July 28, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories we thought you'd like to know more about!
In this episode we chatted with:
Sally French, Travel Expert at NerdWallet: Is 'Travel Math' derailing your finances and vacation plans? It might be…and you might not even be aware it’s happening!
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, quadruple board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine: There’s a viral trend on TikTok and other social media platforms that has people taping their mouths shut for better sleep to encourage nose breathing, which is touted as better for overall health. But is it safe?
“Beat” Walker Mary Rizzo and Chrissy Vraibel, Community Service Officer for the Boston Police Department: Senior women are “walking the beat” in Charlestown with the Boston PD which not only gets seniors out in a safe environment but encourages these once isolated seniors to meet others! Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox even walks with the group!
Keri Mesropov, Founder of Spring Talent Development: The Gen Z work ethic – Definitely differs from the Gen X and Boomer’s, and possibly even the Millennials. Gen Zers are embracing a trend called “micro-retirement.” What is this new trend all about?
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
In this episode we chatted with:
Sally French, Travel Expert at NerdWallet: Is 'Travel Math' derailing your finances and vacation plans? It might be…and you might not even be aware it’s happening!
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, quadruple board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine: There’s a viral trend on TikTok and other social media platforms that has people taping their mouths shut for better sleep to encourage nose breathing, which is touted as better for overall health. But is it safe?
“Beat” Walker Mary Rizzo and Chrissy Vraibel, Community Service Officer for the Boston Police Department: Senior women are “walking the beat” in Charlestown with the Boston PD which not only gets seniors out in a safe environment but encourages these once isolated seniors to meet others! Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox even walks with the group!
Keri Mesropov, Founder of Spring Talent Development: The Gen Z work ethic – Definitely differs from the Gen X and Boomer’s, and possibly even the Millennials. Gen Zers are embracing a trend called “micro-retirement.” What is this new trend all about?
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice, Dan Ray, I'm telling you easy Boston's news radio.
Thank you very much, Madison. I promise you we will
try to have a great night here on Nightside. My
name is, as Madison indicated, Dan Ray, the host of
Nightside with Dan Radio, the appropriate an apptly named program.
Our fabulous producer Rob Brooks is back in the control
(00:22):
room and Rob reminds me that I want to remind
all of you of a really neat way for you
to be a part of our Nightside broadcast. You can
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All you have to do is download the app and
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(00:46):
News Radio, you can tap the red microphone talkback button
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(01:09):
during the first hour of the something you like, let
us know. Once again, hit that red microphone button in
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Night Side, and you can send us your audio message.
We have a good lineup here during the eight o'clock hour,
no phone calls coming up. At eight, We're going to
talk with Dan Shaughnessy, great sports columnists for the Boston Globe.
(01:31):
We're going to talk about the Major League Baseball trade
deadline looming about a little less than now, seventy two
hours away four I think it's four o'clock on Thursday afternoon.
Will the Red Sox be buyers or sellers? That is
the inevitable question every July thirty for us, it seems.
And we'll talk with Dan Shaughnessy, just back from the
(01:52):
Hall of Fame induction ceremony yesterday. And then, on a
more serious note, although if you're a baseball fan, that's
pretty serious stuff too. Deadline, we're going to talk about
the family lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of
the family of Lynz Joseph, the five year old boy
from Hyde Park who was killed run over by the
school bus his own school bus three months ago. Tonight,
(02:15):
we'll be talking with his attorney Matt Folgelman at ten o'clock.
But let us start off and we're going to introduce
you to the concept of travel math. No, this is
not like Chicago Math or some of the new math
formulae that various school systems have tried to adopt with us.
As Sally French, she's a travel expert at nerd Wallet. Sally,
(02:40):
I don't know how they named it nerd wallet, but
it's you might want to consider a different name. How
are you tonight? How you think?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What should we call it?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I smart wallet?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Maybe smart wallet?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There you go. Well, here at nerd wallet, we get
nice and nerdy, and I like to think we are
pretty smart. We don't actually fall for travel map. Travel
map is equip on girl map, And it's that temptation
to justify some spending we might do when we're traveling,
because we want to justify something that maybe we shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I get it. I get it so well. First
of all, if you go on a vacation somewhere, it's
quite different than a staycation because if you're on a
staycation and you're hanging around your own community, which I
think is the best way to vacation in my opinion, Uh,
you get to go to restaurants. Maybe you haven't tried,
but you're not going to spend exorbitant months of money.
(03:37):
The problem is, let's say you take that trip fill
in the blank, whether you're going to Florida, California, Mexico, Canada,
or wherever. If you want to have a drink with
dinner at home, you can make it yourself on the road.
Dependent upon what it's going to it could cost you ten,
fifteen to twenty bucks, and you have a few of
(03:58):
those over the course of vacation. At money starts to
add up is that the sort of thing we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Was even further, it's often when people will try to
justify spending money and pretend like they're not even seeing
that money. It's things like saying this luxury hotel was
free because I booked it on points, or I got
into this lounge for free because of my credit card.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
But the reality is you.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Worked for those points in some capacity and you might
be able to use those points for something else, So
that something else could even be the hotels we have
to pay for to go to that wedding or that
child's sports game. You don't necessarily need to go to
that luxury hotel, but a lot of people say, you
know what, I'm going to treat myself to this one
(04:47):
because I have my points. Same with those airport lounges.
Many credit cards these days get you into airport lounges,
which seem really nice. But many of these credit cards
have annual fees. A lot of people sort of can
fee forget what the alternative could be that they could
do with the annual fee on that credit card, with
those points, things like that, when people are on vacation,
(05:08):
they just sort of forget about doing the actual map
and really dialing into those finances.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I have never had a credit card with an annual
fee in my entire life.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Wow, well you know, I will say, yeah, I mean
having a credit card with no annual fee definitely works
for many people, and many people prefer to have a
credit card with no annual fee, and that is definitely
a great strategy. That said, there are many great travel
credit cards that have annual fees that you can really
really go a long way to not girl map, not
(05:42):
travel map, but to really maximize them. Many airline credit
cards will offer free checked bags as a benefit for
holding the card, and you think about many of these
airline credit cards have annual fees around one hundred dollars.
But you know, you go on one flight and then
checked bag is like fifty dollar if you're freaking.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Fire, if you're freaking yeah, okay, what about this. You
go somewhere on vacation, You go to the Caribbean hypothetically okay,
and all of a sudden, in the hotel lobby you
walk down and say, hey, would you like to take
a helicopter ride over a volcano? Uh? You get induced
(06:22):
to spend a lot of money. It's only three hundred
and fifty dollars per person, and you'll never have that
opportunity to fly over the volcano at Montserrat. Again, there
actually is a volcano at Montserrat, believe it or not.
But you get tempted. It's like, well, I'll never be
(06:43):
here again. I'll never have a chance. Or how about skydiving.
I mean, you get these things which you would never
do in your right mind, but you're on vacation and
it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And definitely, you know, for some some cases it makes
sense to do that skydiving, do that volcano tour. Maybe
it is a once in a lifetime trip. What nerd
will it encourages is really doing that research in advance.
Often if you're in the hotel lobby, that is not
the best price. Often if you do that early research,
you can shop around and really understand what you're getting.
(07:21):
And for some people that volcano tour might definitely be
worth it. But the nerd wallet way is just to
have a full understanding of what the experience is going
to be like and are you really booking the best
one or can you find one for less.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Sounds great, So you've got to do a research. Okay,
So now I'm assuming that nerd wallet, which I'd like
to call smart wallet because that's really what you want.
