Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm done you busy Boston Radio. Nicole Davis, thank you
Speaker 2: very much to call. Whatever happened to the Santa Claus rally.
Speaker 2: There's supposed to be a Santa Claus Rally on the
Speaker 2: Dow every year. This is not a good sign. How
Speaker 2: are you tonight? Nicoli's still in the.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm here. I'm just trying to find Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: I don't know where he went.
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta tell you, maybe he's just working too
Speaker 2: hard at the North Pole making all those toys. Ins Hi.
Speaker 1: You know he's got to hire more elms to get
Speaker 1: it done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I never even thought of that. You know,
Speaker 2: you cut right to the chase.
Speaker 1: You know, Rudolph, his nose costs more to run these days.
Speaker 1: Energy prices are up. It's a tough time to be
Speaker 1: Santa Claus. I don't don't I feel for the guy.
Speaker 2: I know, And this is his busy week. This is
Speaker 2: the busiest week of the year.
Speaker 1: And I think we're all collectively stressing a bit, including Saint.
Speaker 2: Nick's nine games and nine days. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: this is like a Red Sox streak. July would be
Speaker 2: going crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not an economist, but my four oh
Speaker 1: one k is not too happy right now. So hopefully
Speaker 1: a little bit of a holiday break will help Wall
Speaker 1: Street kind of shake it out.
Speaker 2: And it turned me a favorite. When it's time to panic,
Speaker 2: will you let me.
Speaker 1: Know as soon as I know you will be the
Speaker 1: first person I.
Speaker 2: Call it, yeah, because I don't want to panic too early. No.
Speaker 1: No, as soon as somebody who actually knows more about
Speaker 1: these things lets me know, I'll pass it on. I promise.
Speaker 2: I'm fighting some sort of cold here. You're happy not
Speaker 2: to be in the same building with me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm always happy to be in the same
Speaker 1: building with you when I can, But it sounds like
Speaker 1: you you wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Be happy because I feel like I'm some sort of
Speaker 2: a super spreader. I have no idea you've never been
Speaker 2: hit with a cold of this magnitude at this time
Speaker 2: of year. I feel like, oh my goodness, yeah, and
Speaker 2: I've had all my shots, I've done everything right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of up our respiratory stuff coming around,
Speaker 1: pneumonia and colds and RSV and all that, So definitely
Speaker 1: just be kind to yourself, hot tea and rest you
Speaker 1: know it goes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, I no rest for the week. Other week.
Speaker 2: You know I've hit in both of those categories. Come
Speaker 2: on now, well, begs Nicole. I'm sure I'll talk to you.
Speaker 2: I'm here for the balance of the week. Oh, we'll
Speaker 2: wish each other of merry Christmas and all of that
Speaker 2: good stuff. Hopefully before the end of the week. Absolutely Friday,
Speaker 2: talk soon, Okay. So that's a good all right, good evening.
Speaker 2: Everybody welcome. I'm Dan Ray. Not feeling too great physically tonight.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what this is. I haven't been
Speaker 2: near anybody or anything. And boy, this is this is
Speaker 2: a tough cold, if you want to call it that.
Speaker 2: That I've been trying to battle for a couple of days.
Speaker 2: So bear with me tonight. If you hit me, cough
Speaker 2: a couple of times, Rob. You know our basic signal here,
Speaker 2: so I can cough if I have to. I apologize
Speaker 2: for coughing into the microphone while Nicole was on. But anyway,
Speaker 2: we are ready for four hours of nights. I'm going
Speaker 2: to talk with newishire Governor Chris Sanunu in the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock hour. He's going to take phone calls. He's had
Speaker 2: a really interesting well, he's had an interesting eight years
Speaker 2: as governor. I believe he's the best governor in the
Speaker 2: United States of America. I've said that in the year
Speaker 2: many times, not back and off from But now we'll
Speaker 2: talk with Chris Snunu later on tonight. I will prove
Speaker 2: to you that we are the worst drivers in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: anywhere in the country, but not for the reasons you think. Okay.
Speaker 2: And then there's a very interesting indictment that came down yesterday,
Speaker 2: a federal indictment of a Natick man who is charged
Speaker 2: with conspiring to provide some nasty materials to the government
Speaker 2: of Iran. And we'll talk about that as well, I
Speaker 2: hope before the night is over. So we have a
Speaker 2: jam packed show tonight. We're going to start it off
Speaker 2: with four guests in our first hour. We call it
Speaker 2: the night Side News Update. And I'm delighted to welcome
Speaker 2: Mason Taylor, who's a professional bull r rider and he
Speaker 2: is competing in a World Championship race that is going
Speaker 2: to wind right through nearby Manchester, New Hampshire this weekend.
Speaker 2: Mason Taylor, welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3: How are you, great man? Thank you for having me well.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for joining us. That's a tough
Speaker 2: profession you've picked out there. How long you've been riding
Speaker 2: these bulls? Mason my whole life.
Speaker 4: But professionally, this is my seventh year in the PBR.
Speaker 2: So now let me ask you what is the I'm
Speaker 2: a big sports guy. I know you know, the the
Speaker 2: professional life expectancy of your career expectancy of a pro
Speaker 2: football player isn't particularly long. NHL players, baseball players a
Speaker 2: little longer. What's what's the sweet spot for bull riders?
