A Healthy Conversation 2/22/26

Good morning. It is a healthy conversation. Steve Woods. Well, Steve's on the road, but that's okay. If you're feeling a little bit confused by that theme music, it is the theme from Bill Green's main because sitting right next to me in studio is... Bill Green of Bill Green's Maine. Welcome to a healthy conversation. Thank you, Jeff. And how nice to have a healthy, intelligent conversation these days. Oh, I know. I feel like the state of things has become... You're the newsman, a TV man. What's your take on the state of the media these days? Oh, I think it's not very good. I think it's also clouded. Everybody is doing podcasts and doing social media. And this idea of an independent journalist, I don't really know what it is because usually an independent journalist is somebody grabbing, gathering information who has an axe to grind or something to hustle. And it's clouded, I would say. So news is not the way it used to be? Oh, I don't think so at all. You know, the... The old days of, you know, we used to literally have to put both sides in our story. And we recognized there were often more than two sides to a story. And we kept sort of a running count of, you know, have we, if we've covered this candidate, we've got to cover that one. And if we can't get to that person tonight, we've got to do it in the next couple of days to make this even. One of the things that we try to do for this show is just that. You know, we keep score of who we invite, try to have fair balance. We had Rick Bennett on. We had Dr. Sean. I want to get every major candidate on. I want to get to know people in a friendly, congenial format, this gotcha or worse, this lack of attention, the 12-second soundbite. I think it's destroyed us. Oh. And the way that... they'll take an issue and give you just a sliver of the story and you come away with more questions than you had when you started listening to that piece on the news. It's unfair. It's just give me the information. Let me make the decision. I think that would be the most successful newscast around. And why are we not doing that? Is it an economic model? I have a theory. Can I run my theory by you? Absolutely. So my theory is that when you were a kid, when I was a kid, We had three networks, we had PBS, maybe a couple independent outlets. So we had a lot of shared truth. Now, everybody, their friend, their mother, their puppy has a podcast, has a show. So media has become so atomized that in order to get eyeballs, ears, and clicks, have to become increasingly outrageous. That's certainly part of it. But I still think there would be room. Somewhere in the middle for a well-balanced presentation. I'm hoping that's what this show is. I think so. We'll see. I think that there are still outlets, but I think that we don't have the pressure put on us for ratings. We don't have an economic pressure. In commercial TV news, what's your take? Is that a force that's shaping things for the negative? The way I see TV news right now is...

The commercial television newscast that I was involved with, which was News Center Main, that model is being just the number of eyes that were on it, they're significantly fewer now. We became number one Monday through Friday in May of 1986, and we beat Channel 13, 24 to 22 in the ratings. And a rating is the number of people who are watching. including people who aren't watching TV. So we got 24%, they got 22% of all the people. 46% of the people were home watching the 6 o'clock news live at that time in May of 86. And since that time, the numbers are minuscule. I don't know what they are, 6, 4, those kinds of numbers. You can watch it at 7.30 when you finally sit down, you've recorded it on your, whatever that is. I have unlimited... Devo, whatever it is. I have the newscasts all recorded. Sure. So I sit down 7, 715, watch a newscast. Yeah, so being able to flex time is great. I don't think my kids have watched a network outlet. I don't think that they've done anything in sort of conventional stuff. I retired in 19, and I met a kid. He was my brother's grandson at Syracuse roommate, and the kid had never seen me. He was from Scarborough. And, you know, so I'm thinking this was like 21 or 22. So he'd born in Scarborough in 0,3, or 4, or 5, and he'd never watched the news, and he had no idea who Bill Green was. Not that, you know, it's my ego, but sometimes I think you ought to know what's going on around you. Well, for years, I mean, you are literally, your show is called Bill Green's Main. I mean, you literally could not be more synonymous with the state than to be Bill Green of Bill Green's Maine. So for people to not get that. Yeah, and I wasn't insulted. I was just. Ooh, I got out just in time, you know. It's not, the business is not what it was. There are a lot more, there are fewer photographers, so you're shooting, writing, editing by yourself. They're getting rid of people behind the scenes, like the promotion department is gone. And the other stations are doing this too. And their promotion is handled by a regional hub. So the promotion looks really good because they've got really good people in a regional hub. But the message for me, for example, the message on the news center's new promos I noticed is make the switch to new center. Well, if we've been number one for 40 years, who's making a switch? You know, that's somebody who didn't understand the market, wrote that and got through, probably did it in eight markets. You know, there's stuff like that happening. And a lot of people who did important work, who wrote promos, it's just going to become less local. What about the use of artificial intelligence in news? I know that that's something that's gaining traction and terrifying. Well, why? Like Sports Illustrated, the first thing I ever heard about an AI article, Sports Illustrated had an AI article, and the mistake they made was they gave it the name Joe Smith. Put a false name on the article. They should have said, here's our article written by AI. And let people, again, let people decide. How good is AI, Jeff? You know better than me. I don't know.

