It's nights Eyes, Boston's news radio.
Thank you very much, Madison, as we embark on a Tuesday night for our ride all the way until midnight. My name is Dan Ray, the host of Nightside. As Madison indicated, Rob Brooks is back in the control room at the Big Broadcast House in beautiful Medford, Massachusetts, and we are set to go with four guests this hour during what we call the Nightside News Update, and we will talk a little bit later on this evening. At nine o'clock, we will be talking again. We talked last
week briefly about the battle at a market basket. We'll be talking with a Boston Globe columnist who wrote a piece for Trendlines today, Camillo Fonseka. I think, with interesting conversation with him. And then at ten o'clock we will talk about terror in Colorado, the latest developments on that horrific attack on innocent Jewish people who were simply holding a vigil in memory and in support of those still being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, and that horrible attack.
We're seeing some video tonight on the Network newscast which show the absolute horror, and we'll get to all of that that this anti Semitism has to be extinguished, just as the flames of that flamethrower had to be extinguished. Just horrific. Talk about cruelty to people. The suffering needs
to stop. We'll talk about that tonight. First up, we're going to talk about one hundred people who were going to brave the side of one of Cambridge's biggest buildings in the fight against epilepsy coming up on Flag Day, Saturday, June fourteenth. With us is the director of Development at the Epilepsy Foundation of New England, John Josh Drew. This is called Repel Boston. Josh, you have found one hundred very brave people who are looking to raise funds for
a great cause. Hats off to you for setting this up. I've never heard anything. I've heard like five K walks and even ten K road races, marathons, but repelling down the side of a building, this takes it all. Pardon the pun to a to New Heights.
Yeah, thanks Dan, and thanks so much for having me on to talk about it tonight. We're super super excited for this event and the people that are going over the edge, so to say, for this are just incredibly brave and we could not be more grateful for their efforts and doing this.
Now I understand that the one hundred people have to in order to have the privilege of going over the edge, they have to raise one thousand dollars of from supporters and friends. How much would people have to raise not to go over the edge, Josh.
Well, to do it safely, Josh, if you would pay more?
Would pay more not to go over the edge? No, it's a great cause, that's for sure. For those who do not know what repelling involves. Uh, and this has become kind of an urban sport. Actually explain to us how you're going to make sure that these people go from the tip of top of these buildings safely to the ground and not in one fell swoop. If you get my my thought, how are you going to do this?
Well?
As scary as it can sound, it is super safe. Where very fortunate for both of our partners in this. One partner is called over the Edge.
This is the.
Company that actually comes in and administers the event. They're professionals in repelling in rope safety. And our other is the Hyatt that's actually letting us do this off the side of their hotel and I'm not sure how they got that.
Yeah, I don't know that I would use the word the verb administers, because that's too close to like administering the last rites. Maybe you could say that they run the program or something like that. You've got to come down the side of the Hyatt. How how the Hyatt on Memorial Drive right?
I assume that's right.
The pyramid shape one right on the river.
It's the rope crew.
Does a fantastic job. They get you all harnessed up, You take an elevator ride up to the roof and they coach you all the way through, slowly repelling right down the side of the hotel.
Is this the first time the Epilepsi Foundation has raised funds this way? Or is this now becoming a quaisi or a regular event?
So this was actually this will be the second one. Our first time was last year, and we did it just in a world of constant needing to fundraise and so many valid causes out there need to get a little creative and catching the attention of people, we decided to give it a shot. In my goodness, was it popular last year?
Okay? So let me ask, is registration full or can some people who might be intrigued still participate. Do you have any openings left?
We actually do, and we still have some people signing up. I just had another person sign up today. We for sure have limited spots on this, but there are some still available.
Okay, So how can people secure again? The donation that is expected is one thousand dollars, whether it's made by the individual or they're good friends and supporters who want to help them raise that amount of money. How do people get in touch with you? How did they get in touch? What's the website? Give us? Give us the best information here if we can try to try to get a few more people to go over the.
Edge, Yeah, absolutely, we would love that. The website is Repelboston dot org. Super easy to get too. All you have to do is go right on there and click that you would like to go over the edge. Our team will take care of it from there. We provide you all the information you need. We give you some tips and pointers on raising that thousand dollars. But what we've found is when you say that you're doing such an astonishing feat, it tends to not be too hard to raise that money.
