genetic testing.
Speaker 2: And is that particularly I think as it was the
Speaker 2: Braco gene, that is the gene that can can signal
Speaker 2: perhaps early on or proclivity towards the cancers you just mentioned.
Speaker 2: Or are you saying that if there's a preponderance or
Speaker 2: a number of each of those, then you have to
Speaker 2: be concerned about pancreatic cancer or whichever the cancers are
Speaker 2: Those cancers all somehow related, is what I'm asking.
Speaker 4: A lot of times they are related, and that's why
Speaker 4: I had mentioned though, So if that's something you notice
Speaker 4: where you just have a strong family history of a
Speaker 4: certain type of cancer or many cancers, that's definitely something
Speaker 4: worthwhile mentioning to your doctor or making an appointment to
Speaker 4: meet with a certified genetic Counselor the gene that we
Speaker 4: most commonly associate with male breast cancer or is the
Speaker 4: bracket gene or b RCA, which stands for breast cancer
Speaker 4: gene and most significantly bracket too. There's BRACCA one in
Speaker 4: bracket two. Bracket two is a gene that is most
Speaker 4: commonly associated with male breast cancer.
Speaker 2: And what obviously, the earlier anything is detected, the better
Speaker 2: chance of survival. But it is the treatment for breast
Speaker 2: cancer for men basically the same protocol as for women
Speaker 2: that could involve some serious surgical procedures.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you hit the nail on the head with early
Speaker 4: detection saves lives. So we see a lot of men
Speaker 4: they think that they can't get this disease and oh,
Speaker 4: this isn't something that affects men, so we typically would
Speaker 4: see them at later presentation. So again just emphasizing the
Speaker 4: importance of self exams and self awareness. So if you
Speaker 4: feel something, you may notice a hard lump underneath your breast.
Speaker 4: You may notice skin tethering, may notice that there's a
Speaker 4: mass that seems like it's fixed to the skin or
Speaker 4: to the peck muscle itself. You could notice some bloody
Speaker 4: nipple discharge, whether it be on your t shirt or
Speaker 4: your sheets. That's a great reason that you should be
Speaker 4: concerned and bring it to the attention to your doctor.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much. Boy. That's a lot of
Speaker 2: information packed into a brief period of time. You're a
Speaker 2: great communicator. I'm sure you equally or even better surgical bristoncologists,
Speaker 2: but you gave the clearest answers of many of the
Speaker 2: physicians that I've had. So I just want to say
Speaker 2: thanks very much again doctor now dello, and again long
Speaker 2: day for I know most of you start early, those
Speaker 2: of you who are as surgeons, and thanks very much
Speaker 2: for being with us tonight. You may have helped some
Speaker 2: people in my audience tonight, or maybe some people in
Speaker 2: my audience tonight will carry the message on to other
Speaker 2: men and to others in their family. So hopefully you
Speaker 2: did a lot of good tonight.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for your John, Thank you Dan,
Speaker 4: thanks for spreading the message.
Speaker 2: You bet you anytime. We'll do it again. We'll do
Speaker 2: it again. Doctor Sam Nardello, surgical breast oncologist at Toft's Medicine,
Speaker 2: works both at Tough's Medical Center and at the Melrose
Speaker 2: Wakefield Hospital within the Toughs Medicine Health System. All right, now,
Speaker 2: when we get back, we're going to have our one
Speaker 2: non doctor of this eight o'clock hour, and it's going
Speaker 2: to be Salem Mayor Dominic Pangalo, and we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about Salem's haunted happenings. Oh, that's where you either
Speaker 2: want to be on Halloween or the place in the
Speaker 2: world you don't want to be. We'll talk with the
Speaker 2: Mayor of Salem right after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, back to the calls now, and we are
Speaker 2: delighted to introduce the Mayor of Salem, which will be
Speaker 2: the center of the universe on Halloween. Mayor Mayor just
Speaker 2: Dominic Bengalo. You we got a busy month coming up,
Speaker 2: by assume, how are you tonight?
Speaker 5: It's been a busy month last month and a half here,
Speaker 5: so it's a busy season.
Speaker 2: I am absolutely certain it is. I mean, how much
Speaker 2: prep when do you I assume you begin prepping this
Speaker 2: probably last November my right or wrong?
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have after action meetings, we start talking about
Speaker 5: what worked what didn't work in November, and we work
Speaker 5: all year long to prepare for October and even mid
Speaker 5: September when we really start seeing the increase in visitors.
Speaker 2: Just a point it in context. Salem at this point,
Speaker 2: how big a city is it. Does it have a
Speaker 2: couple of three thousand people?