AI right now, it's early in the game. It's in its infancy, and it is very good. It can be very persuasive. It can make people convinced that it's not AI, that it's human. I think that it's good and bad, right? I mean, one of the themes about a healthy conversation is having to hold more than one thought in your head at the same time. I think it's great being able to put together text and make sure there are no typos. Right. But to not be able to watch TV and know what's real, what's disinformation or misinformation or look at your mobile device. And I've heard, I hope it's not true, but I know it is, that there are kids who have friends who are AI. Yes. Oh, it's very true. And it's like AI has become their friend and... Kids. It's not just kids. Adults, older people. There's research that bots can help decrease loneliness in people that are older and people that are in rural areas. And we know isolation is bad for your health. People that are isolated. It's the equivalent of smoking three quarters of a pack of cigarettes a day. I remember years ago, I went, I was at Dartmouth University, and I was doing a visit. And I was on one of the units, and they had a dog that was an artificial dog interacting with patients with Alzheimer's disease. And they really had a massive reduction in the use of medication. So an animal, in this case, battery powered, was able to get the older people who were agitated to relax. Fascinating. A good use. But I was reading about these programs that take clothes off of... people and generate pornography from regular images. Oh, and that would not be illegal because it's not people, right? Well, no, this is like people taking a picture of somebody, a girl in school. Oh, they do that, okay. And modified, I think it is illegal. I think that's highly illegal. I hope it is. But the fact that that can occur, it's false. I heard, or there was a mention made of if you create pornography on AI, say child pornography, it wouldn't be illegal. because it's not people. Now, is that true? I don't know. If you start with a person, I mean, the thing I get concerned about. Oh, if you start with a person, yes. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty crazy. But it is crazy. I mean, there you go. Look, I'm a practicing psychiatrist. I sort of like people who have pulses and who are alive. I don't, I can see how seductive an AI model might be. I know patients of mine. are using bots and they certainly are good at answering questions. My concern, Bill, is that think about what GPS did for people's map reading skills or what complicated calculators did for people's mental math or what dating apps did for dating. It really made it pretty bad. And I think the theme is the more that we outsource, the worse it gets. Is that so dating apps made dating bad? Oh, I think people now are having a terrible time dating. I think men in particular having a really hard time dating. I'll tell you a funny fact with the online dating thing.

something like 20% of the men get 80% of the hits, of the action because of the filters. So you could have somebody who's highly successful, who's highly wonderful. But let's say that they're 5-7, they're not above 5-8, or maybe 5-9, they're below 5-10. If somebody applies a filter and they don't want to meet people who are below 5-10, they never have a chance to meet that person. That's interesting. That's really interesting. Pam and I met on a blind date. which I always joke was before you swiped right, people fixed you up on blind dates. I like that. And so, or I don't know if you swipe left or right because I've never been on a dating app. Neither of I. But see, that's the other thing we're going to talk about, I think, because it was on the list of things you said we might talk about being old and being invisible or whatever it is. I can't talk about dating apps. I've never been on one. Oh, I want to talk about being old. I want to talk about... this concept of mattering. There are so many things that we could talk about. One of the great things, Bill, is that you're a conciliant thinker. And that's a word. I don't even know what that means, Jeff. I know. It's a great word. It's somebody who can talk about topics through multiple lenses. Great. Right. Conciliate. Well, there are people who could talk only about music or only about sports. But you can cross over and talk about different things. So I figured that we could talk about everything and anything, sort of Bill Green unleashed. Oh, that's scary, but let's do it. Is it scary? Let's do it. No, not at all. I am actually sort of a dilettante. I'm interested in everything, I think. A couple of exceptions, I guess. But I'm interested in the world around me, and it's changing so fast. And I have grandchildren now, and I wonder what their world's going to be like. It's going to be very different than ours. Ever read the book? Thank you for being late by Tom Friedman. No. I love Tom Friedman. Totally worth the read. It's about how the rate of change of change is faster now than ever before. Yeah. Unquestionably. Life in the 1,200s wasn't a whole lot different than life in the 900s, but life in 2026, very different than life in 2015. I've thought of that so much this week with this cold weather. Think of what it was like here 500 years ago. My goodness. Or even 25 years ago. Remember the days where you had snow that would come up to the second floor? Sure. But, I mean, we still had cars and heat. But when you get back to the little ice age or something, living here in Maine with these kinds of temperatures, wow. Yeah, that would be tough. Well, we're here with Bill Green. It's a healthy conversation. It's News Radio WGAN. Don't go away. We're going to be right back. Welcome back. It is a healthy conversation on news radio WGAN, AM 560, 985 FM, and the live stream at WGAN.com. Not to mention all those wonderful podcast platforms. Apple, I love that. It's like we're able to reach so many people. I'm here with Bill Green. I would say, Bill, you are synonymous with Maine. You had a TV show for how many years called, what, Bill Green's Maine? 20. 20 years. Yeah. I love Maine. And it's a great honor for you to say that I'm synonymous with Maine, but I did try to show the good of Maine. I wasn't doing stories on heroin addicts and things as I was criticized for, and appropriately so. But I love Maine, and I'm happy to be from Maine. I think Maine's a pretty darn good place. I would say so, too. But you made Maine for us Mainers really come to life. That's why I say synonymous with. And your 420 episodes? Yep, 420.