Speaker 2: When do you guys hit your peak? And when does
Speaker 2: it does? Does all of that, you know, Joscelyn around
Speaker 2: getting thrown jumping around to the back of a bull
Speaker 2: with why does that start to weigh you out?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: You know, there's a there's a sweet spot between you know,
Speaker 4: a ten and a twelve year career, depending on you know,
Speaker 4: how old you are when you start, when you start.
Speaker 3: But uh, you know, if you.
Speaker 4: Can if you get on tour, you know, when you're
Speaker 4: eighteen or not eighteen or even twenty, you know you
Speaker 4: can you can ride pretty comfortably until you're thirty. You
Speaker 4: can have a you can have a ten year career.
Speaker 4: There where you know, you can take on some injuries
Speaker 4: and be able to bounce back and.
Speaker 3: Stuff like that. But as soon as uh, you know,
Speaker 3: you hit.
Speaker 4: The age thirty, it sure is hard to kind of
Speaker 4: bounce back from some injuries.
Speaker 2: Oh, I hear you. There's certain injuries that that affects
Speaker 2: certain athletes. Obviously, basketball players you get knees and ankle
Speaker 2: injuries a lot. You know, pro football you could you
Speaker 2: can have lower injuries in Major League Baseball, it's arm injuries.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that when you're riding bulls and big bulls
Speaker 2: like you know you ride that, did you have a
Speaker 2: wide variety of possible injuries that can impact you during
Speaker 2: your career and then on throughout the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: Right or wrong on that one, Oh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely correct?
Speaker 4: Man, Like every time that we nowed our head, there
Speaker 4: is a chance of getting hurt, and you know kind
Speaker 4: of on the scale of you know, being in an
Speaker 4: automobile accident. You know, whenever you take on a wreck
Speaker 4: of an eighteen hundred pound animal against one hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty pound guy, it can break some stuff and knock
Speaker 4: some stuff loose if things don't go just right.
Speaker 2: So tell us about the competition up in Manchester. This
Speaker 2: is this coming Friday the twentieth and Saturday the twenty first.
Speaker 2: I've never been to a bull riding competition, watched them
Speaker 2: on television. I admire the courage that you guys have.
Speaker 2: I mean it's amazing. I also admire the courage of
Speaker 2: the folks who are out there on the floor who
Speaker 2: are protecting you from the bulls. They call them the
Speaker 2: rodeal clowns. But those gentlemen have to know exactly what
Speaker 2: they're doing to make sure that those riders are not
Speaker 2: trampled or heard any worse than they were are during
Speaker 2: those eight seconds on top of the bull. Tell us
Speaker 2: what's going to happen up in Manchester and what will
Speaker 2: people see in Manchester. We don't get a lot of
Speaker 2: bull riding in this part of the country, as.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you know, Yes, sir, so a man in Manchester.
Speaker 4: You know it's a two day event Friday Saturday, and
Speaker 4: you know it is going to be everyone's going to
Speaker 4: be able to witness the best, top thirty five guys
Speaker 4: in the world against the top thirty five bulls in
Speaker 4: the world. You know, that's why we're called the professional
Speaker 4: bull riders, is because you know this is a professional sport,
Speaker 4: and this is this is as good as it gets.
Speaker 4: So you'll be able to go out there and watch
Speaker 4: the best in the world do what they love.
Speaker 2: This is a dumb question, but that's I get paid
Speaker 2: money to ask dumb questions. Smart questions and dumb questions.
Speaker 2: If you guys ever develop any sort of, if not
Speaker 2: a friendship or respect, not only amongst the riders, but
Speaker 2: amongst the bulls as well. I mean, I got to
Speaker 2: assume these bulls are pretty intelligent animals. And when you
Speaker 2: walk by them, you know, if they're in a pen,
Speaker 2: there's something that you look at and you say, you
Speaker 2: know that's you know, can you look at a bull
Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form? And you know they're
Speaker 2: talking about dog being man's best friend. I know that
Speaker 2: bulls are not your best friend. They're your competitor. But
Speaker 2: is there sort of a muture respect between what you
Speaker 2: have to do and what they have to do?
Speaker 4: Oh? For sure, the bulls, you know, they are such
Speaker 4: amazing athletes to be able to be eighteen hundred pounds
Speaker 4: and jump a sigh as they do, and you know,
Speaker 4: turn back as.
Speaker 3: Quick as they do.
Speaker 4: They they love what they do. They're bred for this,
Speaker 4: So yeah, man, there's a great deal of respect that
Speaker 4: all of us riders have towards the best bulls in
Speaker 4: the world because we dank sure couldn't do it without them.
Speaker 2: No doubt about that. Well, Mason, I wish you best
Speaker 2: of luck, your good health, no no injuries, and I
Speaker 2: hope you guys have a big success. That's a great
Speaker 2: arena out there. Have you been to Manchester before per
Speaker 2: chance or no?
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, I've been up there twice now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a nice arena. It's a nice city out there,
Speaker 2: and I know that you folks. Then our radio signal
Speaker 2: gets all up and down the East coast of America,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken a week the week between Christmas
Speaker 2: and the New Year's you're in nearby Auburn and New York,
Speaker 2: and then you finish up in New York City the
Speaker 2: first weekend of twenty twenty five. So you're coming into
Speaker 2: this is sort of the climax of the season, Am
Speaker 2: I correct in that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is what starts it off.
