Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Nicole, and happy Saint Patrick's Day weekend to
Speaker 2: you and yours into everyone out there. This is an
Speaker 2: unofficial well it's an official three day weekend in Boston,
Speaker 2: but for many of us we'll celebrate. We'll get three
Speaker 2: days of celebrating in well, Friday night, Saturday, and good
Speaker 2: part of Sunday. Welcome on in everyone as we move
Speaker 2: into a Friday tgif we're wrapping up another week of
Speaker 2: nights that we have some interesting topics to deal with. Tonight,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk with the president of the Animal
Speaker 2: Rescue League of Boston. He's the president and CEO, doctor
Speaker 2: Edward Scatino, will join us to discuss some concerns regarding pets,
Speaker 2: housing and in often cases people either with disabilities or
Speaker 2: who are older. Also, some bad news for Karen Reid's
Speaker 2: legal team yesterday late late yesterday. Probably read about it today,
Speaker 2: and I know a couple of our callers wanted to
Speaker 2: talk about it last night. Basically, she's going back to
Speaker 2: trial and all three chargers her options have been exhausted
Speaker 2: both in the state the State Court of Appeals here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts and also in the federal court. So that
Speaker 2: is done, and then well we will talk Saint Patrick's day.
Speaker 2: It's a couple of little bit later on tonight during
Speaker 2: the twentieth hour. But first we have four interesting guests
Speaker 2: to start off, none more interesting than the director of
Speaker 2: the writer and the producer of a new film that's
Speaker 2: just about to come out called any Day Now about
Speaker 2: the art heist at Boston's Illabella Stuart Gardner Museum, and
Speaker 2: it's characterized as it explores the Truish art heist. Welcome.
Speaker 2: Eric Aronson is a Boston native. Hey, Eric, Welcome to
Speaker 2: Night's Side.
Speaker 3: Hi Dan, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how long you've been in this crazy movie business.
Speaker 4: I've been a screenwriter for about twenty five years in Hollywood,
Speaker 4: writ and all kinds of crazy things. And this is
Speaker 4: my first directorial film, and I've just been waiting for
Speaker 4: the right time and the right story and I found
Speaker 4: them both.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you, I've looked at the trailer. I
Speaker 2: can't wait to see the film. Let's uh, why don't
Speaker 2: you tell us what it's about. I know what it's about,
Speaker 2: and I've watched the trailer, which is a great trailer.
Speaker 2: It wants me to I want to see this movie,
Speaker 2: to be really honest with you, so tell us, tell
Speaker 2: us what you're doing here. You're recreating what might have happened.
Speaker 4: I guess, well, nobody knows what happened, right, so you have.
Speaker 3: What do we know? For a fact?
Speaker 4: We know that the museum was robbed, and it's thirty
Speaker 4: fifth anniversary on Saint Patrick's Day. On the seventeenth, we're
Speaker 4: actually having our Boston premiere of the movie at the
Speaker 4: Summrville Theater and the movie I cut it to be
Speaker 4: exactly the length of the robbery. So the movie itself,
Speaker 4: this is eighty one minutes before credits. And it was
Speaker 4: the night of the seventeenth, so it's early morning the eighteenth.
Speaker 4: But I forgured I wasn't going to make people wait
Speaker 4: up till one o'clock in the morning to watch this movie.
Speaker 3: But yes, but what's it about.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's about the Gardner heist happened. We all know
Speaker 4: that we all know that nobody knows who did it,
Speaker 4: and nobody knows where these paintings are and they haven't
Speaker 4: come up. But what we do know for a fact
Speaker 4: is that there are some pretty interesting characters associated with
Speaker 4: this crime and around it, and I'm a character guy,
Speaker 4: and I just took inspiration from some of some of
Speaker 4: the ideas around it, and then I made my own
Speaker 4: fictional version.
Speaker 5: Of of a one of what if happened?
Speaker 4: And what if this happened? And it's really in the
Speaker 4: works of comedy and serious.
Speaker 2: Go ahead in watching the trailer. UH. And you may
Speaker 2: or may not know, but I've been around a long time,
Speaker 2: and I was around as a TV reporter at the
Speaker 2: time of the Gardner HEISTUH covered, amongst others, a lot
Speaker 2: of the criminals in and around the Boston area. I
Speaker 2: got a distinct just watching the trailer, got a little
Speaker 2: little whiff of a whitey bulgeer type character.
Speaker 5: It's not actually it's more off beat.
Speaker 4: It's an it's more of an off beat I mean,
Speaker 4: he can come across that way.
Speaker 3: It's it's he's an heart thief.
Speaker 4: But in the movie, in the movie itself, he's he's
Speaker 4: he's doing bad, but he's also doing good. He's a
Speaker 4: really interesting character. He's a It's played by Paul Gilfoyle,
Speaker 4: who's a Boston native and just a wonderful, wonderful actor.
Speaker 4: And he has this ability to do two things at once,
Speaker 4: and not a lot of actors can do that. But
Speaker 4: he's able to be menacing, and he's also clever and
Speaker 4: cheekish and roguish, and you also kind of like him.
