March 26, 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!
Can Retirees BENEFIT From A Recession? Chris Carosa - Certified Trust & Fiduciary Advisor - Senior Contributor to Forbes and author of Hey! What's My Number: How to Improve the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort has the answer.
Most compounded versions of popular drugs used for weight loss including Wegovy and Zepbound may soon no longer be available after a U.S. judge declined an initial injunction to allow compounding pharmacies to continue making versions. What does this mean for patients using these weight loss drugs? Dr. Lydia Alexander - current President of the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA), a board-certified expert in obesity medicine, lifestyle medicine, and internal medicine discussed it with Dan.
20+ tips for a budget-friendly vacation (and five costly mistakes). With Alyssa Giacobbe – Boston Globe Magazine contributor.
Garden Trends & Basic Gardening Tips for Beginners. When is a good time to start preparing your gardens in New England? What should you be doing to get your gardens ready for the season? Katie Tamony – Chief Marketing Officer at Monrovia Plants checked in!
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Can Retirees BENEFIT From A Recession? Chris Carosa - Certified Trust & Fiduciary Advisor - Senior Contributor to Forbes and author of Hey! What's My Number: How to Improve the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort has the answer.
Most compounded versions of popular drugs used for weight loss including Wegovy and Zepbound may soon no longer be available after a U.S. judge declined an initial injunction to allow compounding pharmacies to continue making versions. What does this mean for patients using these weight loss drugs? Dr. Lydia Alexander - current President of the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA), a board-certified expert in obesity medicine, lifestyle medicine, and internal medicine discussed it with Dan.
20+ tips for a budget-friendly vacation (and five costly mistakes). With Alyssa Giacobbe – Boston Globe Magazine contributor.
Garden Trends & Basic Gardening Tips for Beginners. When is a good time to start preparing your gardens in New England? What should you be doing to get your gardens ready for the season? Katie Tamony – Chief Marketing Officer at Monrovia Plants checked in!
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What a great segue by Nicole Davis. Nicole, as always,
thank you very much. I am the aforementioned Dan Ray.
Ready to rock and roll all the way until midnight tonight,
or just a couple of minutes short of midnight, about
eleven fifty eight. We have guests lined up, a guest
lined up. We have many guests this hour for in fact,
and we have some great topics. We will talk with
(00:29):
the Biden administration Regional administrator for the EPA here in
New England about old power itch issues, power options here
in New England for all of us, as we've just
gone through a very cold winter, which is still kind
of cold for late March in my opinion. Baseball just
(00:50):
around the corner tomorrow the Red Sox open up. The
season actually underway already with the with the games over
in Japan, so we got We will talk with David Cash,
Dave Cash, former Regional Administrator the EPA here in what's
called Region one, New England under the Biden administration. We'll
also continue our conversation about.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
The Yemen signal chat.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And all of the controversy that that has generated. I
have strong opinions on it, and I'd like to share
them with you, but more importantly, I want to hear
your opinions. However, we have a four very interesting guest coming.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Up on a variety of topics.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Here, a little bit of financial planning, and we're going
to talk about weight, drugs, Willgovie and zip Bound and
going to talk about some budget tips for a budget
friendly vacation this summer, and also a little bit about gardening.
So we're going to start it off Chris Carosa. Chris
is a certified trust and fiduciary advisor, senior contributor to Forbes,
(01:46):
and author of Hey What's My Number? How to improve
the odds You'll retire in comfort? That is a question
that if all of us, at some point during our
life have to think about.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Chris corros So, Welcome to night, Satt How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Hey, I'm doing great over here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
How are you just fine?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I certainly do understand we're talking about the idea if
there's a recession on the horizon. I'm not someone who
anticipates a recession, but recessions do occur in our economy,
and I have always thought that the cruelest tax on
retired people seniors is the inflation tax, which of course
(02:29):
is not a tax per se, but when an inflation
hits and the cost of everything goes up, people who
are in fixed incomes, who have worked all their lives,
they feel the front of it. The corollary of that is,
can retirees perhaps have a little bit of a benefit
from a recession? And most people probably would not look
at it that way, But we're asking you to look
(02:51):
at it that way, and I suspect that you're going
to probably say, yes, what's your thought on that?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
There are a couple of ways that you can benefit
from a recession if you're retired again, it depends on
your circumstances. If you're going into recession carrying a debt load, Generally,
in recessions, interest rates go down, so it gives you
an opportunity to refinance. Even on the inflation side, you
(03:18):
do have some discretion on what you're doing with your spending,
and probably a little bit more than if you're working. So,
for example, if you're working, you're going to have to
travel to work, and that costs energy to do, and
energy generally is inflation hits the hardest lot. I mean,
anybody who buys gas will see that. So that's something
(03:38):
you don't have to do you're in retirement. But there
is one thing that I see more and more popping
up at least interest in it, and I have done
articles on this too. I know it's a little bit
different than what you're talking about, but the way that
seniors will tackle inflation or just the need for extra
money is by turning some other hobbies into maybe sort
(04:03):
of like a side hustle.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Of a little bit.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
It's not a real, like the intensive type of business
where you have all the strategic planning and all that.
It's really something like, you know, selling food on a
fruit stand, the equivalent of that. It's easy to do.
The markets are usually something that the person's very familiar with.
(04:26):
Like I say, if it's a hobby, they know what
other hobbyists like, and they've probably got the experience where
they can come up with ideas on how to turn
that experience into some sort of product or service that
other hobbyists would pay them to do. Well. I think
that's certainly an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, I think the distinction you're making is someone once
said to me, find your passion in life. Find to
find a way to work in your career and do
something that you really like, and therefore you'll never really
work a day in your life because I come to
work every day.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I like what I do.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Uh, some days are tougher than others, I will admit,
but I like what I do, and I feel that
I've been blessed with a career in both television and radio,
which you know has has carried me for more years
than I care to admit. And if if a senior,
you know the idea of retirement. When I was young,
back as a baby boomer, you got to sixty five,
(05:27):
you get the wristwatch from the company you worked for,
and you had your sol security check and it was
you were all set. Well. I figured out sometime in
my twenties that so security wasn't probably going to do
it for me.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So I I and a lot of other people did
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm working well past sixty five by choice. I could
retire if I want to, but I enjoy the stimulation.
And there's if you do have a side hustle, even
if you are now retired from that nine to five
job or that forty hour week job, and you have
a side hustle, even if it's something like I don't know,
(06:04):
being sort of a handyman that can help some neighbors
save some money.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So when they have a small.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Problem, instead of instead of calling a carpenter or plumber,
you could be the handyman of the street who could
get around and make a few dollars and save your
neighbors some money. Something like that, I think is what
you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah, you know, a lot of it is planning ahead,
and I'll tell you just to piking back off what
you said. I opened my book Hey What's My Number
with a story about what I did when I felt
when I was a kid, I would see people retire
and then they would die very soon after they retired.
So I decided very early when I was a kid,
you know what, I'm going to try to figure it
(06:47):
out a way not to retire. Maybe it'll prog along
my life. So I did exactly what you did. I
picked a profession that I would enjoy doing that is
more mental than physical, so I won't have that to
worry too much about. But it's something that I could
do well into really my seventies if I chose to
(07:07):
and that's the sort of thing that I would like
to do. But there's enough I already.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I will confess to you, Chris, I am well into
my seventies, okay, and I still enjoy what I do.
I will tell you. When I was very young, I
thought about it'd be kind of cool to be a lumberjack.
