Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Cole looks like they're going to sweep the Sultan's get
Speaker 2: the duck boats ready, That's what I say. We're ready.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray. I'm always ready, ready for
Speaker 2: you from eight to midnight Monday through Friday, right here
Speaker 2: on WBZ Boston's News Radio. Remind you to get the
Speaker 2: new iHeart app. Pretty easy to get it, you know,
Speaker 2: go up, get to your app store, get the app,
Speaker 2: put it on your phone and whatever. And then we
Speaker 2: will always beach us fingertip away. But make us your
Speaker 2: first preset and no matter where you are on the world,
Speaker 2: you can listen to us three sixty five twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven. Rob Brooks, our great producer on this program,
Speaker 2: is back at Broadcast Central at the Medford headquarters and
Speaker 2: we are all set to start tonight. We have four
Speaker 2: very interesting different guests here, including Nicole Davis will join
Speaker 2: us at eight thirty, so you Nicole Davis fans want
Speaker 2: to stick around for that, and we will talk about
Speaker 2: an American woman from Massachusetts living in Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that and talk about the big problem
Speaker 2: that the Trump administration had with this signal app. The
Speaker 2: Democrats are looking for a scalp and President Trump is
Speaker 2: basically standing by his man or men whatever in this whole,
Speaker 2: this whole kerfuffle. We'll get to all of that later
Speaker 2: on tonight, but first let's talk about high food prices.
Speaker 2: I think everybody, no matter what your status in life,
Speaker 2: has experienced high food prices in recent months, going back
Speaker 2: actually for a few years. Coming out of COVID with
Speaker 2: US is Estra Cone. She's the vice president of communications
Speaker 2: and public affairs at a very interesting app called flash Food.
Speaker 2: Estra Cone, welcome to NIGHTSID. How are you?
Speaker 3: How are you Dan?
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for having me great.
Speaker 2: So tell us about flash Food is an app. So
Speaker 2: people have to pull this down and I assume put
Speaker 2: it on their phone. That's the first thing that has
Speaker 2: to be done.
Speaker 4: Correct, yes, yes, correct, But it is free, so whether
Speaker 4: you have an Android or an iPhone, you could just
Speaker 4: download it directly from the app store, but.
Speaker 2: You have to have Just to make sure people understand
Speaker 2: in my audience, you have to have a smartphone a device.
Speaker 4: Do you do you have to have a smartphone, Yes, you
Speaker 4: do have to have a smartphone. For now. Okay, So
Speaker 4: how it works?
Speaker 2: What exactly? What exactly? Once you've pulled this down and
Speaker 2: it's on your smartphone, how do you use it? As
Speaker 2: I understand that this is a nationwide service which basically
Speaker 2: gives people some opportunities to get to their local some
Speaker 2: of the not all, but some of their local grocery
Speaker 2: stores and purchase food at a deep all sorts of food,
Speaker 2: particularly groceries and fruits and vegetables, all at a discounted price.
Speaker 2: Tell us how it works, sure.
Speaker 4: So when you download the app, what you'll see is
Speaker 4: a map of all the flash food locations in your area.
Speaker 4: And how it works is we partner with grocery stores.
Speaker 4: The goal is really to reduce the amount of food
Speaker 4: that grocery stores throw away, which I don't know if
Speaker 4: you or your listeners know, but there's a lot of
Speaker 4: food that goes to waste in the United States. And
Speaker 4: how it works is they lift items on the app
Speaker 4: for fifty percent off. This can be items in surplus
Speaker 4: or maybe it's nearing, it's best by date. It's mostly
Speaker 4: fresh food, so produce meat, dairy, prepared foods, things like that,
Speaker 4: and so groceries lift these items on the app and
Speaker 4: then you shop them and go and pick them up
Speaker 4: in store.
Speaker 2: Now, we heard in half the United States right now,
Speaker 2: so in every amazing part of the country you have
Speaker 2: specific grocery chains. And here in Massachusetts, I checked the
Speaker 2: app out earlier. It looked as if your big partner
Speaker 2: here in eastern Massachusetts is Stop and Shop, which is
Speaker 2: a huge grocery chain here east of Worcester, you know,
Speaker 2: right from central Massachusetts heading east. I give me a
Speaker 2: couple of the other food chains that you might be
Speaker 2: grocery chains you might be working with here in the northeast,
Speaker 2: so that people who are listening in other some of
Speaker 2: our contiguous states might take advantage of this app as well.
Speaker 2: I don't want them to think it is just a
Speaker 2: Boston or a Massachusetts benefit.
Speaker 4: Go right ahead, Yeah, so yeah, definitely. So Tops is
Speaker 4: another big one in sort of the upstate New York area.
Speaker 4: We have the Giant Company and Giant Eagle down sort
Speaker 4: of in Pennsylvania around those parts. And then we have
Speaker 4: you know, as you head out west Meyer in the
Speaker 4: Michigan area, Family Fair has patients all across. So we're
Speaker 4: in about thirty three states right now, so not quite national,
Speaker 4: but we're growing really quickly and adding new stores every day.
Speaker 2: So you go from Massachusetts as far as California, I believe.
