Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much the goal as we start off
Speaker 2: our Monday night here, the full week of Nightside coming
Speaker 2: up five nights Monday through Friday from eight until midnight.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray. Rob Brooks back from a
Speaker 2: brief respite this weekend. He had Friday night off and
Speaker 2: Mike Templeton did a great job in his place, but
Speaker 2: Rob is back in his regular position. Tonight. We have
Speaker 2: our news update coming up this hour, four interesting guests talking.
Speaker 2: You're going to talk about sleep, going to talk about
Speaker 2: the state of the Bruins, going to talk about hint
Speaker 2: of virus, the infection that killed Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa.
Speaker 2: And also the US Army is losing now nearly a
Speaker 2: quarter of its soldiers during the first two years of
Speaker 2: their enlistment. So those are the subjects. Later on tonight,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about improving the mass economy with
Speaker 2: a new alliance called the Massive Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance. Talk
Speaker 2: with the president of that group, Chris Anderson. And then
Speaker 2: later we've got to ask the question that Donald Trump
Speaker 2: didn't want to answer over the weekend. We're looking and
Speaker 2: heading towards a recession. His non answer probably contributed somewhat
Speaker 2: to the tanking of the stock market today. But before
Speaker 2: we get to those subjects that incorporate phone calls from
Speaker 2: the audience, we will spend an hour talking with four guests.
Speaker 2: We're going to start off with doctor Shelby Harris, who
Speaker 2: is a sleep psychologist. All of us at one point
Speaker 2: have needed a sleep psychologist. The question Chris Wall. Welcome,
Speaker 2: doctor Harris. I promise you won't go to sleep during
Speaker 2: this interview. I promise you that. How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 4: Now? Thank you so much. It's very good to be here.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: You very welcome. So let's talk about sleep now. I'm
Speaker 2: in that generation that you're talking about, the older Americans
Speaker 2: who find sleep more difficult as you age. I want
Speaker 2: you to know that last I went to sleep at
Speaker 2: ten PM and I woke up at seven point thirty
Speaker 2: this morning. I had a very comfortable nine and a
Speaker 2: half hours of sleep. If I'm doing my math correctly,
Speaker 2: And there are nights when I sleep like a baby,
Speaker 2: and then there are other nights where I don't sleep
Speaker 2: as well. What do we need to be concerned about
Speaker 2: as we get older, because I guess generally I used
Speaker 2: to be able to sleep twelve hours as a teenager.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 4: there's a few things you need to think about. So
Speaker 4: the first thing that I stress for people of any
Speaker 4: age is that perfection is not the goal. Despite what
Speaker 4: everyone online is saying about optimizing your sleep, if you're
Speaker 4: content with your sleep five nights a week, then you're
Speaker 4: probably doing fine. So that means that there's individual variation
Speaker 4: from night to night. There might just be a night
Speaker 4: here and there that's not great. But if at least
Speaker 4: five nights a week you're content with it, you're good.
Speaker 4: Thing as you should be concerned about though, especially as
Speaker 4: you get older. Are it's normal to get a little
Speaker 4: less sleep. We're talking like a half hour, because sometimes
Speaker 4: people want they get older, they nat more during the day.
Speaker 4: But if you're getting a lot less sleep than you
Speaker 4: used to, if you are finding that the quality of
Speaker 4: the sleep is much more disturbed, you're waking up you
Speaker 4: don't feel like it's restorative, or you find the timing
Speaker 4: of your sleep is really bothersome, meaning that you've suddenly
Speaker 4: now are sleeping on and off throughout the day, or
Speaker 4: you're going to bed a lot earlier and waking up
Speaker 4: at three in the morning. If something like that has happened,
Speaker 4: you often want to talk with a sleep specialist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sleep specialists are easily available. I mean they
Speaker 2: all can't call you doctor harrisy. I know that you'd
Speaker 2: be pretty busy.
Speaker 4: We're busy, that's for sure. So there's different ways to start.
Speaker 4: So you can always talk with your primary care doctor
Speaker 4: and they can guide you to the right place. So
Speaker 4: if they think that you might need a sleep study,
Speaker 4: for example, because they're suspecting acnea, which is really common
Speaker 4: in men and women as they get older, they might
Speaker 4: be able to Sometimes some tribrary care doctors will call
Speaker 4: out for at home sleep studies on their own, or
Speaker 4: they might refer you to sleep medicine, and there are
Speaker 4: sleep clinics and sleep doctors who will do that. When
Speaker 4: it comes to more specialized insomnia care or more specialized
Speaker 4: issues like narcolepsy and other more specific issues, you might
Speaker 4: want to find someone who really has experience in that.
Speaker 4: But there are lots of people out there, pulmonary specialists
Speaker 4: who will do this initial evaluation for you. But you
Speaker 4: can always start with your primary care doctor doctaires.