Speaker 4: And even though he's reaching his hand in your pocket
Speaker 4: and taking your money out of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you know, those were some of the characteristics
Speaker 2: of Whitey Bulger. Over in South Boston. He was thought
Speaker 2: of as a good bad guy, if you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he was really a bit you know. And
Speaker 4: that's the other reason why I chose this story. I
Speaker 4: chose this story because in my life, and I'm from
Speaker 4: Boston and I live here. Now, there are two great
Speaker 4: myths and the two mis and you hit on it
Speaker 4: is the White Bulger myths and the Gardner heist. And
Speaker 4: White Bulger is just not funny.
Speaker 2: No, he left a path of murder and broken people.
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. Premieres on Monday, Saint Patrick's Day at the
Speaker 2: Somerville Theater. How many showing this has to be shown
Speaker 2: a lot of times? Or is this going to Is
Speaker 2: it going to be available on Netflix? Tell us? How not?
Speaker 2: Only are you going to create a great movie? And
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a great I think
Speaker 2: it's a great movie just from watching the trailer. How
Speaker 2: are you gonna make this? Turn this into a successful
Speaker 2: financial effort as well? Is it going to go into
Speaker 2: theaters across the country at some point after the premiere?
Speaker 2: Tell me how it works.
Speaker 4: Well, we're starting a limited release, so you have a
Speaker 4: couple of ways that you can see this movie, Dan.
Speaker 4: You can come to the premiere on Monday night at
Speaker 4: Somerville or on the twenty first, which is I think
Speaker 4: it's Thursday night. We are showing the film in a
Speaker 4: couple of theaters. It's showing in New York in a
Speaker 4: theater in Greenwich Village. It's also showing at the Magia
Speaker 4: six seven for a week in here. And we're also,
Speaker 4: which is unusual, but we're also releasing it online. So
Speaker 4: if you want to see it anywhere in the country,
Speaker 4: you can see it online. And we're just gonna leave
Speaker 4: it out for a limited release starting on March twenty first.
Speaker 4: We're gonna show it and then we're gonna pull it.
Speaker 4: I just want to tip my toe in the water
Speaker 4: and see what kind of appetite is and then we're
Speaker 4: going to slowly roll out a bigger release in May.
Speaker 4: But we've created a lot of ads for this movie
Speaker 4: and they're just gonna start rolling out and you'll start
Speaker 4: seeing some of them, and they're really fun. They're not
Speaker 4: the movie. They're kind of stories around the movie, and
Speaker 4: we're gonna push that out and see what happens.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you this, this is it sounds
Speaker 2: to me like very creative release of this work, a
Speaker 2: work of art above theft of art. Let's put it
Speaker 2: like that. How can people if you can't get to
Speaker 2: the Somerville Theater, if you can't get down a gra
Speaker 2: village in New York on the twentieth, if you count wherever,
Speaker 2: what's the way is it going to be on Netflix?
Speaker 2: How can people I assume either rented or buy it.
Speaker 2: What could the average person do who wants to see
Speaker 2: the movie but maybe geographically can't get to where the
Speaker 2: movie's being shown in a public venue.
Speaker 4: If you want to see it for a limited time
Speaker 4: on March twenty first, and as long as you're in
Speaker 4: the United States, you can go to Kinema, which is
Speaker 4: like a specialty film website. But you'll see it on
Speaker 4: all our ads. We're going to start pushing it out
Speaker 4: on the end of the ads. But if you go
Speaker 4: to Kinema, you'll see our movie. It's going to be
Speaker 4: up there for a week or so and then we're
Speaker 4: going to pull it so you'll have a little time
Speaker 4: to see it starting on the twenty first, no matter
Speaker 4: where you are.
Speaker 2: Good, Okay. Yeah. The whole idea here is to tell
Speaker 2: the to tell the story about your movie, about the story.
Speaker 2: If I didn't think it was really it intrigued me.
Speaker 2: The trailer I thought was great. I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of trailers, and I thought it was a really intriguing trailer.
Speaker 2: It makes me want to go see the movie, and
Speaker 2: I want I'm sure my audience are going to want
Speaker 2: to go see it as well. So Eric, congratulations. Where
Speaker 2: did you learn new craft? Did you go to school
Speaker 2: back here in the Boston area or how did you
Speaker 2: get involved in this real quickly?
Speaker 4: No, I was in politics. I was a speech writer
Speaker 4: for the British politician. I couldn't have been any further
Speaker 4: from what I'm doing. And then I just came home
Speaker 4: one day and I sat here in Boston with a
Speaker 4: friend of mine and I said, you know what I've
Speaker 4: always wanted to do. I've always wanted to write a
Speaker 4: script and he said do it. And I don't know why,
Speaker 4: but just somebody else telling me that I could do it,
Speaker 4: it just opened up everything for me. And then I
Speaker 4: started writing, and I've been writing ever since. That's twenty
Speaker 4: five years, and I've worked with a lot of people
Speaker 4: in almost every studio and then this, and then I
Speaker 4: decided now to try my hat handed directing.