Took me about three days to figure out what a
lumberjack does, so I kind of gave up on that dream.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You know a long time.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And I'm like you, I I talk for a living,
and I know that, and I have to think and talk,
and I know that you have to think and calculate
for a living.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And so you know you're not developing callouses on.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Your hands, you and you're keeping your brain active. So
that's tell us about your book. Here is your book
available at this point it's the author is hey. I
like that reminds me of Willie Mays to say, hey kid,
what's my number? How to improve the odds you will
retire and comfort? Where can folks get that?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So you can get it anywhere any bookstore, Amazon, wherever
you go. The way I remember it isn't with baseball,
it's actually with a Broadway. You know that song. Hey,
look me over. It's like, hey, what's my number?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, sure, lend me an ear right? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah,
that's good. Now I get it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I totally, I totally get what you're saying. Look, I
really enjoyed this. And folks, can they get in touch
with you? Some of my guests, they say they give
out a website where people.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Can reach them. Are you willing to do that?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Sure, it's really easy. It's my name rosa dot com.
Just go there and you'll see what I write about.
And if you want to get a hold of me,
there's ways to do that through that website.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So simply Chris C H R I S. And it's
Corosa C A R O s A dot com.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's right, that's great.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Appreciate the time, Chris. I'd love to have you back.
I enjoyed talking with you. Thanks, thank you so.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Much, thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Good bye, all right, bye bye, we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We're going to talk about something that is really of
interest to some of my listeners, and that is the
popular drugs used for weight loss.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And we're going to talk with doctor Lydier Alexander. So,
if you have any thoughts about Wigovi or zep bound
you want to listen carefully. We'll be back on night
Side right after this. My name is Dan Ray. This
is WBZ Boston ten thirty and your AM dial. You
know you can lock us in in your car radio.
You know how to do that, and you also can
lock us in in the app. Just bring down the
(09:32):
iHeart app, put it on your phone and you can
make us your presets, so you will have WBZ with
you wherever you go. Three sixty five, twenty four to seven,
anywhere in the world, anywhere, anywhere in all twenty four
time zones, both north and south of the equator, I
mean anywhere. We'll be back right after the break here
(09:53):
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Nightside Studios on wb News Radio.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Welcome back, everyone. Delighted to introduce you to.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Doctor Lyda Alexander. She's currently the president of the Obesity
Medical Association OMA, a board certified expert in obesity medicine,
lifestyle medicine, and internal medicine. Doctor Alexander, welcome to Night's Side.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Thanks for having me, Dan.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So we're going to talk I know a little bit
about some of these drugs. I'm familiar with with goovi,
I've never heard of zepbound. Is zep bound a goovy knockoff.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Zetbound is an FDAY approved medication from a different manufacturer.
It's a new kid on the black. It's been around
for about a year or so.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Okay, so it's late to the game here. WEGOVI has
been advertising so much. I mean, I think everybody knows
WEGOVI and zep bound is. When I say the word knockoff,
what I mean is something similar to wegov.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Yes, it's a it's the medication to treat obesity.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Okay, Now, what is the problem that we're going to
talk about here? There was a they soon may become available.
They may soon no longer be available because the US
federal judge declined an initial injunction to allow compounding pharmacies
to continue making versions. Uh these other versions of a
(11:26):
coved and zip bound them a little confused by the.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Language and and and rightfully so, because it is confusing
language to uh, definitely to to some medical providers as
well as the public in general.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
When govy and zep bound are both FDA approved medications
that have that have been researched and uh and and
are being and studied extensively, and they also have the
under undergo FDA regulations and oversight when they're produced, and
and they have to be certain strict criteria. Compounded medications
(12:03):
compounded g LP one specifically that are knockoffs of with
GOV and ZEB bound do not undergo f d A
rigorous testing. They're they're not they don't have FDA oversight,
and so buyer beware on those medications. So what's happened
is a judge has ruled that since the shortage of
the real medications has ended, it is no longer okay
(12:27):
or acceptable to UH to continue to make these medications
to meet demand.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And in fact.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
There's a gray market now of of other UH you know,
other entities making these okay.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So excuse let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
If I can, and I know a little bit about
goovy through the experiences of a friend of mine, WEGOV
cannot be prescribed, as I understand it, for weight loss.
If weight loss is a sign.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
So what GOV is actually FDA approved for exactly that
condition to treat UH, to treat obesity, to treat for
chronic weight management. And that's the one and only indication
for WA GOV. The zep bound has two indications obstructive
sleep apnea and treating weight and UH and so they
(13:19):
so UH medical providers are allowed and should be prescribing
these medications specifically for obesity.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Okay, then let me let me let me change my
understanding that My understanding is that if it is prescribed
for something like, oh, let's say someone UH has uh
adema in their ankles because their heart is not functioning
in one hundred percent capacity UH and they their ankles
(13:53):
become endemic H or endemic UH, that the doctors have
to make make it very clear for this to be
covered from an insurance point of view, that the primary
purpose here is not just weight loss, but it's medical benefit.
I hope I'm not wrong on that, because I think
(14:15):
I'm correct.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Yes, you're yeah, you are correct on that. The issue
is really not so much that the FDA hasn't approved
zep bound and what go be to treat obesity and
also to treat all the common chronic conditions that come
along with obesity. So what you've mentioned, which is heart
failure and also other cardiovascular disease, improves when we treat weight.
(14:40):
So when we treat the root cause, which is way
all the fruits of obesity improved too. And the issue
we're having is that insurance companies. Only about half of
insurance companies are willing to cover obesity medications, and therein
lies the big issue that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So that's.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That is what insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, doctor, that is what I was getting at that
many doctors, at least here in Massachusetts, which I know best,
cannot prescribe it for weight loss primarily for the patient
unless the patient is willing and prepared to pay through
the nose. And even in cases where some doctors have
(15:28):
prescribed it for heart related issues which include a dema
that that they get a little bit of a pushback.
The other problem with REGOVI and I want to address
this because I want people to know this. Okay, I
lost thirty five pounds ten years ago. I went from
(15:49):
twoh five to one seventy and I've stayed there for
ten years. I did it through a program called Awaken
one to eight, which I firmly believe in nothing to
do with medication, nothing to do with pills. My understanding
is THEGOV a good percentage the pay of the patients
have side effects, including specifically nausea, and that they have
(16:10):
to once they're on MCGOVY. On some of these weight
loss drugs, it may sound like a pantas or initially,
but my understanding is once you lose the weight, you
got to stay on the drug because if not, the
weight has the tendency to come back to you if
you if you get off the drug. Am I right
on those points?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Well, First of all, I want to commend you that
that is absolutely wonderful to hear that you successfully lost
weight and maintained it for such a long period of
time and continue to do so. There's actually an ongoing
registry called the National Weight Control Registry that followed individuals
who have done exactly what you've done. And I lost
(16:52):
weight successfully and kept it off for more than a year.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Signing up, Sign me up because I weigh y?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah you should.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I weigh in.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Every month, and I have weighed in every month one
hundred and twenty months nearly now, but it's about one
hundred and sixteen months, always under one seventy with clothes on.
So but put that aside. Come back to the side
effects of we'll go over because I want people to
realize that that you can do it. A lot of
different ways, but if you try to do it with pills,
(17:23):
it's not maybe as simple as it as it sounds.
And that there's also a difficulty of maintaining the weight
when you lose that with pills, because if you don't
stay with the pills, which can be expensive, the weight
in most cases are going to come back again. If
I'm wrong on this, I don't want to be giving
people bad advice. But I've learned this through friends of mine,
(17:44):
and I hope that you can either confirm or correct me.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
So the answer is that it is correct that weight
that weight loss and keeping it off for a long
period of time can be done without medication for some individuals.
