It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston News Radio. Nicole, you are the best at segues. You're hit a home run. I love that those people who listened to the Red Sox last night didn't see much action. They got a one hitter. They were one hit by a pitcher who the Red Sox gave up part a year or so ago. And Patriot fans ugly ugly in New York last night. But it won't be ugly here on Nightside. You know that we're always gonna have fun. Yeah, we're gonna have
some disagreements, but we're gonna remain friends. It's a simple as sad. My name is Dan Ray. I am the host of Nightside and Nicole. And if you're still in the studio but have a great weekend, oh yes, you too deserve it, that is for sure. You are the best person.
You know.
You give me a lot of time to practice, which I appreciate. It's just like, you know what, I have a really good excuse to work on it, so I'll come up with another few for next week.
You're great. You always hit a home run. I love that. It's as simple as that. But last night, those Patriots just didn't do it. It was and the Red Sox, Oh, I remember when you left last night. He said, we will be more fun and more entertaining. And guess what, the bar was very high.
I mean you always are.
But yeah, from what I heard, I didn't watch it, it's probably ugly.
And the guy that threw the one hitter, he only went seven innings, but he threw a one hitter and that's all the hits. The Red Sox said. The Red Sox had had him like a year ago and they gave up on him.
Oh my, it's rebuilding or something.
Well, I don't know. We're still alive, but they were still mathematically in it, so.
That's all that matters.
Right, They still have a chance, you know, and you can always.
Just go get a family, frank and forget about the rest.
Yeah. Right, they have a great weekend, you two. I'm glad I caught you. Thanks very much. All right, we're ready to go. Here we will be talking about a flight over flying the Israeli flag at Boston City Hall Plaza.
We talking about the City councilor Ed Flynn along with my great friend Jeff Robbins, former Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council, lawyer extraordinary, former head of the Anti Defamation League here in New England, and we'll get to all of that, and we'll also talking about a new chapter in the Karen Reid case. We'll explain it with a couple of really good lawyers, Bill Kickham and
Robert George. Bob George coming up at ten o'clock. But in the meantime we're going to do our first hour where we talk with four newsmakers of some sort or some level. Going to begin with the gentlemen by the name of David Die. David Dye, Welcome to Nightside. How are you, sir.
Damn? Doing well?
Thanks for having me.
You are an author and president of a group called Let's Grow Leaders, of Global Leadership development firm known for practical tools and techniques for human centered leaders. I love that word human centered leaders, because I don't know what type of leaders we're going to have if they're not human centered. You have written a book called Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict, Let's Grow Leaders. Tell us about it. How much workplace conflict do we have in
America these days? I thought, I know, I thought everybody was working from home.
Well, it's interesting you say that. You know, there's a sense that a lot of people I say, wow, I think we're having more conflicts. We actually did a five thousand plus research study. We surveyed five thousand people around the world, including all fifty US states, and asked them, you're like, what is happening with workplace conflict? I mean
you're having more or less? And seventy percent of people around the world, including the US, said, you know, I'm having as much or more than I ever had in the past. And even if you look at those thirty percent and he said they're having less exactly what you're saying, Half of them said they just escaped. They escaped the toxic workplace, they escaped some conflict, or they're working from home. They're not seeing people, so they're just not having interactions.
And then you get all the things that are.
Lost in that.
So it might be more peaceful to them, but there's a lot lost in that even so, well, I don't know.
If you just listen to a little back and forth between myself, who's a talk show host, and Nicole Davis, who is one of our great news anchors here at WBZ, we have a lot of really fun people to work with where I work, So I'm been a tough time sort of relating to this. But as I understand it, in your book, you have powerful phrases for dealing with workplace conflict. That's intriguing. Give me a couple of examples. Are you talking about conflict between a boss and a worker.
Are you talking about probably you're talking about everything working a worker conflict. You find yourself in a testing conversation with someone with whom you either are working with or working for, and you got some powerful phrases to, I guess, diffuse the situation.
Absolutely.
Dan.
You said it earlier when you were talking to you said, Hey, we're going to have disagreements, but we're still going to be friends. And that is really what's at the heart of all of this is how do we respectfully disagree, have those conversations and come up with something that's better. Because we've all got our perspectives and so forth, so many of us, when we think of workplace conflict, people immediately shy away. They win and say, oh, I don't
want to do that. Why because it feels destructive. We want to move away from that that destructive kind of conflict and to productive conflict with There's just another word for that is collaboration. So how do we do that? You know, there's four dimensions of this, of these conversations, and if we can invest in these upfront, like you're saying, we understand one another, we know each other as human beings.
