Big Mood, Little Mood with Daniel M. Lavery

Prudence is joined this week by Carta Monir, an Ignatz award-winning cartoonist living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Grace Lavery, an Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley. Together, this power trio tears into letters about what to do when your father disapproves of your decision to keep your maiden name, how to handle your daughter’s sleepovers with a male identified transgender friend, sho...

Prudence is joined this week by Jenée Desmond-Harris, an op-ed editor at the New York Times. One of the resolutions she's been working on all year is to become someone who inspires people say "you don't suffer fools". Together they tackle letters about what actions you can take when your abusive ex-spouse to-be threatens your safety, should you tell your brother who never sides with you the reason...

  Prudence is joined this week by Anna Sale, the host of the podcast, Death, Sex & Money, a show about the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more. Together they dig into letters about how to spend the holidays with a sister who is alarmingly neglectful to her own daughter, what to do when you suspect your bilingual colleagues are talking about you in your presence, what action...

Prudence is joined this week by Hillary Eason and her brother, Tyler Eason. Hillary works in international development in Washington DC. Tyler is a data engineer in the Bay Area. They claim to have another sibling who is arguably better at giving advice, but she was not available. Together they tackle letters about how to handle accepting your top secret dream job that you’re not allowed to mentio...

Prudence is joined this week by Tyler Mead, an associate producer of the queer comedy podcast, "Inside the Closet" hosted by comedians Emma Willmann and Matteo Lane. Together they dig into letters about what to do when the #metoo news has you not wanting to be touched by your boyfriend, what to do when your innocent texts lead to overblown fights, what to consider when surreptitiously seeking a sp...

Prudence is joined this week by Folu Akinkuotu, an internet person who lives in Boston. She’s an obsessive home baker who is always happy to share her baked goods from the endless supply in her purse. She has a better haircut than you and has never once logged off. Together they tackle letters about how to tell your husband you want to return to sex work to help make ends meet, what to do after re...

Prudence is joined this week by Washington DC based writer, Zoë Selengut. Zoë works as a cataloger of rare and unusual books, ephemera, and other surprising cultural materials for Brian Cassidy Bookseller. Together they dig into letters about what to do when you discover the nonprofit you work for is definitely providing it’s employees a living wage, how to handle the realization your older brothe...

Prudence is joined this week by San Francisco based game critic, Carolyn Petit. Carolyn is the managing editor at Feminist Frequency, and a co-host on their podcast, Feminist Frequency Radio, alongside Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams. Together they tackle letters about how to handle a boyfriend is who pressuring you to move in, what to do when you notice your daughter exploring her gender identit...

Prudence is joined this week by writer, actor and comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh. Zahra is co-host of the podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, and The Pop Culture Collaborative has named her their Senior Fellow on Comedy for Social Change.  Together they dig into letters about what to do when your husband’s picky eating habits leave him uninvited to family events, what actions to take when your husband is pla...

Prudence is joined this week by Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley, Grace Lavery. Her first book, “Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics And The Idea Of Japan,” is forthcoming with Princeton University Press in 2019, and she is currently working on a book on the idea of technique. Together they take on letters about what to do when the new skirt you love elicits unwanted reactions fro...

Prudence is joined this week by Portland based author and technology expert Brook Shelley. Brook works for Turbine Labs and chairs the board for Basic Rights Oregon. Together they tackle letters about what to do when your stressed out sister’s only language is complaining, how to handle your own guilt for not being “lesbian enough”, what actions to take when your racist uncle yells at his biracial...

Prudence is joined this week by comedian Kate Willett, who has appeared on Comedy Central and Viceland. She has an album called Glass Gutter, and has a new special out on The Comedy Lineup on Netflix. Together they tackle letters about how to get out of a friend’s wedding when you have issues with their religion, what to do when your pregnant daughter’s homecoming threatens your retirement, should...

