August 14, 2024 • 36 mins
Boston’s ongoing fight against potholes! with John Hancock – Boston Globe Senior News Room Developer
Trump keeps dancing as artists get outraged over his use of their songs! with John Rizvi – Lawyer/The Patent Professor
How To Stop Second-Guessing Yourself. Retraining Your Brain to make better choices with Dr. Judith Orloff - author of the new book, The Genius of Empathy, a leading Psychiatrist in the field of Empathy and a member of the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Staff
Can The Classroom Make Students Sick? with David Steinman – Consumer Advocate & Investigative Journalist who focuses on environment and health
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Trump keeps dancing as artists get outraged over his use of their songs! with John Rizvi – Lawyer/The Patent Professor
How To Stop Second-Guessing Yourself. Retraining Your Brain to make better choices with Dr. Judith Orloff - author of the new book, The Genius of Empathy, a leading Psychiatrist in the field of Empathy and a member of the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Staff
Can The Classroom Make Students Sick? with David Steinman – Consumer Advocate & Investigative Journalist who focuses on environment and health
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Cool. I don't like that news about the Patriots. If
that's true, Judah was a great is a great player.
And unless there's something that they know that we don't know,
I don't know them. Pay them man the money he's
he deserves it. My name's Dan Ray. Uh, little sports
commentary there, so no problem at all. Uh. We are
(00:27):
here not to talk about sports, but to talk about
a variety of issues, a variety of issues. In the
first hour, we'll be talking with four different guests tonight.
Once again, we have a Dan and Rob doing double
duty back in the control room. So when you call
in tonight after nine o'clock. At nine o'clock, by the way,
we'll be speaking with Congresswoman Laurie trahan She represents the
(00:50):
third congressional district here in Massachusetts, and we will continue
to talk about the Stewart healthcare crisis and how it's
going to impact potentially three hospitals in hurt district. So
we'll talk with Lori Trehanne, and then later on tonight
a peace in the Boston Globe today, which is really
interesting journalism in which the Boston Globe has called on
(01:11):
the carpet Governor Healy and the Healthy administration over the
lack of transparency dealing with questions about the emergency shelter
situation here in Massachusetts, and really a very interesting journalistic
piece by The Globe today in which they they dug
deep into the into the records as far as they
could go. But we'll talk about that sometime after we spoke.
(01:34):
We speak with congress Congresswoman Laurie Trahan. Right now, we're
gonna speak with John Hancock. No, not that John Hancock,
another modern day John Hancock, who is the Boston Globe
senior news room developer, John Hancock. I'm thrilled to speak
with you because I've never actually spoken to someone who
has the name John Hancock.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
How are you? How good? How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I think at one point the Red Sox had an
outfielder who didn't play many years. I think his last
name was Hancock. He was a left handed hitter. I
think sometimes in maybe the seventies or early eighties. You
don't recall that that player, do you b any chance? No?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Sure don't. Unfortunately, playing with.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That name playing for the Red Sox, you think it
would have been a perfect match but didn't work out.
But so you're the senior newsroom developer at the Boston Globe.
I'm unfamiliar. What does that mean? What do you do
as the senior newsroom developer if I could ask? Sure?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So, I work on a lot of our digital projects,
our larger projects that we do where we have some
sort of special web web presence. Our newsroom development team
works on building those out, and then we also work
a lot on data. We do a lot of graphics
for all of the all of the newsroom, and a
(02:51):
lot of times we'll do stories based on that data.
I had a piece right before the finals how this
Celtics teams compared to other great Celtics teams in the past.
So we'll work on we'll take data and we'll make
stories out of it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, that's great, uh, and and some I think that
the graphics in the Globe have really gotten better over
the last few years in terms of trying to explain something.
There was a very interesting graphic on the front page
of the Globe today. It's a what and then it's
looked like obviously a lot of a lot of words
were redacted, but when you read what the state won't
(03:31):
say about the shelter crisis. It was a very effective
top of the fold graphic. I don't know if you
had anything to do with that one, but it's certainly
caught my eye this morning, that's for sure. You more
importantly are doing some graphics dealing with Boston potholes. I
figured the pothole season here in Boston or in New
(03:52):
England was about over, but I guess it's not.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, it's you know, it's a year long thing. But
you are you are right in that aspect in one
and that for the most part, pothole season in Boston
tends to be the first four months of the year.
Based on data that we've looked at from pothole requests
in the Boston three to one one system, more than
half of all the requests that they get for pothole
(04:17):
repairs happened in the months of January through March.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, you know what's interesting about potholes is that I
believe that if you hit a pothole and you do
damage to your car, and you can prove, however, you
can prove that that you do damage to your car,
that some cities in towns are willing to at least
consider whether or not that pothole which damaged your car
(04:46):
they should be responsible for. Are you aware of that or.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I'm just I'm not aware that's a policy in
Boston or not. But I have heard that there are
other cities that will compensate drivers, as said, if they
can prove that that pothole is responsible for the damage
to their car.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So, what's the status of potholes in Boston. Obviously, we're
in Old City. We have extremes in temperature. Sometimes we
get below zero and sometimes we get above ninety. And
I assumed that, and and there's a lot of big,
heavy trucks that that Roma City streets. What's the status
(05:26):
here in Boston?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
We Yeah, all the all of the traffic and weather
are all be contributing factors to potholes so far. So
we looked at data going back to twenty fourteen on
a year by year basis on a number of requests
that the city gets to repair those potholes in twenty
twenty four. This year we're just under eighty eight hundred requests,
(05:49):
which is seventy four percent of the total that twenty
twenty three had, which was just short of twelve thousand,
so I think in twenty twenty three was a little
less than the thirteen thousand or so that the city
had in twenty twenty two. My guess is that because
you know, we get a majority of those potholes in
(06:10):
the first four months of the year, that the pace
will slow down as the year goes, as the rest
of the year plays out, and we'll probably finish about
where twenty twenty three and twenty twenty two were.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of course, last winter correct me if I'm wrong, was
a filling mile winter. We didn't have a lot of
big no big snowstorms that I remember. Is that a
factor too? Do you think in the diminution potholes this year?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Absolutely? For sure. You know a lot of times what
you'll a lot of what you'll see is, you know,
water gets in the cracks in the street, that water freezes,
and when it freezes it expands, so it pushes that
out a little bit. When it falls that the material
is loosened up, and then traffic just kind of wears
it away. The more of those freeze fall cycles you have,
(06:58):
the more you know it's going to contribute to you
having a greater number of potholes and then construction in
the city and traffic are also contributing factors. We saw
in twenty and twenty twenty one the number of pothole
requests dipped below ten thousand for the first time since
(07:18):
twenty sixteen, and a lot of that had to do,
we assume with COVID and they're being less traffic in
those years. So as the pandemic ended in traffic picked
back up, we saw those numbers climbed back up in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So my last question is, is there any indication to you
in the studies that you've done that there are more
potholes in one section of Boston or or or as
they spread pretty evenly.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So we took a look at the three one one
request data for the repair has the neighborhood that it
is that the pothole is appearing in. We found that
Dorchester and the Austin Brighton in Downtown financial district make
up a little more than a quarter of all requests
for the city. Obviously, Dorchester is one of the bigger neighborhoods,
(08:12):
as is the Austin Brighton area. Downtown has a lot
of traffic, so that kind of plays out with what
we would expect if there be more area and more traffic,
that you're going to have more potholes. All that is
to say is that, in addition to that, just because
the city gets a request for pothole repair, it doesn't
necessarily mean that it's a pothole that they're responsible for.