Speaker 4: Correct, we do, Yes, we have. We just recently launched California,
Speaker 4: I would say, in the last year or so. So, yes,
Speaker 4: we do have some partnerships up in northern California. Mostly.
Speaker 2: Any idea at this point as to how many members
Speaker 2: you have or how many folks have downloaded your app,
Speaker 2: or for that matter, any idea about how many people
Speaker 2: have taken advantage of this and actually found great groceries again,
Speaker 2: fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, I hope, maybe some day
Speaker 2: old muffins and things like that for the sweet tooth,
Speaker 2: for the sweet teeth there all of us have any
Speaker 2: idea how much food has actually been circulated as a
Speaker 2: result of this app.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, We've got about a million and a half
Speaker 4: users all across North America. We're pretty national in Canada
Speaker 4: as well. Collectively, everyone saved about three hundred million dollars
Speaker 4: on their groceries all in so it really is a
Speaker 4: pretty meaningful app for a lot of people. And that's
Speaker 4: whether you know, to your point, everyone across the income
Speaker 4: spectrum wants to save money on groceries, right, So we've
Speaker 4: got a lot of folks using the app. Some people
Speaker 4: have a lot of fun, you know, finding good deals
Speaker 4: and seeing what they can cook up with it. Some
Speaker 4: people really use it as a utility and you know,
Speaker 4: buy meat to serve their family meet at every meal.
Speaker 4: So it's a really great app for a lot of people.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we've diverted from landfill about one hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty million pounds of food, which is pretty meaningful from
Speaker 4: a environmental perspective, but really the biggest impact is the
Speaker 4: economic one for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: And how long has this app been available? I'm sure
Speaker 2: obviously you started out slowly, but how how old is
Speaker 2: the app?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we were founded in twenty sixteen in Canada
Speaker 4: and we came into the States in late twenty eighteen
Speaker 4: early twenty nineteen, so we're still relatively young, but we're
Speaker 4: growing quickly and adding new partners every day.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you it sounds like it sounds like a
Speaker 2: win win win the stores as opposed to having having
Speaker 2: to ship stuff out product out of their stores, they
Speaker 2: have a chance to sell it and maybe recover or
Speaker 2: break even. And people on the app have much tastier
Speaker 2: meals and better presentations to their family. It's a great idea, Esther,
Speaker 2: and so thank you so much for bringing up us
Speaker 2: up to date on this. How can folks find it?
Speaker 2: I mean, the average person who's listening tonight may have
Speaker 2: a smartphone and they probably know how to go to
Speaker 2: their app store. Any advice you might want to give
Speaker 2: someone who is for the first time trying to find
Speaker 2: an app, would you like to give them a little
Speaker 2: bit more sure?
Speaker 4: Yep, yeah, great question. So Also, if it's easier, just
Speaker 4: head to flash food dot com and there will be
Speaker 4: links there to go download the app. That might be
Speaker 4: easier for some folks, but just type flash food into
Speaker 4: whatever app store you use, whether that's the Apple App
Speaker 4: Store of the Google play Store, download the app, and
Speaker 4: then first thing you'll see is a map of all
Speaker 4: the locations in your area, and you can shop deals
Speaker 4: right in there.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, well, Esther, I appreciate you taking the time tonight,
Speaker 2: and hopefully we've spread the word. It's not often we
Speaker 2: can spread word to as many people who could benefit
Speaker 2: from this and not only save money but eat a
Speaker 2: lot better. So thank you so much, well, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for having me.
Speaker 4: It's great talking to you.
Speaker 2: You bet you. We'll talk again now we can back
Speaker 2: on the other side. We have a guest who was
Speaker 2: with us about a year ago, Tony Wilson, aka the
Speaker 2: Young James Brown. He is a James Brown performer and
Speaker 2: he performs here in Boston every year around this time
Speaker 2: in commemoration of a conco that James Brown, the hardest
Speaker 2: working man in show business, conducted back in April of
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight, which kept the top of the city
Speaker 2: was a powder keg in the hours and days after
Speaker 2: the assassination of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King. And there
Speaker 2: is a concert coming up on April fifth which we
Speaker 2: want to tell you about. And we'll be talking with performer, artist, singer,
Speaker 2: impersonator Tony Wilson right after this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: On April fifth this year at the Prince Hall in Dorchester,
Speaker 2: there will be yet again a James Brown Boston Tribute concert.
Speaker 2: James Brown played an incredibly important role here in Boston
Speaker 2: back in the April of nineteen sixty eight, after the
Speaker 2: assassination of Reverend doctor Martin Luther King, who of course
Speaker 2: had some roots here in Boston, wasn't born in Boston,
Speaker 2: but went to school here, met his wife, Coreta Scott
Speaker 2: King here in Boston. Uh And at the time that
Speaker 2: uh doctor James assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, they were tinder
Speaker 2: boxes all across America, including Boston. And with us is
Speaker 2: Tony Wilson. Tony's been with us before. Uh. He is
Speaker 2: the young James Brown, the godson of soul life. As
Speaker 2: the young James Brown, Tony Wilson, you will be headlining
Speaker 2: this program once again and welcome back to night, said,
Speaker 2: how are you my friend?