Speaker 2: Man, that's great that It's just amazing how people find
Speaker 2: their way. People find it their way, and obviously you
Speaker 2: found your way to something that you're passionate about, and
Speaker 2: those are the type of people we love to talk to.
Speaker 2: The movie is any Day Now. It's about the Gardener
Speaker 2: Museum theft, and I recommend it highly. Eric. I appreciate
Speaker 2: your time tonight. I hope to meet you someday. You
Speaker 2: sound like a fascinating guy, so much. Appreciate it, all right,
Speaker 2: Eric Aronson, Director, writer, producer of the movie any Day Now.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we're going to switch and we're
Speaker 2: going to talk. Are any of you afraid of public speaking?
Speaker 2: I know I was at one point in time. I
Speaker 2: really was. Though I've made a career of it and
Speaker 2: I'm going to have the founder of speaking Circles International.
Speaker 2: On the other side of this break, I'll remind you
Speaker 2: listening to WBZ, Boston's News Radio ten thirty on your
Speaker 2: AM dial. We're an iHeartRadio station. iHeart has a new podcast,
Speaker 2: a new easy podcast, easy to download, It's free, and
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Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, you'll be able to be
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Speaker 2: a year, twenty four to seven, you'll be able to
Speaker 2: listen to your favorite radio station. We'll be back with
Speaker 2: another great Friday Night guest right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: When people ask others what they fear most, some people
Speaker 2: will say snakes, some will say flying on an airplane,
Speaker 2: but a lot of people actually say public. Speaking with
Speaker 2: us is Lee Glickstein, founder of Speaking Circles International. Lee,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Nightside. How are you tonight?
Speaker 5: Well, wonderful. Well, thank you for having me here, very welcome.
Speaker 2: So from stage fright to fearlessness. I've spent a lot
Speaker 2: of years in the media, both as a television reporter
Speaker 2: and now as a talk show host. I've really made
Speaker 2: my career about speaking, either reporting or conducting programs like this.
Speaker 2: And yet I can remember when I was a freshman
Speaker 2: in college, terrified having to give a speech in front
Speaker 2: of my classmates. So just not even a speech, a
Speaker 2: short presentation. And I don't know how I got over
Speaker 2: the fear. But how do you help people get over
Speaker 2: that fear.
Speaker 5: Well, it really comes down to not thinking of that
Speaker 5: public speaking, speaking to a whole group, but to one
Speaker 5: person at a time. So anything he has halfway decent
Speaker 5: one on one skill, and my I've worked with people
Speaker 5: you know that is you know coachings who are perfect
Speaker 5: on one.
Speaker 2: Lee, we got a little bit, Lee, hold on for saying,
Speaker 2: we got kind of some bad audio with you. I'm
Speaker 2: going to ask my producer Rob to work with you
Speaker 2: for a couple of seconds here to try to clean
Speaker 2: up the line. Don't know what's going on, but I
Speaker 2: want to hear everything you say. Well, Rob will get
Speaker 2: us get you back on with us quickly. We're speaking
Speaker 2: with Lee Glicksteinstein, a founder of Speaking Circles International. And
Speaker 2: if you are someone who in your either your job
Speaker 2: or in your community, you need to be able to
Speaker 2: periodically appear in front of a group and speak. You
Speaker 2: want to listen very carefully, carefully to what Lee has
Speaker 2: to say. Lee, you're back and let's hope that we
Speaker 2: got that audio improved a little bit.
Speaker 5: Go right ahead, Okay, So what I'm trying to say
Speaker 5: is that if you if you think of it as
Speaker 5: just one person at a time, never speaking to a group,
Speaker 5: If if you just do one person at time, it
Speaker 5: becomes a series of one on ones. And it really
Speaker 5: involves developing the skill, the capacity by practicing in front
Speaker 5: of a group to only be with one person at
Speaker 5: a time, and when you're with them, even it's the
Speaker 5: three seconds of five seconds to see them so they
Speaker 5: feel seen the way you are at your best when
Speaker 5: you're on you know, when you're having a one on
Speaker 5: one sensitive conversation, you stay with the person, you you
Speaker 5: keep you have your eyes available to the person. Well,
Speaker 5: if you do that with a group of any size,
Speaker 5: it doesn't mean you have to get to every single person.
Speaker 5: You got one hundred hundred people there be with one
Speaker 5: person at a time. The group will start to feel
Speaker 5: that you're connected, that you're that you're with the whole group.
Speaker 5: Everyone will feel it personally. You have to practice with
Speaker 5: one person at a time, and that's you know, I've
Speaker 5: created a practice ground, the speaking circle, where people get
Speaker 5: say three minutes or five minutes, and the only instruction
Speaker 5: is to be with one person at a time. You
Speaker 5: don't even have to speak. Yeah, I did this with
Speaker 5: stammerers in Dublin, Ireland. Scottish people. Of course, they're storytellers
Speaker 5: and storytellers Scottish people who I know, so i'm talking Scottish.
