Dear Sugars
Psychology & Relationships
About
A podcast that fields all your questions and offers radical empathy in return.
Episodes
- Redux: Rapid Fire, Love & Money
When it comes to love, money is supposed to be no object. But there’s no disentangling love from anything in our lives, and income is no exception. So how do you assess the role money should play in a relationship, and what happens when yo…
- Dear Sugars presents: "The Midnight Rebellion," a new adventure fiction podcast
Dear Sugars presents "The Midnight Rebellion," a new interactive fiction podcast for ages 7 and up. Set 100 years in the future, the story explores choices and consequences with stakes involving the planet itself, rooted in real science.
- Repost: Sex & Aging
Dear Sugars addresses the common misconception that waning libidos in women over sixty are solely due to age. With Dr. Pepper Schwartz, they explore the realities of sex and aging, discussing the impact of menopause, the aging body, and cu…
- Repost: Change Is A Work In Progress
This episode checks in on past letter writers, including a 17-year-old facing drug use and eviction and a mother who previously struggled with motherhood. The Sugars reconnect to see if the teenager avoided eviction and how the mother
- Repost: Should I Stay Or Go?
Dear Sugars reposts a "Rapid Fire" episode from September 9, 2016. The hosts provide brief answers to letters focused on the theme of deciding whether to leave a relationship.
- Throwback: How Do I Find The Courage To Be My Own Guide?
Dear Sugars revisits a 2016 episode where they discuss existential questions about following one's heart. With guest India Arie, the show explores how to become your own guide.
- Rewind: Pet Dilemmas with Julia Barton
This episode was originally published on August 26th, 2017. In this episode, adventures in animal ownership! The Sugars, along with Julie Barton — author of the memoir Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself — answer letters about pe…
- Rewind: Body Weight and Romance
This episode was originally released on August 19, 2017. It’s never easy to talk to our romantic partners about their bodies, especially when it’s about weight. The Sugars, along with writer Ashley C. Ford, answer letters from people quest…
- Episodes We Love: Love In Doubt (Rapid Fire)
How many times have you heard this: "I love him, we're great together, but..."? There's always room for doubt, even in the happiest of relationships. So this week, the Sugars take on some of those doubts in rapid-fire fashion. This episode…
- Rewind: The Other Half of Sexless Relationships
This episode was originally released on October 28th, 2017. Sex-starved, meet sex-hounded. Recently, the Dear Sugars inbox was flooded with responses to the two-part episode “Sexless Relationships” with Esther Perel. In those episodes, the…
- Rewind: Make the Call
In this encore "rapid fire" episode, the Sugars give brief answers to a handful of letters. This time, they challenge each other to make the call -- one way or the other -- on the questions they're discussing, rather than offer open-ended…
- Rewind: Buyer's Remorse
This episode was originally published on April 14th, 2018. Buzz Bissinger owns more than 100 pairs of leather pants and over 200 pairs of leather gloves, having spent more than $600,000 on leather goods in the span of three years. Mr. Biss…
- Rewind: Sex & Aging
This episode was originally released on May 25th, 2018. When two women in their sixties start losing interest in sex, their sex-starved partners become increasingly frustrated. Both women blame old age for their waning libidos. But is thei…
- Rewind: Talking About Privilege
This episode was originally published on August 11th, 2018. Privilege comes in many forms: socio-economic privilege, gender privilege, heterosexual privilege, to name a few. In this episode, the Sugars reply to two letter writers who are f…
- Introducing Say More’s “The C-Word: Stories of Cancer”
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from the new miniseries “ The C-Word: Stories of Cancer” from Say More , a podcast from The Boston Globe Opinion . In the first part of this series, host and award-winning columnist Shirley Leung talk…
- Rewind: Career Vs. Love