Speaker 4: You know, these first or these next next three or
Speaker 4: four events is kind of what sets up who's going
Speaker 4: to be fighting for a world title at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, So, yes, sir, this is very much
Speaker 4: in the heat of things.
Speaker 2: So how when's the season wrap up? I mean, I
Speaker 2: know baseball, football, basketball and hockey and all of that,
Speaker 2: and they have long years when you guys wrap up
Speaker 2: every season.
Speaker 4: Man, our finals are in May for the individual season,
Speaker 4: and then we have yeah, we have a deal called
Speaker 4: ther Teams Championship that goes from July until November. So
Speaker 4: a side of a month in there or a month
Speaker 4: and a half in there, we are going, you know,
Speaker 4: pretty much year round.
Speaker 3: We're all waves ridings.
Speaker 2: Well, I did not realize that, Mason. Best of luck,
Speaker 2: of good health. Where'd you grow up What part of
Speaker 2: the country I'm assuming somewhere in the southwest.
Speaker 4: Yes, they're just twenty miles southeast to Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 2: All right, well, look enjoy, enjoy New England hospitality. Gonna
Speaker 2: get a little cold this weekend, but you'll be indoors,
Speaker 2: so that's okay. Thanks very much, Mason. I'll be watching
Speaker 2: the results and rooting for you. Thank you very much
Speaker 2: and hope to talk with you again.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2: You're very welcome Mason Taylor again. The professional bull riding Association.
Speaker 2: They are going to be up in Manchester, New Hampshire
Speaker 2: this weekend December twentieth and twenty first. Great, it's it's
Speaker 2: a great spectacle. It's as simple as that, So enjoy it.
Speaker 2: It's a good family event. Get up there and enjoy
Speaker 2: it in advance of Christmas week. Back on nights Side
Speaker 2: when we get back, we're going to talk about a
Speaker 2: different sort of entertainment. That's a Harry Potter exhibit. My
Speaker 2: name's Dan rayth is Nightside on WBC Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Right here, ten thirty on your AM dial. Stay with
Speaker 2: us now back to Dan ray live from the Window
Speaker 2: World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Well, for
Speaker 2: those of you who are Harry Potter fans, there is
Speaker 2: I guess opening tonight in Cambridge at Cambridge Side. I
Speaker 2: think that's the old Galley is I'll be I'm sure
Speaker 2: someone will set me straight on that. Harry Potter the
Speaker 2: exhibition and it's going to be around for a while,
Speaker 2: well into the new year. And I'd like to welcome
Speaker 2: Tom Zalor Tom Zalor, how are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm great there. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing fine. I gotta tell you if there's a
Speaker 2: talk show host in America who knows less about Harry Potter,
Speaker 2: you you probably are talking though, and my kids were
Speaker 2: kind of past the Harry Potter age. So but I
Speaker 2: know that this, this work, this this imaginary work of JK. Rowling,
Speaker 2: took the world by storm. And you folks now have
Speaker 2: this exhibition in Boston, but it's technically in Cambridge? Am
Speaker 2: I right on that?
Speaker 3: That's true? I think you said it right. It's at
Speaker 3: the Old Gallery what was previously called the Galley is
Speaker 3: now called Cambridge Side.
Speaker 2: That's right, gotcha? Okay, sure, fine, okay, So tell us
Speaker 2: what will people see? I mean, I know that there
Speaker 2: are Harry Potter officionados and there are people who just
Speaker 2: love it. Uh and and and as they say, I'm
Speaker 2: just being honest with you. I wish I could ask
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of insightful questions about Harry Potter. But
Speaker 2: it's not. It's not my fourte So let me sit
Speaker 2: back and listen and tell me. Let me learn a
Speaker 2: little bit why this is so incredibly popular.
Speaker 3: No problem, I'll do it for the audience, all right,
Speaker 3: those who know, if you will. So look what this
Speaker 3: is is a is an enormous touring experience. It's over
Speaker 3: thirty thousand square feet and there are over twenty five
Speaker 3: different rooms where you get to go experience moments from
Speaker 3: the films and the books as if you are in
Speaker 3: the world of Harry Potter. So, in addition to sort
Speaker 3: of recreating these environments that you feel very familiar to
Speaker 3: the people who know it, we also have original props
Speaker 3: and costumes that were warned by the characters and the
Speaker 3: actors in the films. So you have Ron and Harry
Speaker 3: and Hermione's robes, you have Draco Malfoy's outfit, you have
Speaker 3: Luna love Good, you have all these things, and we've
Speaker 3: just added a couple of new costumes to the exhibition.
Speaker 3: One of them is a student from the herbology classroom
Speaker 3: that your listeners will know what that means. And very
Speaker 3: interesting Professor McGonagall, who was played by Maggie Smith. Her
Speaker 3: outfit that she wore that's very recognizable in the Great
Speaker 3: Hall when she sorted the incoming students into Hogwarts. So
Speaker 3: it's a really cool experience for I will say to you,
Speaker 3: I will challenge you Dan that if you will come
Speaker 3: to the exhibition, even if you've never seen a movie
Speaker 3: or never read the book. I'll bet if you go there.
