February 7, 2025 • 39 mins
Boston’s Rise as an esports (competitive video-gaming) Hub – City Hosts Major Event at MGM Music Hall in February. With Robbie Douek – CEO of Blast.
Penguin Plunge weekend is happening this weekend, February 8th and 9th at Hampton Beach – Benefitting Special Olympics NH. Mark Ericson – Multimedia manager for Special Olympics NH has the details.
Fix Your Marriage Without Counseling: A Practical Method Men Will Appreciate, with Ziba Graham - a licensed clinical social worker & author.
Former Wife of Apollo 14 Astronaut Recounts Remarkable Stories in Riveting New Memoir: You Don’t Look Like an Astronaut’s Wife with Anita Mitchell – Author & owner/president of the Mitchell Group
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Penguin Plunge weekend is happening this weekend, February 8th and 9th at Hampton Beach – Benefitting Special Olympics NH. Mark Ericson – Multimedia manager for Special Olympics NH has the details.
Fix Your Marriage Without Counseling: A Practical Method Men Will Appreciate, with Ziba Graham - a licensed clinical social worker & author.
Former Wife of Apollo 14 Astronaut Recounts Remarkable Stories in Riveting New Memoir: You Don’t Look Like an Astronaut’s Wife with Anita Mitchell – Author & owner/president of the Mitchell Group
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey Nicole, as far as I'm concerned, the weekend has
already started. It's Friday night. It's as simple as that.
I happen to be working. You happen to be working.
So it's really not our weekend, but the weekend is underway.
My name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside. Rob Brooks
he's working too. He is the producer back in the
control room at Broadcast Central, the big socket for WBZ Radio.
(00:30):
You're listening to WBZ Radio and ten thirty Am in Boston.
My name is Dan Ray, and we have four very
special guests on this hour. Later on tonight, we're going
to talk about the big snowstorm heading this way tomorrow.
This one looks like maybe the first real deal we've
had in several years here in the New England area.
Then we're going to talk about streamflation. Now every price
(00:50):
of everything's going up, regular TV, cable TV, and now
they get you with all these the streaming services. And
we'll have our Super Bowl predictions and there'll be a
prize involved for the person who comes closest to predicting
the accurate winners and the closest to the final score.
But we're gonna begin with four interesting guests, and first
(01:12):
we're going across the pond to truck with Robbie Dueck.
He's the CEO of a company called blast b Last
like blast Off, and he is with an e sports
program that's competitive video gaming. I'm not sure that I
know too much about it, but I think I'm gonna
learn about a lot because they're going to be hosting
(01:33):
a major event at the MGM Music Hall later this month.
Robbie Dueck, welcome from You're over in England right now? Correct?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, absolutely, dain nice to be here on the show.
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You're very welcome. Where about Are you in London or
are you out in the countryside?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
No, no, no, London, London, London. I don't think it's
as cold as it sounds like it's over there. It's
pretty it sounds pretty bleak.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well No, no, we love son here in New England.
We're hardy New England, so that's no problem. A mere
five to eight inches they're talking about we're going to
talk about like people will freak out, will there'll be
no bread and milk in the stores. Tomorrow. That's the
first thing. Everybody gets, bread, milk and eggs. You can
always be making French toast during a snowstorm, simple as that.
(02:16):
It's a tradition here in New England. So what is
competitive video gaming and you're hosting this major event at
the MGM Music Hall in February. I don't know a
lot about competitive gaming. What are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, so this is like the combination of the best
teams in the world playing competitive games. So competitive e
sports is competitive teams who aren't sort of built out
to play a specific game and compete against each other
in front of a live audience, streams around the world,
in front of millions of people. And that's what's going
to be hosted in Boston in the next week at
(02:54):
the MGM, and it's going to be a spectacle that
you've never seen before. Probably playing to.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You that, So let me ask you this. I can
remember when they had big time chess matches and there
was an American going against a Russian or something like
that back in the days, and they would be streamed.
It wasn't streamed, it was just on TV and people
would watch. And that's not the same thing as we're
(03:21):
talking about you're talking about people like consoles, and what
are the games they compete with. We're not talking about
basketball or hockey games. We're talking about probably some of
the war games, I assume, right.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, so these are like what they call first person shooters,
and then they're like they're like competitive games where they're
actually strategy games.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So this is a game where you've got a certain
amount of people playing against each other in what they
call a map. So that's like an environment where they're
playing to win a given round against each other to
then ultimately win the set like in tennis if you want, right,
And they're competing in a really tactical way with like
ammunition to try and find out where they are on
the map and ultimately win the round, right, And it
(04:00):
takes a lot of practice and skill.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, And these competitive gamers are they mostly young people?
Are they old people like me who have taken up
the sport in their retirement even though I'm not retired.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Now. They tend to be they tend to skew a
lot younger. And actually the average gamement who's a competitive
gament probably by the age of twenty seven or twenty eight,
he's he or she's in their retirement, right, And the
reason for that is because the hands ye coordination is
just way better when you're younger, and therefore, by the
time you're twenty seven twenty eight, you're not quite at
(04:35):
your peak because as you were when you say eighteen
to twenty one, Now.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
That's when everything starts falling apart, is what you're telling me.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I don't know. I'm way past that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So I'm with you in this, okay. So now in Boston,
this is a live event with a live audience, and
you're selling tickets to this event.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Correct, correct, So down down on the MNGN beautiful venue,
thousands of people have bought to I think we're sold out,
but I think there might be a few still to get.
But ultimately the app you know, the noise is large, right,
because people are very excited about this.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So who's your audience. Who's your audience?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
These are going to be, you know, demographic of eighteen
to thirty five male female love the game. They're really
into this particular game. They're following it or they're particularly
following a team. Right. What we shouldn't forget is there
is actually a local team from New England. Oxygen Esports
their calls right. They've made it all the way through
(05:34):
to the final stages of this event, which is unheard
of for them. And there are I think four or
five North American teams that have got this far, right,
but the locals are clearly going to be cheering on Oxygen.
But they're there mostly because they love the game, they
love the spectacle.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So all in all, how many teams are? You know,
this has got to be a competition that builds from
I guess Friday, Saturday, Sunday Valentine's Day, the fifteenth, which
is Saturday in the sixteenth, which is Sunday, how many
teams start? It's sort of like the NBA Playoffs of
the NHL playoffs. You start with maybe sixteen teams, and
(06:10):
of course it takes three months to the playoffs. Now
the NBA and the NHL, until you get to the
championship series. You guys are going to do this in
three days.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Right, correct? But what we shouldn't forget there are sixteen
teams that have got this far. But what we shouldn't
forget is actually one hundreds and hundreds of teams have
been through the process of qualifying to get here, right,
regional corner tournaments from around the world, in all four
corners of the clos Right, It's actually taken all year
to reach this pinnacle moment that will come to a
(06:41):
head in Boston next weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
As you say, what's the grand prize? I know that
there's some serious prize money.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Hey, there's three million bucks on the line, but the
winners take a million dollars time with them, which is
a serious amount of cash.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, so a million dollars are split between your team members,
I assume.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Correct, you know, four or five members of the team.
They're going to take that home and they're going to
be had a bad.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's not if you win it. It's certainly not a
bad weekend's work, that's for sure. There's no question about that. Uh,
do you know offhand with this Oxygen team is from
this New England team? Are they like spread across the
landscape or are they from one community that we can identify?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, so this is a group of people that actually
are the mix of players from There are actually two
Brazilian players in this team, and then there are three
American players in the team. And you know, so I
think there's actually a strong cohort of Brazilians who are
living in Boston and South understand, and they're going to
come out and force to support these two Brazilian players
in the team. This happens to be a game where
(07:44):
the Brazilian audiences have a very strong propensity to play it.
