Drama Queens - Governor Maura Healey

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

From Harvard basketball captain to one of the country’s most formidable attorneys general, Maura Healey has never backed down from a fight. Now, as Massachusetts’ first woman and first openly LGBTQ governor, she’s facing her biggest challenge yet: leading a state through rising costs, a housing crisis, and an increasingly high-stakes battle with the Federal Government that’s causing all this chaos.Governor Healey gets real about power, pressure, resilience, and what it takes to keep fighting when the responsibility for millions of people rests on your shoulders.Learn more about Governor Healey at www.maurahealey.comFind everything you need to vote at https://www.vote.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hi, friends. Welcome back to Work in Progress this week. I hope you are all having a good one, though I know things may be good at home,

and then we all feel a little crazy in the world. I know we have that in common. When I feel like things just can't be any crazier, I like to turn to the people who are giving me a hefty dose of sanity, a hefty dose of hope, and honestly just kick an ass doing it. And there is nobody better at that than the extraordinary, Maura Healy, who you probably know as the governor of Massachusetts. Mora and I met many years ago at a function standing up for democracy and the rights of journalists.

I know none of you who know me are surprised by that. and I have adored her ever since. She is truly one of the most impressive women I know, the most fun to hang out with, and her record as a leader is unbelievable. She was raised in small town New Hampshire, the oldest of five children, and then went on to become the first woman and first openly LGBTQ governor in Massachusetts history. Quite literally a trailblazer, but Blazing Trails is, kind of her style. Whether as an athlete, she's an incredible basketball player who played at Harvard

and then overseas, as a lawyer, as an attorney general who, by the way, sued Trump over 150 times while occupying that office, or now as a governor, she has consistently stepped into roles that demand leadership that require accountability. And she does it with a vibe. I often say, You're like, look, guys, you've got to vote for a politician who's going to protect your interest. You don't necessarily want to have to have a beer with this person. You can do that with your friends. Mora Healy is one of the most impressive politicians I have ever seen getting things done for the people. And I totally want to have a beer with her.

While states are grappling with housing shortages and rising costs and climate pressures and immigration challenges and cuts to funding that are hurting families and children, and Massachusetts is somehow digging in its teeth and keeping things moving forward. She is not afraid of being on the front line of an escalating battle with the federal government at all. It takes a lot to throw Governor Healy off her game, and she is relying on her signature competitiveness, resilience, and leadership to keep Massachusetts moving forward while everything is seemingly crazy everywhere. I want to figure out how she does it. I want to learn some of her secrets for leadership.

And I want to know how she's feeling ahead of the midterms. My Massachusetts people, you need to be registered, and you also got to sign up to Doernock for Governor Healy. And then maybe we'll all have a beer. Let's dive in with the Gov. One of my favorite governors is on the podcast. It is so nice to see you. It's so nice to see you.

I'm thrilled you're here. Happy to be here. Now, you have just the most impressive track record, you know, from being a collegiate athlete to an attorney general to the governor of your state. And frankly, I can say it because you probably won't kicking ass and taking names all the way along that road. And I just, I love your story, Mora, but I like probably so many people who know you now, met you or became aware of you when you were well along this road to successful leadership. I'm really curious, you know, even pre-sports, which made you a household name at certain schools as a young woman. What was going on in New Hampshire when Maura Healy was just the kid next door and she was like nine years old? Who was that little girl? If you ran into her now, do you think she'd see herself in you as an adult? I think so.

I think I was pretty curious, had a lot of energy. You know, nine years old, man. I'm growing up in a small town in New Hampshire on 40 acres, a farm. My mom had five of us. I was the oldest. And I guess that made me a natural born leader out of the gate. Couldn't help myself. But my mom became a single mom, actually.

My books split up. And I remember, you know, my mom sold her wedding ring. And she used the money to pave like half a basketball court out behind our farmhouse. And I think with five kids, she just like sent us out to play. And I was good at sports. I like sports. So that's sort of how I took to sports. But, you know, I learned a lot just watching her as a caregiver.