(08:33):
Sometimes those potholes are on private property and it would
be the owner's responsibility to repair it. Sometimes those potholes
peer around utility castings, and then in that case it's
the utility company that is responsible for repairing it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So I've learned that there's a lot more to the
pothole dilemma, the pothole problem than meets the eye. And
I appreciate John Hancock. By the way, I have double
checked I was right. The Red Sox did have an
outfielder who had your last name. Gary Hancock played here
in the late seventies and into the early eighties, here
for about four seasons, and over that time he had
(09:08):
a little bit of an impact here, did better work
playing for Oakland than he did for the Red Sox.
But there was indeed an alfielder who played for the
Red Sox in the late seventies and eighties. His name
was Gary Hancock. I don't know if he's a relation
or not, but I wanted to be aware of it.
I just remember the name in the back of my
mind and I had to finish the play here and
(09:29):
double check to make sure it's correct.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Thanks much. John Hancock, not the original, but Boston Globes
John Hancock. We're very happy that he joined us tonight.
He's the senior newsroom developer. When we get back, we're
going to talk a little music, well not really, We're
going to talk about Donald Trump's the music that has
played at Donald Trump campaign events, and there's some controversy here.
(09:53):
Some of the musicians are not happy that their music
is being associated with the Trump campaign. We'll talk with
patent professor, an attorney's been here before, John Risby about
where this story may eventually go back on Nightside right
after this break on a Wednesday night. It is halfway
through the week.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
All right, I want to talk now about this. This
is not politics, but in most political campaigns, candidates they
like to identify with a popular music, songs that make
people get up and dance. But sometimes those artists don't
(10:45):
like to be associated with the candidates who have chosen
their songs with us. As John Risvey, he's a lawyer,
he's called the patent professor. We're really talking about copyright
law here, Professor Risvey. Welcome back to Nightside, Hawaii.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Yeah good, it's always a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's interesting, I guess according to the article that I read,
Donald Trump uses the Village People's YMCA song a lot.
He comes out and kind of dances of that. They
have not raised, as I understand that a complaint, but
other artists have. What's going on?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Yeah, so, I mean surprisingly they did complain in twenty
sixteen when he used it back then, but I mean
this time we haven't heard anything. I don't know if
it's that we haven't heard a complaint yet, but I
you know, certainly that's unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
But well, I hope the artists haven't passed on to
the big YMCA in the sky.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
The fact that it's surprising to not get a complaint,
it seems because there's just so many that have stepped
forward this time, because when they get a complaint, typic
what happens is the politicians will switch and move on
to something else. But in the case of Donald Trump,
he's had complaints from Phil Collins, Elton, John Guns n' Roses,
(12:10):
Prince Tom. I mean, it's Ceylon beyond. The list just
goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
The state, the state. I think if I'm not mistaken
of Isaac Hayes, Isaac obviously having in the state himself,
has passed on.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Yeah, yep, exactly.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
But you know too, in all fairness, this is not
something unusual just to Donald Trump. But like Bruce Springsteen,
uh sent a season desist to Ronald Reagan for use
of Born in the USA.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Like the.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
George Bush has received cease and desists for Bobby mcferran's
Don't Worry Be Happy. Uh, Bob Dole has received them.
This is not unusual. Unfortunately, it's not. Uh, it's something
that you know, it's against the law. It's not it's
a violation of copyright law. And it keeps happening. And
(13:06):
there's you know, part of the issue.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
With Professor I'm seeing a pattern here. I think you
said Bruce Springsteen was upset with Ronald Reagan. Others were
upset with George Bush, Bob Dole, Donald Trump, have any
of the Democratic presidential campaigns have had a complain about
I mean, Bill Clinton used to use the song, you know,
(13:30):
but you know, keep thinking about tomorrow. I remember every
time I was at a Clinton event back in the
nineties that that that's that was a Stevie Nick song,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, So I mean, in fairness, though I guess I
may have. I gave a lot of examples that were
Republican candidates, but Obama was received deceased and assist from
Sam Moore for hold On, I'm coming. So it's not
exclusively Republican candidates. But but artists in general are are
leaning towards the Democratic ticket, right, so that there's going
(14:04):
to be, you know, there are going to be I
guess some party lines regarding music in copyright in frenchmen
who complains and when? But it hasn't been exclusively Republicans,
but I will give you you you're right, it's been
pretty you know, certainly in favor of Republican candidates getting
(14:27):
being under the tail end of eating.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
The opposition to it might be the way to think
about it. It's really interesting. Remember I think it was
Michael Jordan when he was asked about not endorsing some
Republican candidate who was running for office, or endorse I
should say a Democratic candidate over Republican, he said something like, well,
Republicans by sneakers too. So if you would think that,
(14:54):
you know, some of these artists might be delighted that
their songs are being resurrected some basis. I mean, YMCA
has to put out a record in a long time.
If that group, the village people haven't put out a record,
I don't think in a long time.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Yeah, so I don't. It's and that's I think you
hit the nail on the head. It's not just an
economic concern because even if the you know, the politicians
would pay licensing fees, the licensing fees are our pennies
in the grand scheme of things, compared to the costs
of their campaign. So it's not that they're not asking
(15:34):
permission because they don't want to pay the licensing fees.
That's not it. Part of it is if you you
know the the old adage that it's easier to ask forgiveness,
uh than permission if you ask permission, and they pretty
much know the answer is going to be No, then
then you really look bad if you go ahead and
do it anyway. So I think they've taken the route
(15:57):
of let's not ask permission, let's go ahead and do it.
If we receive a cease and desist, we will, uh
in some cases switch to a different artist. But unfortunately
in other cases they just they just continue anyway. And uh,
that's that's what's concerning to me as a intellectual property
attorney I do patent, trademark and copyright law. Is that
(16:21):
that it's just it's just blatant infringement. In a lot
of cases, this isn't fair use. This isn't a situation
where uh, they're they're making political statements using the music.
That's actually using the music which should be licensed, and
they're not licensing the rights. They're not paying, uh, but
they're not asking permission either.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So let's let's assume that Donald Trump is an example.
He's pretty litigious. Let's assume that he said, well, you know,
I'm going to pay whatever the the nominal fee is
to be able to use Bruce Brings. Would the artist
then be basically foreclosed from from any sort of legal
(17:07):
action or over that.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
No, No, because it's not just uh, yes, you do
have to pay the fee, but it's not just the fee.