Not everybody is able to achieve that, even if they've
been implementing all the different lifestyle interventions. And I'd like
(18:10):
to highlight here the lifestyle the importance of intensive lifestyle interventions,
similar to what you have been implementing over the course
of the last decade. It's really important to keep on
top of things to have, you know, to have a
good nutritional pattern, physical activity, behavioral modification, whether or not
(18:32):
you're choosing to take medications. And the reason for that
is because it decreases the side effects of the medications,
and it also increases the lifespan of the results that
we're trying to achieve, which is to keep the weight
off for a long period of time. The difference here
for some people is that for many people, in fact,
(18:56):
their weight regulatory system can be broken, and it can
be it can be temporarily broken, or it can be
like permanently broken. And so when you you know, when
you unravel some of the you know, some of this
vicious cycle, reverse type two diabetes, treat sleep apnea, decrease stress,
(19:17):
and improve your lifestyle and weight comes off, there can
be a virtuous cycle where you're undoing some of that
damage to the weightness, to the weight mechanism, the bodies
innate innate weight mechanism system. And for some people that
works and then they are able to manage their weight
effectively with fewer medications. For other individuals, it's not possible.
(19:42):
And they have been trying for years. They've done they've
they've been to this, you know, to this rodeo many
many times, and then the weight comes on and it
feels so frustrating to them because they blame theirselves that
they are not trying hard enough. And they don't have
enough willpower to keep it off, when in fact, you know,
we wouldn't blame the patient if their thyroid stopped working
(20:04):
and we had to give them thyroid medication. And this
is the four month.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Doctor Alexander, I just want to get because I don't
often to get a chance to speak to an expert
like you.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There are side effects for MCGOVI, including nausea.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Correct, that's right, that's right. These medications do you have
side effect?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I appreciate that. And if you do lose the weight
through prescription medication, when you achieve whatever weight you would
like to get to, you have to stay on that
medication in order to stay where you got to. My
understanding is that some of the stuff you have this
is you're going to be with it for life.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Well the answer, the short answer to that is we
don't know. Okay, some individuals will need to be on
it for life, and some maybe may need to be
on it for several years, and some people may be
able to come off it sooner, But we don't know
the answers to that. If we think about obesity as
a disease similar to treating blood pressure or sweep, that
(21:09):
go yeah, with that, then we know, yeah, then we
know some people will be able to successfully come off
their their cpaths, or their blood pressure medicines, or their
or their antidepressants. Some people just need any depressants for
a few years, and some need them lifelong, Doctor.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Alix, I'd like to have you back for a longer segment.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
We went over here about three minutes, which of my
producer is going to be very mad at me, but
I am fascinated by the subject. I'd like to maybe
bring you back and maybe talk with some listeners during
one of our later hours. Is there a way people
can get in touch with you? Is do you have
a website that you'd like to tell us about?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Well, yeah, absolutely they can. They can find me on
on Instagram under doctor dr dot Lydia.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
L y d i A.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
And I'm also the chief medical officer at Anara Health.
It based in the San Francisco Bay area, and they
can they can find me at www dot n r
e n a r A health dot com. And I'm
also president of they would be c Medicine Association, so
you could find me in multiple ways.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Well, we'll get back at you and we'll have it
we'll get you back, and we'll have some listener questions
as well. I've been immersed in this stuff for ten years.
I'm not a doctor, no do I play one on radio.
But I know my question is probably a little bit
more pointed than most people would expect under these circumstances.
But I just want to make sure people know the
pluses and the minuses. It's as simple as that. Thank
(22:36):
you so much.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Absolutely, they were. It's my pleasure, Dan, thank you, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We get back.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
We are going to talk about twenty tips for a
budget friendly vacation. Vacation is just around the corner, you
know the song V A C A T I O N.
Back on Nightside with Dan Ray after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I'm delighted to be joined by Alissa Giacoby. Alyssa, how
are you tonight?
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I'm good. Thanks, how are you great?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I'm sorry I'm a couple of minutes late here. You
are a contributor to the Boston Globe magazine and you
have an article. I read the Globe, but I tend
probably not to. I pay more attention to the sports
page in the news than I do to the Globe magazine.
Has this article been out or said coming out this weekend?
Speaker 7 (23:27):
Is that article is already out. It's been out actually
for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, that's good, so people can still find it.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Twenty tips or twenty or more tips for a budget
friendly vacation and five costly mistakes. We've all been on vacation,
and we're all at the end of the vacation, say,
I spent more money than I thought I was going
to spend there, what's going on? What are the tips
to make it more budget friendly? Give us a couple
of the week and hang our hat on Melissa.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Yeah, I mean I think that the biggest takeaways for this,
especially right now, is price is are rising generally across
the board. To book as early as you can at
least three months out, so right now is when you
should be starting to think about summer already. You can
use booking trackers like Hopper, Kayak, dot Com. Google Flights
(24:18):
has some tracking apps so you can check flight prices.
And then it's also a little bit about avoiding the
peak times, which may seem obvious to some less obvious
to others. People who are sort of bound by school
vacations may not have that much may not have that
much choice. But otherwise, if you can not travel on
(24:42):
a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, either coming or going, you're gonna
save a lot of money. You can use something midweek
if you cannot travel the first you know minute the
kids get out of school in June, and instead save
that trip until the end of August, you're gonna do better.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
The other thing that I've noticed is that whenever the
kids want to go get an ice cream, you better
bring a big amount of money with you because ice
cream cones are nine dollars, and I think it's much
more fun for the kids, depending upon their age, and
(25:21):
also a little more economical to buy some ice cream,
have it in the refrigerator wherever you're staying in some
ice cream cones, and have the kids make their own
ice creams. I think they will have more fun with it.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Is that realistic in your opinion or no?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Sure. I think that that's one reason that a lot
of people are choosing to use vrbo or Airbnb short
term rentals is it allows you to not have to
eat all of your meals out and so you can
have the ice cream you can do breakfast at home,
you can have lunch at home. You also you have
access to a kitchen and a little bit more space,
and generally you can fit a face family or even
(26:00):
you know, a couple of couples in one space instead
of two hotel rooms.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So yeah, absolutely, and you can kind of relax when
you're in hotel rooms. You got to get out so
they make up the room for you and whatever. I
agree with you on that. So what about you said
this five costly mistakes. I don't know if we've hit
one of them already, but if we haven't hit all
of them, is there a couple more of costly mistakes
(26:27):
that we can learn from your article in the Boston
Globe magazine a couple of weeks from a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Yeah, I think you know a lot of people wait
and bank on a last minute deal. They think that
they're going to wait and book their hotel, their flight
for the very last minute. But if you have your
heart set on going somewhere, it can be disappointing when
that doesn't pan out. Also, a lot of times you
won't be able to You might be able to fly
there for cheap, but won't be able to do the
things that you want to do. One trend that's happening
(26:57):
is people are doing sort of a reverse engineer of
a trip and they're backwards planning. And that just means
that booking a trip based on wherever you can fly
the cheapest and then sort of going back from there.
But you know, that might be a budget airfare, but
it also may not work out for you know, you
may have to pay extra for the places you want
(27:18):
to go, the tours you want to do. However, many
people you've got with you.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Okay, what about what about this?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Okay, those of us in New England, most of us,
I think, stick around New England. We might go to
the Cape, we might go to New Hampshire. Maybe we'll
go up to Maine. Some people like Vermont. Some people
go to the Berkshires.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And there's also beaches. There's a big coastline in Connecticut.
Is there a substantial cost differential one area a little
higher or another area a little lower and you can
still have the same thing. You can have the amusement
park nearby, you can have uh, you can get to
a beach. Uh. They're not all the same. I mean
(28:00):
the Cape gets a little pricey, right, I.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
Think everywhere in New England gets a little pricey in
the summer. But certainly if you can make your way
inland and you're not necessarily drawn to drawn to the coast,
you can save a little bit of money. Generally, the
ocean front and ocean towns are going to be more
expensive than lakes, but there's a you know, there's many
great lakes and bodies of water that are going to
(28:28):
sort of give you that ocean feel without having to
do that. That's you're going to find that in the
north of Maine. You find that all throughout Vermont. New
Hampshire has got a bunch too, So I would say
that I'm just sort of thinking a little bit outside
the box and and also maybe also looking at a
lot of ski resorts. Generally what we think of as
(28:50):
ski towns are doing a lot in the summer months
to attract people and usually have just like in the
winter time.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'm sure the Cape is a heck of a lot
less expensive than is the winner. That's that's some real
reverse engineering. Those are great advice, some great advice. Alyssa Giacoby,
Boston Globe Magazine writer, Alyssa, where can follow you? Can
they they check out some of the body of work
at the Globe of a website, we can we can
(29:19):
send people to or.