So that connection, that's the first dimension, and we can start any conversation with that, even if we don't know
the person. You're talking to, somebody from a different department you've got to work with and you need something, uh, they've got a different agenda, start the conversation with something practical like, hey, listen, I know that there's some things you've got going on, and I really want to figure out a way that we can work through this together in a way that's going to get the best for both of us, not going to be a headache for you,
not gonna be a headache for us. I'm confident we can do that, you know, just starting with a practical phrase like that to build that connection absolutely, you know, you look at it another source.
Oh go ahead, No, I'm.
Saying that that makes sense because a lot of time should throw it into situations and you know, every company is different. I work in the media and what do you folks do? Do you go around and meet with management of companies? How do you what do you do to support yourself? Obviously I'm going to suggest that people might want to read the book that you've written, Oh for sure.
Yeah.
So we work with firms all over the world. So we've got global clients and work with managers and leaders to equip them with really practical leadership management tools so they're able to help their teams achieve really good breakthrough transformational results while they also create a climate where people grow and thrive. And so that's really what our work is and we help organizations to do that.
How long you've been doing this? This is this a new venture post post covid or have you been around for a long time?
Over a decades?
So I've been at this since twenty long time.
That's a long time. And you find that most people are at least willing to hear listen to you or hear you out.
You know, there's a wide variety out there, and we're very up fun about it. I say, listen, if you consider yourself a human centered leader and you are wanting those skills, then we're here for you. We can get real practical, we can help you do that. Some people aren't interested in that, and that it's okay, we're not for them. No, not everyone's for everyone, so that's all right.
What percentage of, however, you want to describe people as leaders, whether you're talking about the CEO at the top of the company or the middle management person or the person, what percentage of people do you think realize that you're going to get more out of a worker if you give them a compliment or a pat on the back as opposed to a kick in the butt.
You know, it's very interesting. I would say that there is on one level, let's make it ninety five percent. And here's why I would say that is because you ask anybody what works for you, which would you rather have? Yeah, of course, and the majority of people are gona say, yeah, I'd rather have the compliment. You know, I don't I want to get kicked in the button in negative way. I mean I like a little pressure, like a little uh, you know, elevate me, make me better, sure, but I
don't need that to be negative. Most people are going to say that, yeah, Well.
It's it's like the pitching coach that walks out to the mound after you've just given up a three run home run. Uh. And the first word is you know what you throw them the slider for? You know, I mean you didn't do it on purpose.
You know, I mean they don't feel bad already.
Yeah, that's exactly. And and I carry that analogy onto onto a workplace environment. You know, go out there and see the pitcher and say, hey, man, tough one. You know, tough one, don't worry. You gave us six good innings. You know, hit the showers. We'll take it from here.
Uh.
The guy's going to walk off the mound feeling a lot different. And if you compare that to work, I mean, there's a million interactions in workplaces and you can either be negative and then basically put people down or you can try to lift them up. So I love everything that you've said, David, tell us about the book and how can people get it?
Absolutely.
The book's called Powerful Phrases for dealing with the Workplace of Conflict. We have over three hundred phrases, specific words you can use to start those conversations. All it's going to be super productive. It's available anywhere books are sold. So if you like audio, or you listen to the radio, so you like audio, my partner and I read that book together, and so where the authors and you can get that directly from us if you like audio. But it's available
anywhere books are sold. And if you want to find out more about us, you can go to let's Grow leaders dot com and we've got a bunch of different resources there, including a free discussion guide that's download anybody who can get that, and you can walk through how to use these phrases, how to have these productive conversations yourself at work and guide your team through it. And you can do that all on your own. That's available free at the website.
Sounds great at Amazon, I'm sure the book is available. The other thing which I want you to know is we post these interviews. My producer will explain to you, but we'll be posting our interview on our website nightside on demand, and you can get this anytime tomorrow. Put it down, put it up on your website, shirt with however many people you like. It's a nice seven eight minute interview which explains your organization. I hope, I know you did a great job and it I hope I
help you a little bit along the way. But stay there and Rob will tell you how easy it is to pull it down off of our website Nightside on Demand sometime probably anytime after two three o'clock tomorrow morning. Rob posts them up after midnight.