You have to get permission. And for some of these artists,
they don't really care about the licensing fee so much
as alienating their fans, because certainly, if their music is
(17:30):
played at a Trump campaign, a lot of fans are
going to assume, oh that, you know, the Bruce Spring
springten is a is a Trump fan or whatnot. They're
going to assume an affiliation, and the loss of their
fan base could be substantially more than the pitdly small
amount of licensing fees they might get for playing the
(17:52):
song at a at a campaign. And remember it's all
these are not long term licensing, uh you know, a
money stream that's going to continue for years. In November,
it's all over. So it's not something that oh, you
know what, let's go ahead and give them permission because
we're going to have a steady stream of income for
the next several years. No, it's just a really short blip,
(18:16):
but their lost stand base might be forever sure, and
it might quarter be associated with a politician they don't
want to have anything.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
To do with.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Well, of course with Donald Top he will always have
kid Rock. Hey, Professor Risby, thank you so much. Always
great to talk to you though, always an enjoyable experience.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Thanks so much, it is I love it. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
You bet you have a great night. All right. When
we get back here on Night's Side, right after the
news break at the bottom of the hour, we're going
to talk about a little bit of maybe of a
more serious issue, and that is how to stop second
guessing yourself. Going to talk with doctor Judith Orloff. She
has a new book out which she's going to talk about,
did you Genius of Empathy? Practical Skills to heal your
(19:02):
sensitive self? Back on nights Side six one, seven, four,
ten thirty is the number, but don't dial that until
after nine o'clock. My name's Dan Ray. It's a Wednesday night,
Wednesday night, August fourteenth. We are coming to the middle
of August. Ladies and gentlemen, of the summer is slowly
but surely starting to slide by. That is not a
good feeling for us here in New England. Back on
(19:23):
Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Our next guest is doctor Judith Orloff. She has written
a new book, The Genius of Empathy. She's a leading
psychiatrist in the field of empathy and a member of
the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Staff. Doctor Orloff, Welcome back to Nightside.
But I understand that the forward of your new book,
The Genius of Empathy was written by the Dali Lama.
(19:53):
How'd you get to Dali Lama to write a forward?
Are you in the Ai Lama buddies? And what's the deal?
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Well, one of the really most important and sentences that
Dali Lama has is increasing empathy and compassion. That's you know,
his mission and that's what's important to him. So I
just submitted the book and he read it and he
said I want to do the forward to it. So
it was, you know, big honor, and it really emphasizes,
(20:23):
you know the importance of a life that is based
on empathy and intuition, which is which is his and
it's you know, he's a role model for me. And
so I'm just really happy to have gotten that forward.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Okay, I'm sure the Dalai Lama has never second gainst
the second guest himself, but most of us second guests
ourselves in many different ways. We look at our GPS,
Am I am I taking the right GPS? If I have,
I put the right address in here. Sometimes even you
go back and you lock the door when you leave
(20:58):
the Did I really lock that? I mean? Is that
the sort of second guessing you're talking about? Are you
talking about the more serious second guessing? When I don't know,
you either leave a job or you take a job
buyer's regret tell us. But when you say second guessing,
exactly what you mean.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Second guessing refers to everything you just said. It could
be a more minor incident, or it can be really,
you know, a huge one in terms of you doubting
yourself and the decisions that you make. And that's why
it's important to trust your intuition, which is the still
small voice inside that will tell you the truth about things,
(21:37):
and not to second guess yourself and not to wave
even if other people have different opinions, Because people have
lots of opinions, they have a lot of unsolicited advice
that they give. And it's important in terms of empathy
to trust yourself, to have empathy with yourself and trust
that little voice inside that's saying, don't get into that
(22:00):
business deal. This is not going to turn out well,
and then your mind by say, oh, but you're getting
so much money from it, but your intuition is saying no,
don't go there.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Okay, so there, okay. So how do you distinguish intuition
and mind. It sounds to me like unless what you're
saying is unless you're really confident in certain because I
got to assume every big decision we make in life,
whether it's getting married, ivan children, picking a college to
(22:32):
go to, whatever it is, you have to have those
moments of self doubt. Isn't that what's normal for most people?
I mean? Or is it people supposed to say, I
know what I want to buy. I want to buy
that car. That's the only type. There are people like that,
But I think most of us say, well, yeah, I
like that car, but I kind of like that car too.
(22:52):
Is that not just part of being human to do
always sort of second guess yourself or am I way
on face?
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Well, it's being human doubting yourself, you know. And part
of what I'm trying to teach people in the book
is how to get more of a clarity about what
they want and to have more faith in themselves. In
terms of listening to your intuition, because I tell you
when I haven't listened. Let's say I've gone ahead with
(23:23):
something in my life. Maybe it was a relationship, you know,
maybe it was something else, and I didn't listen to
that voice saying don't do this. Now, this isn't going
to be good for you. And the voice in me
that says I want to do it, I want this
to happen, it never turned out well, and so people
cannot listen. But it won't turn out well. And if
(23:45):
you want a life that's based more on self confidence,
we're never always confident. Of course, you're making a good point,
but we can try to get to the point where
if we get a gut feeling about something and it
says don't go there, we at least think about it,
you know, as opposed to just walking into the lions den.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay, so let me ask you this. There's a concept
called analysis paralysis where certain people can never make a
decision even at a restaurant, you know, do they want
the big scollops or do they want the pasta carbon whatever?
And some people you can ask people, what do you
(24:29):
want to have for dinner? I don't know. Is this
the is this the opposite of this analysis paralysis, the
opposite of people who you know who don't follow their
instinct or is this actually a form of analysis paralysis?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Yeah, Well in the book I talk about the importance
of not overthinking because people can really.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Analysis which is which is analysis paralysis?
Speaker 6 (24:58):
I guess absolutely absolutely, where you just overthink something and
then you never know what you even feels right to
you anymore. But what I want to emphasize, and the
genius of empathy is to let's say you don't know
what feels right. Let's say you're lost. Let's say you
are you have analysis paralysis. What do you begin listening
to if you want to start in the beginning of
(25:20):
trusting yourself. Now, trust your gut feeling that the feeling
that comes up that will you know, tell you the
truth about things, because I'm sure you've been in situations
and you can feel something inside saying this is fantastic
or this you know doesn't it's not on the app
and up, I have a feeling about this that they
(25:43):
aren't telling the truth. Most people have that sense, but
you have to trust it. A second. Guessing yourself means
that you don't trust it and it's the process of
wanting to get more self confident regardless of what other
people will says. If you're dependent on other people's opinions
(26:03):
all the time, it's going to drive you crazy. You
have to know what feels right to you and follow
that as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Okay, so my last question, and let me go back
to the Dalai Lama. Obviously he's a manual and great morality,
so I'll bring it all the way round. Are we
talking about here a little bit of moral conscience as well?