And then the other three players, and one of them
in particular is a local from the region, so I
think everyone's going to be cheering for that individual and
that's probably in a serving crowd for that.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
All right, Well, Bobby, I appreciate the information. Do you
want to give us a website where people can get
more information on this event, either to go and attend
or to follow it and learn more about it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, they need to just go on to Rainbow six,
which is the game, and they'll be able to ord
Uve yourseft and they'll be able to get a whole
bunch more informational ticket mister, if they want to get
a ticket at the last minute, or come down to
the MGM and they'll just have a great time. So thanks
for time, Dan, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You're welcome, And I know it's quite late, probably you're
probably after one I am, So it's Saturday, morning over
there already.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, it's all good. It's the end of the week
and we'll have the beginning of the weekend now. But
I've enjoyed speaking to you, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I hope by time I assume you'll be here
next weekend, I hopefully the snow will be plowed away
and we'll have temperatures in the mid sixties or seventies
for you, Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
That would be great. It will make the loading of
the venue easier and the load out easier as well,
So I'm looking forward to that for the operational reason.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Robbie Duick, CEO of BLAST, appreciate your time tonight. We
learned a lot from you and we'll follow on. Thank
you much, thank you when we get back. And to
talk about Special Olympics. New Hampshire, they have a big
event this weekend. It's called the Penguin Plunge. It's the
Penguin Plunge weekend that we're eighth and ninth at Hampton Beach,
(09:20):
benefits benefiting Special Olympics. I suspect if you'd like to
take a little swim, we have an opportunity for you
if you stick with us. My name's Dan Ray. This
is night Side on a Friday night, February seventh. We
will be here all the way, virtually all the way
till midnight. Hope you'll stick with us. We have some
interesting conversations you can participate. We have some more interesting
(09:42):
interviews coming up, not only going to talk about special
Olympics New Hampshire, but we'll also give you a way
to fix your marriage without counseling, a practical method we're
told men will appreciate. We'll see about that, and then
we're going to talk with the former wife of Apollo
fourteen astronaut Edgar Mitchell. She has written a book which
(10:04):
is called You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife. But
she is remarkable stories in Riveting in her riveting new
memoir You Don't Look like an Astronaut's Wife. He, by
the way, is the sixth person to walk on the
face of the moon. He is he passed a few
years ago, but his wife will be here with us
later on during this hour back on Nightside. Right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Put to welcome back Mark Erickson. He's the multi media
manager for Special Olympics New Hampshire which has a very
active Special Olympics group, and I guess this weekend the
Penguin Plunge takes center stage in the Granite State mark
ericson Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
How are you sir, goody evening, Happy Friday night, Dan.
Thank you for having a phone.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yep. I think you've been with us a couple of
times before, and so again you do great work up there.
Tell us about the Penguin Plunge. It looks to me
it's February eighth and ninth, which of course would be
tomorrow and Sunday. Don't tell me. People have to stay
in the water for two days.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
No, no, no, no. And it's kind of an interesting
story on that one. About seventeen years ago we stage
everything in the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, and about seventeen
years ago the event started to grow large enough that
we were exceeding the capacity of the ballroom and that's
when we decided to split Saturday off as a high
(11:35):
school event. We got the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association involved,
so the schools themselves compete against one another and this
weekend is the largest single fundraising weekend for Special Olympics
New Hampshire all year long. It's that's the tone for
the whole rest of the year. So tomorrow a little
more than four hundred. Right now, the computer says four
(11:58):
hundred and six high schoolers plan on plunging at Hampton
Beach from all different schools all across the state. And
then on Sunday, six hundred and thirty penguin plungers will
be hitting the water at Hampton Beach. It is the
seventeenth annual High School Plunge and this year will mark
the twenty sixth annual Penguin Plunge.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So in all, one thousand, little over one thousand brave
souls will dip more than their toes into the Atlantic Ocean,
is what you're telling me.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
That's what is registered and signed up.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Now.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
As you know, we've got some weather on the way
Saturday night and into Sunday, so we have taken to
social media and to our website to let people know. Listen,
if you think it's a little too dicey for you
to be driving to Hampton Beach, because people do come
from all over the state, then we're saying you don't
have to do it. We've set up a way that
(12:56):
if you've raised the money and you've done it online,
we've already got that. And if you still have some
funds that need to come to us, you can drop
them off at any TD Bank branch in the state
of New Hampshire and they will find their way to
us and whatever premium items you qualified for, we will
deliver it to you.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So let's let's deal with the fund. What do you
think you'll raise with these these two events, one again
for high school kids and the and the rest for
you know, older folks. What do you what do you
hope to raise this weekend?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Well, we would we would like to get somewhere near
the million dollar mark. Uh. Not sure whether we can
do that in one weekend or not, we are certainly
going to give it a try. I can tell you
that I think Dan.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Would set I assumed that would set a record mark
for for Special Olympics New Hampshire if you could, uh
for the for the Penguin Plunge raise a million dollars.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Well, the Penguin Plunge weekend last year did just about that.
And and let me explain that to you a little bit.
We've got various systems in place where some money trickles
in after the fact. So it's one of those situations
that when the weekend itself and we aren't sure exactly
how much money really the event came got us until
(14:15):
a couple of weeks later.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Okay, So it's a big The point is it's a
big fundraising event. How many are yeah, how many Special
Olympic athletes? How many Special Olympians does New Hampshire Special
Olympics serve over.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
The post COVID post COVID We're at about twenty seven hundred.
They're in all ten counties in the state. They are
spread across about seventy local programs run by volunteers all
across the state and ninety school based programs. And the
great thing about the Penguin Plunge weekend is every single
(14:51):
penny that is made this weekend stays right here in
New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay. And if there are people who are listening who
maybe haven't signed up, but they'd like to support Special
Olympics on New Hampshire, is there a way in which
they can contact you easily? Either through the mail. How
can folks who are listening tonight and admire the work
you're doing. What can they do to help well?
Speaker 5 (15:18):
I will tell you that so O NH dot org
is in Special Olympics New Hampshire. So O NH dot
org is all things Special Olympics New Hampshire. At the
very top of the homepage, we have the Penguin Plunge
and if you click on that, you have the opportunity
to make a donation. And I will be straight up
with you on this dan. We are a little light
(15:39):
on volunteers for the weekend. We've got the opportunity for
some folks to come out and help us out. And
not every job is outside. We have a lot of
tasks that are inside both the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
as well as the Ashworth Hotel, which is where we
do all of our registration and all of our paperwork.
So there are plenty of inside jobs that need to
(15:59):
be young by volunteers and we still have room for
plenty more volunteers. So you can go to s O
n H dot org if you're inclined to make a donation.
