Nightside News Update 4/8/25

It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's new video.

I call that is music to my ears. Put the TV on mute, listen to the radio. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much to call. My name is Dan Ray, the host of night Side, and we have a big night coming up. We will get at some point, I'm sure, to the stock market, because the stock market today begin up like fourteen hundred points on the Dow and it finished the day three hundred down, so a swing of

You're doing great, Dan, Thanks for having me appreciate it.

Okay, I don't know much about TikTok. I know that it's owned by a Chinese communist company which is probably under the control of, not the very strong influence of the leaders of China, and a lot of people are concerned about the content on TikTok. Does that set up the concern as you understand it, and you of course really understand it.

Yeah, I think it's It's been quite the topic on a variety of different fronts. I think this most current discussion is, you know, really around data privacy for American citizens and having control of TikTok with byte Dance, with ties back to China. And there have been lots of discussions about the leadership and the you know, the leadership in China having access to Americans data. So the root of all this is coming down to data privacy.

Yeah, and data privacy, but also look, you get on Facebook, you get on Instagram, those are American companies. The fact that China has all of this information, how many young people and how many people are on TikTok approximately.

I want to say in the United States it's something like one hundred and seventy million users. It's an immense amount of users, and the amount of content is staggering, and the amount of information that can be gathered from that content really is vast.

Okay, So I know that our government is basically threatening to threatening TikTok they'll shut them down unless they agreed to a US ownership to sell it to US interest. Again, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm following the story correctly. Is that the impast that we have arrived at.

Yeah, The position has often from the Trump administration, with Biden stepping out in the recent developments. The original ask was to fully divest the entirety of the US entity

So Trump doesn't want this to go away. He wants to keep TikTok up there because I think he sees that as a tool that he's able to use correct, correctly, correct. Yeah.

I think what we're seeing right now is TikTok is caught up in a much larger foreign policy discussion along with the terrorists and everything going on. You've seen the back and forth. This is very much part of an overarching negotiation around US and China. I do think that we want US control for the data privacy, but conceding that fifty percent was very much a strategic form policy move and it will continue to be a discussion as we work through the kind of closure of this entire negotiation.

Okay, so thank you for bringing it to the terrorists, because I assume that this was part of the deal. How do you see this working out? I mean, do you see that somehow TikTok China wants talk to remain active, that that might give the US some leverage on tariffs, or do you see it differently? How do you see this wrapping up these the issues not only of tariffs and TikTok and as they interrelate.

Yeah, I think in both the cases of TikTok and the terriffs. You know, the Trump administration has created leverage and is trying to create a position of power from which to negotiate, and I think what you saw this week was a strong move with very aggressive tariffs, and then what you saw was an openness to have discussions to land in a middle ground, creating some type of leverage for the United States and these forign policy discussions. I think TikTok is also a part of that larger

Okay, so you're the expert, I'm not. At the end of the day, does TikTok live or die? And who controls one of your opinion?

I think one hundred percent TikTok will will remain. I think part of Trump's original campaign and his commitment to working through this deal is signaling that you know, TikTok is important to American citizens. He wants to continue to have the app in existence, and I think that there will be a deal negotiated. To whom that is still up in the air. It looks like Oracle and a Group is a front runner. We saw a late bid from Amazon last week. We've seen other parties. You know,

Do you think Elon Musk gets involved in this in any way, shape or form or no. Is that not his thing?

I don't.

I don't see it, But at the same time, I've been surprised or less surprised by other things.

Yeah.

I think with all all that's on his plate between you know, last last week we saw Xai acquiring x in a forty three billion dollar buyout. He's wrapping up his work in Doge. It would seem Tesla's stock has been down and he wants to refocus on some of those efforts. He's already got enough on his plate. It would seem to take on one more thing in a very very large investment. It seems unlikely.

I've really enjoyed this conversation, Scott. I don't know much about this, but you've given me some es which have been very helpful for me to understand it a little bit better and hopefully to my audience as well. I want to thank you. Tell me about your company later. How can folks get in touch with you? What do you do? Want to give you a chance to just talk about your work.

Yeah, thank you very much for that.

So later.