Speaker 2: I think that's great advice, but I must tell you,
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts it is very difficult for me area people
Speaker 2: to get a primary care physician. I don't know, yes,
Speaker 2: going on nationwide, but here in Massachusetts and in the
Speaker 2: greater Boston area we think is the medical capital of
Speaker 2: the world with you know, I know, I know, the
Speaker 2: clinic and all of that.
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing I'm from. Yeah, I'm from Rhode
Speaker 4: Island and all my families actually in the Boston area,
Speaker 4: so I hear this all the time. So it is
Speaker 4: very very be's I know, it is extremely, extremely difficult.
Speaker 4: But you if you don't have a primary care doctor
Speaker 4: but you're concerned, then maybe you have to go to
Speaker 4: an urgent care and ask them and say there's significant
Speaker 4: issues with your sleep quality. But you do need to
Speaker 4: have someone. Even sometimes if you don't have your own
Speaker 4: primary care doctor, you can call. It really depends on
Speaker 4: the kind of insurance you have, but there are sleep
Speaker 4: clinics that you could sometimes just go to directly if
Speaker 4: you really need to, or like I said, pulmonary doctors.
Speaker 4: Other people it might be a wait, but you can
Speaker 4: start there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all great questions and Uh, it does. I'm ashamed
Speaker 2: to say that here in Massachusetts, but we have treated doctors,
Speaker 2: particularly primary care doctors I know, shabbily and and a
Speaker 2: lot of them. And this was aggravated obviously by the
Speaker 2: COVID virus because I had a great doctor who probably
Speaker 2: retired a couple of years more earlier than he thought
Speaker 2: he would. But a lot of the doctors who are
Speaker 2: still hanging on here as PCPs, they're delused with paperwork.
Speaker 2: Everything is sure, paperwork, paperwork, and they are driving people
Speaker 2: out of the field of medicine. So again I think
Speaker 2: it's the bean counters which are which are the enemy
Speaker 2: of us all but particular doctors. Look, how could folks
Speaker 2: find more information and we able to follow you on
Speaker 2: on a website? Yeah, folks come on here. They appreciate
Speaker 2: getting some more some more hits on their websites. Or
Speaker 2: maybe you've got a book, Maybe you got a book
Speaker 2: you I recommend.
Speaker 4: So I do a lot of steps. So my area
Speaker 4: of specialty is insomnia. And so if you have int somnia,
Speaker 4: I have a book that came out a few years ago.
Speaker 4: You can still get it online called The Women's Guide
Speaker 4: to Overcome Insomnia. So and it talks a lot for
Speaker 4: women about menopause, perimenopause issues, aging and sleep and treatment
Speaker 4: to help with that. And then on top of that,
Speaker 4: you can also go to if you use any online,
Speaker 4: I have a website that's just DR like doctor Shelby
Speaker 4: Harris dot com. And I also do a lot on Instagram.
Speaker 4: So at sleep Doc Shelby where every Wednesday I do
Speaker 4: a Q and A where people can ask general questions
Speaker 4: and you can always.
Speaker 3: Ask me there.
Speaker 4: But you can do that, and then, like I said,
Speaker 4: if you're looking for sleep help treatment there, you can
Speaker 4: always ask me there, and I can direct you towards
Speaker 4: certain directories that might be in your area where you
Speaker 4: might be able to find someone as well.
Speaker 2: Well. You're very helpful. The website. Your website is DR
Speaker 2: for doctor all lower case yes Shelby, s H E
Speaker 2: L B Y Harris, H A R R I S
Speaker 2: dot com and I got it's a link to books
Speaker 2: and materials. And I really appreciate you coming on tonight
Speaker 2: because there are a lot of people who were dealing
Speaker 2: with sleep issues and thank you for what you do,
Speaker 2: and thank you, thank.
Speaker 4: You, thank you. It's so common and there were really
Speaker 4: good treatments so don't ignore it.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, doctor Sheld, take care. Okay, Well, we get
Speaker 2: back when we talk with one of our own WBC
Speaker 2: sports reporter, Brian Intonelli about the Bruins fire sale. I
Speaker 2: guess would be one way to describe it. Last week,
Speaker 2: and then they turned around and they shut out the
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the better teams in the
Speaker 2: league for zip on I guess with Saturday. So it's
Speaker 2: lots going on in sports, and we'll check up with
Speaker 2: Brian Intonelly. By the way, if you have not already
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Speaker 2: three sixty five. My name's Dan Ray, am the host
Speaker 2: of Nightside. Back talking a little hockey with Brian Antonelli
Speaker 2: right after the break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio for.