That's a wonderful thing for the programs and athletes or
Special Olympics New Hampshire. But if you have some time
and want to have a little fun between the hours
of say nine am and two pm, either Saturday or Sunday,
we are done by two o'clock in the afternoon. So
(16:21):
no worries about missing any football games on Sunday evening,
and we'll take any volunteers that want to help.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Is there a football game Sunday night?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I heard something about that.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, okay, the Patriots are not in that one.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Though, I don't no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, okay, no problem. I just wanted to make sure
that I was I was aware of what you were
talking about. You only joking, obviously, So even if what
lives south or northeast of New Hampshire, people who are
close to Hampton Beach in northeastern Massachusetts or in southeastern Maine,
(16:58):
they can come across state lines also volunteer and help
that There's no obligation to be a New Hampshire resident
to help this weekend the Penguin Plunge. All right, great Mark,
I think you got some good information out and hopefully
we'll be able to wrestle up a few more volunteers
for you a great cause. Thanks very much, best of
luck and are you jumping in the ocean yourself or no.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
You know, I've been associated with this event for twenty
five of it's twenty six years, and I did that
about a dozen times over the course of the twenty
five years. I've done it about twelve times, but at
some point my cardiologist put a stop to it.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So you'll continue your streak this year of not jumping
into the Atlantic not jumping in which is commended to
the streak alive. Okay, good enough, Thanks Mark, you just
having fun with you. That's all very great one. Congratulations,
Say hi to all the Olympians for us here on
night Side. When we get back, right after the news
at the bottom of the hour, we're going to talk
(17:57):
with a very interesting gentlemen who's a licensed licensed clinical
worker and a marriage counselor. He's written a book, Fix
Your Marriage Without Counseling, A Practical Method from method men
will appreciate. It's an intriguing title. We'll be talking with
Ziba Graham right after the news at the bottom of
(18:19):
the arm. This is Dan Ray. This is Nightside w BZ, Boston,
Boston's news radio ten thirty and your AM dial.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Well, here's an intriguing guest with an interesting book. I'm
delighted to welcome, Ziba Graham Zba. Okay, I got it right, easy,
last name to pronounce. You're a licensed clinical social worker
and a marriage counselor, as I understand as well.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Correct, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Okay uh. And you have done this for some time,
and apparently as a result of the positive results that
you believe that you have achieved, you've written a book
with an interesting title, Your Marriage without Counseling, a practical
method men will appreciate. I suspect there's probably some female
(19:17):
listeners tonight are saying, well, why is it that men
will appreciate this? Tell us about it?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Well, because men are a lot of times the last
one to find out something's wrong. That's a simple explanation
for that. But I tell you what, Dan, this has
been a very interesting journey for me. I started out,
you know, marriage counseling, and thought, boy, I want to
help people, you know, have long marriages. And I wasn't
(19:44):
having any Look, I don't know, it just seemed like
I wasn't getting anywhere. You know. They would come in
and say, well, I'm not happy, and you know, and
such as that. And so what I did is I
kind of cheeze my whole attitude, and I thought to myself,
you know, these people have been getting along for a
(20:06):
certain long time, and so all I have to do
is find out what really works. And what I've found
out is the most important question that I could ever ask,
and that is, on a scale of one to ten,
where's your marriage now? With the one being the worst
ever and ten being the best ever. Well, if they came,
(20:30):
if they came in to see me, they were probably
about a four. And then I would ask them more
questions about where would you need to be to feel
satisfied in your marriage? And usually they were saying about oh,
maybe a seven or an eight. And then how willing
are you to do your part? And so right away,
(20:52):
and I knew exactly where they stood, and they know
kind of where they stood. And then I would I
would keep asking them questions, so like, what could you
do to bring up your marriage? Maybe half a point?
So what could he do to help you go up
from a three to three and a half. Well, then
(21:14):
he would say something, and you know, well she would say,
maybe help Billy with his homework, or put gas in
my car on Friday, or stop yelling at home, or
stop complaining about my mom, you know. And so all
of a sudden, I realized that they really knew what
(21:37):
would help him go up, you know, up the scale,
and so what would happen is And then I would
ask both of them, what could you do to help
yourself go up? What can your spouse do to help
help me go up? And it was just amazing because
I realized that the answers on their marriage journey was
(22:02):
already in them, and it was more important for me
to have the question than have the answer, because my
answer was never the same as their answer. So that's
how I got started in it. And I did that
for years and I was having really good results. After
about two or three sessions, they would start moving up
(22:25):
on the scale and then they would tell me, well,
I think we're okay now, so we won't see anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well, you know, if I could just interject for a second,
I think that that's a very interesting approach, and it's
sort of like what I think most of us understand
to be the Socratic method, where you're asking questions they
happen to be open ended questions. But you basically with
(22:51):
your questions are leading them to the solution, which is
pretty brilliant approach. And I mean that's seriously when I
say that, almost do the same thing with with your children.
If the children used to behave uh if you say
to the child, if you just yell at the kid,
they that's not going to help them. But but if
(23:14):
you say, now, you know, why did you do that?
You know what why? You know? Why did why did
you drop that glass on the floor, It looked to
me like did you do that intentionally?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And that people will be honest with you. So that's
that's pretty good. How long have you been using this
pretty straightforward method. It's like, we all know what's wrong.
We just have a difficult time communicating. I think that's
the biggest problem that most people have. And you help
them communicate.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Oh exactly. And and you're right, that is kind of
the socratic method. But and then, but the thing that
I've found out, Dan, is that people were used in
this scientific method and that doesn't work because the scientific method,
first thing they ask is they go to the past
and they look for weaknesses, you know, and you can't
(24:07):
solve people problems by doing that, it just doesn't work.
You have to go to this other method because the
answers are already in the couple and you're just helping
them tease out those answers. And so it was just
so rewarding for me because when they said to me,
(24:28):
you know, I think we're good now. And then when
I retired, I wrote this book and it's got all
that information in it, just how to do it and
why the other stuff doesn't work, and this works great.
So I thought to myself, I thought, you know, I
just asked the questions, the answers are in them. I'll
(24:48):
just put the quat questions in this book and explains
how it works. And boy, it's really been amazing, you know,
it's helped us. And then really, if you think about
why people split, it's because little stuff just gets bigger
and bigger and bigger, you know, and then things happen
(25:10):
and people get sick and people die or something happens,
and it's just the marriage is not strong enough to
get through that. So this way, you know, if if
the couple would ask themselves once a month, where are
you on the scale, and if if your spouse says well,
I'm a four. That's a danger signal if you can,
(25:34):
if you can stay around seven and a half or eight,
you're going to have a fifty five year marriage.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, so there aren't too many, too many tens out there.
You get my drift, drift? So how do how do people?
First of all, how is your book doing? Is it?
Is it recently? Outers have been out.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
For a while, well just a few months, so so
it's just kind of getting started. But I've been doing
a lot of radio shows and some zoom interviews, and
you know, I do a speaker's bureau on it, and
and then I've got a website. And the website is
fix your Marriage Book dot com. Fix your Marriage Book.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And that's yeah, fix your Marriage Book dot com. That
is a nice, simple direct site that most people can find. Uh,
the book has been out a few months, is it?
Is it? A? I got a sense from from just
talking to you that it's probably a pretty easy book
(26:45):
to absorb.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
It's really easy. It's it's one hundred and fifty pages,
huge type you can read in an hour and a half.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And makes it well that's important.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
I mean, look, yeah, people.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
We can get you can you can read these books
that are seven hundred pages long and they're philosophical and
their foot noted and and you know, and it's you
just you gloss over. But on something like this, it
sounds to me like you ship it to people that
get it within two or three days and then they
go a little bit of work. And look, marriages are tough.
(27:21):
I mean, you know, they're not Yeah, they're not easy.
I had a guest on last night who was a
former governor of Wisconsin. His name was Marty Schreiber. He
was the governor of Wisconsin in the late seventies, and
his wife dealt with Alzheimer's for the last twenty years
(27:41):
of her life. She passed a couple of long years ago.
And this guy came across as the most supportive husband
that you could ever imagine, who has dealt a horrific hand.
And the name of his book, which you might want
to just check out because I thought he was really interesting,
called My Two Elaens. His wife's name obviously was Elaine,
(28:03):
and you know, the Lane that he fell in love
with and they lived most of his life with, and
then the Elaine who who disappeared in this you know,
horrific Cloud of dementia. Uh. It's interesting. We had two
books which I think will help people, uh, in two
different sets of circumstances. And I really like your approach.