As the leader in influencer marketing and social media management, so we post millions of posts on social media. We help some of the largest enterprises in the world do data driven advertising and influencer activations on social media, so they this really is the future of marketing is on social and we're taking a very data driven approach. So we're seeing firsthand as consumer sentiment shifts and user sentiment around the band comes up. We can see the actual

And you know, Scott, you can pull out this interview down if you folks can go to our website tomorrow Nightside on Demand anytime probably after two am tomorrow morning, Nightside on Demand, if you would like, and you could post this up on your website and maybe introduce some of your followers and your brand influencers to this program. We do this five nights a week, eight to midnight. And you've been a really great guest. I'd love to have you back anything.

We'd love to We're in Boston, right down the road from y'all. We'll definitely definitely share out. Yeah, well we'll share out on our side as well, but always happy to have a conversation and support Boston.

Thanks so much, God go Boston. All right, when we get back, we're going to change topics. We're going to look back at the fate of a couple of generals, Douglas MacArthur and a general, a little lesser known general, Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright. Interesting book, The Fate of the Generals. It's out as of April first. Those of you who are historians are going to love this. Next guest, we'll be back on night Side right after this.

If you're on Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm w Boston's news radio.

All Right, we have I think a book that it's going to fascinate a lot of my listeners. It's called The Fate of the Generals. MacArthur Wainwright in the epic Battle for the Philippines, details the story of two World War Two generals who both received the Medal of Honor through contrasting means of leadership with us. As Jonathan Horn, author and former White House speech writer for George W. Bush w as we would say, Jonathan Horn, welcome to nightside.

How are you, thanks so much for having me tonight.

You're very welcome. Wainwright is obviously less known than MacArthur, so let's talk about what Waynwright went through. And I'm also I realized my dad spent two and a half years in China, Burman, India during World War Two, and I remember lots of talk about General Stillwell, Joe Stillwell, and he doesn't make your book. I'm interested. It is the story all around the Battle for the Philippines, as the title would imply, and that's why it's Wayne Wright and MacArthur.

Well, you know, so many of us remember that famous vow that Douglas mccarthur made I shall return, and he said those words after being ordered to evacuate the Philippines at the start of World War two when the Japanese invaded, and he left behind his army to starvation and eventually to surrender. And as you said, we've forgotten the story of the general who stayed and had to become the highest ranking prisoner of war of World War two, and

So now MacArthur the better known okay uh, And of course MacArthur ends up with with a problem with Truman in Korea, and eventually uh Is is basically, I guess, not discharged, but but but he he basically has to comply with what the civilian leadership said during the Korean War. Did did MacArthur want to lead? Tell me why? Why did one leave in the other and the other stay? What's the what's the story behind that? I'm sure that's the critical nature of the book.

That's a great question. And the answer is MacArthur received orders from President Roosevelt to leave the Philippines. He was prepared to die if necessary there, but the thinking in Washington was MacArthur was too important to go down with the ship, if you can believe it, because he's become a symbol for what it was so hard to find

So waine Wright ends up captured with the as surrender. I guess the troops surrender, correct.

Correct, And in fact, tomorrow is the anniversary of the surrender of Batan, which is the largest surrender in American history. Nearly eighty thousand forces surrendered on April ninth, nineteen forty two in the Philippines or United States forces.

Is the Death March of Batan.

That is the Death March. Wainwright fights the one for one more month on the nearby island of Krigador, and then he'll have to ultimately surrender and also surrender all the Philippine islands, which were back then most people forget they were an American colony at the time.

Sure, so, Wainwright is a pow, highest ranking pow in the history of the United States Armed Forces.

He was certainly the highest of World War Two. He was a lieutenant general when he was taking pow. And he you know, the Japanese did not treat prisoner as well they as many American commanders learned in the Pacific. The Japanese themselves did not believe in surrender, and they had no respect for those who did surrender. So Wainwright

Well, a lot of the POWs in Vietnam saw that as well, well McCain and others who are held prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. So how does we know how the story ends for macarthy? He returns, he gets a lot of the glory and eventually is in charge in Korea and defies Truman, and Truman brings him to heal. How does it end for Waynwright?

Well, Wayne Wright will spend the rest of the war as a prisoner. In fact, the Japanese move him around. They bring him from the Philippines to Taiwan and eventually all the way to Manchuria. Wainwright will face negative forty nine degree temperatures. I mean, this really uses a story

Wow. What a great story or what a great book. The book has come out on April first, so it's available right now, Jonathan.

Right April fifteenth, next week, but it's available for pre order wherever books are sold.

