October 8, 2025 • 36 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Life On The Other Planet: Documentary on Boston’s Impact on Rock & Roll. Premieres October 24th 2025, at The Arlington Regent Theater - From the mid 1970's through the 1980's, Boston was at the forefront for producing some of the country's greatest bands and music. Guest: Vincent Straggas - Emmy Winning Filmmaker
How to handle that uncomfortable conversation when you’ve gone out with friends and not ordered as much – but they want to split the bill evenly.
Guest: Betty Lin-Fisher – Consumer News Reporter for USA Today
Survey: 1 in 5 Americans believe real romance is possible with AI chatbots.
Guest: Dr. Jonathan Thorp - relationship expert and the CEO of Quantum Connections, firm helps individuals and organizations find connection in a disconnected world.
Boston Public Library Revamps "Passport" Program
Guest: Jay Willet – WBZ NewsRadio reporter
Life On The Other Planet: Documentary on Boston’s Impact on Rock & Roll. Premieres October 24th 2025, at The Arlington Regent Theater - From the mid 1970's through the 1980's, Boston was at the forefront for producing some of the country's greatest bands and music. Guest: Vincent Straggas - Emmy Winning Filmmaker
How to handle that uncomfortable conversation when you’ve gone out with friends and not ordered as much – but they want to split the bill evenly.
Guest: Betty Lin-Fisher – Consumer News Reporter for USA Today
Survey: 1 in 5 Americans believe real romance is possible with AI chatbots.
Guest: Dr. Jonathan Thorp - relationship expert and the CEO of Quantum Connections, firm helps individuals and organizations find connection in a disconnected world.
Boston Public Library Revamps "Passport" Program
Guest: Jay Willet – WBZ NewsRadio reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Well, the good thing about getting a really nasty cold
at this time of year is maybe I'll be able
to get through the winter. WHOA, I've gotten hit with something.
I hope none of you have had anything like this.
But the last couple of days have been stressful, I
mean really stressful. Just my whole body seems to be aching.
(00:30):
And I've finally got some medication, so I think I'm
going to be okay. But I would just apologize and
ask any of you who think I sound quite differently tonight,
you're correct, I do.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I can hear it in my head, simple as that.
My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm the host of Night's Side Monday through Friday night
right here on WBZ ten thirty Am in Boston, a legendary,
legendary radio station here in Boston. As I think many
of you who grew up with WBZ, the radio station
of Dave Maynard.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And Carl Dessous and.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Gary LaPier and Gil Santo's and just as it's a great,
great station with a great history going back to when
the first one of the year in nineteen twenty one.
So with all of that, just in case you're not,
you're perhaps weren't a weir of some of that history.
We're going to talk with four individuals and the first guest,
(01:27):
his name is Vincent Straugis. I hope I've got Vincent's
name correctly.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Vincent.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
If I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me, go right ahead.
That's my pleasure. So we're talking about some music history.
Doesn't quite go back as far as WPZ, but it
takes us back to the mid seventies through the eighties,
Boston at the forefront of producing some of the country's
greatest bands in music.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm sure you know those bands off.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
The top of your head, and I'll bet you if
you've just bounce a few, a lot of people's memories
are going to be be called to mind.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
The film's called Life on the Other Planet, and it's
a tripped from late mid to late seventies to the
mid to late eighties, and it features bands like The Atlantics,
the Stompers, the Real Kids, the Nervous Eaters, Robin Lane,
and the Chartbusters. There's so many to list, I won't
list them all, but those are some of the big names.
(02:21):
The neighborhoods and so on, the only the only problem
with it all was there were so many bands at
that time you couldn't hit them all in the film.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So what about Stephen Tyler's band?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Well, they were they they So this this was more
of a local scene, the local scene that came after
a lot of the groups like Aerosmith and Jay Giles
established this this road and there wasn't really a Boston sound,
per Sae. I mean Aerosmith, Jay Giles, great rock and
(02:52):
roll bands, but this local sound which kind of came
in on the heels of punk rock in the seventy
four seventy five era and and morphed into like a
new wave sound which was at that time. But you know,
it created its own sound with with groups like, like
I said, Nervous Eaters, the Neighborhoods and oh.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Here's the d Let me run this one by you.
This is a band I'm sure you are very well
aware of. Saw them one night at the Channel just
really blew me away.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
Girls Night Out there in the film too, DD Stewart
and Girls Night Out fantastic band. And yes it's uh
and there are a lot of the local bands that
had females in it. Were the Bristols and the Girls
Night Out and again Robin Lane and the Sharbusters, who
really kind of paved the way for a lot of
(03:42):
women bands back then.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So you've made a movie, you're the I assume you
you're the producer of the.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Movie, producer director. Yes, how tough was it?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
How tough was it to make a movie and find
a video of these bands? I mean, in those days,
everything probably was on different type of digital or maybe
it was just on videotape.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Maybe he was on film.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
That VHS and I mean, and it was far inview
between because nobody had a camera, nobody had a phone
to be able to tape a concert, and so there
was a lot of footage that was at teamed through.
Harvard had a collection called the Larready Freedman Collection. Uh
and Larti was a cameraman back then who went to
(04:27):
different nightclubs and shot a lot of these bands. And
fortunately there's there's collections of them, but they're they're far
and few between, and we have been a bit in
our phone and a lot of the archival footage that
tells the story of Boston at the time was was
obtained through WGV and S Archives, who was fantastic working
with on the film. So a lot of great cool stuff.
(04:51):
And I want to say that the film is about
the music. But you know, when I was sitting down
to edit this film, one of the hardest things to
do was I did we want to make it a
film where we interviewed an artist and then saw a
clip of their music and then just keep going like that.
When you step back from it all, the real star
(05:12):
of the film is Boston back in the seventies and eighties,
the culture of the time and things that are long
gone from here. And that's that's what it's about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I'll bet you your film had kind of a gritty
feel to it because that was Boston.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Boston.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Yeah, yeah, And we have we have a great local
historian who fills from the gaps of the history of
Boston and that talks about talks about the times and
how Boston was was ranked pretty low as a city
back then, and which is surprising because now it's it's not.
It's a fabulous city, always has been, but it did
(05:50):
have a lot of grit back then that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Well, you know, you had a lot of crime back
in the late sixties, you had the Strangler, Albert DeSalvo,
you know, Whitey Bulger and his.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Group was n was running around.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Real estate prices in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill
were nothing compared to what they are today.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So yeah, and you had.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
The combat zone, you had, you had places that don't
exist anymore.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And did you tell a young person about this stuff?
They think you're you know, making it up.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Well, the Rat Sclar Rat Skadies and Kenmo Square and
girls rather the channel over by by the postal station.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So yeah, looking forward.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Okay, so you're running this on the sixtieth of October,
which is.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's actually the twenty fourth of October.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Why is my why does my does my my specs here?
Have you changed? That's okay, I had this, Okay, now.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
It's it's yeah, it's on the twenty fourth of October, okay,
and yeah it's uh it's the Nervous Eaters are actual
playing that event. So they've been around for forty years.
