February 25, 2025 • 40 mins
We kick off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about! For one of our segments this evening we discuss the Karen Read hearing today in which Read’s defense was pressed over information of “grave concern.”
Attorney Phil Tracy joined Dan to Talk about the Karen Read case.
Scott Speranza - CEO of HealthLock- Americans are drowning in debt - overall debt levels increased by 0.5% to $18.04 trillion. Share of households becoming seriously delinquent on payments is at a 14-year high. How consumers can negotiate down their medical bills so they can get out of debt.
Dale Stephanos-Local artist/illustrator-New USPS Forever Stamp Commemorates Betty White – Stamp was illustrated by a local artist. How do illustrations get chosen to become featured on stamps?
Meredith Elliott Powell-Business strategist, keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book Mentally Fit, Powerfully Resilient, Competitively Strong: The 9 Strategy Formula for Thriving in Your Personal Life. - From classroom to office – why Gen Z feel like they’re stepping onto a different planet at work and how to help them.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Attorney Phil Tracy joined Dan to Talk about the Karen Read case.
Scott Speranza - CEO of HealthLock- Americans are drowning in debt - overall debt levels increased by 0.5% to $18.04 trillion. Share of households becoming seriously delinquent on payments is at a 14-year high. How consumers can negotiate down their medical bills so they can get out of debt.
Dale Stephanos-Local artist/illustrator-New USPS Forever Stamp Commemorates Betty White – Stamp was illustrated by a local artist. How do illustrations get chosen to become featured on stamps?
Meredith Elliott Powell-Business strategist, keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book Mentally Fit, Powerfully Resilient, Competitively Strong: The 9 Strategy Formula for Thriving in Your Personal Life. - From classroom to office – why Gen Z feel like they’re stepping onto a different planet at work and how to help them.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on de Bezy, Boston's news
radio New Nicole. I think if the Bruins could play
the Maple Leafs every game, I think there should be
in the playoffs. They have the Maple Leafs number, that's
for sure. My name is Dan Ray. Hope you have
our number six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
As we start a Tuesday night edition of Nightside, Brett
(00:24):
Jennick is back in the control room. Brett and I
have worked many years together that haven't worked recently. Rob
Brooks is under the weather for a second night in
the robe, but I talked with Rob today. I think
you'll be back tomorrow night. But it delighted to have
Brett with us. There's no one who does a better
job than Brett as far as I'm concerned. So be
(00:44):
very kind and Brett will set you up when we
begin taking phone calls after nine o'clock. And just to
remind you, we will be talking with the new newly
appointed Massachusetts US Attorney Leah Foley about what her priority
are in that very important, I think, no question, the
(01:04):
most important. With all apologies to the Attorney General Authocomwalth Massachusetts.
The most the single most important law enforcement office in
the entire state. And then later on tonight, there's some
developments going on in Ukraine. Apparently President Zelensky is going
to be at the White House later this week, perhaps
(01:25):
on Friday, and we will be looking at the changes
in our policy towards Ukraine and Russia as it has
evolved in the last month. Beginning at ten o'clock. But
first we start off, as we always do, with four
very interesting guests. Joining us is Phil Tracy, Attorney Phil Tracy,
Phil welcome back to night, said, how are you this evening?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thank you Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You have been following the Karen Reid hearing, and to
many people, this seems to be very confusing. It is
a red perspective of what went on during the first trial,
and I think it's a question of honesty and discovery.
(02:11):
Maybe you can break it down so we all can
understand better what is at stake. The judge seems quite
upset with specifically one of the defense attorneys, the lead
defense attorney at trial, Alan Jackson, give us up, give
us kind of a hits, runs and errors about what
the heck's going on here. You've been in this situation.
Not in a bad situation, but you've been in plenty
(02:32):
of courtrooms as a defense attorney.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, it's a confusing situation because what it's about is
the discovery rules and the reciprocal applying of playing by
the rules. And I can tell you right now from
body language that the judge is mad. The defendant is
(02:57):
not part of this whole thing, but it's going to
affect her a big time in this next trial because
Alan Jackson is very nervous and that's why he hit
somebody else. Speaking for him today, I think he's nervous
that he's going to be ejected from the case. Now,
remember he's not a member of the Massachusetts bar. He
(03:18):
must come in as I do in other states. You've
got to petition to get in pro hoc fea cheek
for this one thing. Only he's here for this trial.
He's sponsored in by probably David Yannetti, and he shows
wherever state he's from, he shows that he's in good
standing with the bar. Now this could have ramifications for
(03:40):
him since he considers himself an attorney that crosses the
country to try big cases. So it's very important for
him going forward and for her to keep him on
the case since he's already tried one case, but the
judge could sanction him in that way. They judge could
(04:02):
also exclude the testimony, and that testimony was very valuable
to the defense. That testimony said that the injuries that
the decedent suffered were not consistent with a motor vehicle crash,
and that in itself probably caused a lot of reasonable
(04:26):
doubt in the jurors minds. The problem is with that.
If they don't have that, what they will have is
the experts from the Commonwealth side, which say the following,
she drove twenty five miles an hour in reverse sixty
feet and hit him. Now, whether she did that on
(04:48):
purpose or whether that's the question, and that's what we'reld
I'll find out.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, just to put that in perspective, if you're driving
twenty five miles an hour and traverse sixty feet, it
probably takes two or three seconds. I mean, if it's
fairly quick, you can go as if you go in
sixty and go eighty eight feet a second. So if
you even if you go in twenty five, it's you know,
(05:15):
maybe two seconds, and you can have that impact pretty quick,
pretty quickly. I'm not a math major. The other question
is I assume that even if they lose these expert witnesses,
the Red defense team will be able to go out
and find other expert witnesses to put on the witness stand.
(05:36):
The question evolved here as I understand that is there's
almost like a timing question whether or not Jackson agreed
in advance to pay for the testimony of these expert
witnesses and did not share that at trial and prior
to it to the end of the trial. And I
(05:59):
think that his lawyer, this fellow Alessi, who's made a
pretty good presentation, was saying that they weren't presented with
a bill by these experts until some days after the
trial had concluded. So there's kind of a timing mechanism
going on here as well.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I believe there's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But it doesn't smell right, you know, no question who
are in the business, let's say practicing trial and journees
doesn't doesn't look good, doesn't pass the eye tests. In
other words, he's in here acting kind of bombastically in
court and style that you know, things like we've won
(06:40):
the case. Almost he's almost said such like that. So,
I mean, this is going to take him down a pick.
I think he's hoping him praying and so may Karen
read that he can stay on the case, but the
next time around, sometimes it favors the prosecution. Now we
have a new special prosecutor there. His name is Brennan,
(07:03):
Brennan's lawyer, and you know he's doing a pretty good
job I think for them.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, no's he certainly has taken as a different look
at it. Let's put it like that. Phil has always
appreciate your help and participation, so we can follow all
of this along. We'll talk to thanks very much, Phil Tracy,
longtime Boston criminal defense attorney. When we get back here
on nights that we're going to talk about a problem
that a lot of Americans have right now, drowning in debt.
(07:33):
We've gone through a few tough years of inflation, a
lot of us have piled up debt. Overall debt has
increased by half of one percent, up to eighteen trillion dollars.
I mean, the federal deficit is about thirty six point
six trillion dollars, so on top of that about fifty
percent more personal debt. We're going to talk with an
(07:55):
expert on that. The CEO of a company called health Walk.
Come back on night Side. My name is Dan Rey.
You listening to WBZ Nightside on WBZ ten thirty Am
on your AM dial. That's right, if you listen to
us in your car radio, lock us in anywhere. Back
on Nightside. We'll begin taking phone calls in the nine
o'clock hour. No phone calls this hour. Back on nightside
(08:16):
right after this. Well, we keep also statistics in this country,
whether it's in sports or levels of debt. And Americans
are apparently now drowning in personal debt. We're drowning on
public debt, the entire debt of the country. But joining
us is Scott Sporanza. He's the CEO of a company
(08:36):
called Healthlock. First of all, Scott, what does healthlock do?
