April 16, 2024 • 40 mins
Erika Sinner, author of the book: Pets Are Family, discussed the push for pet bereavement leave on the rise at companies across the U.S.!
James Montgomery on his upcoming local show.
David Hewlett on the Bio-IT World Conference – Why is science and AI so important for young kids to get excited about and involved in.
Dr. Trisha Pasricha says more young people are getting cancer. What can be done to lower their risk?
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on iHeart Radio!
James Montgomery on his upcoming local show.
David Hewlett on the Bio-IT World Conference – Why is science and AI so important for young kids to get excited about and involved in.
Dr. Trisha Pasricha says more young people are getting cancer. What can be done to lower their risk?
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on iHeart Radio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's a nice size. Ray.I'm going Boston's News Radio. Thank you
very much, Sherry Small. Alwaysgreat to hear your voice here on the
night Side portion of the broadcast dayhere in WBZ. My name is Dan
Ray. I am the host ofthis program. Rob Brooks is back in
the control room. He's the producerand he will set everything up for us
(00:21):
as we proceed through the night.A little later on tonight, beginning at
nine o'clock, we'll be talking witha man who would like to unsee Liz
Warren as from the United States Senate. That's going to be an interesting conversation.
I am sure. We will alsotalk about human hacking. We had
a gentleman on a couple of weeksago, and he talked about the idea
(00:44):
that humans are the people who arethe hackers, and they get into corporations,
they get into your private materials onyour Facebook page or on your computer,
on your tablet, on your iPhoneor whatever, and how can we
prevent that. We'll talk about that, but first we have four very interesting
guest beginning this hour, as wedo every night from eight until nine here
on Nightside. Sort of like theadvertisers for the program, if you will.
(01:07):
And look, there is no subjectthat is closer and dearer to my
heart than pets. And we havewith us a young woman named Erica Sinner.
She has written a book Pets AreFamily, and I don't think anyone
could disagree with that, And she'salso pushing for bereavement leave that some companies
(01:32):
now are wisely making available to people. First of all, let me welcome
Erica. Erica, how are youtonight? Welcome to Nightside. Hi,
Dan, thank you so much forhaving me. It's really an honor to
be here, and I'm so happyto be talking to you about this important
subject. Well, I will tellyou I have ended my program for the
last fourteen years. All pets,all dogs, all cats, they all
(01:57):
go to heaven. And that's wheremy dog Charlie for many many years he
was my companion in studio is asfar as I'm concerned, and I think
that's where all the pets are,and I think that all of us will
see them again. And of courseI end by saying hope to see again
tomorrow night on Nightside. But that'show we sign off this program. I
(02:17):
believe in this very very strongly,and I certainly believe in the concept of
pets are part of the family.Now, some people might be listening to
us right now and think, well, those two are crazy, because but
I will get you they had neverhad a pet in their family and talk
about it. Tell us about thebook first of all. Then we'll get
to the whole question of bereavement leavefor you know, for individuals who find
(02:44):
it's tough to go to work fora few days after a family member one
of their pets passes. Absolutely andI love this, that's how you end
your show. I actually was justlistening to your April fifth episode and even
some of your listeners who dialed inand they were talking about their pasts.
You can really just feel how muchthey love them, and how they are
so smart with their personalities, andjust the joy that they give us in
(03:07):
our own lives is really special.My book was inspired last year. I
lost my shar Pei Kingston in May. We had about a week's notice.
It was it was really quick,and I founded my company always with the
intention of having peprequent leave. I'vealways believed in an empathy driven culture and
(03:28):
empathy driven leadership, and part ofthat I believe you can do with compassionate
policies like having pepper recently. Whatwas interesting to me is I didn't appreciate
how I would feel actually taking thetime off last year. There was a
lot of shame in how I felt. I wondered if others would think,
you know, me, as aCEO in my position, you know,
(03:50):
can I get it together or what'sgoing on? Right? It's just a
dog, It's how I was justinternalizing it, even though I had it
in my policy and my employees totake advantage of it. You know,
my dogs even have an Instagram accountwith forty thousand followers, and there's love
around the world for them that Ijust now I see, Oh I wish,
I wish I had forty thousand followerson Instagram. That's that's fabulous.
(04:13):
By the way, explain your company, which is unrelated to the pet topic,
I guess directly, just so wedon't confuse anyone. Your company is
called Directory. Is that how it'sspelled. It's spelled differently, but is
it pronounced It ends ie as opposedto directory with a Y. Tell us
about the company, just so weget a little context. Absolutely, Yeah,
(04:35):
you've got it. So Directory isa company that serves small to mid
size to growing life science organizations.There's a lot of innovation happening in the
life science space and a lot ofreally important medications that deserve to make it
out to patients who deserve to receiveit as well. But what a lot
of people don't know that aren't inthe pharmaceutical world. What they don't know
(04:57):
as as you submit to the FDA, you have to wait for a and
it doesn't always come right on time, and so these smaller organizations have trouble
getting access to top talent. Andso that's where we step in. We
come in and help them commercialize themarket, figure out who are the doctors
that can find the patients that wouldreally benefit from these these incredible products.
That has been my life's work.I've always been in a life science space
(05:21):
and so I've always believed in helpingpeople and how can we do better?
And yes, completely unrelated to mybook. Okay, how long is how
long has your company? Directory beenaround? A while? We've been around
for about six years. We haveactually a lot of clients in Boston.
And then prior to that, Ispent my career either consulting or as part
(05:43):
of a pharmaceutical company. Okay,so let's come back to you said that
you, of course took the beefand policy. That's called leadership Erica.
Nothing to be ashamed of you.You took that, you implemented that policy,
and you showed everyone else in yourcompany that that that is a policy
that people should have available. Iwish I had had that policy in my
(06:09):
company. We did not have apolicy. I did my show the night
that Charlie passed, a beautiful CavaliertKing Charles Spaniel who passed on February fifteenth,
twenty ten, and it was thetoughest show I think of my life.
I mean, just to get throughthe night. And he would he
would sit in. They were sopets are so smart. I mean,
(06:30):
I could tell you stories that I'mgoing to buy you with the stories.
But when Charlie, you know,he would wait, and when he you
know, during the news break,I'd take him outside and hid do his
business and then he'd come back inand snooze in the corner or just kind
of sit and listen. Anyway,I have other have other members of your
company now taken advantage of this wonderfulbenefit. Yes, we have had others,
(06:57):
And that's also the important thing toknow that I think for readment is
very personal, just as it iswith human beings. They think we have
different relationships with each of our animalsand the same way we have different relationships
with our family and friends in ourlives, and so it is a personal
decision on how much time you needand actually taking the time and for some
coming to work and being distracted fora little while before you go back and
(07:21):
you're breathing at home, that eveningmight make the most sense. But I
think for those of us that doneed a moment and need some space to
breathe, I think it could bea really nice way for employers to signal
to employees in your life outside ofwork matters. And we recognize this is
a really hard time. It's beenreally I just hearing you talk about it
(07:42):
and to say it's leadership. Ithink I'm starting to understand that now,
and the more I can be vulnerableand the more that I'm sharing this connection
that we have with our animals,that we are leading the way, it's
you know, seeing scottman Pelt onSports Center and most recently John Stewart also
talking about the profound that they hadlosing their dogs on TV has just been
(08:03):
really inspiring. So I'm hoping weall are opening up more into into how
much we love our animals. Iwill tell you the morning that that we
said goodbye to him, I heldhim while the doctor you know, put
him to sleep, and just youknow, held him and told him I
loved him, and you know,talked to him all the way. And
(08:24):
then I didn't break down until aboutthree weeks later when in Urn, which
we had purchased a really nice Mahoganyern, was returned to us with his
ashes, and I sat alone inmy kitchen. My my wife was at
work, my kids were off atschool and college, and I just wept,
That's all. And so believe me, believe me. You have a
(08:46):
supporter here in this concept. Pleasetell us how they can get your book.
Okay, Pets your Family, where'sthat available? As I had a
website pets Orfamily dot info, andall of the resources that I have on
the back of my book I haveavailable in PDF formats. You can get
them right away on the website,but you can also order the book there.
There's links to Amazon, Walmart,Barnes and Nobles. It's available in
(09:11):
all bookstores. Great. Yeah,well that makes it easy once one stop
shopping and Erica again, keep usif you will follow me on Instagram,
It's real simple. WVZ underscored nightSide. I will make sure that we
try to get as many of ourlisteners to follow you as well. I'm
(09:31):
dwarfed by the number of Instagram followersthat you have, but love to have
you follow me. And if youever listen every night when we end this
show at about eleven fifty seven fiftyeight, that's my sign off and I'm
mean absolutely. I'll also share onmy John's Instagram account too. I really
appreciate you just being so open andvulnerable and talking about it on your show.
