Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: What a great segue by Nicole Davis. Nicole, as always,
Speaker 2: thank you very much. I am the aforementioned Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: Ready to rock and roll all the way until midnight tonight,
Speaker 2: or just a couple of minutes short of midnight, about
Speaker 2: eleven fifty eight. We have guests lined up, a guest
Speaker 2: lined up. We have many guests this hour for in fact,
Speaker 2: and we have some great topics. We will talk with
Speaker 2: the Biden administration Regional administrator for the EPA here in
Speaker 2: New England about old power itch issues, power options here
Speaker 2: in New England for all of us, as we've just
Speaker 2: gone through a very cold winter, which is still kind
Speaker 2: of cold for late March in my opinion. Baseball just
Speaker 2: around the corner tomorrow the Red Sox open up. The
Speaker 2: season actually underway already with the with the games over
Speaker 2: in Japan, so we got We will talk with David Cash,
Speaker 2: Dave Cash, former Regional Administrator the EPA here in what's
Speaker 2: called Region one, New England under the Biden administration. We'll
Speaker 2: also continue our conversation about.
Speaker 3: The Yemen signal chat.
Speaker 2: And all of the controversy that that has generated. I
Speaker 2: have strong opinions on it, and I'd like to share
Speaker 2: them with you, but more importantly, I want to hear
Speaker 2: your opinions. However, we have a four very interesting guest coming.
Speaker 3: Up on a variety of topics.
Speaker 2: Here, a little bit of financial planning, and we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about weight, drugs, Willgovie and zip Bound and
Speaker 2: going to talk about some budget tips for a budget
Speaker 2: friendly vacation this summer, and also a little bit about gardening.
Speaker 2: So we're going to start it off Chris Carosa. Chris
Speaker 2: is a certified trust and fiduciary advisor, senior contributor to Forbes,
Speaker 2: and author of Hey What's My Number? How to improve
Speaker 2: the odds You'll retire in comfort? That is a question
Speaker 2: that if all of us, at some point during our
Speaker 2: life have to think about.
Speaker 3: Chris corros So, Welcome to night, Satt How are you tonight?
Speaker 4: Hey, I'm doing great over here.
Speaker 3: How are you just fine?
Speaker 2: I certainly do understand we're talking about the idea if
Speaker 2: there's a recession on the horizon. I'm not someone who
Speaker 2: anticipates a recession, but recessions do occur in our economy,
Speaker 2: and I have always thought that the cruelest tax on
Speaker 2: retired people seniors is the inflation tax, which of course
Speaker 2: is not a tax per se, but when an inflation
Speaker 2: hits and the cost of everything goes up, people who
Speaker 2: are in fixed incomes, who have worked all their lives,
Speaker 2: they feel the front of it. The corollary of that is,
Speaker 2: can retirees perhaps have a little bit of a benefit
Speaker 2: from a recession? And most people probably would not look
Speaker 2: at it that way, But we're asking you to look
Speaker 2: at it that way, and I suspect that you're going
Speaker 2: to probably say, yes, what's your thought on that?
Speaker 4: There are a couple of ways that you can benefit
Speaker 4: from a recession if you're retired again, it depends on
Speaker 4: your circumstances. If you're going into recession carrying a debt load, Generally,
Speaker 4: in recessions, interest rates go down, so it gives you
Speaker 4: an opportunity to refinance. Even on the inflation side, you
Speaker 4: do have some discretion on what you're doing with your spending,
Speaker 4: and probably a little bit more than if you're working. So,
Speaker 4: for example, if you're working, you're going to have to
Speaker 4: travel to work, and that costs energy to do, and
Speaker 4: energy generally is inflation hits the hardest lot. I mean,
Speaker 4: anybody who buys gas will see that. So that's something
Speaker 4: you don't have to do you're in retirement. But there
Speaker 4: is one thing that I see more and more popping
Speaker 4: up at least interest in it, and I have done
Speaker 4: articles on this too. I know it's a little bit
Speaker 4: different than what you're talking about, but the way that
Speaker 4: seniors will tackle inflation or just the need for extra
Speaker 4: money is by turning some other hobbies into maybe sort
Speaker 4: of like a side hustle.
Speaker 3: Of a little bit.
Speaker 4: It's not a real, like the intensive type of business
Speaker 4: where you have all the strategic planning and all that.
Speaker 4: It's really something like, you know, selling food on a
Speaker 4: fruit stand, the equivalent of that. It's easy to do.
Speaker 4: The markets are usually something that the person's very familiar with.
Speaker 4: Like I say, if it's a hobby, they know what
Speaker 4: other hobbyists like, and they've probably got the experience where
Speaker 4: they can come up with ideas on how to turn
Speaker 4: that experience into some sort of product or service that
Speaker 4: other hobbyists would pay them to do. Well. I think
Speaker 4: that's certainly an opportunity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the distinction you're making is someone once
Speaker 2: said to me, find your passion in life. Find to
Speaker 2: find a way to work in your career and do
Speaker 2: something that you really like, and therefore you'll never really
Speaker 2: work a day in your life because I come to
Speaker 2: work every day.