What type of company A is Healthlock?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Dan, thanks for having me. So Healthlock is a is
a software as a service, you know, after even where
we automatically verify all your healthcare transactions, so medical dental
vision RX, we're automatically looking at those and we can
talk about how and then we're telling the consumer good
(09:05):
to pay because it was transacted and priced fairly or
flag there's something wrong with this, and our company has
saved our subscribers over one hundred and thirty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Wow, I should have used you when I was using
an HSA account. I got so much aggravation for the
HSA account, challenging everything, and you know, twenty dollars or
thirty dollars doctor visits, code pays and you'd have to
send them information and documentation and then they tell you
(09:37):
they lost that you had to resend it. I should
have been in touch with you back then, But that's
not what we're talking about tonight. I got rid of
the HSA company by the way. I just it wasn't
worth it. I'd rather pay the extra taxes than go
through the I'm serious, than go through the aggregation. Just
was horrible, horrible. Well, another thing is horrible is we're drowning.
(10:00):
Americans were drowning in debt. We're drowning in the federal
debt of thirty six point six whatever it is. Havening
checked it in the last five minutes. It could be
thirty six points seven trillion dollars in the last five minutes.
But Americans are also assuming and taking on incredible debt
themselves with when interest rates are high, and what's going
(10:24):
on here? Have we just lost a way?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Well, you know, I can't necessarily speak to the larger
issues because of course they're out of my control. But
as it relates to medical, yeah, third of all consumer
debt is medical, and there's a there's there's various reasons
for that. The top reasons are very few people planned
to have a medical occurrence that's larger than a checkup
(10:52):
or some you know RX. So if they have anything
that's even close to catastrophic couple thousand dollars, they might
not have that money in their saving accounts. So what
do they do. They charge it on their credit card
at twenty to thirty percent potential interest. And I believe
it only takes about ten twelve thousand dollars for the
average American to claim bankruptcies. And so they all of
(11:15):
a sudden get drowned by that credit card payment and
unfortunately they have to claim bankruptcy. And sixty six percent
of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills. And that's
actually up from sixty one percent pre COVID, So it's
gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Now, let me ask you this does a claim the
bankruptcy bankruptcy filing. Does that relieve you of the medical cost?
You can claim bankruptcy, but you still have to pay
the government whatever taxes you're all of that. I know,
what about medica? I know, can it get out from
under medical bills? If that is really the albatross that's
hanging around your neck?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Yeah, you can't. There's still a negotiation. It depends on
the cost, It depends on what kind of characters in
your insurance, depends on which state you live in. But
for the most part, you can work with the providers
to go ahead and either do a payment plan or
course wipe out that debt through bankruptcy to a degree
in some cases completely, in some cases not. But the
(12:13):
point is is that Americans need protection. We have accountants
that file our taxes, obviously, we have consultants for whatever.
We don't have that in the medical world. We have
our doctor and we have our carrier. There's eight hundred
and fifty million claims that the Wall Street Journal just
reported are denied every year in medical damn. Eight hundred
(12:36):
and fifty million is only one hundred twenty million families
in the United States. That means that twenty three percent
of all Americans are going to receive a denied claim.
Who do you call if the claim has been denied, Well,
you call your carrier. Well, your carrier is supposed to
be your advocate, but the carrier is the one that
denied your claim. So between the carrier and the provider,
people need help and assistance like an accountant for taxes.
(13:01):
And that's where health box stands in the gap.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Okay, we're gonna We're going to get to your company
and what the company can do, which is great, by
the way, But I thought that when Obama Care passed,
it was a panaceer and all our problems regarding medical
care accessibility and all of that was taken away. I
remember when then Vice President Biden whispered in President Obama's ear,
(13:30):
this is a big and there's an adjective in there
which I could it might have been ensuring actually deal
h So what happened to that?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah, yeah, Well let's talk maybe about the good, the bad,
and the ugly. So the good is is that it
did create folks who cannot go on a group plan.
They can go to the general market, the public market,
if you will, in exchange, and they can find rates
that are pretty affordable. You know, a young healthy adult
can maybe find something for ten twenty thirty dollars because
(14:04):
they've got subsidies and so forth. So there's some good
things there. You know. The bad news is the coverage
is very limited. It isn't as good as your private
if you will, commercial group busin employer group coverage. And
the ugly is that actually the highest percentage of claims
that are denied it's from the ACA public plans, which
(14:26):
is thirty percent. So that's a big problem within the
ACA is that they literally have the highest level of
Clayton denials, which can lead to catastrophic costs. So there's
a problem there. And you know, there's a lot of
about the ACA. There's a lot of good, there's a
lot of bad, but the ugly can really hurt you.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I guess they might they should have looked at that
legislation a little bit more closely, but we'll leave that
for the moment. So what can what can your company
health lock do for someone who's listening tonight, either who
is yet in debt or finds themselves in debt, particularly
if some of that debt evolves around medical costs.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, Well, you certainly don't want to get caught after
the fact, right, So so healthot can still help you
after the fact. But you've got one hundred and eighty
four million data breaches that happened in medical last year.
It was two million pre COVID. So just like people
have identity theft, there's a proactive protective nature to our subscribers,
(15:27):
which is to protect you against medical identity theft fraud.
If you doctors have breaches, we'll tell you the breach,
how many people were affected, We'll look in the dark web,
we'll clean up that information for you protect your medical records.
So there's some protectiveness there. The other aspect is is
that we have the only services that I know of
in the country where we're automatically monitoring your transactions. So
(15:51):
you don't have to send us anything, you don't have
to call us, you don't have to snap the picture
of your bill and send it in. So if you
go to the doctor in six months, we're going to
send you an alert that says, hey, we know you
went to doctor Jones. It was one thousand dollars bill
and we verified it and it was adjudicated correctly against
your insurance, pay the bill and confidence or you automatically
(16:12):
get a flag. You choose if we're going to investigate it,
and when we do, our average savings is eight hundred
and fifty dollars per savings event. We've literally saved one
hundred thousand dollars for folks, we've saved fifty thousand. Again,
we've saved over one hundred and thirty million. So it's
a proactive, always on service that's monitoring your healthcare transactions
(16:33):
for you.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
To save money and.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
How could Obviously the name of the company is health blog,
So is it healthlock dot com? Tell us what's what
it is? Find you?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yeah, health talk dot com and we've got some plans
there to help you with. A MasterCard is also a
partner of ours, so you can get a discount through
the MasterCard if you have one. And yeah, we we
certainly want to be able to help Americans as they
enter into the healthcare system. We say, don't go to
the doctor without health loock.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And it doesn't matter if you are someone young who
is dealing with the doctor, you know outside of your family,
your parents when you up until twenty six and now
you run your own or if you're married, in your
fifties or sixties, and you've never used health block, you
can still check it out and perhaps become a client
(17:25):
of healthlock.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So what are you're a medicare, whether you're in a
group plan, whether you're on the ACA insurance, whether you're
a young adult is entering into the insured healthcare market.
We can help you so we can automatically monitor, we
can protect you from the fraud, and we can alleviate
these high cost issues that you potentially are facing.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well, it sounds great. I appreciate you joining us tonight, Scott,
and hopefully some people will at least begin to investigate
this because obviously, no one wants to worry about personal debt. Uh.