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Dad, I really appreciate it, you know,
Speaker 5: And uh, this is gonna be a really good thing.
Speaker 5: It's first of all, it's brought by Big Time Entertainment
Speaker 5: and myself, young James Brown. And this, this whole entire
Speaker 5: uh James Brosse Boston is dedicated to the innocent convicts
Speaker 5: of Darrell Jones Make Hussin, Darren Howe fu kwan you know.
Speaker 5: So we we just want to say this was a
Speaker 5: historical moment in time that would never be forgotten. In
Speaker 5: sixty eight, James Brown was set to perform at the
Speaker 5: Boston Guarden April fifth, as you know in sixty eight
Speaker 5: and one of the biggest tragedies occurred on April fourth,
Speaker 5: and that was the assassination as you mentioned, the Martin
Speaker 5: Luther King and so the city of Boston was shocked
Speaker 5: and they rode up and they could feel attention in
Speaker 5: the air. So there were many talks about stopping the
Speaker 5: concert which was going on, performed by James Brown. And
Speaker 5: it was a pioneer in black leadership with city Councilman
Speaker 5: Tom Atkins, Deputy Mayor Jeep Jones, and the NIVO Mayor White,
Speaker 5: Kevin White, and they had the discussion about the you know,
Speaker 5: shutting down to James by performance in April fifth, but
Speaker 5: listening to this team, they decided to go on with it.
Speaker 5: So that was the day James Brown asked the Bostonians
Speaker 5: to just keep it cool, stand down for what could
Speaker 5: have been another tragic day for Bostonians. And that being said,
Speaker 5: as you mentioned, April fifth, at Prince Hall from six
Speaker 5: to ten, we will be having a free, free, free
Speaker 5: concert celebrating James Well, you know, it's.
Speaker 2: An interesting story. I'm old enough to remember it. I
Speaker 2: knew Kevin White, the mayor of Boston at the time.
Speaker 2: Very well, he was only in his really his first year,
Speaker 2: first few months. He served mayor as mayor up here
Speaker 2: for sixteen years. He was elected four times, and he
Speaker 2: was he really had a big impact on the city,
Speaker 2: but no impact probably bigger than that night in which
Speaker 2: he met personally with James Brown. And there was there's
Speaker 2: a there's great stories about those meetings. But this gy
Speaker 2: Kevin White, who probably was not I knew him well.
Speaker 2: He probably was not a James Brown fan, meaning he
Speaker 2: was not a guy he was politics all the time.
Speaker 2: It was not somebody who probably was was sitting at
Speaker 2: home listening to James Brown LPs. But he he was
Speaker 2: a quick study and he figured out the importance of
Speaker 2: James Brown, you know, the hardest working man in show business.
Speaker 2: And James Brown put on a great concert and many
Speaker 2: people give him credit with a little bit to Kevin
Speaker 2: White and to Tom Atkins, who I also knew, who
Speaker 2: was the Boston City councilor at the time, to keeping
Speaker 2: the lid on a situation where Boston, which had had
Speaker 2: a lot of activity in the nineteen sixties civil rights
Speaker 2: activity and some sit ins, and there was some there
Speaker 2: were some you know, what we would call minor, you know, disturbances,
Speaker 2: but there was some disturbances, and it was it was
Speaker 2: a very perilous moment in time and two people from
Speaker 2: a very different background. James Brown, you know, great, great entertainer,
Speaker 2: one of the greatest entertainers in the twentieth century, who
Speaker 2: you got to know very well, you know, and I
Speaker 2: think we want to emphasize your relationship with him. You
Speaker 2: were with him on many of his concerts. You you
Speaker 2: were pretty much designated by him as his as his
Speaker 2: successor of his musical legacy. Don't don't be shy tell
Speaker 2: us about that, Tony, because I think that's a big
Speaker 2: important part of the story.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, well, see when when I was ten years old,
Speaker 5: I jumped on the stage with James Brown, just like
Speaker 5: the kids did in Boston, but only the police didn't
Speaker 5: push us off because there was the Chitlin circuit. So
Speaker 5: my godfather's Marshall Thompson for the Shylights and my godmother's
Speaker 5: Martha Reis for Martin and Vandella. So I was on
Speaker 5: that Chitlin circuit just coming because kids in those days
Speaker 5: could you know, be in the tavern with their father
Speaker 5: and their parents where they just consider the bar. So anyway,
Speaker 5: I did that with James Brown, and of course I
Speaker 5: lived in Chicago, and then the Jackson five would always
Speaker 5: come to Chicago and do the shows, and so I
Speaker 5: got to know Joseph and a lot of the Jackson guys.
Speaker 5: So I had, you know, good times with those guys.
Speaker 5: But you know, I got on there to do it.
Speaker 5: And later on in the eighties, Don King contacted me
Speaker 5: and wanted to be a decoy for Michael in the eighties,
Speaker 5: so I was ended up being the top Michael Jackson
Speaker 5: entertain on for Winfrey and all that fast forward to
Speaker 5: James Brown. In nineteen ninety one, we met again with
Speaker 5: a guy to jail. So but Lewis went on a
Speaker 5: pay per view called the James Brown pay per View,
Speaker 5: which Lewis pay per view and dan Aykroy and all
Speaker 5: of the guys were there. So you know, from that
Speaker 5: point he said, I want you to stick with me
Speaker 5: and come and learn. So you know, he flew me everywhere.