Speaker 3: I like what I do.
Speaker 2: Uh, some days are tougher than others, I will admit,
Speaker 2: but I like what I do, and I feel that
Speaker 2: I've been blessed with a career in both television and radio,
Speaker 2: which you know has has carried me for more years
Speaker 2: than I care to admit. And if if a senior,
Speaker 2: you know the idea of retirement. When I was young,
Speaker 2: back as a baby boomer, you got to sixty five,
Speaker 2: you get the wristwatch from the company you worked for,
Speaker 2: and you had your sol security check and it was
Speaker 2: you were all set. Well. I figured out sometime in
Speaker 2: my twenties that so security wasn't probably going to do
Speaker 2: it for me.
Speaker 3: So I I and a lot of other people did
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: I'm working well past sixty five by choice. I could
Speaker 2: retire if I want to, but I enjoy the stimulation.
Speaker 2: And there's if you do have a side hustle, even
Speaker 2: if you are now retired from that nine to five
Speaker 2: job or that forty hour week job, and you have
Speaker 2: a side hustle, even if it's something like I don't know,
Speaker 2: being sort of a handyman that can help some neighbors
Speaker 2: save some money.
Speaker 3: So when they have a small.
Speaker 2: Problem, instead of instead of calling a carpenter or plumber,
Speaker 2: you could be the handyman of the street who could
Speaker 2: get around and make a few dollars and save your
Speaker 2: neighbors some money. Something like that, I think is what
Speaker 2: you're talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, a lot of it is planning ahead,
Speaker 4: and I'll tell you just to piking back off what
Speaker 4: you said. I opened my book Hey What's My Number
Speaker 4: with a story about what I did when I felt
Speaker 4: when I was a kid, I would see people retire
Speaker 4: and then they would die very soon after they retired.
Speaker 4: So I decided very early when I was a kid,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm going to try to figure it
Speaker 4: out a way not to retire. Maybe it'll prog along
Speaker 4: my life. So I did exactly what you did. I
Speaker 4: picked a profession that I would enjoy doing that is
Speaker 4: more mental than physical, so I won't have that to
Speaker 4: worry too much about. But it's something that I could
Speaker 4: do well into really my seventies if I chose to
Speaker 4: and that's the sort of thing that I would like
Speaker 4: to do. But there's enough I already.
Speaker 2: I will confess to you, Chris, I am well into
Speaker 2: my seventies, okay, and I still enjoy what I do.
Speaker 2: I will tell you. When I was very young, I
Speaker 2: thought about it'd be kind of cool to be a lumberjack.
Speaker 2: Took me about three days to figure out what a
Speaker 2: lumberjack does, so I kind of gave up on that dream.
Speaker 3: You know a long time.
Speaker 2: And I'm like you, I I talk for a living,
Speaker 2: and I know that, and I have to think and talk,
Speaker 2: and I know that you have to think and calculate
Speaker 2: for a living.
Speaker 3: And so you know you're not developing callouses on.
Speaker 2: Your hands, you and you're keeping your brain active. So
Speaker 2: that's tell us about your book. Here is your book
Speaker 2: available at this point it's the author is hey. I
Speaker 2: like that reminds me of Willie Mays to say, hey kid,
Speaker 2: what's my number? How to improve the odds you will
Speaker 2: retire and comfort? Where can folks get that?
Speaker 4: So you can get it anywhere any bookstore, Amazon, wherever
Speaker 4: you go. The way I remember it isn't with baseball,
Speaker 4: it's actually with a Broadway. You know that song. Hey,
Speaker 4: look me over. It's like, hey, what's my number?
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, lend me an ear right? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's good. Now I get it.
Speaker 2: I totally, I totally get what you're saying. Look, I
Speaker 2: really enjoyed this. And folks, can they get in touch
Speaker 2: with you? Some of my guests, they say they give
Speaker 2: out a website where people.
Speaker 3: Can reach them. Are you willing to do that?
Speaker 4: Sure, it's really easy. It's my name rosa dot com.
Speaker 4: Just go there and you'll see what I write about.
Speaker 4: And if you want to get a hold of me,
Speaker 4: there's ways to do that through that website.
Speaker 2: So simply Chris C H R I S. And it's
Speaker 2: Corosa C A R O s A dot com.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's great.
Speaker 2: Appreciate the time, Chris. I'd love to have you back.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed talking with you. Thanks, thank you so.
Speaker 4: Much, thank you.
Speaker 3: Good bye, all right, bye bye, we'll come back.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about something that is really of
Speaker 2: interest to some of my listeners, and that is the
Speaker 2: popular drugs used for weight loss.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And we're going to talk with doctor Lydier Alexander. So,
Speaker 2: if you have any thoughts about Wigovi or zep bound
Speaker 2: you want to listen carefully. We'll be back on night
Speaker 2: Side right after this. My name is Dan Ray. This
Speaker 2: is WBZ Boston ten thirty and your AM dial. You
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Speaker 2: anywhere in the world, anywhere, anywhere in all twenty four
Speaker 2: time zones, both north and south of the equator, I
Speaker 2: mean anywhere. We'll be back right after the break here
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on wb News Radio.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone. Delighted to introduce you to.