No one worries about the federal debt at this point
because they think it's going to go away. It's going
to catch up with some generation, maybe not the Baby boomers,
(18:09):
of which I am one, but one of the coming
The generations coming along are gonna have to pay a
big bill and might as well might as well keep
your own personal amount of debt down healthlock dot com. Scott,
appreciate the conversation that I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Thank you much, Thank you, Dan, take care you too.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
All right, we get back. We're going to talk. You
know how you go to the post office and you
see all the new stamps. There's a a couple of
years ago. There's a stamp for Yogi Behrend. There's a
stamp for the you know, the different different causes. Now
there's a stamp for Betty White, the great actress comedian.
And we're going to talk with a fellow whose last
(18:51):
name might be familiar to you, Dale Stefanos.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
He is an artist, a local artist and illustrator, teaches
illustration and stuff like you university, and he actually illustrated
this stamp. I mean, someone has to illustrate these stamps.
We're going to talk to Dale Stefanos right after the
break the news break here at the bottom of the hour.
My name is Dan Ray. You go to the post
office and you say you want to buy a book
of stamps or whatever, and I'll ask you what type,
(19:18):
and they show you about twenty five stamps, and there's
pictures of Americans, and there's pictures of causes and beautiful pictures. Well,
someone has to develop each one of those stamps. And
there's a stamp that I'm not sure if it's out
yet or if it's going to be coming out very soon.
It commemorates the life of someone who I think all
of us were fans of, and that is the late
(19:39):
great Betty White. And with us is Dale Stefanos, a
local illustrator artist teaches illustration at Suffolk University. Dale. I'm
going to be fascinated to find out how this process works.
Welcome to night side.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Bet Thanks for having me, And yes, someone's got to
do it right, so why not me?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It's funny. I was watching the Channel five six o'clock
news last night, I think it was last night, and
I saw this story. And you have a very similar
last name to the one of the anchors on that broadcast,
who as a friend of mine, your your sister.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Correct, I do have a very very similar last name,
and we live in the same house as a matter
of fact, so we have a very similar address as well.
It's really strange.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, Marie is amazing, just amazing. The question is, did
you come up with the idea or did did someone
in the government say, Okay, we gotta have a stand
for Betty White. Uh, and let's find a great illustrator
to come up with how did how did the process work?
What did the idea Germany from and take us from
start to finish?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. There there is a like
a nominating process that anybody can really put a name
in there. And I think it's on the USPS website
somewhere if you can find it, so you could you
could nominate somebody and then the board would consider it.
But the way it usually works is there's a general agreement, Okay,
(21:13):
these people you have to be dead in this country
at least, no now in Canada you can still be
alive and have a stamp.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But that's the bad part. That's the bad part of it.
But it is because you never get to enjoy to
see your stamp on an envelope. But that's no.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I was gonna say, if you want to, if you
want to see your stamp, I'm sorry, you're just gonna
have to. You're gonna have to see it from above.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I get you, I got you. So, So the way
it works is so nominates good. Yeah, I didn't mean
to interact. I couldn't resist.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Go ahead, Yeah, No, that's fine. The way it works
is is they have they have the names and then
there are a couple of different design groups that USPS
works with, and within those design groups there are several
arts and each of these design groups they kind of
(22:05):
had a stable of designers and illustrators and photographers that
they regularly work with. Before I worked with him, I think,
you know, I've been an illustrator for almost almost forty
years now, so I'm kind of a known quantity in
my industry. So when the art director called me, he
really describes how he liked the way I approach illustrating
(22:31):
older people. So I think what he was saying was,
you know, we want to be gentle with this, and
it was funny, though he still didn't say who it was,
I think until halfway through the conversation. So then what
happens is they will send me a handful of photographs
(22:52):
that have been licensed, so you can't just copy the
photograph because you would be violating the photographers copyright, so
they these are legally cleared to use, and then we
chose which era. You know, you've got the early Betty
White from the fifties, the you know, the seventies Betty White,
(23:13):
and then you know, you know you have the older
Betty White and it was it was kind of the
sweet spot we landed on right around twenty ten. It
was a fantastic photographed by California photographer. And then what
happens is with this particularly one is Betty White has
it was very well known for her animal activism, and
(23:37):
the family is always involved. If the estate is still
everybody's still alive, then they have a say in how
they're you know, their family member is going to be
depicted on a stamp. So this typical government cause that
governmental organization, it goes through the postal board, and then
there's a citizens board, and then there's the estate. So
(23:58):
these things are all of these stamps are digested through
these bodies and then back to me. So it's a
miracle that by the time all this digesting is done,
you have something that looks semi attracted, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Sure, So what I'm tennessee you mentioned that her love
of animals. I'm looking at the stamp right now and
I'm just wondering what is it? Oh, I think is it?
Is it an ear ring that she's wearing her?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, So so it was interesting. So the family wanted
an animal in there, and Greg braiding the art director
and I were both you know, I was like, okay,
an animal, a lemur, a dog, a cat, a girass,
and you know what. And then we both thought an
animal would be distracting. So, you know, I took a
few stabs at animals. I sent them maybe ten sketches
(24:49):
with animals in them. Neither of us really liked it,
and he didn't want to send them along. I didn't
want him to send them along. So finally, one morning
I was really frustrated. One morning, I was sitting at
break at the breakfast table with Maria and she was
I always kind of doodle while I'm drinking coffee, and
I looked across and she was wearing some kind of
(25:10):
animal print, and I had I had, And then I
looked at her earrings and I had kind of absent
mindedly doodled docks an earring, I mean a paw print,
And I thought, oh my god, a paw print would
really kind of give us the opportunity to get an
animal and put the suggestion of an animal in there
and make it a little more entertaining, because it's kind
(25:31):
of an Easter egg. You know, it's not obvious, but
once you know about it. It's kind of kind of
like this cool little secret. So and so the family
loved it. Everybody loved it, and it worked.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So the stamp Itselfdale, I mean, that's not a photograph.
That is your rendition of the photograph.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Correct, correct, Yeah, that's a that's a drawing, and you know,
I paint it. They would you know, oh, well, thank you, Yeah,
you know it's it's I always say, you know, whenever
you're looking at at at paintings or are you're really
looking at the last thirty minutes, because up until then,
(26:09):
it's kind of a it's kind of a disaster and
you're just trying to land the plane in high winds,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Well, I'll tell you you certainly captured everything, including like
the glinter in her eyes, you know, I'm serious, her smile.
I mean, it's this is so So there was a
photograph that essentially you were working from that the family
had agreed upon. That's the process. And then you use
(26:36):
the photograph the dress that you used in the background
color and the highlights, which is there's a lot of
kind of purple in there was that her favorite color
by any chance, er.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
That was I saw a lot of photographs with you know,
with her wearing that color. I did maybe a dozen
different color color passes, and and I just kind of
left it up to my art director to decide what
he liked best or what they liked best, you know,
the group he's working with, and I think we all
decided that this kind of kind of nailed it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So now, when will the when does the stamp become available?
It says here will be released soon.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You can order it the day after tomorrow. You can
order them Thursday, but they will be actually available in
the post office on March twenty seventh.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Let me ask you another question which is a little irrelevant,
but you probably know a hell of a heck of
a lot more about stamps than I do. I have
some friends of mine who say that they buy stamps
over the internet. I've seen the ads over the internet.
