Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool. Welcome back mister last night for sure, though
Speaker 2: Emma was doing a great job in your stead. So
Speaker 2: we've got everyone covered here in the news during Nightside,
Speaker 2: for sure, we got the best and the brightest right
Speaker 2: here checking on everything, all the different news stories, says
Speaker 2: they break. My name is Dan Ray. I'm just doing
Speaker 2: a talk show. I got the easy part. It's the
Speaker 2: news people who are working the hardest back in the
Speaker 2: in the newsroom of course, as well as Rob Brooks,
Speaker 2: the producer of this program. As I mentioned, I'm Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm the host of the aptly named Nightside with Dan Ray,
Speaker 2: and we have four guests this hour. We are going
Speaker 2: to start off with the guests, but let me just
Speaker 2: remind you that coming up beginning tonight at nine o'clock,
Speaker 2: we will get to some other topics. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about the shortage of physicians here in Massachusetts. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, the medical capital of the world. We don't
Speaker 2: have enough doctors. How about that. And we'll also talk
Speaker 2: about a Boston City council who now should do the
Speaker 2: right thing and during her federal trial, she's been indicted.
Speaker 2: I think it's time for her to resign. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about that. We also might get into the outburst today
Speaker 2: of the New York City shooter who is in custody
Speaker 2: in Altoona, Pennsylvania. If we've got a lot to talk about,
Speaker 2: and I hope you'll participate and join with us. And
Speaker 2: before we get the phone calls at nine, we're going
Speaker 2: to start off with the first of our four guests.
Speaker 2: His name is Steve McClatchy. He has written about what's
Speaker 2: called the Great Detachment. There's a Gallup report has been
Speaker 2: released and found employees actively looking to switch jobs. You know,
Speaker 2: current employees looking at switch jobs at the highest rate
Speaker 2: since twenty fifteen, since before COVID times. But they're not
Speaker 2: having much luck because it's a cooling job market. So
Speaker 2: Steve McClatchy, I think has some ideas and suggestions maybe
Speaker 2: for business leaders and for managers, how they can make
Speaker 2: employees maybe a little bit more happy, if that's possible.
Speaker 2: Steve McClatchy, how are you They used to be a
Speaker 2: guy who pitched for the Oakland A's who had a
Speaker 2: name very similar towards yours to yours, towards towards yours.
Speaker 3: No, similarly, not related man, not related, but I have
Speaker 3: a lot of cousins in a big, big family. I'm
Speaker 3: from the Philadelphia area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think his name was McClatchy.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's any sort of difference in spelling.
Speaker 2: Pretty good right handed pitcher for Oakland back. I guess
Speaker 2: now in the in the eighties or nineties, now last century, we're.
Speaker 3: All athletes, but none of us hit it to the
Speaker 3: professional level.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, you are a professional at the professional level,
Speaker 2: helping people build meaningful connections, eliminate conflict, and radically improve engagement.
Speaker 2: You've been advised to Fortune five hundred companies. So who's
Speaker 2: the fault here? Is it that the the employees just
Speaker 2: have itchy feed and want to keep moving, or a
Speaker 2: management companies around this country, both large and small, not
Speaker 2: doing a good job inducing their employee employees to settle
Speaker 2: in and be part of a program for a long
Speaker 2: period of time. Where's the fault? If? If it lies anywhere,
Speaker 2: what does it lie?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so many different contributing factors to why this
Speaker 3: is going on. You had, you know, during COVID it
Speaker 3: put off a lot of people that were going to
Speaker 3: change jobs. As soon as that kind of that time passed,
Speaker 3: everybody started switching. The job market was hot. And now
Speaker 3: you know, with inflation and tightening budgets, you know, people
Speaker 3: aren't hiring. So now people want to switch and there's
Speaker 3: not any place to go, and you want to be
Speaker 3: tied to the organization's mission and its purpose. Now you
Speaker 3: have different ways of working that is contributing to it
Speaker 3: as well. You have remote workers. You go to communicate
Speaker 3: with somebody, they're not there, when are they available? Now
Speaker 3: you have employees that want to work remote leads sometimes
Speaker 3: during the office. So as far as team and bonding
Speaker 3: and creating great relationships, that's kind of a different way
Speaker 3: of going about doing that. You know, at the foundation
Speaker 3: of business dan is agreements, right, very simply, I give
Speaker 3: you ten dollars, you give me a sandwich. You know,
Speaker 3: we did business together. And when you get used to
Speaker 3: the kind of agreements where you're really good at them,
Speaker 3: and then that game gets changed and now you have
Speaker 3: remote workers. So now what are the agreements? You know,
Speaker 3: when are you working, when are you not working? When
Speaker 3: are you expected to be online? How do you communicate
Speaker 3: with your team when you need to be in the office.