Okay, appreciate it, Dan, thank you so much.
Appreciate it whole lot. We get back on to talk about sharks in the North Shore. No, not land sharks, sharks in the ocean. The water is a little more a little colder up north of the city than it is down on the other side of the cape. So we'll try to find out what's going on. Going to talk with John Chisholm from the New England Aquarium. Great location. He's involved. He's a scientist for me Wig Aquarium who's involved in He studies sharks. A lot of people study sharks.
Back on Nightside, stay right with us. Coming back right after this. Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World Night six Studios on w b Z News Radio. Well, all of us in New England know a lot about sharks, but probably no one knows as much about sharks as John Chisholm. He's a scientist at the New England Aquarium and he studies sharks. John, Welcome to Nightside.
How are you, sir, good Dan? How are you?
I'm doing great. Look, my kids have a shark tivity, so we follow the sharks like they follow the sharks like most people follow the stock market or the Red Sox red Sox standing which has not been good recently. So what's going on sharks on the north Shore? I'm going to take a guess, but I'm assuming it's a little rarer up to because the water's colder off our
lovely north shore that it is off the cape. Is that a factor in the fact that they're migrating and maybe coming up a little further north than they normally.
Would Actually, No, they people, You've.
Just proven I know nothing about That's it. Go ahead.
There's a lot of different shark species and some of them are expanding their range because of warming waters. But white sharks are one of the species that actually prefer temperate waters. They like the sixty degrees sixty to mid sixties. That's really their their preferred water temperature, and that's what we have right now up off the north shore. But a lot of people are surprised with the activity this week to learn that there are white sharks in the area.
But every year we see white shucks in that area this time. If you go on the Atlantic White Shuck Conservancy website and you look at their their log book, you can see that it shows all the receivers over
the years that have detected sharks. You can look at the receivers up on the north Shore and in Cape Card Bay and you see September is the time that we start to get more activity, and that that's why if you've been following shar activity you can see that throughout Massachusetts and New England, September is one of the peak months for activities. So we always warn people, you know, b sharks smart. A lot of people just think of it as a Cape Card thing, but it's it's an
actual Atlantic Ocean thing. So if you're going to you're going to the beach in Massachusetts or New England, even up in the Canada, you know, you have to be aware that that's white shark habitat and this is the peak time of year for activities.
So this is so obviously you need to be concerned about it. But this is not a new development that it sounds to me like this is just part of the ocean seasons as it goes from the coldest waters in the spring through maybe the best waters. Many people say the best time to swim in the ocean off of Cape Cod is in September or October in terms of if you want warmer water.
Right, that's spot on. Even though the water the air temperatures are dropping in the fall, it's actually when we have the warmer water. So a lot of people do go to the beach still through September, but they just don't realize that they're also swimming with the sharks who also like that water. But it in the case of us sightings in the past week up off the north shore,
it is a spike in activity. We do have sharks, like I said, every year up there, especially this time of year, but we haven't seen the numbers like we have in the past couple of weeks. And we also know which doesn't get as much coverage. But there's been a lot of blue fin tuna up there, there's been a lot of whale sightings. There's been other sharks as well, like ploor biago sharks and macro shocks, so that's an indication that there's a lot of productivity going on in
that area. The water conditions are right, the food is there, so the sharks are there.
So oftentimes when there's anything that like this, some folks will say, well, it must be climate change. This is not something that is a negative thing necessarily. When you say productivity, I think what you're saying is that the sharks are having more time and spending time with one another and nature happens.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely as much as some people may be scared about it, you don't have to be scared, you just need to be aware. But it's a good thing. It's a sign that, you know, we have good water, we have a lot of food prey items for the sharks and other fish, and there's any fishermen can tell you. You know, every year fishermen try to find the best fishing spot and every year it changes depending on how the conditions
set up. A couple of years ago off of Plymouth was you know, great, same thing going on, a great water tempters, a lot of bait fish, a lot of productivity. We saw a lot of tuna, whales and sharks. So it's you know, it happens every year. You know, the conditions set up in different places, and I think that's what we're seeing this year up off the north shore is the sharks are there every year, but this year the conditions are just really good for them to be an abundance up there right now.
