The Weekly Show 8/9/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the weekly show here on iHeartRadio,
A ninety three nine LIGHTFM, one O three five Kiss FM,
and Rock ninety five to five. I'm Paulina, and every
week we're here to discuss a variety of topics that
matter to Chicago Land, from health, education, to finances and
so much more. Today on this show, we have our
friends Brady and Whitney Reynolds back with another episode of

(00:21):
Whitney's Women. And we have doctor Ultrich even Adrian, Professor
of immun Pathology at Harvard Medical School, President of the
American Association of Immunologists. Let's kick off the show.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
There's a lot of crazy things going on in the world,
Liz is this week's been a little rough. I'm not
gonna lie negativity out there, but that all changes the
second I see her face she walks that she gets
off the elevator, A ray of sunshine. It's just the
perfect thing I need in my life today. And this
week it's Whitney Reynolds back with Whitney's Women.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh yes, you know, the sun is out, summer is
still with us. And these two little daisies that I
have in studio for Whitney's women are truly amazing. But
you know I always say this when there is a
guy that's joining a woman in studio. We do love
our men, and today is proof in the pudding. So
let's welcome Christine and Jim Marzula. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Thank you, Yeah, I know be here. Christine.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
You're no stranger to the show because you've been a
Whitneys woman a few times, because you've created a nonprofit
that is really being what I think, a bridge when
it comes to grief and loss in our city.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
Yeah, thank you. Meeting you was a pinnacle in my
journey with grief and supporting those who are you who
have lost a loved one. After meeting you and creating
Together at Peace, we provide hopeful, breathement care for the
world in general, and we also create programs and have
remembrance events every year. So you have me on to
share the Sparkle of Hope which is coming up. I'm

(01:47):
so grateful to share that with your listeners. And it's
on September twenty eighth at Butterfield Country Club in Oakbrook.
You can register now, the tickets are live. You can
go to our website Together at Peace dot org and
there's a banner at the time with a link, or
you can go to Together at Peace dot give smart
dot com and find tickets there.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I love that we're going to get in more too
the Sparkle of Hope Luncheon because it's one of my favorites.
It's something I host yearly as the MC, and you
bring in just outstanding talent and a roomful together because
there is not one person that's listening right now that
hasn't been impacted by grief in some form or fashion,
no matter. Like my husband lost his aunt a week
ago and I thought I was really doing okay and
then all of a sudden, grief hit me like a

(02:27):
ton of bricks.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
So you never know how it's going to hit you
and win.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
And what I love about Together at Peace is they
are bringing a community together. But I want to get
to this like power couple that is sitting to my
right because not only do you have this Sparkle of
Hope Luncheon, but I'm looking at your adoring husband.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
He just loves you.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
And when you were talking about the Sparkle of Hope,
you're always front row. But you know what I love
about you, guys, is this is why you both are
on is because we love people that are doing big
things in the city for others. And not only do
you have a sparkle of hope, which we'll get back
to all the dates and help people get that, I
want to bring Jim into the conversation because you're also
dedicated to this city.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Absolutely.

Speaker 6 (03:05):
Yes, So well, thank you for having us, yeah, and
for being one of the men amongst.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Them, whom men.

Speaker 6 (03:12):
I'm excited to be a part of that group.

Speaker 7 (03:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (03:14):
So Christine and I back in twenty twelve started ten
West real Estate Group, and that was really a vehicle
for us to invest in real estate and to you
know sort of you know, launch this this company that
was vertically integrated with property management and real estate investment
and and primarily we did that for ourselves and most
recently we're starting to spread that out to other investors

(03:38):
and people that want to be a part of that.
And so we launched ten Less Investments, which which is
our vehicle to to to emulate for others what we've
done for ourselves, which is which is really focusing on
building generational wealth and a legacy for people. So a
lot of people think about, you know, investing in stock
market and what should I do? And you know, we
have five children and it was.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
A children sorry for you, yes always better repeat that.

Speaker 6 (04:06):
Very busy, but but you know, thinking about a legacy
and what you can do for your children while you're
here and what you can leave behind from and real
estate was a great vehicle for us to create, uh,
preserve wealth, generational wealth, passive income for us. And what
we want to do now is help others do that.
And so we've launched a sister company and we're getting
ready to launch our legacy Fund and we're looking for

(04:30):
people that want to partner with us in real estate
investments and hopefully we can educate people and help them
do what we've achieved in our own personal lives.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Well, and I love what you say about legacy.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
We actually had you on our crossover show on legacy
building and how we do that. I'm sure there's a
lot of people with a lot of questions. They can
always reach out to you. What's your website?