Speaker 2: The Bruins had a fire sale, yard sale, whatever you
Speaker 2: want to call it. Last week. They changed about a
Speaker 2: third of the roster in a period of a little
Speaker 2: over twenty four hours with us as WBZ News Radio
Speaker 2: sports reporter Brian Antonelli, Brian, I don't know about you,
Speaker 2: but I knew they were going to move some people.
Speaker 2: I didn't think they were could have moved that many people,
Speaker 2: But your what's your reaction players all this?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they moved some players that were still under
Speaker 5: contract next year, like Brandon Carlow and Charlie Coyle. Everyone
Speaker 5: did think that march In was on the move or
Speaker 5: like Frederick was on the move. Both of them are
Speaker 5: unrestricted free agents after the year. But for them to
Speaker 5: move so many of their veterans, it does feel more
Speaker 5: like a fire sale.
Speaker 2: Well, of course, ironically, they came out was it Saturday?
Speaker 2: They played in Tampa Bay, uh, and they threw a shutout,
Speaker 2: had a pretty good Lightning team. It looked to me
Speaker 2: as if they might have gotten a lucky goal here
Speaker 2: or there. That second goal was kind of deflected in
Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay goal. I don't know he was sleeping,
Speaker 2: sleeping at that point. But they played a dark, good
Speaker 2: game and now they come back here, they got to
Speaker 2: face the Panthers without Marshan.
Speaker 5: Without Marshan, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be ironic? I mean, this team is only
Speaker 2: a couple of points out of one of the wildcard spots.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be ironic if they went in a run
Speaker 2: and they made the playoffs?
Speaker 3: Yeah? They have.
Speaker 5: I mean, so they they've played more games than the
Speaker 5: other teams in front of them, and they are a
Speaker 5: couple points back. That does make it tough and the
Speaker 5: trailing like like I think five or six teams for
Speaker 5: that on a wild card spot. But this also gets
Speaker 5: back into they waited way too long to make these moves,
Speaker 5: because it does seem like the team is more relaxed
Speaker 5: now knowing that the trade deadline is behind them. They
Speaker 5: went weeks being asked about the trade deadline almost daily,
Speaker 5: the coach being asked about it, and they all seemed
Speaker 5: very uneased about it. Maybe now that it's gone, they
Speaker 5: can focus on hockey again, or maybe they'll win a
Speaker 5: couple of games and then Water finds its level again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Obviously it's a small sample size with one game,
Speaker 2: of course, game in Tampa, there's no question about that.
Speaker 2: Now the question has to be focused. You talk about
Speaker 2: coach Joe Sacke or interim coach Joe Sacke interim coach, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I wonder what the future holds for him if this
Speaker 2: team doesn't make the playoffs. He inherited the team in November,
Speaker 2: obviously from Jim Montgomery, and that nothing much happened in
Speaker 2: the next three or four months. They kind of just
Speaker 2: went along. You know what amazes me is there they
Speaker 2: are down like between goals four and goals against. They're
Speaker 2: in the negative by a wand like forty goals they've had.
Speaker 2: That is unbelievable that a Bruins team could be down
Speaker 2: forty goals.
Speaker 5: They've had a lot of games where they've allowed six,
Speaker 5: seven to eight goals. It seems like when they're being
Speaker 5: blown out, it's not that they just give up, but
Speaker 5: they'll they'll pull the goalie down by three or third
Speaker 5: periods just completely get away from them. There was a
Speaker 5: stretch where they got beat on a road trip like
Speaker 5: eighteen to two. So it does seem like when when
Speaker 5: the snowball starts to fall down the hill, it does
Speaker 5: begin to Avalanche, and this team might not have had
Speaker 5: the talent on the roster, the leadership in the locker room,
Speaker 5: the coaching to weather those types of storms.
Speaker 2: Well, they also people, you know, forget you know, Patrice
Speaker 2: Bergeron has only been gone, you know, a couple year
Speaker 2: and a half now, David Kraichi, they were players who
Speaker 2: left at the top of their game. I'm in my opinion,
Speaker 2: so you use subtract those guys. What are you making
Speaker 2: it up with again, I'm looking at the trades here.
Speaker 2: The Carlo trade has some potential. Minton was a high
Speaker 2: draft choice to get a first round draft choice in
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. They're not gonna get much from Marshand,
Speaker 2: I don't think. And then the question is going to
Speaker 2: be what does march Haan do once on June fifteenth
Speaker 2: comes and the season is over. Either he's going to
Speaker 2: celebrate a Stalley Cup with the Panthers or he'll begin
Speaker 2: talking with the Bruins about reupping with the Bruins. I
Speaker 2: think he'll probably.
Speaker 5: I don't think he's gonna be re upping with the Bruins.
