PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Monthly is planning to publish a story about the innovators in the news landscape of the Ocean State, and the chosen author, Phil Eil, comes to the story with an appropriate background. Eil was the news editor of The Providence Phoenix when the alternative weekly abruptly shut down in October of 2014.

Currently, Eil is returning to the freelance world of reporting after having finished a book, Prescription for Pain: How a once-promising doctor became the “pill mill killer.”

Eil’s book documents the role that a doctor had played in exploiting the man-made epidemic, telling the story of how Dr. Paul Volkman, someone who had gone to medical school with Eil’s father at the University of Chicago, became a “pill mill” villain in southern Ohio and eventually went to prison for his misdeeds. [ConvergenceRI has asked for a review copy.]

The descent of Volkman into the transactional hell of making money from the opioid epidemic has a curious resonance with the current tale of Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of bankrupt Steward Health Care who allegedly placed his own welfare above the health of patients at Steward’s hospitals, as detailed in Senate hearings and in reporting by The Boston Globe Spotlight team and by reporter Moe Tkacik. This past weekend, Steward announced that de la Torre would resign on Oct. 1from his leadership position.

Will de la Torre go to jail for his alleged crimes? "Ralph spent nearly two decades sucking every last bit of value out of Steward Health Care, and while the hospitals got poorer, he got richer,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a statement to the Boston Globe.

“When you peer into the country’s most intractable problems – homelessness, disability, domestic violence, child neglect – you see the persistence of dopesickness everywhere [emphasis added],” wrote Beth Macy, in her book, Raising Lazarus, talking about the role of harm reduction efforts in addressing America’s overdose crisis.

Here in Rhode Island, the connection between “dopesickness everywhere” is playing out in Woonsocket, where the local community health center, Thundermist, was forced to lay off more than 100 employees and discharge its CEO, due to a financial crisis caused by the breakdown of its accountable entity. At the same time, the fate of non-fatal drug overdoses soared in the city, leading the state Department of Health to issue a warning. Both of these stories made the headlines. But what was missing was the connection between to the two stories – the relationship between the breakdown of the health delivery system and the increase in drug overdoses.

“Have you reported about that?" Eil asked, during my interview last week. “Not yet,” I answered. But, in fact, ConvergenceRI had just published a long piece last week by Ian Knowles, a long-time veteran of the recovery community in Rhode Island and a frequent contributor to ConvergenceRI, talking about the lack of convergence between the lack of funding for recovery and the differences between talking about the problem and taking action.

Ahead of the curve.  
But I am getting ahead of myself and retelling the story of the interview, which took place at the L’Artisan Café in Wayland Square, one of the “third places” in Rhode Island that has become a neighborhood gathering point.

In addition to ConvergenceRI, the story will feature ecoRI, Eileen McNamara, Steve Ahlquist and Bill Bartholomew, among others, according to Eil.

For the record, Eil, now 39, and I, now 72, have a past history: 16 years ago, back in 2008, I was serving as executive editor of the Jewish Voice and Herald, and Eil was a young freelance writer, when I enlisted him to write stories.

In one of our first meetings, which Eil recalled at our interview, which took place at another popular Rhode Island “third place,” Seven Stars on Hope Street, I had given him what he remembered as sage advice: Do not go into a meeting with an editor without a list of possible story suggestions.

Eil had also been featured in a story in ConvergenceRI in February of 2014, “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the Phoenix,” whose subhead asked the question: “In the midst of an emerging innovation economy, can a local weekly be reborn from the ashes of its alternative past.?" The story was published a few months before the weekly alternative newspaper shut down. [See link to ConvergenceRI story below.]

In addition, Eil had been featured in a community conversation sponsored by ConvergenceRI at AS220, entitled: “Speaking up, speaking out, being heard in the digital age: When all the news doesn’t fit into print.”

The public conversation, held on April 23, 2014, featured Reza Clifton, Jennifer Toone Corrigan, Pablo Rodriguez, Steve Klamkin, and Bill Ostendorf, in addition to Eil. At the time, a local group was attempting to buy The Providence Journal from its owner, but that bid was rejected. [See link to ConvergenceRI story below.]