Speaker 7 (29:20):
No, yep, so you can read this story at Globe
dot com Backslash magazine. It's recent. And then I have
a website. It's just a lista Jacoby dot com, but
you can you can read my work on the Globe
through the website.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Sounds great, Alyssa, thanks very much. We we got to
you a little bit later, so we stayed with you
a little bit longer, and I just want to thank
you very much for your patience and your time and
your advice.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Great advice.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Thanks Alyssa, thanks for having Okay, welcome, all right, coming back,
we're going to talk about if you're sticking around at home,
you're gonna have a lot of fun in the backyard.
We're going to talk about the twenty twenty five gardening
trends and basic gardening tips for beginners.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I need gardening tips.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I don't think I've ever really gardened, and will answer
the time old question, when is it a good time
to start preparing your gardens in New England?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I suspect it's right around. Now we'll find out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Katie Timony, chief marketing officer of Monrovia Plants, will join
us on the other side.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
All right, our fourth and final guest, those of you
who are gardeners out there, and I'm not talking about
Chauncey Gardner. I'm talking about real gardeners. Let me introduce
Katie Timony. Katie, have I gotten your last name fairly close?
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I hope it's pretty close. It's Tammany. I'm Katie, Tami.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So no relation to Tammany.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
Hall right, No different from Ireland.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, okay, So so gardening this is for me.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's a challenge. I've never really I.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Have tried the garden, but without success. So if there's
people out there tonight, whether they live in the suburbs
or they live in a city, what can they do
with they'd like to cultivate a little bit of you know,
vegetation of some sort, maybe even a plant or two.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
How do we start off with this? How do we
get going?
Speaker 7 (31:21):
Sure, well, a lot of people are a little bit scared,
you know, it's over. It can be overwhelming. But I'd
say start with good quality plants. You know, make sure
you buy plants that are well rooted, they're a good shape,
you know, start with a plant that's in good condition
before you put it in the ground. That's step one.
And then now is a great time to think about
(31:42):
the condition of your soil, to really make sure that
where you plant something, you've got good quality soil. So
I'd start with those basics.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
How do you figure that out?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm looking at soil and it looks looks like soil
to me. Can you do a test or something?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
What can you do?
Speaker 7 (31:58):
Yeah, you can test the pH in your soil and
then go to your local garden center and say, you know,
I've got you know, a soil type that's more acidic
or more alkaline. What do I need to add to it?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Though, I'm saying if you're talking to someone like me,
who I have no idea, I mean, how do I know?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
If it's what do I do to have to that's?
I get a little chemical kit or something like that.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
Yeah, so there's a little there's little test kits that you
can pick up at your garden center or your hardware store.
And it's a really simple, you know, inexpensive tool.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That you how deep do you dig down to?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I assume as you take the soil off the top,
that might give you a false.
Speaker 7 (32:36):
Reading, right, you want to you want to sort of
get a sample of your soil? Do you want to
dig a little bit deeper? You know, like the I
big about six inches to get a good soil sample.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
All right, So then when you when you bring the
sample back to the gardening center, they're going to say, oh,
this is too acidic, or this it's alkali alkaline level
or whatever the phrase.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Yeah, and they'll suggest amendments that's what we call them,
to improve the quality of your soil.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Kind of like the Constitution right in an Okay, that's.
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Good, uh huh.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And so what's the easy stuff that people can You know,
right now here in New England, the weather hasn't quite turned.
We're still like thirty at night, forties. Okay, wait, can
you really start getting out there and start I guess
you can pull some soil up now and.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Take it to the god.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
Sure, now it's a great time to look at your soil.
Sure that that's what you want to do now, But
you want to wait until at least mid April, when
the tempts are consistently above fifty degrees to start cleaning up. Yeah,
you want to wait to clean up your outdoor space
because actually you're even You know, the dead stuff right
(33:57):
out right now is protecting over winter. Bring pollinators. You know,
bees and other important insects are hanging out in dead
flower stems and underleaves. So don't prune anything, don't don't
dig anything up just yet.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Wait, I have I have written that down because that's
the excuse I'll be using this weekend when my wife.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Say nope, it's a little too early.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
The March madness is still on, and my friend, the
garden lady told me not to do it, So thank
you for that.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Now, what is the sort of stuff unless you love.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Tomatoes or you want cucumbers, what is some sort of
a vegetable that you can grow in your garden where
you have at least a chance of having it become
real sometime in August or September or whenever it becomes real.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Tomatoes are pretty easy, you know, in a sunny spot. Yeah,
tomatoes can be very easy. Herbs, you know, lots of
herbs are really easy. Basil is mary. But one vegetable
monrovia actually doesn't grow vegetables. But one vegetable that I
always used to grow with my kids that was very
easy is carrots. Okay, starting carrots from seed, that's a
(35:14):
super easy you know.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Okay, the rabbits won't be attacked. The rabbits won't be
attacking the cat.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
You want to you want to protect your edible garden,
you know, with something you know again garden center or online,
you can buy you know, simple screening to protect your
edible garden from deer, from all kinds of critters that
want to get in there.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Okay, electric fence.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
Well I wouldn't got that far.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Okay, barbed wire, nothing like that, right, but how tall
should the fence be?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
At least three or four feet?
Speaker 7 (35:49):
Well, you want to cover. You want to also if
you're trying to keep you know, you know, other critters out,
you want to cover the top of your edible garden.
If you're doing a raised bed. Yeah, so you can
even buy kind of a screening fabric to put over
your raised beds.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Okay, so yeah, and someone climbing up the fence and
then hopping over the fence.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Okay, that's what you know, and.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Then to put up like a to put up a fence,
as you're probably gonna tell, I'm not the most mechanically
astute talk show host you're going to talk to this spring.
So you're going to buy some steaks, right and they yeah,
And you're going to hook the fence onto the steaks,
and then surround the perimeter. You gotta surround. You can't
(36:32):
leave one side of the fence open, obviously, right right.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
You have like a raised bed garden that's like three
to four feet you know, square, you would you would
just put like PVC pipe on the edges. You could
do that. You could put a tall kind of steak
on each corner and then just lay the sheeting over that.
But if you don't want to plant veggies, if you
(36:57):
want to plant fruit, which minrovia grows, I would suggest
blueberries would be great. That's an easy shrub. You just
need your soil to be a little bit acidic, and
the Sunshine blueberry or Bountiful blue great one to plant,
produces lots of juicy fruit, so you get wonderful yeah,
(37:19):
you get you get wonderful productive berries from those shrubs.
And you can plant those they stay compact. You can
put them in a container on your patio or in
the garden and they just need a lot of sun.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Sounds great, sounds great.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You said your Monrovia Plants.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Are you in Monrovia, Pennsylvania by any chance or no?
Speaker 7 (37:40):
No, Actually the nursery was founded in Monrovia, Southern California,
Monrovia near Los Angeles. But now we have nurseries all
over the country, including in Connecticut and a.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Great we're heard in the eastern half of the US
right now. We got people listening everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
So how could people get more information from Rovia Plants.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
What's the website?
Speaker 7 (38:02):
So it's Monrovia dot com and we have a great
tool called my plant Finder where you can type in
your zip code and what you're looking for in a plant.
