Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's new radio.
Speaker 2: Cole, thank you very much as we move through this
Speaker 2: really chilly night boy. If you're out and about it,
Speaker 2: I hope you bundled up, and if you're driving, I
Speaker 2: hope the heat is working in the car. We'll take
Speaker 2: you all the way to midnight. As to Cole suggested,
Speaker 2: my name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside here every
Speaker 2: weeknight from eight until midnight, almost weeknights. Every once in
Speaker 2: a while I take a night off here in a
Speaker 2: night there. But for the most start Rob Brooks and
Speaker 2: the night Side team. Rob is back in the control room.
Speaker 2: Of course during the day, Marita or aka Lightning, helps
Speaker 2: us set up the program, and we have a four
Speaker 2: interesting guest in this first hour. And without any further Ado,
Speaker 2: I want to introduce some Meredith Goldstein. Meredith, how are
Speaker 2: you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm okay, I'm losing my voice, which is ironic being
Speaker 3: considering what we're about to talk about.
Speaker 2: Well, I got it, and I'm going to try to
Speaker 2: help you. I've read the first of all, you're one
Speaker 2: of the best columnists. I think one of the reasons
Speaker 2: people read the Boston Globe. I got to tell you you're
Speaker 2: really a great writer, and I just want to say
Speaker 2: thanks very much. I think this is the first time
Speaker 2: we've had you on, but you have written a very
Speaker 2: interesting piece which my wife often reminds me about why
Speaker 2: am I always interrupting people? And you have a five tips.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many of those we can get through,
Speaker 2: and I guess your sister is somewhat of an expert
Speaker 2: on this as well. As I read the article, i'll
Speaker 2: read it more closely. First of all, tell us about
Speaker 2: your sister. Does she teach at Harvard Business School?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, So my sister is a casting director
Speaker 3: and speaking coach, and she's always saying to me, why
Speaker 3: is everyone interrupting me? And she means me, I'm a
Speaker 3: big interrupter right as her sister. And this is why
Speaker 3: I'm laughing about losing my voice, because I am being
Speaker 3: punished for being an interrupter my voice. But I wondered
Speaker 3: why am I becoming someone who interrupts? And it was
Speaker 3: really fascinating to talk to Harvard Business School leaders, to
Speaker 3: psychologists because I think that in twenty twenty five, we
Speaker 3: are a culture of people who cut people off a lot,
Speaker 3: and so what what is that about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the that's the question. We are fast paced,
Speaker 2: I mean everything. I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 2: don't know. Some people prefer to text, others prefer to email.
Speaker 2: Guys like me, I'd prefer to call you in the
Speaker 2: phone and kind of you know, talk to you for
Speaker 2: two or three minutes and move on with the rest
Speaker 2: of the day. You send someone a text and you're
Speaker 2: waiting for the text back. So I don't know, there's
Speaker 2: I think there's a whole bunch of factors at work.
Speaker 2: You're the expert. You wrote the piece, and you said
Speaker 2: that this may have kind of arrived with COVID.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, because first of all, we all got a
Speaker 3: little bit weird socially, right, But also when you're on
Speaker 3: a zoom call, no one knows who should be talking,
Speaker 3: and when someone is talking, people are also writing in
Speaker 3: a chat, so there's this constant simultaneous conversation. And that
Speaker 3: started to happen in real vocal conversations too, where my
Speaker 3: sister starts saying a sentence and I'll try to finish
Speaker 3: for a sentence. So it was you know, I think
Speaker 3: technology and zoom culture is a big part of it.
Speaker 3: I also laughed a lot because a lot of the
Speaker 3: people I interviewed said, well, not to offend you, but
Speaker 3: how old are you? And I told them I was
Speaker 3: forty seven, and they said, you are right around the
Speaker 3: time when you start losing your thoughts, like whether it's
Speaker 3: women going through menopause right aging in general, where if
Speaker 3: I don't say it right now, I'm going to forget it.
Speaker 3: So then I yell it. I just say it right.
Speaker 3: And so there's this rudeness that comes with a fear
Speaker 3: of losing your point, which now much more sensitive to.
Speaker 3: And and it also made me feel a little bit
Speaker 3: better right that it's not an intended rudeness, it's a
Speaker 3: need to say it before it goes away.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, as they say, my wife will say to me,
Speaker 2: you need to listen more. Maybe that maybe most wife
Speaker 2: say that to their husbands, but I don't know. And
Speaker 2: she also say say to me, when I'm talking to someone,
Speaker 2: you know, turn the conversation back to them. She's very
Speaker 2: good now what she listens to which I can't listen to.
Speaker 2: On a Sunday night, I'm going in to watch a
Speaker 2: baseball game or a football game, and she's watching like
Speaker 2: masterpiece theater, and you know, the piece of the dialogue
Speaker 2: and Masterpiece Theater goes something like this, Hello, darling, Yes,
Speaker 2: what would you like to have for dinner tonight? Claude,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Whatever you're preparing would be fine. And
Speaker 2: that's a fast paced masterpiece. Masterpiece the drives me nuts.