Okay, and repel Boston for those who are not familiar with the sport, it's our ap P E L six letters Repel Boston. Boston also is six letters, so it's easy to put them together. They make twelve letters Repel RA ap P E L Boston. And this is something that when you think about it, it's one thing to and it's great to, you know, walk into five k or race or whatever or a ten k, but to say that you repelled down the side of the Hyatt
in Cambridge, that's the one. Don't They have like a spinning restaurant at the top of that.
You know they used to.
They don't anymore. They used to. Instead it's been turned into this gorgeous ballroom and that's actually the floor that we had to to walk right out onto the roof.
Perfect. That's perfect. That's great. Look anytime we can help you out. And I just think you have some very brave souls. Please take care of all of them and get them down safe and sound and raise a lot of money on Saturday. This is Saturday, June fourteenth, so we're talking about not this coming Saturday, but the following Saturday. You got plenty of time and if you'd like to sign up, for a unique experience, to say the least. Repel Boss dot Org.
That's absolutely right. Yeah, we make it a lot of fun. There's a huge party going on in the courtyard below you. A djail'll announce you as you take your couple steps right over the edge, and there's absolutely plenty of time and we would be more than happy to have any newcomers.
Okay, well, that sounds great. And no drinking ahead of time. I would hope maybe there's a possibility of a libation afterwards, get I would, I'd have a lot afterwards.
That's absolutely correct. There's certainly no drinking ahead of time, but we do have a beer garden waiting for you on the bottom, assuming that you are twenty one.
Okay, sounds great. Josh Drew, director of development at the Epilepsy Foundation, New England. He's in charge of this Repel event. So you're in good hands with Josh Drew. Thanks, Josh, appreciate your time tonight.
Thank you so much. Dan, very welcome.
You're very welcome. We get back when we talk about that horrific anti Semitic attack that I'm hurt at least a people physically, mentally, psychologically hurt thousands, not only in Bold of Colorado, but across the nation. We'll be talking with Adam Katz, president of the Foundation to Combat Anti Semitism. Back on Night Side with Adam Katz right after a couple of quick messages.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
All right, now, this is a serious topic. No joking around on this one, for sure. Adam Katz is the president of the Foundation to Combat Anti Semitism. Adam, I'm sorry to be talking to you under these circumstances. What went on in Bold of Colorado on Sunday was just horrific.
There's just no way to describe it. I've seen I saw the video tonight of this guy literally walking out with Molotov cocktails and attacking innocent people who were just holding a vigil to keep people remembering the men and women who were still being held hostage by himas Look, this is not the this is not the only horrific event this last few days. We had the two embassy staff members in Washington, d C. Shot and killed on the streets of Washington. We had the attack on Governor
Shapiro's home. How do we stop this, Adam?
Yeah, Dan I thank you for having me and for bringing and continuing to raise attention to this issue. I wish we were talking under different circumstances, but unfortunately we are where we are. How do we stop this? It takes a lot, transparently, you know, it's anti Semitism is the world's oldest hatred, and it's been around for thousands
of years, and it's morphed than it's evolved. What's particularly unsettling is this latest incarnation here in the US and frankly elsewhere that's leading to these physical acts of violence targeting Jews and Israelis or even people suspected to be Jewish or Israeli. And you know a lot of it stems from lack of education and lack of information. So
to your question of how do we stop it? A lot, you know, what we need to do is continue to make sure that folks have the right information, the right education. They understand what who Jewish people are, what Judaism is,
what Israel is, the history, all of those things. And we also need great leadership, you know, from our elected officials, from university administrators, from everybody that can say declaratively violence against any ethnicity on the basis of their ethnicity is wrong Jews or any other ethnicity, and making sure that that there's no ambiguity about that. This is unacceptable.