Speaker 5: Can you think of any player in any sport that
Speaker 5: left it or was traded and then came back to
Speaker 5: the team in the off season the next year. Because
Speaker 5: I've been rattling my brains since Friday about this and
Speaker 5: I can't think of one. Because the one that everyone
Speaker 5: always thought might happen was when the Red Sox traded
Speaker 5: John Lester, that then they would go out and get
Speaker 5: John Lester in the off season, but that obviously didn't happen.
Speaker 2: I think baseball is different from hockey, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, and I think that the money in baseball
Speaker 2: is a little bit better than the money in hunt.
Speaker 5: I know, but I also I also think that hockey
Speaker 5: players are are a bit more prideful when they're offered
Speaker 5: a contract that they think not insulting. But Don Sweeney
Speaker 5: talked about having having the gap in their negotiations, and
Speaker 5: if the gaps were that big, I don't think Marshan
Speaker 5: comes back here looking for they've I've seen reports of
Speaker 5: he got offered something similar to the AAV that he's
Speaker 5: making right now, but he wanted something more than that,
Speaker 5: and maybe he looked at some free agents that the
Speaker 5: Bruins have signed in the past off seasons, like say
Speaker 5: Elias Linholm, who's making close to eight million dollars, and
Speaker 5: he said, I want something like he's making.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but again, well we'll see. Let you and I
Speaker 2: plan a another session, Honor about July fifteenth, when those
Speaker 2: resignings occur. I remember early in the year I talk
Speaker 2: with Kevin Paul DuPont and we were talking about when
Speaker 2: Pasternak was kind of lingering around fifteen goals and you know,
Speaker 2: you know people do sort of seek their level, and
Speaker 2: I said, look, you know he'll have his thirty. Of course,
Speaker 2: he's going to have probably thirty five, maybe even forty
Speaker 2: before the season is over. I don't know. I think
Speaker 2: the ad that marsh And wrote or published in the
Speaker 2: Boston Globe today, I think was pretty heartfelt. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you know, no, Boston is a lot closer than to
Speaker 2: his home Turiff. He's a Nova Scotia guy, right, If
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, then he would be if he was
Speaker 2: going to go play for the Utah whatever the name
Speaker 2: of that hockey club is going to be. I don't
Speaker 2: know it's going to make. Is that what they're going
Speaker 2: to call themselves?
Speaker 5: The Utah that I had, that's one of the options.
Speaker 5: I think they have three options, and that's one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was hoping the Utah Mormons. Maybe I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know that that it just it was weird. This
Speaker 2: season one was just the Utah Hockey Club and obviously
Speaker 2: they have formerly the Phoenix Coyotes. Uh, maybe they could
Speaker 2: have called him the Utah Skiers. We'll see the mammoth
Speaker 2: would be good, that would be good. We got the
Speaker 2: krack and we got the Sharks, so we can keep
Speaker 2: it in kind of the animal kingdom out there out
Speaker 2: there in the West. Brian Antonelli as always, so you're
Speaker 2: predicting Brad is not coming back to the Bruins.
Speaker 5: And correct. I think he's. I think he's gonna sign elsewhere.
Speaker 5: And even if he does sign for something similar to
Speaker 5: what he was playing with here, which is roughly six
Speaker 5: and a like six and change six point three average
Speaker 5: annual value, I think he's gonna look somewhere else if
Speaker 5: it's something similar to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well of course, remember we got the millionaires tax
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, so that's gonna take an extra bite. So
Speaker 2: if it's close, you might be right. You never know.
Speaker 2: Brian is always great to hear. You've always great to
Speaker 2: talk with you see at the gym, see my dad
Speaker 2: all right, come it up right after the break here
Speaker 2: at the eight thirty newscast. At the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about the virus that took the
Speaker 2: life of Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa. It's Hanta virus
Speaker 2: and it sounds like pretty nasty stuff. This whole death
Speaker 2: of both of these fine people, Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa,
Speaker 2: tragic in so many ways. And how people get so
Speaker 2: isolated that nobody was checking on them for days. Just
Speaker 2: it's a crazy story. But the theory is that the
Speaker 2: wife was dead for a week. We'll get to all
Speaker 2: of that with our guest, doctor Shirah Deron, chief Infection
Speaker 2: Control Officer for Toff's Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at Tuft's
Speaker 2: Medical Center.
Speaker 1: With Dan Ray, I'mbzy Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Nicole. We have all been following
Speaker 2: for the last couple of weeks the tragic story the
Speaker 2: death of the great actor Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman
Speaker 2: and his wife Betsy Arakawa at their home in New Mexico.
Speaker 2: With us is doctor Shira Derome. She's the chief infects
Speaker 2: your Control officer for Tufts Medicine and a hospital epidemiologist
Speaker 2: at Tuft's Medical Center, and the word is doc. First
Speaker 2: of all, doctor Jerome, welcome back to Night's side. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for joining us, for joining us. How are
Speaker 2: you tonight?