But nerd wallet has a website.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Well, we do have these smart travel podcasts, so it's
not called nerd travel, it is called smart Travel. So
we get a little smart selling.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Telly, this is your chance. I like you give that
a plug. How do they find smart Travel podcast and
we'll also plug nerd wallet.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, thank you. So you can find us at nerd
walic dot com or smart Travel podcast pretty much wherever
you listen to podcasts. Spotify, our Heart Radio, Apple podcasts.
Just go in the search for smart travel, not NERD travel,
smart travel. Okay, you can find it there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Here's my final question. Okay, in your opinion, and because
you're our expert, we have to accept your opinion. How
far in advance should a smart traveler plan their vacation?
I mean the idea of trying to get that last
minute deal on a Friday afternoon to fly out Friday
night at nine o'clock. That's probably saved you some money,
(08:40):
But normally, how when should you start to plan your
annual vacation or your semiannual vacation.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That is a yes.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So many people think, oh, I can just wait and
I'll find a last minute deal because the deals aren't
good right now, and they'll get better as they come
and take you. With airfare, there is no such thing,
or very little such thing as a last minute deal.
With domestic flights. The best time to book your airfare
is one to three months in advance. If you go
into early, airlines actually a price higher because they want
(09:15):
to see who really is willing to pay for this.
They tend to bring down their fares one to three
months out in most cases, and then it's very unlikely
you'll find a last minute deal with international fights. The
window is two to eight months in advance.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Great great advice, Sally French, Thank you very much. You're
a great sport NERD wallet is fine. You don't have
to change it as smart wallet.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I'm high enough on the tone pool to change it
to smart wallet anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You're a smart travel expert and we appreciate your time.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Sally Thang, you have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You bet you. When we come back, we're going to
talk about a new rage. I know you won't believe
this because I didn't believe it. There is There are
social media platforms and viral trends on t talk that
have convinced people that they should tape their mouths shut
for better sleep, to encourage nose breathing. Is that safe?
(10:11):
I think you know the answer. We're going to talk
with a quadruple board certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonology,
critical care, and sleep medicine. Doctor Raj Does Gupta joins
us right after the break.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
It's Nice Eye with Dan Ray on.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I'm told there is a viral trend on TikTok and
other social media platforms. Viral trend that has people taping
their mouths shut for better sleep. Well, I guess if
you're a partner, your bed partner talks in their sleep. No,
I'm only kidding to encourage nose breathing. With us now
(10:53):
to talk about this peculiar activity is doctor Raj does Gupta.
He's quite a quadruple board certified physicians specializing in internal medicine,
pull moonology, critical care, and sleep medicine. Doctor dos Gupta. Welcome, sir.
How are you at this?
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Thanks?
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
I'm doing good. I just finished a long day of
work and I'm fired up to talk to you on
the radio.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Well, thank you very much. I love when people are
fired up. I am just starting a long nights of work,
but it's only about four hours, so it'll be over
before I know it. It says here that you have
info on the pros and cons of mouth taping for sleeping.
This doesn't sound like a good idea to me, But
tell you know, tell me where I'm wrong.
Speaker 6 (11:37):
Oh, Dan, we are on the same page. It does
not sound like a good idea, but I don't want
to be biased. You know, I'm not that kind of person.
I want to be a fair balanced person. So I
do like breathing through the nose. You know, that's the
way we were made. We're all about nasal breathing. And
you're going to ask me why do I want to
breathe through my nose? Well, Number one, it humidifies the air.
(11:57):
You know, our lungs. I'm a lung doctor. We don't
like the air to be all cold. It kind of
flares up your asthma, your lunger angry at you. So
by breathing to the nose, that unifies the air. Number two,
we have something called ccilia. See there are tiny all
hairs in your nose. That's filter the air. And of
course let's go back to my asthmatics, they want the
(12:18):
air to be filtered before going those lungs itself. The
third thing is now take this with a grain of salt.
It may help out with your blood pressure. People will
say why is because it may increase a protein called
nitric oxide That may help out with blood pressures. But
I don't know about that. But the last thing I
want to say is, you know, when you think about
in through the nose, out through the mouth. It kind
(12:41):
of helps out with anxiety. If you're doing a little meditation,
they definitely want to relax going into sleep, So doing
some nasal breathing might actually help you relax a little bit.
But those are the pros of breathing through the nose.
I'm not telling you to tape your mouth. That's just
the pros of breathing through the nose.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Okay. Is there any reason rash or irrational that people
would take their mouths at night?
Speaker 6 (13:05):
So you know, on the pretend you're my medical student.
I always tell my medical student asked the question why
why are you doing it? And I like your joke.
Is it because your bed partners talking tonight? Are they
snoring or keeping their mouth shut? Or are you doing
it to try to get better sleep? Then you should
get to the root cause, because taping your mouth doesn't
help out with insomnia, doesn't help out with restless legs.
(13:26):
And one of the most common diseases that I worry
about is obstructive sleep app yet that can that can
present with snoring. So you better make damn sure the
patient doesn't have obstructed sleep happening before you tape their
mouth shut. And the worst case scenario, Dan, let me
just throw this out there once if the patient has
a deviated septum in their nose, once that they have
(13:48):
things called nasal polyps, then you tape your mouth shut.
You're not getting any airflow going in. That sounds such
a stupid idea.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
How did this become pop? I mean, like anything else,
let viral on TikTok or one of the one of
the web pages.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Well, you know, I'm gonna start talking like my daughter.
There's always new hip words they use. I think the
word is called hacks, and you know you go to it,
like you said, as TikTok. You always have these new trends.
And let's be honest, Dan, sleep is a super popular topic.
Everyone wants to know what's the easiest way to get
good sleep. And I'll tell you a spoiler alert. There
is no easy way and a lot of people are
(14:29):
doing it. It is popular. And I'm not gonna say
bad things because there are so many testimonials. And I
know some of these people you take your mouth shut,
they feel great, and God bless them that they do.
But you know, I got to wear my dorky medicine hat.
There's not really any significant research with a lot of
people randomized and blinded, all those dorky medical words. They
(14:50):
really support this, you know what I mean. So it
may not be something I'm doing, but I always want
to say if you are doing it, I think it's
important to tell your doctor, to tell your sleep dog doctor,
because you know, I do worry about obstructive sleep apnea.
Forty million people have that in the United States. It's
often undiagnosed and misdiagnosed. And nowadays, let me make a plug,
we could diagnose obstructive sleepapy at home. You don't have
(15:13):
to go to a sleep center. So please just be honest.
Tell your doctors what you're doing. We may actually change
what you're doing or make better recommendations.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Since we're talking about sleep, I know a little bit,
not nearly as much as you. But is there a
difference between people who sleep on their back, sleep on
their stomach, or sleep on their side? And is any
of those four positions? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (15:37):
I love that question, And you know what, this is
going to be an alternative to taping your mouth if
you're snoring. One thing could be positional. So let me
answer your question. So, who should not sleep on their back?
Is because if you're allowed to snore, you kind of
want to elevate the head of the bed or sleep
on the side because of gravity effect. That tongue is
just going to block the mouth itself.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You know.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Sleeping on your stomach, we call that the prone position.
That sounds like a bad idea. It's going to hurt
your low back, hurt your neck. I don't even know
how he's going to breathe. Sleeping on your stomach, then
on your side, well, you know, in theory, there is
something called heartburn. Dorky medical word is gastroesophageal reflux disease. Supposedly,
people on your left side down. That may help out
(16:21):
a lot because of the way the anatomy is going
to be. But of course you want to treat the
underlying cause, you want to do the diet modifications. You
want to make the right diagnosis. So back to the
mouthap You can bring it back all together. Is that
if you don't feel like you want to tape your mouth,
but you snore, and you know what's not obsessive to
sleep APNA, you may be able to do these naval
strips over the nose. You could do positional therapy like
(16:43):
you were talking about lifting the head of the bed up,
don't sleeping on your back. So there's other alternatives out there.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know. There are days and particularly if on a weekend,
I want to take a couple of hour nap at
the end of a long week, I find it in
that afternoon and it tends to I can't take a
nap during the day, but I find that that is
my best sleep. How weird is that?