Oh, okay, okay. The fate of the generals Macartha, Wainwright and the epic Battle for the Philippines. So let me tell you. Why was last question? Why did the Japanese spare Wayne Wright's life? I mean they they could have killed them. How was it American troops that found him in Manchuria? How did that or was it Chinese troops who were our ally at the time that that liberated him in Manchuria?

You know, that's a fabulous question. And people in Washington were really worried what the Japanese might do to Wayne right as the war was ending, So a special OSS team was sent to go find Wainwright. The OSS, being the precursor to the CIA, was sent to go land and jump into Manchuria and find Wainwright, and they did locate him, and ultimately he left that prison if you can believe it with Soviet troops who were coming through Manchuria themselves.

Yeah, no, it doesn't. That does not surprise me at all. But that's a that's a great story to learn in the book as well, Jonathan. I really enjoyed it very very much, and keep us posted on your other other books.

Would like to keep in touch with you, okay, and thank you so much for having me on tonight. I enjoyed the conversation.

Well, I hope that this book becomes This is a This is a great book. This is a book when I think of Father's day books for fathers or grandfathers, this is the one, folks that I think, if you give it to your grandfather, if he happened to be a World War Two veteran, or are you whatever, the Fate of the Generals, this is one I'm going to read. Thanks Jonathan very much. Jonathan Horne, the author of the Fate of the Generals, MacArthur Wainwright and the Epic Battle

Jonathan, thank you too.

When we get right after the news at the bottom of the hour. Right here in WBZ Boston's news radio, and by the way, we are in iHeart radio station. You can easily pull down the new and improved iHeart app and you can put us on make us your number one presets, So we will only be a fingertip away. Three sixty five, twenty four to seven. We're going to follow up with the first robot assisted live liver transplant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. We'll be talking with

It's night Side on WBZ Boston's news radio.

Well, about a week or so ago, we had a very interesting conversation, and to be really honest with you, I probably was so interested in the macro conversation that I didn't focus on what we really needed to talk about that night. So I am delighted, someone embarrassed, but delighted to welcome back Dr Martin Dibbs. He's the surgeon involved in a procedure the first liver transplant that involved the first robot assisted live liver transplant. Doctor Dibbs, welcome back.

And thank you so much for your interest and support spreading the word.

So how tell us how a Well, most of us are a little skeptical of robots. Okay, if I was going to have a liver transplant, I probably would be looking for doctor Martin Dibbs or someone of your caliber, and you know robots, maybe not. How long? When when were robots first considered and and how long does it take to get them from the first consideration to where we are today?

Yeah, so robotic surgery has been here since year two thousand, so there has been over twenty years of robotic surgery in the world. First was in France in year two thousand and then in the US in year two thousand

So is it fair to say, I just know I do not want to either downplay or overstate the importance of the robotic aspect. Is it Is it fair to say that the the robot's role is really to provide insight. Is the robot doing the procedure or is the robot in effect acting as the guide and telling the doctors okay,

No, the robot doesn't do the procedure. It's not controlling the robot. It is a good question because people tend to think that is the robot actually telling us what to do. Is actually the opposite. So we have a console that is right next to the to the patient, and we have a surgeon in the console controlling all the arms of the robot, and then there's a surgeon that is at the bedside basically assisting with all the

Now, but everyone's in the same operating room, right, It's not when you say the patient is at the it's not as if they were in the same operating room.

Right in the same operating room. And we are all planning to keep it like that and not necessarily do surgeries from overseas because that wouldn't necessarily be safe at least with the current technology.

Okay, So no remote surgeries, okay now, and this is the first one here in Boston. Has it been used since the first one or yes?

So just to explain that robotic surgery has been used for over twenty years in the US, but mostly it has been for urology procedures or colorectal surgery or hernias, but liver surgery has was one of the last ones

So leaving Donnor, Yeah, so you said again you use the word visualization. Is the liver and I interrupted you, and I apologize for that. So let me just finish the question which I shouldn't have started and interrupted you. Is the liver more inaccessible some of the other procedures that you talk about, are they more accessible in the liver because of his position within the body less accessible to the surgeon without the assistance of the robot.