Speaker 6: Great, wonderful to be back with you.
Speaker 2: Great, Thank you very much. So. The autopsy suggested that
Speaker 2: I guess Betsy Arkawa, hoping you'm pronouncing your name correctly,
Speaker 2: died of something called hintavirus, which I'd never heard of,
Speaker 2: and that Gene Hackman, who was suffering from some form
Speaker 2: of dementia, was found dead in the home as well,
Speaker 2: and some are suggesting that their deaths were about a
Speaker 2: week apart. Tragic, tragic, tragic at so many levels. Let's
Speaker 2: does that sequence seem reasonable to you? And again, I
Speaker 2: know that you haven't been involved in the investigation or
Speaker 2: the autopsy, but is that a reasonable sequence you think?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I can't really comment on what happened
Speaker 6: with him, but you know, this is a pretty surprising
Speaker 6: diagnosis obviously for her huntavirus very rare, so only eight
Speaker 6: hundred and sixty four cases ever reported in the history
Speaker 6: of the United States since surveillance began in nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 6: That makes it really rare, but it is most common
Speaker 6: in New Mexico. So they've had one hundred and twenty
Speaker 6: two cases, and that's the largest number that we have
Speaker 6: out of all of the states.
Speaker 2: Which and again the reports, and we're both kind of
Speaker 2: in the dark hair, and I'm asking unscripted questions, as
Speaker 2: I always do. She apparently was found in according to
Speaker 2: the reports I read, in the kitchen with some medications,
Speaker 2: some pills spilled on the floor. Is hantavirus if it's untreated,
Speaker 2: is it always going to be fatal? Or could it
Speaker 2: be that she was suffering with something and she didn't
Speaker 2: realize what it was.
Speaker 6: Well, most people don't go untreated, so it's really hard
Speaker 6: to say, you know what the natural course would be
Speaker 6: if you got no supportive care at all? Right, So
Speaker 6: you know, supportive care meaning you know, being in a hospital,
Speaker 6: getting oxygen, getting intravenous fluids. Those are the kinds of
Speaker 6: things that we can do for somebody who has, you know,
Speaker 6: a viral illness, which typically what happens with hantavirus is
Speaker 6: that if it goes to the lungs, if it causes pneumonia,
Speaker 6: and we certainly we know that other viruses, COVID flu.
Speaker 6: You know, once they involve the lower parts of the lungs,
Speaker 6: they can be quite dangerous and hauntavirus once it gets
Speaker 6: into the lungs has a pretty high mortality rate, and
Speaker 6: so you know, the way to avoid that is obviously
Speaker 6: getting to a doctor, getting to a hospital and getting
Speaker 6: some of that supportive care oxygen, maybe a mechanical ventilator
Speaker 6: if you need it, until your body, you know, controls
Speaker 6: the infection. But unfortunately she didn't get that care.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it's a real disease. You said eight
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty four cases in the last thirty or
Speaker 2: so years. That works out to less than thirty cases
Speaker 2: a year. My understanding is that it's spread through rep
Speaker 2: through droppings of rodents. Is that how it's spread.
Speaker 6: Right droppings You're in saliva, so you know, typically we're
Speaker 6: talking about somebody coming upon often an enclosed space that's
Speaker 6: got a you know, a nest or someplace with a
Speaker 6: lot of urine or droppings that haven't been cleaned in
Speaker 6: a long time, so it's in the air and you
Speaker 6: breathe it in. And the other sort of common thing
Speaker 6: would be camping related, so where you're sleeping right on
Speaker 6: the ground in an area that has a lot of
Speaker 6: you know, rodent feces or urine, and that you're breathing
Speaker 6: it in kind of all night. And those are the
Speaker 6: kinds of stories that we hear that lead to hauntavirus infection,
Speaker 6: but not person to person spread.
Speaker 2: And is it when you say rodents that covers a
Speaker 2: variety of species. It's not just.
Speaker 6: Rats, right, it's actually mostly mice.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay for those of us who occasionally have have
Speaker 2: had a trap of mouse you get to worry about.
Speaker 6: Well, the good thing. The good news is that Matha,
Speaker 6: Massachusetts Department of Public House says that there have been
Speaker 6: no cases of hauntavirus acquired in Massachusetts. So if you
Speaker 6: look on the CDC's website they show one case. Ever,
Speaker 6: I'm gathering that that means diagnosed in Massachusetts, not acquired
Speaker 6: in Massachusetts. So it is not something that we need
Speaker 6: to worry about if we see mice in our house.
Speaker 6: Again that even if I was in New Mexico or Arizona,
Speaker 6: where they've had more cases, it's not the single mouse
Speaker 6: that might be running around and leaving a dropping here
Speaker 6: and there. It's really you know, you come upon you
Speaker 6: know you're doing construction and you come upon a spot
Speaker 6: where a lot of mice have been hanging out for
Speaker 6: a long period of time, where it's really loaded with
Speaker 6: their extra excremen and you're in and that you're really
Speaker 6: breathing in air that's full of it.
