April 11, 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!
Dr. Marschall Runge - executive vice president for Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan, dean of the Medical School, and CEO of Michigan Medicine discussed how technological advances, policy changes, and emerging business models are fundamentally transforming American healthcare.
MONSTER JAM® returns to Gillette Stadium on Saturday, April 12th! Dan spoke with driver Colt Stephens.
Lowell, MA’s multi-day celebration of music and art, The Town and The City Festival - APRIL 24-26 in Downtown Lowell. Chris Porter - Festival founder checked in with Dan.
Skipping meals may increase risk of heart attack… Dr. Fahmi Farah – Cardiologist and director of Bentley Heart in Fort Worth, Texas joined Dan Rea.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Dr. Marschall Runge - executive vice president for Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan, dean of the Medical School, and CEO of Michigan Medicine discussed how technological advances, policy changes, and emerging business models are fundamentally transforming American healthcare.
MONSTER JAM® returns to Gillette Stadium on Saturday, April 12th! Dan spoke with driver Colt Stephens.
Lowell, MA’s multi-day celebration of music and art, The Town and The City Festival - APRIL 24-26 in Downtown Lowell. Chris Porter - Festival founder checked in with Dan.
Skipping meals may increase risk of heart attack… Dr. Fahmi Farah – Cardiologist and director of Bentley Heart in Fort Worth, Texas joined Dan Rea.
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 (00:00):
It's eight oh seven. Stick around time for a Friday
night edition of Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm Nicole Davis,
WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
All right, everybody, welcome and welcome on into a Friday
night edition. As Nicole has just told you, it is
the end of the week, but we have four hours
to go. We'll take you all the way until Saturday morning,
April twelfth. And before we get started tonight, I just
(00:31):
wanted to make note. Oftentimes you don't hear these sorts
of things, but Nicole is going to be moving her
time slot here at WBZ from her regularly well her
currently scheduled time, which is working with us at night
and in the hours before at Nightside. But Nicole, you
(00:52):
were staying with the station. You're moving to the midday.
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I am, Well, we've just had some some moves here
at the station in recent weeks, and this is just
what's next for me. I suppose in the in the pipeline.
So I've got to get used to getting up at
five thirty in the morning. That's kind be new. I
haven't done that in a while.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But five thirty is not bad. Let me tell you,
five thirty is not bad. I used to get up
at quarter three.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, it didn't we all when we were working morning drive, right,
And I mean I have not miss that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You can not do that. But yeah, look, I'm going
to miss you. I don't get into the station much,
but please let us keep in touch with one because
I always enjoyed a little back and forth here. Yeah,
and I'm kind of sad tonight, I too.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I've been really upset about it. I'm like, oh man,
I mean, I'm really excited for whatever comes next. But
you know, we have a special connection. I love the
night side listeners. It's been I don't even know how
many years at this point, it's been.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
A lot of fun while a while.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Thank you just for everything while I've been here on
the show with you doing our thing.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well right back at you, and I know that we
share a love for the Boston sports teams and we
kid a kid back and forth with it. But this
is one that I'm really quite serious about. I know
you're going to do a great job and thank in
your new assignment. And the great part about this is
that you still be here at WBZ and be listening
to you maybe during I would be listening at a
(02:17):
different time during the day, but we will keep in touch.
And I just want to say thanks for all of
your help over the years. Oh you been y. You
have tipped me off on stories that go on. You
have gone above and beyond. I'm sitting here doing a
show when all of a sudden, some big news story happens,
and you have always kept me in the loop. And
I just can't tell you much. I appreciated that you
were truly a news person.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Thank you, No, I appreciate you. And you know I
love the show. I listen all the time. Thank you
for expanding my mind on a lot of things, having
great conversations, letting me talk to your guests from time
to time. Well, you know, it's it's been a lot
of fun and I've learned a lot from you. And
you know, I'll just be listening to you as I
put the dinner dishes away. Now it's a little bit different,
and that's okay. We'll go get lunch sometime.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It'll be great, all right. Thanks Thanks to gold the
Ultimate News pro and it's a pleasure to have worked
with you, and we will continue to be in touchdown.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry else.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
You excellent, excellent. Listen, gentlemen, that's a little bit of
a tuget the hot strings from me here tonight. You
develop friendships and relationships with your on air colleagues, and
but life, life does go on, as of course, Nightside
goes on. My name is Dan Ray, and I don't
want to steal any more time from my first guest,
(03:32):
a very distinguished guest, the doctor Marshall Rungi. He's the
dean of the Medican School at the University of Michigan.
Dean Rungy, Welcome to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I'm great, Dan, nice, Nice to be on your show.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
As a big sports guy, I have to ask this question.
Any relation to a former Major League umpire named Ed
Rungy from the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, my father claimed we were related. He couldn't exactly
explain it, but Ed was an upstanding guy and I'm
happy to be related to him in whatever way.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How many talk show hosts in America who you would
talk to would be able to pull the name Ed
Rungy out of the year. Not many, not many, you're
the first. I'll bet, I'll bet. So we're going to
talk about technological advances, of course, which we have all seen,
policy changes and emerging business models fundamentally transforming America healthcare.
I know what you mean by that. It is very
(04:30):
tough here in New England, at least in the Greater
Boston area right now, to get a new primary care physician.
I had a lunch the other day with a former
PCP of mine who retired. He was telling me that
a retired PCP that he knows woman cannot find a
PCP for herself. So this is maybe not what you
(04:55):
want to talk about. But things are changing, and they're
not necessarily changing in a good direction as far I'm concerned.
Tell us about the changes from the perspective of the
perspective that you have out of ann Arbor.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, Dan, what you're talking about in terms of access
to primary care is a national problem. It's one that
we really need to change the way we're training primary
care physicians encourage people to go into primary care. There
are lots of levers that we could use, that we
need to use, and I think it's possible for us
to really improve access to primary care and the reason
(05:31):
I feel so passionately about it too reasons. One is
I do believe that if we can improve access to
primary care, that means we can improve access to preventive care.
And everybody complains about how much health care costs, and
one of the best lists for that is to make
people to help them become more healthy. The second is,
if you compare us to our peer countries, advanced countries,
(05:56):
and look at the percent of our physicians who are
primary care physicians, it's very low compared to our peers,
and I think that is reflected sometimes. We're definitely reflected
in the difficulty of finding a new internist or family
medicine physician or whatever you prefer for primary care.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
My friends in the field tell me that the amount
of paperwork that PCPs or interness to whatever are required,
they spend more time doing paperwork than interacting with patients.
Is that a complaint you hear out there?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Absolutely? And I have an interness and he is fantastic,
and up until very recently, when i'd go see him,
he'd have his back turn to me. We'd be talking,
but he'd be type of things to his computer. So
one technology advance, I'd like to just mention to you
there's an advance called ambient AI and I don't know
if you're familiar with that term. I wasn't familiar with
(06:48):
it until recently. But we always ask, and I'm mac
cardialgist will ask our patients. Says, okay, if we use
ambient AAI and we explain it to them, what's involves
is basically a microphone and a computer taking accepting all
the interchange between the person and their position. And not
(07:11):
only that, it's not a transcript producers, it produces a
high quality medical note and our faculty, our physicians who
are using this now say that this has decreased the
amount of time they have to spend with just chart
work by up to two hours a day. That's a
lot of time.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I had a guest on last night who writes political
and economic issues. Guest he graduated from Carnegie Mellon, which
I think is probably the toughest school in the country
to get into account to graduate, and he writes for
a platform called substack. He could take a thirty one
hundred word essay and he can load it on to
(07:53):
an AI in three minutes and what comes what comes
out is basically two separate voice is discussing and in
effect regurgitating what he has written. Not in a verbatim form,
but you have the audio of two people speaking and saying, well,
you know, Tatsu wrote this interesting article, and what did
(08:14):
you think about it? And they get right into the article.
It's an amazing process. So yeah, that's that is. That's
a great development.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
It is, and I think it's one of many examples
where our advancing technology, including AI and other advances, is
going to make it better for physicians, all health care providers,
and better for those who are patients.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But can I ask you one other question? As the
DNA of a medical school, why do we not have
more medical schools in the United States of America. A
lot of bright young men and women coming out of
college these days are going offshore to medical schools, many
of them in the Caribbean. It seems to me that
there's a million law schools. I'm a lawyer by training,
(08:59):
a lawyer by practice, and a journalist by practice. There's
a there's a whole bunch of law schools. The more
law schools than we probably need. There aren't enough medical schools.