(28:24):
I really do. I think that communication and if you
need a third party to expedite the communication like you
do and have done, that's great. If not, they get
the book and they can sit with each other and
they can say, Okay, you know, where do you think
we stand? Here's how I feel, Here's how you feel,
that sort of thing, and uh, And I love I
(28:44):
always love the idea of a scale of one to
ten because everybody gets the bell curve. Everybody understands, you know,
five is like the middle and anything better than five
is okay. Going the other way, you're going the wrong direction.
I really appre she sh had your time tonight, Zaba
(29:04):
give you long eyes, okay, Graham, Yeah, I really appreciate
your time tonight. Invest of luck with you book. You've
been a very interesting guest.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
Okay, Dan, I enjoyed talking with you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Take care of right back at you. Okay, we get back.
We're going to talk to the former wife, the widow,
if you will. Of Apollo fourteen. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Edgar
Mitchell was the sixth astronaut to walk on the Moon.
She has written a book which essentially is you Don't
look like an Astronaut's wife. Uh and she I think
(29:42):
she's going to be an interesting guest as well. That
she will round out our fourth guest tonight, and I'm
looking forward to talking with her. Anita Mitchell will join
us author and owner president of the Mitchell Group back
on Night Side after this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Night Signs to on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Want to welcome my next guest, Anita Mitchell. She's the
former wife of Apollo fourteen astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who passed
away a few years ago. Edgar Mitchell was the sixth
astronaut to walk on the Moon. I don't know that
there have been many astronauts who walked on the moon
after astronaut Mitchell. Was he the last to walk on
(30:28):
the moon? Anita? If I could he.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
No, thank you, No, he was right in the middle.
There were six flights to the Moon and ed Flu
with Albert Shepherd, Allen Shepherd, who was already very well known,
and SUSA, and they were numbers number there was a
third flight. They flew right after Apollo thirteen, which put
me making Apollo fourteen a real finger crosser because that
(30:55):
was going to make or break the rest of the program.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, no doubt. Alan Shepherd was from New Hampshire. We
all knew of him. Yeah, yeah, the early astronauts.
Speaker 6 (31:06):
So he was in space actually was yes, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, first off, I guess after it was a Eurie gigar,
and if if I recall.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
Correctly, well yeah, first first in American space. He was
on the Redstone rocket. I always think as I was
loaded the cape for a long time and saw that
little thing sitting out there, you could have taken a
a can opener and made a hole in it. That
was that. That rocket went to to the school. My
(31:37):
kids went to school, to elementary school and the name
of the school of s Freedom seven and they had
the rocket sitting in front of it in Cocoa Beach.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Not bad. So you have written a book you don't
look like an astronaut's wife, and it recounts remarkable stories
and rivet this riveting new memoir. I I took the
liberty of checking you out a little bit here, and
you certainly have had had a. You've had a very
interesting life being involved in all sorts of media government.
(32:09):
I even noticed that that at one point you were
doing a thirty minute talk show at one point early
in your career.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
So, uh, and I'm doing a podcast, an hour podcast still,
you know.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Anita, I do four hours a night, five nights a week.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
So oh no, I do I do once week for
an hour.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well that's okay, that's that's okay. If I get retired,
maybe I'll do that. But now I'm on twenty hours
a week. And uh, I take probably forty hours to
prep the show. Uh, you know, every every every week.
It's it's a lot of work. People don't realize. But
I want to know more about your book. Tell us,
tell us more about the book. And and and I
(32:53):
guess there some stories in here, says, remarkable stories in
a riveting new memoir. So open open up a couple
of pages for us. Up. We don't expect you to
give away the whole book, but I want to have
you given up.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
Actually I'm happy too, And a person I want to
buy it. They can go to my website, which is
www dot Anita ka Middlely just k Mitchell dot com.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
The way, here's a tip that that that www stuff
don't even worry about. It's just Anita kmtchell dot com
and just just as quick that www thing, I wouldn't
even worry about that anymore. So Anita Kmitchell dot com
tell us about the book.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
You good plub thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You know.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
The book started because a reporter at the Palm Beach
Post by the name of Dan moffatt Uh. He was
the sports editor, and I was on the sports commission,
and ultimately he became an editor of the major paper.
But we talked about ten minutes of sports and he
had followed ed and I because we believed here a
long time in bumbag, and he would ask a question
(34:00):
and it seems as though you asked me a question,
I've got a story. So we did this for about
a year. I met once a month, and one day
he came and we were meeting and he said, neat
write a book. And I laughed. I said, I don't
think I've been done it to write a book about.
And he said, no needed is found about you, but
your stories are priceless. And he kept it up and
kept it up and did an overview and sent it
(34:22):
to a few people, and that was like five years ago.
And lo and behold, a collaborator called me and we're
on our way to releasing the book. Munch that I continued,
And so the book's not.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Even the book is not out yet. Okay, that's okay,
So just give us, give us an overview. Obviously you
met a lot of people along the pathway of life,
I could tell from the pictures that are on your website.
Give us a story or two which will wet people's
appetite happy too.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
First of all, you have to know that I'm from
a very small town in Ohio and Dina, Ohio. I've
town of maybe three four thousand people at the time
outside of Cleveland. And the chance of me marrying who
sikes me on the walk on the is an anomaly
for one thing. And who introduced us was Mickey Mouse.
(35:14):
So I think that's why Dan thought there was a
story here. And you know ed Ed was a very
accomplished Not only was he a test bitlet a fighter pilot,
but he had two PhDs he helped He's a lunar commander,
lunar module commander on Apollo fourteen, and then he did
the ESP experiments on the moon. And so that was
(35:37):
the journey for a girl from Ohio that was really fascinating.
I met Ed after the year after he had flown,
and he spent the rest of his career, as he
puts it, exploring from the eyeball out. And he brought
Uri Geller here from Israel and studied his psych capabilities.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Be spoons, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
And actually that's when Dan got my attention, because I
kept saying, Dan, you know I don't can't write about
He said, Nita, how many people have wonder Von Braun,
Rob Surling, an arch c Clark, and Uri Geller and
a dinner at your house while URI's spoons. And I said, well, well,
I guess that is fine.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I hope you kept them away from the good silverware.
That's my only concern in.
Speaker 7 (36:28):
But Ed Brown in here and studying in that Standford
Research Institute, which is one of the world's greatest thing tanks,
and as.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
The girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
In the lab and want some amazing things. Trying to
explain it to my poor mother and dad back in
the Dinah was a chore. It was my mother couldn't
quite get her head around the psychic part. The journey
was an interesting one and I learned so much because
Ed explored everything the fruits, the nuts, the flakes, and
(36:59):
the great physicists of all time.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
To also as I understood it, I just did a
quick little research. He believed that about eighty percent of
the items that they now call they used to call
them UFOs. They have a different terminology, you know, they
did different, different phrase, no longer unidentified flying objects, but
(37:24):
it was a sort of a metaphor, sort of another phrase.
And I can't think of it for a moment, but
he believes that about eighty percent of those sightings were
actually visitors from out of space.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
And one of the interesting stories early in my marriage
to Ed, he did the Larry King Show in New
York when he was on radio, and Larry was on
radio and I was in the green room while he
was on the air, and another couple came into the
green room who was going on made the guest next,
and they came in with an item that had a
(37:56):
blanket over it and married.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Very long to edge. So this is all pretty new.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
And they took the blanket off and I said, oh,
what is that?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
They said, well, this is.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
A model of the alien that abducted us.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Okay, okay, it's right.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
You know I was braved.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Well, here's the deal in Nita, I'm flat out of time,
you know from radio. We got to give that now.
People got to read the book. That's a great story.