It's pretty good. Yeah, that's a lot. You know, there used to be, you can find a list somewhere of, you know, episodes. And I don't know if it was more than Bonanza, but if you were looking at the prime time shows I grew up with, it, you know, it was pretty far up there. It was like eight or ten or something, you know, more than, more than, you know, Bonanza or something. You know, that's pretty good, I thought. I get it. You know, 420. But now there are daily shows, Dateline. was on every night. And, you know, those things I couldn't compare myself to. But I was pretty pleased with the longevity of the show and the quality of the show. And I have to ask you this before I get into the present without doing the show. And I don't want you to think too hard. What was your favorite story? What pops to mine? Unfilter. Give me something that comes to your head. You know, they're in reruns now. They're on Monday through Friday at 1230 right after they're in news. And so I watch them. And... You know, what I'm proud of is the quality of the show. There aren't a lot of, there are no bad shows, and there are not many bad segments. There were a few that just didn't cut the mustard, but I'm pretty proud of the quality of the show. I like the diversity of it in terms of Maine diversity. We'd go to Sunday River, we'd go to, you know, West Quaddy Head, we'd go to the county, and we'd come to Southern Maine. And so, you know, but I... I had so many favorites. It was fun. The whole thing's fun. I like going out and interviewing the guy that makes the clam rakes. And I like going out and interviewing the Nobel Prize winner. It's amazing. And I remember you did a story on Jessica Muir, and she's going to go back into space. She's going to go to the moon, Jeff. Isn't that cool? Six months. I'm predicting it. But I think she's going to go step on the moon. She's going to be the first woman on the moon. I believe it. Well, she's going on a mission for six months, and she's going to be away from her husband and her daughter. Oh, no. She's been named to a... See, I don't even know that. I would know that if I... Oh, I want her to be picked to be the first woman on the moon. Well, they're doing this moon... I don't think she's doing this mission. She's doing another mission, but there is a mission that's going to slingshot around the moon. That's Artemis 2, right? Artemis 2. Going this weekend, isn't it? Yeah, but this is a different mission. This is Apollo 8 going this weekend. But Péter Magyar is doing it again. That's pretty amazing. A girl from Caribou, Maine. Yeah, she's not going to step on the moon, though. I don't think so. Oh, okay. Well, maybe next time. Still cool. Still cool. Six months in space, you know. So that sounds like a pretty favorite interview or dialogue that you had with somebody. I mean, Chris Bill Cassidy, the other astronaut we had, he was from York. We maintain a friendship. And Jessica is gracious. And if I communicate with her, she communicates back. But, yeah, I mean, all right, I'm going to be a jerk. I know Jessica Mirr. I know Governor Mills. I know Susan Collins. I know, you know, it was such a thrill for a regular old main kid to meet all those people, Joel Brennan, and just all of them. And they're all decent people and they're all trying hard.

