It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Delabs, Boston's news radio.
I would put that in the category of a surprise. I would have thought Bill Belichick would want to have coached in the pros again and become the all time winniest NFL coach. Interesting back to school for Bill Belichick. Nicely presented there as a breaking news Nicole. Wow. Interesting, that's one we'll maybe talk about some night, if not tonight. Later on this week, my name is Dan Ray and
the host of Knightside. We have our Nightside News Update coming up, which is a Paul Prie of interesting stories. May not be the biggest news stories of the day, but they are all interesting oftentimes stories, particularly this time of year, about folks who are doing positive things. A little bit later on tonight, we're going to talk about pot cafes coming to Massachusetts, not next week, not next month,
but certainly probably some next year. Well, then we're going to ask the question about whether or not jaywalking should be legalized in Massachusetts, and if we get some time later tonight, we're going to push for keeping AM radios in automobiles, which is important, I think to most talk show hosts and also important to most drivers who listen to talk shows on AM radios while they are driving their cars. But we will begin first tonight with a
really feel good story. A couple I believe they're from Wilmington. I'm ready to be corrected on that. By the way, Bob and Pat Kuker Coach for Kids program that have donated thousands of winter coach to children and teens through the Salvation Army across the city of Boston with us is Bob Kuker and Bob I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly.
It's a little unusual, but it's keeeker, like you put a keenan door.
Keeker. Okay, well I was looking at the Okay, the vowels, but that's okay, Keeker. We got it right. Okay. Finally, thank you very much, I said, I thought in reading, you're a couple from reading, not Wilmington. I don't know why. I said Wilmington reading very close, but a couple from reading. So tell us about this idea. How did it all start? As I understated that you provided coats through this program to thousands of kids over the past few years. Tell us about it.
Well, when my wife and I decided to retire. Our daughter lived in Stoneham and so we wanted to move up to be closer to our grandkids. So as we moved up here, I started asking God that he would give us a program, some kind of a project where we would be able to have impact in the lives of people and at the same time involve other people in that project. So we went to a local church one evening looking to get involved. We went to Grace Chapel and they had.
The well known church in our area here, that's for sure.
Yes, Well Pastor Doug Whalen at the time was taking a bunch of people down to the Salvation Army Christmas Castle. They used to hold a Christmas Castle in the Armory building and they would give out new toys, two new toys for every child and a used coat. So my wife and I went down. We volunteered to go down, and as the day wore on, they started running out of coats, and then the coats that they had weren't
exactly of the highest quality. So when we came home that night, my wife said to me, you know, if we to make our money go as far as possible, if we waited until the first of the year to buy you to buy new coats on sale. We could make an impact that way. So we sought some counsel from the Salvation Army saying, hey, is this okay? And Pastor Doug Whalen said, yeah, by all means, go let's
see what happened. So that first year we set a goal of providing twenty five coats, and we reached out to some family and friends and we wound up getting fifty coats. So the second year we said, well, God gave us fifty coats in their first year, I mean twenty fifty and we only asked for twenty five. So this year we're going to ask for one hundred, and we got two hundred. And that's when we realized this
could really take off. So we continued to reach out to family and friends and involving people in the project, and over the years it just kept getting bigger and bigger to where this passed August. The Salvation Army has decided two years ago that they instead of giving the coats out at Christmas time, but when it's already been cold, and this year has been one of those years where at night he gets very cold, so when you wake
up in the morning it's not warm. So they decided that they would start giving the coats out at PD Garden to their back the School event in August.
So this year we.
Went to the TV garden and we wound up giving out over three thousand coats.
So in total, I'm sure you have a running total. How many years have you done this and how many coats have you been able to distribute?
I think we're probably over seven thousand, and.
How many years have you been running the program? Six or seven years at least.
I assume we've been doing it for six years.
That's quite content is.
But we're already collecting donations for next year because we do it one year in advance, and we do that so that the coats can be given out in August at the beginning of the school year.
So if folks would like to help you, what's the easiest way they can participate? Contribute? Be involved? However you want to describe it, Bob. What how can they get a contact? Do you have a website? Tell us how people can reach out to you.