I'll think legitimate ads.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Oh sure, if you just go to you know, the
US Postal Service website and.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Talk about it. We're talking about full price here, I'm
talking about at discounted prices. Those are the ads I'm
talking about.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Oh damn, I don't know, man.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Oh, okay, no, no, probably, Well, I've had some friends
of mine who I trust, who say to me, yeah,
you can do that, and that they have excess stamps
and all of that. I just didn't know if.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I mean, I buy stamps at a post office and
I know I pay yeah, you know, sixty seven cents
for it's now like a book of twenty there's you know,
sixteen dollars or fifteen dollars or something like that. But yep,
you've never seen the ads on on the internet where
you can get a roll of one hundred stamps for
like seventeen dollars and stuff like that. You haven't seen those.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
No, my algorithm hasn't pointed me towards that.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, no problem, No, no, no, no problem. Hey, I'm
always looking for a bargain, but I just wanted to check.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So, now, will there be an unveiling of this somewhere
or yeah, just if there's a ceremony that you're going
to be part of, I want to know about it.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, there's there's so because you know she was she
lived in LA and she's an animal rights activist, they're
going to have the they call it the first day
of issue. Yeah, so they're having the first day of
issue event at the La Zoo. So Marie and I
are going to go out there and we're going to
have a fancy weekend, and you know, for one hot second,
(29:20):
I will be the person in this marriage who's in
the spotlight.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Please please stay ahead of Maria for me. It's just
fun watching the other night. And tell her that I
enjoy watching her on television.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Very very highly of you.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks Dale, I appreciate I hope she was listening tonight. Okay,
well we will talk soon.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Thanks, all right, good bye.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Congratulations, Wow, job well done. When we get back, we're
going to talk with a business strategist and a keynote
speaker about gen Z gen Zers who are having some
anxiety issues having left the classroom and now finding themselves
in the workforce. We will explain it all. Welcome back there.
(30:07):
Every generation moves from academia, whether it's high school, into
the workforce or college and then into the workforce, and
gen Z's having some problems apparently, uh, stepping in for them,
it's like stepping on to a different planet. Going to
work with us. As Meredith Elliott Powell, she's a business strategist,
(30:31):
author of books, best selling book Mentally Fit, powerfully resilient,
competitively strong, the nine strategy Formula for Thriving in your
personal life. That's a long title, merit if I assume
that takes up the entire front cover. How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So, so let's first of all, let's define zen Z
gen Z. I get my gens mixed up here. That
is from Is that that's after the Millennials? I guess.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yes, yes, yes, it's the generation coming right after, right
after the millennials. Nineteen ninety seven to twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, so some of those gen Zers are still in
junior high school if they were born in twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Oh, that's right, twenty twelve. I'm sorry, you know, Dan,
it is nightier for me. So yeah, nineteen ninety seven
to twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
No, no, that's fine, that's fine, you said, you said
it right. So what I'm saying is, so these are
people who, if they were born in ninety seven, they
have matriculated from college probably now four or five years
the oldest of the generation. And have we reached you
on another country? I believe you might be on the
(31:49):
other side of the pond.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
No, no, no, I am actually coming to you tonight.
I'm traveling, but I'm actually coming to you tonight from Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Oh, well, we're in the same time zone. It's dark
up here too. We're in Boston. That's easy. I thought
I thought you were like five hours ahead of us.
Sometimes we talked to people in Europe at this odd
and I feel badly for them because it's two o'clock
or one o'clock there, and no, so you're still early.
Come on, don't be a party pooper, Meredith. So what's
(32:20):
going on with these young people? I mean, you know,
there have been other generations who I don't know, you know,
landed on Omaha Beach or who fought in warsh What
the what's their problem with going to work?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Yeah, well, you know I think that it's I mean,
first of all, I think if we really went back
in history, we would see that even the greatest generation
probably had a little bit of struggle at the start.
But you know, when you really think about.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah, they called I think they called they called that
the Great Depression.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Well, when you think about when you think about gen Z,
they have grown up in an environment where they have
been supervised from the time that they were born. You
know when when probably you and I were growing up.
We grew up in the era where our mothers locked
us outside most of the day. We had to figure
things out. We had to find friends, we had to
(33:19):
make sports. We had had a problem, we had to
solve it on our own.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, well, my parents would let me in at night.
That was always my problem to be. It was horrible
sometimes in the winter time. I'm glad. I'm only teasing.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
So they're coming out of an environment where their parents
have engaged them in every decision, asked their ideas, asked
their opinions. They've been if they had a question, they
could go to a parent or a coach and ask
what to do. And then all of a sudden you
find yourself in the workforce and it's a very different
environment and a very different environment in that you've got expectations,
(33:57):
you have to deliver your dependent you know, they're counting
on you to make decisions. And I think there's a
little bit of a bridge that's missing, a bit.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
You know, for this generation, it's always tough to paint
with a broadbrush.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Okay, right, absolutely, we all know that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Okay, there are people who were born in nineteen ninety
seven in nineteen ninety eight who are now in the military.
I don't assume they dealing with a lot of anxiety issues.
That there's some people who were born in ninety seven
and ninety eight who are quarterbacks for NFL teams right now.
I don't assume they much of a problem making a decision.
(34:42):
You do feel that there's a generational problem here. That
why their parents who I'm assuming their parents probably were
born in the baby boomlet maybe that their parents probably
came along in the nineteen seventies when the baby bo
were first having kids. Is I'm just trying to keep
(35:02):
in mind.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
I would say, I would say that their their parents
came along more at the you know, the the the
gen X and the millennial generation baby boomers might be
might be a little old for them, un less it's
a second or you know, or a third family, and
their parents were just a lot more engaged and involved.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
But I think, well, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Have my kids until by the way, I didn't have
my kids, we didn't have our kids. Had a son
in eighty seven and a daughter in ninety one, So
I don't know, maybe I'm crossing over generations whatever, So
how do you do. So you're a psychologist. When someone
comes to you and says, I'm a gen x er
and I'm having real problems here, what what do you
do other than say, look, I'm going I'm going to
(35:45):
give you some some some night gear here and uh,
we're going to send you up into the Adirondack woods. Uh,
and you're going to have to live in the wild
for a couple of weeks and and figure out what
do you do? How do you get them out of
a funk?
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Yeah, So, first of all, under you know, I tell
them basically to focus on communication, to find a mentor
to find somebody that they can talk to, that they
can engage with, that they can you know, that they
can learn from, and to realize that the time that
they're investing now is just that it's an investment that
(36:23):
you know, basically, we call it work because at times
you're going to be asked to do some things that
you may not want to you may not want to do.
And third, to put themselves in a mode of continuous learning.
That's what a job is about, especially in your early twenties.
It's about growth and it's about it's about development. And
(36:44):
then I think probably the most important thing we do
for them is that we right size their expectations. I mean,
if you and I had grown up in a family
where our parents included us in decision making, if they
asked our ideas and opinions, it would be foreign to
us to go to work and the CEO not drop
by and ask us for our thoughts and our opinions.
(37:05):
So right sizing their expectations and helping them understand what
to expect in the working environment, both from what.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
The experience is going to be.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Like, but also what the payoff is, what they're going
to gain from going to work, getting a job, getting
a career where that's going to put them in their
late thirties in their forties.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I think the most important word you mentioned during this
interview is a word that I love, which is mentor
everybody in their life. I think if you're going to
be successful, it has to have five or six people
at various stages in your life who works as a
mentor and it helps guide you. There'll be a job
decision you'll have to make and a good mentor might
(37:48):
say that's not really a good road for you. Something else.
The other word, that's my favorite word, is oblivious. And
one of the things that I've noticed that I'd love
you to comment, and if I'm wrong, please tell me that.
If I'm driving and there's a gen zer walking along
with ear plugs and headset or something and looking straight
(38:11):
ahead walking through a crosswalk, I of course stop and
allow that person to proceed. The younger they are, the
less likely that they would even acknowledge me and say
thank you or hi or anything like that. Older people
of whatever generation, when you you know, again you have
to stop someone's in a crosswalk. The older the person,
(38:33):
the more likely they're going to say hi and thank
you or you know, just an acknowledgment. And that's why,
to me, the word oblivious is a really important word
that I associate with a lot of really you know,
people who are young, they're so focused on the headset,
they're wearing, the earbuds and all of that. Tell me, now,
how wrong I am about that?
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Well, you know, first of all, again, I want to
get back to your statement, you can never you know,
broadbrush a generation. Yes, there there is a lot of that.