Speaker 5: No? No, Salem is a city of forty four thousand
Speaker 5: people in eight square miles. And last year in October,
Speaker 5: we had about one point two million visits to the
Speaker 5: city just in October, so you.
Speaker 2: Had the equivalent maybe of about twenty five visitors for
Speaker 2: every resident.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we have four thousand parking spaces downtown, so
Speaker 5: you can do the map about the parking situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So is there a website where people can go
Speaker 2: and get all the information they need about what's going
Speaker 2: on and when is it going on so they can
Speaker 2: time their visit And then I know what you're going
Speaker 2: to tell us about driving into Salem. So let's hear
Speaker 2: that too, Go right ahead, mayor.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, So the website is haunted Happenings dot org.
Speaker 5: Haunted Happenings is the month long celebration. It's hundreds of
Speaker 5: privately organized events, fairs, balls, haunted houses, attractions, parades, all
Speaker 5: kinds of activities that are happening in Salem. You can
Speaker 5: find out more about those events at Haunted Happenings dot org.
Speaker 5: And really we encourage people take the train, take the ferry,
Speaker 5: take your broom. Don't drive to Salem. There's not enough parking.
Speaker 5: You're going to spend a lot of time sitting in
Speaker 5: traffic if you drive, and it's not going to be
Speaker 5: a fun experience for you. The train from Boston's only
Speaker 5: a half hour, it runs regularly, it's very affordable. On
Speaker 5: weekends in October, we have a ferry from Boston and
Speaker 5: Long Wharf, and this year we're running a ferry from
Speaker 5: hang Them on the South Shore as well, So if
Speaker 5: you're coming from the South Shore, get to hang Them.
Speaker 5: Take the ferry. It's about a forty five to fifty.
Speaker 3: Five minute boat ride.
Speaker 5: It's very pleasant, and that takes you right to our
Speaker 5: historic waterfront.
Speaker 2: Now, my listeners know that I don't do scripted interviews,
Speaker 2: so I sometimes will ask a question to which there
Speaker 2: really is not an answer, But I always like to
Speaker 2: ask questions. That's that's basically what I do for a living,
Speaker 2: done that most of my life. So of all the people,
Speaker 2: this one point two five million people who will come
Speaker 2: and visit, do you folks in Salem have any idea
Speaker 2: about how many continents or how many countries have someone
Speaker 2: come there? I mean, I would assume that over time
Speaker 2: you've you've kind of realized that not all those one
Speaker 2: point twenty five million are coming from the nowesth Shore.
Speaker 3: Definitely not.
Speaker 5: We have a lot of international travel. I mean, the
Speaker 5: October tourism in Salem is really a boon for the
Speaker 5: entire region and for the Commonwealth. We fill hotels across
Speaker 5: the north Shore and into Boston along the commuter rail
Speaker 5: line on the Newburyport Rockport Line. People will fly here
Speaker 5: from other countries and other continents, travel from other states
Speaker 5: to experience Salem in October. And if you're one of
Speaker 5: those people, we encourage you to plan ahead and think
Speaker 5: about traveling and other times of the year, because what
Speaker 5: makes Salem special and magical in October it's all there.
Speaker 5: In November, it's all there. In February and June, we're
Speaker 5: here at twelve months of the year.
Speaker 2: So I'm just I'm curious and this. Have you ever
Speaker 2: met someone from I don't know, you know, New Zealand
Speaker 2: or some far away place that you look at them
Speaker 2: and you say, you've come from where? I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, somewhere like that.
Speaker 3: I mean yeah.
Speaker 5: We have a lot of international We have a lot
Speaker 5: of international travel from Asia, we have we welcome people
Speaker 5: from Europe. We had a group of dancing which is
Speaker 5: from Germany coming to city Hall about two weeks ago
Speaker 5: to visit, which is a lot of fun. So people
Speaker 5: come from all over the world. They celebrate Halloween, they
Speaker 5: celebrate history, and they get a little taste of what
Speaker 5: our historic city has to offer.
Speaker 2: Now, how is it that the legend of Salem, the
Speaker 2: history of Salem has so penetrated not just in America,
Speaker 2: but as you indicated, around the world. I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: sure there are cities in Germany that or other countries
Speaker 2: around the world that people go to. I just had
Speaker 2: some listeners. We took a trip with WBC listeners to Rome.
Speaker 2: We went to Rome and the Mouthea Coast, and a
Speaker 2: year ago we were in Ireland in Dublin, and those
Speaker 2: are the cities to think of. But I think sometimes,
Speaker 2: you know, people come to America, go to New York
Speaker 2: and Washington, d C. Maybe Boston, But Salem is such
Speaker 2: a fun city. How does the word get out there?