Speaker 5: I mean I had like three passports full of things
Speaker 5: that he did and the places that he brought me.
Speaker 5: So you know, from there, we did two movies together.
Speaker 5: One is called funk Blast. If you just go on
Speaker 5: to you can go on the YouTuber it's type of
Speaker 5: funk blast. Tony Wilson in the other words Beat the
Speaker 5: Devil BMW. Phil was one of the top actors in
Speaker 5: the world. Gary Omen and Danny Drago Claive owns. So
Speaker 5: it was a really keen good thing BMW Beat the Devil.
Speaker 5: So you know, we, like I said, Big Time Entertainment
Speaker 5: in myself put this thing together. We like to thank
Speaker 5: the city of Boston for making James Brown say Boston
Speaker 5: Day April fifth, and we're proud of that. You know,
Speaker 5: we're still looking for things to do with we're providing
Speaker 5: with a big time entertainment. They dedicated providing platform for
Speaker 5: youth to express themselves, you know, the address social issues and
Speaker 5: promote positive values, you know through these events. And so
Speaker 5: you know, he has this thing called Youth and Crisis,
Speaker 5: which are band the Brother Walk band has always done
Speaker 5: the Scoop and Hoop events. So he has already made
Speaker 5: an outlet for these kids so that they could be
Speaker 5: able to you know, deal with whatever they're doing with
Speaker 5: at home and then be able to be active outside,
Speaker 5: you know, the time with the use in Christ and
Speaker 5: the historical scoop and hooches every year. So this, James
Speaker 5: Brown said, Boston is importance from Boston. Like I mentioned,
Speaker 5: I'm from Chicago. I'm not here to make money. This
Speaker 5: is free and this is why I'm doing it the
Speaker 5: way that I got here. Dan, I'm on tour with
Speaker 5: the Iceby brother If you type in Tony Wilson and
Speaker 5: the Iceley Brothers, you'll see we were at in Detroit.
Speaker 5: And when we came right here in twenty seventeen and
Speaker 5: did the Wilber Theater, that's when I noticed it was
Speaker 5: game Brown's fifty of Anna Blue Street and I went
Speaker 5: to the city and at that time, I think Mayor
Speaker 5: Wu was city console. She actually came to our first
Speaker 5: show at Rothbury Community College.
Speaker 2: Tell Marty Walsh was the mayor at that time. A
Speaker 2: great guy. He's now the executive director of the Players
Speaker 2: Association in the National Hockey League. So you need to
Speaker 2: get hockey tickets sometime. You got to get in touch
Speaker 2: with him. Let me give it one more time here
Speaker 2: because I'm coming up on the newscast at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the hour. April fifth, which is not this Friday
Speaker 2: night but Saturday night. It is a week from Saturday night,
Speaker 2: the first Saturday at April at the Prince Hall on
Speaker 2: Washington Street in Dorchester. I think everyone knows where that is.
Speaker 2: No tickets needed, you just show up, and you got
Speaker 2: to show up a little early and get there and
Speaker 2: grab a seat and enjoy the show. Tony Wilson, so
Speaker 2: great to talk to you again, Huh, I said, so
Speaker 2: great to talk to you again.
Speaker 5: Well, do I have another thirty seconds?
Speaker 2: I'll give you about thirty go ahead.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, because we got to bring out We got
Speaker 5: the celebrity performer, got Janelle Silgar's performer, Tony Lend, the
Speaker 5: legendary blues singer performing the OG's a performer. Uh with
Speaker 5: the artist, we have a Christina the performant Pretty Poison,
Speaker 5: and you know, we just have the foundation to be
Speaker 5: named later as one of our sponsors along with Urban Heat.
Speaker 5: Mark Harris is hosting it. So we have we even
Speaker 5: have Mark White. Kevin White's son is going to get
Speaker 5: up to say something. But this whole thing is dedicated
Speaker 5: to the innocent Cobbage, Darrell Jones, Mack Hussin.
Speaker 2: Do me a favorite, Do me one favorite, Tony, since
Speaker 2: we had you all tonight when you see Mark White
Speaker 2: on Saturday night, April fifth. Give him my best. He's
Speaker 2: a good friend. I haven't talked to him in a
Speaker 2: couple of years. Tell him. Dan Ray said, hello, and
Speaker 2: you're always welcome here. Tony Wilson, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank young James Brown. Thanks, thanks Tony. Be well, be well,
Speaker 2: stay safe. All right, when we get back right after
Speaker 2: the news at the bottom of the air, we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking with absolutely Nicole Davis, and we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about the new MBT, a MBTA rail extension
Speaker 2: down onto the South coast. We'll be back right We're
Speaker 2: probably gonna hear from Nicole and we'll be back with
Speaker 2: her in just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: Speaking about the aforementioned Nicole Davis. She joins us for
Speaker 2: a special stop by by Nicole. How are you?
Speaker 6: Did I get here?
Speaker 2: Oh? Hi?
Speaker 6: How are you?
Speaker 2: It's just amazing, almost in two places simultaneously. The magic
Speaker 2: of audio tape.
Speaker 6: It's like you tuck the words right out of my mouth,
Speaker 6: the beautiful magic of radio. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: I'm doing just great? Uh, And I know that you
Speaker 2: have some information on us on this the the Long
Speaker 2: Away It's South Coast commuter rail has finally begun service
Speaker 2: on Monday. Now, I don't think you were down there
Speaker 2: for all of the activities and the festivities, But this
Speaker 2: is really an extension of the MPTA. Is this going
Speaker 2: to help the MPTA, which is just going to dig
Speaker 2: the financial hole a little deeper that they've always found themselves.
Speaker 2: It's going to be great for people down to the
Speaker 2: South Coast, that's for sure. Well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and the Tea seems to believe that by getting
Speaker 6: this commuter rail back up and running by the way
Speaker 6: for the first time in almost seventy years, this is
Speaker 6: offering commuter service to places like taunt and Fall River,
Speaker 6: New Bedford, you know, and they are believing that this
Speaker 6: is going to be eventually an economic boom. You're going
Speaker 6: to have more people using the system. So, yeah, there's
Speaker 6: a little bit of money you got to roll out first.
Speaker 6: But this is connecting a part of the state where
Speaker 6: the economy is up and coming. It's building itself back
Speaker 6: and fishing and manufacturing area, and this is connecting people
Speaker 6: to jobs in the Boston area, maybe the biotech belt.
Speaker 6: Around one twenty eight all kinds of opportunities. And there's
Speaker 6: a huge history behind this too.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't understand that I have not briefed myself,
Speaker 2: so I might ask you some questions here just out
Speaker 2: of curiosity that you may not be aware, might not
Speaker 2: know about. But you mentioned that that it's been seventy years.
Speaker 2: Why did any idea why it ever stopped?
Speaker 6: Oh, let's go in the way back machine, Dan, we're
Speaker 6: going to talk about this. So yeah, picture it summer
Speaker 6: of nineteen fifty eight, and this is New Bedford, Fall River,
Speaker 6: tot and again we're talking about this. At the time
Speaker 6: they got to and from Boston on the train, there
Speaker 6: was train service on the South Coast through the New
Speaker 6: Haven Railroad's Old Colony line. So again it was just
Speaker 6: like the commuter rail and the old Colony Line would
Speaker 6: run right through the South Coast. Hop on the train
Speaker 6: come to Boston. A big deal. But in the New
Speaker 6: York Times, I did some research on this because on
Speaker 6: my show New England Weekend, I did a segment on
Speaker 6: this a few weeks ago. There is an article in
Speaker 6: the New York Times from nineteen fifty eight, the summer
Speaker 6: of that year saying Fall River and other cities at
Speaker 6: the time didn't want to keep contributing to a subsidy
Speaker 6: to keep the train running because the old Colony Railroad
Speaker 6: was bleeding cash on this part of the railroad, and
Speaker 6: so they reached out to the cities and said, look,
Speaker 6: we need your help to keep this going. The city
Speaker 6: said we can't afford this either, so in September they
Speaker 6: cut the service. Done. Wow, And there has been no
Speaker 6: rail service between that part of the state and Boston
Speaker 6: since nineteen fifty eight. And of course, you know, trying
Speaker 6: to get to Boston from the South coast, you got
Speaker 6: to sit in traffic on the expressway, risk your life
Speaker 6: on twenty four. I mean, it's not an easy drive.
Speaker 2: It's no fun.
Speaker 6: No, it's not fun at all. So back in the
Speaker 6: early nineties this became.
Speaker 2: A going back to that. If you go back to
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty eight, just to put it in some context, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Ted Williams was still playing for the Red Sox. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Kyle Yustreemsky had yet to make his major league debut.
Speaker 6: Right, and I had yet to make my own debut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, Well I was around, but I certainly wasn't
Speaker 2: studying the economic impact of the commuter rail or whatever,
Speaker 2: But I can remember that time. It was a time
Speaker 2: when the world was at peace. Dwight Eisenhower was president,
Speaker 2: and I suspect that a lot of the old New
Speaker 2: England cities, of which New Bedford and Fall River were
Speaker 2: at the top of the heap, they had lost a
Speaker 2: lot of the mills and that they had they were
Speaker 2: they were cities in decline, and I'm sure that those
Speaker 2: communities at the time didn't have a lot of extra
Speaker 2: money to pony up to keep the rail line running.
Speaker 2: And now here it is they have to put I
Speaker 2: assume these are all new track beds and all of that,
Speaker 2: that this is not something that that the track beds
Speaker 2: just stayed there. I mean, I'm sure over time those
Speaker 2: things had had had failed or or gone the way
Speaker 2: of all things. Any idea, what sort of an investment
Speaker 2: did again, I know you know this more than I been.
Speaker 2: How much did the MBTA have to expend to get
Speaker 2: it all built? At the rail extended, get the stages.
Speaker 2: I think there's six stations that have been built along
Speaker 2: the lines. Have to been hundreds of millions of dollars
Speaker 2: at least I assume about a billion.
