February 28, 2025 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Save the Harbor's 15th Annual JetBlue Shamrock Splash at Constitution Beach in East Boston on Sunday, March 2 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Chris Mancini – Executive Director of Save The Harbor, Save The Bay shared the event details.
30% of Gen Z Won’t Date Someone Who Dislikes Their Favorite Artist/Sports Team! Matt Schulz - Chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree discussed the trend.
Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men? Dr. Berenice Benayoun, Associate Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine At USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology may have the answer.
Freedom Trail Foundation Revolutionary Women Tours Begin Saturday, March 1st, at 10:45 a.m. Kara Zeiberg - Freedom Trail Player - Portrays “Thankful Rice” checked in.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the new iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Save the Harbor's 15th Annual JetBlue Shamrock Splash at Constitution Beach in East Boston on Sunday, March 2 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Chris Mancini – Executive Director of Save The Harbor, Save The Bay shared the event details.
30% of Gen Z Won’t Date Someone Who Dislikes Their Favorite Artist/Sports Team! Matt Schulz - Chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree discussed the trend.
Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men? Dr. Berenice Benayoun, Associate Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine At USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology may have the answer.
Freedom Trail Foundation Revolutionary Women Tours Begin Saturday, March 1st, at 10:45 a.m. Kara Zeiberg - Freedom Trail Player - Portrays “Thankful Rice” checked in.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the new iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling me busy
Boston's news radio. Thank you very much, Nicole. First of all,
let me be the first to wish you a happy
marcht A meteorological spring, as I'm sure you know, starts
in less than four hours, and I will take everyone
right to the cusp of the meteorological spring.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I appreciate that, and you know what I'll be listening into.
And I don't care what kind of spring at this point.
Just get this ice off of my street. Care what
we have to do. Although, yeah, we're getting a little
bit more of like the winter push and we're kind
of in that weird in between where snow is nice
and you know the first part of winter and now
it's just like, please just let me be done. I
(00:43):
think we're all a little afraid.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The beginning of the mud season here. Yeah it's a
simple as that. But I just think it's great. March
is here, spring training is for real, Baseball is very close.
All good things here in December, January and February four
hours snow being a rear y isn't that exciting?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Get out of here, yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Enjoy your weekend having ball.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Have you read too, my friend, Thank you, thanks to Cale.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, I'm in an upbeat mood. We have a great
show schedule for you and I provided pretty much by
the White House players. It was a wild scene today.
We're going to get to all of that beginning at
nine o'clock tonight. My name is Dan Ray. Rob Brooks
is back in the control room tonight. I think it's
going to be a busy night for you. Rob on
the phone, so that's a good thing. We'll get you
(01:31):
all the way until February first, I mean, rather than
March first. This is February twenty eighth, the end of
the month. I know it's not a leap year, so
there's no extra day in February this year. March first
is less than four hours away. We have a four
very special and interesting guest to talk about a variety
of subjects. Going to talk about reopening at the Freedom Trail,
(01:53):
going to talk about why women outlive men. I think
I know the answer to that, and then we're going
to talk about the dating habits of gen Z. They
apparently don't want to date anybody with whom they disagree
with politically. In terms of sports teams, they're very Picky.
We'll get to all of that, but first I want
to welcome Chris Mancini. He is the executive director of
(02:19):
Save the Harbor, Save the Bay, And I guess on
Sunday gonna be a little chili on Sunday. Chris, how
are you this evening? Yeah, it's too bad. This wasn't tomorrow.
It's supposed to be a nicer day tomorrow. A little
chili on Sunday, I'm told. And this is the Save
the Harbor's fiftieth annual Shamrock Splash at Constitution Beach in
(02:44):
East Boston. You must have some very courageous people supporting
your organization, because I liked to maybe dip my toes
into the beach water, you know, once it warms up
mid to late September.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, like you.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Said, it's spring, so we're going swimming.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, that's true, there's no doubt about that. Okay, So
first we'll tell us about your group, Save the Harbor,
Saved the Bay. Which harbor? Which bay? I assume is
Boston Harbor, right.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
That's right. Save the Harbor, say, Boston Harbor, founded in
nineteen eighty six, helped clean up the harbor where we
had I think it's called the Harbor of Shame because
of the millions of gallons of sewage going out there
every day. But as a result of all that work
over the last almost forty years, you know, we have
the cleanest urban beaches in the country, and so we
start celebrating that as soon as possible with our annual
(03:40):
Jet Blue sponsored Shamrock Splash. We'll be there Sunday morning
from eleven till two. We're going to be plunging our
polar Plunge. Folks are raising money for it right now,
and we turn around and we grant that money out
to kids programs, community organizations, literacy programs, all to do
(04:01):
free public events on our our amazing clean beaches all
summer long.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Back in the day, there was a Superior Court judge,
I think it was Paul Garretty who was in charge
of the cleanup of the harbor.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
He was sludge Judge, the flooded blood Judge Garrety.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, great friend from for many years and uh he's
passed on, but uh what it's just just a great guy.
So so all of this takes place at Constitution Beach
in East Boston. Let's let's get some of the times
and what time people should be there. So I want
to find out if there is some hearty souls out
(04:39):
there tonight who were who would like to join you
in the polar plunge. We want to get in. So
let's let's let's talk about the timing of this. What
what time folks? It says eleven to two? What time
can folks turn up? All right?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, well so you know the chiefs got a shamrock
splash dot or you can get all the details. But yeah,
we start at eleven That's when people are showing up
and signing in. At eleven forty five am, we're doing
our costume contest. We have six round trip Jet Blue
flights that people are going to walk home with on Sunday,
and two of those folks are going to win that
(05:18):
costume contest and take a Jet Blue flight home. So
you can show up in costume. You know, here's the
cheet code. You don't even have to go in the water,
although there is a little bit of street cred to
be earned for that. So yeah, eleven forty five is
the costume contest. At twelve sharp, we splash and you
can stay in for half a second, which might be preferable.
Or We've got a couple folks there who try to
(05:39):
break their record every year, and I think they're up
to ten minutes they sit there in this ice bath,
but I will say it looks like it's going to
be cold. We are also sponsored by FMC Ice Sports.
They run the ice rink right there. I think they
moved to practice so that we can all be in
there warming up. They have hot showers, hot chocolate, So
if anyone's on the fence, it's going to be called
(06:01):
show up anyway, because we've got Sam Adams there, We've
got down Eastsider, we've got food from East Boston, and
we've got warm showers and the ice drink to keep
us warm if we need it well.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And how how many folks do you think you attract,
either as participants or people who actually jump in the water.
What what have you done in prior years? Oh?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, we've got we've got, you know, three hundred people
on the beach, and depending on the weather on the day,
you know how many of those folks are going in
the water, and then how many just wrap themselves into
towel and then shiver to act like they did?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't think that that many people
who would take the time to show up. I mean,
what's the difference between if the water temperature is thirty
seven and thirty six? You really can't tell the difference
when you think about it.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got perfect pitch for water temperature.
But I don't know how common that is.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, okay, And so do people raise funds? Is there
a participant participatory? See? How do you raise the money?
Do people pledge a dollar for every second someone who's
staying in the water? How does this work?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
You sign up, You register for thirty dollars. You can
also buy a ticket to the event for thirty dollars. Actually,
the only thing we do all year that's cost any money.