They can go to the Salvation Army website Salvation ARMYMA dot org, Salvation armyma dot org and they can pay by check. Just make the check out to Salvation Army and in the memo line right coats for kids, and that money will go to buying coats. Or they can donate by credit card and they can go to the same website and there's a button in the upper right hand corner that says donate, and they just follow the prompts and at some point they're going to be asked
do you want to leave a comment? And you click on that and you say coats for kids, and then make sure you hit the save button and then that money is going to go for coats for kids. We managed to get connections with a vendor who gives us the coats at somewhere between eighteen seventeen and eighteen dollars a coat. So it's easiest for us if people donate money.
Yeah, so these are all new coats. You made that decision early on, and so it is, yes, an opportunity for people to Probably the easiest thing is to write a check, but if you're good at navigating the Salvation Army website, that's easy as well. Bob Keeker, thanks very much, thank you wife for this program. You said you moved up here, are you not Massachusetts natives or were you living outside the state before you decided to come up.
I'm actually from Wisconsin and my wife is an Air Force brat, and we spent twelve years in Germany and then we spent thirty years down in Washington, DC. And I am a golfer and when it came time to retire, I thought we either going to stay down there or going to move south. And my wife said, well, actually she'd like to live near our grandkids and they were up here. So I'm one of the few golfers who retirement.
Yeah, you're you're a snowbird who with the others towards the blizzards. Well, sometimes on a nice wintersday they have they have winter golf and the cape. I'm sure you can find some friends and get around or two in in January February, so you're all set for the golf season. Bob Keeker, thank you very much for what you've done for all of these kids across the Coomwal to the Massachusetts and thank you wife for us as well. Please, thank you.
I will do thank you all right.
When we get back, we're going to talk with Justin Burr. He's a trends expert on Google. I'm not sure if he works for Google or not. We'll find out, but we're going to find out what were the biggest number, what subjects, what issues were searched for the most throughout this year. He has all the stats, and we'll see if your searches line up with the searches of most other people. Back on nights On. My name is Dan Ray.
This is a Wednesday night. If you're driving out there, please be careful tonight because at different times it is coming down literally in pockets. This is all the rain we didn't get in September and October piled into one rainstorm here in December. But it'll all even out in the end, will be okay, but please be careful driving tonight. Listen to WBZ on Boston's news radio ten thirty or AM dial. You also can find us on the Night on the on the iHeart, not the Nightheart, the iHeart
app real simple, just downloaded. You can listen to a variety of iHeart stations, but most importantly WBZ three sixty five twenty four seven. My name is Dan Ray. Back on Nightside with our next guest right after this. Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio. All of us, I think, well most of us occasionally use Google to search for something, whether it's a news story or whether it's some item we might like to buy with us is Justin Burr's
a Google trends expert? Justin do you work for Google or do you do this on your own?
I work at Google. Yeah?
Okay, well I figured you'd have to have access to all this information. How many Google searches are performed every year? Is it really in the truths?
Trillions?
In the trillions? Yeah, it's a lot.
And how do you you know? I know how political posters try to figure out how elections are going to go. They they pick a sample size and a thousand people. You can figure out pretty much how the country's going if you balance it correctly. Do you folks monitor the searches or do you have just a sense of the subjects that are searched most frequently?
Yeah? Well, you know, anybody can look at this data. You can go to trends dot Google dot com and you can see what's trending in your region in real time historical trends. So anybody can look at this stuff. It's not like we've got any secret data. But what we do for the Year in Search is we look at anonymized aggregate trends, so nothing is tied back to a specific individual. We don't know what you're searching for. It's all anonymized. But we're looking specifically for what made
twenty twenty four unique related to other years. So for example, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, those types of individuals, they're always trending, but they're not on our Year in Search twenty twenty four list because we want to paint a picture of what is unique to this year. So we're looking for spikes and a lot of specific interest in these three hundred and sixty five days.
Okay, so let's have at it. I'm going to take a guest that Donald Trump must have spiked in twenty twenty four RZ in that category, the Taylor Swift Beyonce category, where he's always going to be there anyway.