Speaker 2: It's fine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And.
Speaker 3: You're a radio right, you know radio, and in radio
Speaker 3: especially people are moving quickly. You're going back and forth,
Speaker 3: so I'm sure Masterpiece theater feels incredibly slow. But I
Speaker 3: don't make the point for people listening that. When I
Speaker 3: wrote this story, I was frustrated with myself and other interrupters.
Speaker 3: But I think there are two big kinds of interrupting.
Speaker 3: One is a more selfish, maybe even malicious, cutting someone
Speaker 3: off and changing the subject and like as dismissing what
Speaker 3: you're trying to say and saying something else. But what
Speaker 3: I started to notice is a real well meaning interruption,
Speaker 3: which is I'm so invested I want to jump to
Speaker 3: the next thought. I'm so invested, I want to guess
Speaker 3: the end of your sentence. And that's what I see
Speaker 3: a spike in.
Speaker 2: Meredith. I think you have a book here.
Speaker 3: Maybe I mean I would I mean, I think we
Speaker 3: all need more practice with phone conversations and I think
Speaker 3: that would help and real life conversations. Too much is
Speaker 3: done online, and I also think we have to you know,
Speaker 3: the best tip of all the tips was the Harvard
Speaker 3: Business School expert told me that during my whole interview
Speaker 3: with her, she had a notebook under her desk and
Speaker 3: she was taking notes so that she didn't say things
Speaker 3: out loud while I was talking. I have, since that interview,
Speaker 3: started doing that myself so that way, if I feel
Speaker 3: like interrupting, I just write it down and I save it.
Speaker 2: Meredith, I have to tell you a quick, funny story
Speaker 2: that deals with Harvard Business School, and I think you'll
Speaker 2: appreciate this. My daughter went to Harvard Business School. She
Speaker 2: graduated there a few years ago, and as the parents,
Speaker 2: you were invited to audit emphasize audit one class. So
Speaker 2: I went there with my wife and my daughter's husband,
Speaker 2: and we were sitting up in the back row and
Speaker 2: the teacher, the professor, who was about I don't know,
Speaker 2: thirty five years old, maybe forty years old tops, he
Speaker 2: was talking about the Ronald Reagan economy from the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: That was his subject. Okay. I looked around the classroom
Speaker 2: and I realized that I was the only person in
Speaker 2: that classroom who had ever interviewed Ronald Reagan on radio,
Speaker 2: interviewed him on television, had conversations with him on the
Speaker 2: campaign trail, who actually kind of knew him as much
Speaker 2: as you can know someone. And I was sitting there saying,
Speaker 2: oh my god, why can't I say something. I was
Speaker 2: not allowed to interrupt at Harvard Business School on from
Speaker 2: your course. It would disown me.
Speaker 3: So yes, yes, you did that valuable information to yourself.
Speaker 3: I mean it is Listen, that's the place where I
Speaker 3: would be afraid to interrupt. And it is funny because
Speaker 3: I think it can be more appropriate depending on where
Speaker 3: you are. It's a globe. Everybody's just shouting at the
Speaker 3: same time, so interrupting isn't much of a thought. At
Speaker 3: the globe, We're all just interrupting. It's one big interrupting session.
Speaker 2: If you kind of interrupted the globe, you'll never get
Speaker 2: a chance to speak exactly exactly. Mary. If you sound great,
Speaker 2: your voice sounds like it's getting stronger than we started.
Speaker 2: I hope you're not going to come down with something.
Speaker 2: And I just want to say, thanks so much for
Speaker 2: being a trooper.
Speaker 3: No, I need my interrupting power. My voice has to
Speaker 3: come back.
Speaker 2: You bet you, you bet you well. I'll tell your
Speaker 2: writing skills are great. I read your stuff, big fan.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us tonight. And I'm
Speaker 2: telling you you got a book here. I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: I'll think when you're right it, you're going to come
Speaker 2: on the show.
Speaker 3: Thanks Mary, absolutely, thanks.
Speaker 2: I talk to you soon. All right, when we get back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about a Republican initiative today at
Speaker 2: the State House in which there is legislation being filed,
Speaker 2: reform legislation filed by the Republican party up there to
Speaker 2: reform the migrant crisis here in Massachusetts, and a lot
Speaker 2: of it to me, makes a lot of sense. We'll
Speaker 2: be back on night Side right after this. There goes
Speaker 2: my voice.
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, joining us now is Republican state Representative Paul
Speaker 2: Frost here from Massachusetts. Representative Frost, you have been with
Speaker 2: us before. Welcome back.
Speaker 4: How are you excellent? Dan, and thank you for having
Speaker 4: me back.