I mean, I do a lot of work with the
soft skills, the networking and the and the importance of
the of the human connection and and certainly with the
advancement of technology, those are skills that are being lost.
(39:20):
And as I advise every single parent, I say, if
you do not want your child to live in your
basement for the rest of your life, teach them how
to have a conversation, teach them eye contact tea.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I'm running out of time, but but most importantly, I
want to plug the book. Mentally Fit, powerfully, resilient, competitively strong,
the nine strategy formula for thriving in your personal life.
It's by Meredith Elliott Powell. Meredith, I'm sure it's available everywhere.
I really appreciate your time tonight and I think we connected. Okay,
thanks so much to thank you.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Stand by.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Very welcome by Meredith. We get back when to be
talking about the Massachusetts US Attorney. The US Attorney for
Massachusetts recently appointed Leah Foley. She is going to be
a good one and she's gonna be a great interview.
And you're invited to call and offer congratulations or ask questions.
Coming back on Nightside
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on de Bezy, Boston's news
radio New Nicole. I think if the Bruins could play
the Maple Leafs every game, I think there should be
in the playoffs. They have the Maple Leafs number, that's
for sure. My name is Dan Ray. Hope you have
our number six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
As we start a Tuesday night edition of Nightside, Brett
(00:24):
Jennick is back in the control room. Brett and I
have worked many years together that haven't worked recently. Rob
Brooks is under the weather for a second night in
the robe, but I talked with Rob today. I think
you'll be back tomorrow night. But it delighted to have
Brett with us. There's no one who does a better
job than Brett as far as I'm concerned. So be
(00:44):
very kind and Brett will set you up when we
begin taking phone calls after nine o'clock. And just to
remind you, we will be talking with the new newly
appointed Massachusetts US Attorney Leah Foley about what her priority
are in that very important, I think, no question, the
(01:04):
most important. With all apologies to the Attorney General Authocomwalth Massachusetts.
The most the single most important law enforcement office in
the entire state. And then later on tonight, there's some
developments going on in Ukraine. Apparently President Zelensky is going
to be at the White House later this week, perhaps
(01:25):
on Friday, and we will be looking at the changes
in our policy towards Ukraine and Russia as it has
evolved in the last month. Beginning at ten o'clock. But
first we start off, as we always do, with four
very interesting guests. Joining us is Phil Tracy, Attorney Phil Tracy,
Phil welcome back to night, said, how are you this evening?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thank you Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You have been following the Karen Reid hearing, and to
many people, this seems to be very confusing. It is
a red perspective of what went on during the first trial,
and I think it's a question of honesty and discovery.
(02:11):
Maybe you can break it down so we all can
understand better what is at stake. The judge seems quite
upset with specifically one of the defense attorneys, the lead
defense attorney at trial, Alan Jackson, give us up, give
us kind of a hits, runs and errors about what
the heck's going on here. You've been in this situation.
Not in a bad situation, but you've been in plenty
(02:32):
of courtrooms as a defense attorney.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, it's a confusing situation because what it's about is
the discovery rules and the reciprocal applying of playing by
the rules. And I can tell you right now from
body language that the judge is mad. The defendant is
(02:57):
not part of this whole thing, but it's going to
affect her a big time in this next trial because
Alan Jackson is very nervous and that's why he hit
somebody else. Speaking for him today, I think he's nervous
that he's going to be ejected from the case. Now,
remember he's not a member of the Massachusetts bar. He
(03:18):
must come in as I do in other states. You've
got to petition to get in pro hoc fea cheek
for this one thing. Only he's here for this trial.
He's sponsored in by probably David Yannetti, and he shows
wherever state he's from, he shows that he's in good
standing with the bar. Now this could have ramifications for
(03:40):
him since he considers himself an attorney that crosses the
country to try big cases. So it's very important for
him going forward and for her to keep him on
the case since he's already tried one case, but the
judge could sanction him in that way. They judge could
(04:02):
also exclude the testimony, and that testimony was very valuable
to the defense. That testimony said that the injuries that
the decedent suffered were not consistent with a motor vehicle crash,
and that in itself probably caused a lot of reasonable
(04:26):
doubt in the jurors minds. The problem is with that.
If they don't have that, what they will have is
the experts from the Commonwealth side, which say the following,
she drove twenty five miles an hour in reverse sixty
feet and hit him. Now, whether she did that on
(04:48):
purpose or whether that's the question, and that's what we'reld
I'll find out.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, just to put that in perspective, if you're driving
twenty five miles an hour and traverse sixty feet, it
probably takes two or three seconds. I mean, if it's
fairly quick, you can go as if you go in
sixty and go eighty eight feet a second. So if
you even if you go in twenty five, it's you know,
(05:15):
maybe two seconds, and you can have that impact pretty quick,
pretty quickly. I'm not a math major. The other question
is I assume that even if they lose these expert witnesses,
the Red defense team will be able to go out
and find other expert witnesses to put on the witness stand.
(05:36):
The question evolved here as I understand that is there's
almost like a timing question whether or not Jackson agreed
in advance to pay for the testimony of these expert
witnesses and did not share that at trial and prior
to it to the end of the trial. And I
(05:59):
think that his lawyer, this fellow Alessi, who's made a
pretty good presentation, was saying that they weren't presented with
a bill by these experts until some days after the
trial had concluded. So there's kind of a timing mechanism
going on here as well.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I believe there's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But it doesn't smell right, you know, no question who
are in the business, let's say practicing trial and journees
doesn't doesn't look good, doesn't pass the eye tests. In
other words, he's in here acting kind of bombastically in
court and style that you know, things like we've won
(06:40):
the case. Almost he's almost said such like that. So,
I mean, this is going to take him down a pick.
I think he's hoping him praying and so may Karen
read that he can stay on the case, but the
next time around, sometimes it favors the prosecution. Now we
have a new special prosecutor there. His name is Brennan,
(07:03):
Brennan's lawyer, and you know he's doing a pretty good
job I think for them.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, no's he certainly has taken as a different look
at it. Let's put it like that. Phil has always
appreciate your help and participation, so we can follow all
of this along. We'll talk to thanks very much, Phil Tracy,
longtime Boston criminal defense attorney. When we get back here
on nights that we're going to talk about a problem
that a lot of Americans have right now, drowning in debt.
(07:33):
We've gone through a few tough years of inflation, a
lot of us have piled up debt. Overall debt has
increased by half of one percent, up to eighteen trillion dollars.
I mean, the federal deficit is about thirty six point
six trillion dollars, so on top of that about fifty
percent more personal debt. We're going to talk with an
(07:55):
expert on that. The CEO of a company called health Walk.
Come back on night Side. My name is Dan Rey.
You listening to WBZ Nightside on WBZ ten thirty Am
on your AM dial. That's right, if you listen to
us in your car radio, lock us in anywhere. Back
on Nightside. We'll begin taking phone calls in the nine
o'clock hour. No phone calls this hour. Back on nightside
(08:16):
right after this. Well, we keep also statistics in this country,
whether it's in sports or levels of debt. And Americans
are apparently now drowning in personal debt. We're drowning on
public debt, the entire debt of the country. But joining
us is Scott Sporanza. He's the CEO of a company
(08:36):
called Healthlock. First of all, Scott, what does healthlock do?
What type of company A is Healthlock?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Dan, thanks for having me. So Healthlock is a is
a software as a service, you know, after even where
we automatically verify all your healthcare transactions, so medical dental
vision RX, we're automatically looking at those and we can
talk about how and then we're telling the consumer good
(09:05):
to pay because it was transacted and priced fairly or
flag there's something wrong with this, and our company has
saved our subscribers over one hundred and thirty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Wow, I should have used you when I was using
an HSA account. I got so much aggravation for the
HSA account, challenging everything, and you know, twenty dollars or
thirty dollars doctor visits, code pays and you'd have to
send them information and documentation and then they tell you
(09:37):
they lost that you had to resend it. I should
have been in touch with you back then, But that's
not what we're talking about tonight. I got rid of
the HSA company by the way. I just it wasn't
worth it. I'd rather pay the extra taxes than go
through the I'm serious, than go through the aggregation. Just
was horrible, horrible. Well, another thing is horrible is we're drowning.