You know, we'll see where it takes us. You know who I don't know? Oh, Dr. Shaw. Great Kai. I got to get out and meet him because I did send him a text when he was doing the COVID stuff because I retired before COVID. I said, the only thing I don't like about having retired, and this is true, is I don't get to meet the newsmakers like you. And he was very gracious, got back to me, and I'm going to just show up and shake his hand someday. One of the things that I've been impressed with, and we're doing a lot of political interviewing these days, because the... races are beginning to heat up already is we had Rick Bennett on we had Narav Shah and Two great guys. And my own personal take is that mostly people are really good people. And the character that we have of each other or members of the other party is nonsensical. And I find most people to be good, kind people who care. Yeah. How did we get here? How did we get to this yelling and screaming? I don't know, Jeff, you're the psychiatrist. Tell me. Because rage and anger and fear. are more relevant and salient. All right. Okay, pretend, let's do an experiment. Bill Green. Yes. I am a new reporter. Yep. And I want to do a story that everybody's going to really love. Yeah. I want to, and you're my news director. Yeah. Okay. I want to do a story on the history of Excel spreadsheets or possibly. a history on really esoteric Austrian operas. Okay. What say you, my news director, Barbara? Well, it's not mainstream. How are you going to make it interesting? One that they always did ask is, I'm going to do a series on endangered species. I guess what I'm saying is, but wouldn't you say... Go find them, you know? Yeah, but they're endangered. It's hard. But it's not mean enough. You would say, but that's not going to get people's attention. People don't want to learn about Excel spreadsheets or... rare operas. Can't you go cover a murder? Can't you go cover somebody saying something outrageous? Can't you do something like that? Well, I think it's more complicated than that because actually when you said Excel spreadsheets, I was thinking, what you got? You know, is there a hook there? You know, what's the hook? So I'd say, what's the hook? But the other thing is, In-depth stuff costs money. Right. And we've got to fill a lot of news now. And the networks are going over the top. So like right now, we watch News Center until 7 a.m. and then the Today Show comes on. In another five years, they're going to be parallel. News Center will never lead into the Today Show. NBC will be broadcasting, we'll be streaming, excuse me, on another channel up against Channel 6. So. Same with 8, same with 13. So when the networks go over the top, local stations are going to really be feeling pain.

I think that they already are. Is that your take? Yeah, and it's financial. It's not that they're not as talented as we were or something. It's financial. It's just that there are so many outlets. There's so much competition. Competition is good, but too much competition that dilutes everything down can make for a stew that doesn't have enough meat. 100 channels with nothing to watch. Yeah, it's Springsteen, 57 channels, nothing on here with Bill Green. It's a healthy conversation news radio WGA. And so you were really in the public spotlight. When did you step down? I want to get a sense of retirement. retirement. November of 19. And what I really love is I was on Bill Green's Maine, that portion of my career, when Tom Brady was with the Patriots. Right. So everything was good, you know. Bill Green's Maine was on Saturday night. Patriots would beat somebody on Sunday, you know. I had it good. I really think I worked at a great time in television. Very fortunate to happen to have been where I was when I was. And what do you think it's like for folks now? I think it's hard. I think a lot of the veterans are trying to get to their retirements, you know, and work it through and all of that. And the young kids... You know, when I started, I started as a studio cameraman, the first night the tally light came on on the camera. And I felt this surge of excitement go through my body. I thought, I'm going to do this till I'm 65. And I don't think a young person, one thing, you know, they're probably thinking ahead of me already. They're in terms of new media. They're in terms of streams and all of these, you know, modern ways that you... Another thing was, I try not to be too show-offy and not... you know, to promote myself too much, you know, and, you know, just be humble and all of that. Now, if you're not slamming the likes and the followers and, you know, if you're not a, what are those people that are influencers? You've got to be an influencer. I was trying to be one of the people. So I had a very different trip and I would not be very comfortable. As I probably would be if I was 23, but starting again, it's going to be hard, and you've got to be a self-promoter. And you also have to know multiple media. It's not just TV, but online, YouTube. And a lot of folks in TV seem to commoditize it by going out on their own, thinking about like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and many others. I'm not just picking on any. I will admit it. I used to watch Tucker Carlson a little bit. I thought he was pretty good. He knew the business. He got fired there or whatever happened. I haven't seen him since. I don't know what Tucker Carlson is today. I don't know. I hear people mention him, but, you know. He left mainstream Fox News. Right. He's got his own thing going, I think, on X or whatever it is. How's he doing? He's killing it. I think he's got more viewers. Megyn Kelly, more viewers on her. She does. Interesting. So that proves your point, that the new media is really giving the old media run for its money. Yep. So it seems to me that people today need to master both. Oh, yes, absolutely. And as a, like when I was a young person, I started in TV, I could do it. I could run every piece of equipment in the building. Kind of the same thing. Now, you know, that kind of went out of not being necessary anymore. But, you know, if you get in the business now, you've got to be on various mediums for sure. Yeah, you have to be cross platform, I guess is what they call. Cross platform. I'm for it. Well, we're here with Bill Green. It is News Radio WGA. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back.