(09:52):
It really means a lot. Well, Erica, right back at you.
Erica Center the author of the bookPets or Family. She is a
CEO of a company and she hasbasically placed in benefit for her employees pet
bereven and leave if they happen tohave a pet who passes on while they're
(10:13):
working there. That's leadership. Erica, thank you so much for being with
us, and hopefully we get achance to meet someday. That would be
wonderful. Thank you all right,thanks very much. We come back my
pal James Montgomery, one of thegreat blues men in the world. He
has an upcoming local show. We'lltell you all about it. James Montgomery
is just incredible. He's an incredibleentertainer. We'll be talking to him on
(10:37):
the other side of this break.Here on Nightside, It's WVS, Boston's
news Radio. It's Tuesday night,the day after the marathon. If some
of you out there are still sorefrom walking or running yesterday or whatever,
just sit back and relax and we'llget you all the way to midnight.
Coming back on Nightside, It's nightSide with Boston's News Radio. Well,
(11:03):
I'm thrilled to have my pal JamesMontgomery back tonight. James, welcome back
to Nightside. How are you.I'm doing great, especially now that I'm
on your show. Dad. Youknow, I look forward to our conversations,
and as you know, I'm aregular listener. I'm as a working
musician. You are my night sidecompanion and many an evening home from again.
(11:28):
I was just looking at your schedule. You've had a busy schedule this
last weekend. You're on Franklin,Mass everybody knows where that is. And
then you were down to the Capedown in Truro and coming up this Friday
night, you're going to be outat a venue I know pretty well,
the Natick Elks Club. First ofall, there's some listeners who are going
to say, what's up, bluesman. It described that to me,
(11:50):
this is you have an amazing performerentertainer. I've seen you so many times.
But look, just talk about theblues a little bit so people know
what we're talking about. James,Well, you know, it's funny.
I had a radio show for anumber of years, maybe five years,
and then I ended up joining theJohnny Winter Band, and I was on
(12:11):
the road so much I couldn't sustainmy show. But the reason I mentioned
that is that I had a momentwhen I was fifteen and heard live blues
for the first time and heard liveblue harmonica, and I had this moment.
It was like the sudden, thisfeeling inside, you know, and
every blues musician that you interview theyremember that moment. You know. Bonnie
(12:35):
Ray was at a camp and thecamp counselor pulled out a guitar and played
blues, and you know, JamesJames Cotton heard blues on the radio.
All of us blues musicians and youknow, Rocket Roll people, I'm not
sure they have that. I thinkit's like, you know, I want
to wear beatle boots, I wantto get girls, I want to play
guitar. But with blues musicians,with blues musicians, we have a moment
(13:00):
that we all remember when when wesaid whow and then it kind of knocks
you back on your feet and yougo and you go, wow, that's
that's I want to play that music. So so it's like a it's really
a feeling that that you know thatyou kind of identify with for the rest
of your life. Now you're awhite guy who grew up in Detroit and
(13:20):
not bringing the issue of race intothis, but when you think about the
blues, you often think about someof the great bluesmen being you know,
black and from the South. Here'sthis white guy from Detroit who's who's living
this this dream, living this life. Yeah, you know, you know.
I built a washtub base and Imade a harmonica rack out of some
(13:41):
of the heavy duty wire from mydad's h Over Hero outset, and and
I would play the wash tub andthe harmonica along with Jimmy read records.
My parents must have been upstairs andwell he quit that, please stop playing
that. But anyway, so,you know, so when I was playing
(14:01):
the washtub base, I dreaming aboutbb King and Johnley Hooker and Buddy Guy
and Junior Wellson and Johny Hooker andand and Muddy Waters. And eventually in
my life I played with all ofthem, and including including a jam with
Mick Jagger, and they spent afew days at George Harrison at some point.
But but all we did we talkedabout Indian philosophy. But anyway,
(14:24):
so so you know, all theseguys, know, you know, this
whole thing about you know, whiteand black people. Eventually, you know,
all the guys, Jonley Hooker,you know, James Cotton, Muddy
Waters, they all understood after awhile that that that music they created was
(14:46):
able to have the same that peopledon't matter what color or whatever they are,
were able to have that same feeling, that same reaction that that they
had when when they invented this musicand when they you know, of course,
you know, it started as fieldhowlers in the in the Deep South.
You know, when you know,when when when they were forced to
(15:09):
doing forced labor in the hot SundaySlavery made up these songs to kind of
make today go by faster. Andyou know, and I have keV Mo
in this movie that I produced aboutJames Cotton, and he goes, yeah,
and all those white people going,oh, look at them out there,
they're so happy picking cotton. Butthe thing that's great, that that's
(15:31):
great about it is that it bringspeople together. Uh. It shows people
that we have a lot more incommon, uh than necessarily what our outward
covering might be. That in ourheart, in our soul, we're simply
all God's children. And I don'twant to get on you, but I
(15:52):
know, but that's exactly right.Though you couldn't have praised it better.
I appreciate that. So let's talkabout uh the what's it Friday night,
the nineteenth? This Friday night?Tonight's Tuesday. So yeah, yeah,
seventy two hours from now, you'llbe out in Natick, mass at the
Elks Club. How can folks getout there? I know what it is.
That's on Speed Street near right aroundthe corner from the Roach Brothers.
(16:15):
Yeah, I know that. Well, if it wasn't if I wasn't working
Friday night, i'd be there.Well, yeah, it's ninety five Speed
Street, and there's a ticket linkon the Elks there, and you know,
I had a little trouble with mywebsite today, but the link will
be up on my side. Butthere's a ticket link on the Elk's website
(16:36):
out there, and some of thesome of the proceeds are going through this
veterans organization called Hidden Battles, youknow, And I guess the title kind
of indicates, you know, whatit's about. It it's for veterans that
that kind of a you know,are afraid to step forward and seek help.
(17:00):
You know. You know, it'sfunny because I've worked for veterans since
nineteen seventy two, and there's alot of veterans who, you know,
reach out and help other veterans,but they never really you know, kind
of say, you know, shewas I might need some help too.
So so it's called Hidden Battles,and some of the proceeds that comes through
(17:22):
the door, we'll go to them. But you know, it's a dance
party in the concert, and I'mbringing in a bass player who actually has
done some tours with aerosmith and aguitar player who's played with the Blues Brothers
and a drummer who was with aJay Guiles band for five years. So
it's an aweso out there. Butit's a small confraternity out there, real
(17:47):
the real musicians. But James,you know them all. So the website's
real simple, James Montgomery Blues banddot com. Check it out. If
you got a harmonica while right by, And I don't know if you do,
because obviously we're in radio I can'tsee. But man, if you
want to lead us out here,we got about a minute left and you
got you got something you can playwell. I don't know if harmonica,
but always has a harmonica earyby,Oh my god, this is this guy
(18:18):
made this harmonica that he tuned differently, but anyway, sounded great. It's
a little something. It sounded great. It sounded great. A little bit
of a little bit of a preview. James, just keep on keeping on.
I know that you tell me thereare many nights after the show you
you're heading back home and you pickus up on the radio, and I
(18:38):
know we're riding shotgun with you,and and so such an honor to have
you on the show, and Ihope as many listeners in the Western suburbs
take an opportunity to swing by thenNatick Elx on Friday Night. James Montgomery
Blues Band dot Com. Okay,it's gonna be a great show. And
James, just as I say,keep on keeping on and we will see
(18:59):
you at some point pretty soon,I promise, so I hope. So.
I love your show, and Ilove you, and I love the
fact that that people can't talk aboutanything on your show. So thank you
very much, James, Thank youmuch for what you do as well.
James Montgomery, Ladies and gentlemen,a great, great musician. To see
him in concert is it's it's it'san experience. Let me put it like
(19:21):
that. It is just it isa show in which you feel you a
part of that show. When wecome back, we're going to talk about
a conference and expo that is actuallygoing on in Boston now and it's pretty
interesting, and we are going totalk to a gentleman by the name of
David Hewlett. We'll be back onNightside right after the News at the bottom
(19:44):
of the hour. My name isDan Ray. This is Nightside coming right
back. It's Nightside, Boston's newsradio. Thank you, Sherry Small.
Dan Ray back here on Nightside,joined by David Hewlett. David is involved
in the bio it World conference whichis going on right now in Boston.
(20:07):
It's a bio it World conference inExpo twenty twenty four. So David Hewlett,
welcome to night Side. How areyou tonight, sir? How are
you Dan? Thanks very much?Yees, were doing great. Welcome to
Boston. We like to think ofourselves as the hub of the universe,
so we're happy that you folks arehere. Tell us about this conference and
how long has it been in theplanning and what's it hoping to accomplish.