Everything else save the Harbord does is free, open to
the public. We go cruises to the Harbor islands, We
do concerts and camps and all sorts of great stuff.
So there's that. So you can show up.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You can.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You can pay the thirty dollars and enjoy all the
food and beverages and the costume contest for that and
yes on shamrocks blush. I know, you can also set
up a fundraising page, and we're two days out, so
there's not that much time left to fundraise. But we
are just about five thousand dollars shy of our fifty
thousand dollars goal, and so we are really looking for
some folks. If you just want to log on, you
(07:52):
can donate to me, or you can donate to any
of the participants up there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Okay, well, let's let's give the website nice, nice and
slowly so everybody can can write it down.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Go ahead, you got it, of course, www dot shamrock,
splash dot org.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah you know that w W. Yeah, that w W stuff.
That's that's long gone. I don't know. I was like, shamrock, No,
trust me, I do this. A bunch of dots shamrock
splash dot org will get you to exactly where you
want to go. It's as simple as that. Yeah. Www
(08:30):
was was pretty good about twenty years ago. But I think, yeah,
I think that's a little passe. At this point, I
just try to say this. I think that's all.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I misspell it too.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
At this point in the the search engines are good
enough to find the right thing for me.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Oh yeah, Well, that's true too, but shamrock, splash dot org.
Everybody knows how to get there. Chris Mncini, thanks very much.
And it's a great a great cause. It's a little chilly,
but it's a great cause. So I encourage everyone to
get out there. And if I was a little braver,
i'd probably do it. But as I said, I am,
(09:05):
I am cold waller.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We'll get you year.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, maybe I'll work on the beg you Chris, you
got you soon. All right, we get back. We're going
to talk to someone who's going to explain to us
that gen Zers, about thirty percent of them won't date
people who dislike their favorite artist, who dislike their favorite
sports team. And I don't think gen zs will date
(09:31):
across party lines Democrat Republicans, so kind of cuts down
the uh, the group of people you can date. We'll
talk with Matt Schultz on the other side of this break.
My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside on WBC
ten thirty Am or the AM dial, I should say,
Rob Brooks, the producer of this program, is sitting back
(09:53):
in the comfort of the control room at Broadcast Central,
and I would remind you that you can always get
the iHeart app. You can download that very easily. You
can make WBZ a preset on that and you'll be
able to so easily find us anytime of day or night,
any day during the year, anywhere in the world. It's
a great easy app downloaded and use as a preset
(10:17):
WBZ Radio. My name's Dan right, be right back. We're
going to talk about gen Z. We talk about them
a lot. Now back to Dan Ray live from the
Window World, Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Once again,
we're talking about the Zers. We talk about this group.
(10:37):
These are the folks who have been born, came into
this world in the mid nineteen nineties, and I guess
the end of gen Z's birth year is twenty twelve.
With us is Matt Schultz. He's the chief consumer finance
analyst at lending Tree. Have I picked the approximate right
(10:57):
dates for gen Z? Matt, how are you to night?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I'm doing all right? Yeah, that's that's basically it.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I'm my son is a freshman in college and he's
eighteen and he is smack in the middle of gen Z.
So that's so you got that right?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, So your son if he's yeah, I don't know
what year he was born. But but gen Zs, some
of them, the oldest, those who were born in the
mid nineties, would now be creeping towards middle age, only
getting they they would be in there maybe they're they're
their mid their late mid to late twenties, and if
(11:38):
they were born in two twenty and twenty twelve, they
could be just entering their teenage years in twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty five, So they're a young, young cohort of individuals.
And blending Tree comes in this into this because you
guys are always worried about financial incompatibility. So the couple
(12:01):
might be all together on a lot of different interests.
But now we find out that beyond you know, financial incompatibility,
which can obviously interrupt relationships, we know that politically, the
gen Zs are very sensitive in terms of whether they
(12:22):
want to date or spend time with people who might
view the world differently, i e. Republican or Democrat, conservative liberal.
But now you've done another a couple of surveys here
which says that thirty percent of gen Zers won't date
(12:42):
someone we're not talking about marrying them, won't date someone
who dislikes their favorite artist or sports team. So Red
Sox fan, Yankee fan, that's not going to work. If
you like Madonna and someone else like Taylor Swift, that
doesn't work. This is the fairly closed mindset that a
(13:05):
lot of gen zs have.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I think, what's going on, Well, it's it's certainly interesting,
and it certainly gets to it is a financial thing
as well, because anybody who went to any of Taylor
Swifts shows or has tickets to any professional sports or
(13:29):
or even college sports, knows how expensive they are. And
if you're somebody who spends a lot of money on
your favorite team or artists, yeah, you it's gonna be
something that that you want your partner to be okay with.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So but it is you push let me push back
on that just a little bit. Okay, be sure I
get the point you make it. Look, if you talk
about artists, my kids are a little bit older, and
uh if if they sploite on some concert, they're not
like they're not like the the folks who used to
(14:07):
follow groups around. And I assume that there are the
Taylor swifties who try to go to as many concerts
as they want. But you know, our generation thought about
Grateful Debt, and I know people said, I mean, they've
been to seventy four Grateful Dead concerts. Well, I don't
know how many of them they paid a ticket to.
I don't know how in any close proximity to the stage.
(14:31):
But what about you know, they can watch sports on TV,
there's no additional costs associated with that, go to one
or two concerts. Well, it seems to me there's more
closed mindedness towards if you don't think like I think,
I don't want to be with you, which really makes
life pretty dull.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I think, yeah, there's there's something to be said for that,
and there is also something to be said for us
getting more tribal in about every possible away in this country.
And this is kind of one of those examples. But
I also think just I'm a I'm a gen xer,
and I know I had a lot of my identity
(15:12):
wrapped up around my favorite bands and favorite sports teams
when I was in my twenties. And I can understand
that if you're young and that's kind of what you're
focusing on, and you don't have to you don't have
things like kids and car payments, and you know, super
(15:34):
busy careers to worry about. You can see where that
would be something that would would be a big deal
to you.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean I could see like if if somebody was
I don't know, into duck pin bowling and they lived
their life at a duck pin bowling lane wherever the
one of those might still exist, I could see that,
Or if somebody was into if there was, say someone
who was into quilt competitions, you know, kind of a
(16:03):
little bit of a different, you know, esoteric sort of authority.
But the fact that you know, he roots for the
Red Sox and she grew up in New York and
she's a Yankee fan. I mean, they can't date. I
just I don't understand it. And I'm just wondering, do
you think this as every every generation has gone through
(16:26):
this stuff, or is it I seem to have done
a lot with the gen z. Is they very opinionated
and it's like they don't want to even listen even
if it's something as ephemeral as what sports team you
root for, what baseball team you like, what football team
you like, or what artists. I mean, it sounds to
me to be pretty shallow. I hate to put it
like that because I'm probably upsetting gen zs who are
(16:48):
listening to me.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
No, I do think the two degree. Every young generation
has a lot of things that they are in common
with the last generation when they were young, and and
like I was saying, I think that did before you
really kind of know what you want. You think you
(17:13):
know what you want, and one of the things that
may be a super big priority for you at those
points is liking the same sort of music because you
can't imagine a time that would come where you wouldn't
spend your weekends at the club watching your favorite bands,
or at the sports bar watching you know, watching the
(17:36):
Celtics or whatever. And it's it's some of it is
just a growth and maturation thing.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, I think I think that's the key. Actually, if
folks want to find some of the articles that you've written,
can you reference a couple of them maybe that that
you might like people to check out. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, lending Tree's got lots of information to help people out.