Speaker 3: I'd be willing to wager one dollar that if you
Speaker 3: go to this experience, you will say, you know what,
Speaker 3: I think I need to see this movie. I think
Speaker 3: I need to read these books. I think the experience
Speaker 3: is that good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it sounds to me like what you're talking
Speaker 2: about is in immersive experience and an experience, and I
Speaker 2: really feel like you're part of it. It's just not
Speaker 2: going to a museum and looking at old books or
Speaker 2: old statues or not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously,
Speaker 2: but this sounds pretty exciting. And I suspect that who
Speaker 2: give me an give me which generation? Who was that
Speaker 2: with gen X and gen Z and you know, all
Speaker 2: of these different When when did did the Harry Potter
Speaker 2: experience explode? What years are we talking about?
Speaker 3: So we're talking about in the nineties, really when the
Speaker 3: books came out in the late nineties and then the
Speaker 3: film started. The first film came out, you know, twenty
Speaker 3: two years ago. So what we call them genom generation
Speaker 3: the generation that just was remember when people when these
Speaker 3: books came out, people were waiting in line at midnight
Speaker 3: at the Barnes and Noble or whatever the local bookstore
Speaker 3: was back when there was those to be the first
Speaker 3: one at the book and the movies came out, and
Speaker 3: they came out sort of every year, every couple of years, whatever,
Speaker 3: and so you have this generation of people who where now,
Speaker 3: let's say, at the youngest age when a new movie
Speaker 3: came out, maybe they're twenty eight or so, up to forty.
Speaker 3: And so you have this this group of people who
Speaker 3: are now starting their own families, some of those who
Speaker 3: started younger having kids who are starting to read, and
Speaker 3: they're passing on this, you know, like we grew up
Speaker 3: with Mary, don't you remember Mary? Right, You've got Jimmy Stewart,
Speaker 3: who's you know, who's at this Christmas time? And now
Speaker 3: the new generation of the people who are in their
Speaker 3: thirties are watching Harry Potter at the holidays. So it's
Speaker 3: a Christmas fantastical moment where you're sitting down watching a
Speaker 3: series of movies instead of a movie's in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 3: So our generation, I don't know how old you are,
Speaker 3: but if you grew up watching it's a wonderful life.
Speaker 2: I'm on the wrong side of fifty that's all I
Speaker 2: will admit to be really on. But anybody who's been
Speaker 2: lost for a while knows how long I worked as
Speaker 2: a TV reporter and now as a talk show hosted Austin.
Speaker 2: And when they added up and they're like, why isn't
Speaker 2: that guy dead? At this point, I don't me get it.
Speaker 2: I mean, seriously, I'm well passed.
Speaker 3: How many did say to me tonight you're talking to him?
Speaker 3: I thought he I didn't know he was still alive.
Speaker 3: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: I hope, I hope you're joking with me. Beyond that,
Speaker 2: I've been yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done the talk show
Speaker 2: here now for eighteen years after having been an on
Speaker 2: air reporter at WBZ in Boston. Are you a New
Speaker 2: England or a Bostonian?
Speaker 3: I'm originally a Cleveland, Ohio and now I live in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 3: But I love Boston. I spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: there and and I love uh, I love the community there,
Speaker 3: and I think we have something really special that we've
Speaker 3: had tremendous success. You know, We've had millions of people
Speaker 3: see this exhibition.
Speaker 2: Around the city. How many these are cities around the world.
Speaker 2: How many other cities has Is this the first time
Speaker 2: this this exhibition has been.
Speaker 3: In Boston, Yes, the first time it's been in Boston, yep.
Speaker 2: And so it's been already. I looked at some of
Speaker 2: the media information. It's been in a lot of other
Speaker 2: cities around the world. This this must be a tremendous
Speaker 2: effort just to move all the items. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: this is you talk about moving a professional sports team,
Speaker 2: you know, on a on a on a Saturday, out
Speaker 2: to play a football game or halfway you know, across
Speaker 2: the country and then getting them back home on Sunday night.
Speaker 2: That's nothing con to what you guys do. Okay, So look.
Speaker 3: At if you're talking about over fifty trucks to bring
Speaker 3: the exhibition there. So it's a massive endeavor to bring
Speaker 3: it there. And we have a huge space and a
Speaker 3: big team and a lot of people working together to
Speaker 3: make this thing very special for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: And then you work with.
Speaker 2: I know you're working with my friend Darren de Luca here.
Speaker 2: So let's how can people get their tickets here in Boston?
Speaker 2: Give us the magic website that they can they can?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well tonight, I mean Harry Potter the exhibition dot com. Uh,
Speaker 3: you in theory. You should be searching Harry Potter Exhibition
Speaker 3: Cambridge or Boston. You'll find it. It's very there's all
Speaker 3: kinds of deals right now. There's a bunch of holiday specials.
Speaker 3: It's a great time. People love to give gifts for
Speaker 3: the holidays, and there's all kinds of packages. It's all online.
Speaker 3: I want more people with the comments, but I will
Speaker 3: just say that website, Harry Potter.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it right now. It's a great website.