Why can't we get more medical schools opened in this
country on shore.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Dan, I completely agree with you with about the our
paucity of medical schools. I think that and I think
there are two parts of it. One is how many
medical schools. The other is how many students per class. Yes,
and let me just say, and I am not casting
as persons at anybody, but this is such a in
my opinion, the over regulated process in the United States.
(09:39):
Everyone knows we need more doctors, and we can train
more doctors, and so I one of the things that
I am pushing hard for is for us to do
just what you suggested and to have larger medical school classes.
I think we can train people using new technology and
ways that their training will be just as good, if
(10:00):
not better, and we'll be able to provide many more
physicians in the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Doctor Runky, what I would love to do with you
if possible, because we're limited in this format. We do
four interviews during this eight o'clock hour, but I'm on
the ear from eight to midnight Monday through Friday. Could
I convince you to come back with us somenight do
an hour maybe a little later in the evening, and
be able to entertain questions from callers and talk about
(10:27):
this very subject. I know that, for example, the University
of Massachusetts Medical School here in Worcester, Massachusetts, it only
has room for about one hundred and twenty medical students
every year, and it seems to me that we need more.
And you are one of the first people in position
(10:49):
of authority as the dean of a medical school who
I think are on the same page with me. And
I'm kind of doing this as a little bit of
a little bit of a project or a campaign to
make people more aware of this. Would you be willing
to come back some night and spend an hour talking
about this and incorporate phone calls from across the country.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, Dan, I would love to do that. I'd love
to hear what people are thinking and their questions and
their thoughts.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
The only caution I throw is you may get pretty
sick of me after an hour by speaking. But I'd
love to be there.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I don't think so at all. I can tell that
you know a lot of people you know don't remember
that when when we when President Reagan invaded Granada, Grenada,
back in the nineteen eighties, it was to free medical
students who had been held out and for those young
young people, it became very dangerous. And I want to
(11:45):
see us train enough doctors in America. And I know
and I have some stories of kids who I have
advocated for who come out of the best universities and
have great This is a subject you and I might
connect on. And I thank you so much. And I'm
going to have my producer get back to you'r a
PR person who I believe her name is deb and
we will we will set this up in the not
(12:07):
too distant future, and we also can spend more time
talking about some of the emerging technology.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Sounds great, Dan, I'll look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Thank you very much, Doctor Marshall Rungey, somehow a relative
of a famous Major League umpire, but more importantly the
dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, Doctor Ruggie,
Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to our next conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Thank you, Dan, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When we get back, we're going to change topics. We're
going to talk about an event coming up at Gillette
Stadium this very this very weekend, a monster gym. I'm
going to talk with the driver of a month. I
think these are the big truck things we'll talk with
Colt Stevens right after the break here in w b Z.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WAZ Boston's
(12:54):
news radio.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
All right, Well, there's a lot going on around New
England this weekend, and if you're a fan of Monster Jam,
you should be out at Gillette Stadium tomorrow, April twelfth
with Me's Colch Stevens, one of the drivers.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Hi, Cold, how are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Let's go on, man, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah. Is this your first trip to Jewett or to
Boston or you been out in the circuit for a while.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Oh, We've been out on tour for a little bit
this year. But this is actually my second time here
at Jellete Stadium. I came back I believe in twenty
seventeen driving the Zombie Monster Jam truck. But this is
the first time for my brand new truck to come here.
I'm super excited. I always have a great time. I
absolutely love Jellette Stadium. I was looking at the track earlier.
It was a little bit damp, but I'm excited. It's
(13:39):
looking good. Cannot wait.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, I hope the weather gets a little better for tomorrow.
The forecast is a little what they call inclement the
weather guys. But how much dirt is brought in for
the Monster Jams, my mind is dating. It's quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Oh yeah, there's no doubt of it. There's around four
hundred loads of dirt that come in. It's amazing to
watch the dirt crew and how they can transform a
football field or a stadium like that. Bring the dirt in.
We'll do an event completely awesome, big hills, jumps, cars,
everything out there. Then they'll completely remove everything within a
day and it looked like we were never even there.
So it's pretty cool. Yeah, we have a lot of dirt.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I assume they must put some sort of a tarp underneath.
They're not just putting it down on the field, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
They actually have some videos on Monster Jam's website showing
how they do it at some of the stadiums, but
a lot of times it's a couple layers of actual
plywood that go down and then yeah, tarp as well,
so and it cleans up really nicely.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Excellent. Excellent. So now you guys are on tour. What
months of the year does this basically take up your existence?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Well, Master dam does go year round, but our tour
really goes all the way into world Finals. This year
world finals is July fourth and it's in Salt Lake City,
So we're going from January all the way until July,
and each weekend is a point series. This tour is
all together. There's five tours all around the country going on,
but this is East Stadium Tour and we're all trying
(15:08):
to get as many points as possible to make it
the world Finals. Because only the guy that gets the
most points on this tour and wins the tour is
guaranteed to bid the world Finals, and that's what we're
all shooting for.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, now, Cold, let me ask you how do you
become a monk? Tell me how you became a monster
jam driver. I'm sure when you were, you know, ten
years twelve years old, you might have been thinking about driving,
but I mean you probably were not thinking about the
vehicles that you're driving. Explain to people who may not
have seen it, how high you are up off the
(15:38):
ground and what you were trying to achieve to pile
up those points.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
All right, multiple things. So, first off, I'm a second
generation driver, so this is part of my lifestyle group
around it. I absolutely love it. It's monster jam has
been a part of my life. But then these trucks
are twelve foot tall. So we're sitting in the middle
of these trucks. It's a full tube, Chassie, twelve dollars,
thousand pounds. We're on sixty sixteen saw tires and we're
pushing about fifteen hundred horsepower. So it's a lot of fun.
(16:06):
It's wild and crazy and as far as what to expect,
expect the unexpected. We're out there in these trucks. I
just said they're twelve thousand pounds, but imagine this. They're
flying thirty forty feet in the air. We're doing backflips,
we're doing crazy Ballerina moves if you will, up on
the front two tires, doing moonwalks, we're doing sidewalls, We're
driving bicycles down the side of the lanes. You know,
(16:28):
it's crazy what we can do in these trucks. You
have to see it in person to actually get a
grasp on it. And the biggest thing is you want
to come to the pit party. You want to come
see what these trucks look like up close to personally.
You can watch it on YouTube. You can watch it
on TV or whatever you see. But until you actually
see these trucks up close and see how big they
are and how big the jumps are that we're hitting,
(16:48):
you really can't grasp it. And I'll tell you what,
you definitely need to check it out.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well, hopefully a lot of my listeners will check it out.
It's at you let tomorrow. I assume that they can
get tickets. They can probably go on to a waite,
but they probably also can show up and buy them
at the gate.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Is that true, Yeah, sir, But go to monster jam
dot com. You can check it out. You can get
all the information all the times. I do know that
the event starts at five o'clock. Now you can come
to the pit party general emissions at twelve thirty, and
then we also have an early access where you can
really skip all the lines and everything that starts at
eleven thirty. But check it out. Monster jam dot com
(17:23):
has you dialed in, you'll be able to get all
the information you need.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, that's perfect monsterjam dot com. And I suspect that
this is an event that all ages, kids as well
as adults, grandparents and regular parents. I assume it spans
the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
There's no doubt about it. We always laugh about it,
but it's one hundred percent true. Bring everybody from the
littlest kid all the way up to your grandma. They're
all gonna have a fantastic time. It's so much fun
for the entire family. And we got that brand new
thunder Roars truck that I'm driving this weekend. You don't
want to miss it. Bring the roar. I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, Cold, let me Cold. Let me just say, first
of all, love your passion, love your enthusiasm. You represent
the sport very very well. Thanks for what you do.
Stay safe and best of luck this weekend. Out at you.
Let sounds to me like you're not going to need
any luck. You may need a little bit of a
of an umbrella, but that's that's okay, that's that'll that'll
make it only much more fun. Thank you so much, Cold,
(18:23):
enjoy talking with you, all.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Right, I thank you very much. Can't wait to see you.