(20:32):
It's amazing. It's funny. I'mactually I'm like an impostor in all of
this because I'm actually in the entertainmentindustry, so you know, I I
it's really Cindy's Cindy's work here whereshe's She's put together this amazing collection of
people who are working in you know, biology, life sciences, pharmaceutical drug
discovery and and of course the ITside, all the all the wonderful sort
(20:56):
of AI and and and you know, massive computing needs that are that are
required to sort of basically create thefuture. So it's it's pretty amazing.
Well, David, I know youknow from your career as an actor that
that you and I have both beenaround for a while. I'm been in
television UH and UH and radio foran entire career. I had one role
(21:17):
in one movie, Reversal of Fortune, the Cause front Buelau movie does.
Movies don't compare to what what you'vegot. But so how did you,
as someone who's an actor, uh, find yourself immersed in this? Because
I look at it and I geta little intimidated when I when I have
to think about you know, bioand I T and AI. It's a
(21:41):
little bit b Yeah, I wasn'tgreat in science. So how'd you get
involved? Well, you know whatwe're we're then we're exactly the same.
Because I my head has been mylittle actor brain is spinning. I just
I find this stuff absolutely fascinating.Like I've just I've always had a sort
of passion for science and technologies.You know, as you know, when
you get into the acting side ofthings, you immediately become an artist.
(22:06):
If you sort of get as achild, you get dragged off to that
side of things, and I neverreally I could never really rid myself of
my love of all the sort ofthe science side and stuff. And I
grew up watching Doctor Who and DoctorWho was on public radio on public television,
and so they would have these littlethings after that would talk about all
the science that could be possible inthese wonderful sme sci fi shows. So
(22:29):
that's where that's where my love camefrom. And I just the wonderful thing
about, you know, being ona show like Stargate was that I now
get to having played geniuses on television, and I'll get to meet and hang
out with them. It's amazing.Well, there are no geniuses on radio,
hair, so I've never experienced that. The one thing that always interested
me was I went to Boston LatinSchool, which is the happens to be
(22:52):
the oldest public school in America.Filed it in sixteen thirty five. Actually,
Harvard College was founded to educate thefirst graduates of Boston Land School,
which is the true true story.You mentioned it. At the airport when
I was coming in, there wasa was a was a little ad about
it was we came in, Ohyeah, yeah, and and and uh
(23:14):
anyway, you had to take well, you had to take three years of
Latin, you had to take Frenchor something. I mean it's very classic,
edged classic education. But but youalso had to take chemistry and physics.
And when I saw the periodic tablewhatever, you know, how one
hundred and twenty or whatever the Imean, I couldn't age two all.
I remember that, but but Iwas kind of overwhelmed by chemistry and it
(23:38):
didn't make a lot of sense tome because I thought that it was fairly
abstract, you know, uh,you know, two atoms of this and
one atom of that, and thismakes that. But when I got to
physics, physics was much more tangible. It was much more concrete, and
I got physics. I don't knowif if if you did well in both,
(24:00):
but for me, that's kind ofscience. Science education ended. So
pick it up from fear for me, David, what else? What are
you guys talking about here? Uh, it's amazing. I've listened to a
couple of a couple of talks already, and as I said, I mean,
look, I'm exactly the situation.I'm like, you know, the
irony here is I am a highschool dropout who plays geniuses on television.
I mean, but I have alwaysbeen a huge fan of lifelong learning.
(24:23):
I mean obviously you are as well. I mean, you just can't help
it. In doing what you're doing. You you pick up things, and
you're interested in things, and youhave to be interested in things in order
to do what you do. It'sthe same for you know, it's the
acting the same thing. And andI you know, and you get to
you know, you get to exercisethat that interest because of because of our
jobs and and so you know,I'll give an example. There was there
(24:45):
was a there was a chat todayamazing uh uh discussion on digital twins,
and I'm like, what the helldoes it do? But this whole concept
of like how do we create howdo we create you know, computational mod
of people that we could experiment onthem instead of getting it wrong in the
person. Pretty stuff too, butpretty scary stuff. I mean, by
(25:10):
the way, let me just quoteget I want. I have a quote
from Einstein that I use all thetime. Albert Einstein. Pretty he's pretty
good genius. He said I haveno special talent. Yeah, pretty smart
guy. He said, I haveno special talent. I am only passionately
curious. That is me. Ithink it's you and I to be honest
(25:32):
with you, mean, we haveno special talent. Okay, we're pretty
curious about this stuff. And sowhat I want to come back to is
we're looking at the AI. We'relooking at all this it T stuff.
Some of it scares me. Therobotics. Are people going to lose jobs
and all of that. I meanthis biotech conference that that you're running here
I Bio I T World Conference inExpo, and it's we're in the middle
(25:57):
of it. So unfortunately, Iwish I'd talk to you about a month
ago and we could have driven somepeople to get there. Is this at
all open to the public? Didwe just miss this? I mean,
is is this something? It's beingheld down I believe down in the seaport,
at the hotel at the which isjust amazing. Yeah, I believe
(26:17):
you could. I mean this,I think there's still access for some of
some of the talks, but it'sthis is the fut is. One of
the reasons why I'm here is becauseI feel like, you know, Hollywood,
we've done a wonderful job of makingeveryone terrified of science and especially biology.
Especially the first thing Ed thinks ofwhen you mentioned AI is determinator.
You know, you know, thefirst thing you know, my kid thinks
(26:41):
of when you talk about genetic engineeringis you know, Rise of the Planet
of the Apes. You know.So, I feel like Hollywood has done
a grave disservice in this regard.There is so much. I mean,
I am a tech optimist, Iwill admit that I think it's really important
that we consider. I mean,the whole nature of science fiction is not
just to create poss futures. It'salso to stop from the creation of some
(27:03):
futures. Right. It's about lookingahead and saying, hey, what do
we you know, what are weplaying with here? And what you know,
what should we be doing in advancethe tendency for people to sort of
rush ahead with this stuff. Whatyou know, one of the wonderful things
about about the the you know,the biological and computing side of this stuff
is that it's an area that Ihad not been interested. Like you you
know, chemistry was just just seemedlike a ridiculous a bunch of just a
(27:26):
lot of books to read. Thereality is, though, this brings together
so many different areas like you've gotyou know, you've got ai helping people
to live longer. You've got aireading reading, uh you know, MRI
scans and stuff in a way thatbetter than humans because they can see patterns
that we don't. I mean,there's a potential here to make people live
(27:47):
longer, healthier, you know.And I'm not again, this is not
just you know, I understand thatthat there's a fear element here, but
I but at the same time,I think as long as we keep that
in mind, there is so muchpotential behind this stuff. It's just it's
a I mean, look, welive in interesting times, and I think
that you know, while that canalso that can be a curse, I
think there's also just some amazing possibilitiesahead. And and this is just a
(28:10):
and it's just a lot of incrediblypassionate people around this stuff. And when
you actually talk to them, yousee, you know, you see just
how excited they are about making adifference. You know, then when they
when they're people, they come acrossvery differently than when you just hear about
the corporation, you know what Imean, I do, I do.
And And by the way that thatpart of the city where you are,
(28:30):
I don't know how often you've beenable to you know, if you get
to Boston over over time, butwhen when you and I sec time now,
well, when you and I bothare a little younger, that was
pretty much like a bunch of fishwarehouses and parking in a parking lot.
Is really that makes sense? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah, beautiful now
absolutely in one of the former mayors, uh, well two mayors, Mayor
(28:52):
Menino, Tom Menino, mayor MartyWalsh. Uh they saw that that came
to life. And obviously at thisbiotech conference which is again here in Boston,
folks can get information, I guessif they go to the website,
which is b I O dash itT Worldexpo dot com. And so hopefully
(29:17):
some people tonight have been interested inthis. You're speaking tomorrow, if I'm
not mistaken, I'm speaking to moreand more the crack of dawn tomorrow.
I don't know if I we callthat but the crack of down. But
certainly at eight thirty. Remember this, when you're in Boston, down comes
a little earlier than when you werein Hollywood. That's an actor. Anything
(29:41):
before ned is the crack of donoh no, no, I totally get
that. That's why I'm on eightto midnight, the Late Night. Oh
yeah, absolutely, David has beenbeen a thrill to talk with you.