Speaker 2: You're more than welcome. Well today you had a news
Speaker 2: conference up on Bacon Hill, and right now the migrant
Speaker 2: shelter system in Massachusetts is just broken. It's it's a
Speaker 2: disaster in this state, and someone has to move forward.
Speaker 2: And today Republicans in the House and Senate, I guess,
Speaker 2: have indicated they intend to to what hold some hearings,
Speaker 2: file some legislation. What's the game plan?
Speaker 4: Sure, So today the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans
Speaker 4: on Beacon Hill gathered to announce a big initiative that
Speaker 4: we're supporting an omnibus bill lot of issues regarding the
Speaker 4: shelter crisis and as well as some other immigration issues
Speaker 4: that affect Massachusetts. And we're calling for transparency, accountability, public safety,
Speaker 4: and fiscal responsibility UH in the program. The emergency shelter program,
Speaker 4: which he was already said, is a mess, and it
Speaker 4: is and it doesn't like it's more than.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a disaster for the taxpayers, it's a
Speaker 2: disaster for the authorities, and it's disaster for the migrants
Speaker 2: who have to live there with people who are who
Speaker 2: are dealing sentinel or or have have AK for AK fifty,
Speaker 2: AK forty sevens AR fifteen's I mean this is nuts.
Speaker 4: No, it absolutely is. And it doesn't seem like the
Speaker 4: right hand knows what the left hand is doing or
Speaker 4: vice versa.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know a.
Speaker 4: Governor's claims that well, you know last spring, which which
Speaker 4: by the way, a year ago. Last fall, we were
Speaker 4: told that background checks were being deducted. But apparently that
Speaker 4: spring she said, you know, she made it at all.
Speaker 4: You know that background checks are supposed to be happening
Speaker 4: in this and then recently just announce the other day
Speaker 4: that that they haven't been not happening. And you know,
Speaker 4: acing according.
Speaker 2: To what the governor said, I think representative not to
Speaker 2: interrupt you, but according to what the governor said, was
Speaker 2: she ordered them. She was never told by her staff
Speaker 2: that they weren't being conducted. Who's in charge?
Speaker 4: But exactly? And that is one of the big answers
Speaker 4: that we asked today. Who's in charge? You know house
Speaker 4: More ear leader Brad Jones earlier in the week, you know,
Speaker 4: was calling for someone's head, said look, he need a roll.
Speaker 4: You know, someone dropped the ball and we want to
Speaker 4: know why and how and who's responsible, and you know
Speaker 4: they should be fired.
Speaker 2: But today find someone being hired. It said, they're an
Speaker 2: endangered species on Beacon Hill. So let's get into some
Speaker 2: of the specifics. You guys want to limit the shelter
Speaker 2: stays to six months, but more important you you want
Speaker 2: to make sure that people who are availing themselves of
Speaker 2: shelters are people who have lived here for aboudy at
Speaker 2: least the year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we feel that exactly that there should be a
Speaker 4: residency requirement on eligibility, and that you've been a Massachusetts
Speaker 4: resident for at least a year and not just been
Speaker 4: here a day, not just get off a plane or
Speaker 4: a boss or what have you, and all of a
Speaker 4: sudden eligible for all these benefits and programs. We can't
Speaker 4: afford it. It's bankrupting us, it's hurting the program, and
Speaker 4: it's putting other Massachusetts residents who have been here, maybe
Speaker 4: their entire lives, who do need these services from getting
Speaker 4: these services or be competing for these services in a
Speaker 4: wait list against people who've only been here a day.
Speaker 4: And so yes, we're trying to put the year a
Speaker 4: year eligibility of residency in there. We want to limit
Speaker 4: it to six months. We want to prevent violent actors
Speaker 4: from entering as well as re entering the shelter system,
Speaker 4: and we want to authorize law enforcement and the courts
Speaker 4: to honor ice detainers for violent offenders, which is something
Speaker 4: that it should be a no brainer. You want to
Speaker 4: require competitive bidding on on all elements of the migrant
Speaker 4: crisis response and create an Office of Inspector General to
Speaker 4: unit to provide oversight of the micro over the micro crisis.
Speaker 4: The other thing we also called for today and is
Speaker 4: we asked the state auditor to audit the program, the
Speaker 4: emergency shelter program, and she responded right away as yes,
Speaker 4: she will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Diane Disaugly is Diana Dozaugli is doing a great
Speaker 2: job in my opinion as state auditor. So one of
Speaker 2: the programs that I think you should look at. Have
Speaker 2: you heard about the no bid taxicab contract? And I
Speaker 2: think it's on well, I know it's on the Cape.
Speaker 2: I think it's in the town at Truro for six
Speaker 2: point one million dollars. Do you know how tlexicab rides
Speaker 2: you can get for six point one million dollars? It's
Speaker 2: a noble I would imagine a lot.