She was a school nurse. That's how she supported us. And, you know, all of us kids, I mean, I started working at nine or 10 years old, you know, picking apples in the apple orchard and just then later busing tables. And then eventually I got to be a waitress, which I did all through law school, actually. I love that. But, you know, nine or ten, I think hopefully. curious, energetic. And I think that's still very much in me today. I love that. It's interesting,

too, to sort of think about that era, right? You know, being a kid in the 80s or in the 90s, we were on this tail end of so much incredible social progress. And I think for young women, as I look back, we were obviously so shaped by that, whether or not we were, we were, knew it then. Do you think that that sort of leadership you found in your own family and also seeing how the world really was opening up and shifting to work toward more equality for people influenced the way you think as a leader now? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I also think that, you know, my mom taught me to be an advocate for myself. She was really involved in community events and goings on and, you know, would speak up about stuff happening in town, would take action.

And I think seeing that modeling her, a woman in leadership or speaking out, not as an elected, but as a ordinary person, it definitely informed me. I also, yeah, I guess I came of age, you know, a little while after Title IX. And I'm forever grateful because, you know, it's brought so much. Now, when I was playing sports growing up, I was playing on boys teams, mostly boys' teams. But fortunately, by the time I got to college and I played ball and college basketball, there was a lot more parity when it came to women's athletics. And for me, as an athlete, the leadership and the skills that I learned playing sports definitely suit me for what I do now and gave me the courage to probably run in the first place. It also is really sad to me how much we seem to have

gone backwards, right? Because I became attorney general and before that head of the Civil Rights Division, I wanted to advocate for fairness, for equality, for justice. And we made a lot of gains during that time. I remember I brought the successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act. We won that case in the Supreme Court. And, you know, a lot of positive things seem to be happening. And what's been so upsetting, especially the last 18 months, is to see the efforts systematically by the Trump administration take us backwards,

you know, on gender equality, on racial equality, on so much more. And it just, to me, the athlete in me just gets all the more fired up about using my skills and my platform to resist that and to push through that. And we will. We will prevail. But definitely, you know, it saddens me to see those things really tested today and attacked and undermined, you know. It's also so surreal to me as a, you know,

a citizen who just loves law and civics and the things that I geek out about, which is probably why I managed to make friends with cool folks like you. It's very surreal that we are willing to entertain a conversation about making our neighbors less than and about taking rights away from people in a country that until this man's leadership has only ever expanded rights. We haven't done it perfectly. We've absolutely done atrocious things to people as a nation. But when you look at the arc, we gain over time, to your point. We have these wins, no matter how ugly the fight might be. And it's weird to me that it seems from the outside of the leadership floor, it seems like men like the president and his cronies and Elon Musk and all these people have figured out that if they can pitch,

that business is about their smartness, they can actually steal, they can hoard wealth, which is meant to be an investment in our country. Like, frankly, I think about my tax dollars, like I'm investing in a company. I write you a check. There's supposed to be some kind of ROI. I want my ROI to be clean water, clean air, access to social services, you know, civil rights protections, and they're taking what should be our return on our investment in our own country and putting it in their bank accounts. And then when everybody's hurting, they're telling everybody it's their neighbor's fault. And that because their neighbor got rights, they somehow have less stuff.

Does that feel like the right sort of paraphrasing of this mania to you? Yeah, I think that captures a lot of what we see going on. And I think people are all the more susceptible and vulnerable to it because we've got to a real problem with affordability in this country, right? I mean, around this country, people can't afford their homes. They can't afford groceries. They can't afford clothes. They can't afford, you know, dinner out with their spouse or, God forbid, take the kids on vacation. And people are hurting. And I think that they are, you know, he's exploited that while at the same time, exacerbating everybody's economic woes, right? And in fact, he's driving our economy off the cliff

with what he's doing. What I try to emphasize to people, though, is like, okay, all that's going on. There's a lot of stuff that is just wrong, that is cruel, callous, un-American. But, like, we're bigger and better than Donald Trump. Yes. Trump administration. So when he brags about taking, you know, away abortion access and overturning Roe v. Wade, as governor, I come forward and I say, no, not on my watch. We pass the strongest shield law in the country to protect patients and providers.