Your your enthusiasm is is contagious.Uh, And I I don't know if
we could ever do anything for youon any of this. Your talk tomorrow
(30:04):
is the plenary keynote presentation lights cameras, science, film and social media influence
on real world scientific progress and innovation. And if I wasn't working with I
try to crash the party and listento your talk. Is your talking is
there? Is there? Are yougoing to do it in Boston again or
(30:26):
be doing it probably in Toronto orsomewhere. No, I think it's I
mean, I think it's I'm assumingit's possible again. You guys, you
guys have all the great the greattech here. Oh I know that.
Oh absolutely got it? You know, M I t across the river this
place called Harvard where they have somestat kids. Uh, and have your
pr folks get to us a littleearlier. We could promote it a little
bit. And if there are partprograms that are either accessible to the public
(30:48):
or the public and you know,get by a pass or whatever. A
lot of my listeners would love towould love to come down, so keep
in touch, David Hewlett. Nothingto Hewlett Packard, right, David.
I just want to make sure Iwish it's like the money. Yes,
all right, remember that Einstein quotebecause it's pretty so will I have no
(31:10):
special talent. I am only passionatelycurious, passionately curious. I shall keep
it in mind. Thanks David,Welcome to Boston, and break a leg.
Thank you so much. Break aleg tomorrow morning. Okay, thanks
David. Talking to all right,that was fun. I really enjoyed talking
(31:32):
with David Hewlett, and I hopeyou enjoyed that as much as I did.
Although I got the chance to talkto him. We're going to change
the topic, change the tone alittle bit. We're going to talk about
the difficult question that more young peopleare being diagnosed with cancer. I guess
the question is why and how canyoung people lower their risk. We're going
(31:52):
to talk with a doctor about that. Coming back on nights side, right
after the break and then after thenine o'clock news is going to get to
some politics, some Massachusetts politics.We got a Republican who would like to
unseat Elizabeth Warren. Not a badidea. We'll be back Right after this,
you're on Night Side with Dan Rayon WBZ, Boston's news radio.
(32:15):
My next guest is doctor Tricia passreach Up. She is a contributing columnist
to the Washington Post. But itlooks to me, doctor Pashwicaz, if
you were based in Boston, isthat true? That's right. I'm a
guesstentrologist. That that is real,excellent, excellent, Harvard University. Got
your medical degree at Vanderbilt, anothergrade school, and I did work here
(32:37):
at the Harvard at the THHGN Schoolof Public Health. And you have written
a piece in the Washington Post whichwas in yesterday that more young people are
getting cancer. How did they lowertheir risk? Cancer rates among people under
fifty around the rise? What's goingon? It's a great question. This
(32:59):
is a trend that scientists have beennoting. It's actually been going on for
several decades, and there's been somebig studies in the last couple of years
that have looked at this, andbasically that's exactly it. The cancer rates
for a number of different cancers,colorectal, breast cancer, prostate cancer,
and they've all been rising among youngerpeople. And when we say younger people,
were talking about people under fifty,but the rate seemed to be going
(33:22):
up almost across the board. Wow, is this I assume it's not genetic?
Is it food related? Is adiet related? Is? I mean
young people not working? Are theyworking? Not jobs that don't keep them
in shape. I'm trying to thinkof what how we have changed as a
(33:45):
society. Fewer manual labor jobs,people sitting there in front of computers more.
What are some of the factors thatthey're being looked at. Yeah,
you're asking all the right question thatit's all the same questions that we've been
asking metal community. I mean,I think we think that there has to
be something environmental, right, becausethe genes aren't necessarily changing profoundly, but
(34:07):
things in our environment we know arechanging. And so there have been a
couple of big studies that I thinkare important for people to know about.
But diet does play a huge role. So, for example, in colorectal
cancer, there have been a numberof cities that have shown diets that are
high and things like processed meats thatthings like hot dogs, bacon, red
(34:28):
meats like beef, those actually increasethe risk of colorectal cancer. Whereas people
whose diets are rich in fruits,vegetables and whole grains seem to be more
protective. And as we all know, the shift in the American diet,
the kind of more ultra processed foodsand a little bit of more unhealthy diet
has really taken hold of the countryand a lot of the Western world for
the last couple of decades. Sowe do think diets playing a big role,
(34:50):
but it's not the whole story.There seems to be a lot of
things that are related to diet butmaybe not quite the same thing, and
so that would be things like insulinresistance, and certainly you touched on this
the amount that we have kind ofbecome a little bit more sedentary in society
that does seem to play a rolein cancer as well. So all of
these things are sort of linked together. And certainly there's the known risk factors
(35:13):
like smoking, which you know thecountry we've actually that those numbers have decreased,
but we know that's a big riskfactor. But alcohol use too,
which in certain demographics has gone up. That's been shown more recently to be
actually playing a probably bigger role thanwe realized in cancer risk. There's a
number of different environmental factors that arechanging. But what happens is that we
all get these conflicting reports, thoseof us who are not in the medical
(35:36):
community, but those of us wholisten to the medical community. One week
you read that red wine is wonderful, it's good for your heart, you
know, obviously in moderation, andthen the next week, well, maybe
we're not so sure about red wine. I think about the food pyramid that
I grew up with in the nineteenfifties and sixties. It's very different from
the food pyramid that we're eating today. I assume that we are making,
(35:59):
who are all eating healthier today,progressively healthier than we did in the fifties
and sixties, when yeah, thoseHamburgs one night, you know, hot
dogs the next side, we willlive in on that Back in those days,
it seems as the better odd dietsbecome. Is it almost seems like
there's an inverse relationship. Now,I know that's not the sort of question
(36:20):
you want me to ask, butthat's what I'm thinking. How wrong am
I on that? No, you'renot wrong. First of all, you're
not wrong at all to say thatit's confusing it's confusing aswer to hear like,
I mean, lots of different piecesof advice, and certainly red wine
has been a savior and a culpritat different points in our history because we've
just learned more and more as timegoes by, and the same thing goes
(36:43):
for coffee, for going to sake. There's all kinds of things. I
think. What I tell people,because it is confusing for patients, is
that one, you know, youshould look at all these respectors and just
pull back and go back to thebasics. Some things that we intuitively know
to be true are going to staytrue. So we know that things like
sugary foods and drinking beverages that havea high sugar content, those have been
(37:06):
linked to cancers like colarexal cancers.There's never a period in our lives and
we're going to have told each otherthat that was good for us. And
things like eating a balance to dietand things like having a healthy amount of
moderate exercise. That's always going tobe true as being something that's healthy,
So some of the basics are stayingthe same. The other thing I tell
patients too, though, is thatyou know the unfortunate nature of cancer,
(37:28):
especially in younger folks, is thatthere's often, you know, actually nobody
to blame or no single factor toblame, and that can be so frustrating.
We're seeing a lot of these cancersoccur in young, healthy people who
come to me, come to theirdoctors and say, but I've done everything
right, And the truth is thatthey have. But there are these factors
that are outside of people's controls,and that would be things like maybe pollutants
(37:50):
in the air or something that happenedin their childhood that they didn't make kind
of conscious decisions about, but couldhave been in the food, could have
been in the soil, the water, things like that. So it's not
necessarily something that people made choices about, particularly when we're talking about early on
set or cancer that happened at ayounger age. You know. I remember,
as a child of the fifties,my dad was a chain smoker.
(38:14):
Two packs of camels, non filteredto day. He used to send me
when I was like eight, togo to the Focal variety store get him
a pack of cigarettes. That's theworld change now. He went Cold Turkey
in sixty four, nineteen sixty four, when the surgeon J. Wow cold
Turkey. Oh, hard headed irishman, trust me on that. Okay,
(38:34):
that's very hard to do. Thatis very impressive. Old cold, cold
cold Turkey never smoked again and livedfor another thirty six years, you know,
and passed in his eighties. I'venever smoked a cigarette in my life
because I hated the smell of smoke. I think that he has that.
Ironically, his bad habits have mademe a not a a non smoker.
(39:00):
Okay, I meanside to this,yes, yes, so it's you just
never know. Uh, doctor,this was real pleasure to h to meet
you. I have lots of friendsin the medical community and in the Boston
area, and at some point wewill we will bump into one another.
But I'd love to have you backon this subject or other medical subjects often.
(39:22):
I really enjoyed the conversation. Likewise, thank you for having me.
All right, thank you very much, doctor Tricia pas Rika, who is
practicing in Boston. And again,you're associated with Beth Israel. That's right,
I'm I guess I'm religios of BethIsrael and instructor at Harvard. Great.
Sometimes we want to I want tocome back and talk about colonoscopies,
(39:45):
because that's one that a lot ofmy listeners are facing, and I suspect
that you have an expertise in thatarea. So it's one of my very
favorite subjects. I've been glad rightsmile, wait, but we will,
we will, We will do thissoon. Thanks so much, doctor,
appreciate it very very much. Excellenttake care, thanks doctor Tricia Pasrica.