Yeah, it's good, it's no, you are spot on. He was the number one searched person in twenty twenty four in Kamala Harrison number two, and then jd Vance and Joe Biden rounding up top four. So yes, I think you're spot on. What twenty twenty four was an extremely political driven year and that was reflected in the search interest So all four of those individuals tons of search interests compared to other years.
But we say, you said Trump, Harris JD. Vance, and the fourth.
Was which is Joe Biden? Yep?
What about two walls?
He came into number six actually right behind Catherine, Princess of Wales.
We had some medical she had some medical problems, right, m Yeah, So so that I guess would would would make sense. Was there one that you just didn't expect? I mean, it sounds to me like you might have had a pretty good inkling on this is Was there something that uh, you know, it was so hot for like three weeks it was able to maintain itself, but we've forgotten about it already, if you know what I'm saying.
I think so the one that I want that I point back to here is the number one searched athlete, Mike Tyson, which I you know, he fought Jake Paul last month and bought things. But that one's so surprising because like if you would have thought three years ago, if you were like, I wonder what the number one trending athlete in twenty twenty four is going to be.
No one is picking Mike Tyson. But because of that fight, he drove a lot of search interest and yeah, it's crazy to think that he was the number one trending athlete this year.
All right, that's that's interesting. So I assume that because we have eleven and a half months done, these these figures and these individuals or these topics are pretty much locked in what was there a topic? It seems to me that obviously we're talking in all these categories individuals, was there a topic that perhaps uh was also what was the top trending topic? If if if you if you have that?
Yeah, we kind of broke things down into more sort of subtopics, and I think one of the most surprising ones is we have different categories for Internet theories. We have different categories for trend meaning in an also aesthetic, and we make those categories because we're seeing strong search interests amongst those categories. So, for example, in the Internet theory category, we have the burnt toast theory, the orange
peel theory, the October theory. I don't know if you know what any of those things are, but they were very strong on social media.
And that case, I'm assuming the October theory is it will there be an Octoba surprise?
What is what does that mean?
An Octoba surprise is what political people are always saying up as they run up to an election, They'll be an October surprise. So obviously, what what was the theory of October? Since if it wasn't.
Politically Yeah, that is an interesting that's an interesting one. Okay, yeah, no, it's not that. So the October theory is, how so it's saying that October is a better month for you to like that reflections and set new Year's resolutions, rather than doing that right before January first, because then you have the pressure of Christmas and then you have the pressure of the new year. But October is a better month for that sort of reflection.
What was the orange theory?
Yeah?
The orange peel theory is also it looks at how your romantic partner is able to take on small tasks for you and then their representation of longevity related to that. So, for example, if you ask your partner to peel an orange for you and they say yes, they'll do that, then that is a good indication of longevity there. But if they're not willing to peel an orange for you and for some sort of a small task like that, maybe it's an indication to get out of there.
Interesting And what was the first theories? I know that was the third and the second? What was the first one?
Yeah, the first one was the burnt toast theory.
And okay, okay, so what's the I'm all layers on this one, go ahead justin okay.
So this one is in the morning, you're getting ready for work, you're getting ready for your day or whatever, you accidentally burn your toast and you have to make new toasts. So that then sets your day back like two to three minutes. And then what cascade of events would that have in terms of the rest of your day. And it's pointing back towards a positivity that set that that sets in motion. Maybe you run into an old friend or you meet somebody that changes the rest of
your day. So there's some sort of thing to say around like maybe some sort of minor inconvenience in the morning can actually be a positive throughout the day.
Well, boy, that that is that's like the old glasses half full or or half full or totally you know, half full glass positive? How do you describe it? That's interesting. I would assume they would have said burnt toast cost me three minutes more to do my toast. I missed four red lights that I normally hit in succession. Uh, and my day went downhill from there, sort of like a waterfall. So I didn't even understand that, But you didn't understand the October surprise. So hey, we're even justin now,
or even check with me a year from now. I'll give you some I'll give you some trends.
But we could we could talk.
I think I think both of us have some some some common interest and some disparate interest. And if I could be of help, let me know. I'm always looking to help out Google. Okay, it's just it.
Hey, thanks so much. I appreciate it, very very much.