They're coming coming to play the concert and the film
will be shown after that. So it should be a
fun night for everybody, and it's it's a great time
(07:13):
to reminisce and just you know, for young people to
learn a little bit about the history of Boston music.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And you are doing this is the Boston Prepare Boston
premiere on Friday night, October twenty correct.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I don't know why not said the sixteenth.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
No, No, there's there's a screening, but it's it's just
it's a private screening.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Oh okay, we don't okay, So this is this also
at the Regent Theater in Arlington.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
It's at the Arlington Region Theater on October twenty fourth.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, correct, that's all we need. Then we got this
thing covered. That should it should be a good night
for you and Vincent Stragus. Thanks very much for doing
stuff like this, frankly, because I think what happens is
there's some great times and people should remember the great times.
You know, Austin has always been there's a great city,
and that was the era of Kevin White was the
(08:05):
mayor in the seventies, in the eighties seven.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
He actually makes an appearance in the film briefly.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised, all right. Thanks, thank
you so much, Vincent. I enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Thank you very much for having me on. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You bet you it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Sorry about my voice and my cold. It's one of
these things where I cough and I'm remote, so I
can't wave it rob and say yeah, roll kill my
mic So.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
I hear you man, be well, well I'll get well.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Vincent Talks.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Okay, when we come back, when I talk with Betty
Lynn Fisher. She's a consumer news reporter with USA Today.
I'm going to talk about some uncomfortable conversations that you
might find yourself in and how to extricate yourself from
those uncomfortable conversations. Back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray. I'm done you easy,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
All right, I want to introduce Betty Lynn Fisher. Betty
Lynn Fisher, Welcome to night So you're a consumer news
reporter for USA Today, as I understand.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
It, correct, Yes, yes, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Very welcome.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So I'm not sure if this is the only circumstance,
but well, we're going to talk about how you deal
with an uncomfortable situation or an uncomfortable conversation.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And the example that I'm giving that I've been given
here is, you know, you go out with friends, maybe
maybe it's a group of girlfriends, a group of guy friends, whatever,
and you don't order much, maybe you have one glass
of wine. But other people decide, well, this would be
a good opportunity to have dinner and a couple of
(09:52):
a couple of desserts. And when it comes time for
the bill, someone says, well, why don't we just split
it evily? And you're thinking, Okay, this bill's gonna be
like four hundred dollars and I had one glass of
wine four hundred times five, but divided by five, that's
a very expensive bottle of a very expensive glass of wine.
(10:14):
Explain to you, to us how someone like yourself would
extricate yourself from that situation without causing a lot of
angst and gnashing of teeth amongst your friends.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
So I wrote a story as part of my series
called Uncomfortable Conversations about Money, and it was about splitting
the bill. I actually used two examples very similar to
what you explained. One was Alan Klensky and his wife Sandy,
and they were actually still kind of seizing about this
twenty years later. They were explaining something that happened twenty
(10:49):
years ago that they were young at the time. They
went out with two other couples, and they didn't note
the other couples very well. But the other couples decided
to order duck. It was the most expensive thing on
the kosher item, and of course when it came time
to pay the bill, they're like, let's split it three ways,
and you know, the Kolinskis were just not sure what
to do. They didn't want to be awkward, they didn't
want to seem cheap, and so you know, they went
(11:11):
ahead and did it, but they it just left a
bad taste in their mouth. They to this day called
the other couples mister and missus Duck. But their advice is,
they say, you know, you need to you need to
communicate with the people who have invited you, and if
you're on a type budget, you need to don't be
afraid to say it. Too many times. People are, you know,
kind of afraid to say like, oh, you know, that's
(11:33):
that's not something I can afford, or you know that's
not that's not what I planned for, it's not in
my budget.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Just just to make it reallier, I'm curious, what was
the bill? Since you wrote about this, what was the bill?
Speaker 7 (11:46):
You know, they actually didn't tell me. They didn't tell
me the amount, and either didn't remember because it was
twenty years earlier. But I have another example, which was
a single woman who went out with another single friend
and a couple and they all ordered, and exactly like
you said before, the other couple ordered a ton of
food to share. The husband ordered its on entree. He
ordered a steak, and the woman was like, you know,
(12:08):
I she didn't really like much of what was being ordered,
but she figured she'd find something to pick at. And
of course, when when the when the bill comes up,
the husband says to the server, let's split it three ways,
and he included him and his wife as one pair.
Oh and the one of two singles as singles, sore
four people three ways, and that came to two hundred
(12:29):
and thirty eight dollars each.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And the woman said, how.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Much too, fifty eight a piece.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
To fifty eight apiece.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And okay, I'm doing some quick math here, Okay, I'm
a quick math guy. Two fifty eight willun will round
down two fifty two fifty two fifty that's seven point
fifty okay.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
First, first of all, under any circumstances, the husband and
wife who represented two of the people at the table
should have picked up fifty percent of the bill. So
if it was seven fifty, they should have picked that
three seventy five. Now we can get into what they
had and all of that, But why do people do that?
Speaker 7 (13:06):
I mean, yeah, she said, she said, She said that
didn't seem fair at all. I kept my paid my
portion and I've been stewing over it ever since. And
she said, should I have said something? And now she
wishes she had, but they were good friends and she
didn't want to rock the boat.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Are they still good friends?
Speaker 8 (13:21):
I who knows?
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Right?
Speaker 7 (13:24):
So I talked. I talked to Elaine Swann, who is
an etiquette coach and founder of the Swan School of Protocol,
and she said, you know, you've got to embrace the
awkward that really, you know, these these awkward situations just
just turn into something that you do about for twenty years, right,
You're you're still telling that same story and wishing that
(13:45):
you had done something different. And you know, her suggestion
is to do it early. Before you accept the invitation
to go out to eat, look at the menu, see
if it's something you can you can afford, and ask
if people be splitting the bill or address it as
many as you sit down the meal, she says, Well,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Going out to eat is always sort of an adventure,
and sometimes when you're going to a restaurant for the
first time, you just don't know what's going to happen.
And my wife and I went to a restaurant a
couple of weeks ago, and the food was great, but
the place was so packed. I mean you couldn't hear
yourself think. And there was no carpeting in the restaurant,
(14:30):
you know, people there were a lot of people too,
I mean like a hundred people in a very small restaurant,
and there was a bar that was crowded and everybody's
It just was unpleasant. And the owner, you know, came
over and how'd you like the food? They said, the
food was great, blah blah blah, but uh, you got
to do something. You got to get some sort of
insulation for the sound here, because it was you know,
(14:51):
it ruined the meal. If we had been smart, and
I should have said, you know, look, why don't we
get up and just leave because you can't even have
a conversation. And then people who are at a table
and this has happened a couple of times. People who
are at a table, it's like, I don't know if
they're drunk, but every other word, it's like they're yelling
(15:15):
across the table and you want to say to them,
you know, there's other people here who are looking to
have a quiet conversation, but it's like these goofballs patriots
a Patriots one, and you know you want you just
want to go over and whack the guy outside the
head and say, knucklehead. You know, the ignorance of people, Well,
(15:38):
it doesn't astound to me anymore, I guess. You know,
I don't know if you ever addressed those those sort
of conundrums. You know, what do you do?
Speaker 3 (15:50):
You want?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You know, you're either you're going to sit there and
say nothing and not even able to have a conversation.