Okay, So I got a couple of other questions. One and if you and I had been living here one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, and we had all of the tracking capacity that you and other professionals in the New England Aquarium have, would have this been pretty much considered. You know, this is what has been going on for a long time. This is not something that has just popped up in the last couple of years. That's that's the sense I'm getting from you.
Yeah, we know because white sharks have been protected since nineteen ninety seven, and also they're their food has been protected the seals since nineteen seventy two, that we are seeing in increase in numbers. But if you go back through history, and the best example I can give you is Henry David Threaux and his book Tape Cod He writes about white sharks off of Wellfleet, So we know
they were there, you know, and even further back. If you go into Native American more archaeological digs, yeah, you can find white shark teeth. So you know they were always here and now we're seeing a resurgence thanks to the protections that they've been afforded. But they've always been they've been here before us.
Excellent, That's that's great news. My last question is when the weather really turns in November. Well, the sharks that we're seeing off either the north or the cape, how far back seal did they drift for the winter.
Well, they go further than even we thought. So one of the shocks, we have a shock if you go on the Shocktivity app and your kids can probably tell you all about her. We have a shock named Wee Beth that was tagged by Captain Chip, Mike Love and Megan Linton from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy off of South Carolina. Over the winter. That shock went all the way to Mexico, came back along the Gulf Coast, made a tour of the Eastern seaboard, and is currently on
the west side of Prince Edward Island, Canada. So they travel pretty far. And I mean, like we've been talking about, it's all about you know, comfortable water temperatures. They like their preferred water temperatures and the availability of food so well.
I know that they have a seal buffet down off the cape on Montamoy Island because I've been out there looked at that. That is if you love seal, you know. It's like some people go to the salad the buffet and they love shrimp and they'll put twenty shrimp on their plate. The sharks love seal, and that's where they had their seal buffet. John, I really enjoyed this conversation. I don't know a lot about it, but you have taught me a lot in a brief period of time.
The New England Aquarium is just great. I hope you guys are doing well there, and I hope any family that has kids who are young, it is one of the best places to bring young kids, particularly as they're just coming of age six, seven, eight, nine years old. Perfect just to open their eyes to the to the rest of the world. John, have a great, great last well, I guess the last half weekend of summer.
Okay, all right, all right, thanks Dan, You're very welcome.
John. Thanks again. We get back right after the news we're going to introduce you to a new trend. I know you're not going to believe this one, but this is true and there's a reason for it. There are people out there who eating dirt. Yeah, believe it or
not eating dirt. My name's Dan Ray. And again, if you missed any of our interviews here during the eight o'clock newscast during the eight o'clock hours, I should say any week going back now for over a year, you can just go to Nightside on demand dot com and you just roll up your back. So if you just missed this, this will be posted by Rob sometime tonight, probably after midnight one o'clock or so. So I should have told John Chisholm. He also can pull this down
for the New England Aquarium. If you're listening, John, you can pull it down for the New England Aquarium and post it on New England Aquarium's webpage. And you did a great job. You're a great spokesperson. Take advantage of that opportunity. It's free and it's there for the asking. We're coming back on night Side right after the news at the bottom of the hour. And if you listen to WBZ Boston, here on ten thirty the AM dial.
And if for whatever reason you're in a car and you start to lose us, well open up your your laptop or whenever you want and just pull down iHeartRadio and just go to WBZ News Radio on the iHeartRadio app. It's as simple as that. On your tablet, on your uh, your laptop, on your desktop. We're available so many different ways, and we try to make it easy. Coming back on Nightside and we will talk about eating dirt for healthy reasons. Believe it or not, It's Night with.
Boston's News Radio.
This is a story that some of you might not believe, but that's okay. It's a new health trend that is going on right now. Eating dirt.
Yeah.
Yeah, Remember when your mother used to say to you, I'll go out and play in the yard and get your hands a little dirty or whatever, and it's okay, good for you. You build up some immunity to germs. I guess with us is Adrian Hernandez. Adrian Hernande is a registered dietitian and nutritionist. Adrian, Welcome to Night Side. How are you.
I'm great? How are you Dan?
I'm doing fine. You know, I'm surprised by this, but I'm not stunned. But when I think about it for a second, I think to myself, no, you are. You're surprised, and you're stunned. What's going on here? I mean, this doesn't sound like something that makes a lot of sense. It's like carrying something a little bit overboard. But I guess young people are doing this TikTok users. Are they doing this as a is a challenge or are they doing it to improve their health? What's going on?