Don't go away. Thanks for dropping by. It is AM 560 985 FM for everybody else. WGAM.com. Welcome back. It is a healthy conversation with my good friend Steve Woods. I'm Dr. Jeff Barkin. Well, actually, Steve's on the road. And in studio with me, if you're confused by that theme music, it is Bill Green of Bill Green's Maine. Before we get started, Bill, the theme to Bill Green's Maine. Where did that come from? It came from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The guy that conceived the show, Steve Thaxton, was the general manager of the station. He had a guy in Minneapolis, I can't remember his name, who... did jingles. And that guy owed Steve a favor. So he said, do you want to have a theme song? And the idea was to not have themes because people would turn your show off when the theme came on. Why? I don't know. They wanted to see action. So in 2000, if there was a sitcom on, it started with a scene. But I wanted a theme song because of the Andy Griffith show, because of Bonanza. You know, those were theme songs I really liked. So some guy out there wrote a 38 second. thing that repeats and that's what we listen to. I love it. It's still very fresh to this very day. I think it's a great song. I liked it. So I'm glad it worked out. I'm glad I didn't dislike it. Well, just so people aren't completely disoriented, it is a healthy conversation. You're here. It's News Radio WGAN. We're here with Bill Green, who really has been synonymous with Maine. Your show is called Bill Green's Maine. I could not imagine another way to brand oneself. Well, they said, what do you want to call it? And they thought the show would last three to five years and have a rating of four and this kind of thing. And I thought, well, if I'm going to be out of the business in five years, I want to have my name on it. And so I said, Bill, it's about Maine, Bill Green's Maine. And interestingly enough, the best thing about being Bill Green's Maine, once it was going pretty well, you know, they would have replaced me with Rob Caldwell because he's better than me, right? I mean, and he is. He's great. You can't have Rob Caldwell doing Bill Green's main. That was smart. Yeah. So it was actually a really good move. They couldn't replace me. And what's it like being Bill Green being able to get around? Can you get around? People like me. You know, Ed Markey said one time, they're going to name the airport for Ed Markey. All the Republicans complained about it, so they didn't. And Moskey said, he didn't say it this way. I don't care. If you like me, I can see it in your faces when I walk among you. I thought, what a great sentiment that was. Ed Muskie was great. And, you know, people liked me. I can understand why. The only thing I ever did, the Susan Collins endorsement, some people have kind of, I don't know the word, shaded me, whatever, you know. I want to talk about that. That's a great topic. There are a couple of things I want to talk about. Let me get into the Susan Collins thing now. But I want to talk about retirement. I want to talk about adjustment to retirement.

But let's start with Susan Collins. Let's sort of, why don't you tell the story? You had just big picture, you had made a spot, a commercial in support of Senator Susan Collins. This is when she was running against Sarah Gideon. Yeah, six years ago. As I remember, Sarah Gideon was down something like nine points on a Friday going in. There was 17 public polls, and they all had Sarah winning. And on election day, people voted for Susan. And my endorsement came on in October. And some people think it was key to Susan winning. I don't necessarily think that's true. But I'm a moderate. That's where I am. I'm a moderate person. Jeff, you and I should run the government. We could work it out. You know, I just think reasonable people can work things out. And, you know, in that case, I think Susan's pretty reasonable prayer. I don't want to get into that today. But, you know, I just think being reasonable and... working on these problems that we have. How can we make education better? How can we make our tax structure a little more easier? How can we make it more affordable for good people to have children? And kids cost a quarter million dollars a piece at least, right? We don't have them. Oh, at very least. I was just talking to somebody who's in news and whose child is starting college. And it's 91,000 a year. I was thinking zero to 18. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of money. Yeah. So, you know, I just, we have so many day-to-day problems we could be working on and we're just screaming and throwing stuff at each other. It's not right. No, it's gotten to a toxic place. I'm not partisan, as you know, as our listeners know, I found that most people are really good people, even when you get people who are, you know, you think are a little crazy in private. In those private moments, most people are really decent people. Yeah. And you mentioned Rick Bennett and Narav Shaw. Yeah. I mean, Angus King III's a good guy. And, you know, Hannah Pingree is very nice. I mean, all these people are pretty nice people. Yeah, he's going to have Republicans on. I mean, we really want to have everybody. I want to have an opportunity for people to feel safe who are running to expose themselves as who they are, not three-word sound bites. And that's what I thought Bill Green's main did. We let people tell their story. Yeah. You know, we didn't, we didn't. try to bushwhack anybody, you know. So did you get heat for that endorsement for Susan Collins? Why? You know, some people didn't want Susan Collins to be reelected, and it's visceral in the political world these days, this day. So, you know, but I knew going in what it would be like, and, uh, but I, I, I sensed a, you know, You know, what I said about Muskie's quote. A few people giving me the eye and stuff. A lady's taught me at church last week and asked me about this year. Do you think, because somebody could say, because of your ad, you were instrumental in getting Susan Collins reelected? Yes. Okay. I don't think that's necessarily true, but people have said, including some, you know, A couple of national publications. And then some people have said, and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or inflate your head, that as a result of Susan Collins coming back and being reelected, that got us Brett Kavanaugh, which overturned Roe versus Wade. Right. But I hate to take your time. No. Roe v. Wade, to some people who are lawyers, are saying that it's not...