We stockpiled Mifipristone. We made birth control more available and prenatal vitamins more. available and we expanded access to doulas and birth centers and the like, right? When he cuts funding for science and research that are powering the discovery of new treatments and cures and important innovations, you know, as governor, I say, no, not on my watch. And let's put money into funding science and research here. Or when he cuts education funding, I get to come forward and say, no, we're going to double education funding in Massachusetts, which we did.

We're going to make breakfast and lunch free. We're going to make community colleges free. We're going to lower tuition in our public higher ed. We're going to do more vocational training for our young people so they're more ready set up for the workforce pipeline that we need. This is what I get to do. And I think about clean energy. I mean, I continue to lean into clean energy and independent clean energy. That actually is America being.

energy independent. So when he's taking away everything and just giving it all to big oil, I get to say, no, we're going to build out solar, geothermal, hydro, wind, and, you know, continue to do these things because I know it's going to bring more energy in and lower people's energy costs, right? I mean, this is what it means to act right now as a governor in the time of Trump. Some of it you get to protecting people. I mean, I think Sophia, one of the most poignant and heartbreaking examples has been ice, literally sending ice into our neighborhoods, our communities, and taking mothers and fathers away from their kids and taking important members of our economy and workforce, tax paying folks who've been here for years and years just trying to get, you know, through the immigration system, which is broken, doing everything right. that he's sending these rogue agents and thugs essentially. And as a former attorney general,

you know, he's just totally lack of training. They're not acting in a way that reports with public safety at all. And they're making us less safe. And so as governor, you know, being there for my residents to say, you know what, ICE,

you're banned from state property. You can't go to the detention center here, you know, filing legislation to keep ICE out of our schools and daycares. and health care clinics and the like. I say these things because people need to know there is another way to go. And Trump will be with us for two more years

and people have got to get out and vote this November. But we're going to get to the other side of this. So let's be part of showing what life can be like as you deliver for people on the things that I think you pointed out, people want. They want housing. They want jobs. They want their kids to be educated.

They want to know there's an opportunity. Yes, they want safe drinking water and clean air too, and they want their community safe. We can do all of that. We can do all of that. And right now we're doing it from the states. Yes. And I think to your point, the reminder, the hope is so important, people knowing that as bad as he is, there is as much pushback in places like your state from your leadership.

You know, I think I'm also bolstered as a former journalism student, myself, which I think is where my activism bug comes from, I'm proud that someone at CBS recently leaked the information that Barry Weiss said, well, make the protesters look more violent. Say that Renee Good was driving toward the officer. These people are lying and they are getting caught. And I don't want to diminish the harm that those lies do to the public, especially the public who might trust these people because they think they can. You're supposed to be able to trust the president. But there are so many people willing to speak truth to power, whether they are employees of a news organization or governors around the country or random loudmouthed ladies like

me and my friends who just won't shut up about it. You know, I think people need to remember that there are more of us who care about a healthy and innovative and secure American future. And, you know, that matters. I can't help but think back. to that great event that you and all the women Democratic governors did back at the DNC convention in Chicago a few years ago, I watched you all have this talk for, I don't know, it was 60 or 90 minutes or something. And I couldn't help but think to myself, if these women were in charge of everything, like stuff would be fixed by lunch. You know, you see a mom who has a crisis. She handles it fast. And I was watching all of you and I was like, I want all of these women to be our nation's moms.

How do you think about that? Because you have, you know, incredible partnership as a team of governors. You are the chair of the Women's Governors Fund. How are you mobilizing not just great leadership, but the specific capabilities of women who are used to having to be twice as good to get half as much credit? Like, you guys are crushing it. So how are you doing that as a unit? I think that, you know, a lot of us, we have families, we have kids, and we understand, because we also run the budgets for our households, we understand what people are going through right now. We understand, you know, affordability is not a new word for any of us.

We also understand that people have felt a distance from politicians for a long time because they don't, you know, they're not showing the receipts. You know, they're not showing up in a way that's felt. You look at young people today. They're not interested in voting as much. They're active and engaged activists, but they're not looking to government or politicians. We've got to change that.