Speaker 3: If you work late at night, can you take off
Speaker 3: a little bit more time during the day. Like, these
Speaker 3: are all new agreements, and there's a lot of confusion,
Speaker 3: and until that gets settled and those expectations are set
Speaker 3: and then we can start to acknowledge people, Hey, great job,
Speaker 3: you're doing awesome, fantastic. We don't have the agreements. We
Speaker 3: don't know what's above and beyond the agreements. We don't
Speaker 3: know when people are going the extra mile and really contributing.
Speaker 3: And if you're not getting appreciated and getting valued, that's
Speaker 3: certainly going to contribute to a feeling of detachment.
Speaker 2: But hasn't that always even before COVID, as we like
Speaker 2: to say before COVID times, hasn't that always been the
Speaker 2: way that there were good employers who who gave people
Speaker 2: some flexibility with their jobs as long as they had
Speaker 2: the common sense and the maturity to handle that flexibility.
Speaker 2: Has much, Yeah, but.
Speaker 5: It was slower. Damn.
Speaker 3: COVID threw us into just a mess all at one
Speaker 3: time where all of those things had to be established
Speaker 3: right away. It was hey, oh, I want to take
Speaker 3: you Mondays off. It was like, all right, we'll try
Speaker 3: it with these employees and it's working, and I know
Speaker 3: how to manage them remotely, and I'm getting all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, your entire workforce was remote. It really threw
Speaker 3: a curveball at a manager's ability. I mean to take
Speaker 3: advantage of all the communication systems and to leverage. And
Speaker 3: there's people still not comfortable jumping on Zoom and Microsoft
Speaker 3: Teams and doing a face to face working remotely, and
Speaker 3: you know, how do you collaborate and how do you communicate?
Speaker 3: Those things are still they're not as smooth. I had
Speaker 3: a Zoom call this week where now I can't hear you.
Speaker 3: I got to relog in and then they logged in.
Speaker 3: I couldn't understand them. The audio is all just like,
Speaker 3: there's technical difficulties and you're trying to get work done.
Speaker 3: Your customer is demanding quality and speed from you. And
Speaker 3: not only do they want the quality and speed, their
Speaker 3: expectations are even higher. Why inflation, everything got more expensive,
Speaker 3: so the customer figures, hey, this is more expensive, don't
Speaker 3: I deserve more? No, you're getting the same thing that
Speaker 3: you used to get for a higher price. And that
Speaker 3: doesn't sit well with the customer. If I'm paying more.
Speaker 3: I should get more, but inflation made just everything more
Speaker 3: expensive without getting more for it, We're getting the same thing.
Speaker 3: So those expectations make customers really upset and that's difficult
Speaker 3: to deal with on a day to day basis.
Speaker 2: Well, you have described a perfect economic conundrum. You described
Speaker 2: this very well. By the way, I don't know how
Speaker 2: we how problem.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what we need to do is get our expectations,
Speaker 3: our agreements right, start being able to acknowledge people, because
Speaker 3: that's going to be one of the biggest things that
Speaker 3: engages people. Now that there's a word, Dan that is overused, right,
Speaker 3: the word engagement, let me share with you exactly how
Speaker 3: it's measured. It's measured in discretionary effort. So, if you
Speaker 3: do your job, Dan, you do it well, you're considered disengaged.
Speaker 3: Engagement is you do more than your paid to do.
Speaker 3: You come into work early, you stay late, you work
Speaker 3: on the weekend, you help somebody else with their job,
Speaker 3: and that's not your job to do that. When you're
Speaker 3: going above and beyond, you're considered engaged. This is why
Speaker 3: it's such a valuable metric and everybody wants to figure
Speaker 3: out how to grow it. Because if you employees doing
Speaker 3: more than their paid they're your most valuable employees. So
Speaker 3: if you wanted the silver bullet with engagement, if you
Speaker 3: on a scale of one to five, give your boss
Speaker 3: a five that you strongly agree that your boss gives
Speaker 3: you pop. How does it a feedback and emphasizes your strengths,
Speaker 3: what you're good at. You have a sixty seven percent
Speaker 3: chance that employees engage. The national average stand is under
Speaker 3: twenty percent, So you can jump over forty points just
Speaker 3: by doing one thing really well. Appreciating, valuing, acknowledging, recognize.
Speaker 3: It doesn't always have to be public. It has to
Speaker 3: be sincere. It has to be specific. The employee needs
Speaker 3: to know that their contribution means something that is number
Speaker 3: one contributing factor to engagement.
Speaker 2: So I don't think I don't think most bosses understand
Speaker 2: this simple rubric that most employees will strive to do
Speaker 2: better if they get an occasional pat on the backing
Speaker 2: for doing extra. They're not necessarily yeah, they're like a raise.
Speaker 2: But if you walk out of there on a Friday
Speaker 2: and your boss says, hey, great job this week, that
Speaker 2: can get you through the weekend and make you look
Speaker 2: forward to Monday. Morning, and too many bosses in America
Speaker 2: don't understand it.