Prudence is joined this week by Jane McGonigal, the inventor of SuperBetter, a mobile game that has helped over a million people recover faster from depression and traumatic brain injury. Together they take on letters about what to do when you feel your spouse overshares about her work, how to handle feelings of guilt when your libido doesn’t match your partners, and what actions you should take w...

Prudence is joined this week by Sorcha Reilly, an Oakland native who works in litigation consulting. She's preparing for her MBA at INSEAD, and has been known to procrastinate by playing top 40 hits on the violin. Together they tackle letters what to do when a board game colleague regularly drinks and crosses the line, how to handle a mother who uses guilt to stay involved in your life, how to exp...

Prudence is joined this week by Kim Brinckerhoff, a lifelong Bay Area resident working on her master's degree in nursing and who does sexual assault advocacy in her free time (and also thinks everyone needs therapy). Together they tackle letters about what to do when your child’s closed-door therapy sessions make you paranoid, how to talk to your co-workers about your pain-in-the-ass colleague, ho...

Prudence is joined this week by writer and podcaster Colin Atrophy Hagendorf. Their memoir, Slice Harvester, is about eating a plain slice from every pizzeria in Manhattan, New York City history, and quitting drinking. They take on letters about what to do when you feel unsafe because of a roomate, how to talk to your husband about his family’s sexist accountant he insists on using for your busine...

Prudence is joined this week by writer John Thompson. Together they take on letters about how to talk to your parents about all your unpaid babysitting work, dealing with discomfort that your brother is dating a sex worker, how to avoid stoner shame, and how to really make clear to your partner that your vacation with his high school friends was just the worst. Slate Plus members will hear Prudie...

Prudence is joined this week by writer, editor, and cool mom, Dominique Matti. Together, they tackle letters about how much you need to tell your work about your health problems, what do do about a casually racist coworker, should you involve your child’s school after your son was threatened by the kid he bullied, can you really consider having sex with your first cousin, and what to do when you t...

Prudence is joined this week by media critic Anita Sarkeesian. Together, they tackle letters about how to talk to your friends who aren’t receptive to your concerns that they may be co-opting your cultural and religious practices, what actions you can take to counter your neighbor’s girlfriend’s petty/childish/jealous behavior, should you consider talking to law enforcement about your neighbor’s d...

Prudence is joined this week by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, whose latest book is Manhattan Beach . They take on letters that deal with what to expect from bosses when you have abusive co-workers, how to deal with the despair from having multiple miscarriages, and how to keep one’s family in your life after you’ve had to leave home. Slate Plus members will hear Prudie and Jenni...

Prudence is joined this week by marriage and family therapist Abigail Stone and Rebecca Ganetzky, a clinical geneticist. Together, they dig into questions about what do do when your ex husband tries to rename your daughter, should you conceal your abuse history for a ten million dollar inheritance, what to consider when thinking about starting a long distance relationship because of school, and ho...

Today, we're coming to you with something special — the inaugural episode of Better Life Lab, the new podcast from Slate and New America. Better Life Lab looks at the challenges to work-life balance, and how we can change as a culture. Subscribe to Better Life Lab via: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher Google Play Or wherever you get your shows.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

Prudence is joined this week by Daniel Summers, a practicing pediatrician and regular contributing columnist to Slate’s Outward section, where he writes about health and medicine topics that affect the LGBTQ community. The Daniels take on questions about how to support your family when your dad suffers from extreme depression, is it ever ok to consider cheating, what can you say to your homophobic...

Prudence is joined this week by Talia Jane, a NYC-based aspiring comedy writer who makes smoothies for a living and who wants you to join a union. Daniel and Talia tackle questions about whether un-friending someone on social media because of their politics makes you a bad person, how to be a good partner to someone who may be questioning their gender, what can you do to start a new friend group i...

Prudence is joined this week by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw,  a geek culture critic at the Daily Dot, and co-host of the podcast Overinvested. This week they take on letters about how to talk to your child about transgender identity, how to talk to others at work about the death of your child, what strategies can you use to politely address your coworkers when your illness can cause you to forget their n...