Love Letters

As an animal researcher, Meghan Martin made groundbreaking discoveries about how giant female pandas choose their mates. She realized that they wouldn’t shack up with just any old male. They wanted a choice. The same held true, she would learn, with rabbits, birds, and other species. The question for Meghan was this: Could she apply those lessons to the human world—to her own world? Plus, we visit...

Are more people considering polyamory these days? Has the pandemic permanently changed the ways we relate to each other? And can Esther Perel take some credit for Meredith's dating success? Meredith sits down with the psychotherapist, relationship expert, and all-around empathetic person to get into these questions and more. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. You can also send relationship questi...

In Part Two of our series on pro athletes and their spouses, we talk to Shannon Allen, the wife of former NBA superstar Ray Allen, about a bittersweet moment in their lives. Just as they were celebrating a historic NBA championship, they got some very scary medical news about their son. Where did Shannon turn for help? The answer may surprise you. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. You can also s...

What does it feel like to be the partner of a pro athlete? Where do you find support to handle the public pressure, the instability, the constant threat of being traded? Today, we bring you a two-part series on elite athletes, their spouses, and the people who help them. In Part One, we talk to Jordan Whitlock, the wife of Red Sox pitcher Garrett Whitlock. Jordan, who has a PhD in genetics, had to...

Ever since Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was a kid, music has played a major role in her life. “Eye of the Tiger” got her pumped for basketball games. She caught sets from Joan Baez and Melissa Etheridge working as a cocktail waitress. When she came out in her early 20s, she found solace in the Indigo Girls. These days, the governor uses music to center herself, especially at hard moments. She a...

Meredith’s advice column turns 15 this year. 15! So she’s feeling a little nostalgic. In this episode, Meredith sits down with longtime Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy to trade notes on the thousands of columns each has written over the years. They also compare grief in love to grief in sports, reflect on why sports reporters have always been big fans of Love Letters, and discuss the...

When it came time for Sophia to leave a difficult relationship, she knew she couldn’t do it alone. So she assembled a first-rate team, made up of friends, acquaintances, family members, and therapists. Having all of them behind her not only set Sophia free; it gave her back her future. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael and Alessandra were both single, bored, and lonely when they got together in mid-2020. It was the height of the pandemic; everyone craved companionship. But in time, Michael and Alessandra discovered that they were better as good friends. And what do good friends do? They help you find true love. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

A bonus episode via the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Kelly sits down with Krista Tippett, the longtime host and spiritual guide of On Being, which began as a radio program and is now a podcast. At a moment when everything is broken open, when institutions are received with less reverence and more skepticism, Kelly and Krista consider: Where should we point our minds and hearts? What practices s...

When Nimish left Nepal for college in the United States, he expected some serious challenges, like adjusting to a new culture and studying in a new language. Finding love was not top-of-mind. But as he got older and started to date more, Nimish’s romantic life became his biggest source of anxiety. Because with each budding relationship came an all-consuming question: How do I explain this to my pa...

A few years ago, while at summer camp in North Carolina, Ray was wrestling with some of life’s biggest questions. Identity, love, growing up, a first kiss — Ray had a lot on their mind, and no one to confide in. Until they met Maria, a counselor clad in sandals and tie-dye who would become Ray’s mentor, guide, life coach, and cheerleader, all wrapped into one. In this first episode of the new seas...

1989 Boston. The crack epidemic is raging, the murder rate soaring, and white flight has taken hold. Charles Stuart and his pregnant wife, Carol, are carjacked, drawn deep into a dangerous “inner city” neighborhood, and allegedly shot by a Black man. All of Boston – and the nation – is gripped by the hunt for the suspect. What follows will reveal truths about the city... and ourselves. Presented b...

Almost every love story has a supporting cast — friends, relatives, therapists, and others who play a key role in what happens. In Season 9 of Love Letters, we pay tribute to those important figures in the background. You’ll hear all kinds of stories about help and guidance people received in their romantic lives, from an ex who became the perfect wingperson, to the communities that support the sp...

It’s Meredith against the world in this bonus episode as she attempts to prove why a viral list of places women will supposedly never go on a first date is wrong, and why The Cheesecake Factory – that’s right, The Cheesecake Factory – is a totally acceptable date spot. To pull this off, she takes her producer, Jesse, to one of her most beloved spots for a platonic work-date. They discuss everythin...

Meredith sits down with her sister, Brette, to tackle two family-themed letters from the Love Letters column. First, a woman feels some tension with her future sister-in-law. Second, a writer discovers that her boyfriend and her mother had a one-night-stand in the past. Should the woman confront her mom? Does the mom even remember this guy? How are they going to make it through the holidays? Send...

Meredith sits down with comedians Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds, co-hosts of the popular new podcast “We’re Here to Help.” Gareth and Jake — who played Nick Miller on the hit show "New Girl" — are longtime friends who bonded doing improv together. Their podcast is a lot like them: fun, silly, sometimes accidentally poignant. Meredith, Jake, and Gareth compare their approaches to advice-giving a...

For the final episode in our series “We Found Love,” we explore the psychology behind prison relationships, a proposed law in Massachusetts that would eliminate life sentences without parole, and the story of an incarcerated man who’s wrestling with the pressures of a young relationship. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Venus and Cornelius have been together for more than six years and engaged for five. They dream of seeing the world together, buying a house, and making their union official. But whether any of those things will ever happen is unclear, because Cornelius is serving a life sentence for murder without the possibility of parole. In Episode Two of the three-part series “We Found Love,” Boston Globe cri...

The first chapter of “We Found Love,” a three-part miniseries exploring how romantic love and partnership run up against – and sometimes transcend – the criminal justice system. Through the stories of three couples, at all different stages in their relationships, Boston Globe reporter Ivy Scott dives deep into what it takes to find love in a hopeless place. In today’s episode, she tells the story...

Meredith sits down with director Susanna Fogel to discuss Susanna’s new movie, "Cat Person," based on the buzzy 2017 short story by Kristen Roupenian in The New Yorker. They discuss Susanna’s decision to cast Nicholas Braun and Emilia Jones as romantic leads; the role that friends play in sussing out potential partners; and why "Cat Person," the story, stirred so much contentious debate — Susanna...

On the next season of Love Letters, we’ll be featuring stories about the important role help and guidance from others plays in our relationship choices and love lives, from therapy and professional interventions to advice and assistance from friends, family members, and confidantes. If you have a story about a time someone helped you in your romantic life — or maybe a story about how you gave assi...

Shirley Leung, a business columnist who hosts Say More — a new podcast from Boston Globe Opinion — sits down with Meredith for a few final reflections on love and money, the theme of Season 8 of Love Letters. Also, listeners weigh in with their takes on the season. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. Find Say More wherever you listen to podcasts, or at globe.com/saymore. Learn more about your ad c...

Meredith makes a guest appearance on the podcast Meditative Story, a show that tells human stories but with meditation prompts. Vampires, naming squirrels, the death of her mother — it all comes out. Email us at loveletters@boston.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meredith visits her sister, Brette, on the West Coast, where Brette is recuperating from knee surgery. Together they tackle a letter from a writer who, after a series of serious relationships, wants a year of just being single. But what if that means missing out on a connection of a lifetime? Send your own letter to loveletters@boston.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

Erica Spates and Sam Littenberg-Weisberg have been professional television writing partners for 13 years. Together, they’ve co-written dozens of TV episodes, pitched and run their own Netflix series, and even won a couple Emmys. They are also married, which means they understand both the emotional highs of working with your partner and the financial lows – like the ongoing Hollywood writers' strik...