This episode was originally released on April 13th, 2017. You love your partner, you love your career... but they're pulling you in different directions. What do you do? Is it foolish to put your career on hold for the sake of your relatio…
- Introducing Other People’s Problems from CBC Podcasts
Hi, Dear Sugars listeners, this is Amory Sivertson.. Host of WBUR's Beyond All Repair and co-host of Endless Thread . I'm here to share something special with you this week. It’s an episode of Other People’s Problems, from our friends at C…
- Rewind: The Great Reckoning
This episode was originally published on July 28th, 2018. Dear Sugars returned to Portland, Oregon, for an epic live show. Special guests Mitchell S. Jackson and Rebecca Skloot shared the stage with the Sugars to tell stories of personal r…
- Rewind: Haunted By Ghosting
This episode was originally published on March 16th, 2017. The term "ghosting" may be relatively new, but the concept -- someone suddenly and inexplicably disappearing from your life -- is not. In the past, a total halt to communication wi…
- Rewind: I Divorced My Spouse, And My Child Divorced Me
This episode was originally released October 14th, 2016. Divorce is always a painful process, but it's especially so when there are children in the middle. In this favorite episode from the archives, the Sugars discuss situations of parent…
- Rewind: Emotional Labor
This episode was originally published on May 5th, 2018. Remembering the grocery list, coordinating with the babysitter, making food for the potluck, scheduling a get-together with the in-laws: These are some of the invisible tasks that (mo…
- Redux: Trust Your Body
This episode was originally released on June 11, 2018. Her doctor categorized her as overweight when she was 5 years old. Her grandmother always introduced her as the “chubby one.” As an adult, she vacillates between moderation and binge-e…
- Redux: Sex & Aging
This episode was originally released on May 25th, 2018. When two women in their sixties start losing interest in sex, their sex-starved partners become increasingly frustrated. Both women blame old age for their waning libidos. But is thei…
- Episodes We Love: Rapid Fire — Love & Money
This episode was originally released on July 21st, 2018. When it comes to love, money is supposed to be no object. But there’s no disentangling love from anything in our lives, and income is no exception. So how do you assess the role mone…
- Episodes We Love: Do I Follow My Head Or My Heart?
Cheryl and Steve are no longer dishing out new advice, but we're listening back to episodes we love every week. This episode was originally released November 6, 2015. ____ The Sugars get a letter from a young woman who has fallen head over…
- Redux: Rapid Fire Letters
This episode was originally released July 29th, 2017. ____ In a heated moment, a mother reveals a dark chapter from her childhood to her daughter, then immediately regrets it. What now? In this week’s episode, the Sugars tackle this and se…
- Rewind Rapid Fire: Love In Doubt
This episode was originally released on January 5, 2017. How many times have you heard this: "I love him, we're great together, but ..."? There's always room for doubt, even in the happiest of relationships. So in this episode, the Sugars…
- Rewind: How Do I Find The Courage To Be My Own Guide?
This episode was originally released September 23rd, 2016. The Sugars often discuss letters dealing with very specific problems or struggles. In this encore episode, they take on a broader, more existential question: how to follow your hea…
- From the archives: The Great Reckoning
This episode was originally published on July 28th, 2018. Special guests Mitchell S. Jackson and Rebecca Skloot share the stage with the Sugars to tell stories of personal reckoning and answer letters from the audience. To some extent, eve…
- Redux: Dark Fantasies, Part 2
This episode was originally released on January 20, 2018. “I’m a 24-year-old woman who is completely and embarrassingly aroused by people who are confined to wheelchairs,” writes a woman who calls herself “Wishing to be Seen.” In her paine…
- Redux: Dark Fantasies, Part 1
This episode was originally released on January 13, 2018. Orgies. Sex in public. Incest. These are the things that some of us think about in the dark. Taboo fantasies can be exciting, but they can also be the source of our deepest shame. I…
- Redux: Should I Intervene?
