This 24-7-365 cycle of news might be burning out your soul, so here's a pick-me-up for your ears.

Love Letters from Our Friends at the Boston Globe.

In Love Letters, host and longtime reporter Meredith Goldstein explores how real people navigate

their lives in this crazy cuckoo world.

She tells stories like the husbands who turned 40 and decided to build an adult-sized

ball pit for himself in his basement.

And Meredith, as the good reporter, asks, how might that affect one's marriage?

And does that count as a midlife crisis?

They have lessons for everyone and just make the world feel like a better place, a more human

place.

So find the Boston Globe's love letters wherever you get your podcast.

Maybe you'll find you have a story to tell too.

It's Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 from Peach Fish Productions.

It's the gist I'm Mike Peska.

Ali Larajani, the most powerful political figure remaining in Iran,

was targeted and killed by Israeli strikes the other day. Some accounts say assassinated. That's

inaccurate. The two countries are at war, even if it's not been formally declared, and

Larajani was leading an enemy combatant's effort to kill Israelis and others in the region.

This is what happens during war, which makes more flummoxing the confusion over why.

And so what is Israel trying to achieve with this type of strategy?

I mean, they've taken out Iran's supreme leader, Ali Hamina, a couple of weeks ago, a war that has proved much more complex than was perhaps anticipated, has continued to take out another senior leader.

I mean, what do we think we can understand about its ambitions?

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