You know, maybe you want to attract bees and butterflies,
maybe you want to screen out the neighbors. You just
you just put in what you're looking for and you
up pops the plants that will grow well in your area.
(38:23):
So that's Monrovia dot com slash my plant Finder.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Sounds great, Katie Tammany, thank you so much. I got
that pronunciation the last time here.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
You did you did you nail?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Okay? Thanks Katie, we'll talk again. I really enjoyed touchat
with your fun.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
Thanks, thanks, take the thanks.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
When we get back, we're going to talk about where
we're going in New England in terms of climate and
what we can do. I've got a great guest. His
name is Dave Cash. He was the Regional Administrator for
the EPA up until UH President Trump took over in
January twentieth, and we're going to talk about clean energies
(39:04):
from a high school teacher. Is that he is a PhD.
He went to Yale and Kennedy School. The government is
a great guest.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Had him on before. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
We'll talk about again energy in New England and what
we can do, how we can.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Strike that balance.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Very important conversation coming up right after the nine o'clock
News
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What a great segue by Nicole Davis. Nicole, as always,
thank you very much. I am the aforementioned Dan Ray.
Ready to rock and roll all the way until midnight tonight,
or just a couple of minutes short of midnight, about
eleven fifty eight. We have guests lined up, a guest
lined up. We have many guests this hour for in fact,
and we have some great topics. We will talk with
(00:29):
the Biden administration Regional administrator for the EPA here in
New England about old power itch issues, power options here
in New England for all of us, as we've just
gone through a very cold winter, which is still kind
of cold for late March in my opinion. Baseball just
(00:50):
around the corner tomorrow the Red Sox open up. The
season actually underway already with the with the games over
in Japan, so we got We will talk with David Cash,
Dave Cash, former Regional Administrator the EPA here in what's
called Region one, New England under the Biden administration. We'll
also continue our conversation about.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
The Yemen signal chat.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And all of the controversy that that has generated. I
have strong opinions on it, and I'd like to share
them with you, but more importantly, I want to hear
your opinions. However, we have a four very interesting guest coming.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Up on a variety of topics.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Here, a little bit of financial planning, and we're going
to talk about weight, drugs, Willgovie and zip Bound and
going to talk about some budget tips for a budget
friendly vacation this summer, and also a little bit about gardening.
So we're going to start it off Chris Carosa. Chris
is a certified trust and fiduciary advisor, senior contributor to Forbes,
(01:46):
and author of Hey What's My Number? How to improve
the odds You'll retire in comfort? That is a question
that if all of us, at some point during our
life have to think about.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Chris corros So, Welcome to night, Satt How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Hey, I'm doing great over here.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
How are you just fine?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I certainly do understand we're talking about the idea if
there's a recession on the horizon. I'm not someone who
anticipates a recession, but recessions do occur in our economy,
and I have always thought that the cruelest tax on
retired people seniors is the inflation tax, which of course
(02:29):
is not a tax per se, but when an inflation
hits and the cost of everything goes up, people who
are in fixed incomes, who have worked all their lives,
they feel the front of it. The corollary of that is,
can retirees perhaps have a little bit of a benefit
from a recession? And most people probably would not look
at it that way, But we're asking you to look
(02:51):
at it that way, and I suspect that you're going
to probably say, yes, what's your thought on that?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
There are a couple of ways that you can benefit
from a recession if you're retired again, it depends on
your circumstances. If you're going into recession carrying a debt load, Generally,
in recessions, interest rates go down, so it gives you
an opportunity to refinance. Even on the inflation side, you
(03:18):
do have some discretion on what you're doing with your spending,
and probably a little bit more than if you're working. So,
for example, if you're working, you're going to have to
travel to work, and that costs energy to do, and
energy generally is inflation hits the hardest lot. I mean,
anybody who buys gas will see that. So that's something
(03:38):
you don't have to do you're in retirement. But there
is one thing that I see more and more popping
up at least interest in it, and I have done
articles on this too. I know it's a little bit
different than what you're talking about, but the way that
seniors will tackle inflation or just the need for extra
money is by turning some other hobbies into maybe sort
(04:03):
of like a side hustle.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Of a little bit.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
It's not a real, like the intensive type of business
where you have all the strategic planning and all that.
It's really something like, you know, selling food on a
fruit stand, the equivalent of that. It's easy to do.
The markets are usually something that the person's very familiar with.
(04:26):
Like I say, if it's a hobby, they know what
other hobbyists like, and they've probably got the experience where
they can come up with ideas on how to turn
that experience into some sort of product or service that
other hobbyists would pay them to do. Well. I think
that's certainly an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, I think the distinction you're making is someone once
said to me, find your passion in life. Find to
find a way to work in your career and do
something that you really like, and therefore you'll never really
work a day in your life because I come to
work every day.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I like what I do.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Uh, some days are tougher than others, I will admit,
but I like what I do, and I feel that
I've been blessed with a career in both television and radio,
which you know has has carried me for more years
than I care to admit. And if if a senior,
you know the idea of retirement. When I was young,
back as a baby boomer, you got to sixty five,
(05:27):
you get the wristwatch from the company you worked for,
and you had your sol security check and it was
you were all set. Well. I figured out sometime in
my twenties that so security wasn't probably going to do
it for me.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So I I and a lot of other people did
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm working well past sixty five by choice. I could
retire if I want to, but I enjoy the stimulation.
And there's if you do have a side hustle, even
if you are now retired from that nine to five
job or that forty hour week job, and you have
a side hustle, even if it's something like I don't know,
(06:04):
being sort of a handyman that can help some neighbors
save some money.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So when they have a small.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Problem, instead of instead of calling a carpenter or plumber,
you could be the handyman of the street who could
get around and make a few dollars and save your
neighbors some money. Something like that, I think is what
you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah, you know, a lot of it is planning ahead,
and I'll tell you just to piking back off what
you said. I opened my book Hey What's My Number
with a story about what I did when I felt
when I was a kid, I would see people retire
and then they would die very soon after they retired.
So I decided very early when I was a kid,
you know what, I'm going to try to figure it
(06:47):
out a way not to retire. Maybe it'll prog along
my life. So I did exactly what you did. I
picked a profession that I would enjoy doing that is
more mental than physical, so I won't have that to
worry too much about. But it's something that I could
do well into really my seventies if I chose to
(07:07):
and that's the sort of thing that I would like
to do. But there's enough I already.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I will confess to you, Chris, I am well into
my seventies, okay, and I still enjoy what I do.
I will tell you. When I was very young, I
thought about it'd be kind of cool to be a lumberjack.
Took me about three days to figure out what a
lumberjack does, so I kind of gave up on that dream.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You know a long time.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And I'm like you, I I talk for a living,
and I know that, and I have to think and talk,
and I know that you have to think and calculate
for a living.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And so you know you're not developing callouses on.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Your hands, you and you're keeping your brain active. So
that's tell us about your book. Here is your book
available at this point it's the author is hey. I
like that reminds me of Willie Mays to say, hey kid,
what's my number? How to improve the odds you will
retire and comfort? Where can folks get that?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So you can get it anywhere any bookstore, Amazon, wherever
you go. The way I remember it isn't with baseball,
it's actually with a Broadway. You know that song. Hey,
look me over. It's like, hey, what's my number?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, sure, lend me an ear right? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah,
that's good. Now I get it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I totally, I totally get what you're saying. Look, I
really enjoyed this. And folks, can they get in touch
with you? Some of my guests, they say they give
out a website where people.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Can reach them. Are you willing to do that?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Sure, it's really easy. It's my name rosa dot com.
Just go there and you'll see what I write about.
And if you want to get a hold of me,
there's ways to do that through that website.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So simply Chris C H R I S. And it's
Corosa C A R O s A dot com.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's right, that's great.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Appreciate the time, Chris. I'd love to have you back.