Speaker 5: I'm talking about Irish people who have trouble telling stories
Speaker 5: because they spammer or losing so much. But when they
Speaker 5: be with one person at a time and they're trying
Speaker 5: to speak to the whole group.
Speaker 2: And so do you do you conduct these these seminars
Speaker 2: or whatever you would call them, in person or is
Speaker 2: this something that people can take this take your course.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm trying to figure out here. I understand
Speaker 2: the principle. One of the things I'll tell friends of
Speaker 2: mine who are a little nervous, I'll say, well, just
Speaker 2: speak to the audience. And I actually have a different theory,
Speaker 2: and that is, you know, look up at the back
Speaker 2: row and uh and pick some people out in the
Speaker 2: back row, and the people down front will still feel
Speaker 2: that you have eye contact with them. If you keep
Speaker 2: your head down and you just look at the front row,
Speaker 2: you're going to lose the rest of the audience. But
Speaker 2: what can people do do they? You know, do you
Speaker 2: do zoom conferences? How does this work?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Well, I do in person, but I also do
Speaker 5: it on zoom. Since COVID hit, I had to figure
Speaker 5: a way to do it without doing it in person.
Speaker 5: I do it on zoom, and it really works on
Speaker 5: zoom when with the protocol I use where when you
Speaker 5: when you move from one person to another during your turn,
Speaker 5: you call their name and they look into the camera
Speaker 5: and you look at them on the screen. So we
Speaker 5: got it to where it really works well on zoom.
Speaker 5: Virtually you can practice it so that you can be
Speaker 5: with one person at a time there and when you
Speaker 5: translate that to the quote real world, yeah, it works
Speaker 5: the same way. And yeah, yeah, I just want to say,
Speaker 5: you said.
Speaker 2: If you look, please go ahead.
Speaker 5: If you look at somebody in the back row. You said,
Speaker 5: when you look at people in the back row, people
Speaker 5: upfront will feel connected. Yes, if you're truly looking at
Speaker 5: anybody in the room, even in the twentieth row, and
Speaker 5: you just don't hardly see their eyes, but you see
Speaker 5: their being, that the whole everybody will feel connected. That's
Speaker 5: how you create, that's how you you you solve the
Speaker 5: sense that you know the people you're speaking to don't
Speaker 5: feel they belong hardly anyone in your in your audience,
Speaker 5: even if they're dressed well and they they look like
Speaker 5: they're listening, they're going through their own stuff. They feel
Speaker 5: alienated in their own way from the world. And if
Speaker 5: you can create this field of belonging, this community, you're
Speaker 5: very natural and people will listen at the next level
Speaker 5: when you're with just one person at a time.
Speaker 2: All right, So, how can folks get in touch with
Speaker 2: you if they currently have a fear of public speaking
Speaker 2: and they can get more information from you. What's your website?
Speaker 5: Well, I love at Speaking circles dot com site.
Speaker 2: Okay again this for some reason Lee our phone connection here.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're working on a headset or
Speaker 2: if you're moving around a room. But we're losing you,
Speaker 2: so give me.
Speaker 4: Let me do that.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's do that again ahead, l e E.
Speaker 5: Yep, go ahead, Speaking Circles dot Com.
Speaker 2: Okay, I heard it. I'm going to repeat it. L
Speaker 2: E E dot at l E E at Speaking Circles
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 5: Dot com and yeah, email me there and we can
Speaker 5: do we talk about zoom calls. They also have my
Speaker 5: book be seen now, fearless speaker.
Speaker 2: All right, I wish we had a better connection. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's our lines or your phone, but
Speaker 2: next time we'll clear these lines a little bit more effectively.
Speaker 2: Ahead of time. We'll figure it out. Lee Clickstein, thank
Speaker 2: you very much, the founder of Speaking Circles International. You're
Speaker 2: very welcome. When we get back, we're gonna get a
Speaker 2: little closer to home. I'm going to talk with Kristin McMahon.
Speaker 2: She's the curator of pinnipeds and penguins. I don't even
Speaker 2: know what a pinny pt is, but I think I'm
Speaker 2: going to find out and penguins for the New England Aquarium.
Speaker 2: My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. Here comes the News.
Speaker 2: Be back in about three three and a half minutes.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side With on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, I am delighted to welcome Kristin McMahon. She's the
Speaker 2: curator of pinnipeds and penguins for the New England Aquarium.
Speaker 2: I have a daughter, Kristin, who is a She is
Speaker 2: very accomplished, but if she could have your job. She
Speaker 2: loves animals, obviously, as you love animals and you love penguins.
Speaker 2: I was just told by Rob what a penny pet is.
Speaker 2: I'd never heard the word before, and I'm not going
Speaker 2: to fake it and make people think that I'm particularly intelligent,
Speaker 2: but tell us what a penny pet is, because I
Speaker 2: had never heard that word.
Speaker 6: So, a pinnapad is a seal or a sea lion.