Speaker 5: I mean, it gets out there for sure. We're Salem
Speaker 5: has a notoriety because of what happened in sixteen ninety
Speaker 5: two that can never be changed and the impact of.
Speaker 2: We're not even going to talk about that.
Speaker 5: The impact of the witch trials affected the American jurisprudence,
Speaker 5: that affected our values. But Salem's history is connected to
Speaker 5: the American Revolution, It's connected to American literature, the abolitionist movement, architecture,
Speaker 5: maritime history, and trade. There's so many connections that you know.
Speaker 5: We love when people come for Halloween fun and they're
Speaker 5: surprised by the stories they discover about our connections to
Speaker 5: so much about America's history. In twenty twenty six, Salem
Speaker 5: turns four hundred years old. We'll have our quad centennial.
Speaker 5: We're getting ready for a big party that year and
Speaker 5: really speaks to how we look to our past and
Speaker 5: informs our future. And we love to share our story
Speaker 5: with the world.
Speaker 2: So Salem four hundred years old, Yeah, Salem was founded
Speaker 2: in what year I'm trying to do.
Speaker 5: The map, sixteen twenty six was the.
Speaker 2: Twenty six I mean they landed at Plymouth in sixteen twenty.
Speaker 2: I couldn't walk. It would take me six six years
Speaker 2: to get up the coast to Salem. That's I did
Speaker 2: not realize that in terms of the oldest cities in America.
Speaker 2: Obviously you're amongst the oldest cities in America. Is there
Speaker 2: any sort of a sort of a standing that says
Speaker 2: Salem is the twentieth oldest city or I'm just curious.
Speaker 2: I would think that someone must have.
Speaker 5: Been research on that, not that I'm familiar with offhand.
Speaker 5: It's pretty early for European arrival because of you know,
Speaker 5: just the settling in Massachusetts Bay Colony by the Europeans
Speaker 5: was fairly early in the arrival of Europeans on this continent.
Speaker 5: But it's it's up there in terms of age. You know,
Speaker 5: America is going to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth
Speaker 5: anniversary of the American Revolution that same year, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 5: seventeen seventy six, and we're excited to tell Salem story
Speaker 5: about our connections to the revolution. And what happened with
Speaker 5: the gunpowder raid unless there's retreat. And the first meeting
Speaker 5: of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was actually in Salem before
Speaker 5: they moved to Concord. But really Salem's history and its
Speaker 5: influence on the development of the nation go back even
Speaker 5: further than the twenty fifty year mark. So we're ready
Speaker 5: to celebrate in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable Boston was founded. I think Boston has had its
Speaker 2: three hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and I think Boston was
Speaker 2: founded in sixteen thirty, so you were founded before Boston.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Boston, it's a yeah, Boston's a quaint little suburb
Speaker 5: of the greater Salem area.
Speaker 2: Spoken like the Mayor of Salem, and it is the
Speaker 2: mayor of Salem, Dominic Pangalo, Mayor. I enjoyed the conversation,
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. It was very informative and it
Speaker 2: was fun. Appreciate it a lot.
Speaker 3: You're very welcome. Thanks.
Speaker 2: Okay, talk to you soon when we get back. We're
Speaker 2: going to talk about We're going to talk with an
Speaker 2: author and speaker and a board certified psychiatrist, believe it
Speaker 2: or not. In a few days. We're going to move
Speaker 2: those clocks, which at spring forward and fall back. We're
Speaker 2: going to we' g in the game an hour of sleep,
Speaker 2: but it's also gonna it's gonna disrupt our our internal clocks.
Speaker 2: We'll explain with doctor Susan Truckman right after this break
Speaker 2: on night Side.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World,
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on w b Z, the news Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, we are delighted to be joined by a
Speaker 2: bird sort of board certified psychiatrist, author and speaker, doctor
Speaker 2: Susan Truckman, double board certified in adult psychiatry and forensic
Speaker 2: psychiatry with over thirty years of clinical and academic experience.
Speaker 2: Double board certified. I like that, that's for sure. It's
Speaker 2: almost like double secret probation.
Speaker 6: If of it's just a lot of paper, and it's
Speaker 6: a lot of paper.
Speaker 2: I got it, I got it. I gotta get a
Speaker 2: good sense of here. Thank you. I'm sure you did
Speaker 2: a lot of work to be double board certified. It's
Speaker 2: almost time to change the clocks. Not this weekend, but
Speaker 2: is it Halloween weekend? Are the eight weekend after Halloween?