And I think one thing that we're effective at as women governors is we can deliver real results. Like, no, we don't fool around. You know, three and a half years ago, I had a housing crisis. We got after it. We made ADU something you could do by a. right. We cut permitting times by a year. We did all sorts of things to make changes and we brought 100,000 homes online, right? And three now, I had a public transit system where I had subway cars that were literally on fire when I started. But I knew if I hire people, make the investments, we can turn

that around. And we have. In fact, we just had a really successful World Cup transporting hundreds of thousands of people down to the stadium. And, you know, I just think we also need. know is women how important it is to protect access to health care. That we need more doctors and primary care providers that our kids are suffering. And we need to provide more resources for mental health, which many of us are doing in our state. And, you know, we, we know, where the rubber is meeting the road, frankly, for our residents. And I think, you know, women, we don't have the luxury of, you know, time. and we just, because I think we've had to fight for a lot in our own lives,

we know what it is to fight for other people and to get things done. And now for our sponsors. Radio experience with Cameron Wickcombe live at the Rhyman. With flights and two nights in Nashville. To see Cameron Wickcombe at the legendary Riemann Auditorium. Plus a thousand dollar spending cash. Just listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes a day on the free IHard radio app, And you're in to win.

Cameron Wickham. Stream the new single, Kingdom of Fear. Available now. I just have a technical question about that because the track record is so impressive. But there's a part of my brain immediately that hears you brought 100,000 homes online in the last three years in Massachusetts. Legendary. We need to be doing the same here where I am on the East Coast in California, you know, really across the nation. And you're talking about funding for medical research, for making sure, you know,

heartbreakingly that kids with cancer can get treatment and their parents aren't going to be bankrupted by that. But NIH funding is cut because of Trump. Tariffs that he's imposed on Mexico and Canada mean all of our housing supplies cost more money. You know, he's decimating research institutions. Your alma mater, Harvard, included. You know, and he's withholding not only research funding from universities where our breakthroughs happen. And by the way, our technological and medical breakthroughs are part of our national security. Part of how we remain a global leader. He's also withholding disaster relief FEMA aid from blue states like yours just to be petty. So God forbid you go through a massive storm, a hurricane, you know, our California wildfires.

He doesn't want to give our state the money we're owed to try to rebuild. You're literally having to do more and invest in your state with less. And it's not like there's an endless state budget. So how are you managing to do this? How do you make the math work when your resources are being withheld by a man who's acting like an angry toddler? Well, it's hard. And, you know, I'm grateful to the attorneys generals who are fighting Trump in court,

as I did, sued him over 100 times when I was AG to try to fight for NIH funding and to try to fight against some of those disastrous cuts, including taking a trillion dollars out of our health care system, right? But look, as a former point guard, it's like you got to play offense and defense, so we just have to go and we got to make more with less. I also find it helpful to partner with other states. We're doing that right now as we talk about energy, you know, and energy transmission and how we're going to, you know,

deploy and build out more clean energy, say, in the Northeast. so that we can get more energy in and bring down energy costs. And those kinds of partnerships we're doing state to state. We have to make use of, I'm doing a lot more public-private partnerships in our research institutions, our teaching hospitals, our colleges and universities. That's just what you've got to do.

And you've also got to tell people, explain to people, how what Trump is doing is hurting them. Yes. The reason I as governor last December had to find $250 million to keep $300,000, and households covered is because Donald Trump cut your health care. Yeah. Right? You know, and you know, you have to explain to people like what's happening and connect the dots

because ultimately, you know, I put faith in the power of the people. And that's what November is about. I draw inspiration from 250 years ago here in Massachusetts where a bunch of people rag tags banded together and took on a king and a mighty army gave birth to this great country of ours, right? And like, it's the powers with ordinary people. And we just, I think our job in politics is not only to deliver for ordinary people, it's also to make sure they know and that they can be assured that their voice,

their vote is counted. And they have the ability to change things. You mentioned people pushing back and standing up. I think it's been amazing what we've seen happen in courts, what we've seen happen in journalism. are the acts of ordinary citizens, you know, protesting ice, demanding change, fighting Donald Trump on any number of fronts. Like, people continue to be out there. No kings.