The accessibility of the liver is pretty similar to the other organs. But the complexity of liver surgery includes the fact that we need to do a lot of vascular work, so the liver is full of vessels and in this case, for for example, what we talked last week about leaving donor liver transplant. We need to make sure that the donor has perfectly functional liver at the end and that the other behalf of the liver that goes to the

And when you started your career as a surgeon, did you anticipate that there would be, you know, a robotic aspect of it sometime or has the future arrived more quickly than you would have anticipated.

Way more quickly. I started my career as a surgeon here in Boston, and the technology at that point was

It's always amazing to talk with you, doctor Dibbs. I really appreciate you doing a second time with me, and again thank you for what you and your colleagues do for us, for people, for humanity every day of the week. Not many of us can have the impact the individual impact that you have in the lives of individuals and also on their families and their circle of friends and God blessing and thank you for what you do.

Thank you so much for your interest. I really think that this makes an impact on patients that are waiting for liver transcend. If we do more living donors and people are on the wait list waiting for organs, the fact that they know that we can do living donor's minimum invasive will increase their likelihood of donating. And also for liver tumors and liver cancer. The fact that we're doing this surgeries with faster recovery and meaningly invasive is definitely.

Going to be.

Something that will benefit many patients, so really appreciate your health.

Well, we appreciate you, folks, Thanks so much, Doctor Martin Dibbs of the best Beth Israel Deaconus Medical Center. We will be back on Nightside and we're going to talk about something very different, and that is the one hundred, one hundred greatest golfers in the history of the game. The Masters starts later this week, so we're going to talk about one hundred greatest Masters, not those who competed to the Masters, but the hundred greatest golfers.

Coming back on Nightside, Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.

Well, the Master starts this Thursday and is a it's a cold night in Boston, but hopefully by Thursday it will warm up a little bit down in Georgia when they start, they start the Master's tournament with us to talk about it. As an author and sportswriter who contributes to, amongst other places, of the New York Times in the Washington Post, Michael Arkush, Michael Arkush, welcome to night Side. How are you.

I'm great? How are you just fine?

The hundred greatest golfers. Now, I've known some golfers uh and primarily senior golfers. A couple of buddies of mine played on the senior Tour, so uh pretty uh well, uh, I'll tell you some time off here. Okay, but was there was there was But he might have pitched for the Yankees who went on the Senior Tours. A golfer Ralph Terry.

Yeah, sure, yeah, and he he didn't make a lot of money in the Senior Tour, but he was, you know, such a talented athlete to become a major League baseball player pitcher for the Yankees, and but his.

First love was golf. And so through him, I got to meet a lot of the Chichie Rodriguez era guys on the tours. Chi Chi on the this Chichi making.

No no no Chechi. I'll tell you, though we missed Chichi, we miss characters in the game like camp. He was so much fun to watch. I was fortunate to cover the Senior Tour for golf Old magazine in the late nineties, and uh, nobody, nobody has been more entertaining than Chichi Rodriguez.

Yeah. He sort of brought a joy de viverra to the game that maybe uh was before that was missing. But that that that's uh, that's neither here ner there, let's u. I was interested and I've looked here, and I didn't realize that number one hundred was a guy from Ireland who won the US Open before Francis Woman. I was unaware of him.

No, he was John McDermott. He won the Open opened back to back and at nineteen years old to do this day, he's still the youngest player to win the US Open. It's a really tragic story. I'll try to sort of condense it a little bit. Is that he collapsed to his pro shop a couple of years later and wound up. His family wound up sending him to a psychiatric hospital where he spent much of his life.

A great story. The other guy in the Senior Tour who won the British Open, Bruce Vaughn who was never on the PGA Tour, but on the senior tour as a fella from Ralph Terry's hometown. Ralph taught and played to play golf at the age of twenty. And when the British the Senior British Open, not the British Open, the Senior British Open. Okay, so you're not going to tell who's number one, obviously, I'm going tell you will, Okay, Hey.

Of course you know it's out it's out there. Drum roll. Do you have a drum roll?

I don't, but I go there.

That's pretty good. I'll think it's Jack Nicholas. Jack Nicholas. By the way, Jack Nipples did not win eighteen majors. He won twenty. Everyone says eighteen, but I'm counting the US Amateur in fifty nine and sixty one, which were counted for years. When he won in eighty six and Augusta, everybody said this is Jack's twentieth major, and somebody, I don't think it was you, Okay, I'm not sure took those two away and he suddenly has eighteen. I'm giving them back. I'm restoring those two.