And the one that I always talk about the most
is we asked people if they had ever asked for
a lower interest rate on their credit card when we've
done this survey for years and years and years, and
the last time we did it, it showed that the
(18:22):
ree out of every four people who had done it
got their way and the average reduction was like six points.
So it's like going from like twenty five percent to
nineteen percent, and it's something that can be a really
significant difference, and that you can find that information on
lending tree.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So just lendingtree dot com. Yep, perfect, perfect, Matt Schultz.
I enjoyed it. We'll have you back again. These are
interesting topics to me. We need to spend more time
on some of these and get it. Get some gen
z's in here and tell us what they disagree about,
like shit, life is too short. Thank you, Matt, appreciate
(19:02):
you call very much. Have a great weekend and happy March.
March will be here in about three and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Absolutely same to you.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Thanks coming right back. We will be back right after
our newscast at the bottom of the hour, and we
are going to ask a very obvious question, why do
women live longer than men. We're going to talk with
an expert who's an associate professor of gerontology. But I
think I know the answer and I'm going to run
it by the expert, and then she'll tell me I'm wrong,
(19:32):
and we'll find out why why women live longer than men.
We'll be back on night Side after this. It's Night
Side with Boston's News Radio. All right now, I am
delighted to welcome doctor. I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly,
doctor Berenice. Benny yun correct?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Benny, Yes, this is correct.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Thank you very much. You're an Associate Professor of sarontology,
biological sciences, biochemistry, and Molecular Medicine at USC the Leonard
Davis School of Gerontology. Wow, that's an impressive resume. The
question is why do women live longer than men? Here's
my pop quiz answer, because men end up doing some
(20:20):
pretty great dangerous things like being in the military, being firefighters,
being police officers, Nascar drivers. I know that's probably not
going to be the correct answer, but I just wanted
to run that one by you just for fun.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
No, so that's definitely, that's definitely not helping. Let's just
say it like this. But there's definitely in addition to
just you know, risk taking behavior, there are also some
biological underlying, you know, driving those those differences that we
can actually see Uh, in a lot of mammals. Actually
(20:58):
females are longer lived that than males, and in that
case they don't necessarily, you know, drive NASCAR. So we
can know that in controlled condition, being male is a
detriment to a long lifestan.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Wow, I never thought I would hear a professor say that.
Uh again, what is what is the the life expectancy?
I know that the COVID plague has messed up the
life expectancies and our life expectancies with which for you know,
for many many years, have decades, actually have been getting longer,
(21:36):
generally for both men and women, I believe has dropped
in the last of a couple of years because of
of COVID. Am I correct on that.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Assumption, Yes, then you're you're perfectly correct.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Although it had been going up for several decades, the
COVID pandemic definitely not only erased those games, but actually
led to a reduction in the life expectancy. So right
now it's about eighty years for women in the US
and about seventy four seventy five years for men.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
WHOA, So that's a big spin. That's a difference of
five to six years, which is interesting. So what are
the difference is if it is not. And again, of
course in recent years, more women have been in the military,
more women and police officers. I've covered stories on this
program where female police officers sadly were shot in the
(22:34):
line of duty. There are more women firefighters. You know,
there was a period of time when when men really
were doing the jobs. I keep seeing those pictures from
the building of the Empire, State Building of these guys
walking planks Sandwich City, right, that classic shot everybody having
(22:54):
the sandwich. I mean I would have been hugging visiting
the actually like they're sitting in a park. An amazing photograph.
So what are the underlying causes that we need to
understand better?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And so there's there's still contributors. So you know, in research,
when we see differences between females and males, we are
always asking ourselves what's the driver. And so there's actually
two drivers and both are equally important in this phenomenon.
One of them is basically females and women in general
(23:30):
will be will have XX chromosomes, whereas men will have
X Y chromosome. And it turns out that having a
single copy of the X means that men don't have
a backup copy. If one of the genes is you know,
slightly defective, which you know happens there's constant mutations in
the human population, there wouldn't be a backup copy, and
(23:54):
so that immediately creates additional risk for males not to
have that. And so yeah, so that's the first thing.
And there's a lot of super important brain health genes
and immune regulation genes on the X, so that would
definitely impact these things. And on the other side, there's
(24:15):
also the question of gonadal hormones. Right, Like women in
general are going to have higher levels of estrogens, men
are going to have higher levels of drogens. And I'm
sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but estrogens
are really good for you, and androgens tend to be
really bad for you. There's actually some really interesting historical
(24:36):
data looking at the survival of unux in Korea during
the Empire, and they were substantially longer lived than you know,
intact men of the same station, you know, nobles basically,
so we know to stosterone is bad for you, and
we know estrogen is good for you, like later age
at menopause. So when women basically have and dogenus production
(25:00):
of estrogens for longer is actually the best predictor for
overall longevity.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Thank you, nic thing that I think I'll pass on
that actually, and I'll take the short life life span
even with that as a factor. This is fascinating stuff.
Is there statistically no impact particularly in you know, prior
(25:26):
generations when women were more I don't know I'm talking
when I say sheltered what I mean by that they
were you know, home makers and homebodies in the fifties,
let's say, in early sixties, and men were still going
out to work forty hours a week. Did those factors
(25:47):
at play or is this is all this seems to
sounds to me like you're saying it is all in
effect biological.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Majority of the effect is biological. Because also when we
look you know, nowadays, throughout the world, where there's still
societies where you know, women are quote unquote sheltered, or
when actually there's equal distribution, you know, hunter gatherer societies,
the female advantage is conserved. There is literally not a
single human population where we have life expectancy data where
(26:21):
women do not outlive men by you know, an average
of at least five years. And obviously when you have
things like you know, big wars that decimated men, you know,
like nineteen fourteen, nineteen eighteen, nineteen thirty nine, nineteen forty
five that did further, you know, increase the gap. But
even like again across societies industrially developed, underdeveloped, hunter gatherer societies,
(26:47):
the female advantage is always observed in humans.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Well, a fascinating field of study that you're that you're
involved in, is there is we always talk of science
is never being settled. This sounds to me like this
is an area of science which is pretty settled.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
I mean, there's aspects that are settled, right Like, so
we know that that difference exists, but then you know,
understanding what you know obviously the sex chromosome, the sex chromones,
that's one layer. But what we want to do as scientists,
and especially in this field we actually call it the
geoscience field, is not just increased lifespan. It's also increase
(27:30):
what we call health span, so the number of year
years that were healthy. And in that in that context,
actually the advantage is flipped. Women have much worse health
span than men. And so the idea in this field
when we study sex differences, like my lab does is
that we can learn from the sex that does better,
(27:51):
whether be it in longevity or health, and by figuring
out the molecular pathways behind that, we might be able
to create therapys that benefit the other sex.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Right.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
And so because most people, I'm sure you included, most
men wouldn't want to take estrogens to get the female benefit,
and most women would not want to take endrogens to
get the male benefit, what we're trying to do is
identify pathways that wouldn't have these kind of impacts right
on health and and wouldn't masculinize or feminize you know,
(28:25):
other aspects of of your of your biology.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Basically. So what I'm hearing, what I think i'm hearing
what you're saying is that women will live longer on air,
but men might have a higher percentage of healthy lives,
and that that there could be women who might live five,
you know, on an average five years longer, but for
(28:48):
a number of reasons, medically otherwise, that that the quality
of their life might might they may last longer, but
it might diminish more quickly.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
Is that, yeah, that is absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I'm ready to I'm ready to take I'm ready to
take the spot quiz Monday morning, professor, what time's class?
