July 17, 2025 • 37 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
The Molly Bish Cold Case – 25th Anniversary and Emily Sweeney – Boston Globe Cold Case Files Reporter checked in.
What Causes Obesity? A major new study is upending common wisdom…Gretchen Reynolds – WaPo health columnist focusing on exercise science and fitness stopped by.
Zoo New England’s Blanding’s Turtle Conservation Reaches Generational Milestone. Headstarted Blanding’s Turtle Lays Eggs 15 Years After Release! Emilie Wilder, Zoo New England's Associate Director of Conservation Engagement joined Dan.
A Bronx Tale: The One Man Show Starring Chazz Palminteri - Fri Jul 18th - 8:00PM at the Chevalier Theatre. Chazz discussed it with Dan.
The Molly Bish Cold Case – 25th Anniversary and Emily Sweeney – Boston Globe Cold Case Files Reporter checked in.
What Causes Obesity? A major new study is upending common wisdom…Gretchen Reynolds – WaPo health columnist focusing on exercise science and fitness stopped by.
Zoo New England’s Blanding’s Turtle Conservation Reaches Generational Milestone. Headstarted Blanding’s Turtle Lays Eggs 15 Years After Release! Emilie Wilder, Zoo New England's Associate Director of Conservation Engagement joined Dan.
A Bronx Tale: The One Man Show Starring Chazz Palminteri - Fri Jul 18th - 8:00PM at the Chevalier Theatre. Chazz discussed it with Dan.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, I'm telling you Zy Boston's
news Radio. Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome on into
a Thursday night edition of Nightside. I know it was
a very warm day here in New England and watching
the weather folks tonight, it sounds as if it's going
to cool off a little bit by tomorrow. I don't know.
(00:21):
We're in the middle of summer. What can you expect.
I hope wherever you are you're cool and comfortable, whether
you have a fan, an open window, air conditioning, whatever
you have to spend the night, we will take you
all the way until midnight. We're going to talk about
a generational possible generational tobacco man here in Massachusetts. Interesting topic.
(00:42):
I think I'm going to channel David Breadnoy tonight, even
though I am a non smoker and actually a virulent
non smoker, I'm not sure that's a good idea. And
then we're going to talk with the president of the
Internetal Association Firefighters, Ed Kelly in the ten o'clock hour
about this horrific tragedy in fall River which today actually
(01:04):
the death toll has now risen, unfortunately to ten poor
souls who lost their lives on Sunday night during that inferno.
But first, we are going to start off tonight with
an interview with Emily Sweeney. Emily Sweeney who is, amongst
other things, the Boston Globe Cold Case Files reporter, and
(01:25):
she joined us every couple of weeks and tonight we're
going to talk about a case that most in New
England are aware of, the Molly bish case twenty five
years ago. Emily, it seems like it was last week.
It's May. This case was never solved, and yet I
believe they feel that they found some evidence of her death. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, so, Dan, you know, thank you so much
for having me on and for highlighting this case that
a lot of people know about.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Let me make that very clear. We love to have
you on this program.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Go ahead, Well, I love being on, and you know,
talking about these unsolved murders, it's you know, it's lots
of sad stories, but it's just so important to get
the word out because there are people out there that
know something. You know, they could hold a piece of
the puzzle that could solve it, and you know, it
gives closure to a lot of families so.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Refreshed to it. I think most people know. But the
Molly Bus case, this is a young teenager who was
working as a lifeguard at a I guess a pond,
and for no apparent reason, she disappeared. They searched she.
I'm sure whatever happened to her was was not voluntary.
Let's put it like that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, yeah, she definitely she showed up to work at
pond in the little town of Warren, Massachusetts where she lived.
You know, small town, everybody knows each other, and you know,
her mother dropped her off, and you know, it is
a very small window of time, you know, minutes, you know,
before family started showing up for swimming lessons when they
(03:07):
realized that, you know, she wasn't there, but all her
stuff was at you know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Where she was supposed to be sitting, kind of like
the lifeguard post area. Her sandals were still there, everything
she had brought her water bottle and it made no sense,
and a huge search was done everywhere, and it wasn't until.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know, over a year later that that you know,
her remains were eventually found about five miles away. And yeah,
it's horrific, horristic. I'm sure did you cover it back then?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It had there ever been any suspects identified or looked at.
I mean, Warren, Massachusetts in the middle of the summer.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It just doesn't make sense, right right, Yeah, No, seriously,
and well, you know there had been suspects, you know,
names have came and went. The latest person of interest
that's been publicized by investigators is a guy named Frank
Sumner and he's a convicted rapist who died in twenty sixteen.
(04:09):
But he lived out in central mass and he ran
some auto shops. And you know, investigators over the past
few years have been asking anybody, you know, if they
know anything about Frank or obviously you know Molly's disappearance,
you know, to get in touch.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's unbelievable when you think that something like that can happen,
literally in the blink of an eye. A little girl's
remains are found a year later, and how does someone
who committed that crime live with themselves? Now, if this
guy died in twenty sixteen, maybe he didn't have a
conscience of some sort, but you would think that at
(04:48):
some point someone, even if on their deathbed, would would
have a note that they would hand to you know,
their religious council or to a family member, say please
deliver this to the fish family or whatever. Right. So
many these people they take it to their grave. I mean,
they're not human, they're not human beings. They you know,
(05:09):
for whatever reason, they commit this, these type of crimes,
and yet they live with what they've done for how
however long they live for the rest of their life.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, is this still considered an active case? I know
that you're looking at it, and I saw that there
were a couple of TV reports I think last week
on it.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it is an open case and the DA's office,
the investigation, it says it's still active and ongoing. You know,
Molly's remains. I just look at my notes here, it
was actually two thousand and three, so it was like
three years later that they actually recovered some of her remains,
and you know that the family is still you know, hoping,
you know, for answers. I interviewed her sister, you know,
(06:00):
who's you know, obviously her life has never been the
same since has happened to her sister, And you know,
anybody who has information should get in touch, you know,
with the DA's office. So what's the District Attorney's office?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, Well, I know that the district attorney out there
is someone who's a pretty good aggressive district attorney, and
I just hope that I just hope that someone can
remember something even if they have. You know, if someone
saw a license plate, obviously she wasn't. She didn't walk
five miles to where she was found. She had to
(06:33):
have been transported some somewhere that morning. So how can
folks check out your great website on the at the Globe, Emily,
what's the worst? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, so you know we covered these unsolved murders regularly.
It's the Cold Case Files on the Boston Globe's website.
We also the stories appear in Boston dot com and
you can subscribe to my newsletter. If you go to
Globe dot com slash Cold Case Files, you can sign up.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And there's no costs to that, right.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yes, free, totally free. And you know, we give you
a summary of the cases that I've been working on lately,
and I have some really interesting ones coming up, Dan
that I can't wait to tell you about.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You know, that's great. Give me that website one more time,
because I think I unfortunately stepped on it when when
you were giving it. I want to listen carefully go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's Globe dot com slash cold case files.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Okay, Globe dot com slash cold case files. That's great, Emily,
thanks very much. This is a great journalism that you're doing,
and at some point it's going to the work you're
doing is going to bear some fruit.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Thank you so much, Emily Hope, so thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
All right, calculator, we are going to talk about something
that all of us probably well most of us worry about.