(40:07):
When we get back, we aregoing to talk with a gentleman who's kind
of new to Massachusetts and he admitsit, but he's running for the United
States senter. His name is JohnDeaton. Coming back right after the nine
on Night Side
It's a nice size. Ray.I'm going Boston's News Radio. Thank you
very much, Sherry Small. Alwaysgreat to hear your voice here on the
night Side portion of the broadcast dayhere in WBZ. My name is Dan
Ray. I am the host ofthis program. Rob Brooks is back in
the control room. He's the producerand he will set everything up for us
(00:21):
as we proceed through the night.A little later on tonight, beginning at
nine o'clock, we'll be talking witha man who would like to unsee Liz
Warren as from the United States Senate. That's going to be an interesting conversation.
I am sure. We will alsotalk about human hacking. We had
a gentleman on a couple of weeksago, and he talked about the idea
(00:44):
that humans are the people who arethe hackers, and they get into corporations,
they get into your private materials onyour Facebook page or on your computer,
on your tablet, on your iPhoneor whatever, and how can we
prevent that. We'll talk about that, but first we have four very interesting
guest beginning this hour, as wedo every night from eight until nine here
on Nightside. Sort of like theadvertisers for the program, if you will.
(01:07):
And look, there is no subjectthat is closer and dearer to my
heart than pets. And we havewith us a young woman named Erica Sinner.
She has written a book Pets AreFamily, and I don't think anyone
could disagree with that, And she'salso pushing for bereavement leave that some companies
(01:32):
now are wisely making available to people. First of all, let me welcome
Erica. Erica, how are youtonight? Welcome to Nightside. Hi,
Dan, thank you so much forhaving me. It's really an honor to
be here, and I'm so happyto be talking to you about this important
subject. Well, I will tellyou I have ended my program for the
last fourteen years. All pets,all dogs, all cats, they all
(01:57):
go to heaven. And that's wheremy dog Charlie for many many years he
was my companion in studio is asfar as I'm concerned, and I think
that's where all the pets are,and I think that all of us will
see them again. And of courseI end by saying hope to see again
tomorrow night on Nightside. But that'show we sign off this program. I
(02:17):
believe in this very very strongly,and I certainly believe in the concept of
pets are part of the family.Now, some people might be listening to
us right now and think, well, those two are crazy, because but
I will get you they had neverhad a pet in their family and talk
about it. Tell us about thebook first of all. Then we'll get
to the whole question of bereavement leavefor you know, for individuals who find
(02:44):
it's tough to go to work fora few days after a family member one
of their pets passes. Absolutely andI love this, that's how you end
your show. I actually was justlistening to your April fifth episode and even
some of your listeners who dialed inand they were talking about their pasts.
You can really just feel how muchthey love them, and how they are
so smart with their personalities, andjust the joy that they give us in
(03:07):
our own lives is really special.My book was inspired last year. I
lost my shar Pei Kingston in May. We had about a week's notice.
It was it was really quick,and I founded my company always with the
intention of having peprequent leave. I'vealways believed in an empathy driven culture and
(03:28):
empathy driven leadership, and part ofthat I believe you can do with compassionate
policies like having pepper recently. Whatwas interesting to me is I didn't appreciate
how I would feel actually taking thetime off last year. There was a
lot of shame in how I felt. I wondered if others would think,
you know, me, as aCEO in my position, you know,
(03:50):
can I get it together or what'sgoing on? Right? It's just a
dog, It's how I was justinternalizing it, even though I had it
in my policy and my employees totake advantage of it. You know,
my dogs even have an Instagram accountwith forty thousand followers, and there's love
around the world for them that Ijust now I see, Oh I wish,
I wish I had forty thousand followerson Instagram. That's that's fabulous.
(04:13):
By the way, explain your company, which is unrelated to the pet topic,
I guess directly, just so wedon't confuse anyone. Your company is
called Directory. Is that how it'sspelled. It's spelled differently, but is
it pronounced It ends ie as opposedto directory with a Y. Tell us
about the company, just so weget a little context. Absolutely, Yeah,
(04:35):
you've got it. So Directory isa company that serves small to mid
size to growing life science organizations.There's a lot of innovation happening in the
life science space and a lot ofreally important medications that deserve to make it
out to patients who deserve to receiveit as well. But what a lot
of people don't know that aren't inthe pharmaceutical world. What they don't know
(04:57):
as as you submit to the FDA, you have to wait for a and
it doesn't always come right on time, and so these smaller organizations have trouble
getting access to top talent. Andso that's where we step in. We
come in and help them commercialize themarket, figure out who are the doctors
that can find the patients that wouldreally benefit from these these incredible products.
That has been my life's work.I've always been in a life science space
(05:21):
and so I've always believed in helpingpeople and how can we do better?
And yes, completely unrelated to mybook. Okay, how long is how
long has your company? Directory beenaround? A while? We've been around
for about six years. We haveactually a lot of clients in Boston.
And then prior to that, Ispent my career either consulting or as part
(05:43):
of a pharmaceutical company. Okay,so let's come back to you said that
you, of course took the beefand policy. That's called leadership Erica.
Nothing to be ashamed of you.You took that, you implemented that policy,
and you showed everyone else in yourcompany that that that is a policy
that people should have available. Iwish I had had that policy in my
(06:09):
company. We did not have apolicy. I did my show the night
that Charlie passed, a beautiful CavaliertKing Charles Spaniel who passed on February fifteenth,
twenty ten, and it was thetoughest show I think of my life.
I mean, just to get throughthe night. And he would he
would sit in. They were sopets are so smart. I mean,
(06:30):
I could tell you stories that I'mgoing to buy you with the stories.
But when Charlie, you know,he would wait, and when he you
know, during the news break,I'd take him outside and hid do his
business and then he'd come back inand snooze in the corner or just kind
of sit and listen. Anyway,I have other have other members of your
company now taken advantage of this wonderfulbenefit. Yes, we have had others,
(06:57):
And that's also the important thing toknow that I think for readment is
very personal, just as it iswith human beings. They think we have
different relationships with each of our animalsand the same way we have different relationships
with our family and friends in ourlives, and so it is a personal
decision on how much time you needand actually taking the time and for some
coming to work and being distracted fora little while before you go back and
(07:21):
you're breathing at home, that eveningmight make the most sense. But I
think for those of us that doneed a moment and need some space to
breathe, I think it could bea really nice way for employers to signal
to employees in your life outside ofwork matters. And we recognize this is
a really hard time. It's beenreally I just hearing you talk about it
(07:42):
and to say it's leadership. Ithink I'm starting to understand that now,
and the more I can be vulnerableand the more that I'm sharing this connection
that we have with our animals,that we are leading the way, it's
you know, seeing scottman Pelt onSports Center and most recently John Stewart also
talking about the profound that they hadlosing their dogs on TV has just been
(08:03):
really inspiring. So I'm hoping weall are opening up more into into how
much we love our animals. Iwill tell you the morning that that we
said goodbye to him, I heldhim while the doctor you know, put
him to sleep, and just youknow, held him and told him I
loved him, and you know,talked to him all the way. And
(08:24):
then I didn't break down until aboutthree weeks later when in Urn, which
we had purchased a really nice Mahoganyern, was returned to us with his
ashes, and I sat alone inmy kitchen. My my wife was at
work, my kids were off atschool and college, and I just wept,
That's all. And so believe me, believe me. You have a
(08:46):
supporter here in this concept. Pleasetell us how they can get your book.
Okay, Pets your Family, where'sthat available? As I had a
website pets Orfamily dot info, andall of the resources that I have on
the back of my book I haveavailable in PDF formats. You can get
them right away on the website,but you can also order the book there.
There's links to Amazon, Walmart,Barnes and Nobles. It's available in
(09:11):
all bookstores. Great. Yeah,well that makes it easy once one stop
shopping and Erica again, keep usif you will follow me on Instagram,
It's real simple. WVZ underscored nightSide. I will make sure that we
try to get as many of ourlisteners to follow you as well. I'm
(09:31):
dwarfed by the number of Instagram followersthat you have, but love to have
you follow me. And if youever listen every night when we end this
show at about eleven fifty seven fiftyeight, that's my sign off and I'm
mean absolutely. I'll also share onmy John's Instagram account too. I really
appreciate you just being so open andvulnerable and talking about it on your show.
(09:52):
It really means a lot. Well, Erica, right back at you.
