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How this Boston Public Library 'Tell-A-Booth' creates a comforting space for visitors

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Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics How this Boston Public Library ‘Tell-A-Booth’ creates a comforting space for visitors A phone booth has been installed at the Boston Public Library where visitors can leave messages. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Meredith Goldstein from the Boston Globe about her project. National How this Boston Public Library 'Tell-A-Booth' creates a comforting space for visitors May 2, 20267:45 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday Scott Simon How this Boston Public Library ‘Tell-A-Booth’ creates a comforting space for visitors Listen &middot; 4:26 4:26 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5805044/nx-s1-9754114" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript A phone booth has been installed at the Boston Public Library where visitors can leave messages. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Meredith Goldstein from the Boston Globe about her project.
− Sponsor Message SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The U.S.
+ Sponsor Message SCOTT SIMON, HOST: You'll spot something rare at the entrance to the Boston Public Library at Copley Square - a phone booth.
− is going to need about 130% more electricity by 2030 to meet the demands of the boom in artificial intelligence.
+ 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.
− Tech companies in the federal government are investing billions in new nuclear power plants.
+ That's T-E-L-L.
− One now under construction in Wyoming just got a federal license and its backers say it will prove the advanced technology makes nuclear plants safer and quicker to build. NPR's Kirk Siegler paid a visit.
+ And it was created by Meredith Goldstein, an advice columnist at The Boston Globe, who joins us now.
− (SOUNDBITE OF FLAG FLAPPING IN THE WIND) KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: The infamous Wyoming wind is whipping an American flag hoisted above the construction site of what's only the fourth nuclear reactor to be built in the U.S. this century.
+ Meredith, thanks so much for being with us.
− (SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY BEEPING) SIEGLER: One of the first in a new generation of advanced designs.
+ MEREDITH GOLDSTEIN: Thank you for having me.
− CHRIS LEVESQUE: And that's where the reactor goes.
+ SIMON: What made you think we need a phone booth in 2026?
− SIEGLER: Washington state-based TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates, says this will be the first of many - part of a new nuclear renaissance they want to bring to longtime energy exporting states like Wyoming.
+ GOLDSTEIN: I am 48.
− Meet CEO Chris Levesque, with his bright smile and bundle of enthusiasm about all things advanced nuclear. LEVESQUE: Yeah.
+ 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.
− We weren't even allowed to do excavation in this footprint out here until we got the NRC license. SIEGLER: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave TerraPower final approval to begin construction in March.
+ So Superman would run into a phone booth.
− Now, this capped five years of studies and safety demonstrations and a decision to site the plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which won bids over numerous other Western towns.
+ "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.
− LEVESQUE: There's a whole different story to begin with, is having communities vying for a nuclear power plant, you know, 'cause the old story on nuclear was more of a not-in-my-backyard thing. SIEGLER: Levesque, who came to TerraPower after a career in the legacy nuclear industry, thinks new technologies and demand for low-emission power is changing this.
+ SIMON: And what can you tell us about the messages?
− Almost everything here will be buried underground, and they'll use liquid sodium metal instead of water to cool the reactor.
+ What's the range of things you hear about?
− LEVESQUE: I'd have to say milestones like this really show people that, yeah, this is a new technology, but we're doing it.
+ GOLDSTEIN: I was shocked.
− We're hitting our milestones.
+ People go in there and they think they have nothing to say.
− It's real, and people can start to work this into their plans. SIEGLER: Once online in 2031, Levesque says this plant will make enough electricity for a utility to power almost half a million homes in nearby Salt Lake City.
+ They're going in for the novelty, they're picking up the phone, they see it more as an Instagram possibility.
− And TerraPower has agreements with Meta to build up to eight more reactors to power the company's data centers, specifically.
+ 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.
− LEVESQUE: Since we were selected by Department of Energy, we've had a project going for five years that's switched administrations, switched parties, switched multiple controls of Congress. SIEGLER: The Biden administration's infrastructure law fronted half of the costs of construction - about $2 billion.
+ 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.
− Wyoming's Republican senators voted against that bill, but the state is eagerly courting nuclear energy plants and new uranium mines.
+ They'll tell me about academic stresses.
− Same with neighboring Idaho and Utah, where Governor Spencer Cox recently staged a press conference in the barren scrubland west of Salt Lake City.
+ 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.
− (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) SPENCER COX: If you are serious about energy abundance, you have to be serious about nuclear energy.
+ SIMON: And what happens to the messages?
− SIEGLER: Cox was unveiling Utah's application to be one of the U.S.
+ 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.
− Department of Energy's new nuclear hubs, billed as a nuclear life cycle innovation campus, where they'd enrich nuclear fuel, recycle it and store its waste that could come from the Kemmerer plant one day. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) COX: This should not be controversial.
+ There are some people who just want to scream into the void, and that's OK, too.
− America built the nuclear industry. SIEGLER: But nuclear still is controversial, especially in the West with its legacy of abandoned uranium mines and radioactive waste, particularly in Indian country.
+ I've actually had a lot of people just go in there and sing, which I think is their own therapy.
− And Salt Lake City was downwind from the Cold War era nuclear weapons test sites.
+ 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.
− LEXI TUDDENHAM: This area has been considered a sacrifice zone for a long time, and I think...
+ SIMON: As a "Law & Order" fan, I have to ask you this - anybody confess to a crime?
− SIEGLER: Lexi Tuddenham of the group HEAL Utah is alarmed that Utah wants to put a nuclear hub here, about 10 miles from the western shore of the drying Great Salt Lake.
+ GOLDSTEIN: No one has confessed to a - I am also a huge "Law & Order" fan, so I love that you asked that.
− She says nuclear is being rebranded as green, but what about the waste? TUDDENHAM: Bill Gates is paying for this first one.
+ No one has confessed to a crime, but people have confessed to not liking people they have brought to the library.
− We as taxpayers are also paying for this first one, I will say.
+ We've had a bunch of people say, I really don't like my best friend.
− But what about the next one, the next one, the next one?
+ They're standing right outside the phone booth.
− How much are we going to be on the hook for as taxpayers and as ratepayers as we go down this path? SIEGLER: TerraPower says, like conventional nuclear reactors, its new plant in Wyoming will store its spent fuel on-site until a permanent repository is approved by the Feds.
+ And this - I shouldn't laugh, but I have to a little bit.
− They say it's safe and the advanced nuclear tech produces less waste than legacy plants.
+ 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.
− (SOUNDBITE OF SEMI TRUCK PASSING) SIEGLER: Back in Wyoming, the country's top coal-producing state, one thing that's not in dispute is that Kemmerer is eager for any sort of energy boom.
+ 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.
− When the West Coast divested from coal, national headlines all but wrote off this town of 3,000 as dying.
+ I think everybody feels that way.
− Today, city administrator Brian Muir says there's relief and optimism hundreds of skilled jobs are being created. BRIAN MUIR: I'll just say, when Bill Gates came here, he talked about our high energy IQ.
+ And so often, all it takes is five seconds to take a deep breath and then think, what am I feeling?
− We know about all forms of energy and the benefits and the costs and the risks and the footprints and all of that.
+ What am I thinking?
− We understand that.
+ 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.
− SIEGLER: Muir says Kemmerer is already lobbying TerraPower to build a second nuclear plant here.
+ SIMON: Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe, thank you so much for being with us.
− Kirk Siegler, NPR News.
+ GOLDSTEIN: Thank you for having me. (SOUNDBITE OF THE OLYMPIANS' "APOLLO'S MOOD") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR.
− Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR.
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