It's it's Anita Kmitchell dot com. Simple as that. Get
the book coming out, you said in March. All right, well,
best of luck with the book, and we may have
(38:36):
you back if you if you'd like to come on
after the book, come on for a few minutes after
the book is out and available, we'll be happy to
bring you back.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Okay, I'd love to.
Speaker 7 (38:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Thanks, Anita, you've been a good sport. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
You're welcome. When we get back, we're going to get
the latest on the snow that's coming in this weekend,
and I think it's going to be for real, that's
my sense. But I've sensed that for a couple of
days the weather seems to be ready for a snowdrop.
We'll be back on night's after the nine o'clock news
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey Nicole, as far as I'm concerned, the weekend has
already started. It's Friday night. It's as simple as that.
I happen to be working. You happen to be working.
So it's really not our weekend, but the weekend is underway.
My name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside. Rob Brooks
he's working too. He is the producer back in the
control room at Broadcast Central, the big socket for WBZ Radio.
(00:30):
You're listening to WBZ Radio and ten thirty Am in Boston.
My name is Dan Ray, and we have four very
special guests on this hour. Later on tonight, we're going
to talk about the big snowstorm heading this way tomorrow.
This one looks like maybe the first real deal we've
had in several years here in the New England area.
Then we're going to talk about streamflation. Now every price
(00:50):
of everything's going up, regular TV, cable TV, and now
they get you with all these the streaming services. And
we'll have our Super Bowl predictions and there'll be a
prize involved for the person who comes closest to predicting
the accurate winners and the closest to the final score.
But we're gonna begin with four interesting guests, and first
(01:12):
we're going across the pond to truck with Robbie Dueck.
He's the CEO of a company called blast b Last
like blast Off, and he is with an e sports
program that's competitive video gaming. I'm not sure that I
know too much about it, but I think I'm gonna
learn about a lot because they're going to be hosting
(01:33):
a major event at the MGM Music Hall later this month.
Robbie Dueck, welcome from You're over in England right now? Correct?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, absolutely, dain nice to be here on the show.
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You're very welcome. Where about Are you in London or
are you out in the countryside?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
No, no, no, London, London, London. I don't think it's
as cold as it sounds like it's over there. It's
pretty it sounds pretty bleak.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well No, no, we love son here in New England.
We're hardy New England, so that's no problem. A mere
five to eight inches they're talking about we're going to
talk about like people will freak out, will there'll be
no bread and milk in the stores. Tomorrow. That's the
first thing. Everybody gets, bread, milk and eggs. You can
always be making French toast during a snowstorm, simple as that.
(02:16):
It's a tradition here in New England. So what is
competitive video gaming and you're hosting this major event at
the MGM Music Hall in February. I don't know a
lot about competitive gaming. What are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, so this is like the combination of the best
teams in the world playing competitive games. So competitive e
sports is competitive teams who aren't sort of built out
to play a specific game and compete against each other
in front of a live audience, streams around the world,
in front of millions of people. And that's what's going
to be hosted in Boston in the next week at
(02:54):
the MGM, and it's going to be a spectacle that
you've never seen before. Probably playing to.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You that, So let me ask you this. I can
remember when they had big time chess matches and there
was an American going against a Russian or something like
that back in the days, and they would be streamed.
It wasn't streamed, it was just on TV and people
would watch. And that's not the same thing as we're
(03:21):
talking about you're talking about people like consoles, and what
are the games they compete with. We're not talking about
basketball or hockey games. We're talking about probably some of
the war games, I assume, right.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, so these are like what they call first person shooters,
and then they're like they're like competitive games where they're
actually strategy games.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So this is a game where you've got a certain
amount of people playing against each other in what they
call a map. So that's like an environment where they're
playing to win a given round against each other to
then ultimately win the set like in tennis if you want, right,
And they're competing in a really tactical way with like
ammunition to try and find out where they are on
the map and ultimately win the round, right, And it
(04:00):
takes a lot of practice and skill.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, And these competitive gamers are they mostly young people?
Are they old people like me who have taken up
the sport in their retirement even though I'm not retired.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Now. They tend to be they tend to skew a
lot younger. And actually the average gamement who's a competitive
gament probably by the age of twenty seven or twenty eight,
he's he or she's in their retirement, right, And the
reason for that is because the hands ye coordination is
just way better when you're younger, and therefore, by the
time you're twenty seven twenty eight, you're not quite at
(04:35):
your peak because as you were when you say eighteen
to twenty one, Now.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
That's when everything starts falling apart, is what you're telling me.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I don't know. I'm way past that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So I'm with you in this, okay. So now in Boston,
this is a live event with a live audience, and
you're selling tickets to this event.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Correct, correct, So down down on the MNGN beautiful venue,
thousands of people have bought to I think we're sold out,
but I think there might be a few still to get.
But ultimately the app you know, the noise is large, right,
because people are very excited about this.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So who's your audience. Who's your audience?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
These are going to be, you know, demographic of eighteen
to thirty five male female love the game. They're really
into this particular game. They're following it or they're particularly
following a team. Right. What we shouldn't forget is there
is actually a local team from New England. Oxygen Esports
their calls right. They've made it all the way through
(05:34):
to the final stages of this event, which is unheard
of for them. And there are I think four or
five North American teams that have got this far, right,
but the locals are clearly going to be cheering on Oxygen.
But they're there mostly because they love the game, they
love the spectacle.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So all in all, how many teams are? You know,
this has got to be a competition that builds from
I guess Friday, Saturday, Sunday Valentine's Day, the fifteenth, which
is Saturday in the sixteenth, which is Sunday, how many
teams start? It's sort of like the NBA Playoffs of
the NHL playoffs. You start with maybe sixteen teams, and
(06:10):
of course it takes three months to the playoffs. Now
the NBA and the NHL, until you get to the
championship series. You guys are going to do this in
three days.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Right, correct? But what we shouldn't forget there are sixteen
teams that have got this far. But what we shouldn't
forget is actually one hundreds and hundreds of teams have
been through the process of qualifying to get here, right,
regional corner tournaments from around the world, in all four
corners of the clos Right, It's actually taken all year
to reach this pinnacle moment that will come to a
(06:41):
head in Boston next weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
As you say, what's the grand prize? I know that
there's some serious prize money.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Hey, there's three million bucks on the line, but the
winners take a million dollars time with them, which is
a serious amount of cash.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, so a million dollars are split between your team members,
I assume.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Correct, you know, four or five members of the team.
They're going to take that home and they're going to
be had a bad.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's not if you win it. It's certainly not a
bad weekend's work, that's for sure. There's no question about that. Uh,
do you know offhand with this Oxygen team is from
this New England team? Are they like spread across the
landscape or are they from one community that we can identify?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, so this is a group of people that actually
are the mix of players from There are actually two
Brazilian players in this team, and then there are three
American players in the team. And you know, so I
think there's actually a strong cohort of Brazilians who are
living in Boston and South understand, and they're going to
come out and force to support these two Brazilian players
in the team. This happens to be a game where
(07:44):
the Brazilian audiences have a very strong propensity to play it.