The things the more I read about this attack, this guy planned this. Apparently he planned it for years, and and he he confessed the authorities out there, so he basically told him that he planned it, that he disguised himself as a gardener so he would not attract attention. And and then he he attacked, in many cases elderly people who were doing nothing more than holding a vigil. And I just don't understand how someone can be imbued
with that amount of hatred. I mean, you know, we remember what this kid, this punk Dylan Roof kid with the black parishioners in South Carolina, many having prayed with them, went in and then and shot and killed nine of them. We know what was done at the Tree of Life Synagogue outside of Pittsburgh. But this guy was in the country, overstayed his visa, tried to get a gun to do to kill more people, couldn't get a gun because he
was no longer he was. I guess I don't know if he's here as a tourist, if he was here seeking asylum, but he got everything this country had to offer, and his thank you is to kill or to try to kill innocent Jewish Americans, including an eighty eight year old woman who's a Holocaust survivor.
Yeah, I mean how.
I don't use the word wicked easily here. I mean, how wicked, how deranged can his mind and his soul be?
And I can't even fathom, right, I mean, I mean, the facts that you just stated are almost hard to believe. You know who he targeted and how this hatred was able to develop, and you know, unfortunately that the normal of Jewish hate that has become commonplace across this country over the past many years. And you know, in this instance, this was obviously, as you said, a particularly wicked individual who had a certain level of coldness in his heart
that's extreme. Yet we also see much smaller manifestations play out on a more frequent basis, and you know it's in our view, it all stems from a lot of the same things, and so it's really really essential that we, yes, we need to absolutely do everything to prevent this from happening again, because this is a horrific tragedy, and we also need to prevent the smaller offenses, so to speak, because they create a climate in which this is more likely to happen.
I fault the media in many respects here because I don't think enough people in the media are speaking out as forcefully as they should. When I was a television reporter, I had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz, filed reports from Auschwitz. I certainly knew the horrors of Auschwitz before I visited there, but to actually be on that hallowed ground where so many people lost their lives, were killed by you know,
people who were themselves deranged. But again, there's no ongoing I don't see public service announcements from the media right on down. I don't. I don't see much leadership. This is one that that really bothers me. I don't happen to be Jewish. I'm Roman Catholic, but I learned from my dad, who was a World War Two veteran, never forget and if it happened then and in other ways in so many other parts of the world, this has happened. It's happening here now, and it has to be stopped.
I'll be doing a couple of hours on it beginning tonight. At ten o'clock and hopefully getting listeners to call and pledge that they will that they will join with everyone in denouncing it wherever it raises its ugly head of anti Semitism.
Yeah, Dan, I mean that's I think that's a huge part of of remedying the situation that we find ourselves in now is and I agree with you that there's not nearly enough clear, unequivocal denouncing of this, whether it's from the media, the press, elected officials, other people in leadership positions that's in this Uh, there's been this hesitance unfortunately,
you know that that is persistent, that is reinforced. I think this the undercurrent that we have and we need folks, we especially need people in you know, with large microphones, but we need even you know, everybody right down from the grassrooms to be standing up and saying this is not this is intolerable. There's no there's no excuse for this, right, There's no reason rationale why this would ever be tolerated. It's not American. It's antithetical to American values, it's antithetical
to human values. And you know, we strongly believe that if we can get enough people that can be outspoken in that regard that will change the tide. I mean what's scary is what we look at at our foundation is a lot of American sentiment on various topics related to anti Semitism, and we've seen unfortunately negative movement on anti Semitic beliefs and Jewish tropes and things like that, where there are a greater proportion of Americans today that
believe certain things than eighteen twenty four months ago. On the one hand, that's extremely discouraging. On the other hand, I see the glass half full of Can we can turn that back right with the right approach, with support, with education, with people committing to this, we can get back to where it was where this is no longer happening with anything like the regularity that it.
Is, Adam, If folks would like to get in touch, either to join, to support, or to get information, how could folks get in touch with you at the foundation and combat anti senitism. Is there a website?
We have a website fcast dot org. Folks can check that out. We have several different social media handles stand up to Jewish hate. There's several others. But if they start with the website and then look for our blue square. I think that's a really important thing.
We are.