You know, you glare over it a couple of times,
and you hope that somebody realizes that they're looking.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But I don't care. They just don't care.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Maybe you may, maybe you can bring it up to
the you know, the waiter or the waitress maybe and
see if they could say something too.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, well, you know what's funny that happened One time
we were in a very expensive restaurant, very expensive restaurant,
and we were in a small room and there was
I was with two people and myself, and there was
about five or six people pretty close. But they were
that they were just incredible. So I actually asked the waiter.
(16:29):
I said, I said, could you ask them just to
keep it a little bit on the d lo? And
he said, oh no, we couldn't do that. So I said, okay, Finn,
do you have another you know, table somewhere else? Oh no,
We're booked up till nine o'clock. Said thanks very much.
We got up and walked out, and I felt so liberated,
(16:52):
to be honest with you, I felt, well, you know,
I wasn't going to sit there because dinner at this
restaurant would have been probably for three six hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I just felt liberated by it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You know, you you you have to.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
At some point draw a line. How can people get
your Obviously you're in USA today. Is there a book
that you happen to have put together that you'd like
to reform?
Speaker 7 (17:16):
My listeners to No, no, but they can they can
take a look at you know, USA today dot com
slash money for stories by myself and others on the Money,
Tech and Travel team.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Oh that's great, well, Betty Lynn Fisher, thank you very much.
We'll be looking for your for your reports. The great
thing about USA today is wherever you happen to be
in America, it's in every hotel in America. And it's great.
For it's it's great. It's a great newspaper. It's a
great newspaper in my opinion. It gives you everything you
need when you're on the road. And please, good luck,
(17:50):
keep working at it. Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Thanks, thank pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
All Right, there has been some developments in the Middle East,
and so we're going to take the CBS special report
at the bottom of the hour. Again, very hopeful. President
Trump has made a statement on Trump's social today and
that here's here's a special report from CBS News.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, want to welcome doctor Jonathan Thorpe. He's a
doctor of a business administration, not a medical doctor. But
he's a relationship expert in the CEO of Quantum Connections.
It's almost illiterative. A firm that helps individuals and organizations
find connection in a disconnected world. However, he has produced
(18:43):
for us, for our consideration, for your consideration, a very
interesting statistic. First of all, doctor Thorpe, welcome to Nightside
for having me.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
One in five Americans.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
This is one in five of the people who live
on U stream, one in five of the people who
you work with. One in five of the people who
whatever you do you do with, believe that they can
find real romance, that it's possible to find real romance
with artificial intelligent chat bots.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Are you The only question I guess is are you
kidding me? I don't know what it said.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
It's funny, and I would almost say, you know, you
can't be surprised today with anything related to AI. AI
is doing some amazing things, even this, the suggestion that
people can find real romance or what they feel is
real with a computer. I mean, if you look at it,
there've been over two hundred million downloads of these AI
(19:45):
companions and chatbots. It's a two hundred million dollars a
year industry. And what people are doing dan as they're
building these echo chambers around themselves to reflect back everything
inside their head that they already know, their interest, curiosity,
and it just reinforces that for them.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, but my question is what happened to the traditional
old fashioned blow up dolls? It's like nuts, It is crazy, right.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
The world is so socially fragmented that people are looking
for alternatives, so much isolation.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Everything is so let me ask you this question because
I think it's important.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Okay, So, is this a chat box bot?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Would be obviously artificial intelligent intelligence image of someone of
whoever they're having this relationship with men and woman. Correct,
They're not just looking at a computer screen. They're having
this this relationship with what would appear to be an
(20:54):
image of a human being.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Absolutely, And it's invoice and AI is so powerful. It
can be created at the person's own design. You can
tell it exactly what to look like, what form to take,
what to sound like, how to speak, so it can
really be customizable in a scary way almost.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
How can you be sure that the chat box will
remain faithful to you and will cheetah on you with
some other weirdo I reade, I'm serious, I'm asking, I'm
asking relatively serious questions here. It is on my mind
is blown that people will think this, that they're going
to sit in front of computer and share their their
hopes and their dreams and their aspirations with an AI
(21:39):
generated human being.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
That's what it comes down to, right.
Speaker 9 (21:43):
It's crazy to think about it, right, what people will
turn to as an alternative to other living, breathing human beings.
And you just have to say, we need to pay
more attention to the people around us and find out
and ask those questions, Hey, what are you not getting?
What are you missing that you can't find any human being?
(22:04):
I mean, is it is a powerful draw?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So let me ask you this this statistic one in
five Americans. I assume this means Americans, but over the
age of twenty one or something like that. I'm sure
we're not. I hope we're not talking about kids here, right, mean,
I'm going to can I Is that an accurate assumption
that I'm making.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
I think it is. It's not my research, and I
would say the survey did probably survey adults, but teenagers
are swarming to this technology. And I think if you're
a parent out there, you have to pay attention because kids,
you know, as young as ten, eleven, twelve years old
are seeking to find this feeling of being seen and
(22:45):
heard in technology. Instead of people, and that's really scary.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well it is. I mean, you can understand how a
lot of kids now think. Look, when I grow up,
I'm not going to be a teacher. I'm not going
to be a firefighter, not going to be a police officer.
I'm going to be an influencer. Because it looks like great,
easy work, but of course it is quite hard. I mean,
so that distorts. But I would hope that most people
at some point would say, well, I actually got to
(23:11):
go to school and I got to learn and trade,
or I have to go and get a college degree and.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Enter the workforce.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
But this is a study that has been done here
in America. Please tell me that the rest of the
world is just as crazy as we are, and that
I hope that they've done studies in other countries which
shows that the fascination with these chatbots ire as sick
(23:42):
as we are.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (23:44):
I can't confirm anything about what's going on over see.
What I can tell you is if they've got access
to technology, then they're going to have to deal with
these exact same problems the same as we are.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Do you think that, And again, this is your area
of expertise. It's not my and I don't script questions.
These are just thoughts that can in my mind. Do
you think that over time the novelty of chatbots as
relationships will subside and that people will realize that's not
(24:17):
a real person that you're talking do here, it's it's
it's computer generated.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Do you think people will figure that out eventually?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (24:25):
I hope so, and maybe I share your optimism too,
that that over time the novelty will fade. And I
think people are going to discover that, you know, we
as humans we love because time runs out and AI
it has no existential stakes in the game, no threats.
It's going to be there endlessly, So the love and
(24:46):
the attention that an AI chatbot can provide is going
to be effectively empty. I think people will eventually discover,
you know, AI as a tool can be great to
rehearse interactions for people, but as soon as it replaces
interactions for people, that's when it gets really problematic.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I mean to think that someone is sitting in a
house or in their apartment and having this conversation and
this relationship, and I assume that just to make sure
I understand this, someone's sitting there and they have their
chat bot up on a screen and they're having an
(25:23):
ongoing conversation like, Hi.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
How are you tonight? Doing great?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What's up with you? Well, it's kind of a slow
I mean, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about
there's actually a conversation theoretically going on.
Speaker 9 (25:38):
Absolutely, Dan, there's voice recognition, and these conversations are live, dynamic,
and they're synthetic, but they're actually happening in real time.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Wow, I'll tell you that's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I've interviewed some subjects that are talked about, some subjects
that I thought were pretty weird, but this.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Tops them all. Right now, So.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Anything you got a story that you want to chat about,
doctor Jonathan Thorpe. I'm a real human being. You're a
real human being. We can do it right here a
WBC radio.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Okay, that sounds good, Dan, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Doctor.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I think that's fascinating. I really think it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
When we get back, we're going to talk with a
WBZ reporter. It's Jay will Lett, and he's going to
talk about the Boston Public Library is revamping a passport program.