Speaker 2: Wow. Now, the gene Hackman and his wife lived in
Speaker 2: a beautiful looking home. I mean they were in a
Speaker 2: gated community. You know, you talked about people who might
Speaker 2: be in other, you know, less affluent circumstances. This is
Speaker 2: kind of a warning to everyone. I guess I just
Speaker 2: and this is probably not a fair question for you,
Speaker 2: but it really does, in my mind, point out how
Speaker 2: when folks get a little older and they lose a
Speaker 2: lot of their friends and their contacts and their circle
Speaker 2: of friends closes, they would apparently one of them was
Speaker 2: dead for since February eleventh. The other Gene Hackman they
Speaker 2: estimated past in February eighteenth. This does so emphasize the
Speaker 2: responsibility to check on neighbors and friends and even a
Speaker 2: phone call or two periodically to make sure they're doing okay.
Speaker 2: That's the lesson I want to take from this this story.
Speaker 6: It's so true, and you know, you wonder if she
Speaker 6: didn't want to go to the hospital because she was
Speaker 6: taking care of him, and you know, it is so
Speaker 6: so terribly tragic, and then you know, to find out
Speaker 6: that it's an infection that you know, perhaps if she
Speaker 6: had gotten some of that supportive care from a hospital setting,
Speaker 6: perhaps she would have survived. Who knows.
Speaker 2: But you also think that when you're talking with people
Speaker 2: who are talking about people who are sophisticated, that there
Speaker 2: should have been in place some additional support for the
Speaker 2: two of them. I mean, it looked as if no
Speaker 2: one had checked on them for some period of time,
Speaker 2: and it was only someone who came by and looked
Speaker 2: in the windows. I think what they called the caretaker.
Speaker 2: At least that was what that caretaker was referred to.
Speaker 2: But to me, it's inexplicable. I mean, you read a
Speaker 2: story about some person who has no relatives, no friends,
Speaker 2: and they die alone, and you say, isn't that horrible?
Speaker 2: There was nobody on the street that went over it
Speaker 2: occasionally just knock on the door. This is an example
Speaker 2: that it can happen even to you know, movie stars,
Speaker 2: and if it can happen to movie stars, it can
Speaker 2: happen to any one of us.
Speaker 6: Terribly sad, very very sad.
Speaker 2: You know, and I just I would hope that out
Speaker 2: of this, maybe everyone listening to the broadcast tonight, if
Speaker 2: you have an older relative or a neighbor, it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2: Every once in a while, just call them up and
Speaker 2: see how they're doing, maybe, or stop by, and even
Speaker 2: if it's just to say hello for five minutes, it's
Speaker 2: something that should be done. And if if you're living far,
Speaker 2: if you're living here within the sun of a voice,
Speaker 2: and your parents are getting older and they're living halfway
Speaker 2: or all the way across the country, I think you've
Speaker 2: got to make sure that they are in a community
Speaker 2: where there are people who see them every day and
Speaker 2: can observe them. And this is just, I mean, what
Speaker 2: a sad sad ending doctor Drone, Shira Dorone, thank you
Speaker 2: so much. I know again we probably veered off away
Speaker 2: from your expertise here and they didn't mean to do
Speaker 2: that to you, but this story is just it's a
Speaker 2: haunting story to think that this could have been the
Speaker 2: end for this this couple, who you know, probably had
Speaker 2: had more friends than most of us have. If if
Speaker 2: you're friends and or fians, right, let me put it
Speaker 2: like that, Thanks so much, doctor Derome for joining us.
Speaker 2: A pleasure all right soon, Hopefully next time it'll be
Speaker 2: a more uplifting topic. Yes, when we get back, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about the fact that the army, uh,
Speaker 2: not only has had some recruitment problems the military. US
Speaker 2: military has had some recruitment problems over recent years, but
Speaker 2: they're also losing about a quarter of the soldiers who
Speaker 2: actually do exist. That's in the Army. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk with a third generation in US Navy combat veteran
Speaker 2: outspoken advocate for the military and host of the Veterans
Speaker 2: Impact Show, Jim Blythe. Will be back with Jim and
Speaker 2: after that we're going to get to topics of the
Speaker 2: night and phone calls will ensue after nine o'clock. Back
Speaker 2: on night Side. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: You're listening to WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: We're delighted to be joined by Jim Blythe. Jim. I
Speaker 2: hope I pronounce your name correctly.
Speaker 3: Hi, just like it's like California, hottest place in California.