Don't miss it.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay, we'll be there, We'll be there. Okay, when we
got we got a break here for the news at
the bottom of the Air with Nicole Davis. I'd love
to be able to give that introduction a few more
times between now and midnight, and when we get back,
we're going to talk with Chris Porter, the founder of
the Lowell Multi Day Celebration of Music and Art. This
(18:48):
is a festival a little later on this month. This
one you can put in your calendar and plan for
it the weekend of April twenty four to the twenty sixth.
We will talk about that with Chris Porter right after
the break. My name's Dan Ray. This is Night's Side.
We've got a lot of activity, a lot of stuff
to cover. Tonight's stay with us. By the way, if
you would like to know and you're listening, you're listening
(19:09):
to Night Side On with Dan Ray on WBZ ten
thirty and your AM dial. But you know what you
can do no matter where you are, you can pull
down the new and improved iHeart app. We're an iHeartRadio
station out of Boston. We broadcast terrestrial radio over half
the country. But if you're anywhere in the world and
you want to listen to iHeart and particularly WBZ, all
I gonna do is pull that app down, put it
(19:31):
on whatever type of device you have. You can make
us your number one precent and you will always be
only a fingertip away no matter where you are in
the world. With WBZ Boston, my name's Dan Ray. Be
back right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
It's Night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
All right, welcome back everybody, Thank you, Nicole. Going to
talk with Chris Porter. Chris is the festival f owner
of Lowell, Massachusetts, multi day celebration of music and art.
It's called the Town and the City Festival, running from
April twenty fourth to the twenty sixth, which is a
Thursday through Saturday later this month. Chris Porter, Welcome to
(20:16):
Night's Side. How are you, sir.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
I'm doing great, Dan, Thanks so much for having me
on your program.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
For some reason, I think we might have done this
year ago, and I'm not sure if you were here,
if we were together or not, but I believe we
talked about it a little bit, but it sounded a
year ago like a great event. Tell us about this
year's activities.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Yeah, sure, I've been on busy before. I appreciate all
the support and interest. Yeah, this is the sixth year
of the Town and the City Festival. It's amazing. It's
been a nice run. We started in twenty eighteen, and
it's been growing and it's been a wonderful event. As
you mentioned, some multi day music and arts festival takes
(20:59):
place in various men spaces, bars, cafes, galleries, even a
church throughout downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. I call it a sort
of a venue hopping experience. While people could purchase tickets
for an individual show, we really encourage people to get
day passes so that which is put they give a
little wristband and you can kind of bop around a
(21:21):
different venues and experiences as much as you want. We
have twelve participating venues throughout downtown Lowell, over sixty performances
over those three days. The Thursday night, it's one kickoff
show that we're doing. A couple of nationally known acts,
Lady Lamb and Ezra Firman are playing that evening. And
(21:41):
then on Friday the twenty fifth and Saturday the twenty sixth,
we have a multitude of things happening, mostly music, but
we do have some comedy and some spoken word poetry
events as well. We have Friday evening it's going on,
and then Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening a lot of
different things are going on.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
So I'm a little confused. I know Lowell's a city,
why is it called the Town and the City Festival.
It's not a town?
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Yeah, well yeah, although some people who live there, and
I grew up in Lowell, so it's sort of like
a town and kind of like a city, but it's
not the reason why we call it that. That is
a that is a nod to Jack Kirewuac, one of
our most famous UH people from who grew up in Lowell.
His very first book was called The Town and the City.
(22:29):
It was largely about although he used the fictional name,
it was largely about Lowell. And this isn't meant to
be a Jack. When I started this, I didn't want
to necessarily do a Jack Herewuack scened event Uh. There
already is another one that goes on there. But I
wanted to celebrate the spirit of Jack as far as
you know, things he wrote about about discovery and UH
(22:50):
and love of life and all that. And we do
have some Cure Wuac esque sort of programming, Like I said,
this poetry, we've had some literary programming here and there.
There have been mus tributes and actually there's one band
that is doing a music tribute to to Get Here
at Waka on the on the Saturday. So I mean
we have you know, So that's the kind of the
(23:10):
element is. But it's mostly meant to be a celebration
of Lowell of a lot of the local music. And
we we have nationally touring artists as part of this,
but I like to fly the local flag, so to speak.
And there are a lot of Lol based performers and
Boston based performers playing at it as well. But there's
a Jack here whack underlying team with it and so
hence the name.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So how's Lowell doing these days? If I'm not mistaken.
You have, of course good Good College up there, University
of Lowell at hockey Good Hockey College hockey at the
Saugus Arena. Is that also used as a venue for
for the Fleet, the women's National Hockey League team.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Right, yeah, the Boston Fleet play there, That's right. I
wish I wish my festival was a little bigger, that
I could put some conscience on there quite at that
point yet, but it's it's another exciting aspect of role
for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So but the city seems to be doing a little better.
I mean, it's a you know, it's a city that
has a tremendous history. Anybody who's ever been to Loll
knows the history of Loll and what an important city
it was, and it still is. But there's a history
as well as again, you know, areas that are being
developed on is it is it? Is it getting better
(24:29):
in Lowll? It seems to me every time I go there,
it looks better, it feels better. But I'm not there
every day of the week. Tell me, tell me how's
the city doing.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
I think it's doing great. I mean it's going through
a little change right now. We unfortunately lost a great
marketplace called Mill number five had.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
To close, although a lot.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Of those vendors are going to another building fortunately, but
that was, you know, one of a number of examples
of repurposed mills there that are becoming you know, whether
they're becoming some summer conc wasn't a apartments. Some have
been for companies, but some have been for marketplaces also,
like for instance, one of the venues we used taff
at a music hall that is housed at Western av Studios,
(25:11):
which has been around for a few years. But it's
this an enormous sort of artist colony it's something like
three hundred visual artists have their studios and or they
live there, and there's a brewery there and a coffee
shop and and this music venue. And you know, when
I was growing up in Lowll it's stuff like that,
it felt like nothing like that would have happened, you know,
And so I look at Lowell as is really with
(25:34):
different eye over the last in my opinion, the last
ten years, it's become a much more interesting place there's
been as far as culture is concerned. It's been place
for visual art for many years. There are a lot
of galleries and and things for for visual artists, but
the music thing has kind of gone up and down
over the years. But right now there you know, when
(25:56):
the town and the city festival is not happening, I mean,
they're a handful event music venues that are going on,
you know, every night of the week, or most nights
of the week. When I was growing up, I mean
sometimes there would be one, but lots of times we
had no music venue unless it was somebody big playing
at the Lowe Memorial Auditorium. So it's I I And
also it's a place that well, you know, every place
(26:17):
can be expensive relatively speaking, But relatively speaking, it's much
more less expensive to live there than Boston, Cambridge, some
of all that whole you know, general, the big city area.
And so I know so many creatives that have been
moving up to Lowell in recent years. I had a
number of friends who just get priced out of the
Boston area gone up there and they do their music
(26:39):
or art or whatever they work on up there, and
so it's it's it's been really inspiring. I've seen I'm
very bullish on what's going on in a lot of
small cities all over the country. One of my inspirations
for the town the city is a festival in Boise,
the Idaho called tree Fort Music Fest, which is bigger
than what we do, but it's along the same lines.
And I went to it once. You know, we can
(27:00):
do something like this in Lowell, you know, why not?
You know, And I've seen it in that as a
similar festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. And and I can put
to other cities of the same same size, and you
would think to you know, think that, you know, so
it's really cool. Stuff doesn't have to happen in Boston
or Cambridge. You know, you can you can find it
in places like Lowell and Portsmouth, and I can name
(27:22):
other places as well.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
But well, questioning, well, yeah, well, I got to tell
you I'm so happy to hear that, because I'm a
big advocate of that. You hear the stories that you know,
well someone can't find uh an inexpensive apartment on Beacon Hill.
Well there's probably a reason for that, you know. It's
(27:43):
it's kind of what we call supply and demand economics.
But you can go to any of these great cities
in the greater Boston area. Uh, A lot of people
are now able to work remotely. That's that's a new opportunity.
And there's also businesses and and employment opportunities. Everybody feels, well,
I got to live in Soho in New York City
(28:05):
or you know, or worse, in the village. And if
I don't live in I have to live in the
Back Bay or Beacon Hill or maybe the South End.
I'll slum it and go to the South End. And
those are all high end places that you've got to
spend five thousand dollars a month just to live. And
there's a point of reality here, I mean where you
got to say to yourself, look, at some of these
(28:27):
other cities. And that's why I'm excited to have you.
I'm excited to celebrate the town and the City Festival
and in a lot of and I hope a lot
of people take advantage of this. It's two weekends, well
it's really one weekend from now. When you think of it,
it's not this weekend, it's the it's the following weekend.
And get up there and experience the city. You might
find a better place to work and a better place
(28:47):
to live, which is not going to cost you an
arm and a lake Lowell, Massachusetts. So Chris, I'm big
on Lowell and I'm thrilled to hear your enthusiasm because
that's what that's what Lowell needs, people like you who
stick with it and make this city. Let it come back,
let it keep on coming back. And I just want
to say thanks very much for what you do. Well.
Speaker 6 (29:08):
I really really appreciate that, Dan, it's a sweet words
and I appreciate your interest in support. And I hope
everybody can check out the Town and the City Festival
for more information. Just go to the Town in the
City Festival dot com, give them links to tickets there
and learn about all the different performers and bands. Like
I said, there's some nationally recognize that, there's some locals,
(29:28):
and there's a lot of stuff in a big discovery
thing too. Don't just go and see your favorites, you know,
find your new favorite band at the Town and the
City festival.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I like to say, I think what you need is
a slogan and get some bumper strips up there. It's
happening in Lowell something like that. That market, that city.
It is a great city. It's got great restaurants. I'm
Bullish and low and so you're always welcome here. Chris,
thank you, thank you so much. We'll talk soon. Okay,
all right, thanks, all right, thanks again. Well we get back.
(30:00):
Caution you. We're going to talk with doctor Fami Farhar.
He's a cardiologist, and he tells us he's gonna tell
us that skipping meals may actually increase the risk of
heart attack. You'll want to listen up. And then, as
I said, beginning at nine o'clock to I'm going to
be talking with former Superior Court judger in Massachusetts, Christopher J.
(30:20):
Muse Justice under God. He was the attorney. He and
his dad were the attorney for Bobby Joe Leister, which
was one of the It was a herculean battle in
which they fought for this man's freedom, unjustly convicted for
crime that he had nothing to do with. I know
a little bit about that concept. But Chris Muse is
going to be a great guest. I have just read
(30:41):
the book today. It is a great book. We'll talk
with him and then we're going to talk later on
tonight with a home remodeler. I think if you're interested,
you may find that one very interesting. And then at
eleven tonight, Yeah, you're brushed with celebrity. Let's have fun
in that final hour time and we'll get you to
(31:02):
the weekend. Back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Night Side with Dan Ray on w B Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
All right, one or to welcome to our program, doctor
Fami Farha, doctor Farhran, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
How are you, sir, find Jane.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
Well, it's great to be back on your show.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Fami. I did not realize that you were a female.
I apologize for that. I have never seen the name
Fami before. Welcome to our show. Thank you very much.
And you're a cardiologist and you have a warning for
my listeners, and that is that skipping meals, which a
(31:45):
lot of people do, could complicate their lives with a
greater likelihood of heart attacks. Tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (31:56):
Yes, you know, meals are very important, especially certain meals
such as breakfast, just because what we eat in the
morning when we first wake up, that kind of sets
the stage for the rest of the day in terms
of our hormone regulation. It's an important hormone regulation. For example,
your insulin, which is the main hormone that kind of
(32:17):
determines It's called a storage hormone, like how your calories
are going to be taken care of for the rest
of the day. And so eating a good, healthy breakfast
is very important for your overall health and particularly your
heart health.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So I understand that, and I do the same breakfast
every morning, which is I have a cereal that I
eat and I put fruit, bananas, blueberry, strawberries, and coffee
and that gets me through most of the day. I
will have a piece of fruit or something like that
(32:52):
at lunch. So I'm not a heavy eater. I lost
thirty five pounds a few years ago, and I will
have a regular dinner. Tonight, I had fish and some vegetables.
Am I in dangering myself? I'm not somebody who sits
and has a lunch with you know whatever, you know,
(33:14):
a burger and fries or something like that. Are people
like me who are kind of cutting back on their
caloric intake? Are they the people you're worried about or
or not? I mean, I'm just I am concerned whenever
I talk to a doctor and I think to myself,
am I doing something here that is not helping me?
Not at all.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
In fact, I think what you're doing is more along
the side of being healthy. So I'm not worried about
the group of folks who are cutting back on their calories. It's,
in fact the opposite. You know, there's a lot of
information out there nowadays, especially on social media things like TikTok.
Anyone can post a lot of information out there. Whether
that's true or not, it's questionable. So getting your source,
(33:59):
you know, like what tours you're getting information from, is
very important. And so you know, like, like the topic
we're discussing is so important. I don't think that decreasing
calorie intake and eating a healthy, balanced, nutritious meals is
(34:19):
that that's what we want you to do. So that's
not the group of people that we worry about.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Now, I'm not sure if this is a fair question.
Maybe this should be the question for a nutrition it's
not a cardiologist. But I remember many years ago when
they sort of flipped the food pyramid on its head.
You know, we were told that these were the things
that were good, and these were the things that weren't good.
And then all of a sudden, the new food myriamid
came out and things that were good weren't so good,
(34:46):
and things that had been bad actually were pretty good.
I don't know. You sound as if you're a lot
younger than I am. You may not remember when the
food pyramid got a very different configuration. And and the
reason I ask you that question is a lot of
people kind of said, oh, that's good, meat was good
for you and all of this, and then it became
(35:08):
just the opposite. Now, again, you're the cardiologists. You deal
with people who who need to be concerned about their heart.
Why is it that we can't figure out, meaning the
medical community at large can't figure out exactly what is
good and what is bad, because that did lead to
some confusion. If you you probably don't remember it, but
you certainly know of what I speak.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I hope, I am.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Yes, I'm aware of the change in the food pyramid.
But to clarify, the medical community has figured out what's
good and you know, like, yes, there was some confusion
with the food pyramid turning upside down, but that is
you know, like too much meat is not good for you.
(35:53):
So we do have plenty of research done and we
do know now what's good for us. We know that
plant based diet is excellent for us, like you know,
that actually is the way to go. And the new
guidelines per American he Association, you will see there's a
big push towards plant based dies. What we don't want
people to do things that are high in cholesterol, things
(36:15):
that are processed, things that have high sodium content. Those
are proven to be wrong and there's no confusion about it.
The things that have high cholesterol, fatty items, things that
are high in preservatives, high in sodium, those are bad
for us, bad for our overall health and certainly for
our cardiovascular health. And things that are like you know,
(36:36):
more fruits and vegetables, particularly vegetables, We know those are
good for us. And there's nothing wrong with taking those.
So there's no confusion about that part.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Okay. Now I got to ask you about two things.
I have a cardiologist who's a great friend, and he
said to me, there's nothing wrong with a little dark
chocolate every day. I hope that that still holds, that.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It is correct.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
That is correct.
Speaker 7 (37:03):
Yes, I completely agree with that. So dark chocolate is
healthy for you and for your heart health. Of course,
it needs to be done in moderation. And it's not
the chocolate that we worry about, it's what the chocolate
is prepared with. So you know, candy is where we
typically find the chocolate, and candy can have a lot
of sugar, and you know, fat and cholesterol content could
(37:25):
be high as a result, and so we need to
be cautious of that. Like, it's not that chocolate itself
that's bad, it's everything.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Else in it. Okay. And then the other question, which
is important to ask red wine. Please tell me red
wine is okay.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
I get asked this question quite a bit. I know, yes,
so it's it's it's a I hate to be the
very bad news for you. But a couple of years ago,
we had a large that came was an international study
that looked at a couple of million people actually, and
we now have proof that any amount of alcohol is
(38:07):
not good for us. Alcohol is considered a toxin for
the heart, health and overall body, and red wine is
no different. The reason I think there's a little bit
of confusion, and for a long time, you're right, red
wine was it got this reputation of being good and
healthy for you because it has a component that has
like you know, antioxidant and things like that. But that's
(38:31):
aside from the alcohol component in it. And so the
content of alcohol being in it, the little benefit it
has is totally offset by the harmful effects it has.
So we don't promote drinking any alcohol at all anymore,
not even red wine.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Okay, well, okay, I'm one for two, I'm bat in
five hundred. I'm okay with that, Doctor Fami far Thank
you so much, Cardiology Board Certified invasive cardiologists. By the way,
I always like to thank doctors, and I mean this honestly.
Thank you for the profession you've chosen, and thank you
for what you do for all of us. I appreciate
(39:10):
it so much, and thanks for being with us tonight.
You're a great sport thank you.
Speaker 7 (39:14):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
All right. When we get back, we're going to talk
with a former Massachusetts Superior Court judge. Chris Muse has
written a book about the biggest case of his career,
in a case that most of us will remember, the
case of Bobby Joe Lisa Lisa, an innocent man who
spent nearly ten years in jail for a crime he
(39:36):
did not commit. We'll be talking with Chris Muse and
Justice under God right after the nine o'clock news
It's eight oh seven. Stick around time for a Friday
night edition of Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm Nicole Davis,
WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
All right, everybody, welcome and welcome on into a Friday
night edition. As Nicole has just told you, it is
the end of the week, but we have four hours
to go. We'll take you all the way until Saturday morning,
April twelfth. And before we get started tonight, I just
(00:31):
wanted to make note. Oftentimes you don't hear these sorts
of things, but Nicole is going to be moving her
time slot here at WBZ from her regularly well her
currently scheduled time, which is working with us at night
and in the hours before at Nightside. But Nicole, you
(00:52):
were staying with the station. You're moving to the midday.
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I am, Well, we've just had some some moves here
at the station in recent weeks, and this is just
what's next for me. I suppose in the in the pipeline.
So I've got to get used to getting up at
five thirty in the morning. That's kind be new. I
haven't done that in a while.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But five thirty is not bad. Let me tell you,
five thirty is not bad. I used to get up
at quarter three.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, it didn't we all when we were working morning drive, right,
And I mean I have not miss that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You can not do that. But yeah, look, I'm going
to miss you. I don't get into the station much,
but please let us keep in touch with one because
I always enjoyed a little back and forth here. Yeah,
and I'm kind of sad tonight, I too.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I've been really upset about it. I'm like, oh man,
I mean, I'm really excited for whatever comes next. But
you know, we have a special connection. I love the
night side listeners. It's been I don't even know how
many years at this point, it's been.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
A lot of fun while a while.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Thank you just for everything while I've been here on
the show with you doing our thing.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well right back at you, and I know that we
share a love for the Boston sports teams and we
kid a kid back and forth with it. But this
is one that I'm really quite serious about. I know
you're going to do a great job and thank in
your new assignment. And the great part about this is
that you still be here at WBZ and be listening
to you maybe during I would be listening at a
(02:17):
different time during the day, but we will keep in touch.
And I just want to say thanks for all of
your help over the years. Oh you been y. You
have tipped me off on stories that go on. You
have gone above and beyond. I'm sitting here doing a
show when all of a sudden, some big news story happens,
and you have always kept me in the loop. And
I just can't tell you much. I appreciated that you
were truly a news person.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Thank you, No, I appreciate you. And you know I
love the show. I listen all the time. Thank you
for expanding my mind on a lot of things, having
great conversations, letting me talk to your guests from time
to time. Well, you know, it's it's been a lot
of fun and I've learned a lot from you. And
you know, I'll just be listening to you as I
put the dinner dishes away. Now it's a little bit different,
and that's okay. We'll go get lunch sometime.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It'll be great, all right. Thanks Thanks to gold the
Ultimate News pro and it's a pleasure to have worked
with you, and we will continue to be in touchdown.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry else.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
You excellent, excellent. Listen, gentlemen, that's a little bit of
a tuget the hot strings from me here tonight. You
develop friendships and relationships with your on air colleagues, and
but life, life does go on, as of course, Nightside
goes on. My name is Dan Ray, and I don't
want to steal any more time from my first guest,
(03:32):
a very distinguished guest, the doctor Marshall Rungi. He's the
dean of the Medican School at the University of Michigan.
Dean Rungy, Welcome to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I'm great, Dan, nice, Nice to be on your show.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
As a big sports guy, I have to ask this question.
Any relation to a former Major League umpire named Ed
Rungy from the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, my father claimed we were related. He couldn't exactly
explain it, but Ed was an upstanding guy and I'm
happy to be related to him in whatever way.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How many talk show hosts in America who you would
talk to would be able to pull the name Ed
Rungy out of the year. Not many, not many, you're
the first. I'll bet, I'll bet. So we're going to
talk about technological advances, of course, which we have all seen,
policy changes and emerging business models fundamentally transforming America healthcare.
I know what you mean by that. It is very
(04:30):
tough here in New England, at least in the Greater
Boston area right now, to get a new primary care physician.
I had a lunch the other day with a former
PCP of mine who retired. He was telling me that
a retired PCP that he knows woman cannot find a
PCP for herself. So this is maybe not what you
(04:55):
want to talk about. But things are changing, and they're
not necessarily changing in a good direction as far I'm concerned.
Tell us about the changes from the perspective of the
perspective that you have out of ann Arbor.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, Dan, what you're talking about in terms of access
to primary care is a national problem. It's one that
we really need to change the way we're training primary
care physicians encourage people to go into primary care. There
are lots of levers that we could use, that we
need to use, and I think it's possible for us
to really improve access to primary care and the reason
(05:31):
I feel so passionately about it too reasons. One is
I do believe that if we can improve access to
primary care, that means we can improve access to preventive care.
And everybody complains about how much health care costs, and
one of the best lists for that is to make
people to help them become more healthy. The second is,
if you compare us to our peer countries, advanced countries,
(05:56):
and look at the percent of our physicians who are
primary care physicians, it's very low compared to our peers,
and I think that is reflected sometimes. We're definitely reflected
in the difficulty of finding a new internist or family
medicine physician or whatever you prefer for primary care.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
My friends in the field tell me that the amount
of paperwork that PCPs or interness to whatever are required,
they spend more time doing paperwork than interacting with patients.
Is that a complaint you hear out there?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Absolutely? And I have an interness and he is fantastic,
and up until very recently, when i'd go see him,
he'd have his back turn to me. We'd be talking,
but he'd be type of things to his computer. So
one technology advance, I'd like to just mention to you
there's an advance called ambient AI and I don't know
if you're familiar with that term. I wasn't familiar with
(06:48):
it until recently. But we always ask, and I'm mac
cardialgist will ask our patients. Says, okay, if we use
ambient AAI and we explain it to them, what's involves
is basically a microphone and a computer taking accepting all
the interchange between the person and their position. And not
(07:11):
only that, it's not a transcript producers, it produces a
high quality medical note and our faculty, our physicians who
are using this now say that this has decreased the
amount of time they have to spend with just chart
work by up to two hours a day. That's a
lot of time.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I had a guest on last night who writes political
and economic issues. Guest he graduated from Carnegie Mellon, which
I think is probably the toughest school in the country
to get into account to graduate, and he writes for
a platform called substack. He could take a thirty one
hundred word essay and he can load it on to
(07:53):
an AI in three minutes and what comes what comes
out is basically two separate voice is discussing and in
effect regurgitating what he has written. Not in a verbatim form,
but you have the audio of two people speaking and saying, well,
you know, Tatsu wrote this interesting article, and what did
(08:14):
you think about it? And they get right into the article.
It's an amazing process. So yeah, that's that is. That's
a great development.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
It is, and I think it's one of many examples
where our advancing technology, including AI and other advances, is
going to make it better for physicians, all health care providers,
and better for those who are patients.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But can I ask you one other question? As the
DNA of a medical school, why do we not have
more medical schools in the United States of America. A
lot of bright young men and women coming out of
college these days are going offshore to medical schools, many
of them in the Caribbean. It seems to me that
there's a million law schools. I'm a lawyer by training,
(08:59):
a lawyer by practice, and a journalist by practice. There's
a there's a whole bunch of law schools. The more
law schools than we probably need. There aren't enough medical schools.
Why can't we get more medical schools opened in this
country on shore.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Dan, I completely agree with you with about the our
paucity of medical schools. I think that and I think
there are two parts of it. One is how many
medical schools. The other is how many students per class. Yes,
and let me just say, and I am not casting
as persons at anybody, but this is such a in
my opinion, the over regulated process in the United States.
(09:39):
Everyone knows we need more doctors, and we can train
more doctors, and so I one of the things that
I am pushing hard for is for us to do
just what you suggested and to have larger medical school classes.