Speaker 5 (29:08):
No?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Thank you, No, I'm I'm you explained it so well.
I do listen. But I think you explained it well.
And guess what, I think most people can understand what
you're saying. That that and oftentimes when a male predeceases
a female. Uh, I've noticed it in my own experience
that sometimes the male will will pass off an unexpected
(29:33):
massive heart attack, and the vibrancy of the surviving spouse
diminishes pretty pretty quickly. So, you know, it's fascinating field
of study. I would love to have you back some night.
I appreciate you. How can folks get more information? Most
people who are here have written or on my show
(29:55):
have written a book, or have have some some product.
They might be U, you're not pitching a product that
you're providing us with great information. Is there any any
way that you'd like to direct people towards your field
of study?
Speaker 6 (30:10):
So, like you say, I don't have like something that's
necessarily super accessible to the LA audience to promote, but
you know, there's more and more people like me doing
this work. I think it's important to realize, you know,
the implications for health, because you know, as long as
(30:31):
you're alive, you're aging, and so being able to have
healthy aging is really something that's that's crucial. And so
I am just hoping that the public can understand the
importance of the work we do.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Right And as I have said to friends of mine recently,
no one gets out of this place alive, so no
matter how hard exactly anyway, Professor I really enjoyed our conversation.
Thank you much, Professor Barones Betting you of USC Leonard
Davis School of Gerontology. I hope to talk with you again.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Have a good night you too.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Bye bye. We come back on to talk with a
member of the Freedom Trail Foundation. The Freedom Trail rock
Walks begin tomorrow at ten forty five am. Winter's over.
Another sign this spring is here. Back after this at
night Side. Now back to Dan ray Line from the
Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Well,
(31:29):
as I have mentioned a couple of times, tonight, we
are about I don't know, three hours and ten minutes
away from March. First, this is the last evening of February,
so tomorrow brand new month starts. Also what's what's called
meteorological spring. Spring doesn't technically start until March twenty first,
but mediaorological spring is March, April and May. And one
(31:49):
of the signs of spring here in New England is
when the Freedom Trail gets active again. And with us
is one of the Freedom Trail players. Kara Zeiberg, Hey care,
welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 5 (32:02):
I'm great, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm just wonderful. Now you portray, when you're in costume,
a woman by the name of Thankful Rice.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Correct, correct, yep, correct.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And just give us a quick little synopsis of the
person you portray. Tell us a little bit about her,
and then I want to talk about how people can
get tickets and all of that.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Absolutely, so I portray a woman named Thankful Rice, who
I portray as a colonial spy. Very often women. Children
were very involved in spying during the American Revolution. One
of my favorite notes about spies in the Revolutionary period
is young boys like six, seven, eight years old would
(32:53):
go into Paul Reverer's smith's shop and they would lose
a button in the shop, which with kids at a
young age may leave and no one would take any notice.
But in those cloth buttons. Their mothers would have sewn
in information that Paul Revere would, you know, disseminate to
other members of the Sons of Liberty. So thankful is
(33:17):
you know, not one of these mothers. But she's hearing
information from British officers during the Quartering Act when it
was reinstated in seventeen seventy four. So she's bringing information
to the Sons of Liberty and helping with the Revolutionary
war effort.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh, I never knew. I never knew that. So you
were portraying an adult woman who has traps a child
or two, who was involved in the earliest full runner
of the CIA. Essentially basically one way to look at it,
I guess. So, yeah, yeah, is tomorrow in effect opening
(33:58):
day is the the tours. They take a little break
during January and February or Christmas time.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
So we've been doing our regular Walk into History tours.
We do those all year round, but next tomorrow starts
Women's History Month, and so I'm going to be doing
the first Revolutionary Women's History tour of the year, and
that is at ten and refreshment recollection.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Do you gather near the Park Street station.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
So it's actually right in front of the Visitors Information
Center on Boston Common, right across from the Dunkin Donuts. Yeah,
at the sort of the back entrance to the Park
Street station.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah yeah, not far right, not far. And the tickets
they can be purchased, I assume, or reservations made in advance,
or they can just show up, you know, ten thirty
or so and get themselves all squared away. How folks
do you normally lead? I'm sure that on some days
(35:02):
it's busier than others. But what's a normal group of
people who you who will prosess with you along the
Freedom Trail?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
So I would say for the specialty tours like the
Women's History Tour or the Revolutionary Women's History Tour, I
usually see a smaller number of people. I'll usually get
between like maybe five to I don't think I've had
more than twenty in a group, unless it's like a
Girl Scout group doing a private tour. But with the
(35:30):
larger with the Walk into History tours, especially in the summer,
they can get pretty pretty large.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Well, I guess the advantage then tomorrow is supposed to
be a really nice day, and if people are going
to be downtown Boston, or if they want to drive in,
they can join up with you. And probably it's easier
for someone on the tour, the smaller of the group,
easier for them to interact with you and ask questions, Now,
do you stay fully in character? Or are are you?
(36:00):
Is your conversation with them, you know, twenty first century
language conversation.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
It's kind of so it kind of varies from player
to player. There is obviously a little bit more leeway
with our characterization as far as interacting with the twenty
first century than there is at like Plymouth Peduxit where
it's an enclosed environment. So like Plymouth Tuxit Sturbridge Village,
they're in a controlled environment where they don't have any
(36:29):
of that twenty first century technology going around. I'm in
the middle of downtown Boston. I can't you know, go,
oh my goodness, what's that? Every time someone pulls out
a cell phone on the tour. So there is a
bit more you know, modern interaction as well. But I'm
you know, in the costume. Any you know, questions that
people have about eighteenth century I, you know, easily launch
(36:52):
into no.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No, I totally get it. You sound like you're a
great tour guide, so it starts at ten forty five
to how long for people who are having questions about
you know, ambl ambulatory distances. Uh, most tours are cover
what mile mile and a half or more? How how
how long are the toys physically, So it's.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
A little around a mile. I would say there are
parts where we go sort of up to Beacon Hill,
so there's some hill climbing. Uh. But as far as
like if if someone who you know, there's a stair section,
so if you know, someone is unable to do the stairs,
I have ways of you know, maneuvering around that sort
(37:38):
of situation. There's you know, Boston is very difficult to
walk around with all the cobblestones. So but I've been
doing it for a while. I've kind of figured out
different different situations like Okay, we have to go this
way and and we'll we'll talk about this person here,
and I have laminettes to show folks when certain things
(38:03):
aren't visible well that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Those cobblestones do add to the reality of the seventh
of the eighteenth century. Sh exactly all right, Kara, Thanks
very much, job. I love your passion for what you do,
which is so important and tomorrow ten forty five Freedom Trail, Boston,
b There Wi Be Square. It is supposed to be
a nice day, So best of luck on opening day.
