Say More

Say More

Big ideas and big debates, explained through intimate conversations with the compelling personalities who shape them. AI and biotech. Higher education and health care. Climate and sustainability. Politics and the media. Culture and culture wars. Hosted by Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung.

Episodes

February 5, 2026 29 mins
Higher education is in crisis. Trust in universities is low, tuition prices are out of reach for many Americans, and there are accusations of ideological bias on campus. Harvard University’s democracy expert Danielle Allen says this crisis is not just an educational problem, it threatens our entire country. Allen said she was excited to hear Trump calling for a new compact between the government and higher ed - but she has notes. T...
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What does justice mean when a mentally ill person takes a life? Before Lindsay Clancy killed her three children in Duxbury, there was another case. In 2018, a mother in Brockton, Latarsha Sanders, killed her two young sons while in the midst of a psychotic episode. But the tragedy didn’t end with their deaths. A dubious interrogation and a jury trial portraying Sanders as “evil” resulted in a first degree murder verdict. Boston Glo...
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President Trump 2.0 hit its first anniversary this week, and true to form, the President is making a splash. With ICE raids domestically, and brash confrontations of world leaders on the global stage, Trump is throwing his weight around, and continuing to push the limits of executive power. This week on Say more, opinion editor Jim Dao talks to Globe politics reporter James Pindell and Ideas writer Abdallah Fayyad about what the fa...
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Freddy Guevara has been in exile for more than 5 years. As a leader of a major opposition party in Venezuela, he was targeted and jailed by the Maduro government. Now, he and many other Venezuelans are watching as Maduro faces charges in a US court. This week on Say More, Guevara talks to opinion page editor Jim Dao about how Venezuelans are feeling about Trump’s moves in their country, and other thoughts about the so-called intern...
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Writer Dennis Lehane has written iconic books set in the working class Boston neighborhoods of his childhood. His latest book, Small Mercies, takes on the violence and racism he saw during busing. He says the things he witnessed turned him into the writer he is today. This week on Say More, Anna Kusmer talks to Lehane about his new Apple TV+ show Smoke, what makes good writing, and movies with the worst Boston accents. Email us at ...
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From whistleblowing corporate malfeasance to tackling a mass shooter, courage takes many forms. What do we need to be our boldest selves? Is courage innate or can it be learned? This week on Say More, host Shirley Leung digs into the research with Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati. His new book is called, “How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage.” Email us at saymore@globe.com.
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Usually after a mass shooting, Ieva Jusionyte has a lot to say. Ieva is a scholar of gun violence at Brown University and is no stranger to the terrible power of firearms. But when a mass shooting took place at her place of work, in a building where she teaches, the words fell away. This week on Say More, Ieva talks to Opinion Editor Jim Dao about why solutions need to go beyond policy and address the deeper culture. Email us at sa...
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Globe business columnist Larry Edelman says if we do have a recession in 2026, it won’t be a crash - more like air leaking out of a big balloon. This week on Say More, host Shirley Leung gets a vibe check on the economy with the author of the Globe’s popular Trendlines newsletter. Larry says consumer spending is up, the numbers are not bad, but the vibes are not great. Email us at saymore@globe.com.  Sign up for Trendlines here.
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December 11, 2025 28 mins
Writer Gish Jen recently had a revelation about her novels: her characters often talk to the dead. But in her most recent work, Bad Bad Girl, the dead talk back. In this book, Jen fictionalizes real details of her mother’s life, immigrating from China to the US in the 1940s and raising a big Chinese American family. The result is an exploration of a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the elusive grasp of the American Dream. ...
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As Americans, we are at our best when we’re engaged with the world - confident and curious. So says Marco Werman, the long-time host of public radio program The World, based at GBH here in Boston. Recent cuts to public media funding mean programs like The World are in trouble, with fewer resources to tell deep stories about the complexities and diversity of our planet, and less awareness about America’s place in it. This week on Sa...
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Recording LIVE from Globe Summit, Shirley Leung talks to Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen about what makes his company stand apart. Activism has been part of the ice cream company’s DNA since launching with Jerry Greenfield four decades ago. While it may turn some customers away, it’s a worthy price to pay staying true to your values, says Ben. Now, Ben is working to #FreeBenAndJerry’s from large corporate owners to try to return ...
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Globe columnist Kevin Cullen has written countless stories about veterans, but one recent story was the most powerful he’s ever told. This week on Say More, Cullen talks to Globe’s Opinion Editor Jim Dao about one Boston veteran who spent decades finding peace after a devastating experience in Vietnam. Cullen talks about his own motivations for telling these types of stories, and his grief and anger about the treatment of veterans ...
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When we think of middle class life, several things come to mind: owning a home, stable childcare, food in the pantry, a sense of security. But as the rich get richer in Massachusetts, the middle class is falling further behind, and making ends meet is no longer a given. People are angry, and politicians seem to be waking up to the crisis. Say More host Shirley Leung talks to the Boston Globe’s Money, Power,Inequality team about the...
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When New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was asked in a debate which democratic politician was most effective, he answered, “Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.” Wu and Mamdani are both young, progressive and unapologetically ambitious about their visions for their respective cities. They both captured vast coalitions and are being watched closely by the rest of the country, to see if progressive ideas can really translate into policy. Wu ha...
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Today, we’re sharing the first episode from My Home Fronts , a podcast from journalist Romy Neumark. My Home Fronts is a four-parts documentary podcast series tracing the student founder of "Jews for Palestine" at Harvard during the Gaza war - and the generational gap it reveals within American Jewish families. Episode 1, "Meeting Violet": An unexpected encounter between Israeli journalist Romy Neumark and student activist Vi...
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The Israel-Hamas war took place more than 5,000 miles away from here, but you wouldn’t know that from the intensity of protests happening on US college campuses. Israeli journalist Romy Neumark works at Harvard University, and was curious to understand her own blind spots about how Israel is perceived in Jewish American homes. In Neumark’s new podcast “My Home Fronts,” she attempts to detangle a complex web of values, worldviews an...
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After years of lobbying, Massachusetts has convinced toy company Hasbro to move its global headquarters from Rhode Island to Boston. Massachusetts is the historic home of many iconic toy companies, like Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, and now, Hasbro joins Lego for another era of toy making. The question is, should we really be celebrating stealing business from our little neighbor to the south? Say More host Shirley Leung talk...
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October 16, 2025 28 mins
The exact causes of autism are unknown - but you wouldn’t know that from listening to President Trump and his health secretary RFK Jr., who recently announced Tylenol was to blame. The science behind the announcement is not solid - but more troublingly, it falls into an old pattern of blaming mothers for autism, which creates a culture of stigma, says Maura Sullivan, CEO of The Arc of Massachusetts, an advocacy group for people wit...
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The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has announced a major reshuffle of its American Revolutionary War galleries. The goal, it says, is to tell an ‘inclusive’ story of America’s founding. Meanwhile, in Washington, President Trump has threatened the Smithsonian over similar moves. Globe editorial page editor Jim Dao talks to Ethan Lasser, curator of American Art at the MFA, about the museum’s plans and the threat of government censorship....
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This is a re-run of the first episode of our series "The C-Word" which originally aired May 1, 2025. 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 st...
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