(10:00):
Americans were drowning in debt. We're drowning in the federal
debt of thirty six point six whatever it is. Havening
checked it in the last five minutes. It could be
thirty six points seven trillion dollars in the last five minutes.
But Americans are also assuming and taking on incredible debt
themselves with when interest rates are high, and what's going
(10:24):
on here? Have we just lost a way?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Well, you know, I can't necessarily speak to the larger
issues because of course they're out of my control. But
as it relates to medical, yeah, third of all consumer
debt is medical, and there's a there's there's various reasons
for that. The top reasons are very few people planned
to have a medical occurrence that's larger than a checkup
(10:52):
or some you know RX. So if they have anything
that's even close to catastrophic couple thousand dollars, they might
not have that money in their saving accounts. So what
do they do. They charge it on their credit card
at twenty to thirty percent potential interest. And I believe
it only takes about ten twelve thousand dollars for the
average American to claim bankruptcies. And so they all of
(11:15):
a sudden get drowned by that credit card payment and
unfortunately they have to claim bankruptcy. And sixty six percent
of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills. And that's
actually up from sixty one percent pre COVID, So it's
gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Now, let me ask you this does a claim the
bankruptcy bankruptcy filing. Does that relieve you of the medical cost?
You can claim bankruptcy, but you still have to pay
the government whatever taxes you're all of that. I know,
what about medica? I know, can it get out from
under medical bills? If that is really the albatross that's
hanging around your neck?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Yeah, you can't. There's still a negotiation. It depends on
the cost, It depends on what kind of characters in
your insurance, depends on which state you live in. But
for the most part, you can work with the providers
to go ahead and either do a payment plan or
course wipe out that debt through bankruptcy to a degree
in some cases completely, in some cases not. But the
(12:13):
point is is that Americans need protection. We have accountants
that file our taxes, obviously, we have consultants for whatever.
We don't have that in the medical world. We have
our doctor and we have our carrier. There's eight hundred
and fifty million claims that the Wall Street Journal just
reported are denied every year in medical damn. Eight hundred
(12:36):
and fifty million is only one hundred twenty million families
in the United States. That means that twenty three percent
of all Americans are going to receive a denied claim.
Who do you call if the claim has been denied, Well,
you call your carrier. Well, your carrier is supposed to
be your advocate, but the carrier is the one that
denied your claim. So between the carrier and the provider,
people need help and assistance like an accountant for taxes.
(13:01):
And that's where health box stands in the gap.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Okay, we're gonna We're going to get to your company
and what the company can do, which is great, by
the way, But I thought that when Obama Care passed,
it was a panaceer and all our problems regarding medical
care accessibility and all of that was taken away. I
remember when then Vice President Biden whispered in President Obama's ear,
(13:30):
this is a big and there's an adjective in there
which I could it might have been ensuring actually deal
h So what happened to that?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah, yeah, Well let's talk maybe about the good, the bad,
and the ugly. So the good is is that it
did create folks who cannot go on a group plan.
They can go to the general market, the public market,
if you will, in exchange, and they can find rates
that are pretty affordable. You know, a young healthy adult
can maybe find something for ten twenty thirty dollars because
(14:04):
they've got subsidies and so forth. So there's some good
things there. You know. The bad news is the coverage
is very limited. It isn't as good as your private
if you will, commercial group busin employer group coverage. And
the ugly is that actually the highest percentage of claims
that are denied it's from the ACA public plans, which
(14:26):
is thirty percent. So that's a big problem within the
ACA is that they literally have the highest level of
Clayton denials, which can lead to catastrophic costs. So there's
a problem there. And you know, there's a lot of
about the ACA. There's a lot of good, there's a
lot of bad, but the ugly can really hurt you.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I guess they might they should have looked at that
legislation a little bit more closely, but we'll leave that
for the moment. So what can what can your company
health lock do for someone who's listening tonight, either who
is yet in debt or finds themselves in debt, particularly
if some of that debt evolves around medical costs.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, Well, you certainly don't want to get caught after
the fact, right, So so healthot can still help you
after the fact. But you've got one hundred and eighty
four million data breaches that happened in medical last year.
It was two million pre COVID. So just like people
have identity theft, there's a proactive protective nature to our subscribers,
(15:27):
which is to protect you against medical identity theft fraud.
If you doctors have breaches, we'll tell you the breach,
how many people were affected, We'll look in the dark web,
we'll clean up that information for you protect your medical records.
So there's some protectiveness there. The other aspect is is
that we have the only services that I know of
in the country where we're automatically monitoring your transactions. So
(15:51):
you don't have to send us anything, you don't have
to call us, you don't have to snap the picture
of your bill and send it in. So if you
go to the doctor in six months, we're going to
send you an alert that says, hey, we know you
went to doctor Jones. It was one thousand dollars bill
and we verified it and it was adjudicated correctly against
your insurance, pay the bill and confidence or you automatically
(16:12):
get a flag. You choose if we're going to investigate it,
and when we do, our average savings is eight hundred
and fifty dollars per savings event. We've literally saved one
hundred thousand dollars for folks, we've saved fifty thousand. Again,
we've saved over one hundred and thirty million. So it's
a proactive, always on service that's monitoring your healthcare transactions
(16:33):
for you.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
To save money and.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
How could Obviously the name of the company is health blog,
So is it healthlock dot com? Tell us what's what
it is? Find you?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yeah, health talk dot com and we've got some plans
there to help you with. A MasterCard is also a
partner of ours, so you can get a discount through
the MasterCard if you have one. And yeah, we we
certainly want to be able to help Americans as they
enter into the healthcare system. We say, don't go to
the doctor without health loock.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And it doesn't matter if you are someone young who
is dealing with the doctor, you know outside of your family,
your parents when you up until twenty six and now
you run your own or if you're married, in your
fifties or sixties, and you've never used health block, you
can still check it out and perhaps become a client
(17:25):
of healthlock.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So what are you're a medicare, whether you're in a
group plan, whether you're on the ACA insurance, whether you're
a young adult is entering into the insured healthcare market.
We can help you so we can automatically monitor, we
can protect you from the fraud, and we can alleviate
these high cost issues that you potentially are facing.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well, it sounds great. I appreciate you joining us tonight, Scott,
and hopefully some people will at least begin to investigate
this because obviously, no one wants to worry about personal debt. Uh.
No one worries about the federal debt at this point
because they think it's going to go away. It's going
to catch up with some generation, maybe not the Baby boomers,
(18:09):
of which I am one, but one of the coming
The generations coming along are gonna have to pay a
big bill and might as well might as well keep
your own personal amount of debt down healthlock dot com. Scott,
appreciate the conversation that I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Thank you much, Thank you, Dan, take care you too.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
All right, we get back. We're going to talk. You
know how you go to the post office and you
see all the new stamps. There's a a couple of
years ago. There's a stamp for Yogi Behrend. There's a
stamp for the you know, the different different causes. Now
there's a stamp for Betty White, the great actress comedian.
And we're going to talk with a fellow whose last
(18:51):
name might be familiar to you, Dale Stefanos.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
He is an artist, a local artist and illustrator, teaches
illustration and stuff like you university, and he actually illustrated
this stamp. I mean, someone has to illustrate these stamps.
We're going to talk to Dale Stefanos right after the
break the news break here at the bottom of the hour.
My name is Dan Ray. You go to the post
office and you say you want to buy a book
of stamps or whatever, and I'll ask you what type,
(19:18):
and they show you about twenty five stamps, and there's
pictures of Americans, and there's pictures of causes and beautiful pictures. Well,
someone has to develop each one of those stamps. And
there's a stamp that I'm not sure if it's out
yet or if it's going to be coming out very soon.