I enjoyed talking with you. Thanks, thank you so.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Much, thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Good bye, all right, bye bye, we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We're going to talk about something that is really of
interest to some of my listeners, and that is the
popular drugs used for weight loss.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And we're going to talk with doctor Lydier Alexander. So,
if you have any thoughts about Wigovi or zep bound
you want to listen carefully. We'll be back on night
Side right after this. My name is Dan Ray. This
is WBZ Boston ten thirty and your AM dial. You
know you can lock us in in your car radio.
You know how to do that, and you also can
lock us in in the app. Just bring down the
(09:32):
iHeart app, put it on your phone and you can
make us your presets, so you will have WBZ with
you wherever you go. Three sixty five, twenty four to seven,
anywhere in the world, anywhere, anywhere in all twenty four
time zones, both north and south of the equator, I
mean anywhere. We'll be back right after the break here
(09:53):
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Nightside Studios on wb News Radio.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Welcome back, everyone. Delighted to introduce you to.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Doctor Lyda Alexander. She's currently the president of the Obesity
Medical Association OMA, a board certified expert in obesity medicine,
lifestyle medicine, and internal medicine. Doctor Alexander, welcome to Night's Side.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Thanks for having me, Dan.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So we're going to talk I know a little bit
about some of these drugs. I'm familiar with with goovi,
I've never heard of zepbound. Is zep bound a goovy knockoff.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Zetbound is an FDAY approved medication from a different manufacturer.
It's a new kid on the black. It's been around
for about a year or so.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Okay, so it's late to the game here. WEGOVI has
been advertising so much. I mean, I think everybody knows
WEGOVI and zep bound is. When I say the word knockoff,
what I mean is something similar to wegov.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Yes, it's a it's the medication to treat obesity.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Okay, Now, what is the problem that we're going to
talk about here? There was a they soon may become available.
They may soon no longer be available because the US
federal judge declined an initial injunction to allow compounding pharmacies
to continue making versions. Uh these other versions of a
(11:26):
coved and zip bound them a little confused by the.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Language and and and rightfully so, because it is confusing
language to uh, definitely to to some medical providers as
well as the public in general.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
When govy and zep bound are both FDA approved medications
that have that have been researched and uh and and
are being and studied extensively, and they also have the
under undergo FDA regulations and oversight when they're produced, and
and they have to be certain strict criteria. Compounded medications
(12:03):
compounded g LP one specifically that are knockoffs of with
GOV and ZEB bound do not undergo f d A
rigorous testing. They're they're not they don't have FDA oversight,
and so buyer beware on those medications. So what's happened
is a judge has ruled that since the shortage of
the real medications has ended, it is no longer okay
(12:27):
or acceptable to UH to continue to make these medications
to meet demand.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And in fact.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
There's a gray market now of of other UH you know,
other entities making these okay.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So excuse let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
If I can, and I know a little bit about
goovy through the experiences of a friend of mine, WEGOV
cannot be prescribed, as I understand it, for weight loss.
If weight loss is a sign.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
So what GOV is actually FDA approved for exactly that
condition to treat UH, to treat obesity, to treat for
chronic weight management. And that's the one and only indication
for WA GOV. The zep bound has two indications obstructive
sleep apnea and treating weight and UH and so they
(13:19):
so UH medical providers are allowed and should be prescribing
these medications specifically for obesity.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Okay, then let me let me let me change my
understanding that My understanding is that if it is prescribed
for something like, oh, let's say someone UH has uh
adema in their ankles because their heart is not functioning
in one hundred percent capacity UH and they their ankles
(13:53):
become endemic H or endemic UH, that the doctors have
to make make it very clear for this to be
covered from an insurance point of view, that the primary
purpose here is not just weight loss, but it's medical benefit.
I hope I'm not wrong on that, because I think
(14:15):
I'm correct.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Yes, you're yeah, you are correct on that. The issue
is really not so much that the FDA hasn't approved
zep bound and what go be to treat obesity and
also to treat all the common chronic conditions that come
along with obesity. So what you've mentioned, which is heart
failure and also other cardiovascular disease, improves when we treat weight.
(14:40):
So when we treat the root cause, which is way
all the fruits of obesity improved too. And the issue
we're having is that insurance companies. Only about half of
insurance companies are willing to cover obesity medications, and therein
lies the big issue that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So that's.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That is what insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, doctor, that is what I was getting at that
many doctors, at least here in Massachusetts, which I know best,
cannot prescribe it for weight loss primarily for the patient
unless the patient is willing and prepared to pay through
the nose. And even in cases where some doctors have
(15:28):
prescribed it for heart related issues which include a dema
that that they get a little bit of a pushback.
The other problem with REGOVI and I want to address
this because I want people to know this. Okay, I
lost thirty five pounds ten years ago. I went from
(15:49):
twoh five to one seventy and I've stayed there for
ten years. I did it through a program called Awaken
one to eight, which I firmly believe in nothing to
do with medication, nothing to do with pills. My understanding
is THEGOV a good percentage the pay of the patients
have side effects, including specifically nausea, and that they have
(16:10):
to once they're on MCGOVY. On some of these weight
loss drugs, it may sound like a pantas or initially,
but my understanding is once you lose the weight, you
got to stay on the drug because if not, the
weight has the tendency to come back to you if
you if you get off the drug. Am I right
on those points?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Well, First of all, I want to commend you that
that is absolutely wonderful to hear that you successfully lost
weight and maintained it for such a long period of
time and continue to do so. There's actually an ongoing
registry called the National Weight Control Registry that followed individuals
who have done exactly what you've done. And I lost
(16:52):
weight successfully and kept it off for more than a year.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Signing up, Sign me up because I weigh y?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah you should.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I weigh in.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Every month, and I have weighed in every month one
hundred and twenty months nearly now, but it's about one
hundred and sixteen months, always under one seventy with clothes on.
So but put that aside. Come back to the side
effects of we'll go over because I want people to
realize that that you can do it. A lot of
different ways, but if you try to do it with pills,
(17:23):
it's not maybe as simple as it as it sounds.
And that there's also a difficulty of maintaining the weight
when you lose that with pills, because if you don't
stay with the pills, which can be expensive, the weight
in most cases are going to come back again. If
I'm wrong on this, I don't want to be giving
people bad advice. But I've learned this through friends of mine,
(17:44):
and I hope that you can either confirm or correct me.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
So the answer is that it is correct that weight
that weight loss and keeping it off for a long
period of time can be done without medication for some individuals.
Not everybody is able to achieve that, even if they've
been implementing all the different lifestyle interventions. And I'd like
(18:10):
to highlight here the lifestyle the importance of intensive lifestyle interventions,
similar to what you have been implementing over the course
of the last decade. It's really important to keep on
top of things to have, you know, to have a
good nutritional pattern, physical activity, behavioral modification, whether or not
(18:32):
you're choosing to take medications. And the reason for that
is because it decreases the side effects of the medications,
and it also increases the lifespan of the results that
we're trying to achieve, which is to keep the weight
off for a long period of time. The difference here
for some people is that for many people, in fact,
(18:56):
their weight regulatory system can be broken, and it can
be it can be temporarily broken, or it can be
like permanently broken. And so when you you know, when
you unravel some of the you know, some of this
vicious cycle, reverse type two diabetes, treat sleep apnea, decrease stress,
(19:17):
and improve your lifestyle and weight comes off, there can
be a virtuous cycle where you're undoing some of that
damage to the weightness, to the weight mechanism, the bodies
innate innate weight mechanism system. And for some people that
works and then they are able to manage their weight
effectively with fewer medications. For other individuals, it's not possible.