Speaker 2: It looks to me like you've been in China. You've
Speaker 2: been saying, Paulo Brazil in crackout Poland. I've been in
Speaker 2: crack crackout Poland actually as a television reporter at Madrid.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this looks really interesting and I may
Speaker 2: have to get on over there and you you open tonight.
Speaker 2: It looks like I believe tonight you open, correct if
Speaker 2: I'm reading that.
Speaker 3: Actually, we've been open. We've already had over one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand people go through the exhibition in Boston, so it's
Speaker 3: very popular already. But what we just announced was that
Speaker 3: we've extended the exhibition until April twenty seventh, so it's
Speaker 3: the weekend after Easter, and what we're doing now is
Speaker 3: we were going to close on January fifth, but we've
Speaker 3: had so much, such a huge demand, that we wanted
Speaker 3: to expend it to the people in Boston and go
Speaker 3: through the spring break. So it's a great opportunity to
Speaker 3: buy holiday packages and just you know, really get out
Speaker 3: and put look you'll be amazed. I really, I really
Speaker 3: want you to come be my guest, and I'm challenging
Speaker 3: you not to go through there and say, boy, I
Speaker 3: really should watch one of these movies, because look.
Speaker 2: Whenever you go, I don't care who the professional performer is.
Speaker 2: You know friends of mine who I'll take to a
Speaker 2: sporting event and they'll know nothing about baseball, nothing about football,
Speaker 2: and then get excited. Or you go and you listen
Speaker 2: to a singer who you've never heard of before. I
Speaker 2: remember going to a Celine Dion concert in the late
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties, in the late nineteen eighties here at a
Speaker 2: place called Great Woods and blown away. I had never
Speaker 2: heard of it. I had no idea who she was.
Speaker 2: But no matter, you go to see you know Jimmy
Speaker 2: Buffer when he was around all these Willie Nelson that
Speaker 2: they are just incredible performances, and I'm sure this exhibit
Speaker 2: will blow people's minds as well. So I really thank
Speaker 2: you Tom for having the patience to walk through this
Speaker 2: with me. I just felt I wanted to be honest
Speaker 2: with you and let you know that I'm I'm a
Speaker 2: sports guy and a political guy, and this is something
Speaker 2: that I got to learn more about. I appreciate very much.
Speaker 3: Are you familiar with the game called Are you sure
Speaker 3: the game called called quidditch?
Speaker 2: Quidditch? Yeah, I'm aware of that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a professional sports game. And the people at Hogwarts,
Speaker 3: so I think that quidditch could be I think it
Speaker 3: could be. She covered on the on the station and
Speaker 3: then come down to the exhibition. You could actually throw
Speaker 3: quidditch ball through the through the goal at the exhibition,
Speaker 3: so you could win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I used to. I used to pitch and play
Speaker 2: play goaltender in hockey and I was a pitcher, uh
Speaker 2: in high school in college. So yeah, I've noticed. The
Speaker 2: one thing I hadn't noticed about Harry Potter was quiddit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but again, Tom, I really appreciate it. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for your time tonight. Okay, best of luck in Boston.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the City. Thank you much, all right.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Good night.
Speaker 2: When we get back. When we get back, right after
Speaker 2: the newscast's going to talk with Tracy Clements. She's an
Speaker 2: expert dealing with student safety and mental health issues and
Speaker 2: obviously in view of what happened yesterday at that Christian
Speaker 2: academy in Madison, Wisconsin, this is a well timed interview.
Speaker 2: Tracy Clements joins us on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's
Speaker 1: news Radio.
Speaker 2: Sadly, this is a very well timed interview and topic,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure everyone will understand what I'm saying when
Speaker 2: I put it that way. My guest is Tracy Clements.
Speaker 2: She's a former school counselor now an education strategist in
Speaker 2: student safety and mental health and God guardian. Tracy, Welcome
Speaker 2: to Night's Side. Tough day yesterday around the country and
Speaker 2: more specifically in Madison, Wisconsin. I don't know if this
Speaker 2: was scheduled before that horrific event yesterday or not, but
Speaker 2: either way, it's important to talk about it tonight. Welcome
Speaker 2: to night Satt. How are you this evening.
Speaker 3: I'm doing well.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having.
Speaker 2: Me so you're a fuller school counselor and an education strategist.
Speaker 2: What's going on that so many kids, young students who
Speaker 2: have the rest of their lives in front of them
Speaker 2: are engaging in these horrific actions. And you know, I
Speaker 2: know that some people say, well being guns or whatever
Speaker 2: and all of that, but I just don't understand why
Speaker 2: kids at fifteen or seventeen are destroying their lives and
Speaker 2: destroying the lives of others. What am I missing?
Speaker 5: You know? I think every kid has their own reasons,
Speaker 5: and the reasons are as varied as there are people.
Speaker 5: But overall the bigger picture, I think kids have a
Speaker 5: lot of stress on them in the world we live
Speaker 5: in right now, and kids don't really get a chance
Speaker 5: to shut off and get away from everything. I am old.
Speaker 5: So when I was a kid, when we went home,
Speaker 5: we just were able to relax, And children and teens
Speaker 5: don't get that opportunity anymore. The world has become a
Speaker 5: more stressful place.