In that is obesity. There's a new major news study
out up ending some of the common wisdom about obcity.
We're gonna talk with Gretchen Reynolds. She's a Washington Post
health columnist focusing on exercise, science and fitness. Also, I
(08:11):
will remind you to pull down the iHeart, the new
and improved iHeart. All you have to do is go
to you to your app store and you can pull
down the new app. It's just simply iHeart. Bring it down,
new and improved. You can put it on whatever device
you want, your tablet, your desktop, your laptop, put it
(08:36):
on you, you watch whatever, and you can make WBZ
your first preset. Because that will mean that we will
always be just a fingertip away from wherever you are
in the world. That is the new and improved iHeart
Radio app. Coming back on night Side right after this break.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
With Dan Ray.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I'm telling YOUBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, obesity is a circumstance that all of us want
to avoid, but many of us fight obesity at different
points during our lives. Joining us now is Washington Post
health columnist Gretchen Renolds, and she's going to focus on
some exercise science that relates to obesity and fitness.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Gretchen Renolds, Welcome to night Side, Thanks so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So what do we learn in this sty What did
this study teach us?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
This was the study looking at what's really most important
for causing the obesity epidemic. Is it eating too much
or is it exercising and moving around too little? And
it has to be essentially one of those. You're either
taking in more calories than you burn or you aren't
burning as many calories as you need to. And so
(09:55):
this study was looking at in particular the role of exercise,
eyes and moving around. And they looked first at societies
that have almost no obesity, and that includes groups like
Hunter gatherers in Africa and herders in Siberia and subsistence
farmers in Bolivia who were moving around all the time
(10:17):
and they very seldom are overweight.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, bet they don't have any.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
We will come back to that, But no, that that's
really important because the scientists here looked at how many
calories those groups of people in some of the less
developed areas were expending every day, and it was it
was a fair number. And you would assume that those
(10:47):
of us who sit in an office all day and
aren't doing a whole lot would keep burning a lot
fewer calories, but we weren't. When they compared the total
energy expenditure or of these groups of people like the
herders and the hunter gatherers, to executives and those of
us sitting in offices in America, it turns out we
(11:10):
actually burn almost the same number of calories on a
typical day because our metabolisms are so good at reapportioning calories,
so that, if, for instance, you start a marathon training,
you won't necessarily burn a whole lot more talories over
the course of a day than if you weren't marathon training.
(11:34):
Our metabolisms just do that for us, whether we want
it or not.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Okay, so does that mean does that mean that people
like me who have in the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday working on the elliptical, that I'm wasting my time.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
No, exercise remains absolutely key for health. It also seems
to be very good at from keeping people from gaining
a whole lot of weight.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
It does not appear to be the key to our
obesity epidemic because again, we're not burning fewer calories than
these people who move around all day.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Okay, so what we got that study, then take us
what conclusion are we drifting towards here?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
The next obvious thing was the scientists looked at the
diets of people, particularly in the developed world, where they
had good information. This is a big study. It involved
more than four thousand people, so that's pretty huge. So
they looked then at the diets of people, and that
brings us back to Dunkin Donuts because what they did
(12:41):
find pretty persuasively was the higher the percentage of ultra
processed foods, and they defined that as industrialized foods that
have more than five ingredients. So look at the ingredient
list on your food. The higher the percentage of ultra
processed food foods, the more likely people were to be obese.
(13:02):
And there does seem to be something about processing these
foods that really contributes to obesity. And people that the herders,
the hunter gatherers, it's not that they're moving around a
lot more than us. It's that they're not eating donuts,
they're not eating potato chips. That seems to be the
real key to avoiding obesity. And so that the message,
(13:27):
and this is not meant to be, you know, to
shame anyone or anything, that the message is to avoid
weight gain, try to eat fewer ultra processed foods, do exercise.
It's great for you. There's nothing else that is so.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Good for your help, but it probably.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Will not be the key to weight loss, especially just
so I think, why not to eat the other stuff?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, I think what you're saying is if you can
eat fruits and vegetables, that that is a key to
a diet, and that you know, I think it's again
it's a huge study, but if you I know, I
love my favorite meal of the day is breakfast, and
(14:17):
I've eaten the same cocoa cereal that I get through
this sponsor that sponsors in this program a wake in
one INDI, I get this cocoa cereal, which is absolutely delicious.
It only has about one hundred and thirty calories for
an entire package. I put a banana slice a banana,
I slice three or four strawberries, and a bunch of
(14:39):
blueberries with a glass of orange juice. And that's breakfast
and it works.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
But I think what yes great is The key is.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
The fresh fruit. I love fresh fruit, and also salads, salads,
and I'm trying to cut back gone salad dressing. I
used to do a lot of Russian salad dressing and
not anymore. I'm going to little fat Italian dressing. And
I can wean myself off that I just think being
cognizant of. And I do have an occasional Uncle donut.
(15:14):
I want you to know that that's my trade.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
I do too. And again this is not none of
this should be considered accusatory or anything like that. People
absolutely eat whatever you want. Just know that particularly the
foods that have a lot of ingredients that have been
(15:36):
highly processed do seem to be more palatable, and people
do tend to eat more of them. So if you
can look for foods that have fewer ingredients, have been
processed less, they will probably fill you up a little more.
You'll find it easier to eat less and they're healthier.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So it's all good.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
New exercise, keep doing that.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Okay, So there's there's one question here. There's one question
here which I think we'll try to address. I'm going
to ask you to address quickly because we're running out
of time. Genetics have to be a factor in this.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Yes, they certainly are, and that's true. You know, if
you look at diet studies, there'll be huge differences in
how people react to any diet. Some people will lose
a lot of weight, some people will lose very little,
some people will gain weight, all on the same diet.
And yes, that's genetics, but pretty much across the board,
(16:34):
you're more likely to gain weight if you're eating ultra
processed foods than not.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right, Gretchen, we got the genetics. Thanks so much.
Always great to talk with a Washington Post health columnist,
and we learned a lot about exercise and eating and fitness.
You're a great interview.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Thanks so much for being with us, and I hope
you get you back anytime.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thank you, Gretchen, appreciate it. Well, we come back when
it's talk about one of my favorite locations in the world,
and that is Zoo New England, the Franklin Park Zoo,
the Stone Zoo, and we're talking about turtle conservation reaches
generational milestone. I'll explain what that means. We're gonna be
talking with Emily Wilder, Zoo New England's Associate director of
Conservation Engagement. Come on right back on night Side. You're
(17:21):
on Nightside with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's
news radio. Thanks Madison. One of my favorite locations in
New England is Zoo New England, whether it's Franklin Park
or the Stones. Are with us as Emily Wilder, she's
the Zoo New England's Associate director of Conservation Engagement. And
we're talking here about what's called the Blanding's Turtle conservation.
