62 episodes

Slate's premier advice column, featuring Jenée Desmond-Harris, helps you navigate the thorniest questions of relationships, work, and life.

Dear Prudence Slate Podcasts

    • Society & Culture
    • 3.6 • 137 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Slate's premier advice column, featuring Jenée Desmond-Harris, helps you navigate the thorniest questions of relationships, work, and life.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    My Parents Are Flaunting Their Wealth While I’m Drowning in Debt. Help!

    My Parents Are Flaunting Their Wealth While I’m Drowning in Debt. Help!

    In this episode, Joel Anderson (host of Slow Burn and writer of Emotional Investment) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about when to stop funding a “train wreck” daughter’s lifestyle, how to deal with watching your parents take expensive vacations when you’re broke, and whether to seek replacement costs when a friend’s drunk uncle destroys your expensive guitar.
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members.
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months.
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 30 min
    My Ex Had Sex With My Brother. Help!

    My Ex Had Sex With My Brother. Help!

    In this episode, Michael Arceneaux (I Can’t Date Jesus and I Finally Bought Some Jordans) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about an interracial couple’s debate over African-centered home decor, how to cope with homesickness for a place you don’t actually want to live, and whether it’s fair to cut off an ex.
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members.
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months.
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 38 min
    I Want People to Shut Up! Help!

    I Want People to Shut Up! Help!

    In this episode, Aubrey Gordon (who you may also know as “Your Fat Friend”) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to handle unwanted comments about Ozempic-fueled weight loss, how to get people to stop talking so much, and how to deal with the stress of a unconventional—and potentially disruptive—wedding guest.
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. 
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. 
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 39 min
    Am I a Bad Father If I Don't Want to Acknowledge My Kid Publicly? Help!

    Am I a Bad Father If I Don't Want to Acknowledge My Kid Publicly? Help!

    In this episode, Jay Smooth (Underground Railroad and Think Twice: Michael Jackson) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to find empathy for deeply unreasonable people who are totally wrong, how to navigate becoming a parent by accident, and how to reach out to support a friend without being “a cringey white person.”
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. 
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. 
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 35 min
    My Friend Has a Master’s Degree in Lying. Help!

    My Friend Has a Master’s Degree in Lying. Help!

    In this episode, Jenny Hagel (Jenny Hagel Gives Advice and Late Night Trash Can with Jenny Hage) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to react to tacky gifts from your ex-husband’s girlfriend, what it means when your date says, “our energies didn’t mesh,” and whether to call out a friend who inexplicably lies about having a master’s degree.
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members.
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months.
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.

    Dear Prudence is sponsored by BetterHelp.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 36 min
    How Do I Get Over Someone I Never Dated? Help!

    How Do I Get Over Someone I Never Dated? Help!

    In this episode, Jenna Wortham (Black Futures and Still Processing) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how to get over a crush, what to do about a fiancé’s sneaky candy bar habit, and how to cope when your best friend’s secret social media reveals that she’s an unapologetic bigot who hates pretty much everyone.
    If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. 
    Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. 
    This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, and Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Maura Currie.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 38 min

Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5
137 Ratings

137 Ratings

The Garden Lady ,

Please pay attention to the sound quality!

Normally I love this podcast but occasionally the quality of the guest’s sound is so off that it’s hard to hear and understand. Please, dear Prudence, don’t drop a show if the guest sounds like they are in a tin can.

carla2692 ,

RE: How Do I Get Over …

I love this series, and I look forward to new episodes every Friday, but there was just something about the latest that isn’t sitting right with me. I think Jenée was way too casual about discussing potential ED. In fact, the segment would’ve benefitted from a brief CW. Also, that suggestion about shaming the partner for becoming a diabetic was ableist and nasty.
J Wortham is an amazing guest host, and brought some very welcome nuance to the conversation around shame and bodily trauma, and I hope that in future Jenée reconsiders proposing emotional abuse as a means to an end.

StephDean81 ,

Very one sided

The advice is always very one sided. I joined slate plus just for this podcast as I had heard it was great for advice. I have been very disappointed. I understand wanting to be PC but the advice Prudie gives is so one sided and she seems edited in her responses so that she won’t get canceled. Her condescending attitude and holier than thou approach to her letter writers has become increasingly unappealing. It would do her well to read some real books, educate herself a bit better, and try having a little empathy for people. Just because someone doesn’t have the same exact views as you doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. And that’s the way the show comes off.

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