Speaker 2: Doctor Lyda Alexander. She's currently the president of the Obesity
Speaker 2: Medical Association OMA, a board certified expert in obesity medicine,
Speaker 2: lifestyle medicine, and internal medicine. Doctor Alexander, welcome to Night's Side.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, Dan.
Speaker 2: So we're going to talk I know a little bit
Speaker 2: about some of these drugs. I'm familiar with with goovi,
Speaker 2: I've never heard of zepbound. Is zep bound a goovy knockoff.
Speaker 5: Zetbound is an FDAY approved medication from a different manufacturer.
Speaker 5: It's a new kid on the black. It's been around
Speaker 5: for about a year or so.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's late to the game here. WEGOVI has
Speaker 2: been advertising so much. I mean, I think everybody knows
Speaker 2: WEGOVI and zep bound is. When I say the word knockoff,
Speaker 2: what I mean is something similar to wegov.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's a it's the medication to treat obesity.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, what is the problem that we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about here? There was a they soon may become available.
Speaker 2: They may soon no longer be available because the US
Speaker 2: federal judge declined an initial injunction to allow compounding pharmacies
Speaker 2: to continue making versions. Uh these other versions of a
Speaker 2: coved and zip bound them a little confused by the.
Speaker 6: Language and and and rightfully so, because it is confusing
Speaker 6: language to uh, definitely to to some medical providers as
Speaker 6: well as the public in general.
Speaker 5: When govy and zep bound are both FDA approved medications
Speaker 5: that have that have been researched and uh and and
Speaker 5: are being and studied extensively, and they also have the
Speaker 5: under undergo FDA regulations and oversight when they're produced, and
Speaker 5: and they have to be certain strict criteria. Compounded medications
Speaker 5: compounded g LP one specifically that are knockoffs of with
Speaker 5: GOV and ZEB bound do not undergo f d A
Speaker 5: rigorous testing. They're they're not they don't have FDA oversight,
Speaker 5: and so buyer beware on those medications. So what's happened
Speaker 5: is a judge has ruled that since the shortage of
Speaker 5: the real medications has ended, it is no longer okay
Speaker 5: or acceptable to UH to continue to make these medications
Speaker 5: to meet demand.
Speaker 4: And in fact.
Speaker 5: There's a gray market now of of other UH you know,
Speaker 5: other entities making these okay.
Speaker 3: So excuse let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2: If I can, and I know a little bit about
Speaker 2: goovy through the experiences of a friend of mine, WEGOV
Speaker 2: cannot be prescribed, as I understand it, for weight loss.
Speaker 2: If weight loss is a sign.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 5: So what GOV is actually FDA approved for exactly that
Speaker 5: condition to treat UH, to treat obesity, to treat for
Speaker 5: chronic weight management. And that's the one and only indication
Speaker 5: for WA GOV. The zep bound has two indications obstructive
Speaker 5: sleep apnea and treating weight and UH and so they
Speaker 5: so UH medical providers are allowed and should be prescribing
Speaker 5: these medications specifically for obesity.
Speaker 2: Okay, then let me let me let me change my
Speaker 2: understanding that My understanding is that if it is prescribed
Speaker 2: for something like, oh, let's say someone UH has uh
Speaker 2: adema in their ankles because their heart is not functioning
Speaker 2: in one hundred percent capacity UH and they their ankles
Speaker 2: become endemic H or endemic UH, that the doctors have
Speaker 2: to make make it very clear for this to be
Speaker 2: covered from an insurance point of view, that the primary
Speaker 2: purpose here is not just weight loss, but it's medical benefit.
Speaker 2: I hope I'm not wrong on that, because I think
Speaker 2: I'm correct.
Speaker 5: Yes, you're yeah, you are correct on that. The issue
Speaker 5: is really not so much that the FDA hasn't approved
Speaker 5: zep bound and what go be to treat obesity and
Speaker 5: also to treat all the common chronic conditions that come
Speaker 5: along with obesity. So what you've mentioned, which is heart
Speaker 5: failure and also other cardiovascular disease, improves when we treat weight.
Speaker 5: So when we treat the root cause, which is way
Speaker 5: all the fruits of obesity improved too. And the issue
Speaker 5: we're having is that insurance companies. Only about half of
Speaker 5: insurance companies are willing to cover obesity medications, and therein
Speaker 5: lies the big issue that.
Speaker 3: So that's.
Speaker 5: That is what insurance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, doctor, that is what I was getting at that
Speaker 2: many doctors, at least here in Massachusetts, which I know best,
Speaker 2: cannot prescribe it for weight loss primarily for the patient
Speaker 2: unless the patient is willing and prepared to pay through
Speaker 2: the nose. And even in cases where some doctors have
Speaker 2: prescribed it for heart related issues which include a dema
Speaker 2: that that they get a little bit of a pushback.