The symbol that we have developed and been catalyzing is a blue square, which is you know, it's in itself a symbol that just represents standing up to hate, and it's sending up to Jewish hate, but frankly, it's standing up to hate against any potential persecuted group. And it's a small symbol. It's just a blue square, but it
is a powerful symbol. It is in your phone. You can you know, post it in a text message, you can post it on Instagram, on social media, and it's just a way to show solidarity with this that that that everything that you just described that this is not acceptable, and it tells your Jewish neighbors. It's basically, you know, it's that figurative arm around the shoulder from which right now is what a lot of Jews need.
Absolutely. So the website you gave was f CAST, which I believe exactly Foundation f for Foundation Combat Anti Semitism, so fcas dot org.
You got it.
That's exactly all right.
That's all I just want to make sure because we went by that kind of quickly. Adam, thank you very much. Please keep keep up the fight. This fight has to be one.
Thank you and thank you for your support. Dan.
You're very welcome. We get back. We're going to talk about cancer prevention. This is something you need to hear. There are some people now who are spreading I don't understand and the information that sunscreen is toxic. Let me tell you as a as a guy, that sunburns pretty easily. I use talk, I use sunscreen, and I know it's not toxic. Uh, it's it's preventative. We'll be talking with
Professor Timothy Rebick. He's a cancer prevention he teaches professor of cancer prevention at the Data of Farber Cancer Institute. Right after this.
Night side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio with.
Me is Professor Timothy Rebick. He's a professor of cancer prevention at the Data Farber Cancer Institute. Professor Rebick, how are you tonight? Welcome?
Hey, thanks for having me.
This sounds kind of silly, but I guess there are what they called u V truthers on the internet. I'm now claiming sunscreen is toxic. What hold did these folks climb out of?
I mean, well, you know, yeah.
Go ahead. I just wanted me to be inordinate or inappropriate, but.
Not at all.
Yeah.
No, I mean I think there's a lot of skepticism about things we know and take for granted from science, from good from you know, hardcore scientific knowledge, and you know, there's a lot of people who don't trust in some of these authorities anymore. And it is not only just hard to understand for people who follow the science, but also it's dangerous for those who don't listen to what we know is good for you.
So, so where did this start? At some point, someone must have woke up some morning and said, I don't think this sunscreen is helping prevent cancer. It's causing cancer. I mean, there must be some guru somewhere or some nut job in a in a cave who's propagating this information that is that is patently false.
Yeah.
I think that this is like a game of telephone. You know, there's some core kernel of information that's true, and then over time it gets amplified and twisted and mutated to the point that it isn't really accurate or
real anymore. But the core, the original pieces of information people had was you know, lost, and what's stayed around is the things that people who don't trust science or don't trust you know, the groups that make these messages and have fear about what they are, you know, seeing a lot of cancer, They're seeing a lot of people that have had other kinds of health issues, and they're thinking, well,
what's causing this? It must be something in something that I'm being sold, something that I'm being told by an authority I don't respect.
Okay, I got to be honest with you. I've heard a lot of crazy stuff over the years. This is the first time that I've heard this particular brand of crazy. So let's let's set the record straight here. If anybody's going to be out of the sun, and I don't care if you're I can remember as a kid, my parents should put me out there, and I used to get blisters upon blisters for sunburns, and I think they didn't realize that that stuff is dangerous. You know, the
sun is your friend to a point? What what what is the message you want to impart tonight to people to set the record straight.
Well, the sudden in terms of skin cancer, which is I think the main thing we are talking about right now is not your friend. Ever, the sunlight is a known class one car synogen is defined by the International Agency Research on Cancer. Those are the people that decide these things. It's a clear and established cancer causing factor. So anything that you do to stay out of that kind of exposure is good for you, and a lot
of ways to do that. You can limit the time in the sun, you can wear long sleeves or hats, and you can wear sunscreens or sunblocks. And I think that anything that you do to minimize that exposure is going to protect you from developing skin cancer. And there's nothing in sunscreens that clearly raises cancer risk that we are aware of. There are plenty of chemicals in some sunscreens, none of them have been conclusively shown to cause cancer,
certainly not skin cancer. So I think that if you're making a decision, and our lives are full of risk and benefit and harm and benefit decisions, if you're making a decision you want to minimize your sun exposure, and if you use a sunblock, that's better for you than not using a sunblock. In terms of skin cancer.