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Or absolutely well. I believe that making a life that
is based on empathy rather than hatred and polarization and
bitterness is a sense of morality. It's like saying, I'm
going to take the higher path, the higher good, and
I'm going to believe in it, and I'm going to
believe that it's a good thing. I believe in compassion,
(26:49):
I believe in empathy. I believe in trying to find
it even when it seems impossible.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
That's what I'm suggesting, is to really decide where you're
coming from and who you want to be and begin
to develop that more.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Okay, very interesting conversation. I enjoyed this conversation. I hope
my question didn't drive you totally crazy, but thank you
so much too. The book is the genius of empathy,
practical skills to heal your sensitive self. And I'm sure
this book must be available everywhere.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Yes, and it's on my website, which is Dr Judith
Orloff R l O s F dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Perfect. Thank you so much, Doctor Orloff. Enjoyed. We have
a great night. Good night.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Now when we get back in just a minute or two,
we're going to talk about this sort of a back
to school issue. Can the classroom make students sick? Go
to talk with David Steinmann, who's a consumer advocate, investigative
journalist who focuses on environmental health. Stay with us. This
is WBZ in Boston. You're listening to WBZ on ten thirty.
(28:00):
If you don't get us on the radio for whatever,
so you can always get us on the internet. All
you have to do is go to the WBZ News
Radio on the iHeartRadio app. Pretty easy. Back on Nightside
right after this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Delighted to be joined by David Steinman. He's a consumer advocate,
investigative journalist who focus who focuses on environment and health.
And we're talking today about tonight about the idea of
kids getting back to school, and we'd like to think
that kids are in safe environments. But David Steinman has
(28:45):
a new book entitled Raising Healthy Kids Protecting Your Children
from Hidden chemical Toxins, and I guess some of this
might be involved with heading back to school. Can you
pull this to get this concept together for us? David?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh? Sure, good evening. It's great to be on your
show tonight. But that chapter is called the New School
Rules because the fact is that you do have to
be really aware of the environmental hazards at your school,
and particularly in Massachusetts. You know, I was just doing
some research, for example, on the lead in drinking water,
(29:24):
and what Boston Public Health Public School says is that
all parents were notified if their school water samples were
above fifteen parts per billion, and then they say, quote,
if you are not notified by a child's school, no
action is needed. And that's just not true because if
the water has thirteen, fourteen, even ten or five parts
(29:47):
per billion of lead, you, as a parent do need
to take action?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Okay, So let me stop you for a second, let
me ask you. Okay, So I assume they didn't pick
fifteen parts per billion out of the air. I assume
they're they're relying upon some government guideline.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Correct, Yeah, that's true, the e p A.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay, fair enough, Okay, And we think about the e
p A. So if if the would you saying here
is that the the city of Boston, the Public School Department,
has an obligation to go beyond what the e p
A considers if not safe, at least tolerable circumstances or standards.
(30:29):
Is that what I'm hearing you say?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah, I think that they that the better way. Now.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Fortunately, if your child is in a DPS school, you
can get the water testing results for your school, and
you should request them. What I'm saying is a consumer
advocate and someone who is dealing strictly with health and
most EPA standards are really compromises, you know, they're really compromises,
Like we have forever chemicals in our drinking water at
(30:57):
schools too, and they're very dangerous. And EPA has never
banned any of them, though they have limits on how
much is safe. But these limits are just based on
the practicality that there's going to be some in the water. Now,
that doesn't mean you have to accept it as a parent,
that doesn't mean you have to accept.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
What's going to have it. So let's assume, hypothetically, using
this example, that you get a letter from the school
and they say, all the water is safe. We've tested it.
It's you know, they're fewer than fifteen parts per billion, Okay.
And let's assume that a parent says, well, send us
what the study is, and they send us study and
(31:38):
they come up with some figure of let's say six
or seven parts per billion. What options do the parents
have at that Joine at that.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Point, Well, the first thing is to be informed, and
you know, and each individual can make decisions about if
they think ten pbb is safe based on the evidence,
working as a consumer advocate and in the legal field,
that much water and that high level of what is
really not safe if you're for your child whose brain
(32:04):
is really developing. You know, this is preschool, early the
early years, when the brain is really in its most
active state of cognitive development. So but if what I
suggest in the book is parents should form a Green
Team for their classroom or for their middle school for
their children, and look at the school holistically. It's not
(32:28):
just water. But in the case of water, if their
child's water supply does have lead, you can use your
own filtered water from your home, which you can produce
much more, it's inexpensively than bottled and have your child
take kid take their own bottled water to school from
a stainless still flask, and that's a much safer alternative.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
What are some of the other dangers in school? Obviously
we've talked a lot about water. Are there other dangers
in school in terms of I don't know, you know,
the inks that are used to print products, the crayons
or the pencils that are distributed. I mean, you really
have to be an environmental hawk when you think about
the number of items that are going to come into
(33:10):
your son or daughter's possession while they're in school.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Oh yeah, Actually, there's probably about nine big, big things
to know about school. But I'll just give you a second.
A lot of parents send their kids to school in uniforms, yes,
and most of those school uniforms will say they're stain
or water resistant, which means they're loaded with us forever
chemicals which are absorbed through the skin and cause kidney
(33:35):
cancer and infertility. So, as a parent who's sending their
kids to school or maybe wearing a school uniform, maybe
it's an athletic uniform, you know, as a parent, you
really don't want them wearing that kind of stuff and
you should demand of the school that alternatives are provided
that are stain and water resistant, free from stain and
(33:56):
water resistant chemicals like the forever chemicals that are so
to interust our kids. And those are being sold now
because people are becoming more aware. So you know, that
would be another one, another thing to but but there
are other things too. For example, what parents might not
think a lot about is the kind of turf that
their kids play their athletics on. You know, we've replaced
(34:20):
so much grasples synthetic turf.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, yeah, boy, I'll tell you You've got to have
a lot of gumption as a parent to to to
assert the concerns that legitimate concerns that you've identified, because
I think that in most instances, the school we're going
to look at that individual parent and say, you know,
(34:42):
what do you what do you want us to do?
We're not gonna We're not going to change the football field.
It's September. And if if your kid doesn't want to
play football, then don't have him played football. I mean
that that's going to be a difficult spot for a
parent too, in the in their in their efforts to
protect their child, to assert a claim. Is are there
(35:03):
any tips in your book which can guide people as
to how to handle that sort of situation.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Well, that you bring out such a great point. You
can't move some things overnight. Fortunately, because more people are
becoming aware of its, schools are becoming less reluctant to
go to artificial turf. But honestly, there are some sports
like soccer where the rate of cancer among goalies who
are on the ground all the time on artificial turf
are quite high. And I'd get my kid out of that,
(35:32):
I really would. I kept them to take up another sport.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean, obviously parents can make those decisions.