[Editor’s Note: Another fascinating sidebar to the event: The editor of the Providence Journal had been invited to appear on the panel but refused to appear on the same panel as Eil, taking exception to his public criticisms of the newspaper.]

For sure, being interviewed for a story in Rhode Island Monthly as an “innovator” after 12 years of surviving if not thriving in the disrupted news industry in Rhode Island carries with it some irony. Back in 1989, when I was newly arrived in Rhode Island, I had worked as a freelance writer and then a contributing writer for Rhode Island Monthly, which was then owned by Dan Kaplan.

In addition to a story about the richest people in Rhode Island, I penned an interview with Ralph Papitto, the CEO of Nortek, a $1.3 billion company, the state’s third largest company at that time, entitled “Killer Instincts.”

“In a line-up, no one would ever mistake the 62-year-old Papitto for Donald Trump,” I had written in the Papitto profile. “Yet Papitto, head of the third-largest corporation in Rhode Island, could probably teach Trump a thing or two about deals. In a poker game between the two, the smart money would be on Papitto. Trump may get the headlines, but Papitto gets the attention of Wall Street’s high rollers, financial heavyweights such as Saul Steinberg and Michael Milken. Papitto has, as they say in the clichéd business vernacular of best sellers, swum with the sharks and won.”

Papitto’s reputation was later compromised by his apparent use of a racial slur at a meeting of the Roger Williams University board of directors. However, today, his legacy is being rebuilt by the good work of the Papitto Opportunity Connection, run by his widow. [See link to ConvegenceRI story below.]

Following the script?    
The interview with Eil followed a script of questions, but much of the information I provided about my work with ConvergenceRI did not necessarily fit in with the predictable boundaries of the script.

As a result, Eil often asked me to send him the stories documenting what I was telling him. Following the interview, ConvergenceRI emailed to Eil, at his request, some 51 stories to document what had been said during the interview.

They included: the recent “Advocacy in Action” award presented to me in June by the Community Care Alliance; and my coverage of lead poisoning prevention efforts in Rhode Island, which led to my receiving two awards from the Childhood Lead Action Project, in 2013 and again in 2019.

I also sent him my interview with Steve Ahlquist and Bill Bartholomew, published in July of 2021, entitled “Guardians of the galaxy in RI.” I also sent along my collaboration with ecoRI News, “Will you Bee Vigilant?” And, my reporting on the origins and development of health equity zones in Rhode Island.

In all honesty, it was probably a bit much, but Eil said he was unfamiliar with much of ConvergenceRI’s work over the last 12 years, and asked for me to send along the stories.

A lack of convergence    
My interview with Eil revealed, to a large degree, the biggest problem with news delivery these days in Rhode Island – what I call the lack of convergence and connection between the public and the way that the news media narrative tends to keep people stuck in their own silos. I mentioned the work of Shoshana Zuboff and her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The fight for a human future at he new frontier of power.

When asked to name health care reporters in Rhode Island, the only name that Eil could come up with at first was Felice Freyer, a former reporter with the Providence Journal and then with the Boston Globe, who is now retired. After thinking for a moment, Eil also named Lynn Arditi with The Public’s Radio.

Given that Eil has been very public about his own struggles with mental health issues, I asked him if he was familiar with Optum, the wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, which currently manages the mental health and behavioral health services for some 90 percent of the state’s Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, working with UnitedHealthcare of New England and Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. Eil said he wasn’t familiar with them.

The takeaways    
I was, in many ways, quite thrilled to be interviewed by Eil for a story in Rhode Island Monthly. As I attempted to explain to Eil, the premise of ConvergenceRI was based on reporting on the convergence of health, science, innovation, research, and community, breaking down the silos. Rather than seeking out how many clicks and likes could be achieved by exploiting fear and anxiety, it was who was doing the clicking that was more important – the policy makers, the decision makers, and the influencers. At the same time, importance was placed on the sharing of stories – to create a virtual neighborhood that readers could belong to and feel a connection to, no matter where they lived.

As I attempted to explain to Eil, I believe that our personal stories are out most valuable possessions, and sharing those personal stories is what makes us more human. Stay tuned.