Dear Sugars Live: A Night Of Bad Stories

Dear Sugars returns to Portland, Oregon, for another raucous and uplifting live show. The Sugars get a surprising update from a letter writer from their past; discuss a new letter with a special guest, Omar El Akkad; and ask the audience, “What’s the ‘bad story’ you tell yourself?”

“Bad Stories,” the title of Steve Almond’s new book, are the false narratives we tell ourselves that undermine our happiness. One audience member wonders why she’s always a rebound for the men she dates, while another worries that her small-town upbringing makes her less capable than her friends. A third asserts simply, “I’m not good enough.” “You’ve got to revise those narratives,” encourages Cheryl Strayed. “You have the capacity for change and transformation.”

The special guest, Omar El Akkad, is a writer and journalist who has covered the NATO-led invasion of Afghanistan, the military trials in Guantánamo Bay, and the Arab Spring protests in Egypt. He is a recipient of Canada’s National Newspaper Award and the Hon. Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize. His debut novel, “American War," won the Pacific Northwest Book Award.

“Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life,” by George Eliot

New episodes of Dear Sugars are released weekly. Do you have a question for the Sugars? Email dearsugars@nytimes.com.