Speaker 2: The other problem with REGOVI and I want to address
Speaker 2: this because I want people to know this. Okay, I
Speaker 2: lost thirty five pounds ten years ago. I went from
Speaker 2: twoh five to one seventy and I've stayed there for
Speaker 2: ten years. I did it through a program called Awaken
Speaker 2: one to eight, which I firmly believe in nothing to
Speaker 2: do with medication, nothing to do with pills. My understanding
Speaker 2: is THEGOV a good percentage the pay of the patients
Speaker 2: have side effects, including specifically nausea, and that they have
Speaker 2: to once they're on MCGOVY. On some of these weight
Speaker 2: loss drugs, it may sound like a pantas or initially,
Speaker 2: but my understanding is once you lose the weight, you
Speaker 2: got to stay on the drug because if not, the
Speaker 2: weight has the tendency to come back to you if
Speaker 2: you if you get off the drug. Am I right
Speaker 2: on those points?
Speaker 5: Well, First of all, I want to commend you that
Speaker 5: that is absolutely wonderful to hear that you successfully lost
Speaker 5: weight and maintained it for such a long period of
Speaker 5: time and continue to do so. There's actually an ongoing
Speaker 5: registry called the National Weight Control Registry that followed individuals
Speaker 5: who have done exactly what you've done. And I lost
Speaker 5: weight successfully and kept it off for more than a year.
Speaker 3: Signing up, Sign me up because I weigh y?
Speaker 5: Yeah you should.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I weigh in.
Speaker 2: Every month, and I have weighed in every month one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty months nearly now, but it's about one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixteen months, always under one seventy with clothes on.
Speaker 2: So but put that aside. Come back to the side
Speaker 2: effects of we'll go over because I want people to
Speaker 2: realize that that you can do it. A lot of
Speaker 2: different ways, but if you try to do it with pills,
Speaker 2: it's not maybe as simple as it as it sounds.
Speaker 2: And that there's also a difficulty of maintaining the weight
Speaker 2: when you lose that with pills, because if you don't
Speaker 2: stay with the pills, which can be expensive, the weight
Speaker 2: in most cases are going to come back again. If
Speaker 2: I'm wrong on this, I don't want to be giving
Speaker 2: people bad advice. But I've learned this through friends of mine,
Speaker 2: and I hope that you can either confirm or correct me.
Speaker 5: So the answer is that it is correct that weight
Speaker 5: that weight loss and keeping it off for a long
Speaker 5: period of time can be done without medication for some individuals.
Speaker 5: Not everybody is able to achieve that, even if they've
Speaker 5: been implementing all the different lifestyle interventions. And I'd like
Speaker 5: to highlight here the lifestyle the importance of intensive lifestyle interventions,
Speaker 5: similar to what you have been implementing over the course
Speaker 5: of the last decade. It's really important to keep on
Speaker 5: top of things to have, you know, to have a
Speaker 5: good nutritional pattern, physical activity, behavioral modification, whether or not
Speaker 5: you're choosing to take medications. And the reason for that
Speaker 5: is because it decreases the side effects of the medications,
Speaker 5: and it also increases the lifespan of the results that
Speaker 5: we're trying to achieve, which is to keep the weight
Speaker 5: off for a long period of time. The difference here
Speaker 5: for some people is that for many people, in fact,
Speaker 5: their weight regulatory system can be broken, and it can
Speaker 5: be it can be temporarily broken, or it can be
Speaker 5: like permanently broken. And so when you you know, when
Speaker 5: you unravel some of the you know, some of this
Speaker 5: vicious cycle, reverse type two diabetes, treat sleep apnea, decrease stress,
Speaker 5: and improve your lifestyle and weight comes off, there can
Speaker 5: be a virtuous cycle where you're undoing some of that
Speaker 5: damage to the weightness, to the weight mechanism, the bodies
Speaker 5: innate innate weight mechanism system. And for some people that
Speaker 5: works and then they are able to manage their weight
Speaker 5: effectively with fewer medications. For other individuals, it's not possible.
Speaker 5: And they have been trying for years. They've done they've
Speaker 5: they've been to this, you know, to this rodeo many
Speaker 5: many times, and then the weight comes on and it
Speaker 5: feels so frustrating to them because they blame theirselves that
Speaker 5: they are not trying hard enough. And they don't have
Speaker 5: enough willpower to keep it off, when in fact, you know,
Speaker 5: we wouldn't blame the patient if their thyroid stopped working
Speaker 5: and we had to give them thyroid medication. And this
Speaker 5: is the four month.
Speaker 2: Doctor Alexander, I just want to get because I don't
Speaker 2: often to get a chance to speak to an expert
Speaker 2: like you.
Speaker 3: There are side effects for MCGOVI, including nausea.
Speaker 5: Correct, that's right, that's right. These medications do you have
Speaker 5: side effect?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. And if you do lose the weight
Speaker 2: through prescription medication, when you achieve whatever weight you would
Speaker 2: like to get to, you have to stay on that
Speaker 2: medication in order to stay where you got to. My
Speaker 2: understanding is that some of the stuff you have this
Speaker 2: is you're going to be with it for life.