So I think it's actually been happening for quite some time. I think TikTok has just started to trend with it, probably because one person shared when I was looking at TikTokers that were posting about it, they were actually older individuals, not just young individuals, and they were talking about it. And so eating dirt is actually known as geology, and it's been practiced for thousands of years across many cultures in Asia, Africa, and Americas. So they've used it traditionally
for spiritual, cultural or medicinal practice. But nowadays we don't have the same kind of of dirt or the same kind of environment. Right, So to your point that you know, our parents used to tell us a little dirt never hurt. Exposure to environmental bacteria, especially during like the first thousand days of life, can definitely be beneficial for developing a robust immune system. But that's not a green light to
start eating dirt. It's about balanced exposure to a variety of bacteria in or environment.
But by note, I mentioned you when your mother said, or what someone to say to you, it's okay, you said it. The first thousand days. That's the first three years of life. So you're saying time they are born until three they're out in the backyard, they're making mud pies or something like that, you know, playing in just exploring exactly true, does that help them build the immunity?
In fact, it does.
So you look at research that looks at children with a lot of allergies. Number one, it comes from you know, genetics can definitely play a role, but also the environment in which they grow up in. You know, where they are on significant amount of antibiotics, where they premature baby with complications, did they live in a really sterile environment where they didn't have the opportunity to really allow their bodies to become resilient.
Well, yeah, for example, as you were telling me that I was thinking to myself, if some kid grew up on a farm in Kansas and another kid the same health, you know, they both relatively healthy or healthy kids, and the other kid grew up on the west side of the East Side of Manhattan and lived in a you know, with his family in a condominium on the thirty fourth flour it very really actually his feet hardly ever touched the ground in the first three years. That's a whole
different experience. So what you're telling me, I think what I'm hearing you say, and if I'm wrong, is that the three year old who grows up on the farm in Kansas probably is going to have a better immunity system at the age of three than the little kid who grew up living in the condominium in Manhattan. Am I following you?
Well?
Not necessarily, because bacteria lives all over in our environment. And if there's anything we learned from COVID, you know, you touch your face, how many times a day you have germs all over your hands? Right, So it's one thing if you live in a really, really sterile environment where maybe your parents are constantly keeping things clean or constantly washing your hands, and you're not allowed to call on the floor and you.
Know your okay, So let's come back to who's eating dirt and what type of dirt are they eating? This is going to get commercialized. I gotta I gotta believe it that they're not people to go out in the backyard and you know, take your take a tea spoone and go out and have a couple of spoonfuls of dirt on top of your chocolate ice cream.
I assume exactly. I I really believe that the individuals that are craving dirt actually may have micronutrient deficiencies. There's actually a condition called pika p i c a where people crave non food items like dirt, clay, or even paint chips, and it's actually related to micronutrient deficiencies like iron, zinc, and calcium, which are found in soil.
Paint chips. People want to eat paint chips. What do they have a lead deficiency?
It's quite it's quite wild.
I'm just saying that we always say don't eat you know, kids eat paint. They get there's there's amount of there's some lead and paint. So do you think this is gonna be will there be finally some Hollywood actor or actress who's going to break through. You know, it's one thing to be on TikTok, But do you think that we're gonna see some I don't know people, magazine, story or whatever where someone's gonna say, oh, yeah, I eat dirt all the time, you know, four or five times
a week just to keep me healthy. Do you think it's gonna break out like that or is there something that's a little fad that's gonna gonna you know, grow and then disappear.
I mean, I honestly hope not. You know, dirt can also have a lot of things like animal secs, bacteria like E. Coli, parasite, a lot of heavy metals.
It's nuts.
So will it be will there be some company or is there already some company out there that's packaging dirt and saying this is good dirt to eat. As are we at that point? I don't know.
So based on what I was looking at, it looks like they're recommending organic biodynamic soil, which is essentially compost, so it's commercially sold, but individuals are not using it for gardening. I guess they're using it to ingest, so I definitely could imagine that there are some vendors probably selling dirt, but you really don't know what it actually contains, so, you know, so.
I'm not going to recommend to my listeners to go out this weekend and grab a scoop up a couple of handfuls of dirt, but there are people who are just ingesting dirt. Has the last question, has there been any sort of a study done of some sample size of individuals who over the last period of time, you know whatever. That time would be four years, five years, ten years, who have done this on a regular basis and they are dramatically healthier than most people of their age.