(17:45):
So explain to me what I assume. Blanding is the
sponsor of this, a contributor to Zoo New England.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Emily, Hi, Dan, Yeah, Actually it's the Blanding turn is
one of our ten native turtles here in Massages.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, so I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
So it is actually the name of a turtle. Thank
you for clarifying that. I thought it might have been,
you know, a generous donation by a benefactor. So okay,
so tell us how what's going on here? One of
the ten turtles?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Is it a big turtle, a small turtle, snapping turtle
to script, they're they're pretty big, so they're one of
the larger turtles that we have here.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Masters they're not as big as a snapping turtle when
they're full ground. I'd say they're kind of about the
size of like a football. You know, they're pretty, you know,
pretty decent sized turtle, but not huge. And you know
a lot of people, you know, you say you love
Franklin Park Zoo and obviously Stone Zoo as well, and
you know, everyone knows the zoo. But I think a
lot of people don't know that we have all these
(18:52):
projects with rare species in the wild, so we don't
aren't just working with the animals at this were working
with out in the in the wetlands and forests right
here Massachusetts and blending turtles are one of those animals
that we work with and they are threatened to here Massachusetts.
There's when we first started working with them, you know,
it was estimated there were only about a thousand left
(19:14):
in the state, so you know that's really not that many,
and their population was you know, continue know, declining, and
so we came in and we thought, okay, what can
we do here in that's sort of like our that's
what we you know, we were trying to go in
and we're like, okay, what's the problem and what can
we do to bring some of these species back?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Right?
Speaker 6 (19:33):
We don't want animals to go extinct. So that's we
started working with Blending turtles in two thousand and three,
and so now we're you know, we're twenty years later,
and we have some really exciting news that just happened
like about a week or two ago. Well, which is
that one of our one of our turtles. So one
(19:54):
of the ways that we're helping the turtles is, you
know a lot of big, big issue is that you know,
these plenty stilts are about the size of football when
they're adults, but when they're hatchlings, when they're first born,
they're about the size of a quarter and so basically, yeah,
they're very very small, and they're basically like a potato
chip for any kind of predator, right, any any animal
(20:16):
that can fit that you know, little quarter sized turtle
in their mouth is going to gobble them up. And
they have basically every you know, raccoons, foxes, coaties, ducks,
snapping turtles, like any anything that can fit that you know,
animal in their mouth that splannys in their mouth will
eat them. And so there chances of making it to
adulthood are pretty low to begin with. So when you
(20:39):
have very few females in the population laying, you know,
their eggs, and all the eggs are going to eat
and the hatchlings are getting eaten, very few were surviving
to adulthood. So what we do, what we've been doing,
is we go in there, We follow the moms to
where they lay their nests. We protect the desk so
no predator can dig up the eggs and eat them.
(20:59):
And then when those hatchlings come out again they're the
size of a quarter, we take them and we raise
them both at the zoo and at local elementary schools
into for about a year. We raise them in you know,
a safe a safe environment. They get kind of an
all you can eat to say, every day, and they're
growing and growing during that time. So by the time
(21:20):
we release them back out into the wild, they're now
the size of like a cheeseburger, and there's now way
fewer predators that could eat that size of the turtle.
They're much stronger, they're they're more likely to survive to
adulthood at that point. So we've been doing that with
So explain the process to me.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
How do you find the turtles if there's only a
thousand of them in New England. New England's still a
pretty big area, and I know the turtles don't run fast.
I understand that. What do you do You just go
into a wooded area and you're looking for a turtle
for turtles.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Yeah, I mean I kind of. So, you know, we
we obviously we know what kind of habitat they like,
so blanding turtles they really like pretty swampy, mucky areas.
They really love beaver created swamps. So that's like a
good you know, you know, if you're looking in the
right kind of habitat, you're more likely to find them.
But a lot of times that that does it is
how we start, you know, we're we do surveys. Our
(22:17):
field staff are out looking for the turtles and it's
it's a lot of work to find them. They're not
you know, there they don't want to be found usually,
so uh and they aren't. Turtles are known to be slow, right,
but in the water, they're actually pretty fast and they
can definitely out swim as you know. I can't walk
it in the swamp as fast as they can swim,
but we do when we find them, we do put
(22:39):
radio trackers on them so we can follow, so, especially
the adult females will put trackers so we can follow
them during the nesting season and see where they're nesting
so we can protect that nest.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And then you identify a nest and then you go
back periodically to see when if the legs have appeared,
if the eggs have been laid.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Yeah okay, yeah, so well, you know, when it's getting
close to hatching time, our staff are going out and
checking the nests every day because we don't know what
day that the turtles will hatch out. And then when
they hatch out, we collect all those hatchlings and we
bring them, like I said, either to the zoo or
to local schools, and then we raise them, and that
we call that head starting. So you're kind of giving,
you're kind of boosting them through that really dangerous part
(23:23):
of their life till they're bigger and stronger.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So let me ask you this question. I know nothing
about what you do. I admire what you do. However,
some people I'll bet are saying, Gee, that must be
kind of traumatic to the turtle mother to all of
a sudden realize that those fifteen little eggs that she's
(23:45):
incubated for whatever long the gestation period is. I don't
know how long that gestation period is.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
It is it's about two months?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, okay, And so is it traumatic for them for
the for the mom or do the mom's lay the
eggs and then what's the.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Yeah, they lay their eggs and they never come back.
So she has no idea that we've taken her handling.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh great, okay, okay, So there's no trauma involved. She's
done her things, she's moving on, and I'm sure that
there's no turtle dad kicking around either at that point.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Exactly. Yeah. No, they're they're all back in the swamp,
you know, living their best turtle lives, and and you know,
the hatchlings are there, you know, they're they're buried underground,
so they're hidden. The mom does what she does for
her hatchling is the best thing she can do is
is hide them under the ground to try and you know,
hide them from predators. But you know a lot of
a lot of those predators have good noses and they
can sniff them out and find them. But we have
(24:40):
that nest protected so predators can't get in. And then
we do this thing called head starting, where we raise
them till they're big and strong. And we've been head
starting since the first turtles we started head starting and
released in two thousand and four, and really more in
earnest in like two thousand and seven, and we first
(25:01):
started working at this site and conquered mass and at
that site we've now released several hundred landing turtles back
into that swamp. And when we first started working there,
they're only fifty turtles, and now there's over four hundred
turtles that are at that site, which is really exciting.
But none of the turtles that we had head started
had laid eggs of their own yet, and that's because
(25:23):
these turtles take a really long time to mature, so
blanding turtles. They can live into their nineties and they
don't start laying eggs until they're like, on average, around
eighteen years old. So you know, we'd only been head
starting and releasing turtles for about sixteen years, so we
didn't have any turtles at head laid.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So this was the first batch of turtle eggs that
that we're talking about here. I have we reached a milestone?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yees?
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Yeah. So now one of those headstarts that we had
started and released back in two thousand, is it thirteen?
I'm freely now that the date when we released her,
But she has now come out and laid eggs of
her own. So now we have like a second generation
of landing turtles and we're really now really excited about
(26:15):
this because this is going to accelerate, you know, that
population recovery that we've already started.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That's great, that's great. And again, these turtles live. Are
they because they have a shell they just protected once
they get to a certain point, they're sort of immune
from the predators or is it lucky to live ninety years?
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Well, I mean definitely, I mean it's still there's a
matter of luck to you know, living to ninety, but
the biggest like, you know, once they've kind of gotten
to that adult size, there's very few predators that can
get them. Like actually, I don't think there really are
any predators that can crunch down on that shell because
it is you know, it's like a rock. But you know,
they aren't invulnerable, especially one of the biggest threats that
(27:03):
they have right now is vehicles because roads and cars.