It commemorates the life of someone who I think all
of us were fans of, and that is the late
(19:39):
great Betty White. And with us is Dale Stefanos, a
local illustrator artist teaches illustration at Suffolk University. Dale. I'm
going to be fascinated to find out how this process works.
Welcome to night side.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Bet Thanks for having me, And yes, someone's got to
do it right, so why not me?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It's funny. I was watching the Channel five six o'clock
news last night, I think it was last night, and
I saw this story. And you have a very similar
last name to the one of the anchors on that broadcast,
who as a friend of mine, your your sister.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Correct, I do have a very very similar last name,
and we live in the same house as a matter
of fact, so we have a very similar address as well.
It's really strange.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, Marie is amazing, just amazing. The question is, did
you come up with the idea or did did someone
in the government say, Okay, we gotta have a stand
for Betty White. Uh, and let's find a great illustrator
to come up with how did how did the process work?
What did the idea Germany from and take us from
start to finish?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. There there is a like
a nominating process that anybody can really put a name
in there. And I think it's on the USPS website
somewhere if you can find it, so you could you
could nominate somebody and then the board would consider it.
But the way it usually works is there's a general agreement, Okay,
(21:13):
these people you have to be dead in this country
at least, no now in Canada you can still be
alive and have a stamp.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But that's the bad part. That's the bad part of it.
But it is because you never get to enjoy to
see your stamp on an envelope. But that's no.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I was gonna say, if you want to, if you
want to see your stamp, I'm sorry, you're just gonna
have to. You're gonna have to see it from above.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I get you, I got you. So, So the way
it works is so nominates good. Yeah, I didn't mean
to interact. I couldn't resist.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Go ahead, Yeah, No, that's fine. The way it works
is is they have they have the names and then
there are a couple of different design groups that USPS
works with, and within those design groups there are several
arts and each of these design groups they kind of
(22:05):
had a stable of designers and illustrators and photographers that
they regularly work with. Before I worked with him, I think,
you know, I've been an illustrator for almost almost forty
years now, so I'm kind of a known quantity in
my industry. So when the art director called me, he
really describes how he liked the way I approach illustrating
(22:31):
older people. So I think what he was saying was,
you know, we want to be gentle with this, and
it was funny, though he still didn't say who it was,
I think until halfway through the conversation. So then what
happens is they will send me a handful of photographs
(22:52):
that have been licensed, so you can't just copy the
photograph because you would be violating the photographers copyright, so
they these are legally cleared to use, and then we
chose which era. You know, you've got the early Betty
White from the fifties, the you know, the seventies Betty White,
(23:13):
and then you know, you know you have the older
Betty White and it was it was kind of the
sweet spot we landed on right around twenty ten. It
was a fantastic photographed by California photographer. And then what
happens is with this particularly one is Betty White has
it was very well known for her animal activism, and
(23:37):
the family is always involved. If the estate is still
everybody's still alive, then they have a say in how
they're you know, their family member is going to be
depicted on a stamp. So this typical government cause that
governmental organization, it goes through the postal board, and then
there's a citizens board, and then there's the estate. So
(23:58):
these things are all of these stamps are digested through
these bodies and then back to me. So it's a
miracle that by the time all this digesting is done,
you have something that looks semi attracted, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Sure, So what I'm tennessee you mentioned that her love
of animals. I'm looking at the stamp right now and
I'm just wondering what is it? Oh, I think is it?
Is it an ear ring that she's wearing her?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, So so it was interesting. So the family wanted
an animal in there, and Greg braiding the art director
and I were both you know, I was like, okay,
an animal, a lemur, a dog, a cat, a girass,
and you know what. And then we both thought an
animal would be distracting. So, you know, I took a
few stabs at animals. I sent them maybe ten sketches
(24:49):
with animals in them. Neither of us really liked it,
and he didn't want to send them along. I didn't
want him to send them along. So finally, one morning
I was really frustrated. One morning, I was sitting at
break at the breakfast table with Maria and she was
I always kind of doodle while I'm drinking coffee, and
I looked across and she was wearing some kind of
(25:10):
animal print, and I had I had, And then I
looked at her earrings and I had kind of absent
mindedly doodled docks an earring, I mean a paw print,
And I thought, oh my god, a paw print would
really kind of give us the opportunity to get an
animal and put the suggestion of an animal in there
and make it a little more entertaining, because it's kind
(25:31):
of an Easter egg. You know, it's not obvious, but
once you know about it. It's kind of kind of
like this cool little secret. So and so the family
loved it. Everybody loved it, and it worked.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So the stamp Itselfdale, I mean, that's not a photograph.
That is your rendition of the photograph.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Correct, correct, Yeah, that's a that's a drawing, and you know,
I paint it. They would you know, oh, well, thank you, Yeah,
you know it's it's I always say, you know, whenever
you're looking at at at paintings or are you're really
looking at the last thirty minutes, because up until then,
(26:09):
it's kind of a it's kind of a disaster and
you're just trying to land the plane in high winds,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Well, I'll tell you you certainly captured everything, including like
the glinter in her eyes, you know, I'm serious, her smile.
I mean, it's this is so So there was a
photograph that essentially you were working from that the family
had agreed upon. That's the process. And then you use
(26:36):
the photograph the dress that you used in the background
color and the highlights, which is there's a lot of
kind of purple in there was that her favorite color
by any chance, er.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
That was I saw a lot of photographs with you know,
with her wearing that color. I did maybe a dozen
different color color passes, and and I just kind of
left it up to my art director to decide what
he liked best or what they liked best, you know,
the group he's working with, and I think we all
decided that this kind of kind of nailed it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So now, when will the when does the stamp become available?
It says here will be released soon.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You can order it the day after tomorrow. You can
order them Thursday, but they will be actually available in
the post office on March twenty seventh.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Let me ask you another question which is a little irrelevant,
but you probably know a hell of a heck of
a lot more about stamps than I do. I have
some friends of mine who say that they buy stamps
over the internet. I've seen the ads over the internet.
I'll think legitimate ads.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Oh sure, if you just go to you know, the
US Postal Service website and.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Talk about it. We're talking about full price here, I'm
talking about at discounted prices. Those are the ads I'm
talking about.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Oh damn, I don't know, man.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Oh, okay, no, no, probably, Well, I've had some friends
of mine who I trust, who say to me, yeah,
you can do that, and that they have excess stamps
and all of that. I just didn't know if.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I mean, I buy stamps at a post office and
I know I pay yeah, you know, sixty seven cents
for it's now like a book of twenty there's you know,
sixteen dollars or fifteen dollars or something like that. But yep,
you've never seen the ads on on the internet where
you can get a roll of one hundred stamps for
like seventeen dollars and stuff like that. You haven't seen those.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
No, my algorithm hasn't pointed me towards that.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, no problem, No, no, no, no problem. Hey, I'm
always looking for a bargain, but I just wanted to check.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So, now, will there be an unveiling of this somewhere
or yeah, just if there's a ceremony that you're going
to be part of, I want to know about it.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, there's there's so because you know she was she
lived in LA and she's an animal rights activist, they're
going to have the they call it the first day
of issue. Yeah, so they're having the first day of
issue event at the La Zoo. So Marie and I
are going to go out there and we're going to
have a fancy weekend, and you know, for one hot second,
(29:20):
I will be the person in this marriage who's in
the spotlight.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Please please stay ahead of Maria for me. It's just
fun watching the other night. And tell her that I
enjoy watching her on television.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Very very highly of you.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks Dale, I appreciate I hope she was listening tonight. Okay,
well we will talk soon.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Thanks, all right, good bye.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Congratulations, Wow, job well done. When we get back, we're
going to talk with a business strategist and a keynote
speaker about gen Z gen Zers who are having some
anxiety issues having left the classroom and now finding themselves
in the workforce. We will explain it all. Welcome back there.
