Dear Sugars

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 fledgling U.S. government created the gun industry in the Northeast, and how that industry has been partners with the government ever since. Host Alain Stephens examines how this 250-year relationship underpins all Americans’ interactions with guns — including our failures in dealing with the fallout of gun violence. The Gun Machine episodes drop every Wednesday, starting Oct. 4, 2023. Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts. https://link.chtbl.com/thegunmachine

Exploring the challenges of being in a relationship with an addict; the difficulty of honesty and trust; the experience of being married to an addict; challenges of dealing with an addict; longing for the past and understanding recovery.

Emily Rapp Black, a writer who decided to have another child after learning that her son had a fatal congenital disorder, joins the Sugars to read letters from parents coping with grief overshadowing their surviving children. They explore the complex emotions of living with grief and happiness simultaneously, the presence of the deceased in the lives of the living, open communication and honesty in parenting after loss, and finding new purpose amidst adversity.

The Sugars discuss struggles with body image and body acceptance, breaking free from body image obsession, trusting your body and letting go of control, and exploring hunger, appetite, satisfaction, and body negativity. They also address understanding body trust, embracing body acceptance, and challenging beauty standards.

"What do I want?" This is the question Oprah Winfrey finally asked herself, after years of struggling to say "no" to people in her life. In the second of this two-part series, the Sugars continue their conversation with Oprah Winfrey on when, why and how to say "no."

In this episode, the Sugars answer letters from letter writers who want to have sex less frequently than their partners do.

In the Empty Chair series, the Sugars discuss early childhood death, an absence that can be ever-present. In Part 1, they read letters from siblings who live in the the shadow of their parents’ grief. This episode was originally released on November 4th, 2017.

When the Sugars answered a letter from a woman who felt trapped in the role of "wicked stepmother," dozens of listeners wrote in asking the same question: what about the stepchildren, who have no control over the restructuring of their family? This episode, the Sugars respond with an episode devoted to the other side of the story.

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 parental alienation caused by divorce. They answer letters from a mother and a father whose daughters have cut off all communication with them after taking the other parent's side. This episode was originally released October 14th, 2016.

Dear Sugars fans: We wanted to share with you an episode from Love Letters, hosted by Boston Globe advice columnist Meredith Goldstein, that we think you'll enjoy.