Erica Center the author of the bookPets or Family. She is a
CEO of a company and she hasbasically placed in benefit for her employees pet
bereven and leave if they happen tohave a pet who passes on while they're
(10:13):
working there. That's leadership. Erica, thank you so much for being with
us, and hopefully we get achance to meet someday. That would be
wonderful. Thank you all right,thanks very much. We come back my
pal James Montgomery, one of thegreat blues men in the world. He
has an upcoming local show. We'lltell you all about it. James Montgomery
is just incredible. He's an incredibleentertainer. We'll be talking to him on
(10:37):
the other side of this break.Here on Nightside, It's WVS, Boston's
news Radio. It's Tuesday night,the day after the marathon. If some
of you out there are still sorefrom walking or running yesterday or whatever,
just sit back and relax and we'llget you all the way to midnight.
Coming back on Nightside, It's nightSide with Boston's News Radio. Well,
(11:03):
I'm thrilled to have my pal JamesMontgomery back tonight. James, welcome back
to Nightside. How are you.I'm doing great, especially now that I'm
on your show. Dad. Youknow, I look forward to our conversations,
and as you know, I'm aregular listener. I'm as a working
musician. You are my night sidecompanion and many an evening home from again.
(11:28):
I was just looking at your schedule. You've had a busy schedule this
last weekend. You're on Franklin,Mass everybody knows where that is. And
then you were down to the Capedown in Truro and coming up this Friday
night, you're going to be outat a venue I know pretty well,
the Natick Elks Club. First ofall, there's some listeners who are going
to say, what's up, bluesman. It described that to me,
(11:50):
this is you have an amazing performerentertainer. I've seen you so many times.
But look, just talk about theblues a little bit so people know
what we're talking about. James,Well, you know, it's funny.
I had a radio show for anumber of years, maybe five years,
and then I ended up joining theJohnny Winter Band, and I was on
(12:11):
the road so much I couldn't sustainmy show. But the reason I mentioned
that is that I had a momentwhen I was fifteen and heard live blues
for the first time and heard liveblue harmonica, and I had this moment.
It was like the sudden, thisfeeling inside, you know, and
every blues musician that you interview theyremember that moment. You know. Bonnie
(12:35):
Ray was at a camp and thecamp counselor pulled out a guitar and played
blues, and you know, JamesJames Cotton heard blues on the radio.
All of us blues musicians and youknow, Rocket Roll people, I'm not
sure they have that. I thinkit's like, you know, I want
to wear beatle boots, I wantto get girls, I want to play
guitar. But with blues musicians,with blues musicians, we have a moment
(13:00):
that we all remember when when wesaid whow and then it kind of knocks
you back on your feet and yougo and you go, wow, that's
that's I want to play that music. So so it's like a it's really
a feeling that that you know thatyou kind of identify with for the rest
of your life. Now you're awhite guy who grew up in Detroit and
(13:20):
not bringing the issue of race intothis, but when you think about the
blues, you often think about someof the great bluesmen being you know,
black and from the South. Here'sthis white guy from Detroit who's who's living
this this dream, living this life. Yeah, you know, you know.
I built a washtub base and Imade a harmonica rack out of some
(13:41):
of the heavy duty wire from mydad's h Over Hero outset, and and
I would play the wash tub andthe harmonica along with Jimmy read records.
My parents must have been upstairs andwell he quit that, please stop playing
that. But anyway, so,you know, so when I was playing
(14:01):
the washtub base, I dreaming aboutbb King and Johnley Hooker and Buddy Guy
and Junior Wellson and Johny Hooker andand and Muddy Waters. And eventually in
my life I played with all ofthem, and including including a jam with
Mick Jagger, and they spent afew days at George Harrison at some point.
But but all we did we talkedabout Indian philosophy. But anyway,
(14:24):
so so you know, all theseguys, know, you know, this
whole thing about you know, whiteand black people. Eventually, you know,
all the guys, Jonley Hooker,you know, James Cotton, Muddy
Waters, they all understood after awhile that that that music they created was
(14:46):
able to have the same that peopledon't matter what color or whatever they are,
were able to have that same feeling, that same reaction that that they
had when when they invented this musicand when they you know, of course,
you know, it started as fieldhowlers in the in the Deep South.
You know, when you know,when when when they were forced to
(15:09):
doing forced labor in the hot SundaySlavery made up these songs to kind of
make today go by faster. Andyou know, and I have keV Mo
in this movie that I produced aboutJames Cotton, and he goes, yeah,
and all those white people going,oh, look at them out there,
they're so happy picking cotton. Butthe thing that's great, that that's
(15:31):
great about it is that it bringspeople together. Uh. It shows people
that we have a lot more incommon, uh than necessarily what our outward
covering might be. That in ourheart, in our soul, we're simply
all God's children. And I don'twant to get on you, but I
(15:52):
know, but that's exactly right.Though you couldn't have praised it better.
I appreciate that. So let's talkabout uh the what's it Friday night,
the nineteenth? This Friday night?Tonight's Tuesday. So yeah, yeah,
seventy two hours from now, you'llbe out in Natick, mass at the
Elks Club. How can folks getout there? I know what it is.
That's on Speed Street near right aroundthe corner from the Roach Brothers.
(16:15):
Yeah, I know that. Well, if it wasn't if I wasn't working
Friday night, i'd be there.Well, yeah, it's ninety five Speed
Street, and there's a ticket linkon the Elks there, and you know,
I had a little trouble with mywebsite today, but the link will
be up on my side. Butthere's a ticket link on the Elk's website
(16:36):
out there, and some of thesome of the proceeds are going through this
veterans organization called Hidden Battles, youknow, And I guess the title kind
of indicates, you know, whatit's about. It it's for veterans that
that kind of a you know,are afraid to step forward and seek help.
(17:00):
You know. You know, it'sfunny because I've worked for veterans since
nineteen seventy two, and there's alot of veterans who, you know,
reach out and help other veterans,but they never really you know, kind
of say, you know, shewas I might need some help too.
So so it's called Hidden Battles,and some of the proceeds that comes through
(17:22):
the door, we'll go to them. But you know, it's a dance
party in the concert, and I'mbringing in a bass player who actually has
done some tours with aerosmith and aguitar player who's played with the Blues Brothers
and a drummer who was with aJay Guiles band for five years. So
it's an aweso out there. Butit's a small confraternity out there, real
(17:47):
the real musicians. But James,you know them all. So the website's
real simple, James Montgomery Blues banddot com. Check it out. If
you got a harmonica while right by, And I don't know if you do,
because obviously we're in radio I can'tsee. But man, if you
want to lead us out here,we got about a minute left and you
got you got something you can playwell. I don't know if harmonica,
but always has a harmonica earyby,Oh my god, this is this guy
(18:18):
made this harmonica that he tuned differently, but anyway, sounded great. It's
a little something. It sounded great. It sounded great. A little bit
of a little bit of a preview. James, just keep on keeping on.
I know that you tell me thereare many nights after the show you
you're heading back home and you pickus up on the radio, and I
(18:38):
know we're riding shotgun with you,and and so such an honor to have
you on the show, and Ihope as many listeners in the Western suburbs
take an opportunity to swing by thenNatick Elx on Friday Night. James Montgomery
Blues Band dot Com. Okay,it's gonna be a great show. And
James, just as I say,keep on keeping on and we will see
(18:59):
you at some point pretty soon,I promise, so I hope. So.
I love your show, and Ilove you, and I love the
fact that that people can't talk aboutanything on your show. So thank you
very much, James, Thank youmuch for what you do as well.
James Montgomery, Ladies and gentlemen,a great, great musician. To see
him in concert is it's it's it'san experience. Let me put it like
(19:21):
that. It is just it isa show in which you feel you a
part of that show. When wecome back, we're going to talk about
a conference and expo that is actuallygoing on in Boston now and it's pretty
interesting, and we are going totalk to a gentleman by the name of
David Hewlett. We'll be back onNightside right after the News at the bottom
(19:44):
of the hour. My name isDan Ray. This is Nightside coming right
back. It's Nightside, Boston's newsradio. Thank you, Sherry Small.
Dan Ray back here on Nightside,joined by David Hewlett. David is involved
in the bio it World conference whichis going on right now in Boston.
(20:07):
It's a bio it World conference inExpo twenty twenty four. So David Hewlett,
welcome to night Side. How areyou tonight, sir? How are
you Dan? Thanks very much?Yees, were doing great. Welcome to
Boston. We like to think ofourselves as the hub of the universe,
so we're happy that you folks arehere. Tell us about this conference and
how long has it been in theplanning and what's it hoping to accomplish.