Speaker 6: We actually have five leaned carb fields at the aquarium
Speaker 6: and five California sea lions. So pinnapad means like penna
Speaker 6: or pinned ear. They have ears that you can see
Speaker 6: just like you know they hear with the ears. They're
Speaker 6: very audible. And so pinnaped means feather footage, meaning like
Speaker 6: fins or fin footed. So if you look at their
Speaker 6: flippers on their hind flipper area, they look almost feather
Speaker 6: like because they have a structure that looks very adaptable
Speaker 6: for water.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, here talk now, we know what pinnipeds are,
Speaker 2: but we're here. We'll come back and talk about pinnipeds
Speaker 2: another time, but we're here to talk about penguins. And
Speaker 2: I have and I saw a video the other day.
Speaker 2: I forget which TV station it was here in Boston.
Speaker 2: I switch around. You have a retirement home for older penguins.
Speaker 2: Sounds great if you're an older penguin. Tell us about it.
Speaker 6: Okay, Yeah, we actually have over fifty penguins at the aquarium,
Speaker 6: and forty of those are called African penguins, and our
Speaker 6: African penguin colony is at least fifty percent in a
Speaker 6: geriatric category. So we decided to have a special section
Speaker 6: of that exhibit be for special animals that are of
Speaker 6: an older age and have medical conditions or have not
Speaker 6: quite the same abilities they had when they were younger.
Speaker 6: So African penguins live about ten to fifteen years in
Speaker 6: the wild, and the penguins that are now in this
Speaker 6: assisted living retirement area are actually in their thirties and
Speaker 6: later twenties, so they're quite old, and in fact, they're
Speaker 6: doubling their life span at the aquarium. So it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: Incredible, So why is this such a disparity. Obviously, on
Speaker 2: the one hand, you must take very good care, medical
Speaker 2: care and otherwise, but that can account for such a
Speaker 2: dramatic disparity. Are penguins as they get older, do they
Speaker 2: become prey for other animals or fish in the wild.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. When the penguins get older, they get less mobile,
Speaker 6: they get weaker. They're definitely picked off more easily by
Speaker 6: their predators such as sharks or large seals. Different things
Speaker 6: will eat penguins, and the penguins, as I said, live
Speaker 6: about ten to fifteen years in the wild. They also
Speaker 6: have a lot of threats out in the wild, such
Speaker 6: as pollution, lack of habitat, human encroachment, and actually finding
Speaker 6: prey which they prey on fish. The oceans are over
Speaker 6: fish and the pollutions also affecting the fisheries as well,
Speaker 6: so they have trouble finding proper nutrition. So not only
Speaker 6: do they necessarily fall to predation because they're weaker, but
Speaker 6: also they're not living as long as they would in
Speaker 6: an aquarium setting. You know, the aquarium, we put animal
Speaker 6: welfare as a top priority, and they get restaurant quality fish,
Speaker 6: vitamins and vet care and a lot of care from
Speaker 6: our trainers every single day, so they tend to live
Speaker 6: longer and this longevity has been great for us to
Speaker 6: learn more and more about this species.
Speaker 2: Now, when I think about penguins, obviously, I think about
Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh penguins and Sydney Crosby. Only kidding, only kidding.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you've heard that joke before. The penguins. You
Speaker 2: think of penguins as being, you know, coming from the
Speaker 2: south of South America, from the from Antarctica. Is is
Speaker 2: that their natural habitat or are they in other parts
Speaker 2: of the world.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so that's a great question. A lot of people
Speaker 6: think of penguins and they think of snow, like the
Speaker 6: penguin species that are in Antarctica. But the penguins that
Speaker 6: we have are from South America. They're from Africa, so
Speaker 6: South Africa, so Namibia and South Africa area where the
Speaker 6: African penguins are from. That's where they get their name
Speaker 6: African penguins. And we also have Southern rock hopper penguins
Speaker 6: that are from warmer climates as well, so they don't
Speaker 6: live in a snowy habitat, but they live on rocks
Speaker 6: and ledges and a pebbly shore, and they can actually
Speaker 6: be in warmer temperatures. So living in that habitat makes
Speaker 6: it very accessible to living in outdoor exhibits in different
Speaker 6: places around the country, so you'll see African penguins in
Speaker 6: many different aquariums. The thing that's really interesting about African
Speaker 6: penguins is there's such an important species to have in
Speaker 6: human care because they are critically endangered. So that's really
Speaker 6: scary because that means they could be functionally extinct in
Speaker 6: the wild in ten to fifteen years, which is not
Speaker 6: very long. So we put a high priority on our
Speaker 6: breeding program with the African penguins, and we do that
Speaker 6: through an organization called the SSP, the Species Survival Program,
Speaker 6: where we do thoughtful breeding plans working with others us
Speaker 6: in aquariums to make sure we have genetic diversity represented
Speaker 6: with this species.
