The 4th of July. What does it mean to you? This week it's America's birthday, a day that recognizes the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a blueprint for Democracy. It's a celebration that comes around every year, yet this time it feels different. Globe Opinion asked readers and community members to reflect on what it means to be an American today. Tune into this special episode featuring a heartfelt collection of voices and perspectives, and check out Globe Opinion's full package mark...
Jul 02, 2025•12 min
Kevin Sack is a longtime reporter who spent much of his career writing long-form pieces for the New York Time. Then in 2015, he helped cover one of the most horrific massacres in recent US history, the killing of nine parishioners who were attending Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The story launched Sack on what would become a 10 year project to document the history of Mother Emanuel, one of the oldest and most influential black church...
Jun 26, 2025•27 min
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from Endless Thread, a podcast from our friends at WBUR. Brooke Eby was 33 when she was diagnosed with ALS. Since then, she’s gained a huge following for her honest and often hilarious videos about the realities of living with the disease. In this episode, Brooke speaks with Endless Thread hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson about the long road to her diagnosis, how humor has helped her cope, and what she hopes to change for future ALS patients. Fol...
Jun 19, 2025•35 min
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making itself known in Massachusetts. Federal immigration officials say they’ve arrested nearly 1,500 people over the last month in what they're calling, “Operation Patriot.” ICE officers have taken people off the streets, on their way to school, and from courthouses. They’ve made it clear that the Commonwealth is a target. Today on Say More, Boston Globe Politics Reporter Samantha J. Gross and Globe Opinion Columnist Marcela Garcia join Shirl...
Jun 12, 2025•23 min
With the moving of tassels and tossing of caps, the school year has come to a close at Harvard. And what a tumultuous year it has been. President Donald Trump has gone to war with the nation's most elite university. The White House has canceled a sweeping array of grants and contracts worth billions of dollars with no plans to let up. Then, in late May, Trump moved to prohibit international students from enrolling at Harvard. Harvard has filed lawsuit after lawsuit to stop Trump from destroying ...
Jun 05, 2025•26 min
When we think about being young, we picture a time of exploration and discovering who we are. What we don't picture? Cancer. But there's a worrying trend in the cancer world with young adults getting cancer at higher rates, and scientists don't know why. Kelly Spill was 28 years old when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. She was pregnant when she first noticed symptoms. Doctor after doctor told her not to worry. When she was finally diagnosed, her cancer was Stage 3. This week on “Say Mo...
May 29, 2025•35 min
For years, journalist Larry Ingrassia thought his family was tragically unlucky. His mother, two sisters, and brother all died of cancer. Later in life, he understood it was no coincidence: threaded throughout his family’s DNA was a hereditary cancer gene, vastly increasing their risk of the deadly disease. In this episode, Shirley talks to Larry about the moment he discovered the cause, the difficult choice of getting himself tested, and how greater knowledge of family history can lead to monit...
May 22, 2025•33 min
Cancer doctor Barrett Rollins only discovered the extent of his wife’s advanced cancer when she collapsed at work, revealing a football sized breast tumor. Barrett’s wife Jane, also a world-class cancer researcher, confounded her entire community when it was revealed that she had hidden her own cancer diagnosis for years, only sharing the truth when it was too late. On this episode of The C-Word: Stories of Cancer, Shirley and Barrett discuss the complex psychology of cancer, why people struggle...
May 15, 2025•32 min
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee became famous with his epic nonfiction book about cancer, “The Emperor of All Maladies.” The book shows that if there’s one constant in cancer research, it’s that it’s always changing. On this episode of “The C-Word: Stories of Cancer,” Shirley talks to Dr. Mukherjee about how his time living and working in Boston changed him as a doctor. They discuss the hopeful progress we’ve made in curing cancer - and the challenges that persist. Email us at [email protected].
May 08, 2025•30 min
Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung is generally open about her personal life. But this is the first time she is talking publicly about her own experience with breast cancer. She was treated in Boston hospitals and underwent a mastectomy. Like so many others, she will spend the rest of her life getting tested to make sure she stays cancer-free. In this first episode of The C-Word: Stories of Cancer, Shirley talks about the things that surprised her about cancer, and the ways the disease changed...