Speaker 6 (04:49):
Absolutely, you can get a hold of us at ten
WESTRG dot com. The ten is numeric so it's one zero,
so you can reach out to us there and if
you're interested in doing that, Happy educate people and show
them how it works.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
And you know when we talk about legacy and we
talk about the Legacy Fund, Christine, this is again We're
together at Peace is really keeping legacies alive even after
they have gone on.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah, remembrance and resilience is kind of our key components
that we really try to touch others' lives and make
it better, give them hope. My dad passed away twenty
one years ago and you know, keeping his legacy and
building that together with my husband Jim has been like
a blessing as he has the same name as my dad.
And this year we have really special guests coming. So
our fundraising event is not only a fundraiser, but it's

(05:35):
also a remembrance event, so everyone coming can remember their
loved ones who've passed away. We have interactive art stations,
we have live artists. We actually this year have the
lead singer of We the Kings is going to be
forming a song that his wife wrote in the middle
of the night, inspired by her mom who passed away,
and she wrote a children's books. So we have a
lot of beautiful things this year that are really touching
and unique, and we invite anyone who's lost a loved

(05:58):
one or who wants to support our for briefing care
initiatives to come join us that day and join our community.
Sign up for our newsletter. We have a lot of
supportive materials and can direct you in you know, many
different ways, and we're a big bucket of inspiration, So
we want to hear about your inspiration, the way you
remember your loved ones, what you're doing with your family.
Everyone has such beautiful ways to remember their loved ones
and we want to spread that, share that and like

(06:20):
spread the light that still shines in all of our lives.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, it is amazing, and you said a word hopeful
bereavement explain that those that concept.

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Yeah, it's interesting because there's not a lot of people
doing it, so brievemancare in general, it addresses the pain
that you go through after loss, and they're trying to
help you through that pain. But there's not really a
big component of remembering the loved ones and how you're
going to move forward for the rest of your life.
It's a long journey, hopefully, But so we're kind of
that collaborator and complement to a lot of grief therapy programs.

(06:50):
So we're working with hospitals, grief counselors, different schools, and
different charities that they don't have anything like that. So
we're developing new material that isn't currently out there, like
breathming care books, and you know, we're currently working with
Northwestern Hospital. You're spot on last time, but we're writing
a children's book about life support and transitioning to love

(07:11):
support because a lot of the people in the hospital
are scared. There's children involved, their parents are on life support.
So we're walking them through that in kind of an
educational way but also like a hopeful emotional way.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
So it's talking to.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Both sides of that that that puzzle that's really hard
to address in the hospital.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Well, and there's so many ways that people can can
get involved with Together at Peace outside of the luncheon,
because like you have all these initiatives that they just
don't happen by themselves. You actually have to have people
get behind you to say we can be that space
and be that for people. And so you have a
lot of different initiatives on your website and you know,
one of them that I love was the cart in

(07:47):
the hospital. It was this cart that's able to go
into the rooms that are very people are very scared
in there's a lot of emotions in those rooms and
you're able to bring in a cart. It's a comfort cart,
and that's really a beautiful thing.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
Yeah, and we all to do cards that support the
workers in the hospitals or the high suicide rate that
they have to deal with loss. So we're doing a
lot of different things that in different hospitals and sharing
that that knowledge across the board is really important to
me in supporting all of the people that are involved
in the Together at Peace community. So we just really
love hearing all the stories and I'm you know, I'm
nothing without the big bucket of the world sharing their

(08:21):
grief together in a positive and hopeful way, trying to
make it through together.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
So I love that and the community is the right word,
you know.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
When we lost David's aunt last week, it was really
unique because when I was in the throes of trying
to understand how to tell the kids, a song came
on and I think, truly, because your community has impacted me,
I heard these words. I'm like, it was almost like
a message saying you keep going. And then by gum,
if I wasn't wearing my Together at Piece shirt, which