Speaker 2: Okay, so here's my question, and we don't script questions here,
Speaker 2: so if I ask you something that you cannot answer,
Speaker 2: feel free. Are the penguins from Antarctica and the African
Speaker 2: penguins Are they from the same family, Are they cousins
Speaker 2: or were they somehow separated when the ice caps, you know,
Speaker 2: separated billions of years ago. How similar are the penguins
Speaker 2: from Antarctica to the penguins who are now, you know,
Speaker 2: in Africa.
Speaker 6: That's a great question, and they are. They are related.
Speaker 6: They're very similar, and they're both obviously species of birds,
Speaker 6: and they are flightless birds, so they have a lot
Speaker 6: in common. They both species eat fish, so the cold
Speaker 6: weather penguins and the warm weather penguins have a lot
Speaker 6: of the same adaptations. The cold weather penguins have much
Speaker 6: higher feather counts than the warmer weather penguins. You also
Speaker 6: see the African penguins have some bare patches of skin
Speaker 6: around their eyes that can actually look pink at times,
Speaker 6: and they can regulate their temperature in that way, so
Speaker 6: they have a little less coverage of feathers than the
Speaker 6: cold weather penguins such as the king penguins or the
Speaker 6: emperor penguins. So there's a lot of different species that
Speaker 6: live in the colder climates, and there's several species that
Speaker 6: live in the warmer climates as well, and they're all related,
Speaker 6: and they all lay eggs and that's how they have
Speaker 6: their offspring. They hatch just like any other birds, they'll hatch.
Speaker 6: Different penguin species will lay either one egg or two eggs,
Speaker 6: and that's called a clutch, the number of eggs that
Speaker 6: they lay, and so they do have some differences as well,
Speaker 6: but again they are relatives they have they're in that
Speaker 6: same family, and it's the avian family because they're species
Speaker 6: of birds.
Speaker 2: Now my understanding, the treatment that you give them is
Speaker 2: truly world class. And not only do they get great
Speaker 2: food and all of that, that you actually administer eye drops.
Speaker 2: How do you administer eye drops to a penguin? I
Speaker 2: mean do you literally have to hold the bird and
Speaker 2: hold their heads? I'm serious when I say that. You know,
Speaker 2: the easy answer is how do you you know? How
Speaker 2: do you put eye drops in a penguin? Very carefully?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 2: It would be the comedic answer, But how do you
Speaker 2: do something like that? That has to be quite a challenge.
Speaker 6: It really is the best part of our job, and
Speaker 6: that is providing the best welfare for the animals by
Speaker 6: doing husbandry training, which is a fancy word for health care.
Speaker 6: So we want them to voluntarily participate in these healthcare
Speaker 6: behaviors so that we can give them really great care
Speaker 6: and have our veterinarian team get close to them, examine
Speaker 6: them and help diagnose anything proactively. So we start out
Speaker 6: by building a relationship with each animal, and that's by
Speaker 6: spending quality time with them and reinforcing them and giving
Speaker 6: them fish and giving them scratches. They naturally preen themselves
Speaker 6: and other birds, so basically use their beak to work
Speaker 6: on the feathers and keep those feathers clean and good
Speaker 6: and good condition. So we also do a little scratch
Speaker 6: with them which simulates that creening. So we have different
Speaker 6: ways to reward or reinforce them and build the relationships.
Speaker 6: And from there we can start to pick them up
Speaker 6: examine their feet. We can pick them up and kind
Speaker 6: of hold them on our lap and administer eye drops
Speaker 6: and then we of course want them out of the
Speaker 6: water for at least two minutes to let the eye
Speaker 6: drop soak in. So it's important to have that not
Speaker 6: only that relationship, but that's time spent with the animal
Speaker 6: where you can have that duration and have them come
Speaker 6: in your lap, getting that medical exam, eye drop, put
Speaker 6: them on the scale to get a weight. We actually
Speaker 6: take them upstairs to get X rays on them. We'll
Speaker 6: get voluntary blood samples on different animals as well. And
Speaker 6: you mentioned kind of the pinnipeds earlier, so they're mammals,
Speaker 6: so they tend to be even further along in these
Speaker 6: behaviors that I'm talking about, because mammals pick up a
Speaker 6: little quicker on some of the training and then birds
Speaker 6: take a little bit longer. So each type of animal
Speaker 6: has a little bit of a different learning curve, if
Speaker 6: that makes sense.
Speaker 2: And it all makes total sense, and I'm assuming it.
Speaker 2: I just got to ask one final quick question here.
Speaker 2: I assume that these penguins come to know you just
Speaker 2: as you come to know them.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. And the neat thing about this geriatric assisted living
Speaker 6: section of the exhibit is right now, there's six birds
Speaker 6: in that section, and eventually they'll be eight, and we
Speaker 6: do very specifically identifying which animals we want in that
Speaker 6: section of the habitat. It's a commer area, it's a
Speaker 6: little more serene, not quite as active. We also can
Speaker 6: get close up observations on these six to eight birds
Speaker 6: at any time. Now. All of our birds have bracelets
Speaker 6: on their wings or their flippers, and those are on
Speaker 6: the left for males, on the right for females, and
Speaker 6: each one's a different color, so you're right, we know
Speaker 6: exactly which bird is which. So for instance, Durban is
Speaker 6: one of the birds in that area. He's thirty one
Speaker 6: years old and he actually only has one eye. He
Speaker 6: had to have an eye surgery because he had a
Speaker 6: chronic eye issue. So you'll see him out there. He
Speaker 6: only has one eye, but he's doing great with that,
Speaker 6: and that one eye that he has, he does get
Speaker 6: the eye drops. So we'll put him on our lap
Speaker 6: and we'll give him those eye drops several times a day,
Speaker 6: and he's very calm and relaxed with that. Will actually
Speaker 6: give him a little back scratch to reinforce him.