(20:32):
It's amazing. It's funny. I'mactually I'm like an impostor in all of
this because I'm actually in the entertainmentindustry, so you know, I I
it's really Cindy's Cindy's work here whereshe's She's put together this amazing collection of
people who are working in you know, biology, life sciences, pharmaceutical drug
discovery and and of course the ITside, all the all the wonderful sort
(20:56):
of AI and and and you know, massive computing needs that are that are
required to sort of basically create thefuture. So it's it's pretty amazing.
Well, David, I know youknow from your career as an actor that
that you and I have both beenaround for a while. I'm been in
television UH and UH and radio foran entire career. I had one role
(21:17):
in one movie, Reversal of Fortune, the Cause front Buelau movie does.
Movies don't compare to what what you'vegot. But so how did you,
as someone who's an actor, uh, find yourself immersed in this? Because
I look at it and I geta little intimidated when I when I have
to think about you know, bioand I T and AI. It's a
(21:41):
little bit b Yeah, I wasn'tgreat in science. So how'd you get
involved? Well, you know whatwe're we're then we're exactly the same.
Because I my head has been mylittle actor brain is spinning. I just
I find this stuff absolutely fascinating.Like I've just I've always had a sort
of passion for science and technologies.You know, as you know, when
you get into the acting side ofthings, you immediately become an artist.
(22:06):
If you sort of get as achild, you get dragged off to that
side of things, and I neverreally I could never really rid myself of
my love of all the sort ofthe science side and stuff. And I
grew up watching Doctor Who and DoctorWho was on public radio on public television,
and so they would have these littlethings after that would talk about all
the science that could be possible inthese wonderful sme sci fi shows. So
(22:29):
that's where that's where my love camefrom. And I just the wonderful thing
about, you know, being ona show like Stargate was that I now
get to having played geniuses on television, and I'll get to meet and hang
out with them. It's amazing.Well, there are no geniuses on radio,
hair, so I've never experienced that. The one thing that always interested
me was I went to Boston LatinSchool, which is the happens to be
(22:52):
the oldest public school in America.Filed it in sixteen thirty five. Actually,
Harvard College was founded to educate thefirst graduates of Boston Land School,
which is the true true story.You mentioned it. At the airport when
I was coming in, there wasa was a was a little ad about
it was we came in, Ohyeah, yeah, and and and uh
(23:14):
anyway, you had to take well, you had to take three years of
Latin, you had to take Frenchor something. I mean it's very classic,
edged classic education. But but youalso had to take chemistry and physics.
And when I saw the periodic tablewhatever, you know, how one
hundred and twenty or whatever the Imean, I couldn't age two all.
I remember that, but but Iwas kind of overwhelmed by chemistry and it
(23:38):
didn't make a lot of sense tome because I thought that it was fairly
abstract, you know, uh,you know, two atoms of this and
one atom of that, and thismakes that. But when I got to
physics, physics was much more tangible. It was much more concrete, and
I got physics. I don't knowif if if you did well in both,
(24:00):
but for me, that's kind ofscience. Science education ended. So
pick it up from fear for me, David, what else? What are
you guys talking about here? Uh, it's amazing. I've listened to a
couple of a couple of talks already, and as I said, I mean,
look, I'm exactly the situation.I'm like, you know, the
irony here is I am a highschool dropout who plays geniuses on television.
I mean, but I have alwaysbeen a huge fan of lifelong learning.
(24:23):
I mean obviously you are as well. I mean, you just can't help
it. In doing what you're doing. You you pick up things, and
you're interested in things, and youhave to be interested in things in order
to do what you do. It'sthe same for you know, it's the
acting the same thing. And andI you know, and you get to
you know, you get to exercisethat that interest because of because of our
jobs and and so you know,I'll give an example. There was there
(24:45):
was a there was a chat todayamazing uh uh discussion on digital twins,
and I'm like, what the helldoes it do? But this whole concept
of like how do we create howdo we create you know, computational mod
of people that we could experiment onthem instead of getting it wrong in the
person. Pretty stuff too, butpretty scary stuff. I mean, by
(25:10):
the way, let me just quoteget I want. I have a quote
from Einstein that I use all thetime. Albert Einstein. Pretty he's pretty
good genius. He said I haveno special talent. Yeah, pretty smart
guy. He said, I haveno special talent. I am only passionately
curious. That is me. Ithink it's you and I to be honest
(25:32):
with you, mean, we haveno special talent. Okay, we're pretty
curious about this stuff. And sowhat I want to come back to is
we're looking at the AI. We'relooking at all this it T stuff.
Some of it scares me. Therobotics. Are people going to lose jobs
and all of that. I meanthis biotech conference that that you're running here
I Bio I T World Conference inExpo, and it's we're in the middle
(25:57):
of it. So unfortunately, Iwish I'd talk to you about a month
ago and we could have driven somepeople to get there. Is this at
all open to the public? Didwe just miss this? I mean,
is is this something? It's beingheld down I believe down in the seaport,
at the hotel at the which isjust amazing. Yeah, I believe
(26:17):
you could. I mean this,I think there's still access for some of
some of the talks, but it'sthis is the fut is. One of
the reasons why I'm here is becauseI feel like, you know, Hollywood,
we've done a wonderful job of makingeveryone terrified of science and especially biology.
Especially the first thing Ed thinks ofwhen you mentioned AI is determinator.
You know, you know, thefirst thing you know, my kid thinks
(26:41):
of when you talk about genetic engineeringis you know, Rise of the Planet
of the Apes. You know.So, I feel like Hollywood has done
a grave disservice in this regard.There is so much. I mean,
I am a tech optimist, Iwill admit that I think it's really important
that we consider. I mean,the whole nature of science fiction is not
just to create poss futures. It'salso to stop from the creation of some
(27:03):
futures. Right. It's about lookingahead and saying, hey, what do
we you know, what are weplaying with here? And what you know,
what should we be doing in advancethe tendency for people to sort of
rush ahead with this stuff. Whatyou know, one of the wonderful things
about about the the you know,the biological and computing side of this stuff
is that it's an area that Ihad not been interested. Like you you
know, chemistry was just just seemedlike a ridiculous a bunch of just a
(27:26):
lot of books to read. Thereality is, though, this brings together
so many different areas like you've gotyou know, you've got ai helping people
to live longer. You've got aireading reading, uh you know, MRI
scans and stuff in a way thatbetter than humans because they can see patterns
that we don't. I mean,there's a potential here to make people live
(27:47):
longer, healthier, you know.And I'm not again, this is not
just you know, I understand thatthat there's a fear element here, but
I but at the same time,I think as long as we keep that
in mind, there is so muchpotential behind this stuff. It's just it's
a I mean, look, welive in interesting times, and I think
that you know, while that canalso that can be a curse, I
think there's also just some amazing possibilitiesahead. And and this is just a
(28:10):
and it's just a lot of incrediblypassionate people around this stuff. And when
you actually talk to them, yousee, you know, you see just
how excited they are about making adifference. You know, then when they
when they're people, they come acrossvery differently than when you just hear about
the corporation, you know what Imean, I do, I do.
And And by the way that thatpart of the city where you are,
(28:30):
I don't know how often you've beenable to you know, if you get
to Boston over over time, butwhen when you and I sec time now,
well, when you and I bothare a little younger, that was
pretty much like a bunch of fishwarehouses and parking in a parking lot.
Is really that makes sense? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah, beautiful now
absolutely in one of the former mayors, uh, well two mayors, Mayor
(28:52):
Menino, Tom Menino, mayor MartyWalsh. Uh they saw that that came
to life. And obviously at thisbiotech conference which is again here in Boston,
folks can get information, I guessif they go to the website,
which is b I O dash itT Worldexpo dot com. And so hopefully
(29:17):
some people tonight have been interested inthis. You're speaking tomorrow, if I'm
not mistaken, I'm speaking to moreand more the crack of dawn tomorrow.
I don't know if I we callthat but the crack of down. But
certainly at eight thirty. Remember this, when you're in Boston, down comes
a little earlier than when you werein Hollywood. That's an actor. Anything
(29:41):
before ned is the crack of donoh no, no, I totally get
that. That's why I'm on eightto midnight, the Late Night. Oh
yeah, absolutely, David has beenbeen a thrill to talk with you.
Your your enthusiasm is is contagious.Uh, And I I don't know if
we could ever do anything for youon any of this. Your talk tomorrow
(30:04):
is the plenary keynote presentation lights cameras, science, film and social media influence
on real world scientific progress and innovation. And if I wasn't working with I
try to crash the party and listento your talk. Is your talking is
there? Is there? Are yougoing to do it in Boston again or
(30:26):
be doing it probably in Toronto orsomewhere. No, I think it's I
mean, I think it's I'm assumingit's possible again. You guys, you
guys have all the great the greattech here. Oh I know that.