May 01, 2025•30 min
If it's an important slice of American history, you can bet Ken Burns has made a documentary about it. The list is nearly endless. From baseball to jazz, Mark Twain to Ernest Hemingway, the Civil War to the Dust Bowl. Now, he's going back to the beginning. Burns’s upcoming documentary series, out later this year, will explore the Revolutionary War with a focus on the lesser-known characters of the revolution. Burns tells the Globe’s editorial page editor Jim Dao that this new film is the most im...
Apr 24, 2025•29 min
Today, we’re sharing the first episode of the brand new podcast Spotlight: Snitch City, produced by The Boston Globe's award-winning Spotlight team. In this specific episode, you’ll find yourself on the docks of New Bedford, Massachusetts, hearing whispers about a rogue police officer harassing fishermen and stealing drugs, all of which come to a head one late night aboard a scalloping boat. The officer forces his way on board, saying an informant told him there would be drugs on board, and dema...
Apr 17, 2025•56 min
When it comes to the war on drugs, you could say the police are addicted to confidential informants. That’s the conclusion of a new Boston Globe Spotlight investigation into the pervasive and shadowy world of this police practice that is widely used and barely regulated. The story starts in New Bedford Massachusetts, where use of informants has had dramatic consequences. This week on Say More, podcast host Jazmin Aguilera speaks to Spotlight reporters Dugan Arnett and Andrew Ryan about their inv...
Apr 10, 2025•32 min
Being a working parent can be a rewarding joy, but it’s also an endless challenge. This week, Say More is happy to share its first LIVE show, recorded from the Boston Globe’s inaugural Working Mothers Summit in Boston. In the episode, Shirley talks to Mayor Michelle Wu about her decision to parent in public, even bringing baby Mira on stage. Then, Shirley sits down with state Attorney General Andrea Campbell about her office’s efforts to reign in social media - for the health and safety of kids....
Mar 30, 2025•32 min
Canadian Journalist Stephen Marche says he’s experiencing the most powerful moment of Canadian politics in his lifetime. The trigger has been Donald Trump’s presidency and his antagonistic stance towards Canada, one of the US’s closest historic allies and trading partners. On this episode of Say More, Shirley talks to Marche about the ways Canadians are reacting to Trump’s aggression, their fear and heartbreak, and what the future holds for Canada in a new political world order. Email us at saym...
Mar 27, 2025•29 min
Massachusetts has one of the oldest and most successful publicly run lottery systems in the country. It shouldn’t surprise you that per adult, MA residents spend more on the lottery than any other state, by a wide margin. But if you dig into the numbers, the problems with the lottery system start to become visible - tickets are more likely to be bought by low-income people, and the revenue that’s generated is not distributed fairly. On Say More this week, Shirley is joined by Ian Coss, host of t...
Mar 19, 2025•33 min
Former New York Times Beijing bureau chief Jane Perlez will pay $1 million to whoever knows what President Trump will do when it comes to China. Ok, not really, but Jane says Trump’s plans are hugely important, and anyone’s guess. Jane is now a fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, and is the host of the podcast, Face-Off: The U.S. vs China. This week on Say More, Jane talks to The Boston Globe’s editorial page editor Jim Dao about why China is so important to the U.S., and what she thi...
Mar 13, 2025•26 min
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was called to Washington this week to answer questions about Boston’s so-called "sanctuary city” status. At a Congressional hearing, she, and 3 other blue-city mayors, were grilled by Republicans who say that Boston’s lack of collaboration with federal immigration officials puts residents in danger. Wu refuted this point, and defended her policies. On Say More this week, host Shirley Leung talks to Globe national political reporter Jim Puzzanghera about the politics of t...
Mar 07, 2025•26 min
The first days of the COVID pandemic feel like a movie looking back: we watched in horror as the virus ravaged China, Italy, and Iran - and wondered if we would be next. Now, five years later, we know what happened: the economy suffered from a prolonged shutdown, more than one million Americans died, and political polarization reached an all-time high. One person leading us through the chaos was physician Ashish Jha, the Dean of the Brown School of Public Health. He was a regular contributor to ...
Feb 27, 2025•34 min
The story of Sandra Birchmore may never have made headlines if it wasn’t for Laura Crimaldi, a Boston Globe reporter who spent years following the trail of Birchmore’s life and tragic death. While Birchmore’s death was originally ruled as a suicide, follow up investigations showed she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a married Stoughton police officer, starting when she was a minor. This new line of investigation uncovered years of mistreatment by multiple officers and had Sand...