Appreciate your time. You're good sport. Thanks so much. When we get back, we're going to talk about a positive for Boston, Boston recognized upcoming amongst the butt best hospitals from maternity care. Those of you who might be expecting a the stork to stop by, as we say, we're going to talk with a health data scientist about the studies, which I believe is based in US News and World Report. We'll talk about that, and then on our final subject this hour is going to be people wanting to spread,
to celebrate or spend Christmas alone. Going to talk with Sidney Page of the Washington Post. So stay with us. We're going to get to our talk talk topics right after the nine o'clock news, But first we have the eight thirty at the bottom of the hour.
It's night Side with.
Boston's News Radio.
Delighted to welcome Jennifer Winston, Doctor Jennifer Winston. She is going to talk about a new study that suggests that some of the best maternity hospitals in the world are right in our backyard. Doctor Winston. Welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Thank you? I'm great. How are you now?
Did you conduct the study or were you involved? You are You're You're not a physician, but you're a health data scientist. Were you involved in this study or are we talking about the US News and World Report a story from that recently appeared.
Yeah, so I am a health data scientist at US News and World Report, and it is yes, it is US. So we are the ones that collected the data and did this analysis, and we are really happy to announce the four hundred and fourteen hospitals that we recognized as best hospitals for maternity care this year.
Now, dumb question, but how many hospitals in the country have maternity care? I mean, I'm just curious how selective a figure of four hundred and fourteen is.
It's pretty selective. There are over two thousand hospitals that provide maternity care throughout the country. Those eight hundred and seventeen participated in the survey this year. That's an all time high for US. And so then of those eight hundred and seventeen, we recognized just about half as best hospitals from eternity care.
So how are we doing here in New England? Even more specifically within the greater Boston area.
Boston area is doing great. There are six hospitals best hospitals from maternity care in the larger Boston area. Boston Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Melrose Wakefield Hospital in Boston and then Wentworth A. Douglas Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire were all recognized as best hospitals from maternity care.
So with those the sixth that you introduced us to one in New Hampshire. Are there other hospitals in New England as well? Or is that number here in New England?
That is, there are others in New England. There are two others actually in Massachusetts South Coast Hospitals Fall River, New Bedford and Wareham and then also Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield are also best hospitals.
Well, the hospital that my wife and I had our children at was Newton Wellesley Hospital, which is a great hospital. Unfortunately, not interested in your group, but we're blessed to have all of these hospitals around. Is there at least one, you know, superior or one really exceptional maternity hospital in every state all fifty states?
I'm sure that there are. We are there. We do have some states that we haven't received hospital surveys from, Okay, so but we do. It is a nationwide survey and we do hope to continue to get more information about hospitals each year.
What are the standards that you're looking for? Are there some common characteristics that separate the good hospitals from the great hospitals or from the great hospitals from the good hospitals, I should say absolutely.
We collect data on a number of both outcome measures and then best practice measures, and there really is a pretty stark difference between the hospitals that we're recognizing as
high performing and the hospitals that didn't quite make that cut. So, for example, the hospitals that are recognized as best hospitals from Eternity Care have C section rates that are on average twenty two percent lower than unrecognized hospitals and severe unexpected newborn complication rates that are forty four percent lower
than unrecognized hospitals. They're also more likely to get in these best practices, so they're forty seven percent more likely to be designated as baby friendly, which indicates that they're taking important steps to support breastfeeding. And they are more likely to be reporting data on whether they have any disparities by race and ethnicity, which is really important to trying to bridge those gaps.
So those are some of the categories where the qualifications are a determined I guess, and is there one hospital in this group at the top of the list, whether it's in New England or not, that should be recognized tonight, we're heard in about thirty eight states, most states east of the Mississippi River. I don't know if you've ranked these hospitals from one to four hundred and seventeen or whatever the number is, but is there one that is head and shoulders above all the rest.
We don't actually rank hospitals for best hospitals from Eternity Care, but they do. All the hospitals that we rate as best hospitals really have met these high standards, and we do provide that list hospital people throughout the country can look up on dot US news dot com to find a hospital near them and learn about the quality of the care that is being provided at that hospital.
And okay, so that website again give it to us a little bit more slowly. It's health go ahead.