So nothing is really new. Everything is kind of being revamping,
being revamped, I should say, and this and this actually
(26:37):
talks about how about this for an idea, actually physically
visiting libraries, Yeah, really buildings, walking into the library and
maybe taking a book off the shelf and I don't know,
reading it a little bit, or maybe even checking it
out and bringing it home, and then after twenty one
days or whatever the time is, you bring it back.
(26:58):
Kind of like a nineteen fifty or nineteen forties thing.
But it's coming around. The new passport program, or I
should say, the old passport program, has explained to us
by WBZ News Radio reported Jay. We'll let right after
this break.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Delighted to be joined by WBZ reporter Jay will Lett. Jay,
I hear you during the day obviously, and we're going
to talk about a program. I don't know if you
discovered it, but you certainly did a very interesting report
on a Boston Public library program that revamps passport program.
Revamp says to me, it used to be around, used
(27:40):
to be available, it went away, and now it's back.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Tell us the history of it.
Speaker 8 (27:45):
Yeah, Hey, hey, Dan, thank you so much for having
me and I really appreciate your kind words. Yeah, yeah,
it's revamped, is you know a way of saying that,
you know they had it in previous years. I think
you it just would have had a different design to it,
but the library passport has a whole new design. I
(28:06):
think if it started in September, and that's how I
found out about it, is we were reporting on it
in WBZ in the newsroom. We got the release from
the library, and you know, I kind of started out
doing it for myself. I've actually completed the challenge myself,
and I didn't do it for work. I didn't do
(28:26):
it as a reporter. I just decided, you know what,
I want to explore my city and see the neighborhoods
myself and you know, just kind of live in the moment.
And it wasn't until afterward that I thought, you know,
I'm kind of depriving people of this if I don't
kind of get the word out.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So yeah, so you know, when when did it? Was
it always there?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Or was it there and it fell into disuse and
then someone said, hey, that's we haven't done this for
twenty years or was it you know, was it suspended
for some period of time. If you know I asked
questions Jay, you know, I just made them up as
they go along here, So I'm asking you something you
don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I apologize, go ahead.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
No, no, by all means, please do. To my knowledge,
it didn't necessarily go away. I think the original passport
started a few years ago, but for whatever reason, you know,
people fell off from it. There maybe wasn't a lot
of draw to it. I can tell you that this
time around there's some big interests, notably because of those prizes.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
So if you.
Speaker 8 (29:31):
Don't know what we're talking about, if you go to
twenty so there's twenty six libraries in Boston. There's twenty
four that are currently open, and if you go to
what you what you do is you go to your
local library. You get the passport and it's kind of
like a little booklet.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
It's cool.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
It has all the libraries on there, and you go
to each of the libraries and each has each will
give you a stamp, and if you get ten stamps,
you get a custom magnet. And if you go to
all twenty six you get a deck of custom bpl
playing cards, which are very cool and I have them myself.
(30:10):
But if you ask me. The real prize of it,
and what really drew me to it, and what I imagine
drew a lot of adults to it is just getting
the opportunity to check out other neighborhoods that may not
have checked out and seeing what kind of libraries are
in store.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So when you say you get a stamp, is it
like a stamp when you're traveling internationally and they just
stamp the passport or do they give you a stamp
that they affix to your passport?
Speaker 8 (30:42):
Yeah, so's it's much The new design is much like
a traveling passport in the sense that you have all
these blank pages at the back of your booklet and
the librarian will just whip out this stamp. And each
library has its own special stamp. So it does feel
like you're traveling in a way.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You know, I think, how long did it? So?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
It sounds to me like there's twenty four libraries or
twenty six, but two are currently under you know, reconstruction
or something. So how long did it take you to
hit all twenty four?
Speaker 8 (31:16):
J It took me about a month. One of the
advantages that I had is that as a reporter, I
am traveling around Boston always, and so the way that
I kind of approached it is that I would go
do stories and I would just look at my map
and my booklet and say to myself, well, which libraries
(31:37):
am I close to right now? And can I just
waltz on over? And yeah. I ended up kind of
completing it within a month, which is pretty cool and
one of the cool the important things about the the
booklet is that it shows you how to get to
each library from the others. So if you're they have
certain routes from nearby line libraries that you can follow.
(32:01):
And what's cool about it is that none of it
involves driving a car. So all these libraries you could
get get to by walking, running, biking, or taking the tee.
And they really try to hit that home that you
don't need to have a car to to go and
visit these libraries if you if you just get to
the first one.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
But as a reporter, I assume as a reporter because
I was a reporter a long time ago and we
had vans and stuff, but sometimes you had to drive
yourself to the story. I'm assuming then when you're when
you're heading off to a story, you probably you're not
taking the tea.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I hope.
Speaker 8 (32:40):
Yeah, No, I'm I'm definitely using a car to get Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, I get the I get the point, But I mean,
I don't want to find out that you're in some
sort of an MBT A train that people had to
jump out the window into the Mystic River.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
You know. That's yeah, that's that's a that's above and beyond. Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I grew up in Hyde Park. I'm a Boston kid
many many many years ago. Jay, what what is the
library in Hyde Park? If you have your passport? Is
it n in Reedville? Hyde Park there was a library
that was the next street over from us.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Actually, I'm just grace if it's the same location.
Speaker 8 (33:16):
I think it is the same location. It's quite an old,
older library.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
It was.
Speaker 8 (33:22):
What was notable about Hyde Park is it was pretty
strict on the phone policy. I noticed that it was
really that library in particular that I walked in and
there's all these signs that say please no phones, please,
no devices. They're very distracting. And all the other libraries
they had some semblance of a phone policy is in
(33:44):
you know, there's like a quiet zone and whatnot. But
Hyde Park, it was all over the place, like they
just did not want people on their phones, which I
can appreciate.
Speaker 7 (33:51):
You know, it's still and.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I totally get it. Libraries are supposed to be quiet.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I spent a lot of time in libraries and you're
trying to concentrate, so people don't you know, phones are
relatively I mean when you think about it, you know,
fifteen twenty years new. So when most of us grew
up and we're at that age where you go into libraries.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Did you pull any books out along the way or no?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Did you? Oh?
Speaker 8 (34:17):
Yeah, oh yes, of course. I am an avid reader.
I love to read. One of the cool things about
going because you know, these days, everyone's checking out books.
I shouldn't say everybody, but a lot of people are
checking out books on their phones, speaking of phones and
their laptops through just the ebooks. And what I find
(34:40):
is the benefit of going to these physical libraries, apart
from you know, face to face connections and learning a
lot about the neighborhood, is that you can also check
out the Lucky Day aisle, which those books are not
available for holds. Nobody can reserve them.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
They're all he's.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
Gonna sit there, so and you only have two weeks
to read them, but it just it keeps it more available.
And these are these are the books that people are
seeking like, these are the sought after books, like right
off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Well, I'll give you a book when next time you
go to the library. See if they have a Day
in the Life of a Television news Reporter. That was
a book that came out many years ago on me.
It was a theoretical Day in the Life of TV Reporter.