Speaker 5: Well the answer, the short answer to that is we
Speaker 5: don't know. Okay, some individuals will need to be on
Speaker 5: it for life, and some maybe may need to be
Speaker 5: on it for several years, and some people may be
Speaker 5: able to come off it sooner, But we don't know
Speaker 5: the answers to that. If we think about obesity as
Speaker 5: a disease similar to treating blood pressure or sweep, that
Speaker 5: go yeah, with that, then we know, yeah, then we
Speaker 5: know some people will be able to successfully come off
Speaker 5: their their cpaths, or their blood pressure medicines, or their
Speaker 5: or their antidepressants. Some people just need any depressants for
Speaker 5: a few years, and some need them lifelong, Doctor.
Speaker 3: Alix, I'd like to have you back for a longer segment.
Speaker 2: We went over here about three minutes, which of my
Speaker 2: producer is going to be very mad at me, but
Speaker 2: I am fascinated by the subject. I'd like to maybe
Speaker 2: bring you back and maybe talk with some listeners during
Speaker 2: one of our later hours. Is there a way people
Speaker 2: can get in touch with you? Is do you have
Speaker 2: a website that you'd like to tell us about?
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, absolutely they can. They can find me on
Speaker 5: on Instagram under doctor dr dot Lydia.
Speaker 4: L y d i A.
Speaker 5: And I'm also the chief medical officer at Anara Health.
Speaker 5: It based in the San Francisco Bay area, and they
Speaker 5: can they can find me at www dot n r
Speaker 5: e n a r A health dot com. And I'm
Speaker 5: also president of they would be c Medicine Association, so
Speaker 5: you could find me in multiple ways.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll get back at you and we'll have it
Speaker 2: we'll get you back, and we'll have some listener questions
Speaker 2: as well. I've been immersed in this stuff for ten years.
Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor, no do I play one on radio.
Speaker 2: But I know my question is probably a little bit
Speaker 2: more pointed than most people would expect under these circumstances.
Speaker 2: But I just want to make sure people know the
Speaker 2: pluses and the minuses. It's as simple as that. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, they were. It's my pleasure, Dan, thank you, Thank
Speaker 5: you very much.
Speaker 3: We get back.
Speaker 2: We are going to talk about twenty tips for a
Speaker 2: budget friendly vacation. Vacation is just around the corner, you
Speaker 2: know the song V A C A T I O N.
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside with Dan Ray after this, It's.
Speaker 1: Night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: I'm delighted to be joined by Alissa Giacoby. Alyssa, how
Speaker 2: are you tonight?
Speaker 7: I'm good. Thanks, how are you great?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I'm a couple of minutes late here. You
Speaker 2: are a contributor to the Boston Globe magazine and you
Speaker 2: have an article. I read the Globe, but I tend
Speaker 2: probably not to. I pay more attention to the sports
Speaker 2: page in the news than I do to the Globe magazine.
Speaker 2: Has this article been out or said coming out this weekend?
Speaker 7: Is that article is already out. It's been out actually
Speaker 7: for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's good, so people can still find it.
Speaker 2: Twenty tips or twenty or more tips for a budget
Speaker 2: friendly vacation and five costly mistakes. We've all been on vacation,
Speaker 2: and we're all at the end of the vacation, say,
Speaker 2: I spent more money than I thought I was going
Speaker 2: to spend there, what's going on? What are the tips
Speaker 2: to make it more budget friendly? Give us a couple
Speaker 2: of the week and hang our hat on Melissa.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I think that the biggest takeaways for this,
Speaker 7: especially right now, is price is are rising generally across
Speaker 7: the board. To book as early as you can at
Speaker 7: least three months out, so right now is when you
Speaker 7: should be starting to think about summer already. You can
Speaker 7: use booking trackers like Hopper, Kayak, dot Com. Google Flights
Speaker 7: has some tracking apps so you can check flight prices.
Speaker 7: And then it's also a little bit about avoiding the
Speaker 7: peak times, which may seem obvious to some less obvious
Speaker 7: to others. People who are sort of bound by school
Speaker 7: vacations may not have that much may not have that
Speaker 7: much choice. But otherwise, if you can not travel on
Speaker 7: a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, either coming or going, you're gonna
Speaker 7: save a lot of money. You can use something midweek
Speaker 7: if you cannot travel the first you know minute the
Speaker 7: kids get out of school in June, and instead save
Speaker 7: that trip until the end of August, you're gonna do better.
Speaker 2: The other thing that I've noticed is that whenever the
Speaker 2: kids want to go get an ice cream, you better
Speaker 2: bring a big amount of money with you because ice
Speaker 2: cream cones are nine dollars, and I think it's much
Speaker 2: more fun for the kids, depending upon their age, and
Speaker 2: also a little more economical to buy some ice cream,
Speaker 2: have it in the refrigerator wherever you're staying in some
Speaker 2: ice cream cones, and have the kids make their own
Speaker 2: ice creams. I think they will have more fun with it.