(08:48):
I haven't worn in a little bit, and I was like,
this is like people I know, and it gave me
that remember that I'm not alone in this and grief.
We don't have to go through it solo. And Together
at Peace is that bridge for others. Christy and Jim,
thank you so much for coming on again. Give us
both your websites again how people can get involved in
both your legacy building items.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
Sure, Together at Piece is just Together at Peace dot
org and you can find all the information there. Join
our community and we'll join and sign up for the
lunch in there and then and.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
On our side, ten West real Estate Group and you
can find us at ten westrig dot com. And again
the ten is numeric and.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
I will have all that up on our socials as well.
Thank you both so much for coming on.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Thanks guys, thanks for having to keep up the great work.
Good to see you guys again. Wow, Whitney, amazing work
once again. Here you are just turning all these negatives
into positives everywhere we go. And I was thinking about this,
I was thinking about you the other day. I was
on one of my notorious runs on the lakefront over there,
just killing my body because I get older. Why am
I doing this to myself? And I just looked down
and it just said smile and Chalk just said smile.

(09:52):
And I was thinking of you because I was like,
you know what, there's so much positivity in the world.
Sometimes it's just you.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
It just takes you right actually up and look for it.
It's so true.

Speaker 7 (10:01):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
I'm one of those people that when we started the
Whitney Reynolds Show and we said we were going to
double down on hope, and they told me it wasn't
sexy enough at the time, and I said, well, I'm
going to move forward with this, whether y'all do with
me or not. And then COVID happened and I got
the call within you know, a few weeks within COVID,
when I was voiceovering in my kid's closet because we
couldn't go to the studio, I got the call that

(10:23):
I was going national and when the world needed it,
we already had it. And that's where I'm I guess
off script for all your listeners right now, is we
all have that gift to the world. Yes, identify your gift,
know what your purpose is here, and go with it.
And if I hadn't stuck to hope for the world
when the world needed the most, we wouldn't have the product.

(10:44):
So I'm so glad that over fifteen years ago we
started this and now we are in every little corner
of our nation, which is great airing at the same
time on World Channel, and our new season is coming
out in October, so get ready a little sneak peek.
I know I say every season is my favorite, but
we just acquired these amazing video boards at Sinna City
Studios and you get to see that come to life.

(11:06):
You get to see the Whitney Reynolds Show in new
ways of storytelling that brings hope to the nation.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Keep being in front of those cameras and microphones. Whitney,
we need you. We'll see you next time. Thank you
so much.

Speaker 8 (11:17):
Amid continuing fallout from the handling of the pandemic, the
growth of vaccine hesitancy, comes increasing stories about outbreaks of
everything from measles to whooping cough, all of it highlighting
the importance of being immunized. Let's talk about it with
doctor Uli von Andrean, professor of immunu pathology at Harvard

(11:37):
Medical School. He is president of the American Association of Immunologists,
doctor von Andrey, and I appreciate the time.

Speaker 7 (11:45):
Well, Manny, thank you very much for having me on.

Speaker 8 (11:49):
Increasingly we're being reminded just how important it is to
get our children immunized, especially in this day and age.

Speaker 7 (11:57):
Yes, I agree. My own children have twins, are immunized
to various child with vaccinations, as am I myself, although
I'm at a generation where some vaccines had not been available,
so I vividly remember having had the measles as a
child simply because I didn't have access to the vaccine

(12:17):
back then and.

Speaker 8 (12:18):
There, and that reminds us that it's not only children.
It's important for adults, especially adults that might be at
risk for one thing or another, to be immunized as well.

Speaker 7 (12:28):
That is correct. You know, we forget things, and our
immune system can forget things, and some vaccines will have
a finite lifespan for how long they are active, and
then occasional reminders by revaccinations are often very useful to
prevent infectious diseases in older age.

Speaker 8 (12:49):
Can you explain exactly how immunization schedules are developed.

Speaker 7 (12:56):
Yeah, so they are based on extensive clinical trials in
thousands of often tens or even hundreds of thousands of patients.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Where.

Speaker 7 (13:09):
Individuals are given a vaccine in different doses and in
different schedules, and then various measures are being taken to
determine what is the optimal immune response that confers long
term protection.

Speaker 8 (13:24):
We've seen a drop in childhood vaccination rates, especially over
the last few years since a pandemic, but that seemed
to be something that was growing even before we dealt
with COVID.