But the kid really wants to be a soccer goalie,
that's going to be it's going to be a bit
of a fight.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, I have to be.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
You have to organize a green team at the school
and work with the administration to make these changes right,
because you're right, some of them are institutionalized.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
So raising healthy kids, protecting your children from hidden chemical toxins.
That's available, I'm sure of bookstores and also on Amazon. Correct,
it is all right, David, Thank you so much for
your time tonight. Interesting conversation. I enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Have a great night, thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
When we come back to be talking with Massachusetts congress
Woman Laurie Trehan about the Steward healthcare crisis and how
it's impacting her communities as well. Coming back on Nightside
right after this
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Cool. I don't like that news about the Patriots. If
that's true, Judah was a great is a great player.
And unless there's something that they know that we don't know,
I don't know them. Pay them man the money he's
he deserves it. My name's Dan Ray. Uh, little sports
commentary there, so no problem at all. Uh. We are
(00:27):
here not to talk about sports, but to talk about
a variety of issues, a variety of issues. In the
first hour, we'll be talking with four different guests tonight.
Once again, we have a Dan and Rob doing double
duty back in the control room. So when you call
in tonight after nine o'clock. At nine o'clock, by the way,
we'll be speaking with Congresswoman Laurie trahan She represents the
(00:50):
third congressional district here in Massachusetts, and we will continue
to talk about the Stewart healthcare crisis and how it's
going to impact potentially three hospitals in hurt district. So
we'll talk with Lori Trehanne, and then later on tonight
a peace in the Boston Globe today, which is really
interesting journalism in which the Boston Globe has called on
(01:11):
the carpet Governor Healy and the Healthy administration over the
lack of transparency dealing with questions about the emergency shelter
situation here in Massachusetts, and really a very interesting journalistic
piece by The Globe today in which they they dug
deep into the into the records as far as they
could go. But we'll talk about that sometime after we spoke.
(01:34):
We speak with congress Congresswoman Laurie Trahan. Right now, we're
gonna speak with John Hancock. No, not that John Hancock,
another modern day John Hancock, who is the Boston Globe
senior news room developer, John Hancock. I'm thrilled to speak
with you because I've never actually spoken to someone who
has the name John Hancock.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
How are you? How good? How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I think at one point the Red Sox had an
outfielder who didn't play many years. I think his last
name was Hancock. He was a left handed hitter. I
think sometimes in maybe the seventies or early eighties. You
don't recall that that player, do you b any chance? No?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Sure don't. Unfortunately, playing with.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That name playing for the Red Sox, you think it
would have been a perfect match but didn't work out.
But so you're the senior newsroom developer at the Boston Globe.
I'm unfamiliar. What does that mean? What do you do
as the senior newsroom developer if I could ask? Sure?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So, I work on a lot of our digital projects,
our larger projects that we do where we have some
sort of special web web presence. Our newsroom development team
works on building those out, and then we also work
a lot on data. We do a lot of graphics
for all of the all of the newsroom, and a
(02:51):
lot of times we'll do stories based on that data.
I had a piece right before the finals how this
Celtics teams compared to other great Celtics teams in the past.
So we'll work on we'll take data and we'll make
stories out of it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, that's great, uh, and and some I think that
the graphics in the Globe have really gotten better over
the last few years in terms of trying to explain something.
There was a very interesting graphic on the front page
of the Globe today. It's a what and then it's
looked like obviously a lot of a lot of words
were redacted, but when you read what the state won't
(03:31):
say about the shelter crisis. It was a very effective
top of the fold graphic. I don't know if you
had anything to do with that one, but it's certainly
caught my eye this morning, that's for sure. You more
importantly are doing some graphics dealing with Boston potholes. I
figured the pothole season here in Boston or in New
(03:52):
England was about over, but I guess it's not.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, it's you know, it's a year long thing. But
you are you are right in that aspect in one
and that for the most part, pothole season in Boston
tends to be the first four months of the year.
Based on data that we've looked at from pothole requests
in the Boston three to one one system, more than
half of all the requests that they get for pothole
(04:17):
repairs happened in the months of January through March.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, you know what's interesting about potholes is that I
believe that if you hit a pothole and you do
damage to your car, and you can prove, however, you
can prove that that you do damage to your car,
that some cities in towns are willing to at least
consider whether or not that pothole which damaged your car
(04:46):
they should be responsible for. Are you aware of that or.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I'm just I'm not aware that's a policy in
Boston or not. But I have heard that there are
other cities that will compensate drivers, as said, if they
can prove that that pothole is responsible for the damage
to their car.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So, what's the status of potholes in Boston. Obviously, we're
in Old City. We have extremes in temperature. Sometimes we
get below zero and sometimes we get above ninety. And
I assumed that, and and there's a lot of big,
heavy trucks that that Roma City streets. What's the status
(05:26):
here in Boston?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
We Yeah, all the all of the traffic and weather
are all be contributing factors to potholes so far. So
we looked at data going back to twenty fourteen on
a year by year basis on a number of requests
that the city gets to repair those potholes in twenty
twenty four. This year we're just under eighty eight hundred requests,
(05:49):
which is seventy four percent of the total that twenty
twenty three had, which was just short of twelve thousand,
so I think in twenty twenty three was a little
less than the thirteen thousand or so that the city
had in twenty twenty two. My guess is that because
you know, we get a majority of those potholes in
(06:10):
the first four months of the year, that the pace
will slow down as the year goes, as the rest
of the year plays out, and we'll probably finish about
where twenty twenty three and twenty twenty two were.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of course, last winter correct me if I'm wrong, was
a filling mile winter. We didn't have a lot of
big no big snowstorms that I remember. Is that a
factor too? Do you think in the diminution potholes this year?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Absolutely? For sure. You know a lot of times what
you'll a lot of what you'll see is, you know,
water gets in the cracks in the street, that water freezes,
and when it freezes it expands, so it pushes that
out a little bit. When it falls that the material
is loosened up, and then traffic just kind of wears
it away. The more of those freeze fall cycles you have,
(06:58):
the more you know it's going to contribute to you
having a greater number of potholes and then construction in
the city and traffic are also contributing factors. We saw
in twenty and twenty twenty one the number of pothole
requests dipped below ten thousand for the first time since
(07:18):
twenty sixteen, and a lot of that had to do,
we assume with COVID and they're being less traffic in
those years. So as the pandemic ended in traffic picked
back up, we saw those numbers climbed back up in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So my last question is, is there any indication to you
in the studies that you've done that there are more
potholes in one section of Boston or or or as
they spread pretty evenly.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So we took a look at the three one one
request data for the repair has the neighborhood that it
is that the pothole is appearing in. We found that
Dorchester and the Austin Brighton in Downtown financial district make
up a little more than a quarter of all requests
for the city. Obviously, Dorchester is one of the bigger neighborhoods,
(08:12):
as is the Austin Brighton area. Downtown has a lot
of traffic, so that kind of plays out with what
we would expect if there be more area and more traffic,
that you're going to have more potholes. All that is
to say is that, in addition to that, just because
the city gets a request for pothole repair, it doesn't
necessarily mean that it's a pothole that they're responsible for.