(38:26):
Karen z Iberg portraying thankful Rice, and we're very thankful
that you joined us tonight, Kara, thank you.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Much, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Dan, You're we When we get back, we're going to
talk about the big story of the day, and that
is the meeting in the Oval Office between and amongst
President Donald Trump, Vice President j d Vance, and Ukrainian
President Voladimir Zelenski. It was wild. We'll play it for you.
If you didn't have a chance to hear it, you
(38:56):
will hear it in its entirety. It's about nine minutes long,
but it is wild.
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling me busy
Boston's news radio. Thank you very much, Nicole. First of all,
let me be the first to wish you a happy
marcht A meteorological spring, as I'm sure you know, starts
in less than four hours, and I will take everyone
right to the cusp of the meteorological spring.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I appreciate that, and you know what I'll be listening into.
And I don't care what kind of spring at this point.
Just get this ice off of my street. Care what
we have to do. Although, yeah, we're getting a little
bit more of like the winter push and we're kind
of in that weird in between where snow is nice
and you know the first part of winter and now
it's just like, please just let me be done. I
(00:43):
think we're all a little afraid.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The beginning of the mud season here. Yeah it's a
simple as that. But I just think it's great. March
is here, spring training is for real, Baseball is very close.
All good things here in December, January and February four
hours snow being a rear y isn't that exciting?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Get out of here, yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Enjoy your weekend having ball.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Have you read too, my friend, Thank you, thanks to Cale.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, I'm in an upbeat mood. We have a great
show schedule for you and I provided pretty much by
the White House players. It was a wild scene today.
We're going to get to all of that beginning at
nine o'clock tonight. My name is Dan Ray. Rob Brooks
is back in the control room tonight. I think it's
going to be a busy night for you. Rob on
the phone, so that's a good thing. We'll get you
(01:31):
all the way until February first, I mean, rather than
March first. This is February twenty eighth, the end of
the month. I know it's not a leap year, so
there's no extra day in February this year. March first
is less than four hours away. We have a four
very special and interesting guest to talk about a variety
of subjects. Going to talk about reopening at the Freedom Trail,
(01:53):
going to talk about why women outlive men. I think
I know the answer to that, and then we're going
to talk about the dating habits of gen Z. They
apparently don't want to date anybody with whom they disagree
with politically. In terms of sports teams, they're very Picky.
We'll get to all of that, but first I want
to welcome Chris Mancini. He is the executive director of
(02:19):
Save the Harbor, Save the Bay, And I guess on
Sunday gonna be a little chili on Sunday. Chris, how
are you this evening? Yeah, it's too bad. This wasn't tomorrow.
It's supposed to be a nicer day tomorrow. A little
chili on Sunday, I'm told. And this is the Save
the Harbor's fiftieth annual Shamrock Splash at Constitution Beach in
(02:44):
East Boston. You must have some very courageous people supporting
your organization, because I liked to maybe dip my toes
into the beach water, you know, once it warms up
mid to late September.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, like you.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Said, it's spring, so we're going swimming.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, that's true, there's no doubt about that. Okay, So
first we'll tell us about your group, Save the Harbor,
Saved the Bay. Which harbor? Which bay? I assume is
Boston Harbor, right.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
That's right. Save the Harbor, say, Boston Harbor, founded in
nineteen eighty six, helped clean up the harbor where we
had I think it's called the Harbor of Shame because
of the millions of gallons of sewage going out there
every day. But as a result of all that work
over the last almost forty years, you know, we have
the cleanest urban beaches in the country, and so we
start celebrating that as soon as possible with our annual
(03:40):
Jet Blue sponsored Shamrock Splash. We'll be there Sunday morning
from eleven till two. We're going to be plunging our
polar Plunge. Folks are raising money for it right now,
and we turn around and we grant that money out
to kids programs, community organizations, literacy programs, all to do
(04:01):
free public events on our our amazing clean beaches all
summer long.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Back in the day, there was a Superior Court judge,
I think it was Paul Garretty who was in charge
of the cleanup of the harbor.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
He was sludge Judge, the flooded blood Judge Garrety.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, great friend from for many years and uh he's
passed on, but uh what it's just just a great guy.
So so all of this takes place at Constitution Beach
in East Boston. Let's let's get some of the times
and what time people should be there. So I want
to find out if there is some hearty souls out
(04:39):
there tonight who were who would like to join you
in the polar plunge. We want to get in. So
let's let's let's talk about the timing of this. What
what time folks? It says eleven to two? What time
can folks turn up? All right?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, well so you know the chiefs got a shamrock
splash dot or you can get all the details. But yeah,
we start at eleven That's when people are showing up
and signing in. At eleven forty five am, we're doing
our costume contest. We have six round trip Jet Blue
flights that people are going to walk home with on Sunday,
and two of those folks are going to win that
(05:18):
costume contest and take a Jet Blue flight home. So
you can show up in costume. You know, here's the
cheet code. You don't even have to go in the water,
although there is a little bit of street cred to
be earned for that. So yeah, eleven forty five is
the costume contest. At twelve sharp, we splash and you
can stay in for half a second, which might be preferable.
Or We've got a couple folks there who try to
(05:39):
break their record every year, and I think they're up
to ten minutes they sit there in this ice bath,
but I will say it looks like it's going to
be cold. We are also sponsored by FMC Ice Sports.
They run the ice rink right there. I think they
moved to practice so that we can all be in
there warming up. They have hot showers, hot chocolate, So
if anyone's on the fence, it's going to be called
(06:01):
show up anyway, because we've got Sam Adams there, We've
got down Eastsider, we've got food from East Boston, and
we've got warm showers and the ice drink to keep
us warm if we need it well.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And how how many folks do you think you attract,
either as participants or people who actually jump in the water.
What what have you done in prior years? Oh?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, we've got we've got, you know, three hundred people
on the beach, and depending on the weather on the day,
you know how many of those folks are going in
the water, and then how many just wrap themselves into
towel and then shiver to act like they did?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't think that that many people
who would take the time to show up. I mean,
what's the difference between if the water temperature is thirty
seven and thirty six? You really can't tell the difference
when you think about it.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got perfect pitch for water temperature.
But I don't know how common that is.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, okay, And so do people raise funds? Is there
a participant participatory? See? How do you raise the money?
Do people pledge a dollar for every second someone who's
staying in the water? How does this work?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
You sign up, You register for thirty dollars. You can
also buy a ticket to the event for thirty dollars. Actually,
the only thing we do all year that's cost any money.
Everything else save the Harbord does is free, open to
the public. We go cruises to the Harbor islands, We
do concerts and camps and all sorts of great stuff.
So there's that. So you can show up.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You can.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You can pay the thirty dollars and enjoy all the
food and beverages and the costume contest for that and
yes on shamrocks blush. I know, you can also set
up a fundraising page, and we're two days out, so
there's not that much time left to fundraise. But we
are just about five thousand dollars shy of our fifty
thousand dollars goal, and so we are really looking for
some folks. If you just want to log on, you
(07:52):
can donate to me, or you can donate to any
of the participants up there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Okay, well, let's let's give the website nice, nice and
slowly so everybody can can write it down.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Go ahead, you got it, of course, www dot shamrock,
splash dot org.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah you know that w W. Yeah, that w W stuff.