Speaker 3: And the data proves that. Man, the data reinforces exactly
Speaker 3: what you're saying that when employees feel valued and appreciated,
Speaker 3: they're more engaged. As a matter of fact, the higher
Speaker 3: the engagement, it takes an employee an increase of twenty
Speaker 3: to thirty percent pay raise forget to get them to
Speaker 3: even think about leaving the job they're in. When you
Speaker 3: like your boss, you feel valued by your contributions with
Speaker 3: your boss. Well, again, let's go back to what are
Speaker 3: the agreements? What are you being paid to do? How
Speaker 3: do we know if someone's going above and beyond? So
Speaker 3: we got to get that right and if we do it,
Speaker 3: really is the solution to what this problem is. This
Speaker 3: problem is causing. The other thing is, you know, you
Speaker 3: want to know your work has an impact. What does
Speaker 3: your organization do? What's the impact of it? When you
Speaker 3: can revisit that with your employees and say, hey, we're
Speaker 3: making a difference. We're not just all making money and
Speaker 3: making widgets. We are making an impact. We have a mission,
Speaker 3: we have values and we are we have a purpose
Speaker 3: and we are making an impac act on that mission.
Speaker 2: Well, I love your philosophy and I love the passion
Speaker 2: with which you express it. Steve, and as I understand
Speaker 2: that you have a consulting and training and consulting company,
Speaker 2: and also you're well sought after speaker. How can folks
Speaker 2: get in touch with you and tell us about the book?
Speaker 2: The book is leading Relationships, build meaningful connections, eliminate conflict,
Speaker 2: and radically improve engagement. I'm assuming that is available Amazon
Speaker 2: and all bookstores and you can find that.
Speaker 3: Yes, you can pre order it. It doesn't come out there
Speaker 3: until February fifth. I couldn't even we're excited about this book.
Speaker 3: This book is twenty three years in the making. There
Speaker 3: hasn't been anything new in the area of relationships in
Speaker 3: over thirty years. This is a framework that really helps
Speaker 3: you to diagnose the biggest problems you have in your
Speaker 3: relationships and how to solve them. And it comes out
Speaker 3: February fifth. You can pre order it on Amazon, Barnes
Speaker 3: and Noble Books a million. The best way to get
Speaker 3: in touch with me if you have a retreat, if
Speaker 3: you want employee development. Leadership development is a leer dot com.
Speaker 3: It's a L L E E our dot com. That's
Speaker 3: the basically to reach me Steve at a lear dot com.
Speaker 3: It's my email address.
Speaker 2: Sounds great. Again, I think you got the right message.
Speaker 2: I wish more people who are in charge of others
Speaker 2: were to understand that. Again, a patent the back goes
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot long, but does a lot
Speaker 2: more than a kick in the butt and maybe even
Speaker 2: then a bit of a pay raise. Steve, appreciate it,
Speaker 2: Steve McClatchy.
Speaker 3: Dan, great talking to you. Thanks for having me tonight.
Speaker 2: Great to talk to you as well. We'll talk again
Speaker 2: we come up. We're going to talk about a little
Speaker 2: bit of a downer subject, troubling Toyland. Gonna watch out
Speaker 2: for this year's most dangerous toys. This is always a problem.
Speaker 2: You want to get your kid, particularly the young children,
Speaker 2: your grandchild, your your your son, your daughter, maybe a
Speaker 2: niece or nephew, good toy, but you want to make
Speaker 2: sure it's doesn't have some hidden dangers. When we talk
Speaker 2: with doctor Fami Farah about the ten most dangerous toys,
Speaker 2: and I hope none of these toys are on your list.
Speaker 2: Back on Night Side right after this.
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, we've had a little bit of a change
Speaker 2: in online up here, and I want to Malcolm welcome
Speaker 2: Chris Menta. He's a part of at Kroquetti's outlet, part
Speaker 2: of the butcher shop that is opening up soon. Okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm a little confused by that. Are you guys
Speaker 2: open working now at this point, Chris, or are you
Speaker 2: in the process of getting this butcher shop up and running.
Speaker 5: No, the butcher shop has been We've actually been around
Speaker 5: for one hundred and seventeen years we started.
Speaker 2: You're gonna last at one hundred and that's that's pretty impressive. Okay.
Speaker 5: I don't know why we're and we've been in Bridgewater
Speaker 5: E's Bridgewater now since nineteen seventy seven. So it's it's
Speaker 5: a butcher shop in the front. And my partner, who's
Speaker 5: a four generation owner, Carlo, had a building behind him
Speaker 5: that he had a small distribution company. He sold it
Speaker 5: off and he contacted me and said, hey, listen, you
Speaker 5: want to throw your hat back in the ring again.
Speaker 5: I had kind of retired from the food business, and
Speaker 5: he said, let's open up a deep discount food store
Speaker 5: so we can help out families in the area. You know,
Speaker 5: we both had been talking about it for years, how
Speaker 5: the cost of food is really hammering families, and we
Speaker 5: had a shot to open up this facility. So we
Speaker 5: remodeled it and it's called the Outlet at Corsettes. It's
Speaker 5: going to be behind the butcher shop. We're not open yet.