Speaker 6 (17:08):
That is funky? You know, I'm not a nap hater.
I always say to everyone if you speak deprived, which
is pretty much all of the country, that if you
do a well time, you do all a well time
nap that's around you know, I say, it's the power nap,
like around that lunchtime for around fifteen to twenty minutes. Hey,
(17:28):
there's no harm in that. And no, I know a
lot of people that could use a good power nap.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Oh. I'm a huge believer in power naps. Trust me.
I mean I can go. I can knock myself out
literally in a chair for fifteen minutes and I will
wake up. You can put a clock on me. I'm
talking about that two hour nap on a Saturday, rainy
Saturday afternoon, you leave the window open, you get the
rain kind of the hearing. You hear the rain and
you wake up and it's like, wow, I just had
(17:54):
eight hours worth of sleep. I love this interview. You
are like high energy, You've already had a hard day,
and you sound like you are ready to go. Doctor
Raj Does Gupta. I gotta have you back. You're one
of my best guests so far.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
I'm telling you, sure, Dan, anytime. I think you're a
cool dude too, and please invite me back. I'll be
happy to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Sounds great. We will make that happen. Maybe we'll do
an hour on sleep and let people call in with
callers and ask questions.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Totally, totally man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Sounds great, Doctor Raj Does Groupta. Thank you so much,
Doctor dosk Group. I really enjoyed this conversation. You're a
great sport. Thank you much.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Good night. All right. When we come back, we're going
to talk about a program in Charlestown, Massachusetts that the
Boston Police Department is running which gets seniors out walking
and beat Well, we'll see. We'll see right after the
news at the bottom of the era, my name is
Dan Ray, and don't forget the opportunity to leave us
(18:57):
a little bit of a voicemail thirty second voicemail on
the iHeartRadio talkback feature program, which I've explained several times,
and I'll come and I'll continue to explain until all
of you are comfortable with it. Back on Nightside.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Or right, welcome back everyone. We are going to go
to Charlestown, Massachusetts. Everybody knows where Charlestown is, and there's
a new program where senior women. I don't want to
ask how old the senior women are because that would
be inappropriate, but senior women, and we're not talking about
high school seniors here are walking the beat with the
(19:40):
Boston Police Department. Joining us are two folks who are
involved in this beat walker Mary Rizzo and Chrissy Vrabel,
who's a Community Service officer for the Boston Police Department.
Let me start with Chrissy Vrabel. Christy, are you a
police officer or explain to us what a commune Unity
Service officer is? That is that a type of police officer.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
It's a civilian in the community service office who work.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But you work for the Boston Police Department. I do.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I work for Boston Police in the capacity of a
community service office civilian role.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Okay. And does are there a lot of community service
officers involved in this activity? Are we focused just I
know we're focused tonight on Charlestown. Is this being done
in other communities as well?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
So the goal is to have it in every community,
but every community is different in Boston. So I would
have you, if anyone's interested in any programs through Boston Police,
to go on BPD News slash districts and they could
find out the different programs that Boston Police Office four
(20:55):
senior years or youth.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Okay, so, but we're focusing here on senior women as
I understand it. Yes, okay, So give us a quick
idea about what the idea of the program is. Then
I want to talk with Mary Rizzo, the beat walker.
The idea of the program is to establish a police presence,
a sort of a patrol presence in Charlestown or in
(21:21):
whatever community we might be talking about.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
So it started roughly five years ago when myself and
along with a few other officers, wanted to get back
into the community right after COVID in a safe way,
and we come up with the idea of walking the
beat with seniors because at that time, you know, a
(21:47):
lot of seniors were left alone. They were in their homes,
families weren't visiting them, and we wanted to get them
out into the community. And the idea was, what better
safe way is to go for a walk. They can exercise,
we can have a conversation. And the thoughts were going
(22:07):
forward was to get them to be part of the
community and be part of other people their age, so
that when the police weren't around, that they could build
their relationship. You know, Hey, I just put a banana
bread in. Would you like to come over and have
a piece, you know, bring the relationships back throughout the community.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And are you in uniform or would when you and
me we walk down the street, do you have a
uniform which distinguishes you or are you dressed in civilian
clothes as Mary would.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
I'm dressed in civilian clothed. Okay, So, but there are
one officers that do walk to beat with us, the
officers from district to A one. We have a seenior
response officer that walks.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh, so there's three of you Okay, so now I'm
getting the pictures.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
There's a few officers.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
No, no, no, but I'm saying you're not You're not
like going around in a group of people. It's you
a senior woman in an in an officer in uniform.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
There's several seniors. We have fifty two senior ladies that
walk the beat every Wednesday, and then we have officers,
police officers, swan police officers that also walk, which again.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I'm getting stuck in the details here, but how big,
for example, would be the group that you might be
walking with. I assume you're not walking tonight, or if
you are, how big is the group or how big
is the group when you walk on Wednesday night.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
So we walk every Wednesday morning at ten am, weather permitting,
and we do not walk in July and August. We
resume back in September, and then we break again just
before Christmas and resume again in March.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, the better way. So when you're walking, and again, Christy,
I want to ask that question again. Normally is it
like five or six or ten or twelve or fifteen people?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
No?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Oh no, we are on a small walk. We probably
have twenty five ladies in three or four police officers
and myself.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Oh good Gray, Well, let me talk with Mary Rizzo. Mary,
you're a beat walker. How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I'm doing wonderful.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
How are you great?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Now? Okay, I'm not going to ask the age of
the women who are walking, but when they say senior women,
I like to say that I'm on the wrong side
of fifty and some people will say on the wrong
side of sixty. Is there sort of an age group
here that's being focused on and how would you describe
it that age group?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It's a variety of age cool, anywhere from fifty five.
We even have a couple that are nineties and they
walk with us.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Well, if you're a ninety, you're definitely a senior woman,
and there's no doubt about that, no doubt. So the
youngest the youngest is around fifty five or so, is
what you're telling us?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, in and around that area, maybe a little bit older.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, And how long have you been doing this? Mary?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Five years since the statured.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So you're a veteran beat walker.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I'm trying to be Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well I think you are after five years, since you've
been with it since the beginning. What's the best part
of the program for you, what do you what do
you take? What is the best do you take out
of it?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The best thing about the soap program is I've lived
here my whole life. I was born and brought up here.
You're a towny, the women, I sure am right, and
I'm very proud one.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I have a lot of friends of mine in Childstown
who were very proud townies. That's why I used the
phrase that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, we have a lot of proud townties that walk
to beat. And the thing about it is that sometimes
you know them because you've seen them on the street,
but it's just like a hello, how are you? But
now it's like we're all gathering together and we're getting
a real good relationship going. And the police officers at
walk with us make us so comfortable, and they feel
(26:15):
make us feel so safe, and it's just a variety
of things, and it's just a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for
all of us to be evolved in.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
So they've been doing it in Charlestown now for about
five years. You were one of the first ones. I
think you told me you must have friends around the city.
Have you introduced the idea to some other senior women
from around.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
The city, from around the city, or a found Charleston
the city.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I didn't know if you might have some a friend
in Hyde Park or East Boston or South End and
you might have suggested it to them.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Well, I have talked to a few women from South Boston.