I think we can train people using new technology and
ways that their training will be just as good, if
(10:00):
not better, and we'll be able to provide many more
physicians in the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Doctor Runky, what I would love to do with you
if possible, because we're limited in this format. We do
four interviews during this eight o'clock hour, but I'm on
the ear from eight to midnight Monday through Friday. Could
I convince you to come back with us somenight do
an hour maybe a little later in the evening, and
be able to entertain questions from callers and talk about
(10:27):
this very subject. I know that, for example, the University
of Massachusetts Medical School here in Worcester, Massachusetts, it only
has room for about one hundred and twenty medical students
every year, and it seems to me that we need more.
And you are one of the first people in position
(10:49):
of authority as the dean of a medical school who
I think are on the same page with me. And
I'm kind of doing this as a little bit of
a little bit of a project or a campaign to
make people more aware of this. Would you be willing
to come back some night and spend an hour talking
about this and incorporate phone calls from across the country.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, Dan, I would love to do that. I'd love
to hear what people are thinking and their questions and
their thoughts.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
The only caution I throw is you may get pretty
sick of me after an hour by speaking. But I'd
love to be there.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I don't think so at all. I can tell that
you know a lot of people you know don't remember
that when when we when President Reagan invaded Granada, Grenada,
back in the nineteen eighties, it was to free medical
students who had been held out and for those young
young people, it became very dangerous. And I want to
(11:45):
see us train enough doctors in America. And I know
and I have some stories of kids who I have
advocated for who come out of the best universities and
have great This is a subject you and I might
connect on. And I thank you so much. And I'm
going to have my producer get back to you'r a
PR person who I believe her name is deb and
we will we will set this up in the not
(12:07):
too distant future, and we also can spend more time
talking about some of the emerging technology.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Sounds great, Dan, I'll look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Thank you very much, Doctor Marshall Rungey, somehow a relative
of a famous Major League umpire, but more importantly the
dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, Doctor Ruggie,
Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to our next conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Thank you, Dan, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When we get back, we're going to change topics. We're
going to talk about an event coming up at Gillette
Stadium this very this very weekend, a monster gym. I'm
going to talk with the driver of a month. I
think these are the big truck things we'll talk with
Colt Stevens right after the break here in w b Z.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WAZ Boston's
(12:54):
news radio.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
All right, Well, there's a lot going on around New
England this weekend, and if you're a fan of Monster Jam,
you should be out at Gillette Stadium tomorrow, April twelfth
with Me's Colch Stevens, one of the drivers.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Hi, Cold, how are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Let's go on, man, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah. Is this your first trip to Jewett or to
Boston or you been out in the circuit for a while.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Oh, We've been out on tour for a little bit
this year. But this is actually my second time here
at Jellete Stadium. I came back I believe in twenty
seventeen driving the Zombie Monster Jam truck. But this is
the first time for my brand new truck to come here.
I'm super excited. I always have a great time. I
absolutely love Jellette Stadium. I was looking at the track earlier.
It was a little bit damp, but I'm excited. It's
(13:39):
looking good. Cannot wait.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, I hope the weather gets a little better for tomorrow.
The forecast is a little what they call inclement the
weather guys. But how much dirt is brought in for
the Monster Jams, my mind is dating. It's quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Oh yeah, there's no doubt of it. There's around four
hundred loads of dirt that come in. It's amazing to
watch the dirt crew and how they can transform a
football field or a stadium like that. Bring the dirt in.
We'll do an event completely awesome, big hills, jumps, cars,
everything out there. Then they'll completely remove everything within a
day and it looked like we were never even there.
So it's pretty cool. Yeah, we have a lot of dirt.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I assume they must put some sort of a tarp underneath.
They're not just putting it down on the field, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
They actually have some videos on Monster Jam's website showing
how they do it at some of the stadiums, but
a lot of times it's a couple layers of actual
plywood that go down and then yeah, tarp as well,
so and it cleans up really nicely.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Excellent. Excellent. So now you guys are on tour. What
months of the year does this basically take up your existence?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Well, Master dam does go year round, but our tour
really goes all the way into world Finals. This year
world finals is July fourth and it's in Salt Lake City,
So we're going from January all the way until July,
and each weekend is a point series. This tour is
all together. There's five tours all around the country going on,
but this is East Stadium Tour and we're all trying
(15:08):
to get as many points as possible to make it
the world Finals. Because only the guy that gets the
most points on this tour and wins the tour is
guaranteed to bid the world Finals, and that's what we're
all shooting for.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, now, Cold, let me ask you how do you
become a monk? Tell me how you became a monster
jam driver. I'm sure when you were, you know, ten
years twelve years old, you might have been thinking about driving,
but I mean you probably were not thinking about the
vehicles that you're driving. Explain to people who may not
have seen it, how high you are up off the
(15:38):
ground and what you were trying to achieve to pile
up those points.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
All right, multiple things. So, first off, I'm a second
generation driver, so this is part of my lifestyle group
around it. I absolutely love it. It's monster jam has
been a part of my life. But then these trucks
are twelve foot tall. So we're sitting in the middle
of these trucks. It's a full tube, Chassie, twelve dollars,
thousand pounds. We're on sixty sixteen saw tires and we're
pushing about fifteen hundred horsepower. So it's a lot of fun.
(16:06):
It's wild and crazy and as far as what to expect,
expect the unexpected. We're out there in these trucks. I
just said they're twelve thousand pounds, but imagine this. They're
flying thirty forty feet in the air. We're doing backflips,
we're doing crazy Ballerina moves if you will, up on
the front two tires, doing moonwalks, we're doing sidewalls, We're
driving bicycles down the side of the lanes. You know,
(16:28):
it's crazy what we can do in these trucks. You
have to see it in person to actually get a
grasp on it. And the biggest thing is you want
to come to the pit party. You want to come
see what these trucks look like up close to personally.
You can watch it on YouTube. You can watch it
on TV or whatever you see. But until you actually
see these trucks up close and see how big they
are and how big the jumps are that we're hitting,
(16:48):
you really can't grasp it. And I'll tell you what,
you definitely need to check it out.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well, hopefully a lot of my listeners will check it out.
It's at you let tomorrow. I assume that they can
get tickets. They can probably go on to a waite,
but they probably also can show up and buy them
at the gate.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Is that true, Yeah, sir, But go to monster jam
dot com. You can check it out. You can get
all the information all the times. I do know that
the event starts at five o'clock. Now you can come
to the pit party general emissions at twelve thirty, and
then we also have an early access where you can
really skip all the lines and everything that starts at
eleven thirty. But check it out. Monster jam dot com
(17:23):
has you dialed in, you'll be able to get all
the information you need.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, that's perfect monsterjam dot com. And I suspect that
this is an event that all ages, kids as well
as adults, grandparents and regular parents. I assume it spans
the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
There's no doubt about it. We always laugh about it,
but it's one hundred percent true. Bring everybody from the
littlest kid all the way up to your grandma. They're
all gonna have a fantastic time. It's so much fun
for the entire family. And we got that brand new
thunder Roars truck that I'm driving this weekend. You don't
want to miss it. Bring the roar. I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, Cold, let me Cold. Let me just say, first
of all, love your passion, love your enthusiasm. You represent
the sport very very well. Thanks for what you do.
Stay safe and best of luck this weekend. Out at you.
Let sounds to me like you're not going to need
any luck. You may need a little bit of a
of an umbrella, but that's that's okay, that's that'll that'll
make it only much more fun. Thank you so much, Cold,
(18:23):
enjoy talking with you, all.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Right, I thank you very much. Can't wait to see you.
Don't miss it.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay, we'll be there, We'll be there. Okay, when we
got we got a break here for the news at
the bottom of the Air with Nicole Davis. I'd love
to be able to give that introduction a few more
times between now and midnight, and when we get back,
we're going to talk with Chris Porter, the founder of
the Lowell Multi Day Celebration of Music and Art. This
(18:48):
is a festival a little later on this month. This
one you can put in your calendar and plan for
it the weekend of April twenty four to the twenty sixth.
We will talk about that with Chris Porter right after
the break. My name's Dan Ray. This is Night's Side.