Speaker 5: We're probably going to open up in January, but it's
Speaker 5: an opportunity for families to really save and as you know,
Speaker 5: food is just at an all time high.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what you're doing though in the meantime is
Speaker 2: I understand that, And I think the reason why we're
Speaker 2: having you on tonight is that your employees are gathering
Speaker 2: hundreds of to always ahead of your you do an
Speaker 2: annual toy drive with the which which Fight Apartment? The
Speaker 2: Fight Apartment in East Bridgewater.
Speaker 5: This is the East Bridgewater. So part of opening the outlet,
Speaker 5: we wanted to have a community component to it where
Speaker 5: we would you know, be able to help out in
Speaker 5: the community. So, like I said, the outlet's not even
Speaker 5: open yet. We started with Thanksgiving. We handed out four
Speaker 5: hundred and twelve turkeys to very deserving veterans and it
Speaker 5: became so overwhelming for us that we said, hey, you
Speaker 5: know what, let's do a toy drive. It'll be our
Speaker 5: first annual. We're not open yet, but let's do this.
Speaker 5: And every Monday we have a morning huddle with our
Speaker 5: team in the butcher shop and we said, hey, listen,
Speaker 5: this is something that's really near and dear to our hearts.
Speaker 5: We'd like everybody to get involved. Whatever way you can
Speaker 5: help would be awesome. About five days later, I walked
Speaker 5: in and I literally was looking at over three hundred
Speaker 5: toys and I have less than forty employees, so you
Speaker 5: do the mass.
Speaker 2: And it was a couple close to ten toys per
Speaker 2: per employee. So when will the toys be distributed or
Speaker 2: are they being distributed as we go along?
Speaker 5: So actually we haven't even started to drive yet. It's
Speaker 5: this Saturday, nine to two at behind the butcher shopping
Speaker 5: Corsetti's Oakdale Packing at the outlet. People could bring down
Speaker 5: a new unwrapped toy. We're going to actually give them
Speaker 5: a five pound bag of chicken nuggets because the theme
Speaker 5: of this year is a nug Life Christmas Toy Drive.
Speaker 5: We sell a tremendous amount of chicken nuggets and we
Speaker 5: wanted to have fun with it. About a year ago
Speaker 5: and we came up with this whole nug life and
Speaker 5: we're having a blast with it. So we said, you
Speaker 5: know what we're going to hand people. You bring us
Speaker 5: a toy, We're going to hand your five pound bag
Speaker 5: of chicken nuggets.
Speaker 2: Sounds it sounds like everybody wins here.
Speaker 5: This is it's a total win at the end of.
Speaker 2: So they will there will be a day people, you know,
Speaker 2: start this weekend, Saddy bringing toys in and then when
Speaker 2: do you distribute the toys? When when does city?
Speaker 5: Well, we're going to actually turn them over toys. We're
Speaker 5: actually going to turn them over to the East Bridgewater
Speaker 5: Fire Department, who we partnered with along with Toys for Tots,
Speaker 5: So they're going to distribute it within the community, which
Speaker 5: were really.
Speaker 2: They're gonna work. They're gonna work hand in hand with
Speaker 2: Santa Claus. I'm sure in doing this absolutely absolutely, absolutely well, Chris,
Speaker 2: that sounds like a great way to work within the community.
Speaker 2: You folks have been in the each East Bridgewater community
Speaker 2: for how many years?
Speaker 5: Since since nineteen seventy seven?
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's coming up on fifty years when you
Speaker 2: when you think about it, so they must love you
Speaker 2: down there in East Bridgewater, and they're gonna love you
Speaker 2: even more with some chicken nuggets and some toys being distributed.
Speaker 2: Sounds absolutely You guys should become the You should be
Speaker 2: the East Bridgewater Citizens of the Year. Thanks for sharing
Speaker 2: now again. Give us the location where people can come
Speaker 2: this Saturday and drop off some new unwrapped toys and
Speaker 2: in exchange, pick up some chicken.
Speaker 5: Give us the Corsettis Oakdale Packing in East Bridgewater, Massachusett's
Speaker 5: three seventy eight Pleasant Street. It'll be on the rear
Speaker 5: of the parking lot where it says the outlet at Corsettis.
Speaker 5: You can't miss it. It's a huge billboard. And just
Speaker 5: come through the front door. You'll see the fire Fire
Speaker 5: Department's gonna have some fire trucks there so we can
Speaker 5: help fill them with toys. There's gonna be a lot
Speaker 5: going on. We have a food truck, but bring an
Speaker 5: unwrapped toy down. We can't wait to pass you a
Speaker 5: five pounds bag of chicken nuggets. And it's gonna be
Speaker 5: a great time. We're gonna have some food, some fun.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be a win for everybody.
