Dear Sugars

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. This episode was originally released on April 28th, 2018.

In this second episode of You Could Make This Beautiful, hosts Maggie Smith and Faith Salie talk to Peter Sagal, host of the NPR news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! about a prophetic reading at his first wedding, the poem that has haunted him throughout his life, and about the poetry he's found in the kindness and grace of his children. They also hear from poet and Harvard professor Stephanie Burt about how she found her way to poetry by way of science fiction, and how she's used the work of Taylor Swift to introduce her students to poets of centuries past like Alexander Pope. Show Notes (in chronological order): Maggie Smith on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W. B. Yeats "Ithaka" by C. P. Cavafy "The Illusion" by Tony Kushner "Most Like an Arch This Marriage" by John Ciardi Adrienne Rich's poems are "like dreams" quote Poet William Corbett "The Postmoderns: The New American Poetry Revised" by Donald M. Allen "The Crystal Lithium" by James Schuyler "The Elephant Man" on Broadway "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" with Alan Rickman "Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches" by Tony Kushner "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard "The Collar" by George Herbert "Poetry's Cross-dressing Kingmaker," The New York Times "Advice from the Lights" by Stephanie Burt, featuring "My 1979" Star Trek's "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" "We, in Some Strange Power's Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line" by Samuel R. Delany "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope "Look What You Made Me Do" by Taylor Swift "Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift "The Nancy Mace" by Stephanie Burt "Taylor's Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift" by Stephanie Burt Poetry Prescriptions Maggie's prescription: "Go to the Limits of Your Longing" from Rainer Maria Rilke's "Book of Hours" Faith's prescription: "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver If you want a hand-picked, heart-plucked "poetry prescription" to help you with something you're going through, send a brief voice memo to [email protected]. All three episodes of You Could Make This Beautiful are out now and can be heard HERE. This show is an experiment, so if you love what you've heard and want more episodes, let us know! Leave us a glowing review in your podcast app, share the series with friends, and write to us: [email protected].

We have something really special for you: a sneak preview of a new series we've been working on here at WBUR that we think you, in particular, will love. It's called You Could Make This Beautiful, and if that phrase sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it comes from the virally famous poem "Good Bones" by poet Maggie Smith. You Could Make This Beautiful is co-hosted by Maggie Smith and Faith Salie, whom you may know from NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! or CBS News Sunday Morning. The show is about making life more beautiful, but it's not about telling you how to do that; it's about showing you the way with poetry in all its forms — music, art, nature, you name it. The episodes feature poets, yes, but also actors like Henry Winkler, comedians like Mike Birbiglia, and teachers like Saeed Jones. We've made 3 episodes of You Could Make This Beautiful — so far, at least — and we'll be dropping all three of them right here in this feed, on August 7th. In the meantime, here's a little teaser, straight from Maggie and Faith. Enjoy, stay tuned, and you, too, could make this beautiful.

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. Bissinger has a spending addiction, but when he published his confessional in GQ magazine he was labeled an “obsessive,” a “fancy man,” and a “shopaholic.” Only when he was admitted into rehab did many people understand that he was struggling with a debilitating behavioral addiction. Spending addictions are similar to alcohol and drug addictions in that they have the power to destroy lives. Unlike with substance abuse issues, however, spending addictions are often minimized and disparaged. Mr. Bissinger joins the Sugars to offer guidance to a letter-writer whose therapist and family don’t take her spending seriously. “When I buy something or think about buying something I try to stop and say, What is really behind this?” advises Mr. Bissinger, adding, “Are you simply feeding shame and fear?”

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 facing different forms of privilege. They discuss with Catrice M. Jackson, a leading voice for racial justice.

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 relationship? Or is it more foolish to give up a great relationship for the sake of your career? Or, is there a way to have both? The Sugars discuss two letters from women in relatively new relationships who are having trouble deciding what to prioritize. They have help from psychotherapist and sociologist Leslie Bell, author of Hard to Get: 20-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom.