Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Boston Radio.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Nicole.
Speaker 3: Hope you have a very happy and enjoyable weekend and
Speaker 3: the weather holds for everybody here in New England.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 3: I am the host of Night Sign and here every weeknight,
Speaker 3: Monday through Friday from eight until midnight, and we will
Speaker 3: take you all the way till Saturday morning. If you
Speaker 3: stay with us now, if you're in the car headed
Speaker 3: west or north or south, just keep it tuned to
Speaker 3: ten thirty and your AM dial and we'll provide you
Speaker 3: with good information and hopefully some entertaining conversation as the
Speaker 3: evening goes on.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's going to.
Speaker 3: Depend very very large part if the topics that I've
Speaker 3: picked click with the listeners, and if the listeners turned
Speaker 3: themselves into callers. That's the magic of talk radio, and
Speaker 3: we try to think that most nights. We get pretty
Speaker 3: magical here, simple as that. So Rob Brooks is back
Speaker 3: in the control room tonight. He'll be taking your phone
Speaker 3: calls beginning, but not before not a call.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: We have four really interesting guests this hour, so sit
Speaker 3: back and relax and enjoy the first of our very
Speaker 3: interesting guests doctor Michael Barnett. He's an associate professor in
Speaker 3: the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard
Speaker 3: th Chance School of Public Health. And we're going to
Speaker 3: look at the whole question about why is so hard
Speaker 3: these days to get a doctor's appointment or to actually
Speaker 3: become a patient of a doctor. Getting a new PCP
Speaker 3: is not as easy as it once was. Doctor Michael Barnett,
Speaker 3: Welcome to Nightside. How are you to this evening, sir.
Speaker 4: I'm Jim Great, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: I gotta tell you I was looking for a primary
Speaker 3: care physician a few years ago, and after having had
Speaker 3: a great primary care physician for many years, doctor Allan
Speaker 3: Cole out in Natick. He literally take care of me
Speaker 3: for thirty five or forty years.
Speaker 2: It was tough. What's going on here?
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, if I thought to myself, I
Speaker 3: was in a third world country for a few weeks
Speaker 3: I wanted I called a couple of doctor's offices, said well,
Speaker 3: we can get you an interview to be considered as
Speaker 3: a patient, you know, three or four months from now.
Speaker 4: Wow, I haven't heard of interview since like apply.
Speaker 5: To be a patient.
Speaker 4: But yes, yeah, I mean it's really tough.
Speaker 2: Exactly what it was. I never I never said that's crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know it is. It is really hard,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think you can kind of go
Speaker 4: back to just you know, basic the basic economics of
Speaker 4: supply and demand. You know, I think, you know, especially
Speaker 4: post pandemic, we're in a world where they're just growing
Speaker 4: patient demand. People are older, they're on more medications, they
Speaker 4: see other doctors, there's more stuff to do, and the
Speaker 4: primary care supply just hasn't caught up. You know, we don't.
Speaker 4: We don't. We don't make enough doctors. We don't have
Speaker 4: enough time for patients. You know, in our system right now,
Speaker 4: there's no well one thing.
Speaker 3: We have a plethora of our lawyers. But I believe
Speaker 3: that the AMA has some pretty struck strict standards for
Speaker 3: getting medical schools up and running. There are some offshore
Speaker 3: medical schools are which are really good medical schools. There
Speaker 3: are a lot of smart young men and women graduating
Speaker 3: from college who would like to become doctors, and they
Speaker 3: have to go to an offshore medical school.
Speaker 2: Am I right or wrong on that? Doctor?
Speaker 4: There are a lot of offshore medical schools. I mean,
Speaker 4: I think another another source of doctors that doesn't receive
Speaker 4: a whole lot of attention, but it's pretty important. Or
Speaker 4: also doctors from other countries. You know, there are lots
Speaker 4: of doctors, say from Europe or India that wants to
Speaker 4: come to the US, and many of them do end
Speaker 4: up practicing here, but it's a very, very long road.
Speaker 4: These are people who are already established physicians in their
Speaker 4: own home country. But it is true that we have
Speaker 4: a lot more demand also for medical schoo but that
Speaker 4: does if we're talking about primary care, that does kind
Speaker 4: of look past the facts that you know of people
Speaker 4: who graduate medical school. Not a lot of people want
Speaker 4: to go into primary care right now.
Speaker 3: Well, well, here's my If I'm wrong here, please tell me.
Speaker 3: But I was told a long time ago that the
Speaker 3: American Medical Association is involved in the licensing of medical
Speaker 3: schools and that they have been pretty reluctant to open up.
Speaker 3: It's very difficult to get into medical schools because, for example,
Speaker 3: at UMass out in Worcester is only I have to
Speaker 3: leave one hundred and twenty seats for the first year
Speaker 3: medical students.
Speaker 2: I think that numbers on the money, Am I correct?
Speaker 4: That sounds that right?
Speaker 3: Okay, so it seems to me that we have plenty
Speaker 3: of academic space and we turn out, you know, anthropology
Speaker 3: majors and you know, well a lot of majors, which
Speaker 3: maybe a wonderful majors, but we must have seen the
Speaker 3: baby boom coming. What I'm trying to understand is is
Speaker 3: why has this pipeline not produced the adequate number of
Speaker 3: doctors this We're not a third world country. And I
Speaker 3: guess that's my frustration. And if I'm sounding frustrated, it's
Speaker 3: only because I've experienced it.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I think, you know, I totally understand
Speaker 4: your frustration. I mean, I hear it from my patients
Speaker 4: who are also struggling to get appointments for their family
Speaker 4: members and they beg me to, you know, get them appointments.
Speaker 4: I totally get it. Yeah, the you know, the growth
Speaker 4: in I mean basically the growth and physicians in this
Speaker 4: country hasn't really kept up with population growth. And also
Speaker 4: another thing that we found in our research is that
Speaker 4: over the past you know, you know, two or three decades,
Speaker 4: physicians are also working fewer hours than they used to,
Speaker 4: probably because the job is really hard and so per physician,
Speaker 4: we also get fewer hours from them. Than we used to,
Speaker 4: and so you know, that creates an increasing gap. And
Speaker 4: you know, you pointed out the baby boomer generation is
Speaker 4: kind of you know, they're getting to an age where
Speaker 4: they have an increasing number of medical issues that have
Speaker 4: to be dealt with, and that creates a lot more demand.
Speaker 4: One thing I do want to add here is that
Speaker 4: mds are not meeting demand, but one group that is
Speaker 4: rising really really quickly as nurse practitioners and physician assistants
Speaker 4: to a lower extent. And so, you know, one thing
Speaker 4: that we're seeing a lot of is that a lot
Speaker 4: of health systems and offices are hiring nurse practitioners like gangbusters,
Speaker 4: and there's the growth in that profession has just been
Speaker 4: like double digits for years, I think because it's a
Speaker 4: huge market to fill.
Speaker 3: Well, I understand that, but I guess what I guess
Speaker 3: what my frustration is is that and I've had I've
Speaker 3: dealt with physic PA's physicians assistance nurse practitioners, and frankly,
Speaker 3: there are nurses who sometimes have a better bedside manner
Speaker 3: than some doctors. Maybe, so that's wonderful. But I had
Speaker 3: a conversation within the last hour with a former nurse
Speaker 3: who is dealing with a serious medical matter. Very bright
Speaker 3: woman at a big teaching institution here in Boston, someone
Speaker 3: that everyone knows, and she has been bounced around for
Speaker 3: months months, and she is someone who knows what the
Speaker 3: proper medical care is.
Speaker 2: I think that I think we got a huge.
Speaker 3: Problem coming up here. And I'm going to ask that
Speaker 3: question again. Am I correct when I say that the
Speaker 3: American Medical Association is involved in the licensing the number
Speaker 3: of medical schools in this country? Because I had been
Speaker 3: told that and I don't want to spread an accurate information.
Speaker 2: Do they have some input in who would way or
Speaker 2: medical schools open up?
Speaker 4: So I'll have to confess I don't know. I don't
Speaker 4: know the exact like policy pathway where people uh, you know,
Speaker 4: for approving new medical schools. I think the key organization here,
Speaker 4: which you know might as well be the am for
Speaker 4: probably a lot of people, is called the American Association
Speaker 4: of Medical Colleges or double or double AMC. And I
Speaker 4: think though that one of the biggest bottlenecks is not
Speaker 4: so much that there are a lot of places clamoring
Speaker 4: to build medical schools and being denied, but rather it's
Speaker 4: like a really expensive complicated proposition to start a new
Speaker 4: medical school. It's way more profitable to do something else.
Speaker 4: You know, if with the amount of energy and resources
Speaker 4: the health system could put into building a medical school,
Speaker 4: you know, they could build a new cardiology building, or
Speaker 4: you know, expand their on collogey practice or do something.
Speaker 4: And so I think also, it's just it's very expensive,
Speaker 4: and training doctors is expensive.
Speaker 2: Well, I think we've identified some of the problems.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that we've been able to figure out
Speaker 3: the solutions, but I would think that well, I would
Speaker 3: think that some bright minds in the medical field could
Speaker 3: could address this. We can't turn this ship around overnight,
Speaker 3: but for future generations we better. We better do a
Speaker 3: better job of turning out people and not necessarily sending
Speaker 3: qualified students out of some of the best colleges and
Speaker 3: universities in this country to to offshore facilities and places
Speaker 3: like Granada and and Caribbean islands to go to medical schools.
Speaker 3: And they come back and they're great doctors. But it's
Speaker 3: being done. It's being done offshore. I'm sorry to be
Speaker 3: so frustrated, but I don't.
Speaker 4: Often Okay, I get it, I get it, and you know,
Speaker 4: I just I just also want to point out, you know,
Speaker 4: like the people who go to the offshore medical schools,
Speaker 4: you know, when they come back, we also need them
Speaker 4: to want to be primary care doctors, if you know,
Speaker 4: if you know, if we're seeing kind of seeing that
Speaker 4: as the key bottleneck because a lot of people don't
Speaker 4: want to go into primary care. So you know, it's
Speaker 4: it's not you know, I'll give you I'll give you
Speaker 4: a quick example, right. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 4: there's a lot of you know, hype and celebration around
Speaker 4: n YU made their medical school free for students, like
Speaker 4: several years ago, who think is before the pandemic, and
Speaker 4: everybody was all excited about it, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: we're going to do this because we don't want tuition
Speaker 4: to affect which specialty medical students choose. Well, it's several
Speaker 4: years later, their medical students have I'm sure enjoyed free
Speaker 4: tuition and they're not treating any more primary care doctors.
Speaker 4: It's it's no different than it was before.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 3: Well, to do that, you could you could execute a
Speaker 3: contract with students and if they agree to become primary
Speaker 3: care physicians or if they agreed to practice in a
Speaker 3: rural area, rural part of America who are in desperate
Speaker 3: need of PCPs UH and if they do not comply
Speaker 3: with that contract, then they could be a clawback provision
Speaker 3: to get the medical school tuition back. I I think
Speaker 3: that creative minds could come up with with a solution,
Speaker 3: UH to the to this problem. But look, I'd love
Speaker 3: to have this conversation with you, maybe in an entire
Speaker 3: hour some night and take phone calls if you'd be willing.
Speaker 2: I'm I promise, I mean hard time.
Speaker 3: There's a lot if you if you think I've given
Speaker 3: your hard time tonight, I apologized that was not my
Speaker 3: intention at all, but I just I wanted to be
Speaker 3: as honest with you as I could because I think
Speaker 3: this is going to become a real crisis in this country.
Speaker 3: Maybe we need to raise and make uh make salaries
Speaker 3: for primary care physicians more attractive, more lucrative, and maybe
Speaker 3: we need to back off some of the paperwork that
Speaker 3: we're that we're forcing doctors to comply with. So let
Speaker 3: them let the practice medicine and not just not practic
Speaker 3: as they're typing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well there's a lot to dig into there. Happy
Speaker 4: to talk more about it. There's you know, could definitely
Speaker 4: talk all night.
Speaker 2: Sounds great.
Speaker 3: Uh, Doctor Michael Barnett, I really appreciate your great sport
Speaker 3: and and I thank you for joining us tonight because
Speaker 3: I think we opened up some areas or conversation that
Speaker 3: probably people around New England and the country will be
Speaker 3: talking about this weekend.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Appreciate that.
Speaker 4: All right, thank you for having me.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. Good night. All right. When we come back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk with Paula Fleming.
Speaker 3: She's the chief spokesperson of the Better Business Bureau has
Speaker 3: been a guest in during this hour on several occasions.
Speaker 3: It's back to school time. Students are being issued school laptops,
Speaker 3: which is great, but those school laptops also prevent some
Speaker 3: some stranger danger. We'll talk to Paula with some advice
Speaker 3: for parents. Coming back on night Side.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back by popular demand.
Speaker 3: Paula Fleming, chiefs spokesperson of the Better Business Bureau.
Speaker 2: Hi, Paula, welcome back.
Speaker 7: How are you good evening?
Speaker 1: Dan?
Speaker 7: I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 5: How are you good?
Speaker 3: So if there are any children listening to me right now,
Speaker 3: please have them leave the room because it's back to
Speaker 3: school time and a couple of weeks kids, I remember
Speaker 3: this at that time of year when they then the
Speaker 3: days are getting shorter and uh and the shadows are
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's a tough time for kids who
Speaker 3: are enjoying the summer. But they getting back to school
Speaker 3: and now instead of like getting a box of crayons
Speaker 3: like we did and had a new notebook, they get
Speaker 3: school laptops, which is great, which is great. However, how
Speaker 3: do you keep your kids safe, particularly young parents who
Speaker 3: who realized that the children now are going to have
Speaker 3: some laptops and open up maybe a new world to them,
Speaker 3: not necessarily a safe world.
Speaker 7: Yeah. So it's an important subject that I'm encouraging people,
Speaker 7: you know, to have within their families. And we want
Speaker 7: people to educate and empower their children and teach them
Speaker 7: about online privacy risks and empower them to make smart choices.
Speaker 7: I can't urge this enough. Younger and younger kids are
Speaker 7: dependent upon these electronic devices but aren't really educated on
Speaker 7: the risks that come along with them. And there are risks,
Speaker 7: and we want your listeners to be aware of those
Speaker 7: and to protect and have an open conversation about what
Speaker 7: can transpire.
Speaker 3: How should that conversation and at what age can that
Speaker 3: conversation really start. I assume you're going to tell me
Speaker 3: probably it's never too early to start.
Speaker 7: I will, yes, I would agree with that, it is
Speaker 7: never too early. Every household has you know, I'm myself
Speaker 7: now with a college a child. I remember saying I'm
Speaker 7: not going to allow electronics a cell phone until middle school,
Speaker 7: but for convenience purposes. You know, sometimes it was fifth grade.
Speaker 7: So it's really dependent upon when when you introduce electronics
Speaker 7: to your child, to your family members, and I think
Speaker 7: at that point, if not before, you should start those conversations.
Speaker 7: You want to keep up with the latest as a parent,
Speaker 7: as a family on cybersecurity news and resources, and you
Speaker 7: want to maintain an ongoing dialogue with your children your
Speaker 7: family members about their online experiences. I think open communication
Speaker 7: is key. I think a lot of you know, those
Speaker 7: even for my son who's going to college, I said, oh,
Speaker 7: I set aside money for college books. But you know what,
Speaker 7: they aren't using nearly what we did when we went
Speaker 7: to college for those hard copy books. A lot of
Speaker 7: it is online, So those conversations need to happen early,
Speaker 7: and they need to happen often.
Speaker 3: Now, I assume every school district is a little different
Speaker 3: policy and this, well maybe there is a model policy.
Speaker 3: But at what age are students in mass it's being
Speaker 3: given laptops by the school system.
Speaker 7: What is a great question. I mean, I can speak
Speaker 7: to my community. It's middle school, and it's provided by
Speaker 7: the school, which I have been informed it's white before
Speaker 7: they receive it, right, But that doesn't necessarily mean and
Speaker 7: they monitor it and quotes. I'm saying that to the
Speaker 7: best of their ability. But you also have to take
Speaker 7: into account with the kids have cell phones. They are
Speaker 7: communicating right with all these new different apps. So understand
Speaker 7: the apps and apps are short for applications, which are
Speaker 7: downloaded software that operates on various devices such as smartphones.
Speaker 7: I'm referring to sometimes I get after I have conversations
Speaker 7: with you people saying I'm not sure what you were
Speaker 7: talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a brave new world, and it is, but
Speaker 3: but what my what my concern is, Okay, they're going
Speaker 3: to put into your child's hands a laptop. Now, some
Speaker 3: parents might say, you know, I'm not comfortable with that.
Speaker 3: But but but they they give.
Speaker 2: It to your child, are they able to manage those laptops.
Speaker 3: From the school system where certain web web pages are
Speaker 3: accessible and others aren't. I mean, or is it just
Speaker 3: they get a it's almost like putting a gun in
Speaker 3: the kid's hands. I hate to use that that that example,
Speaker 3: but you know, a laptop with a fifth grade and.
Speaker 7: To the safety of that, it can be. It can be.
Speaker 7: And to my understanding that the schools are monitoring where
Speaker 7: they go and what they're doing to the best of
Speaker 7: their ability, is anything safe, I would say no. I
Speaker 7: think even you know, we've talked about this before, Dan,
Speaker 7: where people you know, allow their children in the basement
Speaker 7: that are playing you know, what they think to be
Speaker 7: in ascent games online and then before they know it,
Speaker 7: they're talking to strangers. So I think I think the
Speaker 7: most important thing we're back to school, electronic devices are
Speaker 7: being introduced at a younger age. I feel like every
Speaker 7: year it gets younger and younger, and I think the
Speaker 7: the importance of creating accounts and websites that you know,
Speaker 7: require permissions, making sure everything is up to date, having
Speaker 7: that open conversation and understanding what your school monitors and
Speaker 7: what is allowed and not allowed on the devices is
Speaker 7: important as well.
Speaker 3: Couldn't agree with you more, Paula, is there some information
Speaker 3: on the website that we can send parents to. Obviously
Speaker 3: your information here is really important, but I'm just wondering
Speaker 3: if there's some stuff on your website or some places
Speaker 3: that you could send parents too who maybe frightened by
Speaker 3: the conversation or just we've just had.
Speaker 7: Of course, yes, our information on staying safe on the
Speaker 7: internet and other tips, it would be BBB dot org.
Speaker 7: It's BBB dot o RG. We have a lot of
Speaker 7: information that can help parents navigate through this time. Again,
Speaker 7: every town and city is different, every state is different.
Speaker 7: But I and I would encourage open conversations with your
Speaker 7: school system to see what is in place to protect
Speaker 7: your child and also to monitor it so they don't
Speaker 7: get in trouble. And sometimes it's unbeknownst to them that
Speaker 7: they don't even realize that it was not allowed in
Speaker 7: the school system. So I think those open conversations are important.
Speaker 3: And that website, which is BBB dot org obviously is
Speaker 3: an acronym for Boston Better Business Bureau, so it's three
Speaker 3: vs BBB dot org.
Speaker 2: Like Boston, Boston Boston dot Org.
Speaker 3: Thank great information. Thank you so much, as always, appreciate
Speaker 3: your time.
Speaker 7: Thank you, and I don't want to scare people. I
Speaker 7: hope everyone has a fantastic back to school year. And
Speaker 7: again I appreciate your time, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3: I hope they have a couple a good couple of
Speaker 3: weeks or whatever they have left in the summer before
Speaker 3: they even think about back to school year.
Speaker 7: Although it does still a little bit like fall in
Speaker 7: the morning already, I'm not I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 8: That, I know.
Speaker 5: Thanks all right.
Speaker 3: About a year ago, there was a huge fire in Hawaii.
Speaker 3: I think all of us remember that. And one of
Speaker 3: the central points of concern in that fire was a
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty year old banyon tree which was
Speaker 3: in Kolua, Hawaii. It was actually, I believe, in a
Speaker 3: town called a Loan of High And we are going
Speaker 3: to talk with Kevin eckert Man, who was in charge
Speaker 3: a year ago and who we talked to about how
Speaker 3: that tree is going, and we do have some good
Speaker 3: news on this. After that, we're going to take you
Speaker 3: into a swamp, believe it or not, literally into a
Speaker 3: swamp where they are hunting Florida pythons tonight, and we
Speaker 3: might even hear a python caught on our ear.
Speaker 2: So stay with us is going.
Speaker 3: To be a very interesting second half hour, just as
Speaker 3: the first half hour is interesting.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: It's Nightie with on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: That's great advice, Nicole.
Speaker 3: Now, about a year ago, and I'm not sure the
Speaker 3: exact date, but I know that my guest will know
Speaker 3: the exact date. We spoke on this program with Kevin Eckert,
Speaker 3: President and managing director of Arbor Global in Kolua, Hawaii.
Speaker 3: There was a huge, huge fire on the island of Maui,
Speaker 3: the incredible damage. I think all of us remember it.
Speaker 3: And at the center of that fire was a tree,
Speaker 3: a one d and fifty ye old Banyan tree, beautiful tree,
Speaker 3: which was really hit by the flames. With us, now,
Speaker 3: is Kevin eckertt Kevin, I forget our first interview with you,
Speaker 3: I believe was a year ago tonight.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's almost exactly the date. A year ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was our first interview with what was on
Speaker 3: August sixteenth, twenty twenty three. Yeah, So, first of all,
Speaker 3: how how is everyone doing in Hawaii. How has the
Speaker 3: recovery gone? And then I want to talk about the
Speaker 3: Banyan tree.
Speaker 2: Tell us.
Speaker 3: Where does the Maui stand, the towns that were so impacted,
Speaker 3: what's going on?
Speaker 5: You know, thanks very much, and we really appreciate your
Speaker 5: follow up and the consideration of you and all your
Speaker 5: listeners out there to what's going on out here in
Speaker 5: our little islands. But I mean it's still tough. This
Speaker 5: was devastating, and the fact that we're isolated out twenty
Speaker 5: three hundred miles from any other land trying to get
Speaker 5: the logistics together as difficult. So we're moving forward, but
Speaker 5: not nearly as far along as we'd like to be.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's still everyone's pretty much homeless, and we're
Speaker 5: still in cleanup mode, not so much restoration yet.
Speaker 2: Where are people staying at all of that?
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's tough ies exactly. I mean, there's
Speaker 5: still a lot of places they're putting them up in
Speaker 5: various homes. People have still taken people in on long
Speaker 5: term some of the hotels and whatnot, but a number
Speaker 5: of people have had to lead, you know, go to
Speaker 5: the mainland for friends and relatives, and they're leaving the
Speaker 5: islands because of the uncertainty.
Speaker 3: How is the Banyan try going on? I don't know
Speaker 3: why that became such a symbol, but it did.
Speaker 5: It sure did. Quite frankly, it surprised us a bit.
Speaker 5: It's a very historic tree planted in nearly eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 5: over one hundred and fifty years old, and it really
Speaker 5: has symbolized the spirit of the of a recovery. In
Speaker 5: other words, I when we look at it and say,
Speaker 5: if this tree can make it, we can all lahin
Speaker 5: it can make it. I mean a lot of people
Speaker 5: in Hawaii, especially now, we grew up with that tree.
Speaker 5: You know, they took their childhood visits and whatnot. So
Speaker 5: it is quite the emblement. It's really important for us
Speaker 5: to get it back up to speed.
Speaker 3: So you know, from the point of view, how long
Speaker 3: is it going to take? First of all, do we
Speaker 3: know that a year out will the tree eventually recovered?
Speaker 3: Do we know that at this point or is that
Speaker 3: still an open question.
Speaker 5: It's very much like someone on intensive care. I mean,
Speaker 5: we're optimistic. The tree is green, it's put out a
Speaker 5: lot of leaves, but it was a big tree. There's
Speaker 5: a number of initiatives that we've taken working with that.
Speaker 5: Pikus has some special characteristics that we're using that have
Speaker 5: proven successful and areas with Ficus, so we're working on it.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of green, but we have some concerns.
Speaker 5: Like any thick patient, it's contracted a couple of secondary infections.
Speaker 5: But we're optimistic we will be able to recover that tree,
Speaker 5: maybe not in its present form, but we're taking cuttings
Speaker 5: and we're cautiously optimistic that we back but it's going
Speaker 5: to be a lot of years.
Speaker 2: When you say a lot of years, don't mean to
Speaker 2: pin you down, Kevin.
Speaker 3: Are we talking at least a decade before we'll know
Speaker 3: if the patient is going to make it.
Speaker 5: Well. So I think the patient will make it longer
Speaker 5: term there, but what we're doing is cuttings. We'll clone it.
Speaker 5: So we've had to remove about thirty or forty percent
Speaker 5: of the tree that has died that has died back,
Speaker 5: but it's it's almost a two acre sized tree with
Speaker 5: a lot of trunks yep. So we're going to work
Speaker 5: on replacing those with clones. Cuttings were taken off the
Speaker 5: parent tree. Those ree sprouts. We're also working at putting
Speaker 5: down the air roots, recovering those and building the crown
Speaker 5: on the currently the current tree that's got leaves on
Speaker 5: it now. So one way or another, we're keeping our
Speaker 5: fingers crossed. It's going to be before the tree the
Speaker 5: whole area is back to its form. We're looking at
Speaker 5: more than a decade.
Speaker 3: Who what what a job? What a task? And this
Speaker 3: tree is priceless. But what do you think the cost
Speaker 3: so far have been? You know, if they had said,
Speaker 3: look the trees are gone and they took it down, obviously,
Speaker 3: but what has what has has been spent on making
Speaker 3: sure that this tree survives? How?
Speaker 2: How you know? What are we talking hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: of dollars?
Speaker 5: That's a great question. You know. The challenge is there's
Speaker 5: been so much donation from contractors that we're working on
Speaker 5: rec out managing the site. Goodfellow Brothers, for example, gave
Speaker 5: us the water no charge. The state, the government agents
Speaker 5: have been doing a lot of arborous like myself. All
Speaker 5: the time has been donated. So I would have to
Speaker 5: speculate at best, and that'd be hard with all the volunteers.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'll take a wild guess and say probably
Speaker 5: if if they were paying for this, it'd be one
Speaker 5: hundred grand at least at this stage. Wow.
Speaker 3: And then how weird is this tree? Was it just
Speaker 3: its location and the damage that this tree absorbed from
Speaker 3: the fire. Are there banyon trees across the islands of
Speaker 3: Hawaii or is this a one and a one of
Speaker 3: a kind?
Speaker 5: That's a great question, And really I got to say,
Speaker 5: first of all, it's a historic banion. It is the
Speaker 5: largest banyon in the United States, almost two acres in
Speaker 5: coverage before the fire. The other thing, maybe more importantly,
Speaker 5: is the cultural connection with the people. Again, a lot
Speaker 5: of residents grew up with this tree, you know Native Hawaiians,
Speaker 5: and that this is the tree when they gat their
Speaker 5: first grade vacations or holidays with the schools and whatnot,
Speaker 5: they climbed this tree. They just knew this tree. And
Speaker 5: the devastation was so horrific in Lahina, and this tree
Speaker 5: was still standing even that it was browned out pretty good.
Speaker 5: I think people grab that they're looking for something to
Speaker 5: grab onto, and I have to think that that's something
Speaker 5: that they're looking to grab on to. We've got to
Speaker 5: bring this tree back. This is our you know, our symbol,
Speaker 5: if you will, our inspiration.
Speaker 3: So it's cultural, it's symbolic, h and it is it's
Speaker 3: something that people so identify with. Look, is there a
Speaker 3: way in which my listeners can help support?
Speaker 2: Is there a fund out there? What?
Speaker 3: What can we do other other than prey and root
Speaker 3: for you? There anything tangible that we can do to
Speaker 3: help you?
Speaker 5: Oh? Wow, No, I appreciate that. I mean there is
Speaker 5: some funding. We're very cautious right now on what we
Speaker 5: do because again, it's like a patient. We're working on
Speaker 5: slowly and monitoring. We don't have anything direct we're doing
Speaker 5: except the small things we're doing. But there are some
Speaker 5: funds to support Maui. Okay that the the Maui County
Speaker 5: is doing and that's probably the best place that that
Speaker 5: people can support and provide, you know, any any resources
Speaker 5: that they wish to.
Speaker 3: So I'll bet you think that if that if people were,
Speaker 3: for example, just to google Maui Recovery, Uh, they would
Speaker 3: be directed to a bunch of websites that they might
Speaker 3: want to be able to support.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 3: Yes, Kevin, maybe a year from now we'll have another
Speaker 3: update if there's any sort of a breakthrough. Uh. That
Speaker 3: Banyan Tree has a lot of fans here on Night
Speaker 3: side in New England and around the around the continental
Speaker 3: of the United States, so don't hesitate to reach back
Speaker 3: out to us. You're a great interview, it's a great subject.
Speaker 3: So happy that such great progress has already been made.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, and we really appreciate your consideration and interest
Speaker 5: that I look forward to talking to you in a
Speaker 5: year and get be even a brighter outlook.
Speaker 3: If not before, well, if I ever get back to Hawaiian,
Speaker 3: we'll look you up. I was there about five or
Speaker 3: six years ago, and it is just an amazing, amazing
Speaker 3: place and I'm absolutely I was in some of the
Speaker 3: places with the fire, you know, really, yeah, so devastating.
Speaker 2: And I'm not Hawaiian.
Speaker 3: I've only spent a week or so there, but I'll
Speaker 3: tell you it was just one of the most amazing
Speaker 3: parts of the United States that.
Speaker 5: I've ever Exactly, you don't have to be Hawaiian to
Speaker 5: feel the harder the people there and especially seeing that.
Speaker 5: So I appreciate that and absolutely look me up if
Speaker 5: you if you get out the next time, I sure will.
Speaker 3: Kevin Eckert, thank you so much for taking your time
Speaker 3: a second time, and we will hopefully talk again, and
Speaker 3: we'll even have better news, but the news this year
Speaker 3: was pretty positive. So thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 5: Thank you great, thank you, Aloha aloha.
Speaker 3: So when we get back, we're going to go from
Speaker 3: Hawaii to Florida and we're going to take you on
Speaker 3: an expedition which is underway right now. We're going to
Speaker 3: take you into the swamps of Florida where a group
Speaker 3: are actually, believe it or not, hunting brimese pythons right now.
Speaker 3: We will you will not believe this next interview coming
Speaker 3: up live on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know how you spending your Friday night.
Speaker 3: I'm doing my talk show here and many of you
Speaker 3: probably are sitting at home with the Red Sox game
Speaker 3: turned down there winning eight.
Speaker 2: To four, interesting game down in.
Speaker 3: Baltimore, and maybe many of you are driving anywhere in
Speaker 3: the United States and picking us up on the iHeart
Speaker 3: app r on wb BZ over the year. However, we're
Speaker 3: about to talk with a gentleman named Tom Rayhill. He's
Speaker 3: the found of a group called Swamp Apes dedicated to
Speaker 3: serving veterans to serving the wilderness. They are currently on
Speaker 3: a hunt for the invasive Brumese python. Where exactly do
Speaker 3: we find you tonight?
Speaker 5: Tom, Hey, Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 6: I'm out in the Everglades, about ten miles west of
Speaker 6: any normal roadway.
Speaker 2: Wow, how do you get it? You go up by boat?
Speaker 8: I assume, well, we go out by boat, we go
Speaker 8: out by truck, we go out by even bicycle, And
Speaker 8: in some cases we've had off road wheelchairs with veterans
Speaker 8: that are otherwise able python hunting from the wheelchairs.
Speaker 6: It's been an awesome experience.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Now, I got to tell you, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: things I'd like to do in my life, but python
Speaker 3: hunting has never been sort of at the top of
Speaker 3: that bucket list. Tell us what you guys are doing
Speaker 3: right now and give us a description your eyes and
Speaker 3: ears on the ground. What's it like? Do you have
Speaker 3: mosquitos everywhere? Is it one hundred degrees? A week ago
Speaker 3: tonight I was in in Italy and was about one
Speaker 3: hundred degrees. I'm back here tonight in a nice, cool
Speaker 3: studio back in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Set the scene for us if you would.
Speaker 6: Tom, Yeah, it's actually the road has about one foot
Speaker 6: of snow on it and it's sweeting.
Speaker 5: No, I'll just kidding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is it drifting a little bit?
Speaker 6: Yeah, drifting a little bit. Man, it's eighty two degrees
Speaker 6: and definitely mosquitos are out. But if you get out
Speaker 6: in the Everglades, you're going to be used to the mosquitos.
Speaker 6: It's part and parcel of a healthy ecosystem. And we're
Speaker 6: driving in a truck that is a four x four
Speaker 6: six inch lifted painted in rhinoliner bedliner with led light
Speaker 6: bars on the top. I've got two veterans with me
Speaker 6: and a member of the swamp based organization that are
Speaker 6: all participating in the Florida Python Challenge twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: So the goal of the Florida Python Challenge twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four is to find some pipe thoughts.
Speaker 2: That's dangerous work, is it not?
Speaker 6: Well, it can be. You know. You need to know
Speaker 6: your environment, you know, and the more experience you are
Speaker 6: as a woods person than the safer you're going to be.
Speaker 6: But even when you're as safe as possible, things are
Speaker 6: going to happen. I had a member that was invenomated
Speaker 6: by a cotton mouth back in January, and he survived
Speaker 6: and thrived. In fact, I had him down two weeks
Speaker 6: ago and he caught three pythons with me. So there
Speaker 6: are there are inherent dangers, but you know, life is
Speaker 6: short man. You're born, What are you going to do?
Speaker 6: You're living? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: You die?
Speaker 6: What did you do? And for me to be able
Speaker 6: to be out here in the wilderness helping the wilderness
Speaker 6: hunting pythons while taking veterans and helping them overcome challenges
Speaker 6: from their service is an awesome experience.
Speaker 5: It's a win win all the way around.
Speaker 3: An awesome experience, and it's also a great contribution to
Speaker 3: their lives. You've been interrupted by military service and in
Speaker 3: many cases obviously some pretty serious damage.
Speaker 2: What sort of protective gear do you wear out there?
Speaker 3: I mean, I got to assume you're not hunting them
Speaker 3: with bare hands.
Speaker 5: I hope nah, you would like my look man.
Speaker 6: I'm of Irish mainly and some German and Dutch descent,
Speaker 6: and I celebrate that because it gives me the fierceness
Speaker 6: to be able to channel my energy and issues that
Speaker 6: I may have into the difficulties of being out there. Consequently,
Speaker 6: I dress in a way that's appropriate for where we're going.
Speaker 6: I wear sixteen inch snakeproof snake boots, and for anyone
Speaker 6: that's ever worn them, As the old saying goes, once
Speaker 6: you go snake boot, you never go back, because they
Speaker 6: are really great, great shoes out here. I usually wear
Speaker 6: a thicker pant even in the heat, because there's a
Speaker 6: study done that shows that venomous snakes that bite through
Speaker 6: thick material and venomate the least, so I like that
Speaker 6: extra protection. I'll have a big belt buckle, country belt buckle.