You know, that shell is not strong enough to protect
them from cars.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
How do they winter? I mean, I would assume that
here in New England they're not heading cells.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Oh no, it's amazing. They actually overwinter under the ice.
So they'll go down underwater in the ponds and the
swamps where they're living, and they're just hunkered down and
they kind of they lower their body their body temperature
and almost down to freezing right the water is super cold,
and their heart rate goes way down, their metabolism goes
way down. Researchers who've studied turtles under the ice have
(27:41):
like documented them their heart rate is only one beat
every ten minutes, pretty wild, and they're under the ice,
so they're not breathing that you know, as long as
the ice is there. Over over the lake or the swamp.
They're not taking a breath all that time, so it's
pretty incredible what they can do to survive the winter.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
How do they have that capacity not to breathe?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Yeah, I mean it's just because they've they've lowered, you know,
their their heart is beating so slow. They're just using
so little oxygen that.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Really they just take it a big long snooze and hibernating.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's it's kind of like that. We
call it brumation and turtles, but yeah, it's it's really
amazing what they can do.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Heavily great. It's great to know the great work that
Zoo New England does. Please say h to John Lenny
Handful when you see him.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
We will absolutely folks for all to get.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
If folks want to see some information on this, Do
you have a website that you could direct people to?
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Absolutely, yeah, I'm definitely come to the zoo. You can
see a blanding turtle at the zoo and you can
definitely check out New England dot org slash conservation. We
also have a bunch of cool like biodiversity walks that
people can come and meet our experts and go out
and learn about the nature that's all around us. So
you can go to do New England dot org slash
walks to see some of those upcoming events that people
(29:01):
can come up on it.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Emily, thank you so much for your time today and
again with one of the great assets of our entire
New England region, Zoo New England.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Thank you, Emily, Thank you so much for being such
a great supporter my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Well we get back. We're going to talk about a
one man show starring Chazz Palmentary. I think most of
you know his name, actor, writer, director. He is starring
in The Bronx Tale coming up at the Chevalier Theater
in Medford. We'll be back talking with the actor himself,
Chaz Promentary right after this quick break.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, I'm delighted to welcome to the show here on Nightside,
an actor, writer and director who's starring in The Bronx,
a Bronx Tale. It's a one man show at the
Chevalier Theatre in Medford Square this Friday night, July eighteenth,
so it would be folks tomorrow night. Chazz comment Terry,
Welcome to Nightside, sir, how.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Are you very well? So thank you? How are you?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I'm doing excellent, the better for talking to you, having
an opportunity to speak with you. You have lived a
life on film and on stage, grew up in the
Bronx and now you've developed this program, a Bronx Tale.
Is this a little biographical?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Oh? Yes, mostly biographical. My real name is Colojio Lorenzo Palletari.
When I was young, they called me. See so when
you see the movie Bronx Tale, I'm the little boy,
I'm actually the little boy. I played the gangster, you
know who I befriended when I was that age. And
it really started when I was nine years old. I
saw this man kill a man right in front of me,
(30:47):
and you know, the cops came and I did rat
on them because I was really I was the one
who's standing right there, sitting there, wow. And I didn't
rat on the guy, and the guy never forgot that,
and I'm befriended him. And then I would hang out
at the club and go get the coffee and cigarettes
and things like that. And this is my story growing up.
(31:08):
And my father was totally opposite. My father was the
working man. He was a bus driver very uh, never
been in jail's whole life for respected. So I thought
it would make a great story between telling the difference
between the two, not that one was black and one
was white. It's more like gray and gray. It's not
(31:29):
about good and evil. It's about I took the best
of Sonny and became a man, and I took the
best of my father, Lorenzo and became a man. So
it's a pretty good interesting story. Robert de Niro saw
it when I was doing it, and it was at
that time it was the hottest property in the world.
At the time, I had two hundred dollars in the
(31:50):
bank and they offered me I went up to five
hundred million, two million, and I refused to turn it
over because I wanted to play Sunday and I wanted
to write it because it was in my life. And
then one night Robert and Arrow saw it. He came
into the theater and said, it's the greatest one man
showing ever saw. He said that's the movie, and I
(32:11):
said yes, and he said, I know everybody wants it,
but he said, if you let me direct it and
I'll play your father. He said, you could play Sonny
and you write it and we'll go partners, and that's
how the movie happened.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Wow, I I was unaware of that. Now have you
been to the Chevalier Theater in Medford? It's beautiful theater.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Yes it is, and.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
You're you're there tomorrow night, Tomorrow night and easy. Uh?
Can we direct people to a website.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Or Charles pomentary dot net. Okay, that's Charles Pomanary dot
net and you can get tickets there, or you can
call the theater whatever you want to do. I think
most of my theater you'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I can tell you that, well, that's that is.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
That would be fabulous. I'm actually out of town or
I would almost think about taking the night off to
go see it. How many different venues have you presented
this one man show in over time?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Oh? I don't know a thousand or something. I mean
I've been doing it on and off. Yes, I have
a TV series that I'm on. I'm on Goswell or Home.
So when I do my series that I was on
another series, then I can't do it. But I would
say I've been doing it since nineteen eighty nine, So
(33:42):
what is that thirty five years.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Uh, yeah, that's a good thirty a good thirty five years.
It's amazing that when you are born with a talent
like you have, or any of the great actors that
you have, it becomes a very in many ways of
peripatetic life. But it also becomes a really fulfilling life
(34:05):
because you interview, You're with different audiences in different places.
I do a radio show, done a radio show before that.
I was in television a long time, but I don't
have that even though I have. It's a live show.
You see the expressions of people in the audience. You sometimes,
I'm sure it can meet people after the show. It
(34:27):
must be very fulfilling way and wish to hold you crowd.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
I did the show, Yes, I mean when I do
the show, I play eighteen characters. It's really a two
the force, you know, and so people are just stunned
with their mouths open at the end, and then then
they all stand up and scream and yell, and you know,
I've did the show. Now I'm trying to This is
(34:52):
my one thousand and fifty fifth show. So when I
do it, it's one thousand five standing ovations. Wow, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Actually know approximately the number. I've done this radio show
for eighteen years. I'm over forty one hundred shows, but
I'm doing five tonight and that's all I'm doing. You
obviously are into intermixing this with a career on stage
and in movies, so it's it's going to be an
amazing experience tomorrow night at the shovel Year Theater in Medford. Again.
(35:28):
I hope you, as they say, break a leg, knock
them dead or whatever. I know you will, and it's
a honor that you would join us tonight. And I
really mean that.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Well, it's my pleasure anything I could do to get
the word out. There are also seats us, but it's
a theater. It's a night in the theater that you
will never forget your whole life. Really well, I mean,
it's really an experience. I've seen people see this. People
have seen this twenty thirty times already. It's crazy. It's
just it's you know, I've written other movies, oh and
(36:02):
I wrote this one person's show. It's like lightning in
the bottle. I don't know what it is that people
keep coming back and seeing it again and again.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Well, you know what. A final comment from me and
it's your life. No one knows it better than you.