Are there any studies that you're aware of it? And I know I'm asking your questions that I don't know the answer to, which is what I do for a living. So if you don't know the answer, you could say, Dan, you got me on that one, go ahead.
No, not not at all.
Actually, I haven't seen any studies when looking at you know, my resources. Eating dirt might be trending, but it's definitely not safe or an effective way to address your nutrient needs. So talking to your doctor or consulting with a dietitian. If you are craving odd things like dirt or clay, to really take a look at you know, what is the reason why.
Well, Adrian, that's the best answer that anyone could give, and I thank you for that answer. For me, the only thing I crave is dark chocolate and on weekends course lights and I hope that you know in moderation those those both work. I thank you so much of your time. I've really enjoyed talking with you. As Rock told you, you could pull this down on your website. How can folks get in touch with you or how can folks learn more about your work?
Yeah, so I see patients on the East Coast. I'm based in Washington, d C. I'm an insurance base practice and I focus on complex GI conditions and autoimmune disease. They can go to my website at ah nutrition dot com to schedule an appointment or get in touch with me.
Sounds great, Adrian, I really enjoyed talking it. I learned a lot from this conversation. I thank you very much for your time.
Thanks so much, have a good weekend.
Welcome we come back. Everyone up in our neck of the woods here knows about the tops Field Fair has been around for a while. We're going to talk with James O'Brien. He's the general manager of the tops Fields Fair. There's some ticket scams going on and we want to alert you to the feared. I don't think opens. I think it runs from October fourth until October fourteenth this year. This is one you want to pay attention to, particularly if you've got to be going up to the fair.
I want to make sure you buy your tickets to get in and that those tickets do get you in. So we'll be talking with James O'Brien of the top Feel Fair. Right after this break quick break on Nightside. Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios, i' WBZ News Radio. All right back here for our last eight pm interview for this week. We're going to talk with James O'Brien. He is the general manager of the tops Field Fair. Now everybody in New
England knows about the tops Field Fair. Jim O'Brien, welcome to Nightside.
How are you hey?
Very good? Thank you, Dan, glad to be on.
Well, I'm delighted to have you on. My producer told me today that you're a regular listener, which makes you my favorite guest of the night at this point.
Hey, every night we try to watch. When I'm in the cod traveling from work, I always listen to you, so thank you. It's always interesting.
So, first of all, the tops Field Fair has been going on here in New England. How many years?
Two and six?
Okay, I'll ask you, the oldest fear in America to continually run.
Okay, So it has some staying power. That's a good thing. And this year is going to run from October fourth to October warteen, okay, So it's eleven days of just great family fun and as wonderful as it is, everybody knows about, everybody knows where it is. It is a great, great event that everyone looks for you. This is like the perfect time of the year, great weather, we hope,
and all of that. But you got a little bit of a ticket scam going on up there, and you're coming on tonight to make kind of a public service announcement to make sure that none of the folks who are coming your way and going to buy tickets at the top Fee Fair are going to get scammed. Tell us about it.
Yeah, So Wednesday night we got a phone call from a patron that was asking us about an expensive ticket to come to the fair, and we said, that's absolutely not right. The only ticket that people should be buying is on topsofear dot org. What happened was is we have shows, we have three Dog Night, we have thirty eight Special, we have Bandy and Tay, we have Rodeo. Well it's all with your admission. They were trying to actually sell those as separate tickets on an illegal website.
When you come to the top so Fear and you buy an entry ticket, which right now are on sale for fifteen dollars, is a prefare. It's twenty dollars once we open. But those concerts and other places around New England, you'd pay fifty sixty dollars to go to those concerts. So I guess that's how they got the idea that these shows were worth that kind of money. But absolutely nobody should be paying that kind of money for tickets. It's not right, it's fraudulent and we absolutely do not
want people to lose their money. As you mentioned, Top of Fiels been around a long time and we're very proud of the fact that we can put it on a quality family entertainment for not a whole lot of money.
Oh that sounds like the best ticket in town for sure. So how do you get You get some pretty good musicians here. What do you have a little bit? You must have a pretty good sized stage. I assume tell us about tell about just about the music, and then we'll get into some of the other attractions.