Speaker 7 (13:37):
Yes, that is true, unfortunately in many cases, and we
can see the consequences of that with rising MESOS cases
in parts of the country. Now, I think it is
entirely okay for people to have questions about vaccines, to

(14:00):
understand how they work, to be concerned about potential side effects,
and I think it is important for everybody to inform
themselves about vaccines, how they work, what their effects are,
but the information has to come from trustable sources. In

(14:22):
this regard, I want to make a pitch for my
own organization, the American Association of Immunologists. We are non
partisan organizations with members in fifty different states and also
members in other countries. It's the largest organization of professional immunologists,
which are scientists studying the immune system of its kind,

(14:45):
and we have on our website resources that try to
explain in simple terms how vaccines work. So if you
go to Immunology Explain, there you can find all the
information that you may need to make an informed decision.

Speaker 8 (15:03):
Immunology Explained is the website.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
That is that's the name of the well Immunology Explained.
There's a link on the AAI website. You can go
to either that or you can go directly to Immunology
Explained dot org and you will find the information there.

Speaker 8 (15:20):
Explain what happens when we see a drop in childhood
vaccination rates.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
You know, if there is a pathogen such as say
the measles virus. To stay with this example around it
is carried by an individual who is typically sick, may
not even know that he or she is infected, and
then it is in contact with other uh people around them.

(15:49):
If enough of those people don't have existing immunity against
this virus or you know, microbe, then it can spread
to another person and then you have this runaway event
where a highly contagious viruses, and measles are among the
most contagious viruses known to man can then spread in

(16:13):
a community, and that's what we call an epidemic.

Speaker 8 (16:17):
What does someone in your position think when you see
a resurgence of these diseases, that that we that we
basically had gone extinct in our country, like measles, like
whooping coffl What concerns arise in you?

Speaker 7 (16:31):
Yeah, yeah, you're you're actually absolutely right. And in two thousand,
measles have been declared extinct in the United States because
the cases had dropped to such low numbers, and so
perhaps so that we became a victims of our own success,
because if you think a disease is extinct, perhaps you
sort of let your guard down a little bit and

(16:52):
find it less important to vaccinate against it. But you know,
there are many other countries where measles are still and
and people are traveling. There's constant uh exchange of biological
materials from all over the world, and just because our
country was free of measles doesn't means necessarily remains that way.

(17:17):
If it's vaccination, great drop, And so it appears that
this has happened. Unfortunately, there's a lot of misleading information
or inaccurate information on the Internet and in other places
and so it is easy to be concerned about measles,
especially as a parent with a young child, when the

(17:37):
question comes up, should this child be vaccinated or not? Again,
I encourage all of your listeners to look at a
variety of sources of information and really take into account
what has been verified by modern science as scientific facts

(17:58):
in the context of vaccualation.

Speaker 8 (18:00):
The website again is Immunology Explained dot org dot org.
A couple more minutes here with doctor Ulivan andre Andrean,
professor of Imuna immuno pathology at Harvard Medical School, president
of the American Association of Immunologists. Understandable the continued even

(18:21):
this many years later debate over the COVID vaccine. But
you would think something like like MMR, like DETAP that
has been around literally for generations, there would be less
question about the efficacy and the safety of those vaccines.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
Yes, I agree. There have been some debates and that
had sort of restarted in recent months about additives to
certain vaccines, like preservatives that you had used to be
used in many vaccine formulations. Most of the vaccines that
we used nowadays actually don't have any of these reagents anymore.

(19:00):
To be clear, these are not the vaccines themselves, but
these are materials that are added to prevent contamination by bacteria.
These are often used when vaccines are used in basically
very large quantities, where you have one file that has
many doses of the vaccine, and here you have to

(19:20):
be very careful that the vaccine doesn't get contaminated. So
what is nowadays used in your pediatricians office usually or
in other vaccination settings are single dose vaccines that usually
don't have these kinds of preservatives, and those vaccines have
been shown by many many studies to be very effective

(19:45):
and very safe.

Speaker 8 (19:46):
What do you say that, despite that to parents who
might still be skeptical about the vaccine schedule for their
children because of what they might see on the internet
or social media or whatever.