It's an interesting life to have grown up in the
Bronx in the nineteen fifties. It's a special time, special place,
and you do capture it. It's lightning and it's your
life in a bottle. So, Chess Pomuntary, thanks so much.
I'm a big fan and I really appreciate you taking
(36:31):
the time to be with us tonight.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
I appreciate that very much. Thank you very much, God's less.
Thank you welcome, You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So that is a one man show, a Bronx Tale
one man show tomorrow night at the Chevalier Theater from
beginning at eight o'clock. Now again, you can go go
to the show tomorrow, then finish off your evening listening
to night Side, so it'll be a perfect night. We
will come back and we're going to talk about the
possibility of a generational back old band here in Massachusetts.
(37:02):
If anyone any state can do it, I think it's
probably Massachusetts. Back on night Side right after the nine
o'clock news
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, I'm telling you Zy Boston's
news Radio. Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome on into
a Thursday night edition of Nightside. I know it was
a very warm day here in New England and watching
the weather folks tonight, it sounds as if it's going
to cool off a little bit by tomorrow. I don't know.
(00:21):
We're in the middle of summer. What can you expect.
I hope wherever you are you're cool and comfortable, whether
you have a fan, an open window, air conditioning, whatever
you have to spend the night, we will take you
all the way until midnight. We're going to talk about
a generational possible generational tobacco man here in Massachusetts. Interesting topic.
(00:42):
I think I'm going to channel David Breadnoy tonight, even
though I am a non smoker and actually a virulent
non smoker, I'm not sure that's a good idea. And
then we're going to talk with the president of the
Internetal Association Firefighters, Ed Kelly in the ten o'clock hour
about this horrific tragedy in fall River which today actually
(01:04):
the death toll has now risen, unfortunately to ten poor
souls who lost their lives on Sunday night during that inferno.
But first, we are going to start off tonight with
an interview with Emily Sweeney. Emily Sweeney who is, amongst
other things, the Boston Globe Cold Case Files reporter, and
(01:25):
she joined us every couple of weeks and tonight we're
going to talk about a case that most in New
England are aware of, the Molly bish case twenty five
years ago. Emily, it seems like it was last week.
It's May. This case was never solved, and yet I
believe they feel that they found some evidence of her death. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, so, Dan, you know, thank you so much
for having me on and for highlighting this case that
a lot of people know about.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Let me make that very clear. We love to have
you on this program.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Go ahead, Well, I love being on, and you know,
talking about these unsolved murders, it's you know, it's lots
of sad stories, but it's just so important to get
the word out because there are people out there that
know something. You know, they could hold a piece of
the puzzle that could solve it, and you know, it
gives closure to a lot of families so.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Refreshed to it. I think most people know. But the
Molly Bus case, this is a young teenager who was
working as a lifeguard at a I guess a pond,
and for no apparent reason, she disappeared. They searched she.
I'm sure whatever happened to her was was not voluntary.
Let's put it like that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, yeah, she definitely she showed up to work at
pond in the little town of Warren, Massachusetts where she lived.
You know, small town, everybody knows each other, and you know,
her mother dropped her off, and you know, it is
a very small window of time, you know, minutes, you know,
before family started showing up for swimming lessons when they
(03:07):
realized that, you know, she wasn't there, but all her
stuff was at you know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Where she was supposed to be sitting, kind of like
the lifeguard post area. Her sandals were still there, everything
she had brought her water bottle and it made no sense,
and a huge search was done everywhere, and it wasn't until.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know, over a year later that that you know,
her remains were eventually found about five miles away. And yeah,
it's horrific, horristic. I'm sure did you cover it back then?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
It had there ever been any suspects identified or looked at.
I mean, Warren, Massachusetts in the middle of the summer.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It just doesn't make sense, right right, Yeah, No, seriously,
and well, you know there had been suspects, you know,
names have came and went. The latest person of interest
that's been publicized by investigators is a guy named Frank
Sumner and he's a convicted rapist who died in twenty sixteen.
(04:09):
But he lived out in central mass and he ran
some auto shops. And you know, investigators over the past
few years have been asking anybody, you know, if they
know anything about Frank or obviously you know Molly's disappearance,
you know, to get in touch.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's unbelievable when you think that something like that can happen,
literally in the blink of an eye. A little girl's
remains are found a year later, and how does someone
who committed that crime live with themselves? Now, if this
guy died in twenty sixteen, maybe he didn't have a
conscience of some sort, but you would think that at
(04:48):
some point someone, even if on their deathbed, would would
have a note that they would hand to you know,
their religious council or to a family member, say please
deliver this to the fish family or whatever. Right. So
many these people they take it to their grave. I mean,
they're not human, they're not human beings. They you know,
(05:09):
for whatever reason, they commit this, these type of crimes,
and yet they live with what they've done for how
however long they live for the rest of their life.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, is this still considered an active case? I know
that you're looking at it, and I saw that there
were a couple of TV reports I think last week
on it.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it is an open case and the DA's office,
the investigation, it says it's still active and ongoing. You know,
Molly's remains. I just look at my notes here, it
was actually two thousand and three, so it was like
three years later that they actually recovered some of her remains,
and you know that the family is still you know, hoping,
you know, for answers. I interviewed her sister, you know,
(06:00):
who's you know, obviously her life has never been the
same since has happened to her sister, And you know,
anybody who has information should get in touch, you know,
with the DA's office. So what's the District Attorney's office?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, Well, I know that the district attorney out there
is someone who's a pretty good aggressive district attorney, and
I just hope that I just hope that someone can
remember something even if they have. You know, if someone
saw a license plate, obviously she wasn't. She didn't walk
five miles to where she was found. She had to
(06:33):
have been transported some somewhere that morning. So how can
folks check out your great website on the at the Globe, Emily,
what's the worst? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, so you know we covered these unsolved murders regularly.
It's the Cold Case Files on the Boston Globe's website.
We also the stories appear in Boston dot com and
you can subscribe to my newsletter. If you go to
Globe dot com slash Cold Case Files, you can sign up.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And there's no costs to that, right.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yes, free, totally free. And you know, we give you
a summary of the cases that I've been working on lately,
and I have some really interesting ones coming up, Dan
that I can't wait to tell you about.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You know, that's great. Give me that website one more time,
because I think I unfortunately stepped on it when when
you were giving it. I want to listen carefully go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's Globe dot com slash cold case files.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Okay, Globe dot com slash cold case files. That's great, Emily,
thanks very much. This is a great journalism that you're doing,
and at some point it's going to the work you're
doing is going to bear some fruit.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Thank you so much, Emily Hope, so thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
All right, calculator, we are going to talk about something
that all of us probably well most of us worry about.
In that is obesity. There's a new major news study
out up ending some of the common wisdom about obcity.