(08:33):
Sometimes those potholes are on private property and it would
be the owner's responsibility to repair it. Sometimes those potholes
peer around utility castings, and then in that case it's
the utility company that is responsible for repairing it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So I've learned that there's a lot more to the
pothole dilemma, the pothole problem than meets the eye. And
I appreciate John Hancock. By the way, I have double
checked I was right. The Red Sox did have an
outfielder who had your last name. Gary Hancock played here
in the late seventies and into the early eighties, here
for about four seasons, and over that time he had
(09:08):
a little bit of an impact here, did better work
playing for Oakland than he did for the Red Sox.
But there was indeed an alfielder who played for the
Red Sox in the late seventies and eighties. His name
was Gary Hancock. I don't know if he's a relation
or not, but I wanted to be aware of it.
I just remember the name in the back of my
mind and I had to finish the play here and
(09:29):
double check to make sure it's correct.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Thanks much. John Hancock, not the original, but Boston Globes
John Hancock. We're very happy that he joined us tonight.
He's the senior newsroom developer. When we get back, we're
going to talk a little music, well not really, We're
going to talk about Donald Trump's the music that has
played at Donald Trump campaign events, and there's some controversy here.
(09:53):
Some of the musicians are not happy that their music
is being associated with the Trump campaign. We'll talk with
patent professor, an attorney's been here before, John Risby about
where this story may eventually go back on Nightside right
after this break on a Wednesday night. It is halfway
through the week.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
All right, I want to talk now about this. This
is not politics, but in most political campaigns, candidates they
like to identify with a popular music, songs that make
people get up and dance. But sometimes those artists don't
(10:45):
like to be associated with the candidates who have chosen
their songs with us. As John Risvey, he's a lawyer,
he's called the patent professor. We're really talking about copyright
law here, Professor Risvey. Welcome back to Nightside, Hawaii.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Yeah good, it's always a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's interesting, I guess according to the article that I read,
Donald Trump uses the Village People's YMCA song a lot.
He comes out and kind of dances of that. They
have not raised, as I understand that a complaint, but
other artists have. What's going on?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Yeah, so, I mean surprisingly they did complain in twenty
sixteen when he used it back then, but I mean
this time we haven't heard anything. I don't know if
it's that we haven't heard a complaint yet, but I
you know, certainly that's unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
But well, I hope the artists haven't passed on to
the big YMCA in the sky.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
The fact that it's surprising to not get a complaint,
it seems because there's just so many that have stepped
forward this time, because when they get a complaint, typic
what happens is the politicians will switch and move on
to something else. But in the case of Donald Trump,
he's had complaints from Phil Collins, Elton, John Guns n' Roses,
(12:10):
Prince Tom. I mean, it's Ceylon beyond. The list just
goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
The state, the state. I think if I'm not mistaken
of Isaac Hayes, Isaac obviously having in the state himself,
has passed on.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Yeah, yep, exactly.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
But you know too, in all fairness, this is not
something unusual just to Donald Trump. But like Bruce Springsteen,
uh sent a season desist to Ronald Reagan for use
of Born in the USA.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Like the.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
George Bush has received cease and desists for Bobby mcferran's
Don't Worry Be Happy. Uh, Bob Dole has received them.
This is not unusual. Unfortunately, it's not. Uh, it's something
that you know, it's against the law. It's not it's
a violation of copyright law. And it keeps happening. And
(13:06):
there's you know, part of the issue.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
With Professor I'm seeing a pattern here. I think you
said Bruce Springsteen was upset with Ronald Reagan. Others were
upset with George Bush, Bob Dole, Donald Trump, have any
of the Democratic presidential campaigns have had a complain about
I mean, Bill Clinton used to use the song, you know,
(13:30):
but you know, keep thinking about tomorrow. I remember every
time I was at a Clinton event back in the
nineties that that that's that was a Stevie Nick song,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, So I mean, in fairness, though I guess I
may have. I gave a lot of examples that were
Republican candidates, but Obama was received deceased and assist from
Sam Moore for hold On, I'm coming. So it's not
exclusively Republican candidates. But but artists in general are are
leaning towards the Democratic ticket, right, so that there's going
(14:04):
to be, you know, there are going to be I
guess some party lines regarding music in copyright in frenchmen
who complains and when? But it hasn't been exclusively Republicans,
but I will give you you you're right, it's been
pretty you know, certainly in favor of Republican candidates getting
(14:27):
being under the tail end of eating.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
The opposition to it might be the way to think
about it. It's really interesting. Remember I think it was
Michael Jordan when he was asked about not endorsing some
Republican candidate who was running for office, or endorse I
should say a Democratic candidate over Republican, he said something like, well,
Republicans by sneakers too. So if you would think that,
(14:54):
you know, some of these artists might be delighted that
their songs are being resurrected some basis. I mean, YMCA
has to put out a record in a long time.
If that group, the village people haven't put out a record,
I don't think in a long time.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Yeah, so I don't. It's and that's I think you
hit the nail on the head. It's not just an
economic concern because even if the you know, the politicians
would pay licensing fees, the licensing fees are our pennies
in the grand scheme of things, compared to the costs
of their campaign. So it's not that they're not asking
(15:34):
permission because they don't want to pay the licensing fees.
That's not it. Part of it is if you you
know the the old adage that it's easier to ask forgiveness,
uh than permission if you ask permission, and they pretty
much know the answer is going to be No, then
then you really look bad if you go ahead and
do it anyway. So I think they've taken the route
(15:57):
of let's not ask permission, let's go ahead and do it.
If we receive a cease and desist, we will, uh
in some cases switch to a different artist. But unfortunately
in other cases they just they just continue anyway. And uh,
that's that's what's concerning to me as a intellectual property
attorney I do patent, trademark and copyright law. Is that
(16:21):
that it's just it's just blatant infringement. In a lot
of cases, this isn't fair use. This isn't a situation
where uh, they're they're making political statements using the music.
That's actually using the music which should be licensed, and
they're not licensing the rights. They're not paying, uh, but
they're not asking permission either.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
So let's let's assume that Donald Trump is an example.
He's pretty litigious. Let's assume that he said, well, you know,
I'm going to pay whatever the the nominal fee is
to be able to use Bruce Brings. Would the artist
then be basically foreclosed from from any sort of legal
(17:07):
action or over that.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
No, No, because it's not just uh, yes, you do
have to pay the fee, but it's not just the fee.