Speaker 6: Oh gosh, I think I dreaded so much that I
Speaker 6: probably you know, haven't looked it up, but it is
Speaker 6: coming all right.
Speaker 2: Well, one of my friends are going to going to
Speaker 2: look it up for us and they'll tell it to
Speaker 2: me in my ear. But I think it's the weekend following.
Speaker 2: It might be actually the weekend before the election on
Speaker 2: Tuesday the fifth.
Speaker 6: Oh, that'll make everyone real happy.
Speaker 2: Well, well, it's it's one hour. If exs to sleep.
Speaker 2: I love the fall because it's spring full, would fall back?
Speaker 2: I get an extra yeah, sleep, I mean plus November third.
Speaker 2: I was right, doctor, how about that?
Speaker 6: Intuitively you're better than me, then you're better than me.
Speaker 6: Like you said, I haven't been paying attention because I think,
Speaker 6: you know, I am one of those folks who really
Speaker 6: would prefer that we would just pick one and just
Speaker 6: leave it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a little frightening that first Sunday evening when
Speaker 7: all of a sudden it's getting dark at four thirty,
Speaker 7: and you say, wait a second going on here. But
Speaker 7: it's nice that moment that morning, if you're going to
Speaker 7: some sort of religious service, all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 7: actually a little like daylight. So this this does impact
Speaker 7: the circadian rhythms of animals.
Speaker 6: As it impacts the circadian mythimum of all of us
Speaker 6: and of us you know, I noticed that even you know,
Speaker 6: my animals. When I have to get up and it's
Speaker 6: dark and the alarm goes off, I look at them
Speaker 6: and and they're sound asleep, and I go, okay, it's
Speaker 6: time to get up, and they're looking at me like,
Speaker 6: are you serious? Are you serious?
Speaker 2: So we also very smart, are very smart?
Speaker 6: They are, they are, and we are all really affected
Speaker 6: by the sun. And and that's the basis of the
Speaker 6: circadian rhythm. And the circadian rhythm is a twenty four
Speaker 6: hour rhythm that basically regulates you know, many human behaviors, sleep, mood, appetite, energy,
Speaker 6: and it's hot, it's easier in the fall all to
Speaker 6: fall back, and not just so much more that we
Speaker 6: get more sleep, but we are less affected by the
Speaker 6: change in light. And the two the key, the two
Speaker 6: elements that are most important in changing time and how
Speaker 6: it affects human health and human mental health is number one,
Speaker 6: the amount of daylight that we get, and I can
Speaker 6: go into that in just a moment. And number two
Speaker 6: is the effect on sleep, and that's the more critical one.
Speaker 2: But the amount of daylight doctor, and you're the expert.
Speaker 2: I'm not. But the amount of daylight doesn't change. It's
Speaker 2: just you get it at a different time, so you
Speaker 2: well in the morning and you'll lose it in the afternoon.
Speaker 6: Right, true, but that also affects our sleep. And the
Speaker 6: way that it affects our sleep is if we get
Speaker 6: up in the fall, and we get up and it's
Speaker 6: effectively you know, an hour later, Yeah, we get more sunlight,
Speaker 6: and the brain thinks, okay, great time to wake up. However,
Speaker 6: it actually kind of throws off the sleep cycle in
Speaker 6: that the hormone melatonin that is important in the process
Speaker 6: of sleep is also affected by light. And people do
Speaker 6: tend to feel sleepier in the winter, and that is
Speaker 6: possibly one of the reasons is that you're spending more
Speaker 6: time in darkness, and so your brain thinks, oh, okay, darkness,
Speaker 6: we produce more malatonin. We're going to get sleepy. So
Speaker 6: you've heard of seasonal effective disorder, which is akin to
Speaker 6: the hibernation in bears, for example, Right, so they hybernate
Speaker 6: in winter. Well what do humans do? Humans kind of
Speaker 6: they get more sluggish, they exercise less. We're spending less
Speaker 6: time in daylight, we're spending less time outdoors, we're spending
Speaker 6: less time socializing because it gets cold and people stay indoors.
Speaker 6: And guess what that can contribute to depression, which is
Speaker 6: why depression is higher in folks who are predisposed to
Speaker 6: mood disorders in the winter. It also has an impact
Speaker 6: on how our brains produce an important neurochemical called serotonin,
Speaker 6: Meaning the less daylight your brain is exposed to, the
Speaker 6: less likely it is to produce serotonin, which we think
Speaker 6: also is an influence and why people are more depressed
Speaker 6: or some people are more depressed in the winter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's seasonal disorder. I am very familiar with it.