We've got a lot of activity, a lot of stuff
to cover. Tonight's stay with us. By the way, if
you would like to know and you're listening, you're listening
(19:09):
to Night Side On with Dan Ray on WBZ ten
thirty and your AM dial. But you know what you
can do no matter where you are, you can pull
down the new and improved iHeart app. We're an iHeartRadio
station out of Boston. We broadcast terrestrial radio over half
the country. But if you're anywhere in the world and
you want to listen to iHeart and particularly WBZ, all
I gonna do is pull that app down, put it
(19:31):
on whatever type of device you have. You can make
us your number one precent and you will always be
only a fingertip away no matter where you are in
the world. With WBZ Boston, my name's Dan Ray. Be
back right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
It's Night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
All right, welcome back everybody, Thank you, Nicole. Going to
talk with Chris Porter. Chris is the festival f owner
of Lowell, Massachusetts, multi day celebration of music and art.
It's called the Town and the City Festival, running from
April twenty fourth to the twenty sixth, which is a
Thursday through Saturday later this month. Chris Porter, Welcome to
(20:16):
Night's Side. How are you, sir.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
I'm doing great, Dan, Thanks so much for having me
on your program.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
For some reason, I think we might have done this
year ago, and I'm not sure if you were here,
if we were together or not, but I believe we
talked about it a little bit, but it sounded a
year ago like a great event. Tell us about this
year's activities.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Yeah, sure, I've been on busy before. I appreciate all
the support and interest. Yeah, this is the sixth year
of the Town and the City Festival. It's amazing. It's
been a nice run. We started in twenty eighteen, and
it's been growing and it's been a wonderful event. As
you mentioned, some multi day music and arts festival takes
(20:59):
place in various men spaces, bars, cafes, galleries, even a
church throughout downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. I call it a sort
of a venue hopping experience. While people could purchase tickets
for an individual show, we really encourage people to get
day passes so that which is put they give a
little wristband and you can kind of bop around a
(21:21):
different venues and experiences as much as you want. We
have twelve participating venues throughout downtown Lowell, over sixty performances
over those three days. The Thursday night, it's one kickoff
show that we're doing. A couple of nationally known acts,
Lady Lamb and Ezra Firman are playing that evening. And
(21:41):
then on Friday the twenty fifth and Saturday the twenty sixth,
we have a multitude of things happening, mostly music, but
we do have some comedy and some spoken word poetry
events as well. We have Friday evening it's going on,
and then Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening a lot of
different things are going on.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
So I'm a little confused. I know Lowell's a city,
why is it called the Town and the City Festival.
It's not a town?
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Yeah, well yeah, although some people who live there, and
I grew up in Lowell, so it's sort of like
a town and kind of like a city, but it's
not the reason why we call it that. That is
a that is a nod to Jack Kirewuac, one of
our most famous UH people from who grew up in Lowell.
His very first book was called The Town and the City.
(22:29):
It was largely about although he used the fictional name,
it was largely about Lowell. And this isn't meant to
be a Jack. When I started this, I didn't want
to necessarily do a Jack Herewuack scened event Uh. There
already is another one that goes on there. But I
wanted to celebrate the spirit of Jack as far as
you know, things he wrote about about discovery and UH
(22:50):
and love of life and all that. And we do
have some Cure Wuac esque sort of programming, Like I said,
this poetry, we've had some literary programming here and there.
There have been mus tributes and actually there's one band
that is doing a music tribute to to Get Here
at Waka on the on the Saturday. So I mean
we have you know, So that's the kind of the
(23:10):
element is. But it's mostly meant to be a celebration
of Lowell of a lot of the local music. And
we we have nationally touring artists as part of this,
but I like to fly the local flag, so to speak.
And there are a lot of Lol based performers and
Boston based performers playing at it as well. But there's
a Jack here whack underlying team with it and so
hence the name.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So how's Lowell doing these days? If I'm not mistaken.
You have, of course good Good College up there, University
of Lowell at hockey Good Hockey College hockey at the
Saugus Arena. Is that also used as a venue for
for the Fleet, the women's National Hockey League team.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Right, yeah, the Boston Fleet play there, That's right. I
wish I wish my festival was a little bigger, that
I could put some conscience on there quite at that
point yet, but it's it's another exciting aspect of role
for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So but the city seems to be doing a little better.
I mean, it's a you know, it's a city that
has a tremendous history. Anybody who's ever been to Loll
knows the history of Loll and what an important city
it was, and it still is. But there's a history
as well as again, you know, areas that are being
developed on is it is it? Is it getting better
(24:29):
in Lowll? It seems to me every time I go there,
it looks better, it feels better. But I'm not there
every day of the week. Tell me, tell me how's
the city doing.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
I think it's doing great. I mean it's going through
a little change right now. We unfortunately lost a great
marketplace called Mill number five had.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
To close, although a lot.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Of those vendors are going to another building fortunately, but
that was, you know, one of a number of examples
of repurposed mills there that are becoming you know, whether
they're becoming some summer conc wasn't a apartments. Some have
been for companies, but some have been for marketplaces also,
like for instance, one of the venues we used taff
at a music hall that is housed at Western av Studios,
(25:11):
which has been around for a few years. But it's
this an enormous sort of artist colony it's something like
three hundred visual artists have their studios and or they
live there, and there's a brewery there and a coffee
shop and and this music venue. And you know, when
I was growing up in Lowll it's stuff like that,
it felt like nothing like that would have happened, you know,
And so I look at Lowell as is really with
(25:34):
different eye over the last in my opinion, the last
ten years, it's become a much more interesting place there's
been as far as culture is concerned. It's been place
for visual art for many years. There are a lot
of galleries and and things for for visual artists, but
the music thing has kind of gone up and down
over the years. But right now there you know, when
(25:56):
the town and the city festival is not happening, I mean,
they're a handful event music venues that are going on,
you know, every night of the week, or most nights
of the week. When I was growing up, I mean
sometimes there would be one, but lots of times we
had no music venue unless it was somebody big playing
at the Lowe Memorial Auditorium. So it's I I And
also it's a place that well, you know, every place
(26:17):
can be expensive relatively speaking, But relatively speaking, it's much
more less expensive to live there than Boston, Cambridge, some
of all that whole you know, general, the big city area.
And so I know so many creatives that have been
moving up to Lowell in recent years. I had a
number of friends who just get priced out of the
Boston area gone up there and they do their music
(26:39):
or art or whatever they work on up there, and
so it's it's it's been really inspiring. I've seen I'm
very bullish on what's going on in a lot of
small cities all over the country. One of my inspirations
for the town the city is a festival in Boise,
the Idaho called tree Fort Music Fest, which is bigger
than what we do, but it's along the same lines.
And I went to it once. You know, we can
(27:00):
do something like this in Lowell, you know, why not?
You know, And I've seen it in that as a
similar festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. And and I can put
to other cities of the same same size, and you
would think to you know, think that, you know, so
it's really cool. Stuff doesn't have to happen in Boston
or Cambridge. You know, you can you can find it
in places like Lowell and Portsmouth, and I can name
(27:22):
other places as well.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
But well, questioning, well, yeah, well, I got to tell
you I'm so happy to hear that, because I'm a
big advocate of that. You hear the stories that you know,
well someone can't find uh an inexpensive apartment on Beacon Hill.
Well there's probably a reason for that, you know. It's
(27:43):
it's kind of what we call supply and demand economics.
But you can go to any of these great cities
in the greater Boston area. Uh, A lot of people
are now able to work remotely. That's that's a new opportunity.
And there's also businesses and and employment opportunities. Everybody feels, well,
I got to live in Soho in New York City
(28:05):
or you know, or worse, in the village. And if
I don't live in I have to live in the
Back Bay or Beacon Hill or maybe the South End.
I'll slum it and go to the South End. And
those are all high end places that you've got to
spend five thousand dollars a month just to live. And
there's a point of reality here, I mean where you
got to say to yourself, look, at some of these
(28:27):
other cities. And that's why I'm excited to have you.
I'm excited to celebrate the town and the City Festival
and in a lot of and I hope a lot
of people take advantage of this. It's two weekends, well
it's really one weekend from now. When you think of it,
it's not this weekend, it's the it's the following weekend.
And get up there and experience the city. You might
find a better place to work and a better place
(28:47):
to live, which is not going to cost you an
arm and a lake Lowell, Massachusetts. So Chris, I'm big
on Lowell and I'm thrilled to hear your enthusiasm because
that's what that's what Lowell needs, people like you who
stick with it and make this city. Let it come back,
let it keep on coming back. And I just want
to say thanks very much for what you do. Well.