That's that's long gone. I don't know. I was like, shamrock, No,
trust me, I do this. A bunch of dots shamrock
splash dot org will get you to exactly where you
want to go. It's as simple as that. Yeah. Www
(08:30):
was was pretty good about twenty years ago. But I think, yeah,
I think that's a little passe. At this point, I
just try to say this. I think that's all.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I misspell it too.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
At this point in the the search engines are good
enough to find the right thing for me.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Oh yeah, Well, that's true too, but shamrock, splash dot org.
Everybody knows how to get there. Chris Mncini, thanks very much.
And it's a great a great cause. It's a little chilly,
but it's a great cause. So I encourage everyone to
get out there. And if I was a little braver,
i'd probably do it. But as I said, I am,
(09:05):
I am cold waller.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We'll get you year.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, maybe I'll work on the beg you Chris, you
got you soon. All right, we get back. We're going
to talk to someone who's going to explain to us
that gen Zers, about thirty percent of them won't date
people who dislike their favorite artist, who dislike their favorite
sports team. And I don't think gen zs will date
(09:31):
across party lines Democrat Republicans, so kind of cuts down
the uh, the group of people you can date. We'll
talk with Matt Schultz on the other side of this break.
My name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside on WBC
ten thirty Am or the AM dial, I should say,
Rob Brooks, the producer of this program, is sitting back
(09:53):
in the comfort of the control room at Broadcast Central,
and I would remind you that you can always get
the iHeart app. You can download that very easily. You
can make WBZ a preset on that and you'll be
able to so easily find us anytime of day or night,
any day during the year, anywhere in the world. It's
a great easy app downloaded and use as a preset
(10:17):
WBZ Radio. My name's Dan right, be right back. We're
going to talk about gen Z. We talk about them
a lot. Now back to Dan Ray live from the
Window World, Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Once again,
we're talking about the Zers. We talk about this group.
(10:37):
These are the folks who have been born, came into
this world in the mid nineteen nineties, and I guess
the end of gen Z's birth year is twenty twelve.
With us is Matt Schultz. He's the chief consumer finance
analyst at lending Tree. Have I picked the approximate right
(10:57):
dates for gen Z? Matt, how are you to night?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I'm doing all right? Yeah, that's that's basically it.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I'm my son is a freshman in college and he's
eighteen and he is smack in the middle of gen Z.
So that's so you got that right?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, So your son if he's yeah, I don't know
what year he was born. But but gen Zs, some
of them, the oldest, those who were born in the
mid nineties, would now be creeping towards middle age, only
getting they they would be in there maybe they're they're
their mid their late mid to late twenties, and if
(11:38):
they were born in two twenty and twenty twelve, they
could be just entering their teenage years in twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty five, So they're a young, young cohort of individuals.
And blending Tree comes in this into this because you
guys are always worried about financial incompatibility. So the couple
(12:01):
might be all together on a lot of different interests.
But now we find out that beyond you know, financial incompatibility,
which can obviously interrupt relationships, we know that politically, the
gen Zs are very sensitive in terms of whether they
(12:22):
want to date or spend time with people who might
view the world differently, i e. Republican or Democrat, conservative liberal.
But now you've done another a couple of surveys here
which says that thirty percent of gen Zers won't date
(12:42):
someone we're not talking about marrying them, won't date someone
who dislikes their favorite artist or sports team. So Red
Sox fan, Yankee fan, that's not going to work. If
you like Madonna and someone else like Taylor Swift, that
doesn't work. This is the fairly closed mindset that a
(13:05):
lot of gen zs have.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I think, what's going on, Well, it's it's certainly interesting,
and it certainly gets to it is a financial thing
as well, because anybody who went to any of Taylor
Swifts shows or has tickets to any professional sports or
(13:29):
or even college sports, knows how expensive they are. And
if you're somebody who spends a lot of money on
your favorite team or artists, yeah, you it's gonna be
something that that you want your partner to be okay with.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So but it is you push let me push back
on that just a little bit. Okay, be sure I
get the point you make it. Look, if you talk
about artists, my kids are a little bit older, and
uh if if they sploite on some concert, they're not
like they're not like the the folks who used to
(14:07):
follow groups around. And I assume that there are the
Taylor swifties who try to go to as many concerts
as they want. But you know, our generation thought about
Grateful Debt, and I know people said, I mean, they've
been to seventy four Grateful Dead concerts. Well, I don't
know how many of them they paid a ticket to.
I don't know how in any close proximity to the stage.
(14:31):
But what about you know, they can watch sports on TV,
there's no additional costs associated with that, go to one
or two concerts. Well, it seems to me there's more
closed mindedness towards if you don't think like I think,
I don't want to be with you, which really makes
life pretty dull.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I think, yeah, there's there's something to be said for that,
and there is also something to be said for us
getting more tribal in about every possible away in this country.
And this is kind of one of those examples. But
I also think just I'm a I'm a gen xer,
and I know I had a lot of my identity
(15:12):
wrapped up around my favorite bands and favorite sports teams
when I was in my twenties. And I can understand
that if you're young and that's kind of what you're
focusing on, and you don't have to you don't have
things like kids and car payments, and you know, super
(15:34):
busy careers to worry about. You can see where that
would be something that would would be a big deal
to you.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean I could see like if if somebody was
I don't know, into duck pin bowling and they lived
their life at a duck pin bowling lane wherever the
one of those might still exist, I could see that,
Or if somebody was into if there was, say someone
who was into quilt competitions, you know, kind of a
(16:03):
little bit of a different, you know, esoteric sort of authority.
But the fact that you know, he roots for the
Red Sox and she grew up in New York and
she's a Yankee fan. I mean, they can't date. I
just I don't understand it. And I'm just wondering, do
you think this as every every generation has gone through
(16:26):
this stuff, or is it I seem to have done
a lot with the gen z. Is they very opinionated
and it's like they don't want to even listen even
if it's something as ephemeral as what sports team you
root for, what baseball team you like, what football team
you like, or what artists. I mean, it sounds to
me to be pretty shallow. I hate to put it
like that because I'm probably upsetting gen zs who are
(16:48):
listening to me.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
No, I do think the two degree. Every young generation
has a lot of things that they are in common
with the last generation when they were young, and and
like I was saying, I think that did before you
really kind of know what you want. You think you
(17:13):
know what you want, and one of the things that
may be a super big priority for you at those
points is liking the same sort of music because you
can't imagine a time that would come where you wouldn't
spend your weekends at the club watching your favorite bands,
or at the sports bar watching you know, watching the
(17:36):
Celtics or whatever. And it's it's some of it is
just a growth and maturation thing.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, I think I think that's the key. Actually, if
folks want to find some of the articles that you've written,
can you reference a couple of them maybe that that
you might like people to check out. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, lending Tree's got lots of information to help people out.
And the one that I always talk about the most
is we asked people if they had ever asked for
a lower interest rate on their credit card when we've
done this survey for years and years and years, and
the last time we did it, it showed that the
(18:22):
ree out of every four people who had done it
got their way and the average reduction was like six points.