Well, good for you, that's good So when is Tiger fall here? Because you know number two, number two, number two, okay, so Arnold's got to be pretty close. Arnold's number five, okay. So now I got to figure out who's between Arnold. So we get maybe Ben Hogan and Sam Sneain three or four?

You got one, right, Hogan's at number four. Who's number three?

Man? Well your testing me here? Let me Modernvy hand on jiv hand.

He played in nineteen twenties. He would star in the nineteen twenties.

Nineteen twenties, just before my time.

Just a little bitfore your time, right, yeah, Bobby Jones, Oh sure, yeah.

I should have figured that. I mean, that's that's that. If I was thinking right, I would have I understand that. Did you have number six? You have a female golfer?

Mickey right? Mickey right. It's amazing. I talked to people and they go, who's Mickey right? And I can't believe it. She was incredible, eighty to wins thirteen majors. There was a four year stress in the early sixties. She won forty four times, pretty much scaled back at the age of thirty four or otherwise would have won ninety maybe a hundred tournaments.

Yeah, and some of these great female athletes, as I'm sure you know. You know Teddley Albright who was a figure skating Olympian champion and from Boston was a surgeon. You know, after her career as a figure skater, what did Ricky write do with the rest of her life?

I mean, you know, she was really gave very few interviews, by the way, and did not play that much golf. Yeah, she was very very reclusive in a way, but she had injuries earlier on as well. Ben Hogan said that she had the greatest swing ever male or female, and that's saying something to come from Ben Hogan.

Wow, boy, that's that's sure, is okay? So let's talk about the modern day golfers. The guys will be keep competing this weekend down to the Masters. Who's the top rank you know, from your perspective in your.

Book, Rory McElroy number twenty five, and Rory I believe if he wins the Masters. I haven't done the exact numbers, but ORI's four or five spots in the rankings. It's incredible that he has not won a major since twenty fourteen. If you had told me in twenty fourteen. He's not going to win one for ten more years. I would I don't know how much money I would have put on that. That's insane. He's in his mid thirties now,

Wow, this is how long did it take you to, you know, to do to pull this book together?

A long time. I started in this nineteen twelve no. I started in two thousand, in the fall of twenty twenty one, and it took me roughly three years. I read every single article on Golf Digest from nineteen fifty on. I know I'm insane. You can say that, and I read.

Don't worry about it.

A lot of us are exactly this a long group, exactly, but I read. I read it close to one hundred books, did hundreds of interviews. I watched YouTube. You know you watch YouTube too much. You watch these tournaments and go into a rabbit hole. It's very scary. Yeah, but I watched tons of tournaments.

Okay, let let me throw a couple more names at you. You know, younger guys right now, Mikekelson and Travino they got to be there at some point.

Yeah, Trevino's number is fifteen. Trevino is incredible. I mean, he grew up with nothing and he made so much of himself hard work and one of the great ball strikers of all time. Phil Micholson is number thirteen. Phil Ncholson has six majors. He should have eight or nine maybe more. Became too aggressive, too off and threw a few majors away. It's you know, a lot of guys.

Okay, what about Gary Player.

Gary Player's number two eleven, Gary Player nine time, nine majors, only non American to win the Grand Slam, eighty nine years old. You're going to see him on Thursday, hit the ceremonial t shot. He's going to look like he's thirty nine.

Yeah. Well, you know, my understanding is to play. When he was playing, he would never shake hands with his right hand on the day of the tournament, that he would only shake with his left hand because he didn't want to have anybody grabbed the right hand and squeeze the right hand.

I don't know if you blame no.

I don no, I don't, but I don't know if that's legendary or whatever. But I was told that by a pretty good source, Michael. I really enjoyed this conversation. The book The Golf one hundred is spirited ranking of the greatest players of all time that's available. It's out as of April first, twenty twenty five Amazon. If you got a golfer in your family, think about Father's Day coming up. This would be the perfect gift for a golfer. Michael ash Arkush, thank you so much for your time

I look forward to it. Thank you so much.

Thanks Michael. All Right, when we get back, we're going to get to the matters at hand. For the evening. There was some late news today that we mentioned Christin who is not going to run for US Senate seat in New Hampshire. I unfortunately, we're gonna We're gonna talk, however, about the Karen Reid case and has anyone changed their mind? And I guess there are people who have switched from one side to the other and it's caused some controversy.