It was published by Little Brown, written by a fellow
who was a photo journalist named Bill Jasperson. It'll give
you a really good history on WBC TV A Day
(35:31):
in the Life of a television.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
News report when I worked, okidding, I.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Used to get one of them every month or so
in the mail from some library across the country. Some
kid took it out, uh, and they said, will you
give me an autograph?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Will you do this? And yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It was in all the libraries across the country. Now
it may have it's been a while, so you may
I have a few extra I have a few extra
copies by you know. Yeah, absolutely, all right, Jay, thank
you much. We'll talk soon, okay.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
Buddy, all right, keep on reading.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Absolutely Jable at WBZ News Radio Reporter we come back.
We are going to talk about what happened. It was
a riot last night, plain and simple. It was a
riot by a group of anarchists and four Boston police
officers were injured. We'll talk with Larry called Around of
the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
He's the president. He'll have some interesting things to say.
It's nice eyes with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Well, the good thing about getting a really nasty cold
at this time of year is maybe I'll be able
to get through the winter. WHOA, I've gotten hit with something.
I hope none of you have had anything like this.
But the last couple of days have been stressful, I
mean really stressful. Just my whole body seems to be aching.
(00:30):
And I've finally got some medication, so I think I'm
going to be okay. But I would just apologize and
ask any of you who think I sound quite differently tonight,
you're correct, I do.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I can hear it in my head, simple as that.
My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm the host of Night's Side Monday through Friday night
right here on WBZ ten thirty Am in Boston, a legendary,
legendary radio station here in Boston. As I think many
of you who grew up with WBZ, the radio station
of Dave Maynard.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And Carl Dessous and.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Gary LaPier and Gil Santo's and just as it's a great,
great station with a great history going back to when
the first one of the year in nineteen twenty one.
So with all of that, just in case you're not,
you're perhaps weren't a weir of some of that history.
We're going to talk with four individuals and the first guest,
(01:27):
his name is Vincent Straugis. I hope I've got Vincent's
name correctly.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Vincent.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
If I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me, go right ahead.
That's my pleasure. So we're talking about some music history.
Doesn't quite go back as far as WPZ, but it
takes us back to the mid seventies through the eighties,
Boston at the forefront of producing some of the country's
greatest bands in music.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm sure you know those bands off.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
The top of your head, and I'll bet you if
you've just bounce a few, a lot of people's memories
are going to be be called to mind.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
The film's called Life on the Other Planet, and it's
a tripped from late mid to late seventies to the
mid to late eighties, and it features bands like The Atlantics,
the Stompers, the Real Kids, the Nervous Eaters, Robin Lane,
and the Chartbusters. There's so many to list, I won't
list them all, but those are some of the big names.
(02:21):
The neighborhoods and so on, the only the only problem
with it all was there were so many bands at
that time you couldn't hit them all in the film.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So what about Stephen Tyler's band?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Well, they were they they So this this was more
of a local scene, the local scene that came after
a lot of the groups like Aerosmith and Jay Giles
established this this road and there wasn't really a Boston sound,
per Sae. I mean Aerosmith, Jay Giles, great rock and
(02:52):
roll bands, but this local sound which kind of came
in on the heels of punk rock in the seventy
four seventy five era and and morphed into like a
new wave sound which was at that time. But you know,
it created its own sound with with groups like, like
I said, Nervous Eaters, the Neighborhoods and oh.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Here's the d Let me run this one by you.
This is a band I'm sure you are very well
aware of. Saw them one night at the Channel just
really blew me away.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
Girls Night Out there in the film too, DD Stewart
and Girls Night Out fantastic band. And yes it's uh
and there are a lot of the local bands that
had females in it. Were the Bristols and the Girls
Night Out and again Robin Lane and the Sharbusters, who
really kind of paved the way for a lot of
(03:42):
women bands back then.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So you've made a movie, you're the I assume you
you're the producer of the.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Movie, producer director. Yes, how tough was it?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
How tough was it to make a movie and find
a video of these bands? I mean, in those days,
everything probably was on different type of digital or maybe
it was just on videotape.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Maybe he was on film.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
That VHS and I mean, and it was far inview
between because nobody had a camera, nobody had a phone
to be able to tape a concert, and so there
was a lot of footage that was at teamed through.
Harvard had a collection called the Larready Freedman Collection. Uh
and Larti was a cameraman back then who went to
(04:27):
different nightclubs and shot a lot of these bands. And
fortunately there's there's collections of them, but they're they're far
and few between, and we have been a bit in
our phone and a lot of the archival footage that
tells the story of Boston at the time was was
obtained through WGV and S Archives, who was fantastic working
with on the film. So a lot of great cool stuff.
(04:51):
And I want to say that the film is about
the music. But you know, when I was sitting down
to edit this film, one of the hardest things to
do was I did we want to make it a
film where we interviewed an artist and then saw a
clip of their music and then just keep going like that.
When you step back from it all, the real star
(05:12):
of the film is Boston back in the seventies and eighties,
the culture of the time and things that are long
gone from here. And that's that's what it's about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I'll bet you your film had kind of a gritty
feel to it because that was Boston.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Boston.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Yeah, yeah, And we have we have a great local
historian who fills from the gaps of the history of
Boston and that talks about talks about the times and
how Boston was was ranked pretty low as a city
back then, and which is surprising because now it's it's not.
It's a fabulous city, always has been, but it did
(05:50):
have a lot of grit back then that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Well, you know, you had a lot of crime back
in the late sixties, you had the Strangler, Albert DeSalvo,
you know, Whitey Bulger and his.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Group was n was running around.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Real estate prices in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill
were nothing compared to what they are today.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So yeah, and you had.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
The combat zone, you had, you had places that don't
exist anymore.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And did you tell a young person about this stuff?
They think you're you know, making it up.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Well, the Rat Sclar Rat Skadies and Kenmo Square and
girls rather the channel over by by the postal station.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So yeah, looking forward.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Okay, so you're running this on the sixtieth of October,
which is.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's actually the twenty fourth of October.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Why is my why does my does my my specs here?
Have you changed? That's okay, I had this, Okay, now.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
It's it's yeah, it's on the twenty fourth of October, okay,
and yeah it's uh it's the Nervous Eaters are actual
playing that event. So they've been around for forty years.
They're coming coming to play the concert and the film
will be shown after that. So it should be a
fun night for everybody, and it's it's a great time
(07:13):
to reminisce and just you know, for young people to
learn a little bit about the history of Boston music.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And you are doing this is the Boston Prepare Boston
premiere on Friday night, October twenty correct.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I don't know why not said the sixteenth.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
No, No, there's there's a screening, but it's it's just
it's a private screening.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Oh okay, we don't okay, So this is this also
at the Regent Theater in Arlington.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
It's at the Arlington Region Theater on October twenty fourth.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, correct, that's all we need. Then we got this
thing covered. That should it should be a good night
for you and Vincent Stragus. Thanks very much for doing
stuff like this, frankly, because I think what happens is
there's some great times and people should remember the great times.
You know, Austin has always been there's a great city,
and that was the era of Kevin White was the
(08:05):
mayor in the seventies, in the eighties seven.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
He actually makes an appearance in the film briefly.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised, all right. Thanks, thank
you so much, Vincent. I enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Thank you very much for having me on. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You bet you it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Sorry about my voice and my cold. It's one of
these things where I cough and I'm remote, so I
can't wave it rob and say yeah, roll kill my
mic So.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
I hear you man, be well, well I'll get well.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Vincent Talks.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Okay, when we come back, when I talk with Betty
Lynn Fisher. She's a consumer news reporter with USA Today.
