Alexandra Solomon: How to Have Flourishing Relationships (From the No Small Endeavors Podcast)

Zachary Reese is a social psychologist who studies close relationships. He also focuses on self-disclosure – meaning, what we share with others. Do you feel like you don’t know how to make friends at work? Do you wonder whether you should turn a professional experience into a more personal bond? Are you constantly wondering, “Did I say too much about myself?” and second-guessing what you tell people you just met? Listen as Meredith and Zachary talk about sharing … while sharing with each other. So meta.

In an exploration of all kinds of love, Meredith investigates love at work.She tries to figure out whether she loves her longtime coworker, Caffrey. Is Caffrey family? Is he simply a colleague? Does her relationship with Caffrey help her maintain strong connections in other parts of her life? Join this awkward discussion between two Globe employees who are not used to talking about their feelings for each other.We also hear a story from a Love Letters listener whose experience proves that love at work – among medical residents, specifically – isn’t like “Grey’s Anatomy” … but it is big and important.Remember, Love Letters has a Friends With Benefits Club with a free extra episodes, an ad-free experience, and swag. Sign up at Globe.com/loveletters/friendswithbenefits. We are grateful for all support.Also, please send a letter about what’s happening in your relationship life to our long-running advice column. You can submit anonymous questions to https://www.boston.com/question-for-meredith/. When you ask a question, you help others feel less alone.Love Letters is a production of The Boston Globe. This short series about All Kinds of Love is brought to you in partnership with the Greater Good Science Center’s "Spreading Love Through the Media" initiative, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our last episode, we learned how loving a boy band can help us love each other.

Can boy bands fans save the world? Maybe. They can certainly save each other. In this episode, we meet Theresa Crockett, of California, who needed a kidney and found hope – and a lifeline – through her love of New Kids on the Block. This is a feel-good story about love between strangers (both of whom are “Blockheads”). It’s also about supportive spouses, family members, and a guy named Donnie Wahlberg.

Meredith has wondered: why do so many people despise their in-laws? Specifically … their mother-in-laws?To explore the topic, Meredith welcomes Janice Page, who tells a story about her mother-in-law, Yu Ying.Janice explains how she and her mother-in-law became close, despite not speaking the same language, and how they stayed connected over decades. Meredith and Janice discuss how to see extended family, and what relatives of partners can teach us about ourselves.