(19:42):
And they have been trying for years. They've done they've
they've been to this, you know, to this rodeo many
many times, and then the weight comes on and it
feels so frustrating to them because they blame theirselves that
they are not trying hard enough. And they don't have
enough willpower to keep it off, when in fact, you know,
we wouldn't blame the patient if their thyroid stopped working
(20:04):
and we had to give them thyroid medication. And this
is the four month.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Doctor Alexander, I just want to get because I don't
often to get a chance to speak to an expert
like you.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There are side effects for MCGOVI, including nausea.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Correct, that's right, that's right. These medications do you have
side effect?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I appreciate that. And if you do lose the weight
through prescription medication, when you achieve whatever weight you would
like to get to, you have to stay on that
medication in order to stay where you got to. My
understanding is that some of the stuff you have this
is you're going to be with it for life.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Well the answer, the short answer to that is we
don't know. Okay, some individuals will need to be on
it for life, and some maybe may need to be
on it for several years, and some people may be
able to come off it sooner, But we don't know
the answers to that. If we think about obesity as
a disease similar to treating blood pressure or sweep, that
(21:09):
go yeah, with that, then we know, yeah, then we
know some people will be able to successfully come off
their their cpaths, or their blood pressure medicines, or their
or their antidepressants. Some people just need any depressants for
a few years, and some need them lifelong, Doctor.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Alix, I'd like to have you back for a longer segment.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
We went over here about three minutes, which of my
producer is going to be very mad at me, but
I am fascinated by the subject. I'd like to maybe
bring you back and maybe talk with some listeners during
one of our later hours. Is there a way people
can get in touch with you? Is do you have
a website that you'd like to tell us about?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Well, yeah, absolutely they can. They can find me on
on Instagram under doctor dr dot Lydia.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
L y d i A.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
And I'm also the chief medical officer at Anara Health.
It based in the San Francisco Bay area, and they
can they can find me at www dot n r
e n a r A health dot com. And I'm
also president of they would be c Medicine Association, so
you could find me in multiple ways.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Well, we'll get back at you and we'll have it
we'll get you back, and we'll have some listener questions
as well. I've been immersed in this stuff for ten years.
I'm not a doctor, no do I play one on radio.
But I know my question is probably a little bit
more pointed than most people would expect under these circumstances.
But I just want to make sure people know the
pluses and the minuses. It's as simple as that. Thank
(22:36):
you so much.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Absolutely, they were. It's my pleasure, Dan, thank you, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We get back.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
We are going to talk about twenty tips for a
budget friendly vacation. Vacation is just around the corner, you
know the song V A C A T I O N.
Back on Nightside with Dan Ray after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I'm delighted to be joined by Alissa Giacoby. Alyssa, how
are you tonight?
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I'm good. Thanks, how are you great?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I'm sorry I'm a couple of minutes late here. You
are a contributor to the Boston Globe magazine and you
have an article. I read the Globe, but I tend
probably not to. I pay more attention to the sports
page in the news than I do to the Globe magazine.
Has this article been out or said coming out this weekend?
Speaker 7 (23:27):
Is that article is already out. It's been out actually
for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, that's good, so people can still find it.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Twenty tips or twenty or more tips for a budget
friendly vacation and five costly mistakes. We've all been on vacation,
and we're all at the end of the vacation, say,
I spent more money than I thought I was going
to spend there, what's going on? What are the tips
to make it more budget friendly? Give us a couple
of the week and hang our hat on Melissa.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Yeah, I mean I think that the biggest takeaways for this,
especially right now, is price is are rising generally across
the board. To book as early as you can at
least three months out, so right now is when you
should be starting to think about summer already. You can
use booking trackers like Hopper, Kayak, dot Com. Google Flights
(24:18):
has some tracking apps so you can check flight prices.
And then it's also a little bit about avoiding the
peak times, which may seem obvious to some less obvious
to others. People who are sort of bound by school
vacations may not have that much may not have that
much choice. But otherwise, if you can not travel on
(24:42):
a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, either coming or going, you're gonna
save a lot of money. You can use something midweek
if you cannot travel the first you know minute the
kids get out of school in June, and instead save
that trip until the end of August, you're gonna do better.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
The other thing that I've noticed is that whenever the
kids want to go get an ice cream, you better
bring a big amount of money with you because ice
cream cones are nine dollars, and I think it's much
more fun for the kids, depending upon their age, and
(25:21):
also a little more economical to buy some ice cream,
have it in the refrigerator wherever you're staying in some
ice cream cones, and have the kids make their own
ice creams. I think they will have more fun with it.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Is that realistic in your opinion or no?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Sure. I think that that's one reason that a lot
of people are choosing to use vrbo or Airbnb short
term rentals is it allows you to not have to
eat all of your meals out and so you can
have the ice cream you can do breakfast at home,
you can have lunch at home. You also you have
access to a kitchen and a little bit more space,
and generally you can fit a face family or even
(26:00):
you know, a couple of couples in one space instead
of two hotel rooms.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So yeah, absolutely, and you can kind of relax when
you're in hotel rooms. You got to get out so
they make up the room for you and whatever. I
agree with you on that. So what about you said
this five costly mistakes. I don't know if we've hit
one of them already, but if we haven't hit all
of them, is there a couple more of costly mistakes
(26:27):
that we can learn from your article in the Boston
Globe magazine a couple of weeks from a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
Yeah, I think you know a lot of people wait
and bank on a last minute deal. They think that
they're going to wait and book their hotel, their flight
for the very last minute. But if you have your
heart set on going somewhere, it can be disappointing when
that doesn't pan out. Also, a lot of times you
won't be able to You might be able to fly
there for cheap, but won't be able to do the
things that you want to do. One trend that's happening
(26:57):
is people are doing sort of a reverse engineer of
a trip and they're backwards planning. And that just means
that booking a trip based on wherever you can fly
the cheapest and then sort of going back from there.
But you know, that might be a budget airfare, but
it also may not work out for you know, you
may have to pay extra for the places you want
(27:18):
to go, the tours you want to do. However, many
people you've got with you.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Okay, what about what about this?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Okay, those of us in New England, most of us,
I think, stick around New England. We might go to
the Cape, we might go to New Hampshire. Maybe we'll
go up to Maine. Some people like Vermont. Some people
go to the Berkshires.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And there's also beaches. There's a big coastline in Connecticut.
Is there a substantial cost differential one area a little
higher or another area a little lower and you can
still have the same thing. You can have the amusement
park nearby, you can have uh, you can get to
a beach. Uh. They're not all the same. I mean
(28:00):
the Cape gets a little pricey, right, I.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
Think everywhere in New England gets a little pricey in
the summer. But certainly if you can make your way
inland and you're not necessarily drawn to drawn to the coast,
you can save a little bit of money. Generally, the
ocean front and ocean towns are going to be more
expensive than lakes, but there's a you know, there's many
great lakes and bodies of water that are going to
(28:28):
sort of give you that ocean feel without having to
do that. That's you're going to find that in the
north of Maine. You find that all throughout Vermont. New
Hampshire has got a bunch too, So I would say
that I'm just sort of thinking a little bit outside
the box and and also maybe also looking at a
lot of ski resorts. Generally what we think of as
(28:50):
ski towns are doing a lot in the summer months
to attract people and usually have just like in the
winter time.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'm sure the Cape is a heck of a lot
less expensive than is the winner. That's that's some real
reverse engineering. Those are great advice, some great advice. Alyssa Giacoby,
Boston Globe Magazine writer, Alyssa, where can follow you? Can
they they check out some of the body of work
at the Globe of a website, we can we can
(29:19):
send people to or.
Speaker 7 (29:20):
No, yep, so you can read this story at Globe
dot com Backslash magazine. It's recent. And then I have
a website. It's just a lista Jacoby dot com, but
you can you can read my work on the Globe
through the website.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Sounds great, Alyssa, thanks very much. We we got to
you a little bit later, so we stayed with you
a little bit longer, and I just want to thank
you very much for your patience and your time and
your advice.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Great advice.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Thanks Alyssa, thanks for having Okay, welcome, all right, coming back,
we're going to talk about if you're sticking around at home,
you're gonna have a lot of fun in the backyard.