And it's important. It's important. And, you know, it's important that we show this generation. Like, hey, there are people out here who are working for you. I want you to have access to health care and not be bankrupt. I want you to be able to afford an apartment or that first home, right? I want you to be able to get the kind of education that you want and the kind of job, you know, that's going to be satisfying so you can, you know, have a great life and raise a family, right? Like every day I'm trying to show this to our young people because, you know, we need people to stay engaged and to be engaged in all of this.

And we're going to need people voting in November as Donald Trump once again tries to rig and steal an election and weaponize everything against us. But we just need the power of the people. Totally. And to really, to your point, when you talk about explaining how all of this is personal to folks, helping them understand, like, politician is not someone else. It's not a dirty word. It's not somebody who's just out for their own. A good politician, a good governor is actually really and truly a community organizer. You are the glue that pulls all these different groups together. and gets them working in cohort so that everyone benefits. And I think if that's something that we can work on teaching our young people, you know, I get excited to see the next class of folks that are going to run for office who get that they can actually change their communities for the better. I wonder because you're coming up on another election, you know,

November is essentially tomorrow, even though it feels quite a ways away. You know, you're running for re-election in your state. I want to know, sort of a two-part question. What we can do to help? How can me and my listeners be supportive? And as you look at an upcoming election and what we all are going to hope is a next incredible term, you've done so much.

So what feels like your work in progress? What's left for you to do? I mean, I do have, I've got a really serious re-election this fall. And I'm running against MAGA Republicans. mega millionaire Republicans. I have an opponent who is going to spend, he says, $50 million against me to take me out.

And, you know, it's a challenge. I'm working hard every day because I don't have that money, you know? I told you how I grew up. I don't have that money to self-fund a campaign. That's what he's doing, is self-funding a campaign. And I just don't think that offices like this should be bought.

I think they belong to the people. And, you know, We should have people who are more representative of the people and know what life is, life is like right now for people in America, you know, in, in governors' offices and in politics generally. So I encourage people, you know, if you're in Massachusetts, you know, make sure people know that I'm on the ballot. Make sure that people are registered to vote in your family in Massachusetts and around the country. I welcome support at morihealey.com. There are a lot of different ways to get involved. But most importantly, it's that people are out there

registered to vote, have a plan to vote. There's early voting in Massachusetts and in a lot of states that's going to be really important and that they vote because you get the politicians who you get, you know, either by voting or not voting, right? People staying home, you're going to end up with somebody in office who is or isn't going to represent you, right? So like, stay, stay involved because there's too much on the line right now for our country, you know, and our country meets us. I think the leadership is absolutely going to come from the states for the two years, right? Because Trump is just, he's wrecking our economy, he's ruining people's lives, and, you know, he's completely flouting the rule of law, he's turning off all over

allies in the world against us, and we just got to be strong and say to people, like, it doesn't have to be this way. Like this isn't we are. One of the coolest things, Sophia and Ashwood like this, we hosted the World Cup here in Boston. I was in Boston on a game day. I was like, I was having so much fun. I didn't actually make it to the stadium. I was, I was moderating a friend's book to her stop, but I was there. So I was like screaming at the TV with friends until we went to the theater. One of the things you might have picked up is that we had people from all over the world who came to Boston, who came to Massachusetts and had such a great time. And there was such joy and high energy. And it showed America in the best light. That's what people kept saying to me and they

kept talking about how, you know, boy, you know, a lot's been said in our country about Donald Trump in America right now. But I just want you to know, we love you guys. We love Americans. We love what you've shown us in this. And that was really cool, you know. And that's what we need to continue to show the world, you know, who we really are. Yeah. Who we are. Who we are. It's that person who is running an operation right now that's corrupt, it's corrosive, that's

hurting American interests. And most importantly, is hurting the lives of Americans right now. He's causing so much pain for moms and dads and families out there. And he doesn't get a damn. He laughs about it. I think he even said inflation was a good thing. They did. Yeah.