And then the other three players, and one of them
in particular is a local from the region, so I
think everyone's going to be cheering for that individual and
that's probably in a serving crowd for that.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
All right, Well, Bobby, I appreciate the information. Do you
want to give us a website where people can get
more information on this event, either to go and attend
or to follow it and learn more about it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, they need to just go on to Rainbow six,
which is the game, and they'll be able to ord
Uve yourseft and they'll be able to get a whole
bunch more informational ticket mister, if they want to get
a ticket at the last minute, or come down to
the MGM and they'll just have a great time. So thanks
for time, Dan, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You're welcome, And I know it's quite late, probably you're
probably after one I am, So it's Saturday, morning over
there already.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, it's all good. It's the end of the week
and we'll have the beginning of the weekend now. But
I've enjoyed speaking to you, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I hope by time I assume you'll be here
next weekend, I hopefully the snow will be plowed away
and we'll have temperatures in the mid sixties or seventies
for you, Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
That would be great. It will make the loading of
the venue easier and the load out easier as well,
So I'm looking forward to that for the operational reason.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Robbie Duick, CEO of BLAST, appreciate your time tonight. We
learned a lot from you and we'll follow on. Thank
you much, thank you when we get back. And to
talk about Special Olympics. New Hampshire, they have a big
event this weekend. It's called the Penguin Plunge. It's the
Penguin Plunge weekend that we're eighth and ninth at Hampton Beach,
(09:20):
benefits benefiting Special Olympics. I suspect if you'd like to
take a little swim, we have an opportunity for you
if you stick with us. My name's Dan Ray. This
is night Side on a Friday night, February seventh. We
will be here all the way, virtually all the way
till midnight. Hope you'll stick with us. We have some
interesting conversations you can participate. We have some more interesting
(09:42):
interviews coming up, not only going to talk about special
Olympics New Hampshire, but we'll also give you a way
to fix your marriage without counseling, a practical method we're
told men will appreciate. We'll see about that, and then
we're going to talk with the former wife of Apollo
fourteen astronaut Edgar Mitchell. She has written a book which
(10:04):
is called You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife. But
she is remarkable stories in Riveting in her riveting new
memoir You Don't Look like an Astronaut's Wife. He, by
the way, is the sixth person to walk on the
face of the moon. He is he passed a few
years ago, but his wife will be here with us
later on during this hour back on Nightside. Right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Put to welcome back Mark Erickson. He's the multi media
manager for Special Olympics New Hampshire which has a very
active Special Olympics group, and I guess this weekend the
Penguin Plunge takes center stage in the Granite State mark
ericson Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
How are you sir, goody evening, Happy Friday night, Dan.
Thank you for having a phone.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yep. I think you've been with us a couple of
times before, and so again you do great work up there.
Tell us about the Penguin Plunge. It looks to me
it's February eighth and ninth, which of course would be
tomorrow and Sunday. Don't tell me. People have to stay
in the water for two days.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
No, no, no, no. And it's kind of an interesting
story on that one. About seventeen years ago we stage
everything in the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, and about seventeen
years ago the event started to grow large enough that
we were exceeding the capacity of the ballroom and that's
when we decided to split Saturday off as a high
(11:35):
school event. We got the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association involved,
so the schools themselves compete against one another and this
weekend is the largest single fundraising weekend for Special Olympics
New Hampshire all year long. It's that's the tone for
the whole rest of the year. So tomorrow a little
more than four hundred. Right now, the computer says four
(11:58):
hundred and six high schoolers plan on plunging at Hampton
Beach from all different schools all across the state. And
then on Sunday, six hundred and thirty penguin plungers will
be hitting the water at Hampton Beach. It is the
seventeenth annual High School Plunge and this year will mark
the twenty sixth annual Penguin Plunge.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So in all, one thousand, little over one thousand brave
souls will dip more than their toes into the Atlantic Ocean,
is what you're telling me.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
That's what is registered and signed up.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Now.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
As you know, we've got some weather on the way
Saturday night and into Sunday, so we have taken to
social media and to our website to let people know. Listen,
if you think it's a little too dicey for you
to be driving to Hampton Beach, because people do come
from all over the state, then we're saying you don't
have to do it. We've set up a way that
(12:56):
if you've raised the money and you've done it online,
we've already got that. And if you still have some
funds that need to come to us, you can drop
them off at any TD Bank branch in the state
of New Hampshire and they will find their way to
us and whatever premium items you qualified for, we will
deliver it to you.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So let's let's deal with the fund. What do you
think you'll raise with these these two events, one again
for high school kids and the and the rest for
you know, older folks. What do you what do you
hope to raise this weekend?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Well, we would we would like to get somewhere near
the million dollar mark. Uh. Not sure whether we can
do that in one weekend or not, we are certainly
going to give it a try. I can tell you
that I think Dan.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Would set I assumed that would set a record mark
for for Special Olympics New Hampshire if you could, uh
for the for the Penguin Plunge raise a million dollars.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Well, the Penguin Plunge weekend last year did just about that.
And and let me explain that to you a little bit.
We've got various systems in place where some money trickles
in after the fact. So it's one of those situations
that when the weekend itself and we aren't sure exactly
how much money really the event came got us until
(14:15):
a couple of weeks later.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Okay, So it's a big The point is it's a
big fundraising event. How many are yeah, how many Special
Olympic athletes? How many Special Olympians does New Hampshire Special
Olympics serve over.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
The post COVID post COVID We're at about twenty seven hundred.
They're in all ten counties in the state. They are
spread across about seventy local programs run by volunteers all
across the state and ninety school based programs. And the
great thing about the Penguin Plunge weekend is every single
(14:51):
penny that is made this weekend stays right here in
New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay. And if there are people who are listening who
maybe haven't signed up, but they'd like to support Special
Olympics on New Hampshire, is there a way in which
they can contact you easily? Either through the mail. How
can folks who are listening tonight and admire the work
you're doing. What can they do to help well?
Speaker 5 (15:18):
I will tell you that so O NH dot org
is in Special Olympics New Hampshire. So O NH dot
org is all things Special Olympics New Hampshire. At the
very top of the homepage, we have the Penguin Plunge
and if you click on that, you have the opportunity
to make a donation. And I will be straight up
with you on this dan. We are a little light
(15:39):
on volunteers for the weekend. We've got the opportunity for
some folks to come out and help us out. And
not every job is outside. We have a lot of
tasks that are inside both the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
as well as the Ashworth Hotel, which is where we
do all of our registration and all of our paperwork.
So there are plenty of inside jobs that need to
(15:59):
be young by volunteers and we still have room for
plenty more volunteers. So you can go to s O
n H dot org if you're inclined to make a donation.