I'm going to talk about some uncomfortable conversations that you
might find yourself in and how to extricate yourself from
those uncomfortable conversations. Back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray. I'm done you easy,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
All right, I want to introduce Betty Lynn Fisher. Betty
Lynn Fisher, Welcome to night So you're a consumer news
reporter for USA Today, as I understand.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
It, correct, Yes, yes, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Very welcome.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So I'm not sure if this is the only circumstance,
but well, we're going to talk about how you deal
with an uncomfortable situation or an uncomfortable conversation.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And the example that I'm giving that I've been given
here is, you know, you go out with friends, maybe
maybe it's a group of girlfriends, a group of guy friends, whatever,
and you don't order much, maybe you have one glass
of wine. But other people decide, well, this would be
a good opportunity to have dinner and a couple of
(09:52):
a couple of desserts. And when it comes time for
the bill, someone says, well, why don't we just split
it evily? And you're thinking, Okay, this bill's gonna be
like four hundred dollars and I had one glass of
wine four hundred times five, but divided by five, that's
a very expensive bottle of a very expensive glass of wine.
(10:14):
Explain to you, to us how someone like yourself would
extricate yourself from that situation without causing a lot of
angst and gnashing of teeth amongst your friends.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
So I wrote a story as part of my series
called Uncomfortable Conversations about Money, and it was about splitting
the bill. I actually used two examples very similar to
what you explained. One was Alan Klensky and his wife Sandy,
and they were actually still kind of seizing about this
twenty years later. They were explaining something that happened twenty
(10:49):
years ago that they were young at the time. They
went out with two other couples, and they didn't note
the other couples very well. But the other couples decided
to order duck. It was the most expensive thing on
the kosher item, and of course when it came time
to pay the bill, they're like, let's split it three ways,
and you know, the Kolinskis were just not sure what
to do. They didn't want to be awkward, they didn't
want to seem cheap, and so you know, they went
(11:11):
ahead and did it, but they it just left a
bad taste in their mouth. They to this day called
the other couples mister and missus Duck. But their advice is,
they say, you know, you need to you need to
communicate with the people who have invited you, and if
you're on a type budget, you need to don't be
afraid to say it. Too many times. People are, you know,
kind of afraid to say like, oh, you know, that's
(11:33):
that's not something I can afford, or you know that's
not that's not what I planned for, it's not in
my budget.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Just just to make it reallier, I'm curious, what was
the bill? Since you wrote about this, what was the bill?
Speaker 7 (11:46):
You know, they actually didn't tell me. They didn't tell
me the amount, and either didn't remember because it was
twenty years earlier. But I have another example, which was
a single woman who went out with another single friend
and a couple and they all ordered, and exactly like
you said before, the other couple ordered a ton of
food to share. The husband ordered its on entree. He
ordered a steak, and the woman was like, you know,
(12:08):
I she didn't really like much of what was being ordered,
but she figured she'd find something to pick at. And
of course, when when the when the bill comes up,
the husband says to the server, let's split it three ways,
and he included him and his wife as one pair.
Oh and the one of two singles as singles, sore
four people three ways, and that came to two hundred
(12:29):
and thirty eight dollars each.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And the woman said, how.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Much too, fifty eight a piece.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
To fifty eight apiece.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And okay, I'm doing some quick math here, Okay, I'm
a quick math guy. Two fifty eight willun will round
down two fifty two fifty two fifty that's seven point
fifty okay.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
First, first of all, under any circumstances, the husband and
wife who represented two of the people at the table
should have picked up fifty percent of the bill. So
if it was seven fifty, they should have picked that
three seventy five. Now we can get into what they
had and all of that, But why do people do that?
Speaker 7 (13:06):
I mean, yeah, she said, she said, She said that
didn't seem fair at all. I kept my paid my
portion and I've been stewing over it ever since. And
she said, should I have said something? And now she
wishes she had, but they were good friends and she
didn't want to rock the boat.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Are they still good friends?
Speaker 8 (13:21):
I who knows?
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Right?
Speaker 7 (13:24):
So I talked. I talked to Elaine Swann, who is
an etiquette coach and founder of the Swan School of Protocol,
and she said, you know, you've got to embrace the
awkward that really, you know, these these awkward situations just
just turn into something that you do about for twenty years, right,
You're you're still telling that same story and wishing that
(13:45):
you had done something different. And you know, her suggestion
is to do it early. Before you accept the invitation
to go out to eat, look at the menu, see
if it's something you can you can afford, and ask
if people be splitting the bill or address it as
many as you sit down the meal, she says, Well,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Going out to eat is always sort of an adventure,
and sometimes when you're going to a restaurant for the
first time, you just don't know what's going to happen.
And my wife and I went to a restaurant a
couple of weeks ago, and the food was great, but
the place was so packed. I mean you couldn't hear
yourself think. And there was no carpeting in the restaurant,
(14:30):
you know, people there were a lot of people too,
I mean like a hundred people in a very small restaurant,
and there was a bar that was crowded and everybody's
It just was unpleasant. And the owner, you know, came
over and how'd you like the food? They said, the
food was great, blah blah blah, but uh, you got
to do something. You got to get some sort of
insulation for the sound here, because it was you know,
(14:51):
it ruined the meal. If we had been smart, and
I should have said, you know, look, why don't we
get up and just leave because you can't even have
a conversation. And then people who are at a table
and this has happened a couple of times. People who
are at a table, it's like, I don't know if
they're drunk, but every other word, it's like they're yelling
(15:15):
across the table and you want to say to them,
you know, there's other people here who are looking to
have a quiet conversation, but it's like these goofballs patriots
a Patriots one, and you know you want you just
want to go over and whack the guy outside the
head and say, knucklehead. You know, the ignorance of people, Well,
(15:38):
it doesn't astound to me anymore, I guess. You know,
I don't know if you ever addressed those those sort
of conundrums. You know, what do you do?
Speaker 3 (15:50):
You want?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You know, you're either you're going to sit there and
say nothing and not even able to have a conversation.
You know, you glare over it a couple of times,
and you hope that somebody realizes that they're looking.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But I don't care. They just don't care.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Maybe you may, maybe you can bring it up to
the you know, the waiter or the waitress maybe and
see if they could say something too.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, well, you know what's funny that happened One time
we were in a very expensive restaurant, very expensive restaurant,
and we were in a small room and there was
I was with two people and myself, and there was
about five or six people pretty close. But they were
that they were just incredible. So I actually asked the waiter.
(16:29):
I said, I said, could you ask them just to
keep it a little bit on the d lo? And
he said, oh no, we couldn't do that. So I said, okay, Finn,
do you have another you know, table somewhere else? Oh no,
We're booked up till nine o'clock. Said thanks very much.
We got up and walked out, and I felt so liberated,
(16:52):
to be honest with you, I felt, well, you know,
I wasn't going to sit there because dinner at this
restaurant would have been probably for three six hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I just felt liberated by it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You know, you you you have to.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
At some point draw a line. How can people get
your Obviously you're in USA today. Is there a book
that you happen to have put together that you'd like
to reform?