(30:07):
Every generation moves from academia, whether it's high school, into
the workforce or college and then into the workforce, and
gen Z's having some problems apparently, uh, stepping in for them,
it's like stepping on to a different planet. Going to
work with us. As Meredith Elliott Powell, she's a business strategist,
(30:31):
author of books, best selling book Mentally Fit, powerfully resilient,
competitively strong, the nine strategy Formula for Thriving in your
personal life. That's a long title, merit if I assume
that takes up the entire front cover. How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So, so let's first of all, let's define zen Z
gen Z. I get my gens mixed up here. That
is from Is that that's after the Millennials? I guess.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yes, yes, yes, it's the generation coming right after, right
after the millennials. Nineteen ninety seven to twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, so some of those gen Zers are still in
junior high school if they were born in twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Oh, that's right, twenty twelve. I'm sorry, you know, Dan,
it is nightier for me. So yeah, nineteen ninety seven
to twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
No, no, that's fine, that's fine, you said, you said
it right. So what I'm saying is, so these are
people who, if they were born in ninety seven, they
have matriculated from college probably now four or five years
the oldest of the generation. And have we reached you
on another country? I believe you might be on the
(31:49):
other side of the pond.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
No, no, no, I am actually coming to you tonight.
I'm traveling, but I'm actually coming to you tonight from Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Oh, well, we're in the same time zone. It's dark
up here too. We're in Boston. That's easy. I thought
I thought you were like five hours ahead of us.
Sometimes we talked to people in Europe at this odd
and I feel badly for them because it's two o'clock
or one o'clock there, and no, so you're still early.
Come on, don't be a party pooper, Meredith. So what's
(32:20):
going on with these young people? I mean, you know,
there have been other generations who I don't know, you know,
landed on Omaha Beach or who fought in warsh What
the what's their problem with going to work?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Yeah, well, you know I think that it's I mean,
first of all, I think if we really went back
in history, we would see that even the greatest generation
probably had a little bit of struggle at the start.
But you know, when you really think about.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah, they called I think they called they called that
the Great Depression.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Well, when you think about when you think about gen Z,
they have grown up in an environment where they have
been supervised from the time that they were born. You
know when when probably you and I were growing up.
We grew up in the era where our mothers locked
us outside most of the day. We had to figure
things out. We had to find friends, we had to
(33:19):
make sports. We had had a problem, we had to
solve it on our own.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, well, my parents would let me in at night.
That was always my problem to be. It was horrible
sometimes in the winter time. I'm glad. I'm only teasing.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
So they're coming out of an environment where their parents
have engaged them in every decision, asked their ideas, asked
their opinions. They've been if they had a question, they
could go to a parent or a coach and ask
what to do. And then all of a sudden you
find yourself in the workforce and it's a very different
environment and a very different environment in that you've got expectations,
(33:57):
you have to deliver your dependent you know, they're counting
on you to make decisions. And I think there's a
little bit of a bridge that's missing, a bit.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
You know, for this generation, it's always tough to paint
with a broadbrush.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Okay, right, absolutely, we all know that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Okay, there are people who were born in nineteen ninety
seven in nineteen ninety eight who are now in the military.
I don't assume they dealing with a lot of anxiety issues.
That there's some people who were born in ninety seven
and ninety eight who are quarterbacks for NFL teams right now.
I don't assume they much of a problem making a decision.
(34:42):
You do feel that there's a generational problem here. That
why their parents who I'm assuming their parents probably were
born in the baby boomlet maybe that their parents probably
came along in the nineteen seventies when the baby bo
were first having kids. Is I'm just trying to keep
(35:02):
in mind.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
I would say, I would say that their their parents
came along more at the you know, the the the
gen X and the millennial generation baby boomers might be
might be a little old for them, un less it's
a second or you know, or a third family, and
their parents were just a lot more engaged and involved.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
But I think, well, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Have my kids until by the way, I didn't have
my kids, we didn't have our kids. Had a son
in eighty seven and a daughter in ninety one, So
I don't know, maybe I'm crossing over generations whatever, So
how do you do. So you're a psychologist. When someone
comes to you and says, I'm a gen x er
and I'm having real problems here, what what do you
do other than say, look, I'm going I'm going to
(35:45):
give you some some some night gear here and uh,
we're going to send you up into the Adirondack woods. Uh,
and you're going to have to live in the wild
for a couple of weeks and and figure out what
do you do? How do you get them out of
a funk?
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Yeah, So, first of all, under you know, I tell
them basically to focus on communication, to find a mentor
to find somebody that they can talk to, that they
can engage with, that they can you know, that they
can learn from, and to realize that the time that
they're investing now is just that it's an investment that
(36:23):
you know, basically, we call it work because at times
you're going to be asked to do some things that
you may not want to you may not want to do.
And third, to put themselves in a mode of continuous learning.
That's what a job is about, especially in your early twenties.
It's about growth and it's about it's about development. And
(36:44):
then I think probably the most important thing we do
for them is that we right size their expectations. I mean,
if you and I had grown up in a family
where our parents included us in decision making, if they
asked our ideas and opinions, it would be foreign to
us to go to work and the CEO not drop
by and ask us for our thoughts and our opinions.
(37:05):
So right sizing their expectations and helping them understand what
to expect in the working environment, both from what.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
The experience is going to be.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Like, but also what the payoff is, what they're going
to gain from going to work, getting a job, getting
a career where that's going to put them in their
late thirties in their forties.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I think the most important word you mentioned during this
interview is a word that I love, which is mentor
everybody in their life. I think if you're going to
be successful, it has to have five or six people
at various stages in your life who works as a
mentor and it helps guide you. There'll be a job
decision you'll have to make and a good mentor might
(37:48):
say that's not really a good road for you. Something else.
The other word, that's my favorite word, is oblivious. And
one of the things that I've noticed that I'd love
you to comment, and if I'm wrong, please tell me that.
If I'm driving and there's a gen zer walking along
with ear plugs and headset or something and looking straight
(38:11):
ahead walking through a crosswalk, I of course stop and
allow that person to proceed. The younger they are, the
less likely that they would even acknowledge me and say
thank you or hi or anything like that. Older people
of whatever generation, when you you know, again you have
to stop someone's in a crosswalk. The older the person,
(38:33):
the more likely they're going to say hi and thank
you or you know, just an acknowledgment. And that's why,
to me, the word oblivious is a really important word
that I associate with a lot of really you know,
people who are young, they're so focused on the headset,
they're wearing, the earbuds and all of that. Tell me, now,
how wrong I am about that?
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Well, you know, first of all, again, I want to
get back to your statement, you can never you know,
broadbrush a generation. Yes, there there is a lot of that.
I mean, I do a lot of work with the
soft skills, the networking and the and the importance of
the of the human connection and and certainly with the
advancement of technology, those are skills that are being lost.
(39:20):
And as I advise every single parent, I say, if
you do not want your child to live in your
basement for the rest of your life, teach them how
to have a conversation, teach them eye contact tea.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I'm running out of time, but but most importantly, I
want to plug the book. Mentally Fit, powerfully, resilient, competitively strong,
the nine strategy formula for thriving in your personal life.
It's by Meredith Elliott Powell. Meredith, I'm sure it's available everywhere.
I really appreciate your time tonight and I think we connected. Okay,
thanks so much to thank you.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Stand by.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Very welcome by Meredith. We get back when to be
talking about the Massachusetts US Attorney. The US Attorney for
Massachusetts recently appointed Leah Foley. She is going to be
a good one and she's gonna be a great interview.
And you're invited to call and offer congratulations or ask questions.
Coming back on Nightside
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