Speaker 2: Why is that? In the sense that I'm probably older
Speaker 2: than you are. I was a student colle I graduate
Speaker 2: from college in the seventies, law school in the mid seventies. Look,
Speaker 2: school is competitive, there's no doubt about that. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of pressure, social pressures. I'm assuming the social pressures
Speaker 2: were just as bad kids in the fifties and sixties
Speaker 2: as they are for kids now in the twenty twenties
Speaker 2: or the twenty f deeds. There has to be something
Speaker 2: fundamentally that has changed here. Is it the immersion that
Speaker 2: young people have in this thing called the internet? Is
Speaker 2: that the factor? Or or that there were just as
Speaker 2: many incidents of this nature fifty years ago, we just
Speaker 2: didn't hear about them. There weren't live TV crews everywhere.
Speaker 2: Is that a factor?
Speaker 5: I think that's a big factor. I do think that
Speaker 5: having access to the Internet and being online and connected
Speaker 5: to the entire world provides an additional stressor for kids today.
Speaker 5: But also before the Internet, we didn't know all of
Speaker 5: the bad things that were going on in the world.
Speaker 5: So I feel like, you know, people talk a lot
Speaker 5: about the mental health crisis right now. I've been doing
Speaker 5: this for more than thirty years, and it's been a
Speaker 5: great for very long one.
Speaker 2: So in the in the few minutes that we have left,
Speaker 2: how are we going to solve this problem? Tracy? What
Speaker 2: what is the solution or what what is the battery
Speaker 2: of solutions that have to be imposed because this has
Speaker 2: to stop. I mean, whether it's New Town or whether
Speaker 2: it's Juvaldi or now Madison, Wisconsin, and there's so many
Speaker 2: other stops along the way. What what can be done?
Speaker 2: What what can be changed in the curriculum? What can
Speaker 2: be changed in the way we incorporate kids into schools?
Speaker 2: Is it too competitive now? Is it? I'm just wondering,
Speaker 2: is there maybe there's no magic pardon the punt here,
Speaker 2: no magic bullet to solve this problem.
Speaker 5: You know, I think there's a lot of things we
Speaker 5: can do to help move the needle. And I agree
Speaker 5: there's no magic bullet. There's no one cure all. But
Speaker 5: schools need to build systems of support, which is what
Speaker 5: I did. When I was at Neoshow School District. We
Speaker 5: were experiencing a bad suicide crisis. Of our suicide rates
Speaker 5: were many times the national average, And you just put
Speaker 5: one foot in front of the other and you start
Speaker 5: doing everything you can. You bring communities together, you bring
Speaker 5: parents together, You use technology to help you identify the kids,
Speaker 5: which is how I landed in a technology company as
Speaker 5: mental health professional, which is nothing I ever expected to do.
Speaker 5: But at Gogardian what was at the district. We had
Speaker 5: a tool called Beacon, and Beacon lived in the background
Speaker 5: of the student's devices, and it uses machine learning to
Speaker 5: identify when kids might be struggling with suicidality or if
Speaker 5: they're accessing content that might indicate their arm towards others,
Speaker 5: and it sent us an alert. And instead of having
Speaker 5: to wait until kids were showing behavioral changes on the
Speaker 5: outside or they had the nerve to come and ask
Speaker 5: for help, we were able to identify some morning signs.
Speaker 2: So I assarch I assume that I'm speaking as a lawyer,
Speaker 2: that my good friends in the Civil Liberties Union probably
Speaker 2: are not thrilled with this idea.
Speaker 5: You know, there there has been some concern, and I
Speaker 5: myself had concern in the beginning, but using it, I
Speaker 5: found it to be just a really helpful tool. And
Speaker 5: and that's what it is. It's a tool, and it
Speaker 5: is It doesn't it's not magic, it doesn't do it
Speaker 5: on its own.
Speaker 2: Parent Did the parents sign off on this tool?
Speaker 5: Absolutely? Yeah, the parents, They sign off on it. And
Speaker 5: then I recommend taking it a step further and holding
Speaker 5: a parent knight to talk about not just what technology
Speaker 5: you're using but all of the different things. So we
Speaker 5: were to address our suicide problem in Neoshow. I did
Speaker 5: Signs of Suicide, which was for kids, and training for teachers,
Speaker 5: and I was bringing in outside mental health therapists and
Speaker 5: to the school, and I had a committee of people
Speaker 5: from the community, including parents, to help us figure out
Speaker 5: what to do. Another thing was just teaching the basic skills.
Speaker 5: You know, this is what anger feels like, this is
Speaker 5: what you do with How can.
Speaker 2: Parent groups get in touch with your organization if they're
Speaker 2: looking for more information, they must be a website.
Speaker 5: Yes, our website is Goguardian dot com.
Speaker 2: That's pretty easy, all one word, Geoguardian, Googuardian dot com.
Speaker 2: I went to a high school called Boston Latin School.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's
Speaker 2: the oldest public high school in America. Found that in
Speaker 2: sixteen thirty five, Oh wow, and did my It was
Speaker 2: basically Harvard University was formed to educate the graduates of
Speaker 2: Boston Latin School. And when I was there in the
Speaker 2: nineteen sixties, we had a dropout rate about two thirds.