The other thing that people might not realize is that skin cancer there's different levels of skin cancer. If you get further along with skin cancer, skin cancer can kill you, absolutely.
So there are some skin cancers like basal cell cancers that are very common, the most common kind of cancer, but you won't die from it. But melanomas, pigmented skin cancers can be very lethal and in fact have very high mortality rates if you are diagnosed with one. We're getting better at treating it, but I guess just about everybody I know would rather not have cancer in the
first place rather than finding good treatments. So the best way to avoid ever getting diagnosed and dying of a skin cancer is to prevent exposure to the scent.
Now, I hope people have listened carefully to what you have to say, and I hope that particularly parents protect their children. And if you're an older person and you've avoided skin cancer in your life, continue to cover up up. You know, it's wonderful to get out there, particularly in New England when the sun starts to warm up, but be very, very careful. Is there any sort of a website you'd like to direct people too if they want to check out anything that you've said tonight, Professor.
Yeah, there are a couple of great resources. So the American Cancer Society cancer dot org has a lot of good information that's accurate and reliable about not just sun and skin cancer, but all kinds of cancer, cancer prevention kinds of things. So that's a really great resource specifically
for skin cancer. The American Academy of Dermatology is a great resource they spend They have the authoritative voice in how to prevent skin cancer and to think about sun exposure and other decisions that a person may want to make if they're out in the sun this summer.
Yeah, I know, several years ago I had a little I'm not sure if it's Queen of cell cars. Somebody had a mose surgery, which is one easy, but boy, it scared the heck out of me. And I don't put enough sunscreen on. And I think as a result of our conversation tonight, I'll be replenishing my supply of sunscreen to make sure that anytime I'm out this summer, I'm covered up. I appreciate your time tonight, professor very much. E've been part of the important message. Thanks for talking again.
Than pleasure we get back and to talk about another serious issue, and that is at home heart attacks and cardiac deaths on the rise since the COVID nineteen pandemic. A recent study has found these are serious topics, and oftentimes we have to talk about serious topics. So just sit back. We have one more guest, and then we will move on to our discussions of the night. We're going to start off talking about at nine o'clock the
continued market basket battle. I think it's something that affects all of us, and we're going to be talking with Globe reporter and columnist Camillo Fonseka wrote a really interesting piece in the Globe today that I want to draw to your attention, and he's going to talk with us right after the nine o'clock news. Back on Nightside, we have one more guest, Doctor Jason Wasfi, author of a
published study on this issue. He is also the director of Outcomes Research at mass General Hospital Cardiology Division and a faculty member at Morgan Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital Mongan Institute.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z Boston's news Radio.
My guest is doctor Jason Wasfi. He's the author of a public study on this whole question of at home heart attacks and cardiac deaths on the rise since COVID nineteen since the COVID nineteen pandemic. Doctor Washfie, I know we're crunched your time a little bit, so let me get to it. What is the relationship between increasing these at home heart attacks card and cardiac deaths with the rise of on the right since COVID nineteen.
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate your interest in this in this issue, it's been noted since twenty twenty that fewer patients have been coming to the hospital with heart attacks. I noticed this as a clinician in twenty twenty, and many countries throughout the world have seen the same thing, that fewer patients are coming to the hospital with cardiac conditions. It doesn't really make sense because you don't think that post
twenty twenty people would have fewer heart attacks. So what we did is we looked at death certificate data from the state of Massachusetts, including people who died at home, to try to understand better why this is happening.
And your conclusion is.
Well, it's pretty concerning. There's a lot more deaths at home than there were before twenty twenty. This isn't something that just happened, right, at the surges of the COVID pandemic. This is something that is persistent for years that even into twenty twenty four, monthly rates of cardiac deaths at home especially, we're elevated relative to what would have expected to happen before twenty twenty. So it really does raise
a question of distress in the healthcare system. That the healthcare system, we don't know for sure, but it raises a question. Their new drugs available every year, their new procedure is available every year.
So are people perhaps apprehensive of contracting something? Is there a hang Is there sort of a hangover if you will. I don't use that in the classic sense of the word hangover, but a follow on apprehension about sitting in an emergency room with other people who might be COVID or some you know, some some you know, I guess, subliminal apprehension or fear of contracting something at a hospital. There must have been stories that have circulated people who went to hospitals and got sick.