Speaker 6: Not gonna lie. Yeah, I knew you were going to
Speaker 6: say something about that number, and it's true, because the
Speaker 6: thing is, this whole idea started back in the late
Speaker 6: or the early nineties. Bill Weld actually was one of
Speaker 6: the many who said, yeah, you know, let's do this,
Speaker 6: let's get back South Coast service. And the whole project
Speaker 6: has taken so long because there's been safety concerns, there's
Speaker 6: been cost overruns. I don't know exactly how much of
Speaker 6: the track had to be replaced, but some of it
Speaker 6: was able to be used, some of it had to
Speaker 6: be built. There were you know, you had to build
Speaker 6: track over marshes and recreate areas to put the track,
Speaker 6: and it takes a long time. I am certainly not
Speaker 6: a rail expert, just an enthusiast, but yeah, it took
Speaker 6: a lot of money and a lot of time, and
Speaker 6: there were some times where a lot of people were saying,
Speaker 6: is this ever going to happen? You know, we're put
Speaker 6: all this energy and all this money and all this
Speaker 6: time into this. But from what I saw, I have
Speaker 6: a few friends who were down there riding the trains
Speaker 6: on the first day, and my family lives on the
Speaker 6: South Coast and they're all super excited the trains have
Speaker 6: been running really well. For the most part, they're running
Speaker 6: pretty much. I think it's like ten or twelve trains
Speaker 6: a day. It takes about seventy minutes to get to
Speaker 6: and from Boston, so it took a lot to get here.
Speaker 6: But there is a lot of excitement I think in
Speaker 6: New Bedford and Fall River for this access to the
Speaker 6: city of Boston that they hadn't seen so long.
Speaker 2: Just to put it in context, when you think about
Speaker 2: the number of people along this line who will be
Speaker 2: accommodated and won't have to get in their cars to
Speaker 2: drive to Boston. They can just go in and come
Speaker 2: out in the same day. Even if it did cost
Speaker 2: a billion dollars, put it in the context the Big
Speaker 2: Dig cost twenty two billion dollars, so this was a
Speaker 2: fraction of the Big Dig. But it's going to serve
Speaker 2: a lot of people who for decades have had well
Speaker 2: no ETA service and no real train service. So I
Speaker 2: think it's a It's a huge wind for the for
Speaker 2: the economy down there, and a lot of these cities
Speaker 2: are coming back. Fall Rivers, I think rebounding in New
Speaker 2: Bedford's rebounding. I think maybe the worst times for these
Speaker 2: cities maybe in their rear view mirror. Which is good
Speaker 2: for the entire South coast. Oh, it's good state everything.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it benefits all of us to have, you know,
Speaker 6: flourishing economic areas in all parts of our state. And
Speaker 6: you know, if you want to go down to the
Speaker 6: South coast, taking some seafood at a restaurant in New Bedford,
Speaker 6: or maybe go to Battleship Cove for a day, it's
Speaker 6: a lot easier now just to hop on the train
Speaker 6: as opposed to again sitting in the car and dealing
Speaker 6: with the traffic. And imagine during the summer, it's going
Speaker 6: to be a lot easier to get down to that
Speaker 6: part of the state, to go to New Bedford, maybe
Speaker 6: catch a ferry to the vineyard right there. It opens
Speaker 6: up opportunities.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, when you look, when you really look at it,
Speaker 2: I mean the vineyard is just looking at the map here,
Speaker 2: it looks like about a very quick ferry ride, super
Speaker 2: quick over to the vineyard and you can get down
Speaker 2: there and see a part. There's a lot of people
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, Nicole who probably have never been to New
Speaker 2: Bedford or Fall River. I would not have been except
Speaker 2: I went there as a reporter. When I was working
Speaker 2: in television and generally we're going down there for bad
Speaker 2: news stories. I've never gone down there to spend a
Speaker 2: weekend or to go down and have dinner on a
Speaker 2: Saturday night. And it opens it opens everything up. It'd
Speaker 2: be really interesting to see how it works out for
Speaker 2: the for the whole South Coast area. And yeah, it's it's,
Speaker 2: it's I think it's I think it's a plus. And
Speaker 2: thanks so much for bailing us out here and joining
Speaker 2: us tonight and giving us a perspective that I learned
Speaker 2: a lot from you on this one, that is for sure.
Speaker 6: I am happy to talk train history with you anytime.
Speaker 6: And yes, if I'm an enthusiast, I am not as
Speaker 6: much of an enthusiast as many people I know, but
Speaker 6: I do love public trans that I do love trains,
Speaker 6: and I I've already been talking with my family about
Speaker 6: taking a train trip down to the South Coast, So
Speaker 6: I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I had a cameraman who worked with me at
Speaker 2: or I must say now cinematographer who worked at me
Speaker 2: with me at two four for many years, got named
Speaker 2: Eddie Dukes. And Eddie loved trains. I mean he would
Speaker 2: he would get on a train. That's how he spent
Speaker 2: his vacations and love trains. I've taken the train to
Speaker 2: New York a couple of times, and it's a lot
Speaker 2: easier than driving getting right into Penn Station. People should
Speaker 2: should try trains. And I think someday when I when
Speaker 2: I have a little more time, I'm going to spend
Speaker 2: some time riding trains across the country.