Speaker 6: We were gifted with some patches, and we wear swamp
Speaker 6: baped shirts that celebrate our organization. I wear a safety
Speaker 6: vest so that when we're out there, law enforcement knows
Speaker 6: who we are. I wear a big fedora cowboy hat
Speaker 6: kind of swamp hat. I kind of consider it to
Speaker 6: be an everglade hard hat. It keeps the sun off,
Speaker 6: keeps the rain off, and sure being the leader of
Speaker 6: the pack, I forced myself through when we go off
Speaker 6: road through some real dense jungle, and it helps my
Speaker 6: hard Irish skull be protected somewhat from the from pushing through.
Speaker 3: So how many pythons do you think you will encounter
Speaker 3: and or capture this weekend?
Speaker 6: It's really not ideal conditions, you know, like anything else,
Speaker 6: it has to be right, you know, the temperature, the humidity.
Speaker 6: And there's actually been less captured so far this year
Speaker 6: than in years past, and I think it's a consequence
Speaker 6: of just the weather. So far, a group has captured two.
Speaker 6: One veteran has captured a six and a half seven footer,
Speaker 6: and then I got a wee little hatchling. That was
Speaker 6: probably the most fearsome reality so far in this hunt
Speaker 6: because where I got it is in an area that
Speaker 6: we haven't seen many pythons, and it's in a natural
Speaker 6: area where just recently I've seen cottontail rabbits, marsh rabbits, raccoons, tossam,
Speaker 6: a gray fox, multiple beer ground birds. So when you
Speaker 6: see a hatchling python, it's scary because that means that
Speaker 6: you have a successful breeding pair out there, and now
Speaker 6: that that population is going to be under threat from
Speaker 6: the moving and now established pythons that are going to
Speaker 6: start eating. It's a scary kind of thing and we're
Speaker 6: great grateful to be able to hunt them and remove them,
Speaker 6: and it's very successful.
Speaker 3: Shout out they do the pythons obviously, did they killed
Speaker 3: through venom or do they they're not constrictors do they
Speaker 3: swallow their prey.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they are constrictors, actually, and they can be large.
Speaker 6: I caught a seventeen and a half foot python alone
Speaker 6: one evening in the dead of night out in the
Speaker 6: center of the state, in the Everglades, and it told
Speaker 6: me for a while out through the sawgrass and through
Speaker 6: the mud, and I wrestled this thing. And since they
Speaker 6: only have one long they bonk easier like a runner
Speaker 6: runs out of oxygen in his blood, and they get anaerobic,
Speaker 6: bla black. They builds up. The snakes have that happen too,
Speaker 6: So if you're in relatively good shape, you can outlast them. Eventually,
Speaker 6: that snake just bumped and I was able to be
Speaker 6: in at least decent enough shape to outlast it. And
Speaker 6: I literally walked up the back of this thing. I
Speaker 6: had it by the tail and just put one foot
Speaker 6: on the body in the mud and the water, and
Speaker 6: then put my other foot on it, and it just
Speaker 6: squorshed down in the water, hurt the snake, and I
Speaker 6: just walked up the back of this thing and kept walking,
Speaker 6: kept walking, and eventually got to the head of the
Speaker 6: snake and was able to drag it sixty feet out
Speaker 6: of the everglades onto the side of the road where
Speaker 6: I bagged it up and sent it on its way.
Speaker 2: What what actually happened to that snake?
Speaker 3: Are they put into some sort of captivity or are
Speaker 3: they're not let loose back into they into the swamp asome.
Speaker 6: No, we we uh, it's it's a problem. You know,
Speaker 6: every python hunter that I've experienced come across, they really
Speaker 6: love these animals, I mean, and they have a hard
Speaker 6: time with this. But there are so many, there are
Speaker 6: tens of thousands out here, Dan, and it's weaking havoc.
Speaker 6: So they have to be humanely euthanized. It's a two
Speaker 6: step process where you where you first of all stunned
Speaker 6: them and then you have to destroy the brain as
Speaker 6: quickly as possible to end it suffering quickly.
Speaker 3: Tom ray Hill, thank thank you so much for spending
Speaker 3: some time with us tonight.
Speaker 2: And stay safe my friend.
Speaker 3: Okay, and I will never be out there with you,
Speaker 3: but I admire your guts being out there.
Speaker 2: Thanks Tom so much.
Speaker 6: It's my pleasure, Dan. Just so that you know, in
Speaker 6: your iHeart contract, there's an addendum that says if you
Speaker 6: talk to a python hunter, you have to attend one
Speaker 6: of the Hunts. So I'm looking forward to you coming down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, when I get there, i'll look for you. Thanks, Tom,
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Okay, thank you, sir.
Speaker 2: We come back.
Speaker 3: We've got some good news and that there has been
Speaker 3: a resolution in some part to the Stewart healthcare crisis.
Speaker 3: We've talked about it all week. We'll wrap it up
Speaker 3: tonight after the nine o'clock news