Health Health dot usnews dot com.
Does US News Report. I don't want to be ignorant, but we also rely so much on computers these days. Does US World and News Report? Do they still publish a magazine, you know, every every month or every week that you can hold in your hand. Is it all online these days?
It is all online these days. For many, many decades, we were a print organization, but we have since switched to an online form of communication, and so we're online only these days.
And when was that switch? Maneam just because I've followed this, I see I've seen with Newsweek and Time and things like that. And I'm somebody who always loves the tech tile techtile feel of a magazine or a newspaper. Yeah, it's a little bit of old school here. When did you guys make that that switch? Was it abrupt or was it over some period of time.
I know that we were one of the first news organizations US nationwide news organizations to make that switch to all digital. I don't know off the top of my head what year it was, but I.
Assume that digital subscriptions are available or or do you or just get it through the through the website and then advertising support the Yeah.
Yeah, all information at health dot usnews dot com is free to the public. So anyone who wants to log in and check out the information we have there, that's information is all free.
That's great. These these sometimes are tough questions to ask because it's every every media, every aspect of the media business, whether it's in radio what I work or in television when I worked in for thirty years. We're all going through these various transitions, and certainly print journals newspapers are
going through the transitions as well. And I think it's best if people understand, because you know, there are there are people, young people who wouldn't remember you as World of News Report as a magazine, but I certainly did. And I was wondering if it if it was still available in you know, in actual pay per form, But now I know, and I thank you for that, and I thank you for providing all this information about the
best maternity hospitals. People can look it up, check it out, and pick that into consideration when they decide to have that that new member of the family and during twenty twenty five or beyond. Thank you so much, Jennifer, appreciate your call.
Thank you, talk to you again.
Okay, this is kind of an interesting one coming up at a well it's a forty seven now, so we're a minute or two late. We're going to talk with Sydney Page, she's a Washington Post journalist, about people wanting to celebrate Christmas alone. They love their family, but they just want to spend Christmas alone. I've got some interesting questions for I think a very interesting topic coming right up.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World.
Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
On the surface, this sounds like a sad story, but maybe not waiting to celebrate wanting to celebrate Christmas alone with a Sydney Page Washington Post journalist. Hi Sydney How are you tonight?
Hi?
Dan?
I'm good things. How are you?
This is an interesting story, tell us about it. These are not people who are necessarily anti Christmas on people who are saying bah humbug. This is people who just kind of want to, I guess, disassociate themselves from all of the family related activity that revolves around the holidays, and not only the Christmas but Hanka kwansa, et cetera during this time of year. Let's what did you find out? How'd you hook onto this story? It's interesting.
It was just an idea that came to me. I wondered about people who might be spending the holidays alone, and I started doing some digging online on social media and actually finding people who were kind of glamorizing the experience of a solo Christmas by choice. And I think that the key factor is by choice, and that's kind of what makes this not a sad story but in
fact sort of a joyful one. It's people who are empowered to do something that they know is going to be a better outcome for them than perhaps you know, and meeting up with families. There's a lot of pressure around the holidays, so I think that you know, a lot of people have decided I'm going to do what's good for me this year.
So what is the common end? I don't know how many folks you might have talked to. I saw when I read the article that there were people you talk to, but just sort of what's the commonality. I assume there might be some people who are restranged and just say I don't want to go through it again, and then maybe other people who are overwhelmed and have anxiety issues. Is there a commonality or no.
I think it was a mix of things. The majority of people I spoke with actually do have a very loving relationship with their families, so it wasn't a situation where they didn't want to have to be around, you know, certain family members. It was more so an amalgamation of stressors that we all experience around the holidays, and the pressure of travel and spending a lot of money on gifts. And I think also the proximity between Christmas and Thanksgiving.
A lot of people travel for Thanksgiving and then have to turn back around and travel yet again. It's another, you know, big expense, and so people kind of just get overwhelmed. And I think the common thread was wanting to just enjoy their own company, not wanting to have to pick up and move and go to a different location.
And I think that even for people who love their families, being in an environment where they're surrounded by family members for a long stretch of time who they haven't necessarily spent such a concentrated period of time with, you know, on a regular basis, that can be overwhelming. It can be stressful.