Speaker 2: That's great. Chris Menta Thank you very much for what
Speaker 2: you do your fixedure in Eastbridge Water. Thanks for joining
Speaker 2: us tonight on nights that we'll talk.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. And Merry Christmas, and Merry Christmas
Speaker 5: to you.
Speaker 2: Is that is my holiday. Merry Christmas to you, Chris,
Speaker 2: thanks very much. All Right, when we get back, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure we're going to go. We have two more
Speaker 2: guests scheduled and hopefully they'll both both be here. I've
Speaker 2: got to check with Rob. He's running the showback at
Speaker 2: Broadcast Central. In the meantime, stick around here. We got
Speaker 2: the news at the bottom of the hour for you,
Speaker 2: and then we'll be back on a Tuesday night edition
Speaker 2: of Nightside with Dan Ray right here in WBZ Boston's
Speaker 2: News Radio ten thirty on your amw WALKSA can download
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Speaker 2: you can then hear listen to ihat three hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty five days a year, twenty four to seven, wherever
Speaker 2: you are in the world. Coming back on Nightside after this, You're.
Speaker 1: On night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, Christmas is right around the corner. It's not what
Speaker 2: you think about it. It's fifteen days away and a
Speaker 2: lot of toys that Santa Claus is going to bring
Speaker 2: to children around the country. And with us is doctor
Speaker 2: Fammi Farah. She's a cardiologist, a board certified invasive cardiologist.
Speaker 2: But she's going to tell us about this list, a
Speaker 2: toy toy list of basically toys that can cause harm.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would have thought at this point, doctor Fara,
Speaker 2: that they would have washed all those harmful toys out
Speaker 2: of the out of the product line. What's going on.
Speaker 6: I think one of the issues could be that toys
Speaker 6: they're coming from, you know, different parts of the world.
Speaker 6: With online shopping, I think it's just very easy for
Speaker 6: people to get toys from anywhere, and maybe there aren't
Speaker 6: as much regulation as there used to be at one point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think you're right at that. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, this report actually is from a
Speaker 2: group here in Boston called World Against Toys Causing Harm.
Speaker 2: You're familiar with the list, I assume, I hope I.
Speaker 7: Have seen the list, yes, okay, and they've been doing
Speaker 7: this for fifty two years, and the toys and toys
Speaker 7: that They're not what you call classic toys, not toys
Speaker 7: that any of us would have heard well that I've
Speaker 7: not heard of.
Speaker 2: But some of them the Pinvoke toy, cold forty five pistol,
Speaker 2: the Bristol hedgehog, a kinetic sand scent ice cream treats.
Speaker 2: What is I hate to ask this of you, but
Speaker 2: since I have the list here, have you had a
Speaker 2: chance to look at any of these toys? Or or
Speaker 2: am I asking you questions that that are a little
Speaker 2: unfair At this point.
Speaker 6: I have looked up a few, but not all, I
Speaker 6: must admit, But yes, some of the are very interesting,
Speaker 6: like you know, the ice wroom treats for example, the
Speaker 6: sands and ice wroom treats. My assumption would be there
Speaker 6: are small particles that small children can, you know, easily
Speaker 6: put into their mouths and try to ingest. That wouldn't
Speaker 6: be so good?
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of Yeah. A lot of these injuries
Speaker 2: are injuries to eyes, potential for suffocation. Again, the names
Speaker 2: don't mean much to me, but one of them is Transformers,
Speaker 2: Earth Sparks, Cybersley. What what should parents do when they're
Speaker 2: consulting with Santa Claus about a toy, particularly for young kids,
Speaker 2: kids under the age of five or six years of age.
Speaker 2: What's there must be some general rules that parents can use,
Speaker 2: even though they might see the toy or say it
Speaker 2: to my children the toy and they might think, oh, gee,
Speaker 2: isn't that great. It's it's it's a nice, pretty toy
Speaker 2: in a son or our daughter would like it. But
Speaker 2: how can they figure out because a lot of the
Speaker 2: toys will say uh for children one to three. And
Speaker 2: implicit in that is that there's some sort of government
Speaker 2: regulatory agency. Because the government regulates everything that has that
Speaker 2: has put its impromter of okay for kids one to three.
Speaker 6: That doesn't necessarily mean it's safe, right, exactly, not necessarily.
Speaker 6: And you know, some of the common uh, the most
Speaker 6: common injuries that we are concerned about here are those
Speaker 6: very small children that can put things into their mouths
Speaker 6: and try to ingest or actually they can end up choking,
Speaker 6: and so those things, Like, parents do need to be
Speaker 6: careful about what's out there. Just because it's out there
Speaker 6: doesn't mean that they should approve it for their children.