Speaker 2: So it's wrong with nothing wrong with a good backscratch. Christen,
Speaker 2: I'm past my break, but this has been a great conversation.
Speaker 2: The New England Aquarium everyone knows where it is. Get
Speaker 2: out there and now you'll get a chance to look
Speaker 2: at the penguins and explain the habitat to your children
Speaker 2: or to your guests. But the New England Aquarium something
Speaker 2: everyone should in the Boston area should visit at least
Speaker 2: every year or so. Thanks so much, Kristin. You're a
Speaker 2: font of information and I had a lot of questions
Speaker 2: and you answer them all and I thank you very
Speaker 2: much for your time tonight, and let's do it again
Speaker 2: in the next few weeks and pick up pick up
Speaker 2: something else, some other issue dealing with the aquarium. I
Speaker 2: love animals, as does my daughter. Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: That sounds great.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Good night.
Speaker 2: Kristin McMahon, the curator pittibeds and penguins at the New
Speaker 2: England Aquarium. We come back. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: how can AI be used to increase security, Oh like,
Speaker 2: let's say, at a parade in South Boston coming up
Speaker 2: this week, and we'll talk about it right after the break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone, Big Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Boston
Speaker 2: this weekend, in South Boston this weekend. Then every city
Speaker 2: has big events during the course of the year, and
Speaker 2: of course there are all sorts of the quadrennial events
Speaker 2: like the Olympic Games and Championships, Super Bowls, World Series,
Speaker 2: and we're becoming more and more concerned about those, you know,
Speaker 2: high level activities becoming potentially the target of terrorism. With
Speaker 2: US is Mark Jerman. He's the director of public Safety
Speaker 2: at a company called Futuri fut U RII. Major cities
Speaker 2: now are basically thinking about smart technology to keep celebrations secure.
Speaker 2: And of course when you think about new developments, you
Speaker 2: have to think about artificial intelligence AI. Mark Jerriman, Welcome
Speaker 2: to Nights Out. How are you.
Speaker 5: Good?
Speaker 2: Thank you tell us about Futuri. That's the company that
Speaker 2: you're a director of public safety. For give us a
Speaker 2: little bit of brief on that, and then talk about
Speaker 2: what you're able to do with AI that was not
Speaker 2: even probably anticipated or imagined twenty or twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3: Well exactly future. He is fifteen years old. It is
Speaker 3: a leader in the AI technology, seven thousand partners, twenty
Speaker 3: two countries, twenty different patents, and really we focus on
Speaker 3: using the latest and most modern technology to enhance the
Speaker 3: processes and with Beacon, it really is about transforming emergency
Speaker 3: alerts and protecting the public.
Speaker 2: Okay, So give us as maybe some if not actual
Speaker 2: examples of hypothetical examples of what AI could do at
Speaker 2: a Super Bowl or a World Series or an Olympic
Speaker 2: game this year that never could even been imagined when
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl first started in the late nineteen sixties,
Speaker 2: so the world series started at three.
Speaker 3: Sure, so imagine for a moment we're looking at some
Speaker 3: of the most recent stats of FEMA. Seventy three percent
Speaker 3: of Americans don't receive alerts in due time. It's an
Speaker 3: average delay of twelve minutes. The issue isn't that the
Speaker 3: alerting authorities the first responders aren't getting the messaging out.
Speaker 3: It's that they're not getting received in time. Our technology
Speaker 3: has changed in such a way that people are walking
Speaker 3: around with phones in their hands now, So what to
Speaker 3: your analogy? Eas system was built in the nineteen seventies
Speaker 3: based on two hundred and forty four characters. Now of
Speaker 3: a short burst of information at the right time, Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: we now live in a digital environment, or or fortunately
Speaker 3: we live in a digital environment, and getting that information
Speaker 3: out in real time across multi platforms, to multi devices,
Speaker 3: in multi languages and being able to geotarget it. That's
Speaker 3: what artificial intelligence can do today. It enhances what the
Speaker 3: emergency manager's job is and what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you think can get information to people if
Speaker 2: there's a tornado coming, or if there's a tsunami coming
Speaker 2: or something like that, but also there's a security aspect
Speaker 2: of it. So what can you do with for example,
Speaker 2: drone technology surveying a crowd of fifty sixty one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand people that never could have been contemplated even a
Speaker 2: few years ago.
