Say More The Boston Globe

Sex therapist Emily Nagoski didn’t set out to be an expert on stress. But it turns out, stress is affecting peoples’ sex lives, big time. After helping her sister Amelia through two life-threatening burnout episodes, the two got together to write a book about the science of stress and how it leads to burnout. For them, the journey to understanding stress became a deeper quest for sisterhood and meaning. Emily talks to Shirley about completing the stress cycle, the problem with self-care, and the connections between stress, sleep, and orgasm. Email us at Saymore@globe.com.

We are living in a time of deep uncertainty, marked by global conflicts, economic anxiety, and societal divisions. No wonder we're so uneasy. Founder and host of the “On Being” podcast Krista Tippett says these uncertain times require a larger spiritual quest for meaning and stillness in modern life. We inhabit a noisy, distracting world of Slacks and texts, and we need to learn how to get quiet. It’s surprisingly hard, and Krista shares her own journey managing burnout and “befriending reality” in all its glorious messiness. Then she sends listeners off with a benediction on burnout. Email us at Saymore@globe.com.

Cal Newport says we’ve been thinking about productivity all wrong. Cal is an MIT-trained computer scientist and bestselling author specializing in how to work better in our overstimulated world. In this second installment of Say More’s series, BEATING BURNOUT, Shirley talks to Cal about the ways the modern office worker is primed for professional burnout, how hybrid work makes it worse and what we can do about it. He’s not a luddite by any stretch, but he says we should quit social media, and leave our phones behind whenever possible. Cal’s new book is called Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout.
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Harvard Medical School Dr. Aditi Nerurkar says “COVID accelerated everything,” and now 7 in 10 Americans are facing burnout and stress. While many of us expected the post-pandemic period to be a big party, Dr. Nerurkar explains why many of us are still struggling. And why some of us feel even worse than we did before. In the first installment of Say More’s four-part series BEATING BURNOUT, Dr. Nerurkar shares her own journey of becoming a doctor of stress, which started with treating herself. Stress is serious, she says, but not a permanent state. Her new book is called “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience.” Email us at Saymore@globe.com.

If you ever thought opera was a dead art, you have never talked to Nina Yoshida Nelsen, the new artistic director of the Boston Lyric Opera. Nina, who is Japanese-American, spent years feeling pigeon-holed playing Asian roles in Madame Butterfly but she says those feelings were just the start of an exciting conversation about the future of the art form. This week on Say More, Shirley talks to Nina about reimagining classics, exploring new stories, and singing in the shower. Email us at saymore@globe.com.

It’s hard to say the exact mix of mystery and intrigue that causes a true crime story to blow up. But one thing is true: the viral stories tell us something important about ourselves. Right now in Massachusetts, many people are fervently following the trial over whether Karen Read murdered her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. Some say she’s simply guilty, and some say she’s being elaborately framed by the police. Shirley Leung talks to Boston Globe reporter Sean Cotter and true crime podcaster Rebecca Lavoie about why this case has sparked so much interest. Email us at saymore@globe.com.