Speaker 2: It was very competitive. There was one guidance counselor, And
Speaker 2: the only time you met the guidance counselor was when
Speaker 2: he opened the front door called you. The office opened
Speaker 2: the front door and directed you across the street to
Speaker 2: the to the high school that you would then matriculate from,
Speaker 2: which was across the street, a different high school. So
Speaker 2: I just think that somehow, some way, there has to
Speaker 2: be a way in which we can reach these kids.
Speaker 2: It was the most competitive high school that you could
Speaker 2: ever have imagined. You better be prepared jackets and ties.
Speaker 2: You walked. You know, you had three minutes to walk
Speaker 2: from classes. It probably was not the kindest educational experience,
Speaker 2: but it was a pretty effective educational experience. And I
Speaker 2: don't want to see too old school here, but you
Speaker 2: may want to check it out at some point because
Speaker 2: it was they told you look to your left and
Speaker 2: look to your right. You know, one of you will
Speaker 2: graduate from this school. That was your freshman orientation, so
Speaker 2: they let you know what it was from day one.
Speaker 2: That's that's for sure. It's like sort of the Marine
Speaker 2: Corps of academia for kids going into either the seventh
Speaker 2: grade or the ninth grade. Tracy Clements, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for your time. Love to get you back and
Speaker 2: talk more about this, maybe even do an entire hour
Speaker 2: sometime after the first of the year. I think we
Speaker 2: need more time than just a few minutes to talk
Speaker 2: about this.
Speaker 3: Okay, So that sounds wonderful.
Speaker 5: Thanks, Thanks Gracy.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it very much. We get back when we
Speaker 2: talk about a very topical subject, and that is drone sightings.
Speaker 2: Recent drone sidings. Are they a threat? We will talk
Speaker 2: to the CEO of a company called Pivotal. I guess
Speaker 2: it's it's it's Pivotal. I guess they spell it a
Speaker 2: little differently, Pivotal Technologies. We'll talk with that CEO right
Speaker 2: after this break cod night Side.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World.
Speaker 2: Night Side Studios on w b Z, the news radio.
Speaker 2: My guess is, yes, monrage Machine. I hope I'm pronouncing
Speaker 2: your name correctly. He's the CEO of a company called
Speaker 2: Pivotal Technologies. You're missing you're missing a volve there. Yes, yep,
Speaker 2: you spelled tv O T A L. What happened to
Speaker 2: the I.
Speaker 6: Makes it easier for trademark and registering domain names.
Speaker 2: I got it. I figured that was it, but I
Speaker 2: just wanted to get it cleared up, that's all. How
Speaker 2: are you tonight?
Speaker 3: Good?
Speaker 6: How about you good?
Speaker 2: Okay? Have you figured out what's going on with these drones?
Speaker 2: Because nobody else has.
Speaker 6: I don't think we can say we have figured it out,
Speaker 6: but we've been able to eliminate what it is not,
Speaker 6: So I think, what do you what.
Speaker 2: Do you think? What? What is it? What? Let's let's
Speaker 2: eliminate it. What is it not?
Speaker 6: Well, I don't think it is aliens. I don't think
Speaker 6: it is any sort of conspiracy from the government, and
Speaker 6: I don't think it's any foreign power. So at least
Speaker 6: based on the data we received so far, the reports
Speaker 6: and the videos on social media, there's no evidence to
Speaker 6: suggest any of that. So at least I think those
Speaker 6: can be at least we now eliminated until new evidence
Speaker 6: comes to light.
Speaker 2: If the aliens were gonna come here, why would they
Speaker 2: go to New Jersey?
Speaker 3: And that is a great question, and.
Speaker 2: I'll let that one hang in there, Okay, So neither
Speaker 2: one of us get a lot of trouble with our
Speaker 2: listeners in New Jersey. I'm concerned when I hear the
Speaker 2: White House say we don't know what it is, but
Speaker 2: we know it's not a threat because if you don't
Speaker 2: know what it is, how can how can you conclude
Speaker 2: it's not a threat. That's what troubles me with this.
Speaker 2: There's all sorts of rumors. I'm sure you've seen them
Speaker 2: floating around. What's your best guess? I mean, do you
Speaker 2: think this is a These are private companies? Are a
Speaker 2: private company that is trying to test some new technology.
Speaker 2: Your your company called Pivotal Technologies. I assume you're up
Speaker 2: to up to speed of this.