Speaker 4: Yes, I will, I will.
Speaker 2: I mean that's just the other thing is that the
Speaker 2: governor was quoted I think in the Globe and the
Speaker 2: Herald last week is saying that she wanted to take
Speaker 2: a second look at the legislative history of the nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty three statute that Governor d Kakassian, which established the
Speaker 2: shelter law in Massachusetts, and it's seem to me like
Speaker 2: maybe she feels consistent with what you folks said today
Speaker 2: that this is being made available to people for whom
Speaker 2: the law never anticipated, never anticipated this influx of people
Speaker 2: from around the world.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and this is something that we've been saying for
Speaker 4: well over a year now, and that that this this
Speaker 4: wasn't the intent of the program. It was here. It
Speaker 4: was meant here for legal Massachusetts residents who are you know,
Speaker 4: who need this assistance, who need these programs, And it
Speaker 4: wasn't meant for people who just show up one day
Speaker 4: at our at our doorstep and say, okay, we want
Speaker 4: we want access to all these programs. So so no,
Speaker 4: and it's about time I wish he listened to us
Speaker 4: well over a year ago. But nevertheless, you know, we're
Speaker 4: going to push it again we enter our new legislative session,
Speaker 4: and we welcome any you know, movement in that direction
Speaker 4: by the governor or the Democrats and the legislature to
Speaker 4: finally do something to fix this program and to make
Speaker 4: sure that it remains intact for Massachusetts residents as it
Speaker 4: was meant to since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Well represented, Paul Frost, do you represent four towns if
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, in central Massachusetts, just south of Worcester,
Speaker 2: And you are obviously working on behalf of your constituents
Speaker 2: and on behalf of everyone here in the cornwalth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: And I say keep at it any night that you
Speaker 2: need some publicity on this. We got to keep that.
Speaker 2: We have to keep the pressure on because this is
Speaker 2: a disaster. Massachusetts is once again the laughing stock of
Speaker 2: the nation, and we just you know, we've got to
Speaker 2: become a two party state. That's the problem we have
Speaker 2: right now. And I continue to believe that that they
Speaker 2: are just the Democrats do whatever they want up on
Speaker 2: Beacon Hill. They have a you know, old school leadership,
Speaker 2: and they have a young progressives in the membership, and
Speaker 2: the residents of Massachusetts are leaving. We talked last night
Speaker 2: about the out migration problem, so there's a lot to
Speaker 2: work on up there. I hope you folks stay on
Speaker 2: top of it. Thanks very much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 2: Representative Paul Frost of Central Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: You're very welcome. When we get back, we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about January. It is the biggest month, the busiest
Speaker 2: month of the year for divorces. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: with the divorce attorney and she's going to explain to us.
Speaker 2: I guess a couple of theories as to why. Back
Speaker 2: on Nightside right after the news break at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the hour. My name is Dan Ray. This is
Speaker 2: Boston's news Radio WBZ ten thirty on your AM dial.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, we have turned the corner into a new year,
Speaker 2: because January first comes around once a year and it
Speaker 2: always starts the month of January, which turns out to
Speaker 2: be a very busy month for divorce lawyers. With us
Speaker 2: is divorce attorney Attorney Sharon Rimmage, Attorney. I guess we
Speaker 2: can speculate as to why divorces is the busiest month
Speaker 2: for divorce attorneys, but you must know the real reason.
Speaker 2: Tell us what's going on. How are you tonight?
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me. Well, I've done this work
Speaker 5: a long time, and January is always very busy month,
Speaker 5: and the average person before they actually go to a
Speaker 5: divorce attorney probably spends a good twelve to eighteen months
Speaker 5: thinking about it, and so they get through a variety
Speaker 5: of reasons. They may put it off. They want to
Speaker 5: get maybe some of their financials in order, maybe they're fine,
Speaker 5: AELs are way out of order after the Christmas credit
Speaker 5: card bills come in. But also they want to wait
Speaker 5: and just get through the holidays, and they make a resolve.
Speaker 5: You know, most people make resolutions to do something different
Speaker 5: after the first of the year, and I don't want
Speaker 5: to say that divorce is a new Year's resolution, but
Speaker 5: turning a new leaf on life, going into a new
Speaker 5: chapter and starting fresh and starting it kind of having
Speaker 5: a fresh start, starting over. That's a common theme that
Speaker 5: we see with clients, and they're finally ready to go
Speaker 5: come January. And January sixth this year was, of course
Speaker 5: divorce Day. It was the first Monday of the month.
Speaker 5: But we've been very busy and there's been really no letup,
Speaker 5: and so this January of twenty twenty five has really
Speaker 5: proven to be just as much of a divorce January
Speaker 5: as any other year.