Feb 20, 2025•30 min
Michelle Wu is the first Boston Mayor to have a baby while in elected office, and while it was unprecedented, it wasn’t much of a news story. Pregnancy is increasingly normalized for powerful women, which is a sign of progress. But Wu’s decision to forgo maternity leave brings up important questions about the politics of motherhood: Can a champion of paid family leave justify not taking it herself? Is having a baby an asset or a liability on the campaign trail? Three working mothers – Globe colu...
Feb 12, 2025•29 min
Surveys show that more and more Americans put down the bottle this January to try out drinking less. For some people, the goal was sobriety, and for others, moderation. Researchers are finding that alcohol consumption is going down in general across the population after spiking during the pandemic. Helping the cause are some stark recommendations from top health officials saying alcohol can cause cancer. Shirley takes a trip to a non-alcoholic bottle shop in Boston to try some mocktails, and lat...
Feb 06, 2025•24 min
Writer Jenny Boylan is perplexed about why trans people “finding their peace” has resulted in such outrage from much of the American public. She moves forward in the only way she knows how: by continuing to write and tell stories about the humanity of the trans experience. Jenny transitioned 25 years ago and in that time she has seen the culture change dramatically when it comes to treatment of trans people. In some ways it’s gotten better, and in some ways it’s gotten worse. Jenny talks to edit...
Jan 30, 2025•30 min
It happened. Trump was sworn in as 47th president of the United States, as only the second person in history to serve non-consecutive terms. Trump laid out a detailed list of priorities during his speech, but it’s still unclear what he will actually do, and what the Trump 2.0 coalition will look like. Will he stick to his populist roots? Or continue cozying up to billionaires? Will we see a new resistance to Trump from the left? Or a great resignation? For this week’s episode of the Say More pod...
Jan 23, 2025•30 min
You wrote in, and we read everything. Say More’s THE COMMENT SECTION is a monthly exploration of the many forms of reader engagement found within the pages of Boston Globe Opinion. This week, we talked to columnist Marcela García about her pet stories. Recently, Marcela covered a fraught court case about pet euthanasia, and hundreds of readers wrote in about their own experiences. We also checked in with Globe Letters editor Matthew Bernstein to hear some of his favorite letters of the month. Em...
Jan 16, 2025•34 min
In modern US politics, no one’s star has risen and fallen more times than Joe Biden’s. His life has been defined by the worst personal tragedy and the greatest professional success. After decades in politics, Biden leaves office with arguably his biggest failure, the loss of the presidency to Donald Trump. Will this final failure define the Biden presidency? Or will we think about him differently with time? This week on Say More editorial page editor Jim Dao talks to Biden biographer Frank Foer ...
Jan 09, 2025•30 min
The last 12 months were tumultuous on Harvard’s campus: pro-Palestinian encampments took over the quad, students were suspended, and a university president lost her job. If those things weren’t enough, the story coincided with conservative activism happening throughout the country working against diversity programs - with a particular eye on Harvard. Could the events of the last year foreshadow the future of DEI on campus and beyond? This week on Say More, Shirley talks to Ilya Marritz, the repo...
Jan 02, 2025•31 min
Author Amy Tan doesn’t just watch birds, she “feels the life within them.” Amy’s new book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” takes us into her daily journal, drawing and musing on the lives of birds in her backyard in California. Shirley Leung talks to Amy about her breakthrough novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” the agony of fiction writing, and whether she considers herself an Asian-American writer or just a writer. Throughout her career, Amy has written extensively about mother-daughter relationships, ...
Dec 26, 2024•38 min
The murder of a healthcare CEO has led to an overdue conversation about health insurance in the US. The reaction to the news is revealing a visceral anger about the unfairness and dysfunction of how we pay for healthcare. What makes our system so frustrating for people? And what are the solutions? On Say More this week, host Shirley Leung turns to Casey Ross, an investigative reporter with Stat News and Dr. Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who runs the Lown Institute here in Massachusetts. Email us a...
Dec 19, 2024•28 min
Usually it’s easy to tell a con artist’s motivations. Some do it for money, power or access. Some, however, do it for reasons hard to understand. The Boston Globe recently exposed an incomprehensible con: a 33-year old-woman who posed as a destitute teenage high school student. Her name is Shelby Hewitt. She enrolled in public high school under different names and created the identities of two social workers to legitimize a fake harrowing backstory. But last year it all came crashing down, leavi...
Dec 12, 2024•29 min