well written, that a woman's right to an abortion isn't in the Constitution, that Judge Blackman found it in the, help me with the big word, panumbra, the fuzzy shadows, and kind of made it up. And what we should do is have Congress pass a woman's right to an abortion. I think, I mean, that's where I am. I'm pro-abortion, pro-whatever that's called, pro-choice. And, you know, I'm all for that. And, um... Yeah, I was disappointed with that decision because we are kind of limping along. But some constitutional scholars say, I believe, that it needs to be reworked and actually written into the Constitution as an amendment. I agree with you. I would support that 100%. I agree with you. I think that to have the judiciary make the laws rather than opine, whether the laws are appropriate and constitutional is kind of their not their job. It's the... Job of Congress to make laws, job of legislature to make laws. And now everything happens, whether it's Tom Brady and deflategate, they're picking the judge that they take the case before because some judges are left and some judges are right. I hope there are many that are in the middle, fair, trying to get the answer correct. But. That's odd, don't you think? I do. I think the polarization is insane. I'm a psychiatrist. So I deal with families. I deal with people in relationships. I deal with individuals. And what I found is that families break up with each other, that politics has become, yeah, it's become ugly. If I had a choice between ice hockey. or like a hardcore football game with my family versus a fight about politics, I'd take ice hockey any day. I have friends who, they're tolerating me, but they're very disappointed that I did that. But on the other hand, if I'd gone on the other side, I, you know, I would have been... Oh, you're okay because you think this way. Well, you know, we're all okay because we think the way we think. Well, I think that we should be allowed to think the way we think without being judged, without feeling as if people are looking at you strange or anything like that. I mean, this sort of statement, oh, well, you shouldn't make a statement. That seems unfair because, well, you're a person and you should be allowed to make a statement. In this case, my sister's a very close friend of Susan's and, you know, I kind of. you know, was asked to help out, but I'm a moderate person. And when I try to apply it to history, I think how inept I would have been at certain points down through history, trying to compromise, trying to, you know, work together. And, you know, sometimes the great compromisers weren't so successful. History does not speak of them well. So, you know, maybe a guy like me should stay out of politics. But I have a feeling that what's going to happen is it's going to become popular to be in the middle again, that there's going to be an abdication of extremes at some point. It could take five, ten years. But things are going to continue to get bad with polarization so that there's...

going to actually be a need for people to come together. The one thing I will say, I think that's correct. Just like I said, you know, the you know, good, honest reporting. Report both or all sides of a story as best you can and let the listener decide that's good. I hope that might be. And I don't want people to think that I, everybody's against me because many, many, many people. Some very prominent privately called me or came to me and said, thanks. I can't imagine that anybody could be against you for sharing an opinion. I think that that's really unhealthy. I think that the key here is to return to the place, Bill, where we have more and more healthy conversations. We have so many wonderful. guests coming up in the weeks and months ahead. I want to get your take on a number of topics in the next segment, including the transition from being arguably one of the most visible Mainers, Bill Green of Bill Green's Maine, and the transition to retirement. What is that like? What does it feel like to going from being the most visible to somewhat less visible? And I'd also like to talk about generally the state of men. It's a healthy conversation. It's News Radio WGAN. We'll be right back.