That's a wonderful thing for the programs and athletes or
Special Olympics New Hampshire. But if you have some time
and want to have a little fun between the hours
of say nine am and two pm, either Saturday or Sunday,
we are done by two o'clock in the afternoon. So
(16:21):
no worries about missing any football games on Sunday evening,
and we'll take any volunteers that want to help.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Is there a football game Sunday night?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I heard something about that.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, okay, the Patriots are not in that one.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Though, I don't no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, okay, no problem. I just wanted to make sure
that I was I was aware of what you were
talking about. You only joking, obviously, So even if what
lives south or northeast of New Hampshire, people who are
close to Hampton Beach in northeastern Massachusetts or in southeastern Maine,
(16:58):
they can come across state lines also volunteer and help
that There's no obligation to be a New Hampshire resident
to help this weekend the Penguin Plunge. All right, great Mark,
I think you got some good information out and hopefully
we'll be able to wrestle up a few more volunteers
for you a great cause. Thanks very much, best of
luck and are you jumping in the ocean yourself or no.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
You know, I've been associated with this event for twenty
five of it's twenty six years, and I did that
about a dozen times over the course of the twenty
five years. I've done it about twelve times, but at
some point my cardiologist put a stop to it.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So you'll continue your streak this year of not jumping
into the Atlantic not jumping in which is commended to
the streak alive. Okay, good enough, Thanks Mark, you just
having fun with you. That's all very great one. Congratulations,
Say hi to all the Olympians for us here on
night Side. When we get back, right after the news
at the bottom of the hour, we're going to talk
(17:57):
with a very interesting gentlemen who's a licensed licensed clinical
worker and a marriage counselor. He's written a book, Fix
Your Marriage Without Counseling, A Practical Method from method men
will appreciate. It's an intriguing title. We'll be talking with
Ziba Graham right after the news at the bottom of
(18:19):
the arm. This is Dan Ray. This is Nightside w BZ, Boston,
Boston's news radio ten thirty and your AM dial.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Well, here's an intriguing guest with an interesting book. I'm
delighted to welcome, Ziba Graham Zba. Okay, I got it right, easy,
last name to pronounce. You're a licensed clinical social worker
and a marriage counselor, as I understand as well.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Correct, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Okay uh. And you have done this for some time,
and apparently as a result of the positive results that
you believe that you have achieved, you've written a book
with an interesting title, Your Marriage without Counseling, a practical
method men will appreciate. I suspect there's probably some female
(19:17):
listeners tonight are saying, well, why is it that men
will appreciate this? Tell us about it?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Well, because men are a lot of times the last
one to find out something's wrong. That's a simple explanation
for that. But I tell you what, Dan, this has
been a very interesting journey for me. I started out,
you know, marriage counseling, and thought, boy, I want to
help people, you know, have long marriages. And I wasn't
(19:44):
having any Look, I don't know, it just seemed like
I wasn't getting anywhere. You know. They would come in
and say, well, I'm not happy, and you know, and
such as that. And so what I did is I
kind of cheeze my whole attitude, and I thought to myself,
you know, these people have been getting along for a
(20:06):
certain long time, and so all I have to do
is find out what really works. And what I've found
out is the most important question that I could ever ask,
and that is, on a scale of one to ten,
where's your marriage now? With the one being the worst
ever and ten being the best ever. Well, if they came,
(20:30):
if they came in to see me, they were probably
about a four. And then I would ask them more
questions about where would you need to be to feel
satisfied in your marriage? And usually they were saying about oh,
maybe a seven or an eight. And then how willing
are you to do your part? And so right away,
(20:52):
and I knew exactly where they stood, and they know
kind of where they stood. And then I would I
would keep asking them questions, so like, what could you
do to bring up your marriage? Maybe half a point?
So what could he do to help you go up
from a three to three and a half. Well, then
(21:14):
he would say something, and you know, well she would say,
maybe help Billy with his homework, or put gas in
my car on Friday, or stop yelling at home, or
stop complaining about my mom, you know. And so all
of a sudden, I realized that they really knew what
(21:37):
would help him go up, you know, up the scale,
and so what would happen is And then I would
ask both of them, what could you do to help
yourself go up? What can your spouse do to help
help me go up? And it was just amazing because
I realized that the answers on their marriage journey was
(22:02):
already in them, and it was more important for me
to have the question than have the answer, because my
answer was never the same as their answer. So that's
how I got started in it. And I did that
for years and I was having really good results. After
about two or three sessions, they would start moving up
(22:25):
on the scale and then they would tell me, well,
I think we're okay now, so we won't see anymore.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well, you know, if I could just interject for a second,
I think that that's a very interesting approach, and it's
sort of like what I think most of us understand
to be the Socratic method, where you're asking questions they
happen to be open ended questions. But you basically with
(22:51):
your questions are leading them to the solution, which is
pretty brilliant approach. And I mean that's seriously when I
say that, almost do the same thing with with your children.
If the children used to behave uh if you say
to the child, if you just yell at the kid,
they that's not going to help them. But but if
(23:14):
you say, now, you know, why did you do that?
You know what why? You know? Why did why did
you drop that glass on the floor, It looked to
me like did you do that intentionally?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And that people will be honest with you. So that's
that's pretty good. How long have you been using this
pretty straightforward method. It's like, we all know what's wrong.
We just have a difficult time communicating. I think that's
the biggest problem that most people have. And you help
them communicate.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Oh exactly. And and you're right, that is kind of
the socratic method. But and then, but the thing that
I've found out, Dan, is that people were used in
this scientific method and that doesn't work because the scientific method,
first thing they ask is they go to the past
and they look for weaknesses, you know, and you can't
(24:07):
solve people problems by doing that, it just doesn't work.
You have to go to this other method because the
answers are already in the couple and you're just helping
them tease out those answers. And so it was just
so rewarding for me because when they said to me,
(24:28):
you know, I think we're good now. And then when
I retired, I wrote this book and it's got all
that information in it, just how to do it and
why the other stuff doesn't work, and this works great.
So I thought to myself, I thought, you know, I
just asked the questions, the answers are in them. I'll
(24:48):
just put the quat questions in this book and explains
how it works. And boy, it's really been amazing, you know,
it's helped us. And then really, if you think about
why people split, it's because little stuff just gets bigger
and bigger and bigger, you know, and then things happen
(25:10):
and people get sick and people die or something happens,
and it's just the marriage is not strong enough to
get through that. So this way, you know, if if
the couple would ask themselves once a month, where are
you on the scale, and if if your spouse says well,
I'm a four. That's a danger signal if you can,
(25:34):
if you can stay around seven and a half or eight,
you're going to have a fifty five year marriage.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, so there aren't too many, too many tens out there.
You get my drift, drift? So how do how do people?
First of all, how is your book doing? Is it?
Is it recently? Outers have been out.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
For a while, well just a few months, so so
it's just kind of getting started. But I've been doing
a lot of radio shows and some zoom interviews, and
you know, I do a speaker's bureau on it, and
and then I've got a website. And the website is
fix your Marriage Book dot com. Fix your Marriage Book.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And that's yeah, fix your Marriage Book dot com. That
is a nice, simple direct site that most people can find. Uh,
the book has been out a few months, is it?
Is it? A? I got a sense from from just
talking to you that it's probably a pretty easy book
(26:45):
to absorb.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
It's really easy. It's it's one hundred and fifty pages,
huge type you can read in an hour and a half.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And makes it well that's important.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
I mean, look, yeah, people.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
We can get you can you can read these books
that are seven hundred pages long and they're philosophical and
their foot noted and and you know, and it's you
just you gloss over. But on something like this, it
sounds to me like you ship it to people that
get it within two or three days and then they
go a little bit of work. And look, marriages are tough.
(27:21):
I mean, you know, they're not Yeah, they're not easy.
I had a guest on last night who was a
former governor of Wisconsin. His name was Marty Schreiber. He
was the governor of Wisconsin in the late seventies, and
his wife dealt with Alzheimer's for the last twenty years
(27:41):
of her life. She passed a couple of long years ago.
And this guy came across as the most supportive husband
that you could ever imagine, who has dealt a horrific hand.
And the name of his book, which you might want
to just check out because I thought he was really interesting,
called My Two Elaens. His wife's name obviously was Elaine,
(28:03):
and you know, the Lane that he fell in love
with and they lived most of his life with, and
then the Elaine who who disappeared in this you know,
horrific Cloud of dementia. Uh. It's interesting. We had two
books which I think will help people, uh, in two
different sets of circumstances. And I really like your approach.
(28:24):
I really do. I think that communication and if you
need a third party to expedite the communication like you
do and have done, that's great. If not, they get
the book and they can sit with each other and
they can say, Okay, you know, where do you think
we stand? Here's how I feel, Here's how you feel,
that sort of thing, and uh, And I love I
(28:44):
always love the idea of a scale of one to
ten because everybody gets the bell curve. Everybody understands, you know,
five is like the middle and anything better than five
is okay. Going the other way, you're going the wrong direction.
I really appre she sh had your time tonight, Zaba
(29:04):
give you long eyes, okay, Graham, Yeah, I really appreciate
your time tonight. Invest of luck with you book. You've
been a very interesting guest.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
Okay, Dan, I enjoyed talking with you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Take care of right back at you. Okay, we get back.