Yeah, so our music. We have a grandstand area. Again, there's no additional chots to come to any of our grandstand shows. The first weekend we have the Dog Dogs, which doesn't sound like much, but I'll tell you it's a really fun event where people bring in their own dogs and they jump into a pool and they chase some It's really exciting and fun. I myself saw it at Different Fears, and I wasn't too overly impressed, be
honest with you. But after seeing it and the kids and everybody having fun with it, it's just a great and that's a great grandstand thing. But for us, on Wednesday night we have three Dog Night, Three Dog Night. If you go online, yeah, they're selling tickets for all kinds of money. You don't have to pay that kind of money. You come to Top Field Fear for your admission fee.
That's it.
You go see our shows. All of our shows are on rounds, which we're running five stages NonStop all day long. Are free with admission. There is no additional charges to come to Fear. If you want to buy something, you want to buy that exotic food. Do you want to buy something like that, that's different, or if you want to ride the rides, that's different. But your admission, all your entertainment is included in your admission.
To take us behind the scenes a little bit, do you guys prepare all year round for the fair or do you ramp up sometime in you know, July and August and all of that give us just a little sense of the preparations that you that you have to show.
It takes it takes me eighteen months to run one fear. It takes us eighteen months to plan it. We have to plan that fire out. We have three hundred employees while we're open, and we have almost eight hundred volunteers that make our Fear work. We have thirty six different departments. We have over twenty five entries between animals, crafts, quilts, flowers, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, almost anything you can think of, goat, sheeps, horses,
but that generates all you long. It takes all you long to plan the Fear, and people have to prepare ahead of time. It's not something they whip up in two weeks. It's something they've been working on for a long time.
And how long have you been doing this yourself? Is this a lifelong career?
I have to say it probably is. I work thirty years for Brooksby Farm and Peebety, which is a lodge apple orchid, and then I've been general manager of the Fear for eighteen years. So yeah, I've been in agriculture all my life. I've been involved with growing and part of agriculture. You know, it's a natural thing for me personally, Me and my family, we've always been part of agriculture. We've always been part of either the growing end or this end. Working with all our friends and neighbors that
come to the fair and take part. I mean, it's an exciting time of year for all of us, and it's a very exciting time for me personally as I get an opportunity to see all these people that come to the fair, either as a customer or as a patron or a guest, or is somebody that enters something every year. So it's really a community event.
So we draw between I got a question.
Okay, it's a great event. Okay, has it it's normally about ten days? Have you ever thought about running it longer? Or does it? Does it lose you know, being as special as it is if you ran it, let's say for two weeks, as opposed to ten days or three weeks. Explain the timing.
Yeah, so the biggie right now is running and they run over three weeks. But for us, eleven days is enough. I'll be honest with you. Exhausted at the end of eleven days, Yeah, you know, and eleven days allows again uppers over five hundred thousand people come through our gates over that time frame. I'm not so sure if we dragged it out, it would just be the same five hundred thousand people over more days or.
A point of diminishing returns. It's almost like, you know, Saint Patrick's Day, If if you had Saint Patrick's Day ten days a year, it wouldn't be special on March on March seventeenth.
Right, And I mean one of the things too, is that's really primary to us to hear at the Fear is that we make sure that if you show up on the first day, the first hour, and you show up on the last day, on the last hour, that the Fear looks exactly the same, that it's clean, sanitary, and all our displays look good. How flowered a pot it flips three times during the course of the Fear. To make sure that all our plants are healthy and look fantastic on day one and on day eleven.
Oh that sounds great.
Same thing. You know, we just spend it. We're really taking to pride that we want to make sure that you don't have to come on the first day to see the best display, because if you come on the last day, I'm going to make sure that display is perfect.
You sound like somebody. You sound like somebody who throws your heart and soul into it. I want to say a perfectionist, but some people look at that word, but you know it's you're always going to put on a good show. Jim O'Brien, thank you so much for the hard work. And on behalf of everybody who's going to be up there this year. They're looking forward to it. I wish you all the best with some great weather, that's for sure. Thanks Jim, thank you very much.
The weather everything, okay, thank you.
All right, we get back when we talk about a dispute at Boston City Hall overflying is IF Israeli flag to commemorate the horrific massacre by Hamas on October seventh.
Believe it or not, that is a controversy at Boston City Hall. We will explain to you why. We'll talk with City Councilor Ed Flynn and also my great friend Jeff Robbins. And this is a This is a very interesting story if you're interested in the issue of Israel and American support for that set upon country. Back after this on Nightside,