You have to get permission. And for some of these artists,
they don't really care about the licensing fee so much
as alienating their fans, because certainly, if their music is
(17:30):
played at a Trump campaign, a lot of fans are
going to assume, oh that, you know, the Bruce Spring
springten is a is a Trump fan or whatnot. They're
going to assume an affiliation, and the loss of their
fan base could be substantially more than the pitdly small
amount of licensing fees they might get for playing the
(17:52):
song at a at a campaign. And remember it's all
these are not long term licensing, uh you know, a
money stream that's going to continue for years. In November,
it's all over. So it's not something that oh, you
know what, let's go ahead and give them permission because
we're going to have a steady stream of income for
the next several years. No, it's just a really short blip,
(18:16):
but their lost stand base might be forever sure, and
it might quarter be associated with a politician they don't
want to have anything.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
To do with.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Well, of course with Donald Top he will always have
kid Rock. Hey, Professor Risby, thank you so much. Always
great to talk to you though, always an enjoyable experience.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Thanks so much, it is I love it. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
You bet you have a great night. All right. When
we get back here on Night's Side, right after the
news break at the bottom of the hour, we're going
to talk about a little bit of maybe of a
more serious issue, and that is how to stop second
guessing yourself. Going to talk with doctor Judith Orloff. She
has a new book out which she's going to talk about,
did you Genius of Empathy? Practical Skills to heal your
(19:02):
sensitive self? Back on nights Side six one, seven, four,
ten thirty is the number, but don't dial that until
after nine o'clock. My name's Dan Ray. It's a Wednesday night,
Wednesday night, August fourteenth. We are coming to the middle
of August. Ladies and gentlemen, of the summer is slowly
but surely starting to slide by. That is not a
good feeling for us here in New England. Back on
(19:23):
Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Our next guest is doctor Judith Orloff. She has written
a new book, The Genius of Empathy. She's a leading
psychiatrist in the field of empathy and a member of
the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Staff. Doctor Orloff, Welcome back to Nightside.
But I understand that the forward of your new book,
The Genius of Empathy was written by the Dali Lama.
(19:53):
How'd you get to Dali Lama to write a forward?
Are you in the Ai Lama buddies? And what's the deal?
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Well, one of the really most important and sentences that
Dali Lama has is increasing empathy and compassion. That's you know,
his mission and that's what's important to him. So I
just submitted the book and he read it and he
said I want to do the forward to it. So
it was, you know, big honor, and it really emphasizes,
(20:23):
you know the importance of a life that is based
on empathy and intuition, which is which is his and
it's you know, he's a role model for me. And
so I'm just really happy to have gotten that forward.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Okay, I'm sure the Dalai Lama has never second gainst
the second guest himself, but most of us second guests
ourselves in many different ways. We look at our GPS,
Am I am I taking the right GPS? If I have,
I put the right address in here. Sometimes even you
go back and you lock the door when you leave
(20:58):
the Did I really lock that? I mean? Is that
the sort of second guessing you're talking about? Are you
talking about the more serious second guessing? When I don't know,
you either leave a job or you take a job
buyer's regret tell us. But when you say second guessing,
exactly what you mean.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Second guessing refers to everything you just said. It could
be a more minor incident, or it can be really,
you know, a huge one in terms of you doubting
yourself and the decisions that you make. And that's why
it's important to trust your intuition, which is the still
small voice inside that will tell you the truth about things,
(21:37):
and not to second guess yourself and not to wave
even if other people have different opinions, Because people have
lots of opinions, they have a lot of unsolicited advice
that they give. And it's important in terms of empathy
to trust yourself, to have empathy with yourself and trust
that little voice inside that's saying, don't get into that
(22:00):
business deal. This is not going to turn out well,
and then your mind by say, oh, but you're getting
so much money from it, but your intuition is saying no,
don't go there.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Okay, so there, okay. So how do you distinguish intuition
and mind. It sounds to me like unless what you're
saying is unless you're really confident in certain because I
got to assume every big decision we make in life,
whether it's getting married, ivan children, picking a college to
(22:32):
go to, whatever it is, you have to have those
moments of self doubt. Isn't that what's normal for most people?
I mean? Or is it people supposed to say, I
know what I want to buy. I want to buy
that car. That's the only type. There are people like that,
But I think most of us say, well, yeah, I
like that car, but I kind of like that car too.
(22:52):
Is that not just part of being human to do
always sort of second guess yourself or am I way
on face?
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Well, it's being human doubting yourself, you know. And part
of what I'm trying to teach people in the book
is how to get more of a clarity about what
they want and to have more faith in themselves. In
terms of listening to your intuition, because I tell you
when I haven't listened. Let's say I've gone ahead with
(23:23):
something in my life. Maybe it was a relationship, you know,
maybe it was something else, and I didn't listen to
that voice saying don't do this. Now, this isn't going
to be good for you. And the voice in me
that says I want to do it, I want this
to happen, it never turned out well, and so people
cannot listen. But it won't turn out well. And if
(23:45):
you want a life that's based more on self confidence,
we're never always confident. Of course, you're making a good point,
but we can try to get to the point where
if we get a gut feeling about something and it
says don't go there, we at least think about it,
you know, as opposed to just walking into the lions den.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay, so let me ask you this. There's a concept
called analysis paralysis where certain people can never make a
decision even at a restaurant, you know, do they want
the big scollops or do they want the pasta carbon whatever?
And some people you can ask people, what do you
(24:29):
want to have for dinner? I don't know. Is this
the is this the opposite of this analysis paralysis, the
opposite of people who you know who don't follow their
instinct or is this actually a form of analysis paralysis?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Yeah, Well in the book I talk about the importance
of not overthinking because people can really.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Analysis which is which is analysis paralysis?
Speaker 6 (24:58):
I guess absolutely absolutely, where you just overthink something and
then you never know what you even feels right to
you anymore. But what I want to emphasize, and the
genius of empathy is to let's say you don't know
what feels right. Let's say you're lost. Let's say you
are you have analysis paralysis. What do you begin listening
to if you want to start in the beginning of
(25:20):
trusting yourself. Now, trust your gut feeling that the feeling
that comes up that will you know, tell you the
truth about things, because I'm sure you've been in situations
and you can feel something inside saying this is fantastic
or this you know doesn't it's not on the app
and up, I have a feeling about this that they
(25:43):
aren't telling the truth. Most people have that sense, but
you have to trust it. A second. Guessing yourself means
that you don't trust it and it's the process of
wanting to get more self confident regardless of what other
people will says. If you're dependent on other people's opinions
(26:03):
all the time, it's going to drive you crazy. You
have to know what feels right to you and follow
that as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Okay, so my last question, and let me go back
to the Dalai Lama. Obviously he's a manual and great morality,
so I'll bring it all the way round. Are we
talking about here a little bit of moral conscience as well?