Speaker 7 (19:59):
Again, you'll have to inform yourself. You need to know
what it means to make a decision on behalf of
yourself or your child in getting a vaccine or not
getting a vaccine. In many childhood diseases such as measles,

(20:20):
are highly infectious, and many kids, and leaving myself when
I was a child, survive this infection and I think
I'm perfectly fine now. Unfortunately, this is not true for
every child, and as some kids die from metal infections,
others have permanent, severe brain damage that is, you know, irreversible,

(20:44):
and this is what we are protecting against. Yes, some
vaccines can have trumsion side effects, like say a fever
for a short time, or maybe some discomfort at the
injection site, but these are by and large extremely short
lived and then you're fine and you have protection against
the real disease. And I think this is sort of

(21:07):
a tradeoff. Everyone needs to consider what risk are you
willing to take as you just make this decision for yourself.

Speaker 8 (21:17):
You know, we signed one of the outbreaks, the measles
outbreaks in Texas earlier this year. I believe it was
two children who died because they were unvaccinated. We've spent
a lot of time already talking about the immunization schedule
for children. I think adult vaccinations obviously get lost and
are overlooked. I personally go and get my flu vaccine

(21:38):
every September October, not because I'm at increased risk of dying.
I just hate getting the flu, and so it's another
one of those things that every year we hear our physicians.
My doctor encourages me to get it and I go
do it. How important is it for us to just
be able to trust our doctors and take their advice.

Speaker 7 (22:00):
I think this is This is obviously why we have doctors,
right so they they spend their lives studying how to
take care of our health. And so if you go
to them to get their advice, they give you this
advice for good reasons and based on scientific evidence and
clinical experience. Uh, not to make money or not to

(22:21):
uh you know, espouse some kind of ideology, but based
on what we understand about the human body and how
it interacts in the environment we live in. So I
think your wel advice to take whatever recommendations you get
from your doctor very seriously. Again, everyone has the right

(22:43):
to make a decision about how they want to uh
treat their own body. But I think we also have
a responsibility toward our families, to our toward our neighbors,
and that should also be taken into consideration here.

Speaker 8 (22:58):
What is the biggest myth or misunderstanding that you in
your position here on a regular basis about vaccines.

Speaker 7 (23:07):
I think the one one common misconception is that you
can actually get infected by vaccines, that vaccines are basically
a version of the pathogen. So the microbe that that
against if we want to protect, that can actually cause
illness by causing infection. This in modern vaccines is not
the case. In years past, some vaccines where what we

(23:30):
call attenuated pathogens that can could actually cause infections, but
those for the most part have been replaced by vaccines
that cannot actually have this kind of effect anymore.

Speaker 8 (23:43):
The last thing for you, medical science is advancing so
fast it seems like every day there are new reports
of how much closer we're getting to a vaccine, for example,
that can that can cure certain cancers. How how far
do you think we are from that point where we
might be able to have a cure at least protection

(24:04):
against these cancers, as we already have some out there.

Speaker 7 (24:08):
Yes, yes, many you know. This is an exciting time
to be an immunology focused scientist because we have learned
a great deal about the immune system. To be sure,
there is much more to be learned, but we understand
many of the first principles of how our immune system works,
and we can apply these principles now to divide strategies

(24:30):
to really harness the immune system to deal with diseases,
including cancer, and there are already some cancer vaccines in
the clinics that are now very effective at treating malignant
diseases that used to be incurable. And this is just
the beginning. We are sort of in a golden age

(24:50):
of immunology using these kinds of strategies to very profoundly
alter the way we will do medicine in the future.

Speaker 8 (25:00):
Say that knowledge is power, so inform yourself. The website
is Immunology Explained dot org. Immunology Explained dot org. He
is doctor Uli von Andre and Professor of Immunopathology at
Harvard Medical School, President of the American Association of Immunologists,

(25:20):
Doctor von Andre, and I appreciate the time and the information, sir,
be well, thank.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
You, thank you very much, Thank you for listening, and
thank you for always tuning into the weekly show right
here on iHeartRadio one or three five Kiss FM, Rock
ninety five five and ninety three nine Light Up m.
We appreciate you tuning in, and of course if you
miss this episode or any other episodes, you can always
catch up on our free iHeartRadio app. Just simply search
for that in the iHeartRadio app. Thank you so much,

(25:45):
and we'll talk to you again next weekend.