So people are just saying, no, you know.
It's funny when you use the phrase enjoy their own company. I understand what you mean, but it almost seems oxymoronic to say that you want to enjoy your own company alone, because the concept of enjoying company is with other people.
If you get my drift totally, well, I think, you know. I spoke to the social psychologist for the story, and she was explaining to me the difference between loneliness and solitude and how you know, we often conflate the two, but there really is a big difference, and solitude is actually quite a restorative important thing. Spending time with yourself is an important thing. And I think the key distinguisher
is choice. Is someone choosing to spend time alone. It is wholly different than someone who feels forced to spend time alone. And I think that, uh, you know, spend time alone at the holidays actually can be a really blissful and relaxing thing for people.
Is there any disparity between the genders here of the people who you found more males, more females, or kind of even more split? And again, I know that a scientific survey, I.
Guess yeah, So I can't give you a definitive answer there. I can't say I spoke with more women than men, but there were men as well, so it wasn't a huge disparity in terms of who I was able to
find who is choosing to spend Christmas alone? And also in the comment section on the on the article, one thing I've been really pleased to see, as a lot of people are saying, you know, I feel seen this is exactly how I've how I've approached the holidays for the last however many years, and it seems as though, and I can't know for sure, but it seems as though it's people of all genders and ages, and there's not really, uh, you know, major group that is feeling
this way. It sort of seems to be spread among many different people, So it's not just the female thing or a male thing. It seems to be everyone to an extent.
You mentioned earlier on the proximity of Thanksgiving, and you also mentioned travel. Is there a relationship between the travel How much of a factor is that? Meaning? I assume that if you're living in the same town as a lot of family members, you probably would be looked upon somewhat skeptically if you said, well, I'm not participating this year.
But if you live at the continent away or a couple thousand miles away, you can always say, gee, I just saw you guys, And as much as I'd love to come back, I don't want to go through the craziness of airports or train stations. Is there a geographical factor here?
Definitely?
I mean, I think that the three people who are featured in the article all have family members quite a way the way. For instance, one woman I interviewed, her name is Liz. She at the time last Christmas and the Christmas before she was living in DC. She's now in New York. Her family is all in San Francisco. So she goes to San Francisco for Thanksgiving and to then turn back around and go for Christmas, which is historically.
What she's done for many many.
Years, not only with a big financial dream, but also just the travel flog, especially at that time of year, is stressful.
So okay, my last question is the people who spend Christmas alone away from their families, what do they do? They do they just stay indoors that you know, and read a good book or what is the what's their practice on the Christmas Eve the Christmas Day? Are they all to themselves or do they go out and mix and mingle maybe in fro try to find other people who are who are spending the holiday alone.
Right, It depends on the person, And I think the whole idea is they're doing what they want. So it's very much individual preference. I spoke to one woman who is very much focused on self care. She takes back, she does yoga, she cooks, and does things that give
her pleasure and joy. I spoke with a man who took himself to a four course dinner all on his own on Christmas Eve, and another woman who booked herself a trip to New York City for the weekend, and she's just doing that by herself and going to shows and doing things there that she's excited to do. So it just it's totally a personal preference. But it seems as though people who are choosing to spend the holidays alone genuinely are doing it alone. They're not mingling out
with other people. They're kind of just doing what they want on their own.
All right, Well, there was the story about I think the New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers who goes off in these retreats by himself and was perceived as be kind of an odd thing to do. But maybe this is a trend. Thank you so much, Siddy, great to talk with you. I love your enthusiasm at the story. I love the fact that you figured it out and
this is a reported generated story. Uh. Again, I always knew there were people out there who probably were alone on Christmas, but I never thought of them of being alone intentionally and it opens up. It opens up I think my eyes and maybe some other people's eyes as well. Thanks so much for joining us.
Sydney, Thank you for having me. Take care, love it, love it.
Love it. They'll have you back. Thanks. All right, four interesting topics. We're done with the Nightside news update and we are on to the topics of the night and we're going to start off with pot cafes Merrick cannabis cafes, I guess are coming to Massachusetts. Are you excited or are you concerned? Back on Nightside right after the nine