Speaker 3: Is that realistic in your opinion or no?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Sure. I think that that's one reason that a lot
Speaker 7: of people are choosing to use vrbo or Airbnb short
Speaker 7: term rentals is it allows you to not have to
Speaker 7: eat all of your meals out and so you can
Speaker 7: have the ice cream you can do breakfast at home,
Speaker 7: you can have lunch at home. You also you have
Speaker 7: access to a kitchen and a little bit more space,
Speaker 7: and generally you can fit a face family or even
Speaker 7: you know, a couple of couples in one space instead
Speaker 7: of two hotel rooms.
Speaker 2: So yeah, absolutely, and you can kind of relax when
Speaker 2: you're in hotel rooms. You got to get out so
Speaker 2: they make up the room for you and whatever. I
Speaker 2: agree with you on that. So what about you said
Speaker 2: this five costly mistakes. I don't know if we've hit
Speaker 2: one of them already, but if we haven't hit all
Speaker 2: of them, is there a couple more of costly mistakes
Speaker 2: that we can learn from your article in the Boston
Speaker 2: Globe magazine a couple of weeks from a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think you know a lot of people wait
Speaker 7: and bank on a last minute deal. They think that
Speaker 7: they're going to wait and book their hotel, their flight
Speaker 7: for the very last minute. But if you have your
Speaker 7: heart set on going somewhere, it can be disappointing when
Speaker 7: that doesn't pan out. Also, a lot of times you
Speaker 7: won't be able to You might be able to fly
Speaker 7: there for cheap, but won't be able to do the
Speaker 7: things that you want to do. One trend that's happening
Speaker 7: is people are doing sort of a reverse engineer of
Speaker 7: a trip and they're backwards planning. And that just means
Speaker 7: that booking a trip based on wherever you can fly
Speaker 7: the cheapest and then sort of going back from there.
Speaker 7: But you know, that might be a budget airfare, but
Speaker 7: it also may not work out for you know, you
Speaker 7: may have to pay extra for the places you want
Speaker 7: to go, the tours you want to do. However, many
Speaker 7: people you've got with you.
Speaker 3: Okay, what about what about this?
Speaker 2: Okay, those of us in New England, most of us,
Speaker 2: I think, stick around New England. We might go to
Speaker 2: the Cape, we might go to New Hampshire. Maybe we'll
Speaker 2: go up to Maine. Some people like Vermont. Some people
Speaker 2: go to the Berkshires.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And there's also beaches. There's a big coastline in Connecticut.
Speaker 2: Is there a substantial cost differential one area a little
Speaker 2: higher or another area a little lower and you can
Speaker 2: still have the same thing. You can have the amusement
Speaker 2: park nearby, you can have uh, you can get to
Speaker 2: a beach. Uh. They're not all the same. I mean
Speaker 2: the Cape gets a little pricey, right, I.
Speaker 7: Think everywhere in New England gets a little pricey in
Speaker 7: the summer. But certainly if you can make your way
Speaker 7: inland and you're not necessarily drawn to drawn to the coast,
Speaker 7: you can save a little bit of money. Generally, the
Speaker 7: ocean front and ocean towns are going to be more
Speaker 7: expensive than lakes, but there's a you know, there's many
Speaker 7: great lakes and bodies of water that are going to
Speaker 7: sort of give you that ocean feel without having to
Speaker 7: do that. That's you're going to find that in the
Speaker 7: north of Maine. You find that all throughout Vermont. New
Speaker 7: Hampshire has got a bunch too, So I would say
Speaker 7: that I'm just sort of thinking a little bit outside
Speaker 7: the box and and also maybe also looking at a
Speaker 7: lot of ski resorts. Generally what we think of as
Speaker 7: ski towns are doing a lot in the summer months
Speaker 7: to attract people and usually have just like in the
Speaker 7: winter time.
Speaker 2: I'm sure the Cape is a heck of a lot
Speaker 2: less expensive than is the winner. That's that's some real
Speaker 2: reverse engineering. Those are great advice, some great advice. Alyssa Giacoby,
Speaker 2: Boston Globe Magazine writer, Alyssa, where can follow you? Can
Speaker 2: they they check out some of the body of work
Speaker 2: at the Globe of a website, we can we can
Speaker 2: send people to or.
Speaker 7: No, yep, so you can read this story at Globe
Speaker 7: dot com Backslash magazine. It's recent. And then I have
Speaker 7: a website. It's just a lista Jacoby dot com, but
Speaker 7: you can you can read my work on the Globe
Speaker 7: through the website.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Alyssa, thanks very much. We we got to
Speaker 2: you a little bit later, so we stayed with you
Speaker 2: a little bit longer, and I just want to thank
Speaker 2: you very much for your patience and your time and
Speaker 2: your advice.
Speaker 3: Great advice.
Speaker 2: Thanks Alyssa, thanks for having Okay, welcome, all right, coming back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about if you're sticking around at home,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have a lot of fun in the backyard.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about the twenty twenty five gardening
Speaker 2: trends and basic gardening tips for beginners.