Speaker 6 (29:08):
I really really appreciate that, Dan, it's a sweet words
and I appreciate your interest in support. And I hope
everybody can check out the Town and the City Festival
for more information. Just go to the Town in the
City Festival dot com, give them links to tickets there
and learn about all the different performers and bands. Like
I said, there's some nationally recognize that, there's some locals,
(29:28):
and there's a lot of stuff in a big discovery
thing too. Don't just go and see your favorites, you know,
find your new favorite band at the Town and the
City festival.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I like to say, I think what you need is
a slogan and get some bumper strips up there. It's
happening in Lowell something like that. That market, that city.
It is a great city. It's got great restaurants. I'm
Bullish and low and so you're always welcome here. Chris,
thank you, thank you so much. We'll talk soon. Okay,
all right, thanks, all right, thanks again. Well we get back.
(30:00):
Caution you. We're going to talk with doctor Fami Farhar.
He's a cardiologist, and he tells us he's gonna tell
us that skipping meals may actually increase the risk of
heart attack. You'll want to listen up. And then, as
I said, beginning at nine o'clock to I'm going to
be talking with former Superior Court judger in Massachusetts, Christopher J.
(30:20):
Muse Justice under God. He was the attorney. He and
his dad were the attorney for Bobby Joe Leister, which
was one of the It was a herculean battle in
which they fought for this man's freedom, unjustly convicted for
crime that he had nothing to do with. I know
a little bit about that concept. But Chris Muse is
going to be a great guest. I have just read
(30:41):
the book today. It is a great book. We'll talk
with him and then we're going to talk later on
tonight with a home remodeler. I think if you're interested,
you may find that one very interesting. And then at
eleven tonight, Yeah, you're brushed with celebrity. Let's have fun
in that final hour time and we'll get you to
(31:02):
the weekend. Back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Night Side with Dan Ray on w B Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
All right, one or to welcome to our program, doctor
Fami Farha, doctor Farhran, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
How are you, sir, find Jane.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
Well, it's great to be back on your show.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Fami. I did not realize that you were a female.
I apologize for that. I have never seen the name
Fami before. Welcome to our show. Thank you very much.
And you're a cardiologist and you have a warning for
my listeners, and that is that skipping meals, which a
(31:45):
lot of people do, could complicate their lives with a
greater likelihood of heart attacks. Tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (31:56):
Yes, you know, meals are very important, especially certain meals
such as breakfast, just because what we eat in the
morning when we first wake up, that kind of sets
the stage for the rest of the day in terms
of our hormone regulation. It's an important hormone regulation. For example,
your insulin, which is the main hormone that kind of
(32:17):
determines It's called a storage hormone, like how your calories
are going to be taken care of for the rest
of the day. And so eating a good, healthy breakfast
is very important for your overall health and particularly your
heart health.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So I understand that, and I do the same breakfast
every morning, which is I have a cereal that I
eat and I put fruit, bananas, blueberry, strawberries, and coffee
and that gets me through most of the day. I
will have a piece of fruit or something like that
(32:52):
at lunch. So I'm not a heavy eater. I lost
thirty five pounds a few years ago, and I will
have a regular dinner. Tonight, I had fish and some vegetables.
Am I in dangering myself? I'm not somebody who sits
and has a lunch with you know whatever, you know,
(33:14):
a burger and fries or something like that. Are people
like me who are kind of cutting back on their
caloric intake? Are they the people you're worried about or
or not? I mean, I'm just I am concerned whenever
I talk to a doctor and I think to myself,
am I doing something here that is not helping me?
Not at all.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
In fact, I think what you're doing is more along
the side of being healthy. So I'm not worried about
the group of folks who are cutting back on their calories. It's,
in fact the opposite. You know, there's a lot of
information out there nowadays, especially on social media things like TikTok.
Anyone can post a lot of information out there. Whether
that's true or not, it's questionable. So getting your source,
(33:59):
you know, like what tours you're getting information from, is
very important. And so you know, like, like the topic
we're discussing is so important. I don't think that decreasing
calorie intake and eating a healthy, balanced, nutritious meals is
(34:19):
that that's what we want you to do. So that's
not the group of people that we worry about.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Now, I'm not sure if this is a fair question.
Maybe this should be the question for a nutrition it's
not a cardiologist. But I remember many years ago when
they sort of flipped the food pyramid on its head.
You know, we were told that these were the things
that were good, and these were the things that weren't good.
And then all of a sudden, the new food myriamid
came out and things that were good weren't so good,
(34:46):
and things that had been bad actually were pretty good.
I don't know. You sound as if you're a lot
younger than I am. You may not remember when the
food pyramid got a very different configuration. And and the
reason I ask you that question is a lot of
people kind of said, oh, that's good, meat was good
for you and all of this, and then it became
(35:08):
just the opposite. Now, again, you're the cardiologists. You deal
with people who who need to be concerned about their heart.
Why is it that we can't figure out, meaning the
medical community at large can't figure out exactly what is
good and what is bad, because that did lead to
some confusion. If you you probably don't remember it, but
you certainly know of what I speak.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I hope, I am.
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Yes, I'm aware of the change in the food pyramid.
But to clarify, the medical community has figured out what's
good and you know, like, yes, there was some confusion
with the food pyramid turning upside down, but that is
you know, like too much meat is not good for you.
(35:53):
So we do have plenty of research done and we
do know now what's good for us. We know that
plant based diet is excellent for us, like you know,
that actually is the way to go. And the new
guidelines per American he Association, you will see there's a
big push towards plant based dies. What we don't want
people to do things that are high in cholesterol, things
(36:15):
that are processed, things that have high sodium content. Those
are proven to be wrong and there's no confusion about it.
The things that have high cholesterol, fatty items, things that
are high in preservatives, high in sodium, those are bad
for us, bad for our overall health and certainly for
our cardiovascular health. And things that are like you know,
(36:36):
more fruits and vegetables, particularly vegetables, We know those are
good for us. And there's nothing wrong with taking those.
So there's no confusion about that part.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Okay. Now I got to ask you about two things.
I have a cardiologist who's a great friend, and he
said to me, there's nothing wrong with a little dark
chocolate every day. I hope that that still holds, that.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It is correct.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
That is correct.
Speaker 7 (37:03):
Yes, I completely agree with that. So dark chocolate is
healthy for you and for your heart health. Of course,
it needs to be done in moderation. And it's not
the chocolate that we worry about, it's what the chocolate
is prepared with. So you know, candy is where we
typically find the chocolate, and candy can have a lot
of sugar, and you know, fat and cholesterol content could
(37:25):
be high as a result, and so we need to
be cautious of that. Like, it's not that chocolate itself
that's bad, it's everything.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Else in it. Okay. And then the other question, which
is important to ask red wine. Please tell me red
wine is okay.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
I get asked this question quite a bit. I know, yes,
so it's it's it's a I hate to be the
very bad news for you. But a couple of years ago,
we had a large that came was an international study
that looked at a couple of million people actually, and
we now have proof that any amount of alcohol is
(38:07):
not good for us. Alcohol is considered a toxin for
the heart, health and overall body, and red wine is
no different. The reason I think there's a little bit
of confusion, and for a long time, you're right, red
wine was it got this reputation of being good and
healthy for you because it has a component that has
like you know, antioxidant and things like that. But that's
(38:31):
aside from the alcohol component in it. And so the
content of alcohol being in it, the little benefit it
has is totally offset by the harmful effects it has.
So we don't promote drinking any alcohol at all anymore,
not even red wine.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Okay, well, okay, I'm one for two, I'm bat in
five hundred. I'm okay with that, Doctor Fami far Thank
you so much, Cardiology Board Certified invasive cardiologists. By the way,
I always like to thank doctors, and I mean this honestly.
Thank you for the profession you've chosen, and thank you
for what you do for all of us. I appreciate
(39:10):
it so much, and thanks for being with us tonight.
You're a great sport thank you.
Speaker 7 (39:14):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
All right. When we get back, we're going to talk
with a former Massachusetts Superior Court judge. Chris Muse has
written a book about the biggest case of his career,
in a case that most of us will remember, the
case of Bobby Joe Lisa Lisa, an innocent man who
spent nearly ten years in jail for a crime he
(39:36):
did not commit. We'll be talking with Chris Muse and
Justice under God right after the nine o'clock news
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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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.