Speaker 3: So with what we do with Beacon, that getting that
Speaker 3: information out to the public in real time is the
Speaker 3: focus and what we do meant I'll use the example
Speaker 3: of the LA fires. You know, we have a major
Speaker 3: situation going on. Sheriff's Department has one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: six different alerting authorities with all of that information. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: what happens is there isn't a coordinated effort to get
Speaker 3: the right information now to the right people. So if
Speaker 3: you're using drones and your example, and you have access
Speaker 3: to the right information, you can enter that information once
Speaker 3: geo target to a very specific area, and most importantly,
Speaker 3: you're not limited to that short burst of information. You
Speaker 3: can tell the story specifically, get the information out, get
Speaker 3: it into people's hands, immediately, tell them where they need
Speaker 3: to go, how they need to get there.
Speaker 2: Okay, So one of the things that I know there
Speaker 2: was a lot of controversy of several years ago facial recognition,
Speaker 2: and they tried to run that at Super Bowls, So
Speaker 2: they were looking for people who would be problematic. Have
Speaker 2: we gone past that? Is that already old school facial recognition?
Speaker 3: Well, that's so I mentioned now the life cycle of
Speaker 3: an emergency event, right there is the before the prevention moment,
Speaker 3: there is the reactive in the moment, and then there's
Speaker 3: the remediation moment following. What the technology is available today,
Speaker 3: it allows you to handle those moments in different times.
Speaker 3: You're talking about preventing a moment and being able to
Speaker 3: get that information that that gets that allows the emergency
Speaker 3: management teams to be in front of an event, you know,
Speaker 3: when you're talking about tornadoes or you're talking about hurricanes. Sure, different,
Speaker 3: different type of element of of how you're using and
Speaker 3: that's what that's what really Beacon focuses on. It's the
Speaker 3: ability to get that information out in real time to
Speaker 3: the people that need moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again you keep saying, Beacon, is this a
Speaker 2: different company that you work in conjunction.
Speaker 3: With the can part of future technology?
Speaker 2: Gotcha?
Speaker 5: Okay?
Speaker 2: And it is sure that I just want to make
Speaker 2: sure my audience understands and they don't get lost in
Speaker 2: the in the situation, so you are not necessarily saying Okay,
Speaker 2: if there's somebody coming to an event with bad intent,
Speaker 2: we have an ability to pick them up. But if
Speaker 2: there's a hurricane comment or if there's a there's an
Speaker 2: earthquake which produces a suit mei uh, and there's a
Speaker 2: little bit of time to let people know to get
Speaker 2: either to get to high ground or get into the
Speaker 2: get into the hurricane and get into the tornado cellar.
Speaker 2: That's where your technology is going to save lives.
Speaker 3: And imagine if you will, and actually the real life
Speaker 3: scenario last summer with Hurricane Milton, you have to evacuate
Speaker 3: an area of the size of Tampa. But being able
Speaker 3: to use technology in a sense of allowing one zone
Speaker 3: to go and then a second zone to go and
Speaker 3: a third zone to go, and being able to direct
Speaker 3: people very specifically with depth in depth information on how
Speaker 3: to go, it allows that to be a much smoother,
Speaker 3: a much safer a moment in the life cycle of
Speaker 3: the event.
Speaker 2: Perfect. Perfect. So, Mark, how can folks who want to
Speaker 2: be more interested in this, I'm not sure who your
Speaker 2: either constituents or consumers are. How can folks get more
Speaker 2: information or get in touch with you?
Speaker 3: You so Beacon always on dot com is available to
Speaker 3: give more information. Uh, we can also go to info
Speaker 3: at Beacon always on dot com. Either websites will be
Speaker 3: able to give you more detail on what we do
Speaker 3: and how we do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, For some reason, my notes say fetories, So that's
Speaker 2: why I have been referencing futory and any confusion that
Speaker 2: I might have caused, I apologize for. Just give us
Speaker 2: that web those websites one more time.
Speaker 3: It's Beacon always on dot com and info at Beacon
Speaker 3: always on dot com.
Speaker 2: Perfect. Okay, Mark, thank you very much. Interesting development. Sounds
Speaker 2: like a company that is really up and running. A
Speaker 2: lot of the AI stuff seems to be on the horizon.
Speaker 2: Sounds to me like you're here now. So thank you
Speaker 2: very much for joining us tonight and being here now.
Speaker 2: Mark Jarmansure Beacon. Thanks, Mark, appreciate it very much. All Right,
Speaker 2: when we get back, we will get to the matters
Speaker 2: at hand. We're going to talk with the pre is
Speaker 2: the Animal Rescue League of Boston about pets and pets
Speaker 2: being housed and what might be able to be done
Speaker 2: to actually make it easier for people, particularly people maybe
Speaker 2: who do not have a lot of money, to be
Speaker 2: able to have a pet, and to house a pet
Speaker 2: with them, not only for companionship, but for safety and
Speaker 2: comfort of animals other than that spend time in animal shelters.
Speaker 2: We'll explain it all right after this news break at
Speaker 2: the top of the hour one night side