So it's like going from like twenty five percent to
nineteen percent, and it's something that can be a really
significant difference, and that you can find that information on
lending tree.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So just lendingtree dot com. Yep, perfect, perfect, Matt Schultz.
I enjoyed it. We'll have you back again. These are
interesting topics to me. We need to spend more time
on some of these and get it. Get some gen
z's in here and tell us what they disagree about,
like shit, life is too short. Thank you, Matt, appreciate
(19:02):
you call very much. Have a great weekend and happy March.
March will be here in about three and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Absolutely same to you.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Thanks coming right back. We will be back right after
our newscast at the bottom of the hour, and we
are going to ask a very obvious question, why do
women live longer than men. We're going to talk with
an expert who's an associate professor of gerontology. But I
think I know the answer and I'm going to run
it by the expert, and then she'll tell me I'm wrong,
(19:32):
and we'll find out why why women live longer than men.
We'll be back on night Side after this. It's Night
Side with Boston's News Radio. All right now, I am
delighted to welcome doctor. I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly,
doctor Berenice. Benny yun correct?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Benny, Yes, this is correct.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Thank you very much. You're an Associate Professor of sarontology,
biological sciences, biochemistry, and Molecular Medicine at USC the Leonard
Davis School of Gerontology. Wow, that's an impressive resume. The
question is why do women live longer than men? Here's
my pop quiz answer, because men end up doing some
(20:20):
pretty great dangerous things like being in the military, being firefighters,
being police officers, Nascar drivers. I know that's probably not
going to be the correct answer, but I just wanted
to run that one by you just for fun.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
No, so that's definitely, that's definitely not helping. Let's just
say it like this. But there's definitely in addition to
just you know, risk taking behavior, there are also some
biological underlying, you know, driving those those differences that we
can actually see Uh, in a lot of mammals. Actually
(20:58):
females are longer lived that than males, and in that
case they don't necessarily, you know, drive NASCAR. So we
can know that in controlled condition, being male is a
detriment to a long lifestan.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Wow, I never thought I would hear a professor say that.
Uh again, what is what is the the life expectancy?
I know that the COVID plague has messed up the
life expectancies and our life expectancies with which for you know,
for many many years, have decades, actually have been getting longer,
(21:36):
generally for both men and women, I believe has dropped
in the last of a couple of years because of
of COVID. Am I correct on that.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Assumption, Yes, then you're you're perfectly correct.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Although it had been going up for several decades, the
COVID pandemic definitely not only erased those games, but actually
led to a reduction in the life expectancy. So right
now it's about eighty years for women in the US
and about seventy four seventy five years for men.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
WHOA, So that's a big spin. That's a difference of
five to six years, which is interesting. So what are
the difference is if it is not. And again, of
course in recent years, more women have been in the military,
more women and police officers. I've covered stories on this
program where female police officers sadly were shot in the
(22:34):
line of duty. There are more women firefighters. You know,
there was a period of time when when men really
were doing the jobs. I keep seeing those pictures from
the building of the Empire, State Building of these guys
walking planks Sandwich City, right, that classic shot everybody having
(22:54):
the sandwich. I mean I would have been hugging visiting
the actually like they're sitting in a park. An amazing photograph.
So what are the underlying causes that we need to
understand better?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And so there's there's still contributors. So you know, in research,
when we see differences between females and males, we are
always asking ourselves what's the driver. And so there's actually
two drivers and both are equally important in this phenomenon.
One of them is basically females and women in general
(23:30):
will be will have XX chromosomes, whereas men will have
X Y chromosome. And it turns out that having a
single copy of the X means that men don't have
a backup copy. If one of the genes is you know,
slightly defective, which you know happens there's constant mutations in
the human population, there wouldn't be a backup copy, and
(23:54):
so that immediately creates additional risk for males not to
have that. And so yeah, so that's the first thing.
And there's a lot of super important brain health genes
and immune regulation genes on the X, so that would
definitely impact these things. And on the other side, there's
(24:15):
also the question of gonadal hormones. Right, Like women in
general are going to have higher levels of estrogens, men
are going to have higher levels of drogens. And I'm
sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but estrogens
are really good for you, and androgens tend to be
really bad for you. There's actually some really interesting historical
(24:36):
data looking at the survival of unux in Korea during
the Empire, and they were substantially longer lived than you know,
intact men of the same station, you know, nobles basically,
so we know to stosterone is bad for you, and
we know estrogen is good for you, like later age
at menopause. So when women basically have and dogenus production
(25:00):
of estrogens for longer is actually the best predictor for
overall longevity.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Thank you, nic thing that I think I'll pass on
that actually, and I'll take the short life life span
even with that as a factor. This is fascinating stuff.
Is there statistically no impact particularly in you know, prior
(25:26):
generations when women were more I don't know I'm talking
when I say sheltered what I mean by that they
were you know, home makers and homebodies in the fifties,
let's say, in early sixties, and men were still going
out to work forty hours a week. Did those factors
(25:47):
at play or is this is all this seems to
sounds to me like you're saying it is all in
effect biological.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Majority of the effect is biological. Because also when we
look you know, nowadays, throughout the world, where there's still
societies where you know, women are quote unquote sheltered, or
when actually there's equal distribution, you know, hunter gatherer societies,
the female advantage is conserved. There is literally not a
single human population where we have life expectancy data where
(26:21):
women do not outlive men by you know, an average
of at least five years. And obviously when you have
things like you know, big wars that decimated men, you know,
like nineteen fourteen, nineteen eighteen, nineteen thirty nine, nineteen forty
five that did further, you know, increase the gap. But
even like again across societies industrially developed, underdeveloped, hunter gatherer societies,
(26:47):
the female advantage is always observed in humans.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Well, a fascinating field of study that you're that you're
involved in, is there is we always talk of science
is never being settled. This sounds to me like this
is an area of science which is pretty settled.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
I mean, there's aspects that are settled, right Like, so
we know that that difference exists, but then you know,
understanding what you know obviously the sex chromosome, the sex chromones,
that's one layer. But what we want to do as scientists,
and especially in this field we actually call it the
geoscience field, is not just increased lifespan. It's also increase
(27:30):
what we call health span, so the number of year
years that were healthy. And in that in that context,
actually the advantage is flipped. Women have much worse health
span than men. And so the idea in this field
when we study sex differences, like my lab does is
that we can learn from the sex that does better,
(27:51):
whether be it in longevity or health, and by figuring
out the molecular pathways behind that, we might be able
to create therapys that benefit the other sex.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Right.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
And so because most people, I'm sure you included, most
men wouldn't want to take estrogens to get the female benefit,
and most women would not want to take endrogens to
get the male benefit, what we're trying to do is
identify pathways that wouldn't have these kind of impacts right
on health and and wouldn't masculinize or feminize you know,
(28:25):
other aspects of of your of your biology.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Basically. So what I'm hearing, what I think i'm hearing
what you're saying is that women will live longer on air,
but men might have a higher percentage of healthy lives,
and that that there could be women who might live five,
you know, on an average five years longer, but for
(28:48):
a number of reasons, medically otherwise, that that the quality
of their life might might they may last longer, but
it might diminish more quickly.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
Is that, yeah, that is absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I'm ready to I'm ready to take I'm ready to
take the spot quiz Monday morning, professor, what time's class?
