Welcome to Dear Prudence. I'm your Prudence, Janée Desmond Harris.

Today we'll be discussing whether to report a coworker's insensitive gym behavior to HR,

and how to deal with a mom who forgets to take her medication and immediately uses a racial slur. Here to help me out

is the writer and professor Kiesi Lehman. He's the author of the award-winning books and essay

collections, Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, and Heavy an American

Memoir. He's also the founder of the Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative. And last but not

least, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022. Welcome. Hey, Jayne, I'm happy to be here with you.

I'm thrilled to have you here. And before we get started, I can't wait to ask you for one piece

of unsolicited advice.

Oh, wow.

I think today I would just want to say, you know, pick up more trash than you leave.

I just think picking up more trash than you leave is a pretty good way to live in a relationship with the partner, the earth, a child, whomever.

But yeah, please pick up more trash than you leave.

I like that.

I'm going to see how that fits into our letters because people are kind of leaving trash here and there.

That's right.

So KSA and I will dive into your questions after a short break.

Can't get enough dear prudence, then you should definitely join Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. You'll get to hear me answer an extra question every week just for members.

With your subscription, you get ad-free listening across the Slate network and unlimited reading on the Slate site, including all Dear Prudence columns, past and present.

Go to slate.com forward slash prudy plus to sign up.

It's just $15 for your first three months. Again, that's slate.com forward slash prudy plus to sign up. It's just $15 for your first three months.

Again, that's slate.com forward slash prudy plus.

...