It is a healthy conversation with my good friend Steve Woods. I'm Dr. Jeff Barkin. It's News Radio WGANN. Steve-O is on the road in studio is Bill Green. We're talking about everything. We're really having one of those conversations that's conciliant going really in every direction. Last segment we were talking about Susan Collins. And Bill clarified that when he made the ad for Susan Collins six years ago, he was not working for New Center, Maine, perfectly legit. Nobody should give you a hard time. Well, you don't have to protect me, Joe. Let's move on. I'm not protecting. I wanted to pivot. I wanted to ask you what it is like going from being in the public eye where, like, you probably couldn't go anywhere without being stopped or, you know, recognized, interrupted, correct? Sure. I mean, pretty much in Maine. And retiring, what was that like? It was just the next day. I mean, I had a long time to think about retirement because I was in the business 47 years, and I thought long and hard about it and how I wanted to do it, and I wanted to go out on top, and I think I did. I was very satisfied with the way my career ended, and the next day people knew who I was. And then after four or five years, they started rerunning my show, which was a real credibility booster. So that's been good. And I think the body of work stands up well. And now I'm a retired guy. And now I'm a grandfather. And now I'm some other things I wasn't before. And it's nice. I'm doing fine. One of the things that's making its rounds in the sort of reading and discussion and podcast circuit is this concept of mattering. And that as we get older and we leave our jobs, I work with a lot of patients that maybe professionals lose identity. Yeah. A doctor, thinking about a patient in particular, I see move to Maine, loses identity, doesn't know people. Sure. Transition. Sure. What's that like? Well, I think you've got to be intelligent about it and remember what the important things in your life are. My wife still recognizes me and my children still recognize me and their children even have a nickname for me. But you don't have the power that you had. like I could call an influential person, and because my show was very positive, they'd call back. They kind of wanted to be on the show. It was going to be a chance for them to speak freely, and it was going to be a positive look at them, and they knew it. And I don't necessarily have that anymore. I don't know. I had my day. I worked until I was 66, and it was time to do some other things. I'm the executive director of the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, which is... A difficult job for me because it involves raising money. It's hard for me to ask people for things, especially money. But I do that, and that's been quite successful. We've taken the product. We put it on main public televisions, and our program, it's kind of modeled after the SBs or the Emmys. It's not bad. We do a decent job with that. I'm on the board of a preschool, and I just feel for my children who are both doing well. But how hard they have to work and how much they have to spend on raising children. My oldest grandchild is now in kindergarten. But my goodness, it's just hard. And it's a difficult world that young people are facing. And I'm sympathetic where the other board members are mostly parents on that preschool board that I'm on. You know, they're working hard and they are busy, busy people. I don't know what else I do. I'm on the Friends of Baxter State Park.

And I do a podcast for that. And I enjoy that. And I help them. I'm on their development committee there. And there's something else I do. And I can't even remember what it is. But I'll be there, darn it. It's on the calendar. So you're mattering. You're continuing to matter. Because the concept in this mattering research, if you will, is that when people retire... They feel that they don't matter, that they go from being a VIP, a very important person to a PIP, a previously important person. Of course, that isn't true. But if I'm reading you right, what you're saying is you need to be mindful in making these life transitions. Yeah, and I think there's truth to that. I think that young people look at you as if you're somewhat useless. You know, and I told Jeff the story off, Mike, about going to a nice restaurant. The woman and I probably have a lot in common, but it might take a few minutes to get to it. And she came out with a sleeve of tattoos, a stud through her nose, you know, and she didn't even hardly look at me like, and it wasn't what do you want, but it almost was. And this is a fine restaurant. And, you know, the bill came to like 180 bucks. I probably would have tipped her 40. I always tip more than 20 because if somebody's going to talk about me, I wanted to be nice. And I also feel if somebody's working, I want to tip them. These days, people who are working, I'll pay them the best I can. And it's like, here's your check, you know. I mean, it was just an awful experience. And I just want to shake her and say, can't just say hello, you know? So there's that kind of thing. But, you know, having been well known, you know, I probably have always gotten better service, often gotten a better table, people get a kick out of it or something. So maybe that's just something comes up with me. But, you know, I think I see it as an older person. And sometimes they just call you an old white guy or something. You think, wow. Well, there is now an emerging biology where people are understanding that when people do things, when they volunteer, and they feel a sense of purpose and mattering, that the genes and proteins that get expressed actually prevent aging, prevent dementia, prevent decline. Wonderful article that I just read about some papers on this, where people are actually... Could you imagine looking at the proteins in the blood and comparing people when they retire of people who volunteer versus those that don't? Well, retirement is wonderful. Like, I'm in better shape now. I weigh, I've just gained seven or eight pounds because I had something go on in my family that I couldn't do my workouts. I'm starting back down. But I'm 15 pounds less than I was on TV. I'm in better shape now than I was 10 years ago. Now I'm older. Could I have outrun me? It would be a pretty funny race. But, you know what I mean? But, I mean, retirement gives you the opportunity to live a very nice quality of life if you're lucky enough to be able to, you know, you can pay your bills, you get your house paid for, stuff like that. It's lovely. It's a nice time of life. Yeah, I would think it's kind of the best time of life. But you're, when we say retired, you're really busy. So, like, when I think about the... anachronistic model of retirement. I think that somebody in a pool noodle in Florida in a pool. That is so not you. Well, it's not. You know, I'd like to have more time on the old pool noodle. I'd like to be traveling more. I don't see you with a pool noodle. We have four or five grandchildren. We have almost, we're expecting our fifth grandchildren and child in March. And we spend a lot of time with them. And we spend some time in support of our children. And I think that's...