Speaker 3: I need gardening tips.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever really gardened, and will answer
Speaker 2: the time old question, when is it a good time
Speaker 2: to start preparing your gardens in New England?
Speaker 3: I suspect it's right around. Now we'll find out.
Speaker 2: Katie Timony, chief marketing officer of Monrovia Plants, will join
Speaker 2: us on the other side.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, our fourth and final guest, those of you
Speaker 2: who are gardeners out there, and I'm not talking about
Speaker 2: Chauncey Gardner. I'm talking about real gardeners. Let me introduce
Speaker 2: Katie Timony. Katie, have I gotten your last name fairly close?
Speaker 7: I hope it's pretty close. It's Tammany. I'm Katie, Tami.
Speaker 4: Nice to be here.
Speaker 3: So no relation to Tammany.
Speaker 7: Hall right, No different from Ireland.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So so gardening this is for me.
Speaker 3: It's a challenge. I've never really I.
Speaker 2: Have tried the garden, but without success. So if there's
Speaker 2: people out there tonight, whether they live in the suburbs
Speaker 2: or they live in a city, what can they do
Speaker 2: with they'd like to cultivate a little bit of you know,
Speaker 2: vegetation of some sort, maybe even a plant or two.
Speaker 3: How do we start off with this? How do we
Speaker 3: get going?
Speaker 7: Sure, well, a lot of people are a little bit scared,
Speaker 7: you know, it's over. It can be overwhelming. But I'd
Speaker 7: say start with good quality plants. You know, make sure
Speaker 7: you buy plants that are well rooted, they're a good shape,
Speaker 7: you know, start with a plant that's in good condition
Speaker 7: before you put it in the ground. That's step one.
Speaker 7: And then now is a great time to think about
Speaker 7: the condition of your soil, to really make sure that
Speaker 7: where you plant something, you've got good quality soil. So
Speaker 7: I'd start with those basics.
Speaker 3: How do you figure that out?
Speaker 2: I'm looking at soil and it looks looks like soil
Speaker 2: to me. Can you do a test or something?
Speaker 3: What can you do?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you can test the pH in your soil and
Speaker 7: then go to your local garden center and say, you know,
Speaker 7: I've got you know, a soil type that's more acidic
Speaker 7: or more alkaline. What do I need to add to it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? How do you do that?
Speaker 2: Though, I'm saying if you're talking to someone like me,
Speaker 2: who I have no idea, I mean, how do I know?
Speaker 3: If it's what do I do to have to that's?
Speaker 3: I get a little chemical kit or something like that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so there's a little there's little test kits that you
Speaker 7: can pick up at your garden center or your hardware store.
Speaker 7: And it's a really simple, you know, inexpensive tool.
Speaker 3: That you how deep do you dig down to?
Speaker 2: I assume as you take the soil off the top,
Speaker 2: that might give you a false.
Speaker 7: Reading, right, you want to you want to sort of
Speaker 7: get a sample of your soil? Do you want to
Speaker 7: dig a little bit deeper? You know, like the I
Speaker 7: big about six inches to get a good soil sample.
Speaker 2: All right, So then when you when you bring the
Speaker 2: sample back to the gardening center, they're going to say, oh,
Speaker 2: this is too acidic, or this it's alkali alkaline level
Speaker 2: or whatever the phrase.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and they'll suggest amendments that's what we call them,
Speaker 7: to improve the quality of your soil.
Speaker 2: Kind of like the Constitution right in an Okay, that's.
Speaker 7: Good, uh huh.
Speaker 2: And so what's the easy stuff that people can You know,
Speaker 2: right now here in New England, the weather hasn't quite turned.
Speaker 2: We're still like thirty at night, forties. Okay, wait, can
Speaker 2: you really start getting out there and start I guess
Speaker 2: you can pull some soil up now and.
Speaker 3: Take it to the god.
Speaker 7: Sure, now it's a great time to look at your soil.
Speaker 7: Sure that that's what you want to do now, But
Speaker 7: you want to wait until at least mid April, when
Speaker 7: the tempts are consistently above fifty degrees to start cleaning up. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you want to wait to clean up your outdoor space
Speaker 7: because actually you're even You know, the dead stuff right
Speaker 7: out right now is protecting over winter. Bring pollinators. You know,
Speaker 7: bees and other important insects are hanging out in dead
Speaker 7: flower stems and underleaves. So don't prune anything, don't don't
Speaker 7: dig anything up just yet.
Speaker 2: Wait, I have I have written that down because that's
Speaker 2: the excuse I'll be using this weekend when my wife.
Speaker 3: Say nope, it's a little too early.
Speaker 2: The March madness is still on, and my friend, the
Speaker 2: garden lady told me not to do it, So thank
Speaker 2: you for that.
Speaker 3: Now, what is the sort of stuff unless you love.
Speaker 2: Tomatoes or you want cucumbers, what is some sort of
Speaker 2: a vegetable that you can grow in your garden where
Speaker 2: you have at least a chance of having it become
Speaker 2: real sometime in August or September or whenever it becomes real.