This episode was originally published on August 12th, 2017. When we decide to meddle, it can often backfire. The Sugars, along with the writer Meghan Daum, answer letters from people who see loved ones heading down the wrong path, but worr…
- Redux: Moving On, Part 2
his episode was originally released on August 25th, 2018. “Dear Sugars, I’m a serial codependent. I’ve married and had children with two addicts,” begins a letter signed by “Mommy Messed Up.” Over the years, her second husband began to wit…
- Redux: Moving On, Part 1
This episode was originally released on August 18th, 2018. The Sugars have been thinking about what it means to say goodbye and let go. In this first episode of our two-part series on moving on, the Sugars and Claire Bidwell Smith answer t…
- Rewind: Pet Dilemmas
This episode was originally published on August 26th, 2017. In this episode, adventures in animal ownership! The Sugars, along with Julie Barton — author of the memoir Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself — answer letters about pe…
- Redux: The Great Reckoning
This episode was originally published on July 28th, 2018. This was a live show recorded in Portland, Oregon. Special guests Mitchell S. Jackson and Rebecca Skloot share the stage with the Sugars to tell stories of personal reckoning and an…
- Redux: There's Just One Thing
This episode was originally released on May 26, 2018. In this "rapid fire" episode, the Sugars read letters from four women who each have one not-so-tiny reservation about the men they’re dating. A Black woman is dating a white man who is…
- Episodes We Love: 'Head Or The Heart' Update
This episode was originally published on August 12th, 2016. The Sugars hear the latest from "Head or the Heart" -- a woman who'd fallen head over heels for a man with a troubled childhood. Everything seemed perfect, and yet, she couldn't h…
- Redux: Body Weight and Romance
This episode was originally released on August 19, 2017. It’s never easy to talk to our romantic partners about their bodies, especially when it’s about weight. The Sugars, along with writer Ashley C. Ford, answer letters from people quest…
- Dear Sugars Presents: "Beyond All Repair", a new murder mystery podcast
Introducing Beyond All Repair, a new WBUR podcast from producer emeritus of Dear Sugars, Amory Sivertson. This series tells the story of a murder, but also the woman who was accused of that murder, Sophia. Sophia was newly married and 6 mo…
- Archive: When Your Loved Ones Just Don't 'Get It'
Our loved ones are the people who are supposed to understand us. But what if they just...can't? Where do we turn then, and how do we fight the feelings of resentment that this lack of understanding can stir up? This episode was originally…
- (Encore) Rapid Fire: Friendship, Part 2 - Male-Female Friendships
The Sugars' conversation on friendship continues with a handful of letters concerning male-female friendships. Is there such a thing as a platonic relationship between a heterosexual man and woman? Can male-female friendships be as emotion…
- (Redux) Rapid Fire: Friendship, Part 1 - FAQs
Everyone has had a friendship quandary of some sort in the past, right? This week, the Sugars take on frequently asked questions in "rapid fire" fashion – from hating your best friend's significant other, to hating her politics.
- Redux: The Stepchild's Dilemma
Whether you’re 5, 15, or 50 years old, it can be difficult to usher a stepparent in and out of the family unit. In today’s episode, the Sugars answer letters from stepchildren who have fraught relationships with their stepparents. What is…
- Encore: Buyer's Remorse
Buzz Bissinger owns more than 100 pairs of leather pants and over 200 pairs of leather gloves, having spent more than $600,000 on leather goods in the span of three years. Mr. Bissinger has a spending addiction, and he joins the Sugars to…
- Redux: Love In Doubt
How many times have you heard this: "I love him, we're great together, but..."? There's always room for doubt, even in the happiest of relationships. So this week, the Sugars take on some of those doubts in rapid-fire fashion. This episode…
- Redux: The Ugly Truth
Most of us have days when we don’t feel attractive. But in this episode, the Sugars read letters from people whose faces are at odds with conventional ideas of beauty. Writer Ariel Henley joins to talk about her own facial differences. Hen…
- Redux: Talking About Privilege
Privilege comes in many forms: socio-economic privilege, gender privilege, heterosexual privilege, to name a few. In this episode, the Sugars reply to two letter writers who are facing different forms of privilege. They discuss with Catric…
- Encore: Cutting The Financial Cord
At age 18, we are granted the rights and responsibilities of adulthood in the eyes of the law. But for parents of young adults, it’s not so clear cut. When is the right time to wean your children off the family payroll? The Sugars tackle t…
- Introducing ‘The Gun Machine’, a podcast about how America was forged by the gun industry
Produced by WBUR, Boston’s NPR, in partnership with The Trace, The Gun Machine looks into the past to bring you a story that most Americans never learned in history class: how early partnerships between mad scientist gunsmiths and a fledgl…