As a matter of fact, we went over there one
time and we collaborated with him playing archery, which was
quite interesting. Yeah, that's a bunch of women with the
bow and arrow.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah right, yeah, what could what could go What could
possibly go wrong with that? Mary?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Not a thing?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Well, that's good to know everyone survived that, that is
for sure. Well Mary, you you you sound like you
got a lot of spunk. Best of luck. It's good
to know that you're out there getting your exercise in
every Wednesday morning and and getting to know your naghbors.
That's that's that's a great part, a great asset.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well, thanks very much for joining us, and Chrissy. I
wish you the best of luck and I hope you
can get this started. Is it underway in any other
parts of the city or is it or is Charlestown
still the one and only location?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
They do have. We have a location in the North End.
We also have one in Doorchest.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
In South Boston.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I think everyone started to jump on board. But to
learn more about Walk the Beat and other programs in
your Boston neighborhood, you should go on bpdnews dot com
backslash districts and if you're interested in starting a program
you want you have a few ladies a gentleman that
(28:20):
want to go for a walk.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Oh so the guys can get involved in this too,
is what you say that they have to be seeing guys.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
No, we have senior guys in the North End. We
do not have any child down. For some reason, the
men don't want to walk.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I'm not going to touch that. With football.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
We can get any.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Men in Childtown, but we have plenty in the North End.
We also have this program in the North End and
we walk on Tuesdays in the.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
North But they have to be senior men.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You have to be you have to be fifty five.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Plus to gotcha. Okay, great, Chrissy, Thanks very much much
for the info and best of luck. Mary sounds like
she's quite a conversationalist and I'm sure you have a ball.
Thank you very much for joining us. Best of luck
with that program. Thank you, good night, Thank you when
we get back. When we talk about a different age bracket,
gen Z and their work ethic or lack thereof, they
(29:19):
definitely differ from jen X and the boomers, possibly even
the millennials. We'll keep it straight. Gen Z is embracing
a trend called micro retirement. That will give you some
ideas what we're going to talk about on the other
side of the break with the founder of Spring Talent Development,
Kerrie Mesropov. Mesropov, I'm hoping I'm going to pronounce that
(29:41):
correctly when I talk with her. We'll be back on
Nightside right after this. You're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio. All right, Just as
a reminder, gen Z were people who were born from
nineteen ninety six to two thousand and twelve, So therefore,
(30:01):
do the math they are in there, they would be
as young potentially as a teenager thirteen or so, or
as old as someone in their late twenty So we're
talking about the twenty somethings and the teens. With us
to talk about their work ethic is Carrie Mesropov. She's
(30:22):
the founder of Spring Talent Development. Welcome Carrie. How are you.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Oh, I'm great, so happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Dan, happy that you're here. Tell us, first of all,
what exactly is Spring Talent Development. I'm sure it has
nothing to do with Mattress Springs. Tell us what Spring Talent.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Development is about or the season Spring? The Spring, as
you said, talent development agency that specializes in optimizing generational
diversity in the workplace and effectively bringing young careerss into
the workplace. That's what Spring does.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So therefore you have I assume some exposure, if not
an expertise into the work ethic generally of gen z
I do I do?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
I am an ever emerging experts in this generation.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It's okay, we're all ever emerging experts. I'm an ever
expert in a in a popery of issues. So you're saying,
I think the premise of this article out of Newsweek
is that there's a real difference here between gen xers
and boomers and even millennials, and that the gen Zers,
(31:36):
these kids, these people who are now entering as young
as entering their teens and as old as the being
they're between thirteen and twenty nine, is what we're talking about.
That they have a trend called micro retirement. What is
(31:58):
a micro retirement other than call it in sick every
other week?
Speaker 4 (32:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now that's not a micro retirement. So
a micro retirement is defined as a short term career break.
So short term meaning you know, anywhere from a month
probably all the way up to a year that someone
takes in order to replenish, to focus on personal or
(32:25):
even professional development or.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Okay, now look, here's the deal. Here's the deal. I
went to college in law school, you know, several many
years ago. Okay, but the big, the best gig that
full time tenured college professors and law professors have, they
go on what's called a sabbatical, right, you know that word, right,
a sabbatical. Of course, Professor Ray is on sabbatical. What
(32:49):
does that mean? We don't know, but he's somewhere, probably
in Miami, thinking great thoughts. So is a micro retirement
for gen Zu's so that they they're ripping off the
sabbatical scam.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Perhaps I think that that the you know what I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Is the my questions are not as serious as others.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
By the way, Y I get that, I get that,
you know what I don't know is the origin of
the word micro retirement. So putting those aside, I tend
to think that this is calling it a micro retirement
is a bit of a statement in itself. So even
though it parodies a sabbatical that you and I am
(33:33):
a gen xer that we would know, I think there's
a statement in here that that gen z is saying,
which is this, Listen, I am. I have watched on
the sidelines my parents and the adults around me churn
and burn. I don't want that, and as a result,
I'm going to take micro retirements throughout my life and
(33:55):
not just wait until the end of my career to retire.
So I think that your question is an interesting and
good one. It does mimic in concept a sabbatical, but
I think there's a statement being made around using the
word micro.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Well, first of all, we've heard about microaggression, so micro
this micro that, I get it. I get it. But
my question is the oldest group of this cohort of
gen Ziers is twenty nine, even those who have worked
for ten years. It seems to me that if you're
(34:36):
burning out at twenty nine and you got to take
a micro retirement, I don't think you long for the workforce,
at least in any company that wants people who are
committed to the company, because that seems to me that
sends a message to me, if I'm an employer, this
dude or this young person is probably not in it
for the long haul.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Well there's that view, Dan, there's let me. Let me
give you an alternative view.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We'll give you an anti yes.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Yes, So you know we're talking about micro retirements. We're
talking about people who engage in work that is knowledge creative,
they're solving problems, they are hired to do strategic work. Okay,
so we're talking about those folks who even can benefit
from a retire micro retirement. Now, that said, the thing
(35:29):
that we are relying on these folks for is to
solve problems and be strategic and operationalize those strategic plans.
So we need them to be creative. That's what that's
the number one thing we need them to be. And
so a break to replenish creativity, now, whether it is
(35:50):
a two week vacation or whether it's a micro retirement,
actually is showing early signs of being there's something there,
there's a they're there, and so you know burnout is
not the way. Burnout does not equal highly, highly performative,
highly productive companies, and so things like well being benefits
(36:12):
micro retirements. This is a generation that's pushing hard on
those things. The number one question this generation is asking
when they're entertaining a new job is what is your
well being in mental health program here? Because they're not
going to repeat the things that they've seen their parents
and the adults around them. So it's an alternative view,
like what could be the benefit of it?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
If I sound a little skeptical, If I skeptical, yeah,
since today, I started the first grade. I'm not going
to tell you the year, but it was in the
nineteen fifties. I have gone to school, high school, a
very arduous high school, Boston Latin School, college, some military time,
(36:57):
law school, and I have worked every time every day.
I've had my vacation times. Okay week here, a big
vacation is like two weeks. Good luck with that. Folks.
Worked thirty one years as a TV reporter, including getting
up at quarter three for eleven years when my kids
(37:19):
were young, and I've done this show for eighteen years.