Speaker 6: I would love to do that.
Speaker 2: You have the country from a different perspective. Normally we're
Speaker 2: on airplanes flying to the West coast. I'd like to
Speaker 2: see the see the country, you know, at at eye level,
Speaker 2: and I'd like to be doing be doing it on
Speaker 2: a train.
Speaker 6: So what easier than driving when you have to take
Speaker 6: your eyes off the road. Maybe just get on the
Speaker 6: train instead. Do yourself a favor.
Speaker 2: You got it. Nicole is always thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We still owe each other a phone call.
Speaker 6: I know, I know we'll talk, so I promise.
Speaker 2: Thanks Nicole. All right, Nicole Davis, who just does a
Speaker 2: great job here on news at WBZ period and we're
Speaker 2: delighted to have her working with us at night. When
Speaker 2: we come back, we're going to talk about the first
Speaker 2: robot assisted live liver transplant, and it happened right here
Speaker 2: in the Greater Boston area. So we will will have
Speaker 2: all that for you, and then we'll get to our
Speaker 2: talk portions. And we have a woman coming on, Jill Kornetski,
Speaker 2: who is a Harvard in Brandei's graduate and she is
Speaker 2: one of the very few Western women living in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: She's home here for a little R and R and
Speaker 2: she's she has got an an amazing project out there
Speaker 2: called Homestead Afghanistan and the Taliban I've actually have allowed
Speaker 2: her to be there. This would be a great hour
Speaker 2: coming up after the nine o'clock news, and we have
Speaker 2: a great guest coming up right after the break, Doctor
Speaker 2: Martin Dibb. Will be back on Nightside in just a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: Or you may have seen the story that Beth Israel
Speaker 2: Hospital performs its first robot assisted live liver transplant with
Speaker 2: us as doctor Martin Dibb. He's a surgeon who was
Speaker 2: involved in the procedure results as the director of Beth
Speaker 2: Israel's Living liver Transplant transplant program. Welcome doctor Martin Dibb
Speaker 2: to Nightside, how are.
Speaker 3: You very good? Thank you so much for your interest
Speaker 3: and support.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, explain to me the phrase living living liver
Speaker 2: transplant program. Obviously there, I am smart enough to understand
Speaker 2: that that people can actually donate a load of the liver.
Speaker 2: So is that what we're talking about here. It's not
Speaker 2: like a cadaver and the liver is harvested or explain
Speaker 2: the difference to me and my audience, if you'd be
Speaker 2: so kind.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right. So patients that are waiting for a
Speaker 3: liver transplant, maybe patients that have liver disease or liver cancer,
Speaker 3: and the solution and long term best treatment would be
Speaker 3: a liver transplant. The problem we have in the country
Speaker 3: and many other countries is that we don't have enough
Speaker 3: donors to be able to do all the liver transant
Speaker 3: so patients can wait for a long time on the list.
Speaker 3: And so living donor liver transient is an alternative to
Speaker 3: waiting for somebody to die to be able to get
Speaker 3: a whole organ. And instead of that, you know, patients
Speaker 3: can ask for the family members or friends that may
Speaker 3: be able to donate half of the liver. So just
Speaker 3: like in kidney yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, So for the donor in that situation,
Speaker 2: they surrender half of their liver or they volunteer to
Speaker 2: give half of their liver. I assume there has to
Speaker 2: be all sorts of compatibility between the donor and the recipient.
Speaker 2: But what impact is there on the individual who surrenders
Speaker 2: half of their liver or donates half of their liver.
Speaker 2: Does their liver or what is left of their liver,
Speaker 2: does that regenerate itself or do they live their life
Speaker 2: with half a liver.
Speaker 3: No, that's exactly right. So the liver has this amazing capacity.
Speaker 3: No other organ has to regenerate. So what happens is
Speaker 3: that if we take half of the liver of a
Speaker 3: donor and we give it to the recipient, that half
Speaker 3: of the liver that stays in the donor regenerates up
Speaker 3: to one hundred percent of what it was within six weeks.
Speaker 3: And then the half of the liver that we implant
Speaker 3: on the recipient also regenerates up to one hundred percent
Speaker 3: of what the donor's liver was within six weeks. So
Speaker 3: we're able to achieve, you know, two whole livers out
Speaker 3: of one which is something that we know very much
Speaker 3: about and we try to take advantage of it to
Speaker 3: be able to transport more people and with healthy livers.
Speaker 2: How long has that capability been in use? I assume
Speaker 2: that there was a point in time time where liver
Speaker 2: transplants first appeared. I remember when I think there was
Speaker 2: some controversy when the great Yankee baseball player Mickey Mantle
Speaker 2: was able to get a liver transplant late in his life. Uh,
Speaker 2: and there was a lot of uh controversy about it
Speaker 2: because Mickey had spent a lot of I guess what
Speaker 2: you call liver abuse as a young man, and people
Speaker 2: were upset about that. So how long have how long?
Speaker 2: When when was the first liver transplant? I just want
Speaker 2: to put this in some sort of context. How long
Speaker 2: have has the whole process of a full liver transplant
Speaker 2: from a cadaver to to someone who was in need?