Speaker 2: I have someone who I know is who's a public
Speaker 2: figure who has dealt with that and dealt with in
Speaker 2: a very public way, very public way, to her credit.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's still it's still funny. The push
Speaker 2: for you know, daylight savings time, I believe came from
Speaker 2: farmers across the country who wanted to be able to
Speaker 2: see the sun a little earlier in the morning when
Speaker 2: they were doing them morning choice. Is that folk tale
Speaker 2: or is that actually true?
Speaker 6: Well, the truth is, I mean, there's two stories that
Speaker 6: are told about the beginning of daylight saving time. One
Speaker 6: was that Benjamin Franklin wrote a piece in one of
Speaker 6: the Parisian newspapers kind of as a joke, suggesting that
Speaker 6: the Parisian should get up earlier because they would use
Speaker 6: less oil in their oil lamps that way. However, he
Speaker 6: intended it as a joke. But then there was an
Speaker 6: American entomologist, which is someone who studies bugs, and he
Speaker 6: thought that daylight saving time was a great idea because
Speaker 6: then people could get up earlier and have more daylight
Speaker 6: to go find bugs. Most people don't tell.
Speaker 2: That in the winter time, there's not too many bugs around.
Speaker 6: I mean, well, they're there, but they're sleeping, so I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, if you're looking for bugs, it's harder to
Speaker 6: find them when it's dark. But I think most people's
Speaker 6: or not. I thought, don't care.
Speaker 2: I'm not an entomologist, No, what do I play with
Speaker 2: in the radio. But I thought that bugs buried themselves
Speaker 2: like in tree bark or underground, and you don't see
Speaker 2: any bugs until sometime up here in Boston up you know,
Speaker 2: sometime in late April or early main they say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember that that's an inn, yeah or whatever.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but they come out in the daylight right, because
Speaker 6: there's more daylight starting in April. Oh yeah, I know that.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying if you look at if you look
Speaker 2: at for bugs in December and January different, I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But so the thing about the farmers is really, you know,
Speaker 2: a fairy tale. I thought that was the people who
Speaker 2: pushed to get it done and have pushed against those
Speaker 2: in Congress who wanted to change it back to the
Speaker 2: way it used to they should be before.
Speaker 6: No, I mean, I think you're right. And when when
Speaker 6: this country, you know, it was more of an agrarian society,
Speaker 6: you know that made sense. But you know, as the
Speaker 6: time has gone by, you know, we're less and less
Speaker 6: of an agrarian society. And you know, the majority of us,
Speaker 6: you know, go buy a nine to five schedule during
Speaker 6: the week, you know, including kids who go to school,
Speaker 6: and they're very much affected by the change in time.
Speaker 2: I want you to know, doctor, Yeah, I really want
Speaker 2: you know this. You're talking to someone who has never
Speaker 2: had a nine to five schedule. I worked in television years.
Speaker 2: I worked on the late news, and I worked on
Speaker 2: the early morning news, and now I do a talk
Speaker 2: show from eight to midnight Monday through Friday. Been doing
Speaker 2: this for eighteen years. I've and whenever I drive and
Speaker 2: there's like other cars on the road, I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 2: how do people handle it? Ni?
Speaker 6: Oh, listen, you don't know what you've been missing.
Speaker 2: I've been in traffic though you travel a lot, and
Speaker 2: you've been in traffic, particularly down in your neck of
Speaker 2: the woods in the DC area.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed this conversation. You're you're a fun interview
Speaker 2: and I'm serious.
Speaker 6: Thank you us.
Speaker 2: It's a serious subject, but you're a good sport and
Speaker 2: I can see why you're double board certified in adult
Speaker 2: psychiatry and friends.
Speaker 6: Like I said, it's just a lot of paper. But
Speaker 6: thank you for having me. I very much enjoyed this.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much. We'll have you back. Thanks
Speaker 2: very much, Doctor Susan Trouckman.
Speaker 6: Alrighty, take care bye.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so November third will be the day when we
Speaker 2: change the clocks by an hour. When we get back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about question number three on the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts ballot, and that is the question that deals with
Speaker 2: the potential for Uber and Lyft drivers to form and
Speaker 2: join a union. This is a confusing question, but we'll
Speaker 2: sort it out not only tonight at nine, but tomorrow
Speaker 2: night as well. So we're going to have both sides
Speaker 2: of this issue on back to back nights, which is
Speaker 2: the way you should do it in radio. Coming back
Speaker 2: on nightside