Oh absolutely got it? You know, M I t across the river this
place called Harvard where they have somestat kids. Uh, and have your
pr folks get to us a littleearlier. We could promote it a little
bit. And if there are partprograms that are either accessible to the public
(30:48):
or the public and you know,get by a pass or whatever. A
lot of my listeners would love towould love to come down, so keep
in touch, David Hewlett. Nothingto Hewlett Packard, right, David.
I just want to make sure Iwish it's like the money. Yes,
all right, remember that Einstein quotebecause it's pretty so will I have no
(31:10):
special talent. I am only passionatelycurious, passionately curious. I shall keep
it in mind. Thanks David,Welcome to Boston, and break a leg.
Thank you so much. Break aleg tomorrow morning. Okay, thanks
David. Talking to all right,that was fun. I really enjoyed talking
(31:32):
with David Hewlett, and I hopeyou enjoyed that as much as I did.
Although I got the chance to talkto him. We're going to change
the topic, change the tone alittle bit. We're going to talk about
the difficult question that more young peopleare being diagnosed with cancer. I guess
the question is why and how canyoung people lower their risk. We're going
(31:52):
to talk with a doctor about that. Coming back on nights side, right
after the break and then after thenine o'clock news is going to get to
some politics, some Massachusetts politics.We got a Republican who would like to
unseat Elizabeth Warren. Not a badidea. We'll be back Right after this,
you're on Night Side with Dan Rayon WBZ, Boston's news radio.
(32:15):
My next guest is doctor Tricia passreach Up. She is a contributing columnist
to the Washington Post. But itlooks to me, doctor Pashwicaz, if
you were based in Boston, isthat true? That's right. I'm a
guesstentrologist. That that is real,excellent, excellent, Harvard University. Got
your medical degree at Vanderbilt, anothergrade school, and I did work here
(32:37):
at the Harvard at the THHGN Schoolof Public Health. And you have written
a piece in the Washington Post whichwas in yesterday that more young people are
getting cancer. How did they lowertheir risk? Cancer rates among people under
fifty around the rise? What's goingon? It's a great question. This
(32:59):
is a trend that scientists have beennoting. It's actually been going on for
several decades, and there's been somebig studies in the last couple of years
that have looked at this, andbasically that's exactly it. The cancer rates
for a number of different cancers,colorectal, breast cancer, prostate cancer,
and they've all been rising among youngerpeople. And when we say younger people,
were talking about people under fifty,but the rate seemed to be going
(33:22):
up almost across the board. Wow, is this I assume it's not genetic?
Is it food related? Is adiet related? Is? I mean
young people not working? Are theyworking? Not jobs that don't keep them
in shape. I'm trying to thinkof what how we have changed as a
(33:45):
society. Fewer manual labor jobs,people sitting there in front of computers more.
What are some of the factors thatthey're being looked at. Yeah,
you're asking all the right question thatit's all the same questions that we've been
asking metal community. I mean,I think we think that there has to
be something environmental, right, becausethe genes aren't necessarily changing profoundly, but
(34:07):
things in our environment we know arechanging. And so there have been a
couple of big studies that I thinkare important for people to know about.
But diet does play a huge role. So, for example, in colorectal
cancer, there have been a numberof cities that have shown diets that are
high and things like processed meats thatthings like hot dogs, bacon, red
(34:28):
meats like beef, those actually increasethe risk of colorectal cancer. Whereas people
whose diets are rich in fruits,vegetables and whole grains seem to be more
protective. And as we all know, the shift in the American diet,
the kind of more ultra processed foodsand a little bit of more unhealthy diet
has really taken hold of the countryand a lot of the Western world for
the last couple of decades. Sowe do think diets playing a big role,
(34:50):
but it's not the whole story.There seems to be a lot of
things that are related to diet butmaybe not quite the same thing, and
so that would be things like insulinresistance, and certainly you touched on this
the amount that we have kind ofbecome a little bit more sedentary in society
that does seem to play a rolein cancer as well. So all of
these things are sort of linked together. And certainly there's the known risk factors
(35:13):
like smoking, which you know thecountry we've actually that those numbers have decreased,
but we know that's a big riskfactor. But alcohol use too,
which in certain demographics has gone up. That's been shown more recently to be
actually playing a probably bigger role thanwe realized in cancer risk. There's a
number of different environmental factors that arechanging. But what happens is that we
all get these conflicting reports, thoseof us who are not in the medical
(35:36):
community, but those of us wholisten to the medical community. One week
you read that red wine is wonderful, it's good for your heart, you
know, obviously in moderation, andthen the next week, well, maybe
we're not so sure about red wine. I think about the food pyramid that
I grew up with in the nineteenfifties and sixties. It's very different from
the food pyramid that we're eating today. I assume that we are making,
(35:59):
who are all eating healthier today,progressively healthier than we did in the fifties
and sixties, when yeah, thoseHamburgs one night, you know, hot
dogs the next side, we willlive in on that Back in those days,
it seems as the better odd dietsbecome. Is it almost seems like
there's an inverse relationship. Now,I know that's not the sort of question
(36:20):
you want me to ask, butthat's what I'm thinking. How wrong am
I on that? No, you'renot wrong. First of all, you're
not wrong at all to say thatit's confusing it's confusing aswer to hear like,
I mean, lots of different piecesof advice, and certainly red wine
has been a savior and a culpritat different points in our history because we've
just learned more and more as timegoes by, and the same thing goes
(36:43):
for coffee, for going to sake. There's all kinds of things. I
think. What I tell people,because it is confusing for patients, is
that one, you know, youshould look at all these respectors and just
pull back and go back to thebasics. Some things that we intuitively know
to be true are going to staytrue. So we know that things like
sugary foods and drinking beverages that havea high sugar content, those have been
(37:06):
linked to cancers like colarexal cancers.There's never a period in our lives and
we're going to have told each otherthat that was good for us. And
things like eating a balance to dietand things like having a healthy amount of
moderate exercise. That's always going tobe true as being something that's healthy,
So some of the basics are stayingthe same. The other thing I tell
patients too, though, is thatyou know the unfortunate nature of cancer,
(37:28):
especially in younger folks, is thatthere's often, you know, actually nobody
to blame or no single factor toblame, and that can be so frustrating.
We're seeing a lot of these cancersoccur in young, healthy people who
come to me, come to theirdoctors and say, but I've done everything
right, And the truth is thatthey have. But there are these factors
that are outside of people's controls,and that would be things like maybe pollutants
(37:50):
in the air or something that happenedin their childhood that they didn't make kind
of conscious decisions about, but couldhave been in the food, could have
been in the soil, the water, things like that. So it's not
necessarily something that people made choices about, particularly when we're talking about early on
set or cancer that happened at ayounger age. You know. I remember,
as a child of the fifties,my dad was a chain smoker.
(38:14):
Two packs of camels, non filteredto day. He used to send me
when I was like eight, togo to the Focal variety store get him
a pack of cigarettes. That's theworld change now. He went Cold Turkey
in sixty four, nineteen sixty four, when the surgeon J. Wow cold
Turkey. Oh, hard headed irishman, trust me on that. Okay,
(38:34):
that's very hard to do. Thatis very impressive. Old cold, cold
cold Turkey never smoked again and livedfor another thirty six years, you know,
and passed in his eighties. I'venever smoked a cigarette in my life
because I hated the smell of smoke. I think that he has that.
Ironically, his bad habits have mademe a not a a non smoker.
(39:00):
Okay, I meanside to this,yes, yes, so it's you just
never know. Uh, doctor,this was real pleasure to h to meet
you. I have lots of friendsin the medical community and in the Boston
area, and at some point wewill we will bump into one another.
But I'd love to have you backon this subject or other medical subjects often.
(39:22):
I really enjoyed the conversation. Likewise, thank you for having me.
All right, thank you very much, doctor Tricia pas Rika, who is
practicing in Boston. And again,you're associated with Beth Israel. That's right,
I'm I guess I'm religios of BethIsrael and instructor at Harvard. Great.
Sometimes we want to I want tocome back and talk about colonoscopies,
(39:45):
because that's one that a lot ofmy listeners are facing, and I suspect
that you have an expertise in thatarea. So it's one of my very
favorite subjects. I've been glad rightsmile, wait, but we will,
we will, We will do thissoon. Thanks so much, doctor,
appreciate it very very much. Excellenttake care, thanks doctor Tricia Pasrica.
(40:07):
When we get back, we aregoing to talk with a gentleman who's kind
of new to Massachusetts and he admitsit, but he's running for the United
States senter. His name is JohnDeaton. Coming back right after the nine
on Night Side
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