Speaker 6: They should really use their judgment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my wife was cautioning me the other day about
Speaker 2: but I did not realize this that that even a
Speaker 2: toy as simple as a balloon can cause choking. If
Speaker 2: a child is you know, past the balloon, you know,
Speaker 2: somehow in their mouth or whatever, or near their mouth,
Speaker 2: and the balloon breaks, it can then you know, basically
Speaker 2: cause them to choke. Something that I would not have
Speaker 2: thought of. We were at a little street fear where
Speaker 2: they were giving away balloons for our four year old
Speaker 2: two and a half year old grandson, and of course
Speaker 2: he wanted balloons, but my wife said, no, you know,
Speaker 2: you contrast balloons, something even as simple as a balloon
Speaker 2: does present harm. So I think it's something that people
Speaker 2: should should really keep in mind. And again this list
Speaker 2: is from the World. It's called the World Against Toys
Speaker 2: Causing Harm Watch it's a good acronym. It's fifty second
Speaker 2: annual nominees for the ten Worst Toys for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: And some of them sound pretty pretty pretty nice. Zoo
Speaker 2: Zam Doggie, xylophone. Well, what could be the problem with
Speaker 2: the xylophone? But it says potential for ingestion and choking injury,
Speaker 2: So please be careful. If you're getting something and you're
Speaker 2: counseling with Santa Claus, make sure that nothing that can
Speaker 2: that is sharp edged, that can hurt someone's eyes, poke
Speaker 2: in their ears, poke up their nostrils, or some with
Speaker 2: small items that they can they can choke on. I
Speaker 2: guess parents have to be diligent and Santa Claus better
Speaker 2: be diligent too, Doctor, I would think.
Speaker 6: Yes, exactly. So it's not just parents, it's all those
Speaker 6: gifts that children are going to be getting from, you know, relatives, friends.
Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, though, regardless of
Speaker 6: who gives it as the parents to be cautious about
Speaker 6: whether they give the children access to those or not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think that there are some traditional toys
Speaker 2: that have stood the test of time, and those are
Speaker 2: the ones that I think maybe you want to think
Speaker 2: of and maybe stay away from some of the more
Speaker 2: exotic toys, that's for sure, Doctor Farrar, thanks very much,
Speaker 2: sorry about the confusion earlier. We missed you at A
Speaker 2: twenty or so. It sounds to me like you got
Speaker 2: some activity in the background there that you have to
Speaker 2: take care of as well. So thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining us tonight talking about Trouble and Toyland, the
Speaker 2: World's most Dangerous Toys. This year's most Dangerous toys.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: Good night. Okay, we did last night on night Side
Speaker 2: two hours, which we call our eighteenth annual Nightside College
Speaker 2: and Missions Panel, and one of the topics that we
Speaker 2: mentioned last night, we didn't have a chance to talk
Speaker 2: about it for a long period of time. We had
Speaker 2: with US Bill Fitzsimmons, who's the Dean of Admissions at
Speaker 2: Harvard for his eighteenth year. And we had also with
Speaker 2: US Grant Goslin, who's the Dean of undergraduate Admissions at
Speaker 2: Boston College or the Dean of undergraduate Admission singularly at
Speaker 2: Boston College. All of these titles are just they're they're
Speaker 2: very similar, but there's little nuance in them that I
Speaker 2: want to respect. So we're going to talk with an expert,
Speaker 2: Jack Wallace, about FAFSA. Now there's an acronym for everything,
Speaker 2: but this FAFSA stands for the Free Application for Federal
Speaker 2: Student I got it for student aid. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 2: even read my own writing. And it's a great program,
Speaker 2: and a lot of people, I guess are being intimidated
Speaker 2: by it and they're not filling out the forms. And
Speaker 2: this is one that could lead to some loans or
Speaker 2: some support for your son or daughter going after college.
Speaker 2: So please stay with us. And by the way, if
Speaker 2: you missed last night's eight o'clock or nine o'clock hour,
Speaker 2: all of our hours are posted on Nightside on demand
Speaker 2: dot com and those or two. If you are a
Speaker 2: parent or a grandparent of a student who's approaching the
Speaker 2: college application time of their life meaning freshman, sophomore, junior
Speaker 2: in high school, this is a very important hour. We
Speaker 2: had some students call in last night, which is always
Speaker 2: a lot of fun, and Bill Fitzimmons and Grant Goslin
Speaker 2: has always did a great job. So please feel free
Speaker 2: to go to Nightside on Demand dot Com not during
Speaker 2: the show, but you can do that later on tonight
Speaker 2: or tomorrow on your way into work. Nightside on Demand
Speaker 2: dot Com each hour is reduced to about forty two
Speaker 2: minutes of content, so easy to find, easy to play,
Speaker 2: and when you're sitting there on the Southeast Expressway at
Speaker 2: seven thirty tomorrow morning, it'll keep you from just screaming
Speaker 2: out of frustration. We'll be back on Nights Out a
Speaker 2: little bit more about thefts coming up.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World.