It's just people need to know it's insanity. It's not right. He's one lie after another and put your faith in your states. Make sure you get out and you vote, you know, because who's governor? Who's your AG? Who's in your legislature? State legislature? Who's on your school committee, right?

Yeah. Are we going to ban books or not in this country, right? Like these things matter and they're saying. that you have agency over by your vote through your vote. It doesn't mean that we still have a lot of work to do around getting, you know, corporate money out of politics. We do. So ending Citizens United like we do.

There's a lot of fights we have to wage, right? But, you know, it starts with people like getting in the game. Yeah. And now a word from our wonderful sponsors. You is throwing it back. 20s, the decade. To the days of huge years. It's an unforgettable album.

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Preset the station so it's always one tab away. You've obviously got a big to-do list and I love it. I'm here for it. Oh, yeah. You asked me in my my t-doos. My two, simple. I need more housing. I need for health care, right?

And I need to make sure that I'm growing jobs in our economy through investments in science, research, innovation, and education. Like that's what I'm going to be about, you know, while doing what I've always done, which is protecting rights, protecting freedoms, you know, protecting people's civil rights, protecting the things that, as you said in the beginning, that have been part of the evolution of this country. Yeah. We are, you know, that's what I'm going to be about.

I know my MAGA Republicans are going to be about something different. They're, you know, anti-abortion and anti-immigrant and pro-ice, pro-tariff, anti-gay, you know, just in a rubber stamp for Trump vans. And that's not what Massachusetts needs. It's not what this country needs right now. By the way, being anti all those things you just listed doesn't make anybody else happier. It doesn't put more food on their plate. doesn't put more money in their bank account. It's a ruse.

What's the gain of that, you know? Yeah. But it goes back to what you were saying earlier about the way that Trump has run things by making someone other be the bad guy, be responsible for your pain. When every day he's the one responsible for your pain by cutting your health care and driving us or costs up on everything with his damn tariffs, you know? I know. It's crazy.

you have such big perspective obviously on the state and the needs of the people you know you're one of those people who visually I sort of think of as you know having great big arms that envelop the whole state but on a on a personal level you know for you in the in the walls of your own home and the things that you think about you know either late at night or early in the morning what what feels for you like your work in progress what's what's kind of the the flame that is fueling you these days. Something that Joanna and I talk about a lot. And, you know, there are days where it does feel like overwhelming, right?

And there's so much coming at all of us right now. And there's a lot of bad stuff that's happening in the country. And the work, I think, in progress is, you know, looking for the positive, what's hopeful, you know, what's optimistic, what's true, what's good. Right? And making sure that we're gravitating towards that or at least, you know, identifying that throughout the course of our days, you know. And people talk about gratitude. I think gratitude are really important, you know, and they help center and remind us,

you know, of the good out there because this is, I think, to work through this, to get through this, it requires resilience. And, you know, I get resilience from the positive energy and vibes. of other people. And just seeing people, there's so many people doing such good out there. Even in the smallest of ways, right? The acts of kindness. And I think the work in progress is to not let yourself become so cynical, so skeptical,

so angry and furious to a point where you can't, you know, exercise the agency that each of us have. Different agencies for different people, right? but everybody can do something from where they are. Yeah. You know, that's, I think, the work that we need to do is as a nation. And hydrate and get sleep, which I sometimes do. Well, sometimes I don't. That's my work in progress.

Yeah. We take the dog for long walks and that helps too, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Whether it's gratitude or sort of a moment of reclaimed joy, it's the candle in the dark. You know, that's the thing that really keeps us going, and we're going to have to sustain that. I feel also like that's what they want to snuff out, right? Yes.

They want to depress us. They want to, like, snow us with so much crap and terribleness and, you know, noise and depress us. And, like, we can't let that happen. Mm-hmm. Mm-mm. And we shan't. And we're ready to hit the streets. I mean, listen, I'm not far from you.

You tell me what you need ahead of November. I'm getting on the train. I'm coming to the ball. I love that. Love that. We welcome me here. It would be great. Thank you for joining us today, Governor.

It's always so nice to see you. Wonderful to see you. Thanks for having me. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.