Speaker 7 (17:16):
My listeners to No, no, but they can they can
take a look at you know, USA today dot com
slash money for stories by myself and others on the Money,
Tech and Travel team.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Oh that's great, well, Betty Lynn Fisher, thank you very much.
We'll be looking for your for your reports. The great
thing about USA today is wherever you happen to be
in America, it's in every hotel in America. And it's great.
For it's it's great. It's a great newspaper. It's a
great newspaper in my opinion. It gives you everything you
need when you're on the road. And please, good luck,
(17:50):
keep working at it. Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Thanks, thank pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
All Right, there has been some developments in the Middle East,
and so we're going to take the CBS special report
at the bottom of the hour. Again, very hopeful. President
Trump has made a statement on Trump's social today and
that here's here's a special report from CBS News.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, want to welcome doctor Jonathan Thorpe. He's a
doctor of a business administration, not a medical doctor. But
he's a relationship expert in the CEO of Quantum Connections.
It's almost illiterative. A firm that helps individuals and organizations
find connection in a disconnected world. However, he has produced
(18:43):
for us, for our consideration, for your consideration, a very
interesting statistic. First of all, doctor Thorpe, welcome to Nightside
for having me.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
One in five Americans.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
This is one in five of the people who live
on U stream, one in five of the people who
you work with. One in five of the people who
whatever you do you do with, believe that they can
find real romance, that it's possible to find real romance
with artificial intelligent chat bots.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Are you The only question I guess is are you
kidding me? I don't know what it said.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
It's funny, and I would almost say, you know, you
can't be surprised today with anything related to AI. AI
is doing some amazing things, even this, the suggestion that
people can find real romance or what they feel is
real with a computer. I mean, if you look at it,
there've been over two hundred million downloads of these AI
(19:45):
companions and chatbots. It's a two hundred million dollars a
year industry. And what people are doing dan as they're
building these echo chambers around themselves to reflect back everything
inside their head that they already know, their interest, curiosity,
and it just reinforces that for them.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, but my question is what happened to the traditional
old fashioned blow up dolls? It's like nuts, It is crazy, right.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
The world is so socially fragmented that people are looking
for alternatives, so much isolation.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Everything is so let me ask you this question because
I think it's important.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Okay, So, is this a chat box bot?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Would be obviously artificial intelligent intelligence image of someone of
whoever they're having this relationship with men and woman. Correct,
They're not just looking at a computer screen. They're having
this this relationship with what would appear to be an
(20:54):
image of a human being.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Correct.
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Absolutely, And it's invoice and AI is so powerful. It
can be created at the person's own design. You can
tell it exactly what to look like, what form to take,
what to sound like, how to speak, so it can
really be customizable in a scary way almost.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
How can you be sure that the chat box will
remain faithful to you and will cheetah on you with
some other weirdo I reade, I'm serious, I'm asking, I'm
asking relatively serious questions here. It is on my mind
is blown that people will think this, that they're going
to sit in front of computer and share their their
hopes and their dreams and their aspirations with an AI
(21:39):
generated human being.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
That's what it comes down to, right.
Speaker 9 (21:43):
It's crazy to think about it, right, what people will
turn to as an alternative to other living, breathing human beings.
And you just have to say, we need to pay
more attention to the people around us and find out
and ask those questions, Hey, what are you not getting?
What are you missing that you can't find any human being?
(22:04):
I mean, is it is a powerful draw?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So let me ask you this this statistic one in
five Americans. I assume this means Americans, but over the
age of twenty one or something like that. I'm sure
we're not. I hope we're not talking about kids here, right, mean,
I'm going to can I Is that an accurate assumption
that I'm making.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
I think it is. It's not my research, and I
would say the survey did probably survey adults, but teenagers
are swarming to this technology. And I think if you're
a parent out there, you have to pay attention because kids,
you know, as young as ten, eleven, twelve years old
are seeking to find this feeling of being seen and
(22:45):
heard in technology. Instead of people, and that's really scary.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well it is. I mean, you can understand how a
lot of kids now think. Look, when I grow up,
I'm not going to be a teacher. I'm not going
to be a firefighter, not going to be a police officer.
I'm going to be an influencer. Because it looks like great,
easy work, but of course it is quite hard. I mean,
so that distorts. But I would hope that most people
at some point would say, well, I actually got to
(23:11):
go to school and I got to learn and trade,
or I have to go and get a college degree and.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Enter the workforce.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
But this is a study that has been done here
in America. Please tell me that the rest of the
world is just as crazy as we are, and that
I hope that they've done studies in other countries which
shows that the fascination with these chatbots ire as sick
(23:42):
as we are.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (23:44):
I can't confirm anything about what's going on over see.
What I can tell you is if they've got access
to technology, then they're going to have to deal with
these exact same problems the same as we are.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Do you think that, And again, this is your area
of expertise. It's not my and I don't script questions.
These are just thoughts that can in my mind. Do
you think that over time the novelty of chatbots as
relationships will subside and that people will realize that's not
(24:17):
a real person that you're talking do here, it's it's
it's computer generated.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Do you think people will figure that out eventually?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (24:25):
I hope so, and maybe I share your optimism too,
that that over time the novelty will fade. And I
think people are going to discover that, you know, we
as humans we love because time runs out and AI
it has no existential stakes in the game, no threats.
It's going to be there endlessly, So the love and
(24:46):
the attention that an AI chatbot can provide is going
to be effectively empty. I think people will eventually discover,
you know, AI as a tool can be great to
rehearse interactions for people, but as soon as it replaces
interactions for people, that's when it gets really problematic.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I mean to think that someone is sitting in a
house or in their apartment and having this conversation and
this relationship, and I assume that just to make sure
I understand this, someone's sitting there and they have their
chat bot up on a screen and they're having an
(25:23):
ongoing conversation like, Hi.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
How are you tonight? Doing great?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What's up with you? Well, it's kind of a slow
I mean, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about
there's actually a conversation theoretically going on.
Speaker 9 (25:38):
Absolutely, Dan, there's voice recognition, and these conversations are live, dynamic,
and they're synthetic, but they're actually happening in real time.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Wow, I'll tell you that's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I've interviewed some subjects that are talked about, some subjects
that I thought were pretty weird, but this.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Tops them all. Right now, So.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Anything you got a story that you want to chat about,
doctor Jonathan Thorpe. I'm a real human being. You're a
real human being. We can do it right here a
WBC radio.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Okay, that sounds good, Dan, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Doctor.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I think that's fascinating. I really think it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
When we get back, we're going to talk with a
WBZ reporter. It's Jay will Lett, and he's going to
talk about the Boston Public Library is revamping a passport program.
So nothing is really new. Everything is kind of being revamping,
being revamped, I should say, and this and this actually
(26:37):
talks about how about this for an idea, actually physically
visiting libraries, Yeah, really buildings, walking into the library and
maybe taking a book off the shelf and I don't know,
reading it a little bit, or maybe even checking it
out and bringing it home, and then after twenty one
days or whatever the time is, you bring it back.
(26:58):
Kind of like a nineteen fifty or nineteen forties thing.
But it's coming around. The new passport program, or I
should say, the old passport program, has explained to us
by WBZ News Radio reported Jay. We'll let right after
this break.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Delighted to be joined by WBZ reporter Jay will Lett. Jay,
I hear you during the day obviously, and we're going
to talk about a program. I don't know if you
discovered it, but you certainly did a very interesting report
on a Boston Public library program that revamps passport program.