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Or absolutely well. I believe that making a life that
is based on empathy rather than hatred and polarization and
bitterness is a sense of morality. It's like saying, I'm
going to take the higher path, the higher good, and
I'm going to believe in it, and I'm going to
believe that it's a good thing. I believe in compassion,
(26:49):
I believe in empathy. I believe in trying to find
it even when it seems impossible.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
That's what I'm suggesting, is to really decide where you're
coming from and who you want to be and begin
to develop that more.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Okay, very interesting conversation. I enjoyed this conversation. I hope
my question didn't drive you totally crazy, but thank you
so much too. The book is the genius of empathy,
practical skills to heal your sensitive self. And I'm sure
this book must be available everywhere.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Yes, and it's on my website, which is Dr Judith
Orloff R l O s F dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Perfect. Thank you so much, Doctor Orloff. Enjoyed. We have
a great night. Good night.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Now when we get back in just a minute or two,
we're going to talk about this sort of a back
to school issue. Can the classroom make students sick? Go
to talk with David Steinmann, who's a consumer advocate, investigative
journalist who focuses on environmental health. Stay with us. This
is WBZ in Boston. You're listening to WBZ on ten thirty.
(28:00):
If you don't get us on the radio for whatever,
so you can always get us on the internet. All
you have to do is go to the WBZ News
Radio on the iHeartRadio app. Pretty easy. Back on Nightside
right after this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Delighted to be joined by David Steinman. He's a consumer advocate,
investigative journalist who focus who focuses on environment and health.
And we're talking today about tonight about the idea of
kids getting back to school, and we'd like to think
that kids are in safe environments. But David Steinman has
(28:45):
a new book entitled Raising Healthy Kids Protecting Your Children
from Hidden chemical Toxins, and I guess some of this
might be involved with heading back to school. Can you
pull this to get this concept together for us? David?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh? Sure, good evening. It's great to be on your
show tonight. But that chapter is called the New School
Rules because the fact is that you do have to
be really aware of the environmental hazards at your school,
and particularly in Massachusetts. You know, I was just doing
some research, for example, on the lead in drinking water,
(29:24):
and what Boston Public Health Public School says is that
all parents were notified if their school water samples were
above fifteen parts per billion, and then they say, quote,
if you are not notified by a child's school, no
action is needed. And that's just not true because if
the water has thirteen, fourteen, even ten or five parts
(29:47):
per billion of lead, you, as a parent do need
to take action?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Okay, So let me stop you for a second, let
me ask you. Okay, So I assume they didn't pick
fifteen parts per billion out of the air. I assume
they're they're relying upon some government guideline.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Correct, Yeah, that's true, the e p A.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay, fair enough, Okay, And we think about the e
p A. So if if the would you saying here
is that the the city of Boston, the Public School Department,
has an obligation to go beyond what the e p
A considers if not safe, at least tolerable circumstances or standards.
(30:29):
Is that what I'm hearing you say?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah, I think that they that the better way. Now.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Fortunately, if your child is in a DPS school, you
can get the water testing results for your school, and
you should request them. What I'm saying is a consumer
advocate and someone who is dealing strictly with health and
most EPA standards are really compromises, you know, they're really compromises,
Like we have forever chemicals in our drinking water at
(30:57):
schools too, and they're very dangerous. And EPA has never
banned any of them, though they have limits on how
much is safe. But these limits are just based on
the practicality that there's going to be some in the water. Now,
that doesn't mean you have to accept it as a parent,
that doesn't mean you have to accept.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
What's going to have it. So let's assume, hypothetically, using
this example, that you get a letter from the school
and they say, all the water is safe. We've tested it.
It's you know, they're fewer than fifteen parts per billion, Okay.
And let's assume that a parent says, well, send us
what the study is, and they send us study and
(31:38):
they come up with some figure of let's say six
or seven parts per billion. What options do the parents
have at that Joine at that.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Point, Well, the first thing is to be informed, and
you know, and each individual can make decisions about if
they think ten pbb is safe based on the evidence,
working as a consumer advocate and in the legal field,
that much water and that high level of what is
really not safe if you're for your child whose brain
(32:04):
is really developing. You know, this is preschool, early the
early years, when the brain is really in its most
active state of cognitive development. So but if what I
suggest in the book is parents should form a Green
Team for their classroom or for their middle school for
their children, and look at the school holistically. It's not
(32:28):
just water. But in the case of water, if their
child's water supply does have lead, you can use your
own filtered water from your home, which you can produce
much more, it's inexpensively than bottled and have your child
take kid take their own bottled water to school from
a stainless still flask, and that's a much safer alternative.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
What are some of the other dangers in school? Obviously
we've talked a lot about water. Are there other dangers
in school in terms of I don't know, you know,
the inks that are used to print products, the crayons
or the pencils that are distributed. I mean, you really
have to be an environmental hawk when you think about
the number of items that are going to come into
(33:10):
your son or daughter's possession while they're in school.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Oh yeah, Actually, there's probably about nine big, big things
to know about school. But I'll just give you a second.
A lot of parents send their kids to school in uniforms, yes,
and most of those school uniforms will say they're stain
or water resistant, which means they're loaded with us forever
chemicals which are absorbed through the skin and cause kidney
(33:35):
cancer and infertility. So, as a parent who's sending their
kids to school or maybe wearing a school uniform, maybe
it's an athletic uniform, you know, as a parent, you
really don't want them wearing that kind of stuff and
you should demand of the school that alternatives are provided
that are stain and water resistant, free from stain and
(33:56):
water resistant chemicals like the forever chemicals that are so
to interust our kids. And those are being sold now
because people are becoming more aware. So you know, that
would be another one, another thing to but but there
are other things too. For example, what parents might not
think a lot about is the kind of turf that
their kids play their athletics on. You know, we've replaced
(34:20):
so much grasples synthetic turf.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, yeah, boy, I'll tell you You've got to have
a lot of gumption as a parent to to to
assert the concerns that legitimate concerns that you've identified, because
I think that in most instances, the school we're going
to look at that individual parent and say, you know,
(34:42):
what do you what do you want us to do?
We're not gonna We're not going to change the football field.
It's September. And if if your kid doesn't want to
play football, then don't have him played football. I mean
that that's going to be a difficult spot for a
parent too, in the in their in their efforts to
protect their child, to assert a claim. Is are there
(35:03):
any tips in your book which can guide people as
to how to handle that sort of situation.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Well, that you bring out such a great point. You
can't move some things overnight. Fortunately, because more people are
becoming aware of its, schools are becoming less reluctant to
go to artificial turf. But honestly, there are some sports
like soccer where the rate of cancer among goalies who
are on the ground all the time on artificial turf
are quite high. And I'd get my kid out of that,
(35:32):
I really would. I kept them to take up another sport.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean, obviously parents can make those decisions.
But the kid really wants to be a soccer goalie,
that's going to be it's going to be a bit
of a fight.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, I have to be.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
You have to organize a green team at the school
and work with the administration to make these changes right,
because you're right, some of them are institutionalized.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
So raising healthy kids, protecting your children from hidden chemical toxins.
That's available, I'm sure of bookstores and also on Amazon. Correct,
it is all right, David, Thank you so much for
your time tonight. Interesting conversation. I enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Have a great night, thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
When we come back to be talking with Massachusetts congress
Woman Laurie Trehan about the Steward healthcare crisis and how
it's impacting her communities as well. Coming back on Nightside
right after this
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.