Speaker 7: Tomatoes are pretty easy, you know, in a sunny spot. Yeah,
Speaker 7: tomatoes can be very easy. Herbs, you know, lots of
Speaker 7: herbs are really easy. Basil is mary. But one vegetable
Speaker 7: monrovia actually doesn't grow vegetables. But one vegetable that I
Speaker 7: always used to grow with my kids that was very
Speaker 7: easy is carrots. Okay, starting carrots from seed, that's a
Speaker 7: super easy you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, the rabbits won't be attacked. The rabbits won't be
Speaker 2: attacking the cat.
Speaker 7: You want to you want to protect your edible garden,
Speaker 7: you know, with something you know again garden center or online,
Speaker 7: you can buy you know, simple screening to protect your
Speaker 7: edible garden from deer, from all kinds of critters that
Speaker 7: want to get in there.
Speaker 3: Okay, electric fence.
Speaker 7: Well I wouldn't got that far.
Speaker 2: Okay, barbed wire, nothing like that, right, but how tall
Speaker 2: should the fence be?
Speaker 3: At least three or four feet?
Speaker 7: Well, you want to cover. You want to also if
Speaker 7: you're trying to keep you know, you know, other critters out,
Speaker 7: you want to cover the top of your edible garden.
Speaker 7: If you're doing a raised bed. Yeah, so you can
Speaker 7: even buy kind of a screening fabric to put over
Speaker 7: your raised beds.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah, and someone climbing up the fence and
Speaker 2: then hopping over the fence.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's what you know, and.
Speaker 2: Then to put up like a to put up a fence,
Speaker 2: as you're probably gonna tell, I'm not the most mechanically
Speaker 2: astute talk show host you're going to talk to this spring.
Speaker 2: So you're going to buy some steaks, right and they yeah,
Speaker 2: And you're going to hook the fence onto the steaks,
Speaker 2: and then surround the perimeter. You gotta surround. You can't
Speaker 2: leave one side of the fence open, obviously, right right.
Speaker 7: You have like a raised bed garden that's like three
Speaker 7: to four feet you know, square, you would you would
Speaker 7: just put like PVC pipe on the edges. You could
Speaker 7: do that. You could put a tall kind of steak
Speaker 7: on each corner and then just lay the sheeting over that.
Speaker 7: But if you don't want to plant veggies, if you
Speaker 7: want to plant fruit, which minrovia grows, I would suggest
Speaker 7: blueberries would be great. That's an easy shrub. You just
Speaker 7: need your soil to be a little bit acidic, and
Speaker 7: the Sunshine blueberry or Bountiful blue great one to plant,
Speaker 7: produces lots of juicy fruit, so you get wonderful yeah,
Speaker 7: you get you get wonderful productive berries from those shrubs.
Speaker 7: And you can plant those they stay compact. You can
Speaker 7: put them in a container on your patio or in
Speaker 7: the garden and they just need a lot of sun.
Speaker 3: Sounds great, sounds great.
Speaker 2: You said your Monrovia Plants.
Speaker 3: Are you in Monrovia, Pennsylvania by any chance or no?
Speaker 7: No, Actually the nursery was founded in Monrovia, Southern California,
Speaker 7: Monrovia near Los Angeles. But now we have nurseries all
Speaker 7: over the country, including in Connecticut and a.
Speaker 3: Great we're heard in the eastern half of the US
Speaker 3: right now. We got people listening everywhere.
Speaker 2: So how could people get more information from Rovia Plants.
Speaker 3: What's the website?
Speaker 7: So it's Monrovia dot com and we have a great
Speaker 7: tool called my plant Finder where you can type in
Speaker 7: your zip code and what you're looking for in a plant.
Speaker 7: You know, maybe you want to attract bees and butterflies,
Speaker 7: maybe you want to screen out the neighbors. You just
Speaker 7: you just put in what you're looking for and you
Speaker 7: up pops the plants that will grow well in your area.
Speaker 7: So that's Monrovia dot com slash my plant Finder.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Katie Tammany, thank you so much. I got
Speaker 2: that pronunciation the last time here.
Speaker 7: You did you did you nail?
Speaker 2: Okay? Thanks Katie, we'll talk again. I really enjoyed touchat
Speaker 2: with your fun.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 7: Thanks, thanks, take the thanks.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we're going to talk about where
Speaker 2: we're going in New England in terms of climate and
Speaker 2: what we can do. I've got a great guest. His
Speaker 2: name is Dave Cash. He was the Regional Administrator for
Speaker 2: the EPA up until UH President Trump took over in
Speaker 2: January twentieth, and we're going to talk about clean energies
Speaker 2: from a high school teacher. Is that he is a PhD.
Speaker 2: He went to Yale and Kennedy School. The government is
Speaker 2: a great guest.
Speaker 3: Had him on before. Stay with us.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about again energy in New England and what
Speaker 2: we can do, how we can.
Speaker 3: Strike that balance.
Speaker 2: Very important conversation coming up right after the nine o'clock
Speaker 2: News