It's a great question.
I mean, the first thing I'll say is from our analysis, we can't we don't know why this has happened, But I will say we see this years after the initial COVID pandemic. So my hunt, and it's just a hunt at this point, is that there's something more fundamental than just fear of getting COVID. Because I can't prove this, but my sense as a clinician is that people aren't supporting hospitals well into twenty twenty four because the fear
of COVID. My suspicion is this more has to do with access to care, ability to find the doctor.
Ability.
You know, patients say this, Oh, I'll be you know, waiting in the emergency room for two days if I go to the emergency in now. And my fear is that people aren't getting evaluated because of distress within the healthcare system.
Yeah, I just add one one quick comment, and I know you're a little pressed on time, so I want to be cognizant of that. But it's tough getting a PCP in Massachusetts. I recently had doctor Rungi, who's the head of the of the of the medical School at the University of Michigan. He's the president of the University of Michigan Medical School. And the same problem in other parts of the country, there's a paucity of PCP providers,
so people perhaps are not seeing doctors. Obviously, when someone stays home and doesn't get to a hospital and dies of a heart attack, you can't do a post mortem conversation about why didn't you get to the hospital earlier? Clearly could it? Could that also be that they're just not seeing PCPs as frequently as they should, you know, at least once a year.
For sure, I definitely think that these types of things may be having an effect here. I can't know for sure from the data we have, but absolutely I think this feels like a health system issue. It could be an outpatient issue, It could be a prevention issue, as you're pointing out, in primary care. It could be a question about access to acute systems. But this is the thing. Every year there are new drugs available, every year, there's
new procedures available. Why are these outcomes still worse than they should be? And it really, when you think about it that way, the drugs haven't become unavailable, right. It really feels like a health systems issue. And as you say, that could be access to prevention through primary care, it could be access to outpatient cardiologists. The health system in many ways feels like it's not meeting the needs of people who are at risk.
Doctor Jason Philosophy, I very much appreciate your published study. I assume this is a published study that's not going to be necessarily available to the general public. But just a final piece of advice to any of my listeners who might be in that age range where they need to be more careful, what would you tell them? And I realized that your study is not conclusive, but what piece of advice should people take from our conversation tonight? And then I got to let you go.
I know that no, thank you again. I appreciate your interest in this and appreciate you raising awareness of this. I think more than anything is to be aware of symptoms that when you have symptoms that may be concerning, to report them. We know, I know that there's difficulties in getting into seek positions and other types of caregivers, but it is so important to seek attention for symptoms that concern you. It's such an important thing in terms
of prevention and for policy makers. We really need to rethink the healthcare delivery system. We need that partnerships creating healthcare provider organizations and payers to really redesign the healthcare system so it meets the needs of our patients.
Doctr wasby thank you very much for your time tonight. Again. I know that we were intrusive a little bit on some of your other demands of the evening, So thanks very much for the extra time. Thank you so much.
Not at all, I appreciate the interest in this.
You're welcome. You're welcome. We're very interested in it, that's for sure. Okay. So doctor Jason Wassey the author of the published study on this, and also he's the director of the outcomes Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiology Division and a faculty member at the Mongan Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital. So when we get back from the nine o'clock news, we're going to once again focus
on the boardroom battle at Market Basket. And if you'd like a quick homework assignment, if you happen to have today's Boston Globe, there's an article move over Kendall. The Market Basket boardroom battle is a real life succession saga,
complete with family drama and dysfunction. We're going to be talking with the author of that article, Page A D one of the Business section of Today's Boston Globe, Camillo Fonseka, I am very much interested in market Basket and this continuing fight between amongst family members, and I also want to hear from all of you because I still think that at this point, market Basket provides the best quality grocery products at the most reasonable prices of any chain.
I'm not a Paige spokesman, I'm not an advertiser, but that's why I go and drive distances sometimes to get to market Basket. We'll be talking with my guest Camillo Fonseka or the Boston Globe and your conversation as well for the nine o'clock news on Nightside