We're going to talk to the former wife, the widow,
if you will. Of Apollo fourteen. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Edgar
Mitchell was the sixth astronaut to walk on the Moon.
She has written a book which essentially is you Don't
look like an Astronaut's wife. Uh and she I think
(29:42):
she's going to be an interesting guest as well. That
she will round out our fourth guest tonight, and I'm
looking forward to talking with her. Anita Mitchell will join
us author and owner president of the Mitchell Group back
on Night Side after this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Night Signs to on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Want to welcome my next guest, Anita Mitchell. She's the
former wife of Apollo fourteen astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who passed
away a few years ago. Edgar Mitchell was the sixth
astronaut to walk on the Moon. I don't know that
there have been many astronauts who walked on the moon
after astronaut Mitchell. Was he the last to walk on
(30:28):
the moon? Anita? If I could he.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
No, thank you, No, he was right in the middle.
There were six flights to the Moon and ed Flu
with Albert Shepherd, Allen Shepherd, who was already very well known,
and SUSA, and they were numbers number there was a
third flight. They flew right after Apollo thirteen, which put
me making Apollo fourteen a real finger crosser because that
(30:55):
was going to make or break the rest of the program.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, no doubt. Alan Shepherd was from New Hampshire. We
all knew of him. Yeah, yeah, the early astronauts.
Speaker 6 (31:06):
So he was in space actually was yes, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, first off, I guess after it was a Eurie gigar,
and if if I recall.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
Correctly, well yeah, first first in American space. He was
on the Redstone rocket. I always think as I was
loaded the cape for a long time and saw that
little thing sitting out there, you could have taken a
a can opener and made a hole in it. That
was that. That rocket went to to the school. My
(31:37):
kids went to school, to elementary school and the name
of the school of s Freedom seven and they had
the rocket sitting in front of it in Cocoa Beach.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Not bad. So you have written a book you don't
look like an astronaut's wife, and it recounts remarkable stories
and rivet this riveting new memoir. I I took the
liberty of checking you out a little bit here, and
you certainly have had had a. You've had a very
interesting life being involved in all sorts of media government.
(32:09):
I even noticed that that at one point you were
doing a thirty minute talk show at one point early
in your career.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
So, uh, and I'm doing a podcast, an hour podcast still,
you know.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Anita, I do four hours a night, five nights a week.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
So oh no, I do I do once week for
an hour.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well that's okay, that's that's okay. If I get retired,
maybe I'll do that. But now I'm on twenty hours
a week. And uh, I take probably forty hours to
prep the show. Uh, you know, every every every week.
It's it's a lot of work. People don't realize. But
I want to know more about your book. Tell us,
tell us more about the book. And and and I
(32:53):
guess there some stories in here, says, remarkable stories in
a riveting new memoir. So open open up a couple
of pages for us. Up. We don't expect you to
give away the whole book, but I want to have
you given up.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
Actually I'm happy too, And a person I want to
buy it. They can go to my website, which is
www dot Anita ka Middlely just k Mitchell dot com.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
The way, here's a tip that that that www stuff
don't even worry about. It's just Anita kmtchell dot com
and just just as quick that www thing, I wouldn't
even worry about that anymore. So Anita Kmitchell dot com
tell us about the book.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
You good plub thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You know.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
The book started because a reporter at the Palm Beach
Post by the name of Dan moffatt Uh. He was
the sports editor, and I was on the sports commission,
and ultimately he became an editor of the major paper.
But we talked about ten minutes of sports and he
had followed ed and I because we believed here a
long time in bumbag, and he would ask a question
(34:00):
and it seems as though you asked me a question,
I've got a story. So we did this for about
a year. I met once a month, and one day
he came and we were meeting and he said, neat
write a book. And I laughed. I said, I don't
think I've been done it to write a book about.
And he said, no needed is found about you, but
your stories are priceless. And he kept it up and
kept it up and did an overview and sent it
(34:22):
to a few people, and that was like five years ago.
And lo and behold, a collaborator called me and we're
on our way to releasing the book. Munch that I continued,
And so the book's not.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Even the book is not out yet. Okay, that's okay,
So just give us, give us an overview. Obviously you
met a lot of people along the pathway of life,
I could tell from the pictures that are on your website.
Give us a story or two which will wet people's
appetite happy too.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
First of all, you have to know that I'm from
a very small town in Ohio and Dina, Ohio. I've
town of maybe three four thousand people at the time
outside of Cleveland. And the chance of me marrying who
sikes me on the walk on the is an anomaly
for one thing. And who introduced us was Mickey Mouse.
(35:14):
So I think that's why Dan thought there was a
story here. And you know ed Ed was a very
accomplished Not only was he a test bitlet a fighter pilot,
but he had two PhDs he helped He's a lunar commander,
lunar module commander on Apollo fourteen, and then he did
the ESP experiments on the moon. And so that was
(35:37):
the journey for a girl from Ohio that was really fascinating.
I met Ed after the year after he had flown,
and he spent the rest of his career, as he
puts it, exploring from the eyeball out. And he brought
Uri Geller here from Israel and studied his psych capabilities.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Be spoons, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
And actually that's when Dan got my attention, because I
kept saying, Dan, you know I don't can't write about
He said, Nita, how many people have wonder Von Braun,
Rob Surling, an arch c Clark, and Uri Geller and
a dinner at your house while URI's spoons. And I said, well, well,
I guess that is fine.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I hope you kept them away from the good silverware.
That's my only concern in.
Speaker 7 (36:28):
But Ed Brown in here and studying in that Standford
Research Institute, which is one of the world's greatest thing tanks,
and as.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
The girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
In the lab and want some amazing things. Trying to
explain it to my poor mother and dad back in
the Dinah was a chore. It was my mother couldn't
quite get her head around the psychic part. The journey
was an interesting one and I learned so much because
Ed explored everything the fruits, the nuts, the flakes, and
(36:59):
the great physicists of all time.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
To also as I understood it, I just did a
quick little research. He believed that about eighty percent of
the items that they now call they used to call
them UFOs. They have a different terminology, you know, they
did different, different phrase, no longer unidentified flying objects, but
(37:24):
it was a sort of a metaphor, sort of another phrase.
And I can't think of it for a moment, but
he believes that about eighty percent of those sightings were
actually visitors from out of space.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
And one of the interesting stories early in my marriage
to Ed, he did the Larry King Show in New
York when he was on radio, and Larry was on
radio and I was in the green room while he
was on the air, and another couple came into the
green room who was going on made the guest next,
and they came in with an item that had a
(37:56):
blanket over it and married.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Very long to edge. So this is all pretty new.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
And they took the blanket off and I said, oh,
what is that?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
They said, well, this is.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
A model of the alien that abducted us.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Okay, okay, it's right.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
You know I was braved.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Well, here's the deal in Nita, I'm flat out of time,
you know from radio. We got to give that now.
People got to read the book. That's a great story.
It's it's Anita Kmitchell dot com. Simple as that. Get
the book coming out, you said in March. All right, well,
best of luck with the book, and we may have
(38:36):
you back if you if you'd like to come on
after the book, come on for a few minutes after
the book is out and available, we'll be happy to
bring you back.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
Okay, I'd love to.
Speaker 7 (38:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Thanks, Anita, you've been a good sport. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
You're welcome. When we get back, we're going to get
the latest on the snow that's coming in this weekend,
and I think it's going to be for real, that's
my sense. But I've sensed that for a couple of
days the weather seems to be ready for a snowdrop.
We'll be back on night's after the nine o'clock news
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