Speaker 2: In your practice, who's initiating divorces? How much? What percentage
Speaker 2: of them? Are sort of like mutual agreements where both
Speaker 2: parties come to you and say, hey, we'd like to
Speaker 2: save a little bit in our legal fees and we
Speaker 2: want to split things up evenly, and which gender is
Speaker 2: initiating more of the divorces? Men or women?
Speaker 5: I think historically, just across the board, women tend to
Speaker 5: be the ones that file more frequently. But in our
Speaker 5: practice we're pretty much we're pretty even represented by men
Speaker 5: and women. I think men tend to stay in and
Speaker 5: tolerate some things or ignore some things. Maybe they're just
Speaker 5: cluarless about some things longer than some women. And it
Speaker 5: just depends on a lot of different things, but we
Speaker 5: don't really see that it's more frequently in January it's
Speaker 5: women versus men. It's pretty much across the board. And
Speaker 5: and sometimes they've agreed that most states and know in
Speaker 5: our state, one attorney cannot represent both people because they're
Speaker 5: really is a lawsuit. They're adverse parties, so we don't
Speaker 5: meet with both parties. So frequently one party will go
Speaker 5: to the lawyer and they will initiate the process and
Speaker 5: maybe it does end up getting handled amicably, but more
Speaker 5: often than not, both sides are getting representation if someone
Speaker 5: has a lawyer. Unfortunately, a lot of people flood the
Speaker 5: courthouse with the courthouse forms that are available or legal zoom,
Speaker 5: and a lot of people make a lot of mistakes
Speaker 5: in their haste to begin anew there's an art to
Speaker 5: what needs to go into a divorce order, and they
Speaker 5: don't necessarily know ramifications, and so come about a year
Speaker 5: from when they go down this path, there may be
Speaker 5: things that just can't be undone. And so it's not
Speaker 5: just going to lawyers, it's just across the board going
Speaker 5: through the process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I first past the bar the last century.
Speaker 2: I actually knew some lawyers who would not, out of principle,
Speaker 2: handle divorce cases. And it might they might have been
Speaker 2: religiously based, but there has to be sort of a
Speaker 2: ying and yang. I never handled divorce cases just because
Speaker 2: it wasn't an area that I was particularly interested in
Speaker 2: getting involved in. So I'm interested from your perspective, there
Speaker 2: must be some cases that come to you that are
Speaker 2: pretty depressing, and there must be some cases that come
Speaker 2: to you, I assume in which you say, gee, this
Speaker 2: is really best for both parties. Do you how do
Speaker 2: you keep your own human emotions as a divorce lawyer
Speaker 2: out of it.
Speaker 5: Well, my goal is to well represent my client and
Speaker 5: be an objective voice, and so if I get too
Speaker 5: emotionally involved, it's kind of hard to do that, and
Speaker 5: so I strive to do that. In all the larriors
Speaker 5: in my office strive to do that to remove ourselves
Speaker 5: because we are to be their counselors and their attorneys,
Speaker 5: not therapist counselor, but we're to counsel them on the
Speaker 5: legal ramifications of the decisions that they're making, and it's
Speaker 5: hard to do that if you're all wrapped up in it.
Speaker 5: I will tell you I've had couples come in to
Speaker 5: see me and I've ended up referring them to a
Speaker 5: marriage therapist. I've had people come in, they try marriage
Speaker 5: therapy and then they come back and they go forward.
Speaker 5: We have people handle their divorce a lot of different ways,
Speaker 5: but at the end of the day, I tell all
Speaker 5: of our divorce clients, you are not ending your family
Speaker 5: when you get a divorce. You're just changing the way
Speaker 5: it looks, especially if you have kids. And so because
Speaker 5: if you have kids, you're going to have school events together,
Speaker 5: graduations together, first days of college, grandchildren, and so you've
Speaker 5: got to think in those terms of the actions that
Speaker 5: you're taking and how am I best preserving a relationship
Speaker 5: even though it's not a marriage relationship that's something that
Speaker 5: is workable in the future for everyone that's touched by
Speaker 5: the divorce, because it's not just about the two people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have to assume that it is. It's
Speaker 2: a tough practice of law. I know that you keep
Speaker 2: your emotions out of it, but as each case comes
Speaker 2: in the door, you know, and obviously you're there representing
Speaker 2: the best interestship of your client, but you realize that
Speaker 2: this sometimes is an absolutely necessary your separation, departure, divorce,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it. And sometimes I'm sure
Speaker 2: you look at it and say, gee, it's too bad.
Speaker 2: You know, depending upon the circumstances, that it couldn't work out,
Speaker 2: although obviously you are going to do the best you
Speaker 2: can for your particular client and that has to be
Speaker 2: a balance that you have to strike as an attorney.