Revamp says to me, it used to be around, used
(27:40):
to be available, it went away, and now it's back.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Tell us the history of it.
Speaker 8 (27:45):
Yeah, Hey, hey, Dan, thank you so much for having
me and I really appreciate your kind words. Yeah, yeah,
it's revamped, is you know a way of saying that,
you know they had it in previous years. I think
you it just would have had a different design to it,
but the library passport has a whole new design. I
(28:06):
think if it started in September, and that's how I
found out about it, is we were reporting on it
in WBZ in the newsroom. We got the release from
the library, and you know, I kind of started out
doing it for myself. I've actually completed the challenge myself,
and I didn't do it for work. I didn't do
(28:26):
it as a reporter. I just decided, you know what,
I want to explore my city and see the neighborhoods
myself and you know, just kind of live in the moment.
And it wasn't until afterward that I thought, you know,
I'm kind of depriving people of this if I don't
kind of get the word out.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So yeah, so you know, when when did it? Was
it always there?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Or was it there and it fell into disuse and
then someone said, hey, that's we haven't done this for
twenty years or was it you know, was it suspended
for some period of time. If you know I asked
questions Jay, you know, I just made them up as
they go along here, So I'm asking you something you
don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I apologize, go ahead.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
No, no, by all means, please do. To my knowledge,
it didn't necessarily go away. I think the original passport
started a few years ago, but for whatever reason, you know,
people fell off from it. There maybe wasn't a lot
of draw to it. I can tell you that this
time around there's some big interests, notably because of those prizes.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
So if you.
Speaker 8 (29:31):
Don't know what we're talking about, if you go to
twenty so there's twenty six libraries in Boston. There's twenty
four that are currently open, and if you go to
what you what you do is you go to your
local library. You get the passport and it's kind of
like a little booklet.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
It's cool.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
It has all the libraries on there, and you go
to each of the libraries and each has each will
give you a stamp, and if you get ten stamps,
you get a custom magnet. And if you go to
all twenty six you get a deck of custom bpl
playing cards, which are very cool and I have them myself.
(30:10):
But if you ask me. The real prize of it,
and what really drew me to it, and what I imagine
drew a lot of adults to it is just getting
the opportunity to check out other neighborhoods that may not
have checked out and seeing what kind of libraries are
in store.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So when you say you get a stamp, is it
like a stamp when you're traveling internationally and they just
stamp the passport or do they give you a stamp
that they affix to your passport?
Speaker 8 (30:42):
Yeah, so's it's much The new design is much like
a traveling passport in the sense that you have all
these blank pages at the back of your booklet and
the librarian will just whip out this stamp. And each
library has its own special stamp. So it does feel
like you're traveling in a way.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You know, I think, how long did it? So?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
It sounds to me like there's twenty four libraries or
twenty six, but two are currently under you know, reconstruction
or something. So how long did it take you to
hit all twenty four?
Speaker 8 (31:16):
J It took me about a month. One of the
advantages that I had is that as a reporter, I
am traveling around Boston always, and so the way that
I kind of approached it is that I would go
do stories and I would just look at my map
and my booklet and say to myself, well, which libraries
(31:37):
am I close to right now? And can I just
waltz on over? And yeah. I ended up kind of
completing it within a month, which is pretty cool and
one of the cool the important things about the the
booklet is that it shows you how to get to
each library from the others. So if you're they have
certain routes from nearby line libraries that you can follow.
(32:01):
And what's cool about it is that none of it
involves driving a car. So all these libraries you could
get get to by walking, running, biking, or taking the tee.
And they really try to hit that home that you
don't need to have a car to to go and
visit these libraries if you if you just get to
the first one.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
But as a reporter, I assume as a reporter because
I was a reporter a long time ago and we
had vans and stuff, but sometimes you had to drive
yourself to the story. I'm assuming then when you're when
you're heading off to a story, you probably you're not
taking the tea.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I hope.
Speaker 8 (32:40):
Yeah, No, I'm I'm definitely using a car to get Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, I get the I get the point, But I mean,
I don't want to find out that you're in some
sort of an MBT A train that people had to
jump out the window into the Mystic River.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
You know. That's yeah, that's that's a that's above and beyond. Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I grew up in Hyde Park. I'm a Boston kid
many many many years ago. Jay, what what is the
library in Hyde Park? If you have your passport? Is
it n in Reedville? Hyde Park there was a library
that was the next street over from us.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Actually, I'm just grace if it's the same location.
Speaker 8 (33:16):
I think it is the same location. It's quite an old,
older library.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
It was.
Speaker 8 (33:22):
What was notable about Hyde Park is it was pretty
strict on the phone policy. I noticed that it was
really that library in particular that I walked in and
there's all these signs that say please no phones, please,
no devices. They're very distracting. And all the other libraries
they had some semblance of a phone policy is in
(33:44):
you know, there's like a quiet zone and whatnot. But
Hyde Park, it was all over the place, like they
just did not want people on their phones, which I
can appreciate.
Speaker 7 (33:51):
You know, it's still and.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I totally get it. Libraries are supposed to be quiet.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I spent a lot of time in libraries and you're
trying to concentrate, so people don't you know, phones are
relatively I mean when you think about it, you know,
fifteen twenty years new. So when most of us grew
up and we're at that age where you go into libraries.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Did you pull any books out along the way or no?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Did you? Oh?
Speaker 8 (34:17):
Yeah, oh yes, of course. I am an avid reader.
I love to read. One of the cool things about
going because you know, these days, everyone's checking out books.
I shouldn't say everybody, but a lot of people are
checking out books on their phones, speaking of phones and
their laptops through just the ebooks. And what I find
(34:40):
is the benefit of going to these physical libraries, apart
from you know, face to face connections and learning a
lot about the neighborhood, is that you can also check
out the Lucky Day aisle, which those books are not
available for holds. Nobody can reserve them.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
They're all he's.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
Gonna sit there, so and you only have two weeks
to read them, but it just it keeps it more available.
And these are these are the books that people are
seeking like, these are the sought after books, like right
off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Well, I'll give you a book when next time you
go to the library. See if they have a Day
in the Life of a Television news Reporter. That was
a book that came out many years ago on me.
It was a theoretical Day in the Life of TV Reporter.
It was published by Little Brown, written by a fellow
who was a photo journalist named Bill Jasperson. It'll give
you a really good history on WBC TV A Day
(35:31):
in the Life of a television.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
News report when I worked, okidding, I.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Used to get one of them every month or so
in the mail from some library across the country. Some
kid took it out, uh, and they said, will you
give me an autograph?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Will you do this? And yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It was in all the libraries across the country. Now
it may have it's been a while, so you may
I have a few extra I have a few extra
copies by you know. Yeah, absolutely, all right, Jay, thank
you much. We'll talk soon, okay.
Speaker 8 (35:59):
Buddy, all right, keep on reading.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Absolutely Jable at WBZ News Radio Reporter we come back.
We are going to talk about what happened. It was
a riot last night, plain and simple. It was a
riot by a group of anarchists and four Boston police
officers were injured. We'll talk with Larry called Around of
the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
He's the president. He'll have some interesting things to say.
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