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: All Right, welcome back. Let's get to our fourth and
Speaker 2: final guest this hour, Jack Wallace. He's an expert on FAFSA,
Speaker 2: which an acronym that stands for Free Application for Federal
Speaker 2: Student Aid. Last night, Jack, I was telling the audience
Speaker 2: before we went to break, we had two college admissions
Speaker 2: directors on, Bill Fitzsimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin of
Speaker 2: Boston College. It was the eighteenth show we've done on
Speaker 2: a college admissions panel, and we didn't mention. We did
Speaker 2: talk about FAFSA last night briefly, but I'm so glad
Speaker 2: that you're on to talk about it in more depth tonight.
Speaker 2: It will compliment what we didn't get to cover as
Speaker 2: thoroughly as we wanted to. So tell us about FAFSA.
Speaker 2: How long has it been around? It is one of
Speaker 2: those programs that the government runs that everybody should take
Speaker 2: advantage of.
Speaker 4: Well, Dan, it's nice to be with you and your
Speaker 4: listeners again. It's hard to believe that thirty years ago
Speaker 4: you viewed me on other timely topics, and the one
Speaker 4: that you have tonight is extremely timely for those that
Speaker 4: are thinking about.
Speaker 2: What was the timely topic that we talked about in
Speaker 2: the nineteen nineties, thirty years ago.
Speaker 4: There was one in nineteen ninety when the Commonwealth was
Speaker 4: having a little bit of financial difficulty and I was
Speaker 4: an investment banker at Bank of Boston to help negotiate
Speaker 4: a well, today you'd call a bailout, but in those
Speaker 4: days we just called it alone. And then in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety two we had some political discussion during the presidential
Speaker 4: race because I was involved with the Bush Quail campaign. There.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so a life has treated you well. It sounds
Speaker 2: to me like, are you still working? Are you retired?
Speaker 4: I am, I am consulting. And the only smart thing
Speaker 4: I did was I moved out of Boston because I'm
Speaker 4: in Arizona now and I'm enjoying seventy five degree weather
Speaker 4: instead of snow and rain and all that other cold stuff.
Speaker 2: You guys got go jacket just to make you feel
Speaker 2: a little better. Tomorrow, we're supposed to have like two
Speaker 2: inches of rain and it's supposed to be windswept rain.
Speaker 2: We went through a couple of months with Arizona type
Speaker 2: temperatures at September and octobera you.
Speaker 4: Guys, it was one day Dan it was warmer in
Speaker 4: Boston by ten degrees than it was here in Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you a few years ago. We
Speaker 2: were in Arizona in January, and in January it's generally
Speaker 2: what they call the January thaw here in New England,
Speaker 2: and in January it was like fifty degrees or whatever
Speaker 2: in Boston and in Arizona. Although the sun was out
Speaker 2: in January, it was like thirty eight degrees.
Speaker 4: It was take I remember that, Yeah, you're all it
Speaker 4: was spot on at thirty eight degrees.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was two. I think it was
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen if I'm not mistaken, But it was like
Speaker 2: it was one of those weird you guys had a
Speaker 2: cold spell for like about five days and then it
Speaker 2: was back to your normal eighties and Sunday every day.
Speaker 2: So tell us about Faster because I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people still want to know about it and what
Speaker 2: they when they can.
Speaker 4: It was very, very important. The new Fast Reform for
Speaker 4: the high school class at twenty twenty five and those
Speaker 4: that are going to be going to school in the
Speaker 4: next academic year that begins July first, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: just came out about two weeks ago, and as some
Speaker 4: of your listeners may know, we had a horrific rollout.
Speaker 4: They redid the fastest.
Speaker 2: This is like a New Year September or October, correct,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4: Well, normally it comes out of October. Last year, the
Speaker 4: FASTA came out on New Year's Eve, so it was
Speaker 4: Happy New Year from the US Department of Education. And
Speaker 4: then the system crashed. And you know, it was supposed
Speaker 4: to be a simpler application process because they reduced the
Speaker 4: number of questions and they made it easier to get
Speaker 4: your financial data.
Speaker 2: It was real simple, because it didn't work. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can't make it any more any simpler than that.
Speaker 4: It was very simple, but extremely stressful, not only for
Speaker 4: the students and the parents, but for the financial aid
Speaker 4: officers and for the admissions officers because normally it's a
Speaker 4: process that goes from October to about May one. When
Speaker 4: the high school seniors had got to commit, you know,
Speaker 4: the schools weren't getting their data until mid March or
Speaker 4: April one, which delayed the admission stuff, which also impacted
Speaker 4: enrollment last year, and we saw a number about five
Speaker 4: to ten percent across the country decrease in college enrollment.
Speaker 4: And that's even with the pool of high school applicants.
Speaker 4: We've got a big graduation class this year, about three
Speaker 4: point nine million, but it is going to go down
Speaker 4: precipitously after that. But anyway, the good news is that
Speaker 4: the new form is out. It's open live to everybody
Speaker 4: who's going to be going in school as a freshman
Speaker 4: or returning to school as an upper classman or a
Speaker 4: graduate student. And we historically in Massachusetts we're above the
Speaker 4: national average, but you know, which is about fifty five
Speaker 4: percent of the people completed the fast nationally for the
Speaker 4: class of twenty twenty four high school students in Massachusetts
Speaker 4: we were like fifty six percent, but that was down
Speaker 4: about eight and a half percent from the high school
Speaker 4: class of twenty twenty three because of all that pain
Speaker 4: and suffering.