Speaker 5: It is and you know, divorce representation, especially the really
Speaker 5: high conflict cases, can become very dreaming, draining because there's
Speaker 5: a lot of drama, and the key to having any
Speaker 5: longevity in this business is to not allow yourself being
Speaker 5: to be brought into that drama and to keep your
Speaker 5: wits about you, because if you allow yourself to get
Speaker 5: it drawn into it, you just don't last. And I
Speaker 5: do think I'm you know, I'm catholic. I am a
Speaker 5: long time here. I've been married twenty five almost twenty
Speaker 5: six years, and I although I would not see myself divorcing,
Speaker 5: and that's not been a part of what's gone on
Speaker 5: with me. I respect what people are going through, and
Speaker 5: I realize they're in pain and they're at their worst.
Speaker 5: But I've had too many people come back to me
Speaker 5: a year later, two years later and thank me because
Speaker 5: they said I was not at my work.
Speaker 4: I was not at my.
Speaker 5: Best at that time. Thank you for seeing me through.
Speaker 5: I know you gave me good advice. And you can
Speaker 5: see how you help them transform, whether it's heavy litigation
Speaker 5: or a more amicable approach to divorce, because most cases
Speaker 5: aren't litigated. They're resolved in mediation or informal settlement, and
Speaker 5: the goal is to keep people in a place where
Speaker 5: it does not completely consume them and they can move
Speaker 5: on and thrive after divorce, not just survive.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, well, it comes awfully nice to talk with you.
Speaker 2: What states do you are you are you practicing?
Speaker 5: If I could ask practice in Texas and the good
Speaker 5: all stay to Texas and then we have plenty of
Speaker 5: divorce in Texas. We have plenty to keep us busy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. So I'm sure that again,
Speaker 2: what do they say. I think it's some one out
Speaker 2: of two marriages end up on these days in divorce.
Speaker 3: So it's correct.
Speaker 2: It's fifty to fifty. It's sad to watch any marriage dissolve.
Speaker 2: It is, it is.
Speaker 5: It's a loss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the service that you're providing is necessary at
Speaker 2: a time when people are really quite emotional. And thank
Speaker 2: you for taking your time, taking the time to talk
Speaker 2: with us tonight. It was very interesting. I did not
Speaker 2: realize that January was the the busy month that it is,
Speaker 2: but makes a lot of sense when you look at it,
Speaker 2: when you when you look at the calendar, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Appreciate the conversation. Thanks very much, Attorney Rammage.
Speaker 5: Right, thank you very well.
Speaker 2: We get back. We're going to talk about surprising sources
Speaker 2: of hidden MSG in everyday foods. I think all of
Speaker 2: you know that I'm very much involved with the weight
Speaker 2: loss program Awaken one eighty and I really believe in it.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that Awakened one Adie did
Speaker 2: for me was to think more about the food that
Speaker 2: I was eating and what impact it had on me,
Speaker 2: and that was really helpful. We're going to talk with
Speaker 2: doctor Catherine Reid. She's the founder of a group called
Speaker 2: Unblind My Mind, a nonprofit dedicated to improving health through
Speaker 2: informed food choices. We'll talk with doctor Reed right after
Speaker 2: this quick break on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, all of us now in January have gotten through
Speaker 2: the holiday season when all of us were eating anything
Speaker 2: that was put in front of us, and all of
Speaker 2: us now are trying to pull ourselves back into a
Speaker 2: better role of caloric intake. Joining us now is doctor
Speaker 2: Catherine Reid. She is the co author with doctor Barbara Price,
Speaker 2: of a book called Fat, Stressed and Sick msg Processed
Speaker 2: Food in America's Health Crisis. Welcome doctor Reid to Nightside.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 4: Oh good?
Speaker 6: Thank you for having me, Dan, You.
Speaker 2: More than welcome when did the book come out? How
Speaker 2: recent is the book out?
Speaker 6: September of twenty three.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's been around for a while, which is good,
Speaker 2: and I hope it's been successful, and clearly a lot
Speaker 2: of us now follow our diets a lot more closely.
Speaker 2: I'm involved with a program up here for ten years
Speaker 2: called Awaken one eighty in which I was able to
Speaker 2: shed thirty five pounds and have kept it off to
Speaker 2: this day. And a lot of that had to do
Speaker 2: with just remembering a lit little bit about what you're
Speaker 2: ingesting and what time of day you're ingesting it. So,
Speaker 2: I mean, there is sort of a science to this,
Speaker 2: and it sounds to me like that's exactly where this
Speaker 2: book is. I'm going to try to pick it up
Speaker 2: because I suspect that it will help me. Tell us
Speaker 2: MSG is in the title fat, Stressed and Sick MSG,
Speaker 2: processed food in America's Health crisis. Tell us what folks
Speaker 2: will learn in the book.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So it definitely does a deep dive on the
Speaker 6: glutamate industry and it's hidden forces in the food supply.
Speaker 6: Glue tomate is another name for monosodium glutamate or MSG,
Speaker 6: and you know it's not labeled on our food packages.
