SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
You'll spot something rare at the entrance to the Boston Public Library at Copley Square - a phone booth. And if you go into the booth and pick up the silver payphone receiver, it'll dial a number, and this is what you'll hear.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: This booth is for anonymously sharing problems or feelings or lingering questions just like you would to an advice column.
SIMON: Since February, there have been more than 1,000 calls.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: How can I make my boyfriend propose to me without being too pushy but still being polite?
SIMON: The project is called the Tell-A-Booth. That's T-E-L-L. And it was created by Meredith Goldstein, an advice columnist at The Boston Globe, who joins us now.
Meredith, thanks so much for being with us.
MEREDITH GOLDSTEIN: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: What made you think we need a phone booth in 2026?
GOLDSTEIN: I am 48. Part of my life is with the cellphone, and I had a small era where people used payphones, but I grew up as a child seeing phone booths on screen. So Superman would run into a phone booth. "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" - there's this time travel element to a phone booth, and it's very confessional-like. You close the door and there's privacy. So part of this experiment was making an accessible booth but also one where you shut the door and had a second to think.
SIMON: And what can you tell us about the messages? What's the range of things you hear about?
GOLDSTEIN: I was shocked. People go in there and they think they have nothing to say. They're going in for the novelty, they're picking up the phone, they see it more as an Instagram possibility. Then they pick up the phone and they wait one beat and then they tell me everything. They tell me about friendships that they miss. They tell me about problems in their relationship. Some people are very excited to tell me happy things about how much they love a partner.
From about 3 to 8 p.m., it's college students, which should not shock me because they're at the Boston Public Library studying. They'll tell me about academic stresses. But a lot of young people talk about community building and how scared they are to find friends, reach out to people. They're DMing each other on a social media platform, but they don't know if they've made a real human connection. I just feel like a fly on the wall and very grateful that people are sharing their human experiences in a way that makes me feel a lot less alone about my own problems.
SIMON: And what happens to the messages?
GOLDSTEIN: So I have told people, as an advice columnist and relationship journalist, I will take your question and I will respond to it in the column if that's what you want. There are some people who just want to scream into the void, and that's OK, too. I've actually had a lot of people just go in there and sing, which I think is their own therapy. But people will ask, you know, I'm really wondering if I should move in with my partner, and I'm scared and here's why. And I will put that in the advice column. And frankly, I think these are people who might never write into an advice column otherwise, but they feel safe in this phone booth to ask the question they may be afraid to write down.
SIMON: As a "Law & Order" fan, I have to ask you this - anybody confess to a crime?
GOLDSTEIN: No one has confessed to a - I am also a huge "Law & Order" fan, so I love that you asked that. No one has confessed to a crime, but people have confessed to not liking people they have brought to the library. We've had a bunch of people say, I really don't like my best friend. They're standing right outside the phone booth. And this - I shouldn't laugh, but I have to a little bit. They're venting. And I will also say that there are plenty of tourists in Boston who use this phone booth around the Boston Marathon, so many people from out of town, those people share the most because they're on vacation.
SIMON: Oh.
GOLDSTEIN: So they feel very free with their feelings, and that's been a riot for me to hear some of these messages.
SIMON: What do you think these messages say about us these days?
GOLDSTEIN: I think we're all moving too quickly. I think everybody feels that way. And so often, all it takes is five seconds to take a deep breath and then think, what am I feeling? What am I thinking? And sometimes we need a physical space to do that. So closing the door and saying, OK, I actually do have something on my mind, I think it tells me that we're all longing for connection and sometimes afraid or lazy about taking the next step. So many of these people are saying, I have friends, I just don't call them. So maybe with that, maybe saying it out loud means they'll do it.
SIMON: Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe, thank you so much for being with us.
GOLDSTEIN: Thank you for having me.
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