We're going to talk about the twenty twenty five gardening
trends and basic gardening tips for beginners.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I need gardening tips.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I don't think I've ever really gardened, and will answer
the time old question, when is it a good time
to start preparing your gardens in New England?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I suspect it's right around. Now we'll find out.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Katie Timony, chief marketing officer of Monrovia Plants, will join
us on the other side.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
All right, our fourth and final guest, those of you
who are gardeners out there, and I'm not talking about
Chauncey Gardner. I'm talking about real gardeners. Let me introduce
Katie Timony. Katie, have I gotten your last name fairly close?
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I hope it's pretty close. It's Tammany. I'm Katie, Tami.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So no relation to Tammany.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
Hall right, No different from Ireland.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, okay, So so gardening this is for me.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's a challenge. I've never really I.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Have tried the garden, but without success. So if there's
people out there tonight, whether they live in the suburbs
or they live in a city, what can they do
with they'd like to cultivate a little bit of you know,
vegetation of some sort, maybe even a plant or two.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
How do we start off with this? How do we
get going?
Speaker 7 (31:21):
Sure, well, a lot of people are a little bit scared,
you know, it's over. It can be overwhelming. But I'd
say start with good quality plants. You know, make sure
you buy plants that are well rooted, they're a good shape,
you know, start with a plant that's in good condition
before you put it in the ground. That's step one.
And then now is a great time to think about
(31:42):
the condition of your soil, to really make sure that
where you plant something, you've got good quality soil. So
I'd start with those basics.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
How do you figure that out?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm looking at soil and it looks looks like soil
to me. Can you do a test or something?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
What can you do?
Speaker 7 (31:58):
Yeah, you can test the pH in your soil and
then go to your local garden center and say, you know,
I've got you know, a soil type that's more acidic
or more alkaline. What do I need to add to it?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Though, I'm saying if you're talking to someone like me,
who I have no idea, I mean, how do I know?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
If it's what do I do to have to that's?
I get a little chemical kit or something like that.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
Yeah, so there's a little there's little test kits that you
can pick up at your garden center or your hardware store.
And it's a really simple, you know, inexpensive tool.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That you how deep do you dig down to?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I assume as you take the soil off the top,
that might give you a false.
Speaker 7 (32:36):
Reading, right, you want to you want to sort of
get a sample of your soil? Do you want to
dig a little bit deeper? You know, like the I
big about six inches to get a good soil sample.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
All right, So then when you when you bring the
sample back to the gardening center, they're going to say, oh,
this is too acidic, or this it's alkali alkaline level
or whatever the phrase.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Yeah, and they'll suggest amendments that's what we call them,
to improve the quality of your soil.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Kind of like the Constitution right in an Okay, that's.
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Good, uh huh.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And so what's the easy stuff that people can You know,
right now here in New England, the weather hasn't quite turned.
We're still like thirty at night, forties. Okay, wait, can
you really start getting out there and start I guess
you can pull some soil up now and.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Take it to the god.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
Sure, now it's a great time to look at your soil.
Sure that that's what you want to do now, But
you want to wait until at least mid April, when
the tempts are consistently above fifty degrees to start cleaning up. Yeah,
you want to wait to clean up your outdoor space
because actually you're even You know, the dead stuff right
(33:57):
out right now is protecting over winter. Bring pollinators. You know,
bees and other important insects are hanging out in dead
flower stems and underleaves. So don't prune anything, don't don't
dig anything up just yet.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Wait, I have I have written that down because that's
the excuse I'll be using this weekend when my wife.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Say nope, it's a little too early.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
The March madness is still on, and my friend, the
garden lady told me not to do it, So thank
you for that.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Now, what is the sort of stuff unless you love.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Tomatoes or you want cucumbers, what is some sort of
a vegetable that you can grow in your garden where
you have at least a chance of having it become
real sometime in August or September or whenever it becomes real.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Tomatoes are pretty easy, you know, in a sunny spot. Yeah,
tomatoes can be very easy. Herbs, you know, lots of
herbs are really easy. Basil is mary. But one vegetable
monrovia actually doesn't grow vegetables. But one vegetable that I
always used to grow with my kids that was very
easy is carrots. Okay, starting carrots from seed, that's a
(35:14):
super easy you know.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Okay, the rabbits won't be attacked. The rabbits won't be
attacking the cat.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
You want to you want to protect your edible garden,
you know, with something you know again garden center or online,
you can buy you know, simple screening to protect your
edible garden from deer, from all kinds of critters that
want to get in there.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Okay, electric fence.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
Well I wouldn't got that far.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Okay, barbed wire, nothing like that, right, but how tall
should the fence be?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
At least three or four feet?
Speaker 7 (35:49):
Well, you want to cover. You want to also if
you're trying to keep you know, you know, other critters out,
you want to cover the top of your edible garden.
If you're doing a raised bed. Yeah, so you can
even buy kind of a screening fabric to put over
your raised beds.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Okay, so yeah, and someone climbing up the fence and
then hopping over the fence.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Okay, that's what you know, and.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Then to put up like a to put up a fence,
as you're probably gonna tell, I'm not the most mechanically
astute talk show host you're going to talk to this spring.
So you're going to buy some steaks, right and they yeah,
And you're going to hook the fence onto the steaks,
and then surround the perimeter. You gotta surround. You can't
(36:32):
leave one side of the fence open, obviously, right right.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
You have like a raised bed garden that's like three
to four feet you know, square, you would you would
just put like PVC pipe on the edges. You could
do that. You could put a tall kind of steak
on each corner and then just lay the sheeting over that.
But if you don't want to plant veggies, if you
(36:57):
want to plant fruit, which minrovia grows, I would suggest
blueberries would be great. That's an easy shrub. You just
need your soil to be a little bit acidic, and
the Sunshine blueberry or Bountiful blue great one to plant,
produces lots of juicy fruit, so you get wonderful yeah,
(37:19):
you get you get wonderful productive berries from those shrubs.
And you can plant those they stay compact. You can
put them in a container on your patio or in
the garden and they just need a lot of sun.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Sounds great, sounds great.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You said your Monrovia Plants.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Are you in Monrovia, Pennsylvania by any chance or no?
Speaker 7 (37:40):
No, Actually the nursery was founded in Monrovia, Southern California,
Monrovia near Los Angeles. But now we have nurseries all
over the country, including in Connecticut and a.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Great we're heard in the eastern half of the US
right now. We got people listening everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
So how could people get more information from Rovia Plants.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
What's the website?
Speaker 7 (38:02):
So it's Monrovia dot com and we have a great
tool called my plant Finder where you can type in
your zip code and what you're looking for in a plant.
You know, maybe you want to attract bees and butterflies,
maybe you want to screen out the neighbors. You just
you just put in what you're looking for and you
up pops the plants that will grow well in your area.
(38:23):
So that's Monrovia dot com slash my plant Finder.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Sounds great, Katie Tammany, thank you so much. I got
that pronunciation the last time here.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
You did you did you nail?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Okay? Thanks Katie, we'll talk again. I really enjoyed touchat
with your fun.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
Thanks, thanks, take the thanks.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
When we get back, we're going to talk about where
we're going in New England in terms of climate and
what we can do. I've got a great guest. His
name is Dave Cash. He was the Regional Administrator for
the EPA up until UH President Trump took over in
January twentieth, and we're going to talk about clean energies
(39:04):
from a high school teacher. Is that he is a PhD.
He went to Yale and Kennedy School. The government is
a great guest.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Had him on before. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
We'll talk about again energy in New England and what
we can do, how we can.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Strike that balance.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Very important conversation coming up right after the nine o'clock
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!