We're gonna talk with Gretchen Reynolds. She's a Washington Post
health columnist focusing on exercise, science and fitness. Also, I
(08:11):
will remind you to pull down the iHeart, the new
and improved iHeart. All you have to do is go
to you to your app store and you can pull
down the new app. It's just simply iHeart. Bring it down,
new and improved. You can put it on whatever device
you want, your tablet, your desktop, your laptop, put it
(08:36):
on you, you watch whatever, and you can make WBZ
your first preset. Because that will mean that we will
always be just a fingertip away from wherever you are
in the world. That is the new and improved iHeart
Radio app. Coming back on night Side right after this break.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
With Dan Ray.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I'm telling YOUBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, obesity is a circumstance that all of us want
to avoid, but many of us fight obesity at different
points during our lives. Joining us now is Washington Post
health columnist Gretchen Renolds, and she's going to focus on
some exercise science that relates to obesity and fitness.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Gretchen Renolds, Welcome to night Side, Thanks so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So what do we learn in this sty What did
this study teach us?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
This was the study looking at what's really most important
for causing the obesity epidemic. Is it eating too much
or is it exercising and moving around too little? And
it has to be essentially one of those. You're either
taking in more calories than you burn or you aren't
burning as many calories as you need to. And so
(09:55):
this study was looking at in particular the role of exercise,
eyes and moving around. And they looked first at societies
that have almost no obesity, and that includes groups like
Hunter gatherers in Africa and herders in Siberia and subsistence
farmers in Bolivia who were moving around all the time
(10:17):
and they very seldom are overweight.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, bet they don't have any.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
We will come back to that, But no, that that's
really important because the scientists here looked at how many
calories those groups of people in some of the less
developed areas were expending every day, and it was it
was a fair number. And you would assume that those
(10:47):
of us who sit in an office all day and
aren't doing a whole lot would keep burning a lot
fewer calories, but we weren't. When they compared the total
energy expenditure or of these groups of people like the
herders and the hunter gatherers, to executives and those of
us sitting in offices in America, it turns out we
(11:10):
actually burn almost the same number of calories on a
typical day because our metabolisms are so good at reapportioning calories,
so that, if, for instance, you start a marathon training,
you won't necessarily burn a whole lot more talories over
the course of a day than if you weren't marathon training.
(11:34):
Our metabolisms just do that for us, whether we want
it or not.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Okay, so does that mean does that mean that people
like me who have in the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday working on the elliptical, that I'm wasting my time.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
No, exercise remains absolutely key for health. It also seems
to be very good at from keeping people from gaining
a whole lot of weight.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
It does not appear to be the key to our
obesity epidemic because again, we're not burning fewer calories than
these people who move around all day.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Okay, so what we got that study, then take us
what conclusion are we drifting towards here?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
The next obvious thing was the scientists looked at the
diets of people, particularly in the developed world, where they
had good information. This is a big study. It involved
more than four thousand people, so that's pretty huge. So
they looked then at the diets of people, and that
brings us back to Dunkin Donuts because what they did
(12:41):
find pretty persuasively was the higher the percentage of ultra
processed foods, and they defined that as industrialized foods that
have more than five ingredients. So look at the ingredient
list on your food. The higher the percentage of ultra
processed food foods, the more likely people were to be obese.
(13:02):
And there does seem to be something about processing these
foods that really contributes to obesity. And people that the herders,
the hunter gatherers, it's not that they're moving around a
lot more than us. It's that they're not eating donuts,
they're not eating potato chips. That seems to be the
real key to avoiding obesity. And so that the message,
(13:27):
and this is not meant to be, you know, to
shame anyone or anything, that the message is to avoid
weight gain, try to eat fewer ultra processed foods, do exercise.
It's great for you. There's nothing else that is so.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Good for your help, but it probably.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Will not be the key to weight loss, especially just
so I think, why not to eat the other stuff?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, I think what you're saying is if you can
eat fruits and vegetables, that that is a key to
a diet, and that you know, I think it's again
it's a huge study, but if you I know, I
love my favorite meal of the day is breakfast, and
(14:17):
I've eaten the same cocoa cereal that I get through
this sponsor that sponsors in this program a wake in
one INDI, I get this cocoa cereal, which is absolutely delicious.
It only has about one hundred and thirty calories for
an entire package. I put a banana slice a banana,
I slice three or four strawberries, and a bunch of
(14:39):
blueberries with a glass of orange juice. And that's breakfast
and it works.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
But I think what yes great is The key is.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
The fresh fruit. I love fresh fruit, and also salads, salads,
and I'm trying to cut back gone salad dressing. I
used to do a lot of Russian salad dressing and
not anymore. I'm going to little fat Italian dressing. And
I can wean myself off that I just think being
cognizant of. And I do have an occasional Uncle donut.
(15:14):
I want you to know that that's my trade.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
I do too. And again this is not none of
this should be considered accusatory or anything like that. People
absolutely eat whatever you want. Just know that particularly the
foods that have a lot of ingredients that have been
(15:36):
highly processed do seem to be more palatable, and people
do tend to eat more of them. So if you
can look for foods that have fewer ingredients, have been
processed less, they will probably fill you up a little more.
You'll find it easier to eat less and they're healthier.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So it's all good.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
New exercise, keep doing that.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Okay, So there's there's one question here. There's one question
here which I think we'll try to address. I'm going
to ask you to address quickly because we're running out
of time. Genetics have to be a factor in this.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Yes, they certainly are, and that's true. You know, if
you look at diet studies, there'll be huge differences in
how people react to any diet. Some people will lose
a lot of weight, some people will lose very little,
some people will gain weight, all on the same diet.
And yes, that's genetics, but pretty much across the board,
(16:34):
you're more likely to gain weight if you're eating ultra
processed foods than not.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
All right, Gretchen, we got the genetics. Thanks so much.
Always great to talk with a Washington Post health columnist,
and we learned a lot about exercise and eating and fitness.
You're a great interview.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Thanks so much for being with us, and I hope
you get you back anytime.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thank you, Gretchen, appreciate it. Well, we come back when
it's talk about one of my favorite locations in the world,
and that is Zoo New England, the Franklin Park Zoo,
the Stone Zoo, and we're talking about turtle conservation reaches
generational milestone. I'll explain what that means. We're gonna be
talking with Emily Wilder, Zoo New England's Associate director of
Conservation Engagement. Come on right back on night Side. You're
(17:21):
on Nightside with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's
news radio. Thanks Madison. One of my favorite locations in
New England is Zoo New England, whether it's Franklin Park
or the Stones. Are with us as Emily Wilder, she's
the Zoo New England's Associate director of Conservation Engagement. And
we're talking here about what's called the Blanding's Turtle conservation.
(17:45):
So explain to me what I assume. Blanding is the
sponsor of this, a contributor to Zoo New England.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Emily, Hi, Dan, Yeah, Actually it's the Blanding turn is
one of our ten native turtles here in Massages.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, so I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
So it is actually the name of a turtle. Thank
you for clarifying that. I thought it might have been,
you know, a generous donation by a benefactor. So okay,
so tell us how what's going on here? One of
the ten turtles?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Is it a big turtle, a small turtle, snapping turtle
to script, they're they're pretty big, so they're one of
the larger turtles that we have here.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Masters they're not as big as a snapping turtle when
they're full ground. I'd say they're kind of about the
size of like a football. You know, they're pretty, you know,
pretty decent sized turtle, but not huge. And you know
a lot of people, you know, you say you love
Franklin Park Zoo and obviously Stone Zoo as well, and
you know, everyone knows the zoo. But I think a
lot of people don't know that we have all these
(18:52):
projects with rare species in the wild, so we don't
aren't just working with the animals at this were working
with out in the in the wetlands and forests right
here Massachusetts and blending turtles are one of those animals
that we work with and they are threatened to here Massachusetts.