Speaker 6: And so the book is really kind of helping people
Speaker 6: empower themselves making healthier food choices and understanding how the
Speaker 6: processing of these foods is generating and riching and fortifying
Speaker 6: MSG in the foods and why would they do it
Speaker 6: because MSG is re addicting.
Speaker 2: Now I've always associated and probably I'm kind of a
Speaker 2: dummy in this regard MSG with Chinese food. Is is
Speaker 2: it in all? Is it highly concentrated in Chinese food?
Speaker 2: Or is it in every type of food we ingest.
Speaker 6: You know, your beliefs are very common that you know,
Speaker 6: most people will say I don't consume MSG because they
Speaker 6: think that it's mostly in Chinese food. The standard American diet,
Speaker 6: which I call SAD, has more MSG in its you know,
Speaker 6: consumption than the Chinese because of how much processing is
Speaker 6: going on, particularly processed proteins. When you process the proteins,
Speaker 6: meaning you're degrading them, you're you know, through fat hydrolysis
Speaker 6: processes or extreme heat or fermentation. You degrade the protein,
Speaker 6: breaking it up in its subunits of amino acids, and
Speaker 6: glutamate is an amino assis did so just the fermentation
Speaker 6: of wheat containing the gluten protein will create glutamate in
Speaker 6: the fermentation of the wheat and the gluten proteins. So
Speaker 6: most Americans and most people don't understand how much msry
Speaker 6: they're consuming, and it's because of the processing.
Speaker 2: So what types of food get processed? Is it? Is
Speaker 2: it cookies and snacks? Is it? Is it the chips
Speaker 2: that that people eat, taco chips, potato chips, et cetera.
Speaker 2: What you know? Without giving away everything in the book here,
Speaker 2: and I believe, I believe that you're a biochemist, so
Speaker 2: you very much understand the science behind this. I had
Speaker 2: always thought MSG was in Chinese food, and I've never
Speaker 2: been a big fan of Chinese food, but I always
Speaker 2: used to get a headache from Chinese food, so I
Speaker 2: could go years without eating Chinese food. Now friends of
Speaker 2: mine just love it and they'll eat it every you know,
Speaker 2: every opportunity they have. But I will buy, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the things, because I do a talk show,
Speaker 2: I'm always I'm always trying to improve my my standard
Speaker 2: of food intake. I'll go to the store and I
Speaker 2: love Boy's Head turkey, which I think is a good
Speaker 2: quality turkey, but I know that's a processed food. Is
Speaker 2: it not?
Speaker 4: And did you say bullyon turkey?
Speaker 2: No, forehead, forehead is a brand.
Speaker 6: Forehead, Oh forehead turkey, And now it's you know, somehow cured.
Speaker 6: You know, then you're getting into the processing of that meat,
Speaker 6: which will then create more MSG. So you asked about
Speaker 6: some common foods, and certainly the more ultra processed foods,
Speaker 6: which is a category you know, like your chips and
Speaker 6: snacks and cookies and beef turkey, will have more MSG
Speaker 6: and something that's you know, slightly less processed. But I
Speaker 6: think you know, like the standard American diet, you know, cheese,
Speaker 6: the way they ferment the caseine protein and they're adding
Speaker 6: enzymes will create MSG because it's degrading, breaking apart that
Speaker 6: caseine protein. So the more age the cheese, the more
Speaker 6: MSG created. And so that's just a you know, an
Speaker 6: eye opener for many people. The same thing I said
Speaker 6: with the bread, you know, sour dough bread.
Speaker 4: Everybody's like, oh, sour dough, you know, wonderful.
Speaker 6: Well, sour dough cultures ferment wheat or the gluten protein,
Speaker 6: and the more fermented, the more that it's degrading that
Speaker 6: gluten protein, creating MSG. And so we.
Speaker 2: Should all be biochemist here because obviously you understand. Look,
Speaker 2: let me let me talk about some safe foods. I'm
Speaker 2: assuming raw fruit, raw vegetables are probably the best and
Speaker 2: safest things that we could eat during during the day.
Speaker 5: Correct, Yeah, So fruits, vegetables, organic nuts, and seeds. Uh.
Speaker 6: You know, meats that are coming from animals that are happy,
Speaker 6: that aren't like secured and put into like deli meat,
Speaker 6: so like you know, wild caught haemon or pastur raised
Speaker 6: chickens that are you know, nice and happy and eating club.
Speaker 2: So the happy happy before they died obviously.
Speaker 6: Well happy animals before they reached the plate.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2: So so a lot of free range is you'll see
Speaker 2: free range stuff. Now, a lot of this stuff I
Speaker 2: know is marketing, but I'm I'm trying to figure it
Speaker 2: out here. If you see something that says free range eggs,
Speaker 2: are those better for you than then the ones that
Speaker 2: aren't marked free range?