Speaker 2: Okay. Jim is a third generation US Navy combat veteran,
Speaker 2: outspoken advocate for the military and host of the Veterans
Speaker 2: Impact Show. Is that a radio program podcast? In case
Speaker 2: folks want to check it.
Speaker 3: Out, be it's on YouTube under Veterans Impact Show and
Speaker 3: Facebook under Veterans Impact Show. We're carried on BBTV New
Speaker 3: Work at eleven o'clock on Saturday, which puts us on
Speaker 3: Amazon Fire and Roku. And if you reached all the
Speaker 3: way to California, we've got eleven stations out there are
Speaker 3: the curious, So.
Speaker 2: We're now, yeah, we have listeners in California. Jim wbz's
Speaker 2: a big old station with fifty thousand whit Claire channel.
Speaker 2: We are seeing with HERD with terrestrial radio meaning just
Speaker 2: the over the air signal, and about thirty five to
Speaker 2: thirty eight states. And of course everybody's on the internet
Speaker 2: these days. So let's talk about military recruiting. You've read
Speaker 2: an article here that says the Army's losing nearly one
Speaker 2: quarter of soldiers during their first two years of enlistment.
Speaker 2: So these are young men and women who have volunteered.
Speaker 2: The draft has long gone gone for more than fifty years.
Speaker 2: These are people who you know passed physicals to get
Speaker 2: into the military. Why are they leaving?
Speaker 3: Well, you'd have to ask each one of them, but
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you some broad to go with that.
Speaker 3: Number One, these kids usually are seventeen to eighteen years
Speaker 3: old when they go into military, and there are several contracts.
Speaker 3: There is a two year contract, a four year contract,
Speaker 3: and a six year contract, and it depends on what
Speaker 3: kind of training you're going to get. Now, for instance,
Speaker 3: if you go in the Navy, that's going to be
Speaker 3: a four year contract. If you go in and you've
Speaker 3: got a college degree and you're going to be a
Speaker 3: naval aviator, that's a six year contract. So what you're
Speaker 3: looking at you got to think, Okay, these were the youngest.
Speaker 3: These did not go in under a technical contract, and
Speaker 3: so they're getting all of the tough jobs that the
Speaker 3: lowest guy on the totem pole gets. So maybe the
Speaker 3: military wasn't for them. Maybe it was for them and
Speaker 3: it turned their life around, and now they're ready to
Speaker 3: go out in the world and they've got a skill
Speaker 3: and they could get a job. So there's all kinds
Speaker 3: of things. I wouldn't put a negative spin on it
Speaker 3: as much as I think the military is a great
Speaker 3: place for young men and women to get a start line,
Speaker 3: and that's what the two Contra through your contract does,
Speaker 3: gives them a starting line.
Speaker 2: No, I agree with that analysis, but I think that
Speaker 2: there's some suggestions that we're not getting enough qualified individuals,
Speaker 2: young people whatever, of whatever age, signing up for the military.
Speaker 2: I wanted my son to to take a look at
Speaker 2: west Point Napolis, the service academies, which actually are harder
Speaker 2: to get into than Harvard and Yale. He graduated from Harvard,
Speaker 2: but we were looking at at at west Point. We've
Speaker 2: had friends who have gone through West Point. There's no
Speaker 2: better university as far as I'm concerned in America in
Speaker 2: the West Point or Annapolis. But they're still having I
Speaker 2: think we're having problems not only attracting but also retaining
Speaker 2: people in all branches of the military, maybe a little
Speaker 2: worse in the Army. To be honest with you, well,
Speaker 2: what can be done to turn that around. There's been
Speaker 2: some stories which said that army recruiting has bumped up
Speaker 2: in the last few months. The Secretary of Defense is
Speaker 2: saying that young people are looking to not to make
Speaker 2: this political, are a little bit more anxious to serve
Speaker 2: with the new commander in chief. Anything in the numbers
Speaker 2: which would seem to support that, you probably know quite
Speaker 2: closer than I do.
Speaker 3: I think that that age group is not as politically
Speaker 3: involved in a stute. So let's don't go down that road.
Speaker 3: But let's do go down the road of only twenty
Speaker 3: three percent of the American population that would fit into
Speaker 3: the category of a young man and woman to go
Speaker 3: into the military. Only twenty three percent qualify under physical, mental,
Speaker 3: and academic. So if a kid has a record, they're
Speaker 3: not going to go in. If a kid has a
Speaker 3: record of mental health problems, they're not going to go in. Now,
Speaker 3: within that twenty three percent, one of the big things
Speaker 3: the Army did, and this was very smart, they developed,
Speaker 3: for lack of better term, of remedial education program for
Speaker 3: their pre recruits where they were teaching them basic skills,
Speaker 3: math and English and some of these things so that
Speaker 3: they could score better on the exam and could qualify.