There's when we first started working with them, you know,
it was estimated there were only about a thousand left
(19:14):
in the state, so you know that's really not that many,
and their population was you know, continue know, declining, and
so we came in and we thought, okay, what can
we do here in that's sort of like our that's
what we you know, we were trying to go in
and we're like, okay, what's the problem and what can
we do to bring some of these species back?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Right?
Speaker 6 (19:33):
We don't want animals to go extinct. So that's we
started working with Blending turtles in two thousand and three,
and so now we're you know, we're twenty years later,
and we have some really exciting news that just happened
like about a week or two ago. Well, which is
that one of our one of our turtles. So one
(19:54):
of the ways that we're helping the turtles is, you
know a lot of big, big issue is that you know,
these plenty stilts are about the size of football when
they're adults, but when they're hatchlings, when they're first born,
they're about the size of a quarter and so basically, yeah,
they're very very small, and they're basically like a potato
chip for any kind of predator, right, any any animal
(20:16):
that can fit that you know, little quarter sized turtle
in their mouth is going to gobble them up. And
they have basically every you know, raccoons, foxes, coaties, ducks,
snapping turtles, like any anything that can fit that you know,
animal in their mouth that splannys in their mouth will
eat them. And so there chances of making it to
adulthood are pretty low to begin with. So when you
(20:39):
have very few females in the population laying, you know,
their eggs, and all the eggs are going to eat
and the hatchlings are getting eaten, very few were surviving
to adulthood. So what we do, what we've been doing,
is we go in there, We follow the moms to
where they lay their nests. We protect the desk so
no predator can dig up the eggs and eat them.
(20:59):
And then when those hatchlings come out again they're the
size of a quarter, we take them and we raise
them both at the zoo and at local elementary schools
into for about a year. We raise them in you know,
a safe a safe environment. They get kind of an
all you can eat to say, every day, and they're
growing and growing during that time. So by the time
(21:20):
we release them back out into the wild, they're now
the size of like a cheeseburger, and there's now way
fewer predators that could eat that size of the turtle.
They're much stronger, they're they're more likely to survive to
adulthood at that point. So we've been doing that with
So explain the process to me.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
How do you find the turtles if there's only a
thousand of them in New England. New England's still a
pretty big area, and I know the turtles don't run fast.
I understand that. What do you do You just go
into a wooded area and you're looking for a turtle
for turtles.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Yeah, I mean I kind of. So, you know, we
we obviously we know what kind of habitat they like,
so blanding turtles they really like pretty swampy, mucky areas.
They really love beaver created swamps. So that's like a
good you know, you know, if you're looking in the
right kind of habitat, you're more likely to find them.
But a lot of times that that does it is
how we start, you know, we're we do surveys. Our
(22:17):
field staff are out looking for the turtles and it's
it's a lot of work to find them. They're not
you know, there they don't want to be found usually,
so uh and they aren't. Turtles are known to be slow, right,
but in the water, they're actually pretty fast and they
can definitely out swim as you know. I can't walk
it in the swamp as fast as they can swim,
but we do when we find them, we do put
(22:39):
radio trackers on them so we can follow, so, especially
the adult females will put trackers so we can follow
them during the nesting season and see where they're nesting
so we can protect that nest.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And then you identify a nest and then you go
back periodically to see when if the legs have appeared,
if the eggs have been laid.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Yeah okay, yeah, so well, you know, when it's getting
close to hatching time, our staff are going out and
checking the nests every day because we don't know what
day that the turtles will hatch out. And then when
they hatch out, we collect all those hatchlings and we
bring them, like I said, either to the zoo or
to local schools, and then we raise them, and that
we call that head starting. So you're kind of giving,
you're kind of boosting them through that really dangerous part
(23:23):
of their life till they're bigger and stronger.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So let me ask you this question. I know nothing
about what you do. I admire what you do. However,
some people I'll bet are saying, Gee, that must be
kind of traumatic to the turtle mother to all of
a sudden realize that those fifteen little eggs that she's
(23:45):
incubated for whatever long the gestation period is. I don't
know how long that gestation period is.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
It is it's about two months?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, okay, And so is it traumatic for them for
the for the mom or do the mom's lay the
eggs and then what's the.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Yeah, they lay their eggs and they never come back.
So she has no idea that we've taken her handling.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh great, okay, okay, So there's no trauma involved. She's
done her things, she's moving on, and I'm sure that
there's no turtle dad kicking around either at that point.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Exactly. Yeah. No, they're they're all back in the swamp,
you know, living their best turtle lives, and and you know,
the hatchlings are there, you know, they're they're buried underground,
so they're hidden. The mom does what she does for
her hatchling is the best thing she can do is
is hide them under the ground to try and you know,
hide them from predators. But you know a lot of
a lot of those predators have good noses and they
can sniff them out and find them. But we have
(24:40):
that nest protected so predators can't get in. And then
we do this thing called head starting, where we raise
them till they're big and strong. And we've been head
starting since the first turtles we started head starting and
released in two thousand and four, and really more in
earnest in like two thousand and seven, and we first
(25:01):
started working at this site and conquered mass and at
that site we've now released several hundred landing turtles back
into that swamp. And when we first started working there,
they're only fifty turtles, and now there's over four hundred
turtles that are at that site, which is really exciting.
But none of the turtles that we had head started
had laid eggs of their own yet, and that's because
(25:23):
these turtles take a really long time to mature, so
blanding turtles. They can live into their nineties and they
don't start laying eggs until they're like, on average, around
eighteen years old. So you know, we'd only been head
starting and releasing turtles for about sixteen years, so we
didn't have any turtles at head laid.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So this was the first batch of turtle eggs that
that we're talking about here. I have we reached a milestone?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yees?
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Yeah. So now one of those headstarts that we had
started and released back in two thousand, is it thirteen?
I'm freely now that the date when we released her,
But she has now come out and laid eggs of
her own. So now we have like a second generation
of landing turtles and we're really now really excited about
(26:15):
this because this is going to accelerate, you know, that
population recovery that we've already started.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That's great, that's great. And again, these turtles live. Are
they because they have a shell they just protected once
they get to a certain point, they're sort of immune
from the predators or is it lucky to live ninety years?
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Well, I mean definitely, I mean it's still there's a
matter of luck to you know, living to ninety, but
the biggest like, you know, once they've kind of gotten
to that adult size, there's very few predators that can
get them. Like actually, I don't think there really are
any predators that can crunch down on that shell because
it is you know, it's like a rock. But you know,
they aren't invulnerable, especially one of the biggest threats that
(27:03):
they have right now is vehicles because roads and cars.
You know, that shell is not strong enough to protect
them from cars.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
How do they winter? I mean, I would assume that
here in New England they're not heading cells.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Oh no, it's amazing. They actually overwinter under the ice.
So they'll go down underwater in the ponds and the
swamps where they're living, and they're just hunkered down and
they kind of they lower their body their body temperature
and almost down to freezing right the water is super cold,
and their heart rate goes way down, their metabolism goes
way down. Researchers who've studied turtles under the ice have
(27:41):
like documented them their heart rate is only one beat
every ten minutes, pretty wild, and they're under the ice,
so they're not breathing that you know, as long as
the ice is there. Over over the lake or the swamp.
