Dear Stu Podcast

Dear Stu, I am exhausted this week from work and dealing with a sinus infection that won’t seem to go away. Tired as I am, when I go to bed I can’t seem to really wind down and stop thinking. You’d think the meds I’m taking would help put me to sleep more, but instead my eyes are just heavy, but I’m still awake. I don’t know if this is a “big life question” but, you got any tips to help me out? Wh...

Dear Fergus and Friends, I share with you the happy news that: (1) All Dear Stu posts will soon include voiceover audio at the top of each article. (2) These audio versions of posts will be available in podcast form to make for a smooth listening experience in the car, on a stroll, woodworking, etc… (3) In the near future, the podcast will also include follow-ups and reflections on popular post to...

Dear Stu, I have been dipping my toes into the vast pool of knowledge that is ChatGPT, and I'm wondering if I've gone too far. A little context: I use my AI bot (I've named her "Chatty Patty") A LOT for research, organizing thoughts, planning, automation of web searching and similar activities. This tool has proved to invaluable as I'm a highly curious, creative, detailed-oriented person. However,...

Spoiler warning: this letter references events and personalities in Welcome to Plathville Seasons 1-4. Dear Fergus, Thank you for sharing the tea with me about the hit reality show Welcome to Plathville . I have not been able to keep track of the number of Plath children in this program so it is all the more difficult to keep track of their individual stories. But having completed a deep dive just...

Dear Stu, I am a person of christian faith and I am fascinated by aliens. I don’t see any problem or conflict between faith and science but I do wonder about cases we haven’t encountered yet. Specifically, what happens if/when we discover aliens out there in the universe. Is it right to baptize them? Dear Stu is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider bec...

Dear Stu, I had a question come up and I thought about a conversation I had with you some years ago at the Wendy’s tomato protest in Columbus. I had a supervisor once who was nice and normal to me and my coworkers outside of the office—at lunch, drinks, whatever—but in the office, he was just terrible. Rude, impatient, belittling a lot of the new staff especially. He would tell people that he may...

Content Warning: discussion of body shaming, food consumption shaming. Dear Stu, I have lived on my own for almost 20 years now. My town is about 7 hours away from my mother’s house (which I grew up in) and with an income in the range of just getting by, it is hard for me to make trips home as regularly as my family, especially my mother, would like. Other siblings live closer so it’s not an issue...

Dear Fergus, (A reminder that letters addressed to Fergus are actually to everybody) Thanks for drawing my attention to that spurious article about the Dalai Lama and Paul McCartney serenading a terminally ill Phil Collins in his hospital bed while a 7 foot beekeeper looked on. I had my doubts as well. The advent of AI has made the perception of reality difficult. This a rare outcome among inventi...

Dear Stu, A friend of a friend of a friend told me you might be able to empathize with this. A lot of people seem to get down or depressed when winter arrives. I get it. It’s cold and the days start getting shorter. But most of my life I have been the opposite. I can handle winter, especially because there are more likely to be temperatures I can go for walks in with the right gear. But I feel tra...

Dear Stu, I don’t hate my job, but I am unmotivated by it. I am less than 3 years out of college and I didn’t expect to feel as jaded as this already. I was looking forward to work life, having my own place, all that. I feel like I could feel better about my life if my work had any impact or meaning, but I am starting to see that it doesn’t. I’m just doing it to survive, and because I don’t know w...

Dear Stu, I am not married and don’t have any children. I do, however, share my apartment with a dog named Angus and an elderly cat, Ferbie. I love these two creatures and as much work as they can be (they also like to dip their paws in when I’m baking) taking care of them makes me happy and gives me some fulfillment outside of my job. But over the years I’ve had pets, some friends and family have...

Dear Stu, I have been able to listen to a wide variety of sermons (homilies?) in my lifetime as a Catholic. Some are good, some are dry or difficult to follow. In either case, I appreciate it when the priest at least tries his best. I learned that a priest in our diocese now uses AI to write significant portions of his sermons. Even if the sermon turns out at least OK, this still feels…off to me....

Welcome: Part I Dear Reader, Welcome to Dear Stu, a place to reflect on life’s deepest questions with the facilitation of a man named Stu. That is me. Creating a Substack has been a dream of mine since I was 38, maybe 39. Now at my advanced age I see there is more to explore here than I could have imagined. The whole process of setting this up has been fun, but it has also made me a little nostalg...