Speaker 5 (29:08):
No?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Thank you, No, I'm I'm you explained it so well.
I do listen. But I think you explained it well.
And guess what, I think most people can understand what
you're saying. That that and oftentimes when a male predeceases
a female. Uh, I've noticed it in my own experience
that sometimes the male will will pass off an unexpected
(29:33):
massive heart attack, and the vibrancy of the surviving spouse
diminishes pretty pretty quickly. So, you know, it's fascinating field
of study. I would love to have you back some night.
I appreciate you. How can folks get more information? Most
people who are here have written or on my show
(29:55):
have written a book, or have have some some product.
They might be U, you're not pitching a product that
you're providing us with great information. Is there any any
way that you'd like to direct people towards your field
of study?
Speaker 6 (30:10):
So, like you say, I don't have like something that's
necessarily super accessible to the LA audience to promote, but
you know, there's more and more people like me doing
this work. I think it's important to realize, you know,
the implications for health, because you know, as long as
(30:31):
you're alive, you're aging, and so being able to have
healthy aging is really something that's that's crucial. And so
I am just hoping that the public can understand the
importance of the work we do.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Right And as I have said to friends of mine recently,
no one gets out of this place alive, so no
matter how hard exactly anyway, Professor I really enjoyed our conversation.
Thank you much, Professor Barones Betting you of USC Leonard
Davis School of Gerontology. I hope to talk with you again.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Have a good night you too.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Bye bye. We come back on to talk with a
member of the Freedom Trail Foundation. The Freedom Trail rock
Walks begin tomorrow at ten forty five am. Winter's over.
Another sign this spring is here. Back after this at
night Side. Now back to Dan ray Line from the
Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Well,
(31:29):
as I have mentioned a couple of times, tonight, we
are about I don't know, three hours and ten minutes
away from March. First, this is the last evening of February,
so tomorrow brand new month starts. Also what's what's called
meteorological spring. Spring doesn't technically start until March twenty first,
but mediaorological spring is March, April and May. And one
(31:49):
of the signs of spring here in New England is
when the Freedom Trail gets active again. And with us
is one of the Freedom Trail players. Kara Zeiberg, Hey care,
welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 5 (32:02):
I'm great, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm just wonderful. Now you portray, when you're in costume,
a woman by the name of Thankful Rice.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Correct, correct, yep, correct.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
And just give us a quick little synopsis of the
person you portray. Tell us a little bit about her,
and then I want to talk about how people can
get tickets and all of that.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Absolutely, so I portray a woman named Thankful Rice, who
I portray as a colonial spy. Very often women. Children
were very involved in spying during the American Revolution. One
of my favorite notes about spies in the Revolutionary period
is young boys like six, seven, eight years old would
(32:53):
go into Paul Reverer's smith's shop and they would lose
a button in the shop, which with kids at a
young age may leave and no one would take any notice.
But in those cloth buttons. Their mothers would have sewn
in information that Paul Revere would, you know, disseminate to
other members of the Sons of Liberty. So thankful is
(33:17):
you know, not one of these mothers. But she's hearing
information from British officers during the Quartering Act when it
was reinstated in seventeen seventy four. So she's bringing information
to the Sons of Liberty and helping with the Revolutionary
war effort.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh, I never knew. I never knew that. So you
were portraying an adult woman who has traps a child
or two, who was involved in the earliest full runner
of the CIA. Essentially basically one way to look at it,
I guess. So, yeah, yeah, is tomorrow in effect opening
(33:58):
day is the the tours. They take a little break
during January and February or Christmas time.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
So we've been doing our regular Walk into History tours.
We do those all year round, but next tomorrow starts
Women's History Month, and so I'm going to be doing
the first Revolutionary Women's History tour of the year, and
that is at ten and refreshment recollection.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Do you gather near the Park Street station.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
So it's actually right in front of the Visitors Information
Center on Boston Common, right across from the Dunkin Donuts. Yeah,
at the sort of the back entrance to the Park
Street station.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah yeah, not far right, not far. And the tickets
they can be purchased, I assume, or reservations made in advance,
or they can just show up, you know, ten thirty
or so and get themselves all squared away. How folks
do you normally lead? I'm sure that on some days
(35:02):
it's busier than others. But what's a normal group of
people who you who will prosess with you along the
Freedom Trail?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
So I would say for the specialty tours like the
Women's History Tour or the Revolutionary Women's History Tour, I
usually see a smaller number of people. I'll usually get
between like maybe five to I don't think I've had
more than twenty in a group, unless it's like a
Girl Scout group doing a private tour. But with the
(35:30):
larger with the Walk into History tours, especially in the summer,
they can get pretty pretty large.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Well, I guess the advantage then tomorrow is supposed to
be a really nice day, and if people are going
to be downtown Boston, or if they want to drive in,
they can join up with you. And probably it's easier
for someone on the tour, the smaller of the group,
easier for them to interact with you and ask questions, Now,
do you stay fully in character? Or are are you?
(36:00):
Is your conversation with them, you know, twenty first century
language conversation.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
It's kind of so it kind of varies from player
to player. There is obviously a little bit more leeway
with our characterization as far as interacting with the twenty
first century than there is at like Plymouth Peduxit where
it's an enclosed environment. So like Plymouth Tuxit Sturbridge Village,
they're in a controlled environment where they don't have any
(36:29):
of that twenty first century technology going around. I'm in
the middle of downtown Boston. I can't you know, go,
oh my goodness, what's that? Every time someone pulls out
a cell phone on the tour. So there is a
bit more you know, modern interaction as well. But I'm
you know, in the costume. Any you know, questions that
people have about eighteenth century I, you know, easily launch
(36:52):
into no.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No, I totally get it. You sound like you're a
great tour guide, so it starts at ten forty five
to how long for people who are having questions about
you know, ambl ambulatory distances. Uh, most tours are cover
what mile mile and a half or more? How how
how long are the toys physically, So it's.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
A little around a mile. I would say there are
parts where we go sort of up to Beacon Hill,
so there's some hill climbing. Uh. But as far as
like if if someone who you know, there's a stair section,
so if you know, someone is unable to do the stairs,
I have ways of you know, maneuvering around that sort
(37:38):
of situation. There's you know, Boston is very difficult to
walk around with all the cobblestones. So but I've been
doing it for a while. I've kind of figured out
different different situations like Okay, we have to go this
way and and we'll we'll talk about this person here,
and I have laminettes to show folks when certain things
(38:03):
aren't visible well that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Those cobblestones do add to the reality of the seventh
of the eighteenth century. Sh exactly all right, Kara, Thanks
very much, job. I love your passion for what you do,
which is so important and tomorrow ten forty five Freedom Trail, Boston,
b There Wi Be Square. It is supposed to be
a nice day, So best of luck on opening day.
(38:26):
Karen z Iberg portraying thankful Rice, and we're very thankful
that you joined us tonight, Kara, thank you.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Much, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Dan, You're we When we get back, we're going to
talk about the big story of the day, and that
is the meeting in the Oval Office between and amongst
President Donald Trump, Vice President j d Vance, and Ukrainian
President Voladimir Zelenski. It was wild. We'll play it for you.
If you didn't have a chance to hear it, you
(38:56):
will hear it in its entirety. It's about nine minutes long,
but it is wild.
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