Speaker 2: So the bottom line is the bottom line is if
Speaker 2: you have a family member, a child heading off to
Speaker 2: college or in college, you got to look because if
Speaker 2: you don't doesn't cost you anything. And if you don't
Speaker 2: look at it, you might be leaving some loan or
Speaker 2: some loan forgiveness on the table.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely unequivalently correct. We'll leave out the long forgiveness
Speaker 4: for it. But you're right, right right, you're right.
Speaker 2: I misspoke when I said that. As soon as I said,
Speaker 2: I said, no, that's.
Speaker 4: Not right, right, right, right, right right. That was eighty
Speaker 4: five percent of the people that fill out fast book
Speaker 4: get some sort of financial aid. And the other thing
Speaker 4: is that is it not only for federal grants and
Speaker 4: scholarships and student loans, but states like Massachutts, the Commonwealth
Speaker 4: of Massachusetts, or colleges or universities like the schools you
Speaker 4: had on last night, they also used the fast for
Speaker 4: data to do grants and scholarships and work study and
Speaker 4: either federal student loans or private loans. So it's extremely important.
Speaker 4: It doesn't cost anything, and this year it takes about
Speaker 4: half as much time as it took historically to complete
Speaker 4: the form.
Speaker 2: So what's the website? Is it just FASSA.
Speaker 5: What you want to do?
Speaker 4: If it depends upon www dot studentaid Aid, dot gog
Speaker 4: for those that are applying as for the first time.
Speaker 4: And remember it's not just the student, it's the student
Speaker 4: or the guardian, whoever the contributor is. If you have
Speaker 4: a dependent student, they need to fill out a form
Speaker 4: in their own account as well. So they need to
Speaker 4: go to that website, set up an FSA account for
Speaker 4: the student to do it themselves and for the parents
Speaker 4: of the guardian to do theirs. And then once they
Speaker 4: get confirmation on that form that account has been accepted,
Speaker 4: then they go to the fact again to fill out
Speaker 4: the actual fast reform. And for that, Dan, you're going
Speaker 4: to need your name as it appears on your Social
Speaker 4: Security card, your Social Security number, an email address, phone number,
Speaker 4: residential address. We're going to be using tax information for
Speaker 4: tax year twenty twenty three, so that's the year we're
Speaker 4: going to be using with a new form that was
Speaker 4: created the parents, which a lot of times in the past,
Speaker 4: a lot of the parents didn't want to share their
Speaker 4: information on the form with the kids. But they started
Speaker 4: this well last year, but this year as well. You
Speaker 4: can check a box and have your financial data sent
Speaker 4: from the I R S to the US Department of
Speaker 4: Education so that they can do the calculations and make
Speaker 4: the determination. So we should see an increase in applications
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 2: So let's let's do That's hit the web. Let's let's
Speaker 2: hit the website one more time, Jack, So they just
Speaker 2: go to.
Speaker 4: Student www dot Studentaid AI, d dot gov, dot dot com,
Speaker 4: dot go right by the.
Speaker 2: Way that www dot stuff. Don't need it anymore. Studentaid
Speaker 2: dot gov will get you there. That's all you got
Speaker 2: to put it in in the browser. Student aid AI,
Speaker 2: student AI, d aid dot gov. Jack Wallace, great to
Speaker 2: hear your voice. I'm jealous. Enjoy Arizona. I mean, the
Speaker 2: only thing is you don't get the Bruins out there
Speaker 2: anymore because your hockey team has moved to Utah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, so we have to wait for the Patriots
Speaker 4: and the bus and Red Sox to show up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well the Red Sox won't be there. Well, they
Speaker 2: won't be there for spring training, but maybe they'll be
Speaker 2: there against your.
Speaker 4: Well, we get them out here every couple of years.
Speaker 4: But Dan, good luck to all your listeners, and we'll
Speaker 4: be back in a couple of months to talk about
Speaker 4: how to finance their education if they didn't get all
Speaker 4: those scholarships and grants for those high price goodles they
Speaker 4: got there back in the way.
Speaker 2: It was good to meet Jack. Thanks so much for
Speaker 2: reminding me of prior conversations. I remember them well. Thank you,
Speaker 2: my friend. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 4: Always a pleasure. Thanks An back at you good night.
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas by the way out there, even though it
Speaker 2: probably doesn't feel like Christmas with no snow, we'll have
Speaker 2: snow here. I suspect we'll be back on Night Side
Speaker 2: on the other side, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: the Physician Pathway Act. Do you want to get more
Speaker 2: doctors in Massachusetts? You got to listen. Coming back on Nightside,