They're not taking a breath all that time, so it's
pretty incredible what they can do to survive the winter.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
How do they have that capacity not to breathe?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Yeah, I mean it's just because they've they've lowered, you know,
their their heart is beating so slow. They're just using
so little oxygen that.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Really they just take it a big long snooze and hibernating.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's it's kind of like that. We
call it brumation and turtles, but yeah, it's it's really
amazing what they can do.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Heavily great. It's great to know the great work that
Zoo New England does. Please say h to John Lenny
Handful when you see him.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
We will absolutely folks for all to get.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
If folks want to see some information on this, Do
you have a website that you could direct people to?
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Absolutely, yeah, I'm definitely come to the zoo. You can
see a blanding turtle at the zoo and you can
definitely check out New England dot org slash conservation. We
also have a bunch of cool like biodiversity walks that
people can come and meet our experts and go out
and learn about the nature that's all around us. So
you can go to do New England dot org slash
walks to see some of those upcoming events that people
(29:01):
can come up on it.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Emily, thank you so much for your time today and
again with one of the great assets of our entire
New England region, Zoo New England.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Thank you, Emily, Thank you so much for being such
a great supporter my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Well we get back. We're going to talk about a
one man show starring Chazz Palmentary. I think most of
you know his name, actor, writer, director. He is starring
in The Bronx Tale coming up at the Chevalier Theater
in Medford. We'll be back talking with the actor himself,
Chaz Promentary right after this quick break.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, I'm delighted to welcome to the show here on Nightside,
an actor, writer and director who's starring in The Bronx,
a Bronx Tale. It's a one man show at the
Chevalier Theatre in Medford Square this Friday night, July eighteenth,
so it would be folks tomorrow night. Chazz comment Terry,
Welcome to Nightside, sir, how.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Are you very well? So thank you? How are you?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I'm doing excellent, the better for talking to you, having
an opportunity to speak with you. You have lived a
life on film and on stage, grew up in the
Bronx and now you've developed this program, a Bronx Tale.
Is this a little biographical?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Oh? Yes, mostly biographical. My real name is Colojio Lorenzo Palletari.
When I was young, they called me. See so when
you see the movie Bronx Tale, I'm the little boy,
I'm actually the little boy. I played the gangster, you
know who I befriended when I was that age. And
it really started when I was nine years old. I
saw this man kill a man right in front of me,
(30:47):
and you know, the cops came and I did rat
on them because I was really I was the one
who's standing right there, sitting there, wow. And I didn't
rat on the guy, and the guy never forgot that,
and I'm befriended him. And then I would hang out
at the club and go get the coffee and cigarettes
and things like that. And this is my story growing up.
(31:08):
And my father was totally opposite. My father was the
working man. He was a bus driver very uh, never
been in jail's whole life for respected. So I thought
it would make a great story between telling the difference
between the two, not that one was black and one
was white. It's more like gray and gray. It's not
(31:29):
about good and evil. It's about I took the best
of Sonny and became a man, and I took the
best of my father, Lorenzo and became a man. So
it's a pretty good interesting story. Robert de Niro saw
it when I was doing it, and it was at
that time it was the hottest property in the world.
At the time, I had two hundred dollars in the
(31:50):
bank and they offered me I went up to five
hundred million, two million, and I refused to turn it
over because I wanted to play Sunday and I wanted
to write it because it was in my life. And
then one night Robert and Arrow saw it. He came
into the theater and said, it's the greatest one man
showing ever saw. He said that's the movie, and I
(32:11):
said yes, and he said, I know everybody wants it,
but he said, if you let me direct it and
I'll play your father. He said, you could play Sonny
and you write it and we'll go partners, and that's
how the movie happened.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Wow, I I was unaware of that. Now have you
been to the Chevalier Theater in Medford? It's beautiful theater.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Yes it is, and.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
You're you're there tomorrow night, Tomorrow night and easy. Uh?
Can we direct people to a website.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Or Charles pomentary dot net. Okay, that's Charles Pomanary dot
net and you can get tickets there, or you can
call the theater whatever you want to do. I think
most of my theater you'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I can tell you that, well, that's that is.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
That would be fabulous. I'm actually out of town or
I would almost think about taking the night off to
go see it. How many different venues have you presented
this one man show in over time?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Oh? I don't know a thousand or something. I mean
I've been doing it on and off. Yes, I have
a TV series that I'm on. I'm on Goswell or Home.
So when I do my series that I was on
another series, then I can't do it. But I would
say I've been doing it since nineteen eighty nine, So
(33:42):
what is that thirty five years.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Uh, yeah, that's a good thirty a good thirty five years.
It's amazing that when you are born with a talent
like you have, or any of the great actors that
you have, it becomes a very in many ways of
peripatetic life. But it also becomes a really fulfilling life
(34:05):
because you interview, You're with different audiences in different places.
I do a radio show, done a radio show before that.
I was in television a long time, but I don't
have that even though I have. It's a live show.
You see the expressions of people in the audience. You sometimes,
I'm sure it can meet people after the show. It
(34:27):
must be very fulfilling way and wish to hold you crowd.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
I did the show, Yes, I mean when I do
the show, I play eighteen characters. It's really a two
the force, you know, and so people are just stunned
with their mouths open at the end, and then then
they all stand up and scream and yell, and you know,
I've did the show. Now I'm trying to This is
(34:52):
my one thousand and fifty fifth show. So when I
do it, it's one thousand five standing ovations. Wow, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Actually know approximately the number. I've done this radio show
for eighteen years. I'm over forty one hundred shows, but
I'm doing five tonight and that's all I'm doing. You
obviously are into intermixing this with a career on stage
and in movies, so it's it's going to be an
amazing experience tomorrow night at the shovel Year Theater in Medford. Again.
(35:28):
I hope you, as they say, break a leg, knock
them dead or whatever. I know you will, and it's
a honor that you would join us tonight. And I
really mean that.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Well, it's my pleasure anything I could do to get
the word out. There are also seats us, but it's
a theater. It's a night in the theater that you
will never forget your whole life. Really well, I mean,
it's really an experience. I've seen people see this. People
have seen this twenty thirty times already. It's crazy. It's
just it's you know, I've written other movies, oh and
(36:02):
I wrote this one person's show. It's like lightning in
the bottle. I don't know what it is that people
keep coming back and seeing it again and again.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Well, you know what. A final comment from me and
it's your life. No one knows it better than you.
It's an interesting life to have grown up in the
Bronx in the nineteen fifties. It's a special time, special place,
and you do capture it. It's lightning and it's your
life in a bottle. So, Chess Pomuntary, thanks so much.
I'm a big fan and I really appreciate you taking
(36:31):
the time to be with us tonight.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
I appreciate that very much. Thank you very much, God's less.
Thank you welcome, You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So that is a one man show, a Bronx Tale
one man show tomorrow night at the Chevalier Theater from
beginning at eight o'clock. Now again, you can go go
to the show tomorrow, then finish off your evening listening
to night Side, so it'll be a perfect night. We
will come back and we're going to talk about the
possibility of a generational back old band here in Massachusetts.
(37:02):
If anyone any state can do it, I think it's
probably Massachusetts. Back on night Side right after the nine
o'clock news
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