Speaker 3: So the Army started that program. The Navy is using
Speaker 3: that program, and with those two alone, now the Air
Speaker 3: Force has met their goals many times. In Marine Corps,
Speaker 3: we just give them another coloring box and they do great.
Speaker 3: So what you're looking at is basic. The Navy and
Speaker 3: the Army and their numbers are way up because they're
Speaker 3: lifting these kids up. They're giving them a chance to
Speaker 3: learn and perform, and they're raising their standards up. They're
Speaker 3: not lowering the standards to get them. So that's one
Speaker 3: reason why right now recruiting is up twelve and a
Speaker 3: half percent. Now, there's another thing that for many of you.
Speaker 3: And a friend of mine retired Navy admiral who was
Speaker 3: vice commander of recruiting for the Navy when I first
Speaker 3: interviewed him. Basically, he went to the Navy after he
Speaker 3: retired and said, guys, how many of these kids do
Speaker 3: you think are watching cable TV? Where do they go?
Speaker 3: Where do they go to look at things? They go
Speaker 3: to social media, they go to YouTube, they go to Spotify,
Speaker 3: they go to all of these things, Instagram. Your ads
Speaker 3: are not reaching them. You've got to change your advertising.
Speaker 3: And I think that the military has been doing that
Speaker 3: from everything I've heard, so they're reaching more of the kids.
Speaker 3: I think another thing is that one of the negatives
Speaker 3: that I have seen is there's so much negative advertising
Speaker 3: by certain charitable organizations that portray all veterans is wounded,
Speaker 3: broken and amputeenes and that's not true. You know, there's
Speaker 3: probably less than ten percent of the military that actually
Speaker 3: serves in combat where they are on the line, they're
Speaker 3: in the frenches. There are so many technical skills, logistics
Speaker 3: skills and things going on. It's probably the greatest training
Speaker 3: ground in the world for young men and women.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think it is. I think look just the
Speaker 2: discipline alone, and a lot of people who at that
Speaker 2: age of seventeen or eighteen really have no direction. I
Speaker 2: agree with you, Jim, you know, thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: I spend some time not probably nearly what you did
Speaker 2: in uniform. Uh and uh, it's it's it is a
Speaker 2: situation where you you learn to work with other people
Speaker 2: from different backgrounds. So there's a lot of benefits to it. Uh.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's long gone. So everybody who's going in
Speaker 2: now theoretically wants to be in. Uh. And hopefully we
Speaker 2: can turn this around, because I don't think we'll ever
Speaker 2: have another ground war in the world, but we do
Speaker 2: have to have a military that is prepared to respond
Speaker 2: to situations as we all have seen in the last
Speaker 2: few decades, whether it be a bombing in Beirut, Lebanon,
Speaker 2: or a World Trade Center in New York City. Jim By,
Speaker 2: let's let's give your your plug, plug your show again, folks,
Speaker 2: go ahead. Well, we we're pretty liberal here on on
Speaker 2: given plug. So you go ahead. Where else can follow you?
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Okay, go to YouTube ends Impactshow dot com
Speaker 3: one word and you can email me Jim at Veteransimpactshow
Speaker 3: dot com. You can go to our website, Veterans Impactshow
Speaker 3: dot com. It's on YouTube, It's on Facebook, I believe
Speaker 3: it's on Instagram now. We are also carried by dB
Speaker 3: TV Network and they carry us on Amazon, Fire, Roku, Spotify,
Speaker 3: smart Tv. Goodness, gracious, whole bunch. We're everywhere wherever. But
Speaker 3: one of the big things is we are highlighting what
Speaker 3: veterans do in our nation, in our community. I had
Speaker 3: the previous secretary of the VA, Wilkie on three times,
Speaker 3: and they're very transparent. I've had under secretaries. I've do
Speaker 3: a lot of work with the VA. I do a
Speaker 3: lot of work with the Texas Veterans Commission. I do
Speaker 3: a lot of work with many of the charities and organizations,
Speaker 3: and I have had some of the more those phenomenal
Speaker 3: interviews with military leaders from Medal of Honor recipients to
Speaker 3: just sergeant majors.
Speaker 2: That sounds great. I'm running out of time here, Jim.
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to cut the cord here. But
Speaker 2: Veterans Show Impact Jim blithe Jim, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for being with us tonight, and again, keep on keeping on.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you from Veterans Impact Show. Thank you.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. You're welcome. We get back. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk with Chris Anderson, the president of a new alliance
Speaker 2: called the Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance. Be back with Chris Anderson
Speaker 2: and we'll get the phone calls later on. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about we head into it a recession. The President might
Speaker 2: have pushed us in that direction by not answering a
Speaker 2: direct question more directly over the weekend. I will explain.
Speaker 2: That's at ten o'clock. Coming back on night Side, right
Speaker 2: after the nine