Speaker 2: When when did that first one happen? Approximately?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was doctor Starzl who did the first
Speaker 3: liver transplants, and uh, this is back in the in
Speaker 3: the sixties seventies, but it was definitely standard of care
Speaker 3: starting in the eighties, and now living donor river transplants
Speaker 3: has been getting more and more force and we have
Speaker 3: been able to do this in a safe manner for
Speaker 3: the donors to be able to save more lives, be
Speaker 3: able to get good long term outcomes for the past
Speaker 3: twenty years.
Speaker 2: For the past twenty years. So therefore we have some
Speaker 2: statistical analysis, which do the people who are the donors
Speaker 2: I know that their liver regenerates itself within six months.
Speaker 2: Have there been any studies done as to whether or
Speaker 2: not that either impacts their long the donors longevity either
Speaker 2: positively or negatively.
Speaker 3: Yes, So we take the safety of the donor very seriously.
Speaker 3: So we have internet national registries of living donations, and
Speaker 3: in fact, the mortality of the donors is something that
Speaker 3: we have been tracking for a long time and internationally
Speaker 3: is you know, the potential mortality of a living donor
Speaker 3: is estimated as less than zero point one percent, so
Speaker 3: one out of a thousand, which is still something that
Speaker 3: we take very seriously and we make sure that we
Speaker 3: minimize all the risks of the donor. But for the
Speaker 3: most part, the vast majority of donors are able to
Speaker 3: go home within five to seven days and they get
Speaker 3: a full regeneration of the liver within six weeks and
Speaker 3: go back to the regular activities.
Speaker 2: The longevity of life, and again, I know it's impossible
Speaker 2: to predict that, but I'm just is there any disparity
Speaker 2: between the life longevity of liver donors and those who
Speaker 2: never donate a portion of the liver. Has there been
Speaker 2: any study ever done on that or all?
Speaker 3: So, we do know from cancer surgery of the liver
Speaker 3: that patients that had half of the liver removed they
Speaker 3: live with a normal life expectancy. Since we have been
Speaker 3: doing living donors for the most part the past twenty
Speaker 3: thirty years, we don't know what's going to happen at
Speaker 3: forty years, but we pretty much know from the from
Speaker 3: all the experience of liver surgery that once they get
Speaker 3: a full regeneration, they live as anyone else with a
Speaker 3: regenerated liver and with a normal life expectancy.
Speaker 2: That's great, well, doctor, It's amazing what you and your
Speaker 2: colleagues in medicine do for all of us, and it
Speaker 2: gives all of us great hope. I just want I
Speaker 2: wanted to say thank you for you doing what you do.
Speaker 2: I do a talk show and I was a TV
Speaker 2: reporter and all I've done is talk you work with
Speaker 2: your mind and with your hands, not only to save lives,
Speaker 2: but to benefit so many people during your career. I've
Speaker 2: known who was a heart surgeon and he did I
Speaker 2: think it was twelve thousand heart operations, and so I
Speaker 2: stand in hor of you and your colleagues. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to say.
Speaker 3: That thank you. We really appreciate you say it like
Speaker 3: if it's not, but just getting the word out is
Speaker 3: just really important. And you being interested in us showing
Speaker 3: people what we can do and be able to people
Speaker 3: that are waiting for a long time for an organ translant,
Speaker 3: for them to know that we can do living donner
Speaker 3: liver transplant. It's really important to be honest, like we
Speaker 3: have the privilege of having this job, but the real
Speaker 3: heroes here are the donors. Not anyone would you know
Speaker 3: you would have a surgery that they don't need to
Speaker 3: be able to save the life of their family member,
Speaker 3: and these are very special individuals.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, doctor, I'd love to have you back, and
Speaker 2: if we can ever do anything to spread the word
Speaker 2: you talk to the folks there at the hospital and
Speaker 2: we're standing by at your service. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for watching you.
Speaker 3: I did want to you know mention about the robotic part.
Speaker 3: I think this is very exciting because we were able
Speaker 3: to do the surgery of the donor minimally invasive, with
Speaker 3: small incisions and using the latest technology, which is the
Speaker 3: robotic surgery. Basically we're able to have those donors to
Speaker 3: get to recover way quicker and get back to their
Speaker 3: regular life.
Speaker 2: So what I'd like to do, doctor, I would so
Speaker 2: focused on the procedure and the transplant procedure. How about
Speaker 2: if you have I'll have my producer get in touch
Speaker 2: with your public relations person and we'll have you back
Speaker 2: maybe two or three weeks from now, and we'll focus
Speaker 2: exclusively on the robotic aspect. Would that work?
Speaker 3: Leading would love?
Speaker 2: Okay, we will do we will We will do it
Speaker 2: again in the not too not too long down the road.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, doctor Martin Dibb of Beth Israel's
Speaker 2: Living Liver Transplant Program. Thanks again. Doctor. When we get
Speaker 2: back right after the nine o'clock news is going to
Speaker 2: talk about another person who is living a very interesting life,
Speaker 2: the founder of Homestead Afghanistan, a woman from Massachusetts, Jill Kornetsky.
Speaker 2: What a story coming back on Night Side