Speaker 6: And that's a good question, and that's where you know,
Speaker 6: you start to really know where your food comes from.
Speaker 6: So I'm lucky I'm in the state of California. I mean,
Speaker 6: I'm luckily not being impacted by the fires, but I
Speaker 6: know where my eggs come from, you know, so I
Speaker 6: know that where the chickens are and how they are
Speaker 6: being treated, and they're not near a urban territory and such,
Speaker 6: and so you know, it's nice to know where your
Speaker 6: food comes from.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough, let me ask you this. And this
Speaker 2: may be somewhat of a political question. I don't want
Speaker 2: to put you into the political With Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
Speaker 2: I know that he has a lot of theories. I
Speaker 2: don't really have a firm opinion as to what sort
Speaker 2: of Health and Human Services secretary he would be. But
Speaker 2: some of his ideas seem a little out there, and
Speaker 2: then there's some of them that seem very kind of interesting,
Speaker 2: kind of a mixed bag. Is that your reading of
Speaker 2: him generally or no.
Speaker 6: It is, you know, because you know, I've heard about
Speaker 6: him years ago because he was saying big food, big pharma,
Speaker 6: and it's making us more ill because our policies are
Speaker 6: being driven by corporation, you know, pocketbooks and such. And
Speaker 6: I was in biotechnology for twenty here, so you know,
Speaker 6: I know I'm in that. I was in that industry,
Speaker 6: and so you know big food. You know, there is
Speaker 6: an international technical glue tomate Committee. Now, figure that one
Speaker 6: out as a head scratcher. Why would we need an
Speaker 6: international committee, you know, with protecting the interest of glue
Speaker 6: tomate in the food supply worldwide.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one word comes to my mind, and that's lobbying exactly.
Speaker 6: And so they lobby with World Health Organization to keep
Speaker 6: glue tomate hidden from consumers. It's not labeled, it's not
Speaker 6: put on like how much there is in these foods
Speaker 6: because it's considered natural because it is in some natural foods.
Speaker 6: But what's not natural is how much we're consuming in
Speaker 6: the processing of the foods, and that's making people sick.
Speaker 2: Well, I will tell you that as I as I
Speaker 2: look at Amazon, your book is highly rated, you have
Speaker 2: five stars. Well, I'm sure you're familiar with that, and
Speaker 2: you get it from Amazon and elsewhere, I believe, and
Speaker 2: it's available on Kindle. Also there's an audio version. A
Speaker 2: lot of my listeners are non cited or blind, and
Speaker 2: they're all we're always looking to talk about books that
Speaker 2: are available on cassette or an audio CD version. So
Speaker 2: the best way for people to do is I'm assuming Amazon,
Speaker 2: and do you want to send you to a different website?
Speaker 6: Yeah, and so Amazon does have it. I do encourage
Speaker 6: people to buy the hard copy if that they are able,
Speaker 6: because it does have an appendix with recipes and wait
Speaker 6: like a weekly plans and such, which the appendix material
Speaker 6: is not something that people are getting through these audiobooks,
Speaker 6: and that's a publisher deal, not something that I desired.
Speaker 6: So you know, if you do want the recipes and
Speaker 6: the meal plants and such, you know, the hard copy
Speaker 6: is available on Amazon. Fact Stressed and Sick MSG Process
Speaker 6: Foods and the Methods Health Crisis. And then I do
Speaker 6: have a nonprofit, unblindmymind dot org where I work with
Speaker 6: families individually or groups, you know, like you said you
Speaker 6: have a weight you know, lost group. I work with
Speaker 6: autism groups, you know, so because that's how I started
Speaker 6: my journey with my daughter being diagnosed with autism.
Speaker 2: Other what and you what is what is that website
Speaker 2: you're you gave the Amazon dot com. We said, what
Speaker 2: is your website?
Speaker 6: Unblindmmind dot org.
Speaker 2: Unblindmmind dot org. Well, thank you very much, doctorI there
Speaker 2: was pleasure to talk about to you and I really
Speaker 2: enjoyed the conversation. We'll talk again, I hope. Thank you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2: Happy new year, same to you. We can still say,
Speaker 2: because we're still in January, thank you very much. What
Speaker 2: do we get? Okay, we get back after the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock news. I want to open up a conversation that
Speaker 2: we haven't talked about before here in night Side. And
Speaker 2: it's one you go to a pharmacy and you want
Speaker 2: to buy a tube of toothpaste, you want to buy
Speaker 2: a deoderan spray or something like that, and it's locked up.
Speaker 2: What the heck is going on in our world? I
Speaker 2: was recently in a store which I'll tell you about,
Speaker 2: where they had men's socks locked up. You couldn't just
Speaker 2: pick them off the shelf and go buy them. We'll
Speaker 2: get to all of that, I promised, right after the
Speaker 2: nine o'clock news here on night Side