I'm reading a little bit about this generation. The parents are involved a little bit more than maybe like my parents. A little bit more, profoundly more. It's over the top. I want to go. You ready for this? I want to go to my grandson's kindergarten glass and watch it for an hour. You know, I'll take some cookies in or something. Here's Grandpa. You know, Jack's got a grandpa, you know. But, God, you go near a school. They're looking out at you? I mean, I haven't, but I wouldn't dare walk up to a school now, knock on the door and say, I brought some cookies or something, you know. Things have changed. Parents are doing too much. And the more parents do, the less the kids do. And kids are having a tough time of it. And men in particular, boys are having a really, really tough time of it. I know we just have about five minutes left. But I want to talk about the state of men. You're in sports, and it's tough for boys. All we've done is... raised girls programs, STEM programs from girls and women. And I believe in all that. I voted to admit women into a couple of clubs that I was in back in the 70s. And, you know, I was on the avant-garde of all of that. But we've forgotten about our boys a little bit. I think we ought to raise them like men. I think they ought to be allowed to get in a fight in the schoolyard or something. That may be extreme, but, you know, they don't hunt and fish. They don't run. They don't run into each other. And I just... It's not just the physicality of being a man, but it's that kind of thought that I want to share with you, Jeff. You can articulate it better than me, but, you know, boys ought to be boys. Yeah, there are gender differences, and I almost feel as if I'm going to be shunned for saying that. But 75% of the medical students in Maine are women. 25% are men. Women are killing us. They make better students. They make better students. They do. The schools are now, I think, run by women, and boys are treated like dysfunctional girls. Well, boys and girls are different. So in the school setting, the vast majority of teachers are girls and women. Right. Right. And they're not necessarily easily able to tap into the psychology of the boys in the class. Boys are treated like the girls. They're meant to sit still and pay attention. And girls are much better at sitting still and paying attention than boys. Is that true? Yes. It just is. It seems it. If you look at rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, greater in boys than girls, maturation of the frontal lobes, lower in boys than boys. It just is what it is. So to say there are no gender differences is not wrong. It's incorrect. Now you're in trouble. I got you in trouble. Good. I'm not in trouble. I think that. Healthy conversations are about the truth and not just about opinion, but fact. Here's a fact. Young people today spend 50% less time in person with each other than they did 20 years ago. That's just a generation. Interesting. Right? So that has a lot of effects. Because of media, social media? Social media. I tend to blame social media for a vast amount of problems in society.

polarization, people not spending time together, obesity, because rather than running around and being outside, you know, exercising the thumbs on the phone kind of thing. Yep. I think you're right. And I think it contributes to polarization because if you don't get to know each other, then it becomes easier to dislike and hate each other. And you don't learn to compromise. compromise what's that yeah really so how do we get out of this how do we make it so we're not stuck in the rut of anger and rage what do you think of having no phones in schools i think it's a great idea yeah i think we'll go there i think that's got to be done i think that's critical actually i was talking to the daughter of a friend of mine who had spent a year in a program no phones she loved it so that was great really never learned more in her life she said interesting well because you could focus you can attend you're not distracted Right. You know? It's so interesting. This clock says zero, Jeff, and I don't want to get you in trouble again. You're not going to get me in trouble. Don't believe clocks. Okay. I've got my own clock bill. I've got to withdraw from this. One of the things I've always felt strongly about is countdown timers. They keep me honest and on track, but I never like to feel rushed. Oh, okay. But you seem like you're in a great space. Pretty good. I think I'm in a pretty good space. Almost like the best space I've ever seen you in. Maybe, you know. Maybe. I just, I'm lucky. I've got a great wife. I've the family worked out. I never thought about descendants and here they are. And I had a nice career. I have the respect of my community, I think. You do. And I just, I'm just so fortunate. I would say that you have set a path for so many people and people look up to you. How does that feel? Just hearing that. Wonderful. Pam and I were having dinner one time at Colonial Williamsburg. We were couples from Washington, Chicago, and Miami. And I had an epiphany. We were talking about, you know, what's this like? What's the murder rate? Our schools were much stronger then. And I'm thinking, these people all want to move to Maine. I should be bragging about Maine. And that's how that Bill Green's Maine concept was born. And I feel very good about being a Maine. I think that Maine is the place to be. A little cold in the winter, a little icy, but who cares? We're paying right now. Cranpons. There we go. You know, where are those summit dubs right now? You know, they're off someplace else. Well, it's been a great time. Thank you for coming back, Bill Green. Great to see you, Jeff. As always, a lot of fun. Yeah, it's great to get you back out here. You're more visible than you think, Bill. Hello, Steve. Hello, Kate. I hope you guys are having a great time on the road. No doubt you are. It's been Bill Green of Bill Green's Maine, which airs every day on News Center, Maine. It's a healthy conversation, news radio WGAN. Thank you so much for spending time with us. We're going to be back next week where we're going to have more healthy conversations. Till then, let's be kind to each other.