I just I gotta be honest with you it's it
sounds to me, like I hate to put it like this,
it sounds like a scam. But yeah, let's see if
it works out for the gen Zers. I should probably
do an entire hour on this some night. Would you
(37:39):
come back and we could talk about this in greater
length and talk to listeners. That would be a lot
of fun.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Seriously, that would be fun.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
That would be fun.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you think about you know whatever,
We'll save it. We'll save it for the for the
full hour. But I'm going to get back to you
on this one. I really, I really appreciated your sincerity. Carrie,
Carrie Mesropop. How can folks get in touch with you
at spring Talent Development. I'm sure you got a website.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
I do. It's spring dash talent dot com.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Just spring dash talent dot com, easy pay. Thank you
very much, Thanks carry, we'll talk again. Thanks very much.
Good night. When we get back, we're going to get
to your points of view and we're gonna start talking
about the Red Sox and the trade deadline, which approaches
big day in the baseball season this Thursday. We're gonna
(38:34):
be talking with Dan Shaughnelsey and the Boston Wall
It's nice, Dan Ray, I'm telling you easy Boston's news radio.
Thank you very much, Madison. I promise you we will
try to have a great night here on Nightside. My
name is, as Madison indicated, Dan Ray, the host of
Nightside with Dan Radio, the appropriate an apptly named program.
Our fabulous producer Rob Brooks is back in the control
(00:22):
room and Rob reminds me that I want to remind
all of you of a really neat way for you
to be a part of our Nightside broadcast. You can
now utilize our talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
All you have to do is download the app and
have the free and again emphasize free, know and improved
iHeartRadio app on While listening to Nightside Live on WBZ
(00:46):
News Radio, you can tap the red microphone talkback button
in the top right corner to send us your personalized
audio message. It could be a criticism, it can be
a compliment, it can be a constructive criticism. Whatever you want,
and then we will play it back on Nightside. It's
that simple. We of course want you to call the
program when we open up the phone lines, but particularly
(01:09):
during the first hour of the something you like, let
us know. Once again, hit that red microphone button in
the top right corner of the app while listening to
Night Side, and you can send us your audio message.
We have a good lineup here during the eight o'clock hour,
no phone calls coming up. At eight, We're going to
talk with Dan Shaughnessy, great sports columnists for the Boston Globe.
(01:31):
We're going to talk about the Major League Baseball trade
deadline looming about a little less than now, seventy two
hours away four I think it's four o'clock on Thursday afternoon.
Will the Red Sox be buyers or sellers? That is
the inevitable question every July thirty for us, it seems.
And we'll talk with Dan Shaughnessy, just back from the
(01:52):
Hall of Fame induction ceremony yesterday. And then, on a
more serious note, although if you're a baseball fan, that's
pretty serious stuff too. Deadline, we're going to talk about
the family lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of
the family of Lynz Joseph, the five year old boy
from Hyde Park who was killed run over by the
school bus his own school bus three months ago. Tonight,
(02:15):
we'll be talking with his attorney Matt Folgelman at ten o'clock.
But let us start off and we're going to introduce
you to the concept of travel math. No, this is
not like Chicago Math or some of the new math
formulae that various school systems have tried to adopt with us.
As Sally French, she's a travel expert at nerd Wallet. Sally,
(02:40):
I don't know how they named it nerd wallet, but
it's you might want to consider a different name. How
are you tonight? How you think?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What should we call it?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I smart wallet?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Maybe smart wallet?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There you go. Well, here at nerd wallet, we get
nice and nerdy, and I like to think we are
pretty smart. We don't actually fall for travel map. Travel
map is equip on girl map, And it's that temptation
to justify some spending we might do when we're traveling,
because we want to justify something that maybe we shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I get it. I get it so well. First
of all, if you go on a vacation somewhere, it's
quite different than a staycation because if you're on a
staycation and you're hanging around your own community, which I
think is the best way to vacation in my opinion, Uh,
you get to go to restaurants. Maybe you haven't tried,
but you're not going to spend exorbitant months of money.
(03:37):
The problem is, let's say you take that trip fill
in the blank, whether you're going to Florida, California, Mexico, Canada,
or wherever. If you want to have a drink with
dinner at home, you can make it yourself on the road.
Dependent upon what it's going to it could cost you ten,
fifteen to twenty bucks, and you have a few of
(03:58):
those over the course of vacation. At money starts to
add up is that the sort of thing we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Was even further, it's often when people will try to
justify spending money and pretend like they're not even seeing
that money. It's things like saying this luxury hotel was
free because I booked it on points, or I got
into this lounge for free because of my credit card.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
But the reality is you.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Worked for those points in some capacity and you might
be able to use those points for something else, So
that something else could even be the hotels we have
to pay for to go to that wedding or that
child's sports game. You don't necessarily need to go to
that luxury hotel, but a lot of people say, you
know what, I'm going to treat myself to this one
(04:47):
because I have my points. Same with those airport lounges.
Many credit cards these days get you into airport lounges,
which seem really nice. But many of these credit cards
have annual fees. A lot of people sort of can
fee forget what the alternative could be that they could
do with the annual fee on that credit card, with
those points, things like that, when people are on vacation,
(05:08):
they just sort of forget about doing the actual map
and really dialing into those finances.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I have never had a credit card with an annual
fee in my entire life.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Wow, well you know, I will say, yeah, I mean
having a credit card with no annual fee definitely works
for many people, and many people prefer to have a
credit card with no annual fee, and that is definitely
a great strategy. That said, there are many great travel
credit cards that have annual fees that you can really
really go a long way to not girl map, not
(05:42):
travel map, but to really maximize them. Many airline credit
cards will offer free checked bags as a benefit for
holding the card, and you think about many of these
airline credit cards have annual fees around one hundred dollars.
But you know, you go on one flight and then
checked bag is like fifty dollar if you're freaking.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Fire, if you're freaking yeah, okay, what about this. You
go somewhere on vacation, You go to the Caribbean hypothetically okay,
and all of a sudden, in the hotel lobby you
walk down and say, hey, would you like to take
a helicopter ride over a volcano? Uh? You get induced
(06:22):
to spend a lot of money. It's only three hundred
and fifty dollars per person, and you'll never have that
opportunity to fly over the volcano at Montserrat. Again, there
actually is a volcano at Montserrat, believe it or not.
But you get tempted. It's like, well, I'll never be
(06:43):
here again. I'll never have a chance. Or how about skydiving.
I mean, you get these things which you would never
do in your right mind, but you're on vacation and
it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And definitely, you know, for some some cases it makes
sense to do that skydiving, do that volcano tour. Maybe
it is a once in a lifetime trip. What nerd
will it encourages is really doing that research in advance.
Often if you're in the hotel lobby, that is not
the best price. Often if you do that early research,
you can shop around and really understand what you're getting.
(07:21):
And for some people that volcano tour might definitely be
worth it. But the nerd wallet way is just to
have a full understanding of what the experience is going
to be like and are you really booking the best
one or can you find one for less.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Sounds great, So you've got to do a research. Okay,
So now I'm assuming that nerd wallet, which I'd like
to call smart wallet because that's really what you want.
But nerd wallet has a website.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Well, we do have these smart travel podcasts, so it's
not called nerd travel, it is called smart Travel. So
we get a little smart selling.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Telly, this is your chance. I like you give that
a plug. How do they find smart Travel podcast and
we'll also plug nerd wallet.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, thank you. So you can find us at nerd
walic dot com or smart Travel podcast pretty much wherever
you listen to podcasts. Spotify, our Heart Radio, Apple podcasts.
Just go in the search for smart travel, not NERD travel,
smart travel. Okay, you can find it there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Here's my final question. Okay, in your opinion, and because
you're our expert, we have to accept your opinion. How
far in advance should a smart traveler plan their vacation?