Speaker 6: We don't do hardware, but we do a lot of
Speaker 6: for governments and large enterprises. So I think based on
Speaker 6: the reports, it seems that everything started on November seventeenth
Speaker 6: or eighteenth, late at night, and that was when you
Speaker 6: first got any reports that we can trace back. I
Speaker 6: think in New Jersey. I think the FA investigated those
Speaker 6: and they concluded that there was nothing legal or nothing
Speaker 6: suspicious about them. But I agree with you. I think
Speaker 6: the biggest problem in this case is that there's been
Speaker 6: a lot of tepid and inconclusive government reports announcemental statements,
Speaker 6: so that added to the confusion. We personally verified, like
Speaker 6: we have any I that does some testing on social media,
Speaker 6: on comments and everything, and so we've analyzed about two
Speaker 6: hundred and seventeen different reports, and the majority of them
Speaker 6: occurred between I think December ninth and fourteenth, and almost
Speaker 6: all of them are just like, you know, I think
Speaker 6: people having fun with it. They've seen the news and
Speaker 6: they are just doing copycats or scared their neighbors. But
Speaker 6: in most cases, a lot of the statements made by
Speaker 6: people were you know, I think people who just started
Speaker 6: paying attention and they are seeing lives or they're seeing activity,
Speaker 6: and they're always correlating it with the drones. But in
Speaker 6: many cases, I think that there's been a lot of activity,
Speaker 6: or at least the most popular things shared on x
Speaker 6: and TikTok. You could actually track the flight path of
Speaker 6: the drone they reported with the videos, the angles, and
Speaker 6: you could, you know, compare that with flight paths that
Speaker 6: are registered with actual planes or private planes, and most
Speaker 6: of them were actually private planes. So we have not
Speaker 6: seen an actual video or report that conclusively said something
Speaker 6: you're suspicious or a government or an interested drone most
Speaker 6: of I think there's only been two arrests so far,
Speaker 6: and those were near the Logan International Airport where it
Speaker 6: was just individual flights.
Speaker 2: Those guys, Yeah, I'm familiar. We broadcast from Boston and
Speaker 2: this has happened before. For some reason, you have some
Speaker 2: knuckleheads and I'm using a technical term there obviously, who
Speaker 2: think it's a great idea to fly drones near major airport.
Speaker 2: There are also people like to fire you know, flash
Speaker 2: lasers at cockpits. Right, there's also a problem and most
Speaker 2: of those that's totally unrelated the correct stuff. My understanding
Speaker 2: amongst people who are flying civilian drones, and I've never
Speaker 2: flown a drone, never touched a drone, I had some
Speaker 2: idea what they are. They're supposed to stay below four
Speaker 2: hundred feet and they're supposed to always be within sight
Speaker 2: of the civilian who's flying the drone. Is that correct?
Speaker 6: Yes, But unfortunately, as you know, nobody, there's a lot
Speaker 6: of software modifications you can make to override, for example,
Speaker 6: the basic limitations of the flight pass, and you have
Speaker 6: a lot of add ons, and the communities that you know,
Speaker 6: build and customize the three dfferent parts for their drone.
Speaker 6: So it's unfortunately not very hard to customize and go
Speaker 6: and buy commercial drones of pols to build your own drones.
Speaker 6: I think a lot of the footage that you've seen
Speaker 6: the larger drones that don't appear to be commercial, Those
Speaker 6: were customized by either a small company, have been flown
Speaker 6: for other years. Just now people are paying attention, So
Speaker 6: there's a a different interest in.
Speaker 2: Is it your sense that this is a story that
Speaker 2: is just going to drift off, that there will be
Speaker 2: other stories that emerge and will stop talking about it,
Speaker 2: or do you think that at some point, at some point,
Speaker 2: maybe when the new administration comes in and they will say, okay,
Speaker 2: this is what was going on. There were they were
Speaker 2: tests being done by a private company, a private US company,
Speaker 2: to see what the capacity of a certain new drone was.
Speaker 2: Is it just says that we will ever get a
Speaker 2: definitive answer, or that it will just this will disappear
Speaker 2: into the fog of of government technology that we'll never have,
Speaker 2: will never receive a definitive, satisfactory answer. What's your guess.
Speaker 6: I don't think we'll get a conclusive answer. I think
Speaker 6: even if we switch with a new government and everybody
Speaker 6: and they have a heightened transparency and are able to
Speaker 6: communicate better than the current one, there probably will not
Speaker 6: be any conclusive answer about it. I think even if
Speaker 6: there was some military contractor or the Eddy contractor with
Speaker 6: Tefan drones in the area. I don't think anybody wants
Speaker 6: to talk about it, so we'll probably focus on something
Speaker 6: else as soon as the new cycles find something more
Speaker 6: interesting to talk about.
Speaker 2: All right, how could folks get more information about your company?
Speaker 2: I'm sure that you have a website. Is it Pivotal
Speaker 2: Technologies Pivotal being spelled without the letter.
Speaker 6: I, yes, it's p v O t L dot tech.
Speaker 6: So that's where we have every boarding company for most
Speaker 6: of the folks, I think.
Speaker 2: Okay, Pivotal dot tech dot com.
Speaker 6: No, no, there's no comm there's just dot tech.
Speaker 2: Okay, good fine, Okay, that's that's that's that's new to me. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you very much. Ya Sheena appreciated very much. We'll
Speaker 2: check back with you Lean. Thanks, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We get back, we'll be talking with the governor of
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, christ I considered him to be the best
Speaker 2: governor in the United States of America in the last
Speaker 2: several years. Uh, And I make no bones about it.
Speaker 2: I think he's been a really effective New Hampshire governor,
Speaker 2: and I think that he has represented his party both
Speaker 2: in New Hampshire and nationally extremely well, and we're going
Speaker 2: to spend an hour. If you like to talk with Kristan,
Speaker 2: you will be able to call, but you can either
Speaker 2: start now or wait until the lines get full, and
Speaker 2: then it might get frustrating. Back on night Side with
Speaker 2: Christan Nunu, Governor of New Hampshire right after this