I mean the idea of trying to get that last
minute deal on a Friday afternoon to fly out Friday
night at nine o'clock. That's probably saved you some money,
(08:40):
But normally, how when should you start to plan your
annual vacation or your semiannual vacation.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That is a yes.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So many people think, oh, I can just wait and
I'll find a last minute deal because the deals aren't
good right now, and they'll get better as they come
and take you. With airfare, there is no such thing,
or very little such thing as a last minute deal.
With domestic flights. The best time to book your airfare
is one to three months in advance. If you go
into early, airlines actually a price higher because they want
(09:15):
to see who really is willing to pay for this.
They tend to bring down their fares one to three
months out in most cases, and then it's very unlikely
you'll find a last minute deal with international fights. The
window is two to eight months in advance.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Great great advice, Sally French, Thank you very much. You're
a great sport NERD wallet is fine. You don't have
to change it as smart wallet.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I'm high enough on the tone pool to change it
to smart wallet anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You're a smart travel expert and we appreciate your time.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Sally Thang, you have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You bet you. When we come back, we're going to
talk about a new rage. I know you won't believe
this because I didn't believe it. There is There are
social media platforms and viral trends on t talk that
have convinced people that they should tape their mouths shut
for better sleep, to encourage nose breathing. Is that safe?
(10:11):
I think you know the answer. We're going to talk
with a quadruple board certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonology,
critical care, and sleep medicine. Doctor Raj Does Gupta joins
us right after the break.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
It's Nice Eye with Dan Ray on.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I'm told there is a viral trend on TikTok and
other social media platforms. Viral trend that has people taping
their mouths shut for better sleep. Well, I guess if
you're a partner, your bed partner talks in their sleep. No,
I'm only kidding to encourage nose breathing. With us now
(10:53):
to talk about this peculiar activity is doctor Raj does Gupta.
He's quite a quadruple board certified physicians specializing in internal medicine,
pull moonology, critical care, and sleep medicine. Doctor dos Gupta. Welcome, sir.
How are you at this?
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Thanks?
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
I'm doing good. I just finished a long day of
work and I'm fired up to talk to you on
the radio.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Well, thank you very much. I love when people are
fired up. I am just starting a long nights of work,
but it's only about four hours, so it'll be over
before I know it. It says here that you have
info on the pros and cons of mouth taping for sleeping.
This doesn't sound like a good idea to me, But
tell you know, tell me where I'm wrong.
Speaker 6 (11:37):
Oh, Dan, we are on the same page. It does
not sound like a good idea, but I don't want
to be biased. You know, I'm not that kind of person.
I want to be a fair balanced person. So I
do like breathing through the nose. You know, that's the
way we were made. We're all about nasal breathing. And
you're going to ask me why do I want to
breathe through my nose? Well, Number one, it humidifies the air.
(11:57):
You know, our lungs. I'm a lung doctor. We don't
like the air to be all cold. It kind of
flares up your asthma, your lunger angry at you. So
by breathing to the nose, that unifies the air. Number two,
we have something called ccilia. See there are tiny all
hairs in your nose. That's filter the air. And of
course let's go back to my asthmatics, they want the
(12:18):
air to be filtered before going those lungs itself. The
third thing is now take this with a grain of salt.
It may help out with your blood pressure. People will
say why is because it may increase a protein called
nitric oxide That may help out with blood pressures. But
I don't know about that. But the last thing I
want to say is, you know, when you think about
in through the nose, out through the mouth. It kind
(12:41):
of helps out with anxiety. If you're doing a little meditation,
they definitely want to relax going into sleep, So doing
some nasal breathing might actually help you relax a little bit.
But those are the pros of breathing through the nose.
I'm not telling you to tape your mouth. That's just
the pros of breathing through the nose.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Okay. Is there any reason rash or irrational that people
would take their mouths at night?
Speaker 6 (13:05):
So you know, on the pretend you're my medical student.
I always tell my medical student asked the question why
why are you doing it? And I like your joke.
Is it because your bed partners talking tonight? Are they
snoring or keeping their mouth shut? Or are you doing
it to try to get better sleep? Then you should
get to the root cause, because taping your mouth doesn't
help out with insomnia, doesn't help out with restless legs.
(13:26):
And one of the most common diseases that I worry
about is obstructive sleep app yet that can that can
present with snoring. So you better make damn sure the
patient doesn't have obstructed sleep happening before you tape their
mouth shut. And the worst case scenario, Dan, let me
just throw this out there once if the patient has
a deviated septum in their nose, once that they have
(13:48):
things called nasal polyps, then you tape your mouth shut.
You're not getting any airflow going in. That sounds such
a stupid idea.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
How did this become pop? I mean, like anything else,
let viral on TikTok or one of the one of
the web pages.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Well, you know, I'm gonna start talking like my daughter.
There's always new hip words they use. I think the
word is called hacks, and you know you go to it,
like you said, as TikTok. You always have these new trends.
And let's be honest, Dan, sleep is a super popular topic.
Everyone wants to know what's the easiest way to get
good sleep. And I'll tell you a spoiler alert. There
is no easy way and a lot of people are
(14:29):
doing it. It is popular. And I'm not gonna say
bad things because there are so many testimonials. And I
know some of these people you take your mouth shut,
they feel great, and God bless them that they do.
But you know, I got to wear my dorky medicine hat.
There's not really any significant research with a lot of
people randomized and blinded, all those dorky medical words. They
(14:50):
really support this, you know what I mean. So it
may not be something I'm doing, but I always want
to say if you are doing it, I think it's
important to tell your doctor, to tell your sleep dog doctor,
because you know, I do worry about obstructive sleep apnea.
Forty million people have that in the United States. It's
often undiagnosed and misdiagnosed. And nowadays, let me make a plug,
we could diagnose obstructive sleepapy at home. You don't have
(15:13):
to go to a sleep center. So please just be honest.
Tell your doctors what you're doing. We may actually change
what you're doing or make better recommendations.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Since we're talking about sleep, I know a little bit,
not nearly as much as you. But is there a
difference between people who sleep on their back, sleep on
their stomach, or sleep on their side? And is any
of those four positions? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (15:37):
I love that question, And you know what, this is
going to be an alternative to taping your mouth if
you're snoring. One thing could be positional. So let me
answer your question. So, who should not sleep on their back?
Is because if you're allowed to snore, you kind of
want to elevate the head of the bed or sleep
on the side because of gravity effect. That tongue is
just going to block the mouth itself.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You know.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Sleeping on your stomach, we call that the prone position.
That sounds like a bad idea. It's going to hurt
your low back, hurt your neck. I don't even know
how he's going to breathe. Sleeping on your stomach, then
on your side, well, you know, in theory, there is
something called heartburn. Dorky medical word is gastroesophageal reflux disease. Supposedly,
people on your left side down. That may help out
(16:21):
a lot because of the way the anatomy is going
to be. But of course you want to treat the
underlying cause, you want to do the diet modifications. You
want to make the right diagnosis. So back to the
mouthap You can bring it back all together. Is that
if you don't feel like you want to tape your mouth,
but you snore, and you know what's not obsessive to
sleep APNA, you may be able to do these naval
strips over the nose. You could do positional therapy like
(16:43):
you were talking about lifting the head of the bed up,
don't sleeping on your back. So there's other alternatives out there.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know. There are days and particularly if on a weekend,
I want to take a couple of hour nap at
the end of a long week, I find it in
that afternoon and it tends to I can't take a
nap during the day, but I find that that is
my best sleep. How weird is that?
Speaker 6 (17:08):
That is funky? You know, I'm not a nap hater.
I always say to everyone if you speak deprived, which
is pretty much all of the country, that if you
do a well time, you do all a well time
nap that's around you know, I say, it's the power nap,
like around that lunchtime for around fifteen to twenty minutes. Hey,
(17:28):
there's no harm in that. And no, I know a
lot of people that could use a good power nap.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Oh. I'm a huge believer in power naps. Trust me.
I mean I can go. I can knock myself out
literally in a chair for fifteen minutes and I will
wake up. You can put a clock on me. I'm
talking about that two hour nap on a Saturday, rainy
Saturday afternoon, you leave the window open, you get the
rain kind of the hearing. You hear the rain and
you wake up and it's like, wow, I just had
(17:54):
eight hours worth of sleep. I love this interview. You
are like high energy, You've already had a hard day,
and you sound like you are ready to go. Doctor
Raj Does Gupta. I gotta have you back. You're one
of my best guests so far.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
I'm telling you, sure, Dan, anytime. I think you're a
cool dude too, and please invite me back. I'll be
happy to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Sounds great. We will make that happen. Maybe we'll do
an hour on sleep and let people call in with
callers and ask questions.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Totally, totally man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Sounds great, Doctor Raj Does Groupta. Thank you so much,
Doctor dosk Group. I really enjoyed this conversation. You're a
great sport. Thank you much.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Good night. All right. When we come back, we're going
to talk about a program in Charlestown, Massachusetts that the
Boston Police Department is running which gets seniors out walking
and beat Well, we'll see. We'll see right after the
news at the bottom of the era, my name is
Dan Ray, and don't forget the opportunity to leave us
(18:57):
a little bit of a voicemail thirty second voicemail on
the iHeartRadio talkback feature program, which I've explained several times,
and I'll come and I'll continue to explain until all
of you are comfortable with it. Back on Nightside.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Or right, welcome back everyone. We are going to go
to Charlestown, Massachusetts. Everybody knows where Charlestown is, and there's
a new program where senior women. I don't want to
ask how old the senior women are because that would
be inappropriate, but senior women, and we're not talking about
high school seniors here are walking the beat with the
(19:40):
Boston Police Department. Joining us are two folks who are
involved in this beat walker Mary Rizzo and Chrissy Vrabel,
who's a Community Service officer for the Boston Police Department.
Let me start with Chrissy Vrabel. Christy, are you a
police officer or explain to us what a commune Unity
Service officer is? That is that a type of police officer.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
It's a civilian in the community service office who work.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But you work for the Boston Police Department. I do.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I work for Boston Police in the capacity of a
community service office civilian role.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Okay. And does are there a lot of community service
officers involved in this activity? Are we focused just I
know we're focused tonight on Charlestown. Is this being done
in other communities as well?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
So the goal is to have it in every community,
but every community is different in Boston. So I would
have you, if anyone's interested in any programs through Boston Police,
to go on BPD News slash districts and they could
find out the different programs that Boston Police Office four
(20:55):
senior years or youth.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Okay, so, but we're focusing here on senior women as
I understand it. Yes, okay, So give us a quick
idea about what the idea of the program is. Then
I want to talk with Mary Rizzo, the beat walker.
The idea of the program is to establish a police presence,
a sort of a patrol presence in Charlestown or in
(21:21):
whatever community we might be talking about.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
So it started roughly five years ago when myself and
along with a few other officers, wanted to get back
into the community right after COVID in a safe way,
and we come up with the idea of walking the
beat with seniors because at that time, you know, a
(21:47):
lot of seniors were left alone. They were in their homes,
families weren't visiting them, and we wanted to get them
out into the community. And the idea was, what better
safe way is to go for a walk. They can exercise,
we can have a conversation. And the thoughts were going
(22:07):
forward was to get them to be part of the
community and be part of other people their age, so
that when the police weren't around, that they could build
their relationship. You know, Hey, I just put a banana
bread in. Would you like to come over and have
a piece, you know, bring the relationships back throughout the community.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And are you in uniform or would when you and
me we walk down the street, do you have a
uniform which distinguishes you or are you dressed in civilian
clothes as Mary would.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
I'm dressed in civilian clothed. Okay, So, but there are
one officers that do walk to beat with us, the
officers from district to A one. We have a seenior
response officer that walks.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh, so there's three of you Okay, so now I'm
getting the pictures.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
There's a few officers.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
No, no, no, but I'm saying you're not You're not
like going around in a group of people. It's you
a senior woman in an in an officer in uniform.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
There's several seniors. We have fifty two senior ladies that
walk the beat every Wednesday, and then we have officers,
police officers, swan police officers that also walk, which again.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I'm getting stuck in the details here, but how big,
for example, would be the group that you might be
walking with. I assume you're not walking tonight, or if
you are, how big is the group or how big
is the group when you walk on Wednesday night.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
So we walk every Wednesday morning at ten am, weather permitting,
and we do not walk in July and August. We
resume back in September, and then we break again just
before Christmas and resume again in March.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, the better way. So when you're walking, and again, Christy,
I want to ask that question again. Normally is it
like five or six or ten or twelve or fifteen people?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
No?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Oh no, we are on a small walk. We probably
have twenty five ladies in three or four police officers
and myself.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Oh good Gray, Well, let me talk with Mary Rizzo. Mary,
you're a beat walker. How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I'm doing wonderful.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
How are you great?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Now? Okay, I'm not going to ask the age of
the women who are walking, but when they say senior women,
I like to say that I'm on the wrong side
of fifty and some people will say on the wrong
side of sixty. Is there sort of an age group
here that's being focused on and how would you describe
it that age group?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It's a variety of age cool, anywhere from fifty five.
We even have a couple that are nineties and they
walk with us.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Well, if you're a ninety, you're definitely a senior woman,
and there's no doubt about that, no doubt. So the
youngest the youngest is around fifty five or so, is
what you're telling us?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, in and around that area, maybe a little bit older.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, And how long have you been doing this? Mary?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Five years since the statured.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So you're a veteran beat walker.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I'm trying to be Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well I think you are after five years, since you've
been with it since the beginning. What's the best part
of the program for you, what do you what do
you take? What is the best do you take out
of it?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The best thing about the soap program is I've lived
here my whole life. I was born and brought up here.
You're a towny, the women, I sure am right, and
I'm very proud one.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I have a lot of friends of mine in Childstown
who were very proud townies. That's why I used the
phrase that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, we have a lot of proud townties that walk
to beat. And the thing about it is that sometimes
you know them because you've seen them on the street,
but it's just like a hello, how are you? But
now it's like we're all gathering together and we're getting
a real good relationship going. And the police officers at
walk with us make us so comfortable, and they feel
(26:15):
make us feel so safe, and it's just a variety
of things, and it's just a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for
all of us to be evolved in.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
So they've been doing it in Charlestown now for about
five years. You were one of the first ones. I
think you told me you must have friends around the city.
Have you introduced the idea to some other senior women
from around.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
The city, from around the city, or a found Charleston
the city.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I didn't know if you might have some a friend
in Hyde Park or East Boston or South End and
you might have suggested it to them.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Well, I have talked to a few women from South Boston.
As a matter of fact, we went over there one
time and we collaborated with him playing archery, which was
quite interesting. Yeah, that's a bunch of women with the
bow and arrow.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah right, yeah, what could what could go What could
possibly go wrong with that? Mary?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Not a thing?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Well, that's good to know everyone survived that, that is
for sure. Well Mary, you you you sound like you
got a lot of spunk. Best of luck. It's good
to know that you're out there getting your exercise in
every Wednesday morning and and getting to know your naghbors.
That's that's that's a great part, a great asset.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well, thanks very much for joining us, and Chrissy. I
wish you the best of luck and I hope you
can get this started. Is it underway in any other
parts of the city or is it or is Charlestown
still the one and only location?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
They do have. We have a location in the North End.
We also have one in Doorchest.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
In South Boston.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I think everyone started to jump on board. But to
learn more about Walk the Beat and other programs in
your Boston neighborhood, you should go on bpdnews dot com
backslash districts and if you're interested in starting a program
you want you have a few ladies a gentleman that
(28:20):
want to go for a walk.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Oh so the guys can get involved in this too,
is what you say that they have to be seeing guys.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
No, we have senior guys in the North End. We
do not have any child down. For some reason, the
men don't want to walk.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I'm not going to touch that. With football.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
We can get any.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Men in Childtown, but we have plenty in the North End.
We also have this program in the North End and
we walk on Tuesdays in the.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
North But they have to be senior men.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You have to be you have to be fifty five.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Plus to gotcha. Okay, great, Chrissy, Thanks very much much
for the info and best of luck. Mary sounds like
she's quite a conversationalist and I'm sure you have a ball.
Thank you very much for joining us. Best of luck
with that program. Thank you, good night, Thank you when
we get back. When we talk about a different age bracket,
gen Z and their work ethic or lack thereof, they
(29:19):
definitely differ from jen X and the boomers, possibly even
the millennials. We'll keep it straight. Gen Z is embracing
a trend called micro retirement. That will give you some
ideas what we're going to talk about on the other
side of the break with the founder of Spring Talent Development,
Kerrie Mesropov. Mesropov, I'm hoping I'm going to pronounce that
(29:41):
correctly when I talk with her. We'll be back on
Nightside right after this. You're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio. All right, Just as
a reminder, gen Z were people who were born from
nineteen ninety six to two thousand and twelve, So therefore,
(30:01):
do the math they are in there, they would be
as young potentially as a teenager thirteen or so, or
as old as someone in their late twenty So we're
talking about the twenty somethings and the teens. With us
to talk about their work ethic is Carrie Mesropov. She's
(30:22):
the founder of Spring Talent Development. Welcome Carrie. How are you.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Oh, I'm great, so happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Dan, happy that you're here. Tell us, first of all,
what exactly is Spring Talent Development. I'm sure it has
nothing to do with Mattress Springs. Tell us what Spring Talent.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Development is about or the season Spring? The Spring, as
you said, talent development agency that specializes in optimizing generational
diversity in the workplace and effectively bringing young careerss into
the workplace. That's what Spring does.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So therefore you have I assume some exposure, if not
an expertise into the work ethic generally of gen z
I do I do?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
I am an ever emerging experts in this generation.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It's okay, we're all ever emerging experts. I'm an ever
expert in a in a popery of issues. So you're saying,
I think the premise of this article out of Newsweek
is that there's a real difference here between gen xers
and boomers and even millennials, and that the gen Zers,
(31:36):
these kids, these people who are now entering as young
as entering their teens and as old as the being
they're between thirteen and twenty nine, is what we're talking about.
That they have a trend called micro retirement. What is
(31:58):
a micro retirement other than call it in sick every
other week?
Speaker 4 (32:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now that's not a micro retirement. So
a micro retirement is defined as a short term career break.
So short term meaning you know, anywhere from a month
probably all the way up to a year that someone
takes in order to replenish, to focus on personal or
(32:25):
even professional development or.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Okay, now look, here's the deal. Here's the deal. I
went to college in law school, you know, several many
years ago. Okay, but the big, the best gig that
full time tenured college professors and law professors have, they
go on what's called a sabbatical, right, you know that word, right,
a sabbatical. Of course, Professor Ray is on sabbatical. What
(32:49):
does that mean? We don't know, but he's somewhere, probably
in Miami, thinking great thoughts. So is a micro retirement
for gen Zu's so that they they're ripping off the
sabbatical scam.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Perhaps I think that that the you know what I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Is the my questions are not as serious as others.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
By the way, Y I get that, I get that,
you know what I don't know is the origin of
the word micro retirement. So putting those aside, I tend
to think that this is calling it a micro retirement
is a bit of a statement in itself. So even
though it parodies a sabbatical that you and I am
(33:33):
a gen xer that we would know, I think there's
a statement in here that that gen z is saying,
which is this, Listen, I am. I have watched on
the sidelines my parents and the adults around me churn
and burn. I don't want that, and as a result,
I'm going to take micro retirements throughout my life and
(33:55):
not just wait until the end of my career to retire.
So I think that your question is an interesting and
good one. It does mimic in concept a sabbatical, but
I think there's a statement being made around using the
word micro.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Well, first of all, we've heard about microaggression, so micro
this micro that, I get it. I get it. But
my question is the oldest group of this cohort of
gen Ziers is twenty nine, even those who have worked
for ten years. It seems to me that if you're
(34:36):
burning out at twenty nine and you got to take
a micro retirement, I don't think you long for the workforce,
at least in any company that wants people who are
committed to the company, because that seems to me that
sends a message to me, if I'm an employer, this
dude or this young person is probably not in it
for the long haul.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Well there's that view, Dan, there's let me. Let me
give you an alternative view.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We'll give you an anti yes.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Yes, So you know we're talking about micro retirements. We're
talking about people who engage in work that is knowledge creative,
they're solving problems, they are hired to do strategic work. Okay,
so we're talking about those folks who even can benefit
from a retire micro retirement. Now, that said, the thing
(35:29):
that we are relying on these folks for is to
solve problems and be strategic and operationalize those strategic plans.
So we need them to be creative. That's what that's
the number one thing we need them to be. And
so a break to replenish creativity, now, whether it is
(35:50):
a two week vacation or whether it's a micro retirement,
actually is showing early signs of being there's something there,
there's a they're there, and so you know burnout is
not the way. Burnout does not equal highly, highly performative,
highly productive companies, and so things like well being benefits
(36:12):
micro retirements. This is a generation that's pushing hard on
those things. The number one question this generation is asking
when they're entertaining a new job is what is your
well being in mental health program here? Because they're not
going to repeat the things that they've seen their parents
and the adults around them. So it's an alternative view,
like what could be the benefit of it?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
If I sound a little skeptical, If I skeptical, yeah,
since today, I started the first grade. I'm not going
to tell you the year, but it was in the
nineteen fifties. I have gone to school, high school, a
very arduous high school, Boston Latin School, college, some military time,
(36:57):
law school, and I have worked every time every day.
I've had my vacation times. Okay week here, a big
vacation is like two weeks. Good luck with that. Folks.
Worked thirty one years as a TV reporter, including getting
up at quarter three for eleven years when my kids
(37:19):
were young, and I've done this show for eighteen years.
I just I gotta be honest with you it's it
sounds to me, like I hate to put it like this,
it sounds like a scam. But yeah, let's see if
it works out for the gen Zers. I should probably
do an entire hour on this some night. Would you
(37:39):
come back and we could talk about this in greater
length and talk to listeners. That would be a lot
of fun.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Seriously, that would be fun.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
That would be fun.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you think about you know whatever,
We'll save it. We'll save it for the for the
full hour. But I'm going to get back to you
on this one. I really, I really appreciated your sincerity. Carrie,
Carrie Mesropop. How can folks get in touch with you
at spring Talent Development. I'm sure you got a website.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
I do. It's spring dash talent dot com.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Just spring dash talent dot com, easy pay. Thank you
very much, Thanks carry, we'll talk again. Thanks very much.
Good night. When we get back, we're going to get
to your points of view and we're gonna start talking
about the Red Sox and the trade deadline, which approaches
big day in the baseball season this Thursday